Dual-language signage The results of my advisory X poll on Friday had me planning a first ever visit to Tewkesbury on Saturday. I'll be honest, I was relieved when Tewkesbury won because my daughter's match had been pushed back to a late morning kick-off and there's no way I would have made Cheltenham or Frampton for a 2pm ko. At least Tewkesbury was 3pm ,giving me a good 90 minutes to make the trek through the Cotswolds.
It's always good to watch a new team and visit a new ground. I'd not seen Tewkesbury play before but I had seen their visitors, Brockworth Albion, back in November 2022. On that day Albion drew 0-0 at home to Berkeley Town (No Score Draw). Going into today's game, Brockwotth sat in fourth spot, seven points adrift of leaders Longlevens Reserves. Tewkesbury, who were promoted as champions of Division Two last season, were three places further down the table and four points worse off. So, not too much between the teams. The reverse fixture had ended 2-0 to Albion, with goals coming from Josh Coakley and Sean Gee. Both teams had scored a good few goals this season and Albion, with 56 so far, also had two players, Matt Cairns (16) and Jamie Martin (13) in the top five scorers chart.
It's always good to watch a new team and visit a new ground. I'd not seen Tewkesbury play before but I had seen their visitors, Brockworth Albion, back in November 2022. On that day Albion drew 0-0 at home to Berkeley Town (No Score Draw). Going into today's game, Brockwotth sat in fourth spot, seven points adrift of leaders Longlevens Reserves. Tewkesbury, who were promoted as champions of Division Two last season, were three places further down the table and four points worse off. So, not too much between the teams. The reverse fixture had ended 2-0 to Albion, with goals coming from Josh Coakley and Sean Gee. Both teams had scored a good few goals this season and Albion, with 56 so far, also had two players, Matt Cairns (16) and Jamie Martin (13) in the top five scorers chart.
Early Albion attack Brockworth, in their change kit of green and white stripes, started the game quite strongly, kicking down the slight slope towards the car park end. James Thomas's fourth minute right-wing cross caused some problems for the home defence but Albion's Oli Palmer couldn't quite get enough on the ball. A few minutes later Jamie Martin struck a decent effort on target, but Xavier Welch dealt with it comfortably.
The home side soaked up the early Brockwoth onslaught and then, just before the quarter-hour, almost hit their visitors with a sucker punch. A long ball over the Albion defence was expertly pulled out of the air by Joe Peachey, who drove towards the peanlty area only to be twarted at the last second by an excellent defensive cover tackle from Albion captain Tom Willetts. A great recovery from the defender who had to time his tackle perfectly to avoid giving away a penalty. That effort then sparked a very similar attempt from Albion. A very quick break out of defence and, two passes later, Tyler Jaggers was played through on goal. His low shot looked to be heading for the bottom corner before Welch went full-length to fingertip the ball away.
Despite these two close calls at either end, the majority of play was confined to the centre of the pitch, with neither team able to string any fluent moves together. Jut past the midpoint of the half, a poor clearance from Albion resulted in goalkeeper Evan Coombs being well out of his ground. The ball fell to Lee Llewelyn around 30 yards out. His instant volley was quick thinking but didn't have enough power to beat Coombs who, to his credit, had recovered his position very quickly.
After that point neither goalkeeper was stretched further as the game continued to be fragmented. In the final five minutes of the half both teams had half chances. An Albion strike towards the top corner was easily fielded by Welch and a Dan Keating strike from the edge of the box flew well clear of the Brockworth bar.
HT Tewkesbury Town 0 Brockworth Albion 0 . As I posted at the time, scrappy at best. Neither side managed to establish a firm hold on the game, albeit on a difficult bumpy surface. As it stood, it was looking like my second time watching Albion was going to end like the first, goalless.
The home side soaked up the early Brockwoth onslaught and then, just before the quarter-hour, almost hit their visitors with a sucker punch. A long ball over the Albion defence was expertly pulled out of the air by Joe Peachey, who drove towards the peanlty area only to be twarted at the last second by an excellent defensive cover tackle from Albion captain Tom Willetts. A great recovery from the defender who had to time his tackle perfectly to avoid giving away a penalty. That effort then sparked a very similar attempt from Albion. A very quick break out of defence and, two passes later, Tyler Jaggers was played through on goal. His low shot looked to be heading for the bottom corner before Welch went full-length to fingertip the ball away.
Despite these two close calls at either end, the majority of play was confined to the centre of the pitch, with neither team able to string any fluent moves together. Jut past the midpoint of the half, a poor clearance from Albion resulted in goalkeeper Evan Coombs being well out of his ground. The ball fell to Lee Llewelyn around 30 yards out. His instant volley was quick thinking but didn't have enough power to beat Coombs who, to his credit, had recovered his position very quickly.
