No.50 - Sat. 25th April 2009; Leicestershire Senior League Division 1 3.00pm at The Ray Hurd Pavilion, Leicester Road, Narborough, Leicester, Leics. (Att: 46; Admn and Prog: N/A)
Matchday images (10) >view> Narborough & Littlethorpe FC (2) 2 Lutterworth Athletic (1) 1 The art of communication...
There’s no escaping the fact that modern technology plays a big part in our daily lives. A mass of information is readily available though a wide range of electronic gadgets such as the PC, mobile phone, I-Pod, TV etc. It's a manufacturer's dream as new products continually hit the market telling us, the consumer, that we must have them. The list is endless. We can now do just about everything at the touch of a button: facts are instantly accessible at our fingertips. Despite all of this I often feel that we are still missing something… perhaps the art of communicating with each other face to face has somehow been lost. Take this Saturday for example. It was With no reply from the club secretary I tried phoning the ground number instead. A rather gruff voice at the other end of the line told me, in no uncertain terms, that there weren’t any football matches on there today because the cricket season had just started. And that was that. Taken aback by this unexpected news my heart sank. I knew that the venue at Narborough shared its facilities with cricket but I assumed that the football pitches were on a quite separate field. Hmmm, maybe I had got it wrong. Somehow though I was not that convinced… Being a persistent type means that I don’t usually take ‘No’ for an answer that easily. Just to make sure that the information I had been given was correct, I contacted the Lutterworth Athletic club secretary looking for a second opinion! How sad is that? An enthusiastic voice quickly answered the phone. Before I could finish my opening sentence though, a string of expletives interrupted my flow. The tone had changed to one of grave concern: ‘What are you talking about? Who told you this? That’s not right. We’ve not heard anything here. As far as we know the game is definitely on. Leave it with me, I’ll find out and ring you straight back!’ Oh dear, I had just caused panic to break out amongst the away team committee members. They now thought that their game had been switched to another venue or maybe worse it had been called off altogether. I put the phone down wishing that I hadn’t bothered… Ten minutes later it rang. True to his word the Athletic secretary had indeed returned my call. He sounded much more relaxed this time and calmly told me that the match was definitely on with a After all of the pre-match confusion our visit turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. What an anti-climax. There was very little for the enthusiastic traveller to get excited about as the game didn’t really live up to expectations and contributed to an afternoon of poor football entertainment. But this was not all as I will explain shortly. Situated to the south of The football ground is found at one end of a large adjoining playing field situated beyond the car park. Access is along a narrow grass track with all the main facilities backing onto the edge of the cricket ground. A rather tatty looking changing pavilion, robust brick built dug out block and a corrugated standing cover are positioned in a row along the near side touchline. The main pitch is fully railed off by a neat perimeter fence to give it a tidy and enclosed feel. Behind the goal to the right is an area of land used for training – the club is fortunate enough to have the use of some mini floodlights erected alongside the fence. From here you can see and hear the busy traffic travelling southbound along the M1 motorway. It really is very close by. There is another practice pitch some distance behind the goal to the left. This wasn’t being used today. The game itself was a rather dull contest to say the least. Before play it looked as though visitors Lutterworth Athletic (currently in second place) would be clear favourites to win the match. Although the final 2-1 score line suggests it was a close affair, mid-table Narborough outplayed their opponents for most of the ninety minutes. The result was also influenced by both keepers who played a large part in preventing further goals being added onto the scoresheet. For the record, Narborough took the lead mid-way through the first half when a long cross to the far post found an un-marked Danny Laywood (25), who headed home past Jason Duffy. They scored again within ten minutes but unfortunately this was at the wrong end of the pitch. With Athletic pressing for an equaliser a low cross from the right was turned in by Billy Hayes (36) who miscued a clearance deflecting the ball past his own keeper Tom Stephanou from inside the six yard box. It was now 1-1. The game was settled just five minutes before the break. A point blank header from Narborough’s Craig Johnson looked to have been saved by the acrobatics of Duffy but sadly for the shot stopper he only managed to parry the ball onto his own crossbar giving defender Steve Heads (40) the simplest of chances. It was a case of Heads using his head to put the hosts ahead!! Despite a couple of close efforts the title chasers couldn’t find the net as an in form Stephanou kept out Johal Sukhbinder (45) and then Mark Chamberlain (61) to help his side claim victory. It was a bit of a shock result but one the homesters thoroughly deserved their win on the balance of possession. The match played on a sunny and at times cloudy afternoon was attended by 46 (h/c) spectators. Sadly the club does not issue programmes and on our visit there weren’t any refreshments either. In fact Stephanie and I together with the majority of the crowd walked over to the cricket pavilion at half-time in search of some nourishment. To our surprise an elderly gentleman sitting on a stool next to the bar had great delight in telling us that drinks or snacks would not be served to those people who had been watching the football. His gruff voice sounded very familiar – then it dawned on me. I’m pretty sure that this was the same fellow who had told me that the game was off when I phoned up earlier in the morning. Sensing my immediate anger Steph quickly grabbed my arm and led me back over to the football pitch offering the following guidance: ‘He’s not worth it Dad. It’s only a game after all…’ She was of course right. I was behaving badly. On the plus side it was a new ground tick and we were grateful for that at least. By the time we reached racing HQ again my blood pressure had come back down to a reasonable level…well almost. As we turned into our road a young girl walked straight out in front of the car. Even though we braked sharply to avoid her and a nasty accident taking place, she continued on her way, totally oblivious to what was going on around her. Why? You’ve guessed it…she was busy chatting to a mate on her mobile phone!! See what I mean? Modern communication…the joys and frustrations of hopping continue! FGIF Match Rating: 2.
edited 20/05/09
