Floodlit Pitch

  Derbyshire Senior Cup 2nd Round. The Main Stand at Holbrook Sports. Round 2 of this season’s Derbyshire Senior Cup saw the inconvenience of Holbrook Sports and Clay Cross Town work in my favour. A bout of manful meant I wasn’t able to get to the original date on 5 th December so imagine my joy when the match was postponed due to problems with the pitch. I realise that the pleasure of having me attend the game was no consolation for both sides having to rearrange, but for me, a lucky break. It got me to see how Holbrook Sports faired against higher level opposition at one of the county’s smaller venues, a proper grassroots club, which the community are lucky to still have.   The two sections of cover at Holbrook Sports. Originally formed in 1931 as Holbrook Miners Welfare the club reformed in 1996 as just plain old Holbrook. The club and its reincarnations have mostly been in the Central Midlands League, having some success in 1999/2000 when Premier Division champions....

  Borrowash Victoria & Holbrook Sports Battle For a 2nd Round Spot. The Main Stand at Borrowash Vics. It’s October, the nights are drawing in, Winter is round the corner, so it’s time for the Derbyshire Senior Cup. This season I’m starting at the wonderful Asterdale Bowl, aka The Anderson Electrical Arena, home of Borrowash Victoria, for their 1 st  Round tie against Holbrook Sports. The evening before, the competition started with the other two 1st round ties which saw Gresley Rovers see off Sandiacre Town, 5-0 and South Normanton Athletic travelling to the north of the County to play New Mills. South Normanton winning that one 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Vics & The Brookies are both at step 7, Holbrook in the Central Midlands Alliance South while Borrowash are members of the Nottinghamshire Senior League Premier, and there’s a little story about that. Knowing they were going down to step 7, Vics requested that they be placed in the Central Midlands Allianc...

  A review of Alfreton Town's 2023/24 season. A best ever FA Cup run and second consecutive play-off position was the achievement of Alfreton Town in 2023/24. Success in football is relative, one club’s play-off defeat could be the catalyst for financial ruin, or, as in Alfreton’s case, a slight disappointment alongside a feeling of pride. We speak a lot about over achievement at Ofton and being proud doesn’t mean we’re happy we lost to Boston United, it means we recognise the humungous achievement Billy Heath and Mark Carroll have accomplished at our club, given the resources of some of our opponents. Here’s my review of our 2023/24 campaign.   Alfreton Town 2023/24 Billy had a tougher than expected rebuilding job to do after the retained list was announced as 13 of the players from 2022/23 never played for the club again. It was announced early on that Dayle Southwell was joining Gainsborough Trinity and Connor Teale had gone back to Fleetwood Town following his loan...