After that point neither goalkeeper was stretched further as the game continued to be fragmented. In the final five minutes of the half both teams had half chances. An Albion strike towards the top corner was easily fielded by Welch and a Dan Keating strike from the edge of the box flew well clear of the Brockworth bar.
HT Tewkesbury Town 0 Brockworth Albion 0 . As I posted at the time, scrappy at best. Neither side managed to establish a firm hold on the game, albeit on a difficult bumpy surface. As it stood, it was looking like my second time watching Albion was going to end like the first, goalless.
TJ from the spot Thoughts of the game ending without a goal were quashed after only four minutes of the second half and, when it came, the goal was the product of the best piece of football played so far. Josef Fullerton burst down the Town right flank before delivering a delightful ball, deep into the Albion penalty area. Henry McMahon rose like the proverbial salmon to plant a firm header back across the keeper and into the far corner. Lovely football and a very well taken goal. 1-0
Going a goal down sparked a response from the visitors. Three minutes after going behind Oli Palmer rose above everyone to get a glancing header on a delivery into the home box, only to see his header sail wide of the mark. Sadly, for any neutrals watching, that was as close as Brockworth came to staging a comeback as the game, once again, fell into a pattern of disjointed play. Not that the home side were complaining and neither were the four young lads who had turned the top of the skateboard ramp into a makeshift stand. They chanted throughout the entire game. You have to love grassroots football in England. There's nothing like it.
Just as the game looked to be drifting toward a slender on-goal home victory, it burst into life as the clock ticked over to 90 minutes. Brockworth, who to be fair had kept plugging away, looked nailed on to get a dramatic equaliser as they engineered a chance in the centre of goal and less than 12 yards out (sorry, I couldn't see which player was about to pull the trigger). However, out of nowhere, home central defender Scott Nicholls came flying in with what can only be described as a match winning tackle. Then, to rub salt into the wounds, Tewkesbury pressed forward and forced the visitors into a defensive mix-up as they tried to play out from the back, gifting the ball to Peachey inside their own area. Evan Coombs had little choice than to wrestle the striker to the ground, conceding a 92nd minute penalty. I think the fact it was so close to the final whistle may also have saved the keeper from a red card. That didn't make any difference in the end as Teejay Hoskings stepped up and calmly slotted home the spot-kick for 2-0.
FT Tewkesbury Town 2 Brockworth Albion 0. Certainly not the most eventful game of football I have ever watched but a good three points for Tewkesbury. The defeat put a dent in Brockworth's title challenge aspirations, leaving them still seven points adrift and now having played a game more than the leaders. Town move to within a point of Albion but have played three more games. Next weekend Tewkesbury make the short trip to Bredon for a local derby. The sides drew 2-2 back on Armistice Day after Bredon led 2-0 at the break. Two goals from Matt Tarling rescued a point for Town.
Brockworth are back at home as they welcome 10th placed Lydney Town Reserves, who beat them 2-1 in the reverse fixture despite having Sam Wines sent off. I'm sure Albion will be happy to note that I won't be there, seeing as they have failed two score on both occasions I have watched them
Tewkesbury Town: 1.Welch, 2.Banfield, 3.Stanley, 21.Hosking, 6.Nicholls, 8.Llewelyn, 99.Keating(c), 16.Roder, 22.Fullerton, 18.McMahon, 7.Peachey. Subs: 4.Davenport, 26.Keen, 11.Newland-Gallaway, 9.Tarling, 25.Ashmeade
Brockworth Albion: 1.Coombs, 2.Coakley, 3.Webb, 4.Palmer, 5.Willetts(c), 6.Taylor, 7.Thomas, 8.Moyo, 9.Martin, 10.Jaggers, 11.Cairns. Subs: 12.Grieve, 13.Wilkinson, 14.Banner, 15.Maisey, 16.Langworthy
Going a goal down sparked a response from the visitors. Three minutes after going behind Oli Palmer rose above everyone to get a glancing header on a delivery into the home box, only to see his header sail wide of the mark. Sadly, for any neutrals watching, that was as close as Brockworth came to staging a comeback as the game, once again, fell into a pattern of disjointed play. Not that the home side were complaining and neither were the four young lads who had turned the top of the skateboard ramp into a makeshift stand. They chanted throughout the entire game. You have to love grassroots football in England. There's nothing like it.
Just as the game looked to be drifting toward a slender on-goal home victory, it burst into life as the clock ticked over to 90 minutes. Brockworth, who to be fair had kept plugging away, looked nailed on to get a dramatic equaliser as they engineered a chance in the centre of goal and less than 12 yards out (sorry, I couldn't see which player was about to pull the trigger). However, out of nowhere, home central defender Scott Nicholls came flying in with what can only be described as a match winning tackle. Then, to rub salt into the wounds, Tewkesbury pressed forward and forced the visitors into a defensive mix-up as they tried to play out from the back, gifting the ball to Peachey inside their own area. Evan Coombs had little choice than to wrestle the striker to the ground, conceding a 92nd minute penalty. I think the fact it was so close to the final whistle may also have saved the keeper from a red card. That didn't make any difference in the end as Teejay Hoskings stepped up and calmly slotted home the spot-kick for 2-0.
FT Tewkesbury Town 2 Brockworth Albion 0. Certainly not the most eventful game of football I have ever watched but a good three points for Tewkesbury. The defeat put a dent in Brockworth's title challenge aspirations, leaving them still seven points adrift and now having played a game more than the leaders. Town move to within a point of Albion but have played three more games. Next weekend Tewkesbury make the short trip to Bredon for a local derby. The sides drew 2-2 back on Armistice Day after Bredon led 2-0 at the break. Two goals from Matt Tarling rescued a point for Town.
Brockworth are back at home as they welcome 10th placed Lydney Town Reserves, who beat them 2-1 in the reverse fixture despite having Sam Wines sent off. I'm sure Albion will be happy to note that I won't be there, seeing as they have failed two score on both occasions I have watched them
Tewkesbury Town: 1.Welch, 2.Banfield, 3.Stanley, 21.Hosking, 6.Nicholls, 8.Llewelyn, 99.Keating(c), 16.Roder, 22.Fullerton, 18.McMahon, 7.Peachey. Subs: 4.Davenport, 26.Keen, 11.Newland-Gallaway, 9.Tarling, 25.Ashmeade
Brockworth Albion: 1.Coombs, 2.Coakley, 3.Webb, 4.Palmer, 5.Willetts(c), 6.Taylor, 7.Thomas, 8.Moyo, 9.Martin, 10.Jaggers, 11.Cairns. Subs: 12.Grieve, 13.Wilkinson, 14.Banner, 15.Maisey, 16.Langworthy
The Ground
Tewkesbury Town currently play their home fixtures just outside the town, in Northway, a village 2 miles to the North-East of the town centre. Although officially a village, Northway is now effectively a suburb of Tewkesbury. Northway Playing Field is exactly what it says, a playing field. Separated from the town by the M5, the ground is hemmed in by a residential area to the East and a business centre to the South and West. There's a reasonably big car park just off Northway Lane however as this is a popular local park as well there are plenty of people visiting to make use of the children's play area that sits alongside the pitch, as well as a popular dog-walking spot, so much so that some of the signs are dual language, English and canine. Having said that, there is plenty of on-road parking available withing a couple of minute's walk of the pitch. There's not a great deal to describe around the ground. There are facilities available in the changing rooms, which are in a building adjacent to the car park. There's no covered spectator areas (this is a community park). The pitch slopes a little back towards the car park and, not surprisingly given the recent weather, was a little heavy and prone to an odd bounce here and there. What was good to see was that, despite being out of the town, the club is still attracting some locals to their games. I didn't count but there was probably somewhere between 30 and 50 (including the kids on the top of the skateboard ramp) spectators in total. Not too bad for this level.
Despite only being a few miles from Twyning, there was no repeat of the spooky Spotify algorithm on my journey home (see Tiger Feat blog for context).
Ground Number: 398
Att:
Entrance: N/A
Programme: N/A
Tewkesbury Town currently play their home fixtures just outside the town, in Northway, a village 2 miles to the North-East of the town centre. Although officially a village, Northway is now effectively a suburb of Tewkesbury. Northway Playing Field is exactly what it says, a playing field. Separated from the town by the M5, the ground is hemmed in by a residential area to the East and a business centre to the South and West. There's a reasonably big car park just off Northway Lane however as this is a popular local park as well there are plenty of people visiting to make use of the children's play area that sits alongside the pitch, as well as a popular dog-walking spot, so much so that some of the signs are dual language, English and canine. Having said that, there is plenty of on-road parking available withing a couple of minute's walk of the pitch. There's not a great deal to describe around the ground. There are facilities available in the changing rooms, which are in a building adjacent to the car park. There's no covered spectator areas (this is a community park). The pitch slopes a little back towards the car park and, not surprisingly given the recent weather, was a little heavy and prone to an odd bounce here and there. What was good to see was that, despite being out of the town, the club is still attracting some locals to their games. I didn't count but there was probably somewhere between 30 and 50 (including the kids on the top of the skateboard ramp) spectators in total. Not too bad for this level.
Despite only being a few miles from Twyning, there was no repeat of the spooky Spotify algorithm on my journey home (see Tiger Feat blog for context).
Ground Number: 398
Att:
Entrance: N/A
Programme: N/A
Tewkesbury launch an attack
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