TT No.50: Andy Gallon - Sat 27th September 2008; Ossett Albion v Warrington T; UniBond League Div 1 N; Res: 2-1; Att: 159; Admission: £6; Programme: £1.50 (40pp); FGIF Match Rating: ****

Sometimes you simply have to accept defeat and make the best of a bad job. And things were going so swimmingly. Finish work at 12.30, beautiful late summer day, full steam ahead for mystical Marsden in the high country of the picturesque South Pennines and a Huddersfield derby against West Riding County Amateur League rivals Storthes Hall. Cruising along at 75mph on the M62 when progress is rudely interrupted at 13.05 by a wall of traffic between the Lofthouse and Tingley junctions. Police cars, fire engines and breakdown trucks flash past on the hard shouder. It must be serious. We wait. And wait. And wait. The sun beats down. Heads loll. Thirsty tongues lick dry lips. Drivers abandon their cars and start strolling about in hitherto forbidden territory. Or pee surreptitiously in the shrubbery. Those in Leeds United shirts, hoping to get to Elland Road for a reality check fixture with Hereford United, look especially distraught. At 14.50, the obstruction is cleared and we edge forward. Up through the gears. Just time, I fancy, to dash the short distance to Dimple Wells to catch Ossett Albion rather than aborting the mission and heading back to North Lincolnshire without a footy fix. Feverish dash on the upper fringes of the urban speed limits. Through the turnstiles at 14.59. Still, astonishingly, some programmes left and as I walk round the ground to get the sun over my shoulder the referee's whistle starts the ball rolling. Take a seat and discover the bloke behind me has a team sheet. Cadge the line-ups. Job done. Now that's what I call a damage limitation exercise!   I'm rather pleased that, of the two Ossett clubs in the UniBond League, it's Albion who are at home today because their ground is much more interesting and attractive than Town's. Dimple Wells, or the Warehouse Systems Stadium as it is now laughably known under a sponsorship agreement, is yet another hidden gem. It is back-to-back with a cricket pitch - a common arrangement in the sporting life of West Yorkshire. Rugby league leads the way in this respect. The relationship with cricketers remains close at Leeds, Batley and Keighley but, sadly, the bulldozers led to divorce in Halifax and Huddersfield. The access to Dimple Wells, also sometimes referred to as Queens Terrace, is via a narrow lane into a housing estate and then an even tighter squeeze between red-brick semis. A straggling aggregate car park serves a mint bowling green and the cricket ground to the right and a floodlit artificial football mini pitch to the left. This last facility has been built since my last visit here. Albion's midden, their home since 1955, is directly in front. Walk round the boundary rope in the manner of a pace bowler between overs and a dark passage leads to the turnstile and the north-eastern corner of the ground.   The Calder Valley, broad, green and shallow, provides a majestic backdrop to the south. The transmitting mast on Emley Moor - as ever in this neck of the woods - is the focal point on the horizon while the floodlight pylons to the south-east belong not to a sporting club but to the railway marshalling yard at Healey Mills. Two things are immediately apparent. You'll notice how steeply the pitch falls away with the valley side towards the bottom (south) touchline and also the huge amount of terracotta and gold paint Albion have splashed about. These vivid colours, warmer than a fireman's embrace, give the ground a pleasing sense of unity and purpose. The corner in which you find yourself is filled by, to the right, a tea bar and, to the left, the dressing rooms and social club. Possibly the shortest tunnel in football, about three yards long and retractable, enables the players to gain the pitch at the east end. This boasts a basic 20-yard cover, set back from the goal and brightened by adverts on its fascia. Threadbare netting is suspended from poles in an attempt to keep balls from flying into the surprisingly deep clough lurking behind this part of Dimple Wells. A short line of firs makes a better fist of this important job. There are several metal containers dotted around and the topmost of a stack of two gives the public address announcer a birdseye view of proceedings.    The top side, adjacent to the cricket pitch, is extremely narrow. There is room only for two steps of terracing between the concrete panel fences which surround the pitch and form the ground's boundary. Dugouts, low, smaller than might first appear and joined in the middle like Siamese twins, straddle the halfway line. The far end has a delightful cover running the length of the goalline. This descends with the slope in five distinct sections, rather like the away fans' accommodation at Luton Town's Kenilworth Road ground. Closer inspection reveals it is ramshackle (something else in common with Luton, then!) and seems to have more supporting columns than it could possibly need. The foliage of the trees behind drapes itself across the roof. To the rear there are houses on wooded rising ground.   Albion's main stand, about 40 yards long, sits on halfway on the bottom touchline. This, again, is of a simple design. It has plenty of columns holding up the roof and the words Ossett Albion AFC are picked out in black on a gold-painted fascia. There are three rows of grubby plastic seats which are the uncomfortable bucket variety. From these, the cricket pavilion and scorebox dominate the view beyond the ground. A central section is railed off for the use of directors and their guests. A glazed press box is positioned at the east end and a gloomy passageway runs between the seats and its rear wall, linking the two pieces of flat hardstanding to each side. So low is the front row of seats, the club have dispensed with the pitch barrier, opting instead for a wooden triangular hurdle which doubles as an advertising hoarding. To the rear is a curious grassy shelf before the terrain drops quickly towards the floor of the valley below. Albion's floodlights, switched on in 1986, are masts, with four per side and three lamps on each. Bathed in glorious sun, colours rich and deep, seldom can Dimple Wells have looked so beguiling.   Victory for Albion in front of their best league crowd of the season leaves them joint leaders with Bamber Bridge. But don't be fooled. The hosts have played several more games than other teams in the division and, for long spells of a lively encounter, struggling Warrington look the better side. With better finishing, the visitors could have been three or four goals up at half-time. Instead they find themselves 1-0 behind. Keeper Neil Bennett is Albion's hero. His sharp reflexes deny David Thompson (twice) and Carl Rendell before Ossett go ahead against the run of play with a 32nd-minute penalty. Town skipper Andy Thomas impedes David Dickinson (no, not the tangerine antique) and the Albion forward gets to his feet to crash home a confident spot-kick. Thompson somehow scoops a low Scott Williams cross onto the bar from inside the six-yard box and then puts a chance on a plate, complete with gravy and a selection of vegetables, for Phil Hadland but again Bennett proves an immovable object. Thomas makes amends for his penalty foul by hooking a Dave Syers effort off the goalline in spectacular fashion. Abracadabra! No-one believes what they see.      The second half is more even but Warrington have the better chances. They draw level in the 64th minute when close-passing Ossett give the ball away at the back once too often (you don't fanny about like this in the Northern Prem) and Thompson crosses deep for substitute Thomas Lamb to guide a downward header between Bennett's right hand and the far upright. So, the man's infallibility does not extend to Papal proportions. Sod's law prevails, however, and Albion regain the lead within two minutes. Shane Kelsey stabs in from close range after capitalising on a kind ricochet. The ball, showing all the vigour of a tortoise with pneumoconiosis, trickles across the line. That hammer blow seems to drain Warrington, and Ossett go close through Kelsey and Syers. But Bennett is their saviour in the 86th minute when he dives full length to push aside a delicate goalbound prod from orange-booted substitute Jimmy McCarthy.   Pretty decent, as salvage work goes, this game. I discover Marsden beat Storthes Hall 2-1. But I note also the Cuckoos are at home again this coming Saturday. This will be a day off so, surely, nothing can stop me reaching Fall Lane now?

contributed on 27/09/08