No.25 - Sat. 26th December 2009; Eastern Counties League Premier Division;                12.00pm at the K & P Sports Club, Walmer Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

 

Matchday images (18) >view> 

Kirkley & Pakefield (1) 2  Leiston (1) 1 

How times have changed

The Euro currency is introduced; the Mars Polar Lander is launched; the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton begins; Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls basketball team announces his retirement and a seven-year old boy dies of choking on a Pokémon Power Bouncer ball toy. Amazing but true. These are just a few of the events which took place during the month of January 1999. So why is this so significant I hear you ask? Well according to a one line entry recorded in my rapidly fading and well thumbed blue A6 Football Grounds Diary this indicates the last time I travelled over to Walmer Road to watch a game of football. For the record Kirkley Football Club were well and truly beaten 5-0 by Needham Market in a Suffolk Senior Cup tie played on Saturday 2nd January 1999.

How times have changed. Since that day the Royals have come a long way both on and off the field. Not only has the football club experienced a rise in league status and acqured a new name but has also developed it's ground to make it one of the best in the Eastern Counties League competition. On my previous visit Kirkley was a member of the Anglian Combination Football League and shared its then basic facilities with the local athletics club. More than ten years have passed and with it several notable promotions which has elevated the proud club to the Premier Division of the Eastern Counties League. At the start of 2007 a recent amalgamation with Pakefield Boys has seen the formation of a new club now known as Kirkley and Pakefield FC.

With recent success on the pitch, a step up on the non league football pyramid ladder has been achieved with many important ground developments. On my visit today I can honestly say that the whole place looks totally different and unrecognisable from the one I attended last time. Although the athletics club has long since gone the old pavilion near the main entrance still exists and now doubles as a tea bar. I also spotted part of the old javelin all weather run up which now forms part of the car park. This apart, I could not believe the massive transformation that has taken place throughout the rest of the self-contained site. The addition of floodlights; a fully enclosed pitch with perimeter fencing and concrete walkways; plenty of standing, spectator cover in one corner and behind one goal; a new club shop and a smart all-seater main stand opposite, have been added since my last sojourn. Hopping heaven! 

Taken together these significant and necessary improvements, many provided by generous Football Foundation grants, all help to create a favourable impression for the enthusiastic grounds collector visiting Walmer Road. The club now has a ground to be rightly proud of and one that will give it much needed PR and presence, after being in the shadow of neighbours Lowestoft Town FC for so long. One other thing that also surprised me was the size and slope of the playing area - this surely must be one of the biggest pitches in the ECL and has, if you stand at the top end (furthest from the entrance), an appreciable drop in gradient. It is for this reason, as one of the committee members told me, that the club rarely suffers from any matchday postponements due to heavy rain and waterlogging.  

According to the matchday programme, the visitors currently occupied third place in the Premier Division table (behind Needham Market and Cambridge Regional College) having taken forty-six points from their opening twenty-one matches played. By contrast The Royals were currently in seventh, sixteen points behind but with four games in hand, enforced through a good FA Vase run (which sees an eagerly awaited all-ECL fourth round tie against Needham at Bloomfields to be played on 16th January). This suggested that a keenly fought Boxing Day contest was in prospect as both teams took to the field for the midday kick-off.

The game got off to a flying start when Kirkley took the lead inside the opening five minutes. In fact I had only just managed to take up my place against the perimeter fence on the far side of the ground when Chris Henderson beat his marker on the left to set up cross for the unmarked Nathan Stone (2) to score from ten yards out with a low shot. The guy next to me gave a loud cheer as the PA announcer read out the time of the goal - it matched the one shown on his Golden Goal ticket and earned him a belated Christmas present, a bottle of bubbly! With very little to separate both teams Leiston equalised on the stroke of half-time through a Stuart Boardley (45+1) penalty when pedantic match referee Mike George adjudged (harshly in my opinion) that Loius Blois had pulled down Lee McGuire inside the area. Kirkley rallied in the second half and took greater control of the game. They scored the winning goal when Kelsie Trotter (77) rose perfectly at the far post to meet a Tarin Grint free kick with a breath taking acrobatic diving header that sent the ball sailing past keeper Jamie Stannard. It was a scorcher and gave the locals a great reason to celebrate at the end of this tense Suffolk battle. On balance I reckon that Kirkley just about deserved their victory.           

Keep a watchful eye on Leiston Football Club. Who can forget the Blues outstanding FA Cup exploits last season which saw the Suffolk side reach the fourth qualifying round, holding Conference National club Lewes to a 1-1 draw at Victory Road in front of a crowd of 847, then beating them 3-1 in the replay at the Dripping Pan to reach the First Round proper for the first time in the club's history. It was on 8 November 2008 that Leiston held Conference North club Fleetwood Town to a 0-0 draw at home, before losing the replay 2-0 at Highbury Stadium, Fleetwood. However after a substantial investment over the last couple of years rumour has it that several of the club's financial backers may be ready to withdraw their stake. Speaking to some of the travelling fans today further revealed that a number of key players may also be ready to leave the club in the coming weeks as they look to make their football fortunes elsewhere. It seems that the lack of club loyalty has even permeated its way down to this level of the pyramid. It's a fine line between the cost of success and the price paid for failure. It really is an unbelievable and sorry state of affairs isn't it?   

A healthy crowd of 367 spectators was in attendance for the game. However this falls a long way short of the  club record for a Boxing Day match here which currently stands at 1124 for the visit of rivals Lowestoft Town in a Ridgeons Premier Division back in 2005. A bumper 72 page programme was issued and sold for £1. Although relying quite heavily on a bulky glossy advertising shell the photocopied inner pages contain plenty of interesting reading material covering club notes, match reports, history of the visitors, vital stats (tables, fixtures, results and league table) and is, like most in the league, supplemented by the current Ridgeons news letter. A wide and varied menu of hot and cold food and drinks was available from the kitchen area in the pavilion. By half-time the queue waiting for tea was far too long and wth only one person serving I decided to forgo my cuppa (and also give my digestive system a bit of a break after gorging on chocolates the day before).

The club also publishes an informative website that is regularly updated with the latest news relating to all of The Royals' teams from youth to adult. To find out more, including a map showing directions to the ground, click on the link below. A visit to Walmer Road in south Lowestoft comes with my highest recommendation and I have no doubt that you will not be disappointed by what you find here. The joys of hopping in the (far) East continues!         

FGIF Match Stats

Scorers: (H) Stone (2); Trotter (77) and (A) Boardley (45+1) 

Attendance: 367; Admission: £5; Programme: 72pp, £1; Match rating: 5/5; Ground rating: 4/5.

Links - http://www.kpfc.co.uk/index.asp

v2 edited 11/01/10