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Matchday images contributed by Emma Jones (5) >view>
Gillford Park have been at pains to laugh off speculation that they are not pressing ahead with an application to join the Northern League. The Carlisle-based club, whose latest incarnation (amid a complicated history) arrived on the scene as recently as 2005, are on course to complete their exocet-like progress through the three divisions of the Northern Alliance. Very little is required to bring their impressive ground - known as the Milltech Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal with a local business - up to the standards required by the higher league. Although by their own admission they have been a little slow in rolling up their sleeves, the work ought to be completed in time for a mid-April inspection. Erecting floodlights has provided the biggest challenge, but by the day of this game the foundation holes had been dug, creating a mess of which giant moles would have been proud, so clearly an end to their labours is in sight.
This is a ground with strong rugby league connections. When the boom-and-bust semi-professional Carlisle team were booted out of Brunton Park by Carlisle United in the mid-1980s, their frantic search for a new home led them to Carlisle & District Railway Club-owned land sandwiched between the main west coast railway line and the River Petterill in the Harraby area of the city. Accessed through the depressingly run-down Petterill Bank council estate and then via a narrow, potholed track, the low-lying site, in the sparsely vegetated bottom of a shallow valley, was not promising. But the determined rugby league club eventually built three stands, all of which still exist. The most recent bunch of Gillford Park footballers began life on an undeveloped adjacent pitch, and really landed on their feet when, after just one season, they were invited to move into the relatively well appointed stadium following the rugby league club's apparently inevitable demise. The latter, happily, have since revived as an amateur concern, and will be using the venue for their 2009 home fixtures in the British Amateur Rugby League Association's flagship summer Co-operative Conference National competition.
Gillford Park, even in the days when the rugby league club could count on a hard core of about 400 fans, never was a particularly appealing venue - and it seems to have gone downhill since those better times. However, whilst the facilities may need a little sprucing up, they are far superior to most grounds in the Northern Alliance - and a good many in the Northern League, too. A capacity of 4,000 includes 800 seats. The bar, social club, toilets and original dressing rooms can be found in the dreary, flat-roofed building to the right as you bounce down the access track which widens into an umade car park before expiring amid an unsightly tangle of bushes and a couple of waterside footpaths heading towards the A6 arterial road into town. A turnstile block leads the spectator into a spacious, if largely unsurfaced, area. The newest of the three stands is to the left, immediately behind the goal. It is a 20-yard long cantilever, chunky and clad in panels bearing the red, blue and white colours of the rugby league club. There is a refreshment hatch in the near side. Six rows of plastic tip-up seats are arranged in four blocks (the outer two white, the inner two red) either side of a central players' tunnel. The new changing rooms are secreted below. A large hospitality area - mournfully empty and wastefully unused - is the main feature of the second floor accommodation, which has a separate room for the public address announcer. The prospect of the ground through the grandly titled viewing gallery's floor to ceiling windows is excellent, though the glazing makes for unwelcome partial sensory deprivation. There's no danger of me ever joining the executive box set. The busy, electrified railway line linking Carlisle with Preston and points south runs on an embankment to the rear of the car park.
Most of the left-hand touchline is taken up by a simple, narrow cover sheltering a couple of steps of terracing. Behind is the pitch on which Gillford Park played their first matches. The distinctive communications tower on the skyline belonged to the ITV Border broadcasting station, which closed in February as part of a rationalisation of the region's service. Its shiny white neighbour, about as futuristic a building as you get in sleepy Carlisle, is a community clinic for the National Health Service. There isn't any spectator accommodation at the far end, with a breeze block wall backing on to a grassy bank behind which the River Petterill bounces along as it prepares to merge with the Eden en route to the Solway Firth. Netting suspended from scaffolding stops the ball from being ducked. The houses of the Petterill Bank estate, a gaunt presence on the horizon, can be glimpsed through scattered trees. The ground's third stand, a squat, propped cantilever, is about 30 yards long and straddles the halfway line on the right-hand side. This dark, cavernous and frankly ugly structure offers nine rows of red and blue plastic tip-up seats. Modern perspex dugouts are positioned in front of its high front wall, with a small floodlit training area to the rear. There is grass - soon to become hardstanding, I understand - to either side. A board fence surrounds the flat, bumpy pitch.
Gilly's game on this bright and breezy afternoon was a dress rehearsal for the Northern Alliance Challenge Cup final at Prudhoe's Kimberley Park on Easter Monday. The home team, reduced to 10 men from the 35th minute by striker Chris Grainger's unnecessary sending-off, made heavy weather of beating a gallant, but limited, Heddon side languishing in the lower reaches of the table. Stronger opposition would have defeated Gillford Park in a contest which proved to be the archetypal 'game of two halves'. The opening 45 minutes had everything but a streaker and a dog on the pitch, while a tedious second period left onlookers struggling to stifle yawns, and checking their watches every couple of minutes. Gillford Park, however, will not mind. They're on top of the table and now another three points nearer the Northern League.
The match started a quarter of an hour late because of the need for engineers to deal with a power cut, but the early exchanges were worth waiting for - even for those travellers who had missed out on a programme following a print run limited to just 15 copies. At least obliging Gilly secretary Harley Freemantle offered to post a re-issue to the disappointed. Heddon scored after six minutes. Jon Armstrong swept a great ball from central midfield to the left flank, where David Edwardson got behind the defence and crossed low to the back post for an onrushing Daniel Dunn to convert in classical fashion. Steve Skinner got Gilly level in the 17th minute when his direct free-kick from 20 yards found the top right-hand corner of Peter Holland's net. Former Carlisle United midfielder Skinner made it 2-1 from the penalty spot with 25 minutes gone. His stuttering run-up fooled Holland after the Heddon keeper had brought down Ty Taylor. Grainger, for reasons only he could explain (and possibly not even he, so unwarranted did it seem) punched visiting skipper Martin Lamb off the ball in the 35th minute, and was deservedly shown a straight red card. Gilly keeper Gavin Armstrong tipped a Daniel Hall free-kick on to the crossbar with one hand as a heartened Heddon pressed before half-time. But the hosts also went close, with Joe Kerry heading a near-post corner against his own woodwork, and Ian Johnstone rolling a sitter wide.
A fascinating second half appeared likely, only for the game to fizzle out tamely. Gillford Park wouldn't, and Heddon couldn't. A stalemate of Eton Wall Game proportions ensued. The closest we came to seeing another goal was in the 64th minute when Holland had to stretch back and divert a bending Skinner free-kick against the crossbar.
Gilly - undoubtedly - would be a useful addition to the Northern League, though another trek to Cumbria (Whitehaven Amateurs having joined the competition this season) is hardly likely to go down well in the parochial North East, where many clubs are little more than a couple of bus stops apart. Carlisle is a football city, and it seems strange the highest standard of non-league action available is the relatively lowly Northern Alliance. Gillford Park should get through their grading inspection, and the team look good enough to clinch a third promotion in four seasons. This ambitious, friendly little club will be looking forward to making another major leap up the pyramid. |