Damage in the Box!: PENRITH (Southend Road)

So here we are back on the road to Wembley and today the road led north to the delightful castle town of Penrith. As this is a relatively easy destination to reach, on the main line to Edinburgh, it was decided to let the train take the strain. Trying to do my bit for global warming and nothing to do with having a skinful of beer in the highly recommended Agricultural Hotel by the train station!

There were no delays on train and were in said public house before 1pm. It did not disappoint! Four different types of ale to be sampled and sampled they were…hic! It was then a 10 minute walk (stagger!) down the hill into town and the Southend Road football ground. As soon as you get in the vicinity of the ground you can see the building work and bulldozers going on around it. This is the reason of the visit today. Another gem of a football ground is to be lost forever under the foundations of a shopping centre. They call it progress, I say it’s all part of the agenda to create a homogeneous country where every town is the bloody same.

Although no club official could confirm the date, Penrith are due to move into their brand new soulless bunker towards the end of October but for now Southend Road was to have one of its last hoorah’s in the cup. Indeed it was in the cup that Southend Road had its highest attendance when 2,100 crammed in to watch Penrith turn Chester over 2-1 in 1981. The ground itself is a proper old-fashioned non-league ground with a large wooden stand on one touchline and a covered terrace on the other. Behind both goals there was basically a pathway to stand on. Not much in terms of facilities but you can feel the history of the ground. I bet it could tell a thousand tales!

I paid my £4 entrance, a £1 for a programme and after scoffing a delicious meat and potato pie to soak up some beer, a bargain at £1.20, I positioned myself behind the goal in readiness for the match. Penrith were in a lower league (Northern) but were sitting proudly at the top of table, whilst Clitheroe, although not quite top, had got off to a decent start themselves in their league (Unibond Division one north). This had the makings of a good competitive match and what a cracker it turned out to be! As the home team, Penrith took the game to the visitors and dominated the first half. Through great attacking play, especially down the wings, they created numerous chances but were thwarted by poor finishing, great saves and the crossbar. It was no surprise when they did score through centre half Wayne Robertson on 29 minutes when he headed home from a corner. It was no more than they deserved but they should have been out of sight and, as always, when its only 1-0 the other team still has that chance and against the run of play Carl Lomax equalised on 39 minutes. Level at half time.

The second half was a different story as Clitheroe came back at their hosts and when they took the lead on 47 minutes through a header from Ian Flannery there was only going to be one winner. Penrith’s game deserted them in the second half and the confidence had clearly gone. Try as they might they could not force an equaliser and Lomax scored his second goal on the hour to finish the tie. The last ever FA Cup game at Southend Road, had come to a sad conclusion for the hosts.

There was just time to have a couple of more “sneck lifters” in the Agricultural Hotel before boarding the train for home. I look forward to re-visiting Penrith again when the new ground opens in the near future, especially for a few more scoops.

This however was not to be the end of the FA Cup journey for this weekend as a Sunday game appeared on ones radar late on…