Kickoff: 14:30 Saturday 5 May 2018
Competition: TWR Wearside League
Weather: hot and sunny, clear, dry, light breeze.
LOCATION REPORT
SatNav: NE10 8LT
Parking: sizeable car park with c. 60 spaces
Public transport: excellent - c. 20 bus routes serve Leam Lane and/or Wealcroft, to all major areas (incl. Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland, Washington etc)
More information:
http://www.leamrangersfootballclub.co.uk/
Entry: free of charge
Staff: clubhouse staff
Refreshments: drinks/snacks in the clubhouse
Toilets: clubhouse
Stands/Terraces: no cover, metal lean-on barrier around pitch
Programmes: no
Floodlights: none
MATCH REPORT
Approx crowd: c. 35 including clubhouse patio (albeit you can't really see the action from there!)
Full-time [h/t] score (colours):
0 [0] Gateshead Leam Rangers FC (yellow/green)
3 [1] Richmond Town FC (blue)
Bookings: 0
Sent Off: 0
NORVENMUNKI's COMMENTS
This Quest is almost done: today is my final new venue at this level. It's been an adventure that started in August, and has taken me through seventeen venues visited and well over a thousand miles travelled. Touring the Wearside League has been great fun but, as this season draws to a close, the tour is all but complete and another odyssey beckons next season.
This final episode of the Step 7 Quest brings me to Gateshead and the Hilltop location of Leam Rangers. By beautiful coincidence, today's visitors were my first hosts back at the start of this year's Quest, Richmond Town. That day, it poured down as I remember, but today it's glorious sunshine and the weather forecasters say possibly the warmest/sunniest day of the year so far. All the more incredible, considering it's an English Bank Holiday!
I know my way around here quite well, personally, as I used to come here with my own kids' junior leagues in recent years. I arrive early, having stocked up en route with water and snacks. There's no charge here, people can just wander in. As I'm parking up, I avoid the pile of smashed window glass coned off in the car park.
The sun is high overhead and grabbing some shade is essential. Thanks to the elevated position - as its name implies - atop a hill, overlooking the countryside between Springwell, Washington and Penshaw, this spot benefits from a lovely cooling breeze. I find a nice vantage point, in the shade overlooking the halfway line, and plonk myself down: taking a few photos, having a little picnic.
I have a little chat with a visiting fan. Theirs is a youngish side, he tells me, mostly new recruits, now bedding in after the disruption of changing the manager early in the season. He asks me about my Quest, and we share a few anecdotes about the long trips to Cumbria and elsewhere.
It's quiet, there's perhaps about 25 or so in the crowd, including several people sat on the benches outside the club house, having lunch or a drink in the sunshine. Various family groups are enjoying picnic in the grasses, and there are youngsters having a kickabout in the muga adjacent.
The players step out... customary handshakes... kick off.
Immediately, Leam attack down their right, but the deep cross evades the galloping forward and skids into touch. Explosive start: that could have been 1-0 after 10 seconds!
The play is relatively even, with both sides organising around a midfield battleground and looking for outlets to the flanks. Gateshead are perhaps a bit more 'industrial' though not necessarily industrious; Richmond are more 'crafted' but equally hardworking. It is shaping up to be a fine contest between styles.
The 'craft' approach earns first rewards as the visitors take the lead, with a rather scruffy goal, in truth: the through ball was scuffed, the first shot passed the goalkeeper but hit the post, then the rebound was turned in with a "classy lob" (to quote the amiable visitor!) over the panicky Leam stopper and just under the bar. 0-1.
The early goal comes somewhat to the home side's bemusement, as if they forgot that possibility was allowed. In true Leam fashion, they get shouty and are effing like their life is at threat. The yellow bench not happy, and every referee's decision is met with colourful invective. Plus, the players are getting it too: he's one angry man! :-(
Still, there's a game of football going on and to be honest it's full of good play from both sides. Leam can put together some great close-touch movements, but they can't find that killer pass. Yet, sometimes their emotions just run over and that lack of composure is their weakness. Richmond have their moments too, and are not without passing skills. They're equally determined too and not prepared to be intimidated by Leam's aggressive approach.
On the half-hour, what a chance for the equaliser! A lovely neat touch by the Leam forward allows him to skip through the opposition defence and play a delicious ball to his colleague, who is onside and all he needs to do is strike it past the semi-stranded keeper. Alas, he totally fluffs it and the ball spins innocently into touch. That's a bad miss, could it yet prove costly?
As ever, Leam players are screaming at each other. Effing, effing, effing... even the coach shouts to them to SHUT UP!
Richmond pick up the gauntlet, attempting to turn defence into attack. They embark on a wave of crosses which earn them various corners, but they too can't find the definitive chance.
It's almost half time, and another blue corner, much to the home players' displeasure. This time the Leam keeper gets a talking to from the referee, then there's a mêlée in the penalty box but the immediate danger is averted.
The quick-thinking Leam forwards break downfield, but their impulsive attack peters out. A Leam striker goes down and whilst he gets some treatment the players take on drinks. There's just injury time left, and the Richmond striker gets one last attack in before the break. In a quick move down the right, he cuts inside and unleashes a left-foot piledriver that flies over the bar. Chance!
It's half-time. 0-1.
The hot sun dips behind the row of tall trees behind me, screening the bright sunshine and cooling off the patch of shade that I've been enjoying. I move around the pitch to find the sunshine again.
I check Twitter for an update of the game between league-leading Cleator Moor Celtic and second-placed Redcar Athletic. Apparently Redcar are leading 0-2 at half time over in Cumbria, and even the Redcar MP has gone to watch!
Back here, the home players trudge back out. My new viewpoint is much lower to pitch level, on a low grass bank at the end that the visitors will be defending in the second half. I'm presuming that, as Leam need a goal now, this may be the busier end. The visitors are slower to reappear, is this perhaps a bit of mind games?
The game restarts. Whatever the coaching tactics in the dressing room, it looks to me like the same rhythm as before.
After a few minutes, there's a great chance for Richmond to double their lead. A massively long cross flies over from right back to left forward but, although expertly chested down, the long-range volley is blasted well wide. It was clear that a colleague was excellently placed in the centre, and he rightly admonishes his greedy teammate. It's still only 0-1, so such wastefulness is not without serious potential consequence.
Now, Leam are on the attack, as their forward dribbles his way through the blue defence. Cleverly, one colleague peels off to the right as decoy and the another sprints up to join in... but he stumbles into the referee (accidentally, although the poor ref gets a tongue lashing!) and the move breaks down.
There's no rest because, moments later, Richmond tear through the home defence and their cool-headed striker puts a strong left foot blast under the keeper from just within the box. A lovely passing move and good strike: 0-2. The visitors' composure is making the difference now, that calmness means everything.
At the restart, Leam are still shocked, and Richmond quickly put a deep cross into the home box, which the Leam centre-back wildly lashes at, and his keeper does well to avoid the own goal.
It's a reminder to stay alert, but Leam can still play good football and just need to lift their heads and their mood. A neat interplay in the final third earns another shot at goal but the chance is wasted. Then, they earn a free kick, but the angry man in yellow is too preoccupied with spitting venom toward the referee than composing himself for an obvious set-piece opportunity. Incredibly, this referee's booked nobody at all for dissent, even though at times it seems like Gateshead's main tactic!
Soon after, from a Leam throw in, Richmond intercept and set off down their right. The winger weaves through the home defence and again pulls his left-foot shot wide of the far post with multiple teammates begging: so unnecessary. They really do need to learn to look up and to listen out, rather than going for individual glory. In truth, they could easily have been five up by now if those final passes had been right.
We're into the final fifteen minutes, and the contest could have been over but a wicked shot from the Richmond left cannons back off the post with Leam floundering.
Then, minutes later, it IS over. A messy pinball in the Leam box ends with a stabbed punt into the corner of the net. It's not the prettiest but they all count: 0-3.
In order to rescue anything from this match, Leam are going to have to overcommit forwards now more than ever; thus leaving the risk of counterattack. One such situation ends with a three-on-one in Richmond's favour, but the final shot is straight down the Leam keeper's throat.
Admirably, Gateshead keep pressing. They fashion a beautiful chance, with the oncoming midfielder lofting a delicate pass over the static blue defence and his on-rushing colleague side-footing past the keeper... only for it to trickle wide of the post. Nice effort though.
In the last few minutes, Richmond go in search of a fourth, as a long shot from outside the area is parried by the Gateshead keeper but ricochets off his own centre-half and out for the final blue corner. Desperate defending sees the ball clear, but Gateshead are out of ideas now and the game is running down. One last hopeful effort from way out goes lamely wide and the clock runs down.
Final whistle: 0-3.
It's been a full-blooded contest, with lots of determination on show and the occasional bit of good skill. It's the visitors who come away with the points, emphasising the point made to me beforehand by their travelling fan that the young Richmond team can beat anyone on the day.
Meanwhile, Leam should really practice keeping their structure and their heads when they don't have the ball: for want of a bit of composure, it could have been so different.
In summary, it's been a nice warm, entertaining, relaxing end to this season's Quest.
As it's beginning to get summery, I'll take some time to get my research done and prepare for the next thrilling Step on the whole journey.
Thank you to the Wearside League, and everyone associated with it, for nine months of your hospitality.
In the glorious Gateshead sunshine, that's something to think about on my journey home... the final 18 miles out of a grand total of 1218!
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