TT No.84: Andy Gallon - Sat 8th November 2008; Ibstock United v Graham Street Prims; East Midlands Counties League; Res: 1-0; Att: 36; Admission: £4; Programme: 50p (12pp); FGIF Match Rating: **

Think Ibstock, and bricks come into your mind. This small town (or, to some, large village) is synonymous with the products of the world-renowned company which bears its name. Brick manufacturing began here in 1830 when the primary activity was coal extraction. But, within 30 years, the brick side of the business had outstripped mining and today Ibstock Brick Ltd, part of the Dublin-based CRH Group, is the UK market leader. The company, whose headquarters remains in this close-knit Leicestershire community, now boasts 24 brick and paver plants knocking out more than 900 million bricks a year with the help of a workforce close on 2,000.   The brick company's slogan, Building Sustainability, could apply equally to the local football club. Ibstock United, step by step and day by day, are heading in the right direction, especially since they brought the village's youth sides under their umbrella. Teams catering for players aged four (yes, four) to 17 supply a conveyor belt of talent through to the senior set-up and this strategy, allied to a commitment to improving facilities at the smart Welfare Ground, indicates the outlook is bright. United officials confirmed they are thrilled to be part of the new East Midlands Counties League. They feel the standard of football is much better than in the Leicestershire Senior League and were very complimentary about the hospitality they have received on away trips. Considering United only just qualified for the EMCL by finishing 10th in the county competition last season, they are chuffed with progress. This victory left them in the top half of the table; particularly gratifying because, unlike neighbours Coalville Town, Bardon Hill Sports and Ellistown, Ibstock do not pay their players, all of whom are local lads.   The village, built on a shallow valley side and appropriately replete with red-brick properties, is orderly but quiet. The High Street, even on a Saturday afternoon, is all but deserted. One wonders how businesses in such places make a living. The only store doing a brisk trade is the Co-operative supermarket, whose car park is full to overflowing. At the other end of Chapel Street, down the hill, the small shops, those that remain, struggle for custom. Will we ever learn?   The Welfare Ground is on Leicester Road, which heads towards close-at-hand Ellistown. United's home mirrors the village - tidy but unspectacular. A defunct colliery winding wheel to the left of the narrow entrance track - heralded by two impressive signboards - stands as a memorial to the lost pits. It bears a plaque, reading: 'Erected by the parish council in 1993 as a tribute to those people of Ibstock who devoted their working lives to the coal mining industry'. Further down the same side is the multi-gabled miners' welfare, rather less imposing than these structures often are. An immaculate bowling green, complete with pavilion and a wonderful brick scoreboard, is to the rear. To the right of the access track is a park and children's play area. The first element of the football ground you come across is one of its most noteworthy - a magnificent red-brick turnstile block, with Ibstock Welfare FC (the club's name before the merger with Ibstock Youth) sculpted on the stone lintel. The access track then broadens into a smallish unsurfaced car park. There is an artificial five-a-side pitch (floodlit and enclosed) and, tucked away in a corner, a wooden hut belonging to Ibstock Welfare Homing Society. The land beyond the five-a-side area is destined to become a second pitch. This, to be floodlit for training purposes, will be a Godsend because the main pitch is being used by seven teams, and suffering accordingly.   Having admired, and passed through, the turnstile block, you emerge in the north corner of a pleasant little ground. To the right, a portable building, painted white, provides hospitality for directors and their guests. To the left, a raised area of hardstanding backs on to a concrete hut dispensing refreshments and BBC Radio Five Live. The club's (new) name features on the fascia. The sole area of cover is adjacent. This is a basic stand, 20 yards long by five deep, fashioned from concrete panels and painted white. It has a roof of metal corrugated sheeting supported by six columns. It shelters flat hardstanding, though three rows of wooden benches on a portable metal frame are also provided. Obstruction-free viewing from here is a challenge. Dominating this north-east side and, indeed, the whole ground, is United's pride and joy - their new changing room block, open only about a month. This is a single storey, red-brick building. The quality of its facilities internally cannot be questioned but its windowless design is blandness personified. A central door, and a flight of steps, allows the players access to the pitch. They trot out between two sturdy red-brick dugouts, positioned either side of the halfway line. A garage, housing the groundsman's equipment and located next to a mobile phone tower, completes the facilities on this side of the ground.   Concrete hardstanding is provided on each side and behind both goals. At the Leicester Road end, a grassy bank runs up to the concrete panel fence which encloses the ground. The park and children's play area is immediately behind. There is room only for the hardstanding, and three floodlight masts, on the far side. A tarmac footpath, beyond which are modern houses, one vandalised depressingly, runs behind the boundary fence. The bottom end feels very open and exposed. Another grassy bank drops from the hardstanding and a broad, flatter strip of grass is provided with rudimentary floodlights, and used for training. A metal slat fence marks the club's boundary, beyond which the land falls away towards a factory in the valley bottom. The brickworks, and a cemetery, is over to the east. The far side of the valley is covered with landscaped spoil heaps, legacy of King Coal. A post and rail fence, neat in the club's red and white colours, encloses the pitch, which slopes down noticeably towards the south and south-east.   Sadly, this turned out to a disappointingly scrappy game, punctuated by stoppages and bogged down on a gluepot surface. Mind you, the referee (whom I won't name) didn't help. I arrived in the car park at the same time as he and watched, all astonishment, as he carefully donned a waistcoat, suit jacket, scarf, overcoat and leather gloves for the task of walking the 50 yards or so to the dressing rooms. Hardly Scott's expedition to the Pole, and a mild (and, at this stage, dry) afternoon, to boot. Before leaving his car, he triple checked its doors were locked. I knew, then, he was going to be fastidious to the point of irritation. And so it proved. Too much whistle and finger wagging, and way too many cautions.   What proved to be the only goal came as early as the 10th minute. United's Michael Betts found space on the right side of the penalty area, took the ball round keeper Simon Lillie nimbly and forced a low shot from an acute angle into the net off the inside of the far post. Prims, playing for the first time since the sudden death of their commercial manager and wearing black armbands as a tribute to the 64-year-old, responded with long-range efforts from Adam Lillie and Lee Fox, both of whom brought good saves out of Stephen Fowkes. A shame, given the time of year, the Ibstock keeper's name wasn't Fawkes, really. The visitors, possibly inspired by a breathtaking rainbow curving over the ground, ended the half with the best passing movement of the match. A strong run by Fox set up David Hind in space, but the right winger hit the sidenetting rather than the target.   Two minutes after the restart, Ibstock contrived a shocking miss. Jon Smith's free-kick from the right flank fell to Rich Lewis, unmarked six yards from goal, but the burly striker somehow sidefooted wide on the volley. Team-mate Jack Lewis then squandered an equally good opportunity. A lucky ricochet from midfield left him through on goal, but keeper Lillie was off his line quickly to make a decisive tackle outside his penalty area. Ibstock's profligacy continued when Ben Weir volleyed inches too high as a loose ball dropped invitingly at his feet 12 yards out. The referee's card frenzy caught up with him two minutes from time, Sam Adams being shown a second yellow for failing to retreat 10 yards at a free-kick. Energised, Prims poured forward and almost snatched an equaliser four minutes into stoppage time, but Fowkes was able to claw away with one hand Dan Tranter's deflected 20-yarder. Tranter had his head in his hands still as the last of many whistles sounded.   Not, then, a game to linger in the memory much after the next, and made more frustrating by learning my other choice, Gedling Miners' Welfare's visit to Kirby Muxloe in the same league, had finished 3-3 - enough to satisfy the most promiscuous goal whore. As it turned out, all the day's fireworks were in the sky on the benighted drive home. Still, it's another 'tick'. Another brick in the wall.

contributed on 09/11/08