Manchopper in…Glapwell

Result: Glapwell 5-0 AFC Phoenix (Central Midlands League Premier North Division)

Venue: Hall Corner (Saturday 30th April 2022; 3pm)

Att: 56

To round off the penultimate month of the season, I would be heading to a ground that had long been a target of mine. This was added to when the club actually folded at one point a number of years back and so when they returned to the field a couple of years ago, Hall Corner went straight to the top of the list…well, near enough anyway! Hall Corner is home to Glapwell Football Club and is one of those grounds that is a fair way below the level of football it once played host to. Nevertheless, it’s still in situ and so to Derbyshire I was headed!

I grabbed the train into Sheffield from Manchester, missing the majority of the disruption thanks to my Dad dropping me off and allowing me to forego the signalling issues that were plaguing some of the incoming services. As such, I boarded my planned train without issue and was soon heading across the Pennines and into South Yorkshire, prior to grabbing a second packed train the short distance to Chesterfield. From here, I’d grab a bus onwards to Glapwