Venue: Murton Recreation Park, Church Lane, Murton, Co Durham SR7 9RD.
Kickoff: 14:00 Sat 7 Dec 2013
Weather: cloudy, dry, light wind, 7℃.
LOCATION REPORT
FOR SPECTATORS
SatNav: SR7 9RD.
Staff: a few Murton helpers, in the 'Club block' (ie an old brick shed where they make the tea)
Parking: dedicated car park, 40+ spaces. Extra spaces outside in the side-road for the adjacent public park.
Public transport: #61 (Murton-Sunderland), #265 (Durham-Seaham), #202 (Peterlee-Seaham); all stop on Church Street/Lane.
Refreshments: tea/coffee on sale in 'Club block'. A thick builders' brew served in a thick mug, delightful.
Toilets: quaint old brick 'pissoir', for which I was grateful!
Kids: adjacent park has a kids playground and plenty of space to run around
Weather protection:
Rain: under corrugated-metal roof of terraced stand
Wind: behind thick stand walls
Sun: under shade of stand roof
Cold: depending on wind direction, the stand walls kept the chill off.
FOR PLAYERS
Pitch: grass, short and smooth, nice surface for home side's neat passing game, surrounded by a flaking-whitewashed perimeter barrier.
Floodlights: none, but they must have existed in past because the bases were still there at each corner.
Changing: old brick pitchside changing block, secure.
MATCH REPORT
Approx crowd: c 15 max. All male and middle-aged, all staying throughout. No kids.
(One guy stopped by for a moment with his very well-behaved but restless Labrador puppy, but he soon left to go walkies in park.
A couple of other dog walkers wandered by later, but were genuinely uninterested.)
Full-time [h/t] score (colours):
7 [5] Murton (all red)
1 [0] Darlington Blackwell Meadows (orange/black stripes)
Bookings: 0
Sent Off: 0
Official Match Report:
www.durhamAllianceLeague.org.uk/
NORVENMUNKI's COMMENTS:
Murton is conveniently placed just off the A19. With a fortnight to go until Christmas, Mrs Munki and the little Munkis dropped me off after a brief visit to Dalton Park outlet centre, just 60 seconds away. (A useful tip should you need to placate the significant-other with some retail therapy)
The match venue itself was a delight. Old and tatty, but evidently well-loved by the locals. It lacked nothing except mod cons. (But who expects them at this level? Not I.)
As for the game, there was craft from Murton and graft from Darlo. Having, just last week, watched Darlo demolish Spennymoor, the visitors were comparatively under-par this week. Murton had them chasing shadows.
Nonetheless, there wad lots of positive encouragement amongst the players, all younger guys, who all demonstrated genuine team ethics.
For Murton it was a great day for the Wintrips, as Liam and Paul both bagged themselves a hat-trick. (I wonder who will take home the commemorative match-ball?)
The Murton opener came thanks to their right-winger, Paul (I think?), dribbling into the box and finishing coolly. The second was really an own goal (by Darlo #6, after tricky winger Wintrip lost his marker and drilled a cross into box which centre-half knocked in under pressure), but sportingly it was recorded as a Wintrip goal.
Murton then had goal disallowed shortly after for what appeared to be a debatable offside, rather luckily for the Darlo keeper who had appeared to spill the ball at the strikers feet.
However, Murton's positive play soon got its reward with another Wintrip run down the right, the keeper palmed it into path of the follow-up Wintrip, who gratefully accepted gift. The Wintrips then added a fourth and fifth in almost identical manner. Half-time brought a few minutes respite for the desperate Darlo defence which was being torn to shreds.
Darlington could've been forgiven had they lost their composure along with their shape, but the atmosphere and banter was a credit to both sides throughout; no edge, plenty of respect, on the pitch and pitchside too. As the game went on, even the Murton coach was complimenting the Darlo boss on his boys' endeavour and passages of good play, which was heartening to see! (Perhaps a spot of ad hoc scouting?).
At the final whistle, the day belonged to the Wintrips. Although, for good measure, Andy Elliott (the Murton sub #13) pounced on a goalkeeping howler to score the final goal with last kick of game.
(I mention this also because Elliott is the much-admired ref at my daughter's mini footie league, and so had spent the whole morning selflessly encouraging local 11-year-old girls. Good man, he!)
Apparently, as I overheard, the after-match tradition is the treat of pie-and-peas at the next-door cricket-ground's Pavilion clubhouse.
GBA rating: Why not!? Crumbling maybe, but an honest old-fashioned football place nonetheless.
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