Damage in the Box!: GORNAL ATHLETIC (Garden Walk)

On a cold and frosty morning it's always worth having a few options to choose from. When the first 5 games on my shortlist bit the dust, or should that be bit the ice, I was starting to get a bit worried.

However, there is no point getting oneself worked up and, eventually, upon calling Gornal Athletic I finally received an affirmative, so it was a short trip down the A41 to the West Midlands.

I had been tipped off by many groundhoppers that Garden Walk is an absolute gem of a ground with bags of character and they were not kidding.

The ground is dominated by a huge bank of terracing which immediately hits you as you enter through the gate. The ground, in keeping with most of Gornal, is built into a hill so when you enter at street level the pitch is below you. On the other side of the ground, at pitch level, there is a small covered stand, where the 25 or so 'Peacock Ultras' were gathered!

There are plenty of GBG's in Dudley (of which Gornal is part of) and the surrounding area to choose from but pre-match was spent in the Black Bear, which has it's own brew and a fine selection of guest ales, playing darts and admiring the views from the window (again this pub is another place built into a hill).

Gornal Athletic play in the West Midlands Regional League (step 6 of the pyramid) and are having a terrific season so far, lying in second place at the start of play, having lost only 2 games all season, seven points behind the leaders Black country Rangers, but with four games in hand.

Opponents Stafford Town were down in 16th position at the start of play, but again with plenty of games in hand on the teams in and around them.

The game was a routine win for the homesters, despite the best efforts of Stafford. Gornal were leading 1-0 at the interval through a Mark Swann goal after 28 minutes, when a superb through ball split the Stafford defence and Swann rounded the goalkeeper to fire home. The Peacocks could have extended their lead but were guilty of wayward finishing.

Early in the scecond half Stafford had a great chance to equalise but the No7 missed an absolute sitter. This was to prove costly as after 60 minutes Swann headed home his second goal of the afternoon.

Gornal began to dominate, as Stafford began to fade, but again wayward finishing and bad luck, kept the score down. Substitute Ravi Sangha added two late goals to give the scoreline a more accurate reflection of the game.

A good day out in the West Midlands and a visit to Gornal comes highly recommmended, but use public transport, if you know what I mean!