Retford 1-3 Barton Town
FA Vase 1st Round Qualifying
Saturday 31st August 2019
Retford is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands in between Nottingham to the east and west of Lincoln. The town is in the valley of the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal passes through the centre. Retford is one of the oldest boroughs in England, mentioned in the Domesday Book as 'Redeforde' (population over 22,013)Retford FC are a relatively new club, formed in 2015. The Choughs joined the Central Midlands League and were North Division champions last season, winning promotion to the Northern Counties East League.
The Rail
Babworth Road,
Retford,
DN22 7NJ.
NCEL Grounds visited 29/40
The club moved to The Rail in 2017 after ground sharing with Retford United. The ground has been developed over a short period of time with hard standing all around and floodlights for the necessary Step 6 requirements.
There are three stands, an uncovered bank of seats and a small row of seats behind the far goal, with a similar shallow stand behind the goal at the entrance end. The changing rooms are behind the far goal at the back of the neighbouring bowls club. The ground has an interesting entrance through a subway underneath Babworth Road which bridges the East Coast Main Line. I've been to quite a few grounds where you can view the passing trains on this line, but this must be the closest, just a few yards from the team dugouts on the east side of the pitch.
Matchday FactsRetford 1(Evans-Booth 70)
Barton Town 3(Hinchcliffe 23 Cooper 73 Dislay 80)
FA Vase 1st Round
3pm ko
Att.103
Admission £5
Programme £1
Pin badge £3
Coffee £1
Barton took the lead midway through the first half when a left wing ball was side footed home by Ben Hinchcliffe. As the match progressed it looked like that goal would be the decider until the Choughs were awarded a penalty with twenty minutes left, which was converted by Shay Evans-Booth. The visitors quickly responded regaining the lead three minutes later when Waudby's shot was saved only for Marc Cooper to be on hand to net the rebound. The Swans booked their place in the next round of the Vase when Goddard laid the ball onto Craig Dislay to curl into the bottom corner of the net to make it 3-1 ten minutes from time.
#HeedHopper
128 miles door-to-door
0841(13 minutes late) Cross Country train to Newcastle to York, still caught LNER connection to Retford on time at 1004, arriving at 1045. Same route home with 25 minute delays on the East Coast line, returned back in Newcastle just after 7pm.
As I arrived early (and the pubs weren't open yet) I walked along to the ground to check out how far it was from the station to The Rail, as there was little time in between the match finishing and boarding my return train home. When I arrived at the ground it was open with not a soul around, so I took my blog pictures before strolling back into the town centre. I revisited the Dominie Cross for breakfast then onto BeerHeadZ, White Lion, Ship Inn, Idle Valley and my favourite of the day - The Brew Shed, where I supped a few of the Harrison ales, brewed just a stone's throw away from the pub.
I had a very enjoyable day in Retford and look forward to returning in the not too distant future to do a similar day trip when I tick off Retford United.