Southwell City 4-1 Rainworth Miners Welfare

Southwell City 4-1 Rainworth Miners Welfare

United Counties League Division One

Monday 28th November 2022

A free Monday night and a chance to visit Southwell City’s new Centenary Sports Ground for this United Counties League Division One game against local rivals Rainworth Miners Welfare.

My only previous visit to Southwell was back in August 2013 when they were at the War Memorial Sports Ground and narrowly lost to a Mansfield Town XI in a pre-season fixture. That was roughly in the same era when Adam Murray (recently appointed as the new manager at AFC Fylde) bizarrely went ‘on loan’ to Rainworth from the Stags!

The Wrens were in the Evo-Stik Division One (South) back in those days and over the past decade they’ve competed in the now-defunct East Midlands Counties League and then the Northern Counties East League as recently as last season, before being allocated a place in the United Counties League Division One this year. 

Southwell are also recent newcomers to this division because they won the Notts Senior League in 2021/22 - thus achieving promotion which coincided with their move to this new facility.

Having spent four years working at Field Mill in the 2010s, and knowing various players who’ve been at Rainworth at one point or another in recent times, it was slightly surprising that there weren’t any recognisable names in their team.

Infact, the only familiar face on the pitch was Brad Peace who, about this time six years ago, made one fateful appearance playing under Adam Murray in a spell at Boston United when they got hammered 9-2 by AFC Fylde.

That was an occasion that Brad won’t want reminding about too much but this was one he’ll remember a little more fondly because despite the fact that both Southwell and Rainworth have been hovering around the wrong end of the table in recent months, his team-mates turned on the class in the second half to record a big three points.

On a bobbly pitch with an ever so slight slope to it, things initially looked to be going well for the Zebras because they took the lead in only the third minute when Ed Munton diverted the ball home from a set-piece to put them 1-0 up.

However, Rainworth were much the better team for the rest of the first half and they enjoyed more territory and pressure in their search for an equaliser. Rich Walton made a good save and a free-kick was also curled narrowly over, but the goal eventually came on 43 minutes when Nathan Benger forced the ball home after a bit of a scramble. Things could have soon got far worse for Southwell had it not been for Munton who produced a dramatic ‘double’ block on the line to ensure they were level at the interval - and not behind when they perhaps ought to have been!

At 1-1, the game was in the balance - and there’s little doubt that if it had carried on in the same vein then Rainworth would have been taking the points back to Kirklington Road, but Southwell got a grip on things after the restart and two quickfire goals by Liam Moran; the first of which ricocheted into the net more out of good fortune than anything else, followed by a penalty from their skipper Chris Bowles meant they ran out as comfortable winners.

The Zebras have still got plenty of things to improve but on a big night, in a big six-pointer infront of a ‘bumper’ crowd of people who clearly just didn’t want to watch the World Cup, they did what they needed to and got the points in the bag!

As for the ground, despite its location in the back and beyond which makes it difficult to find, it isn’t too bad. It’s modern. It’s clean. There’s hard standing on two sides, a cosy and relatively new clubhouse with TV screens, and at only £3 admission (cheaper than anywhere in the NCEL) plus decent parking facilities it’s not bad for what it is!

And there’s sure to be decent footage of the game because there was a guy sitting in a tent whilst flying a drone - complete with a ‘heliport’ pad for the drone to land on! Football at non-league level never ceases to throw up some remarkable sights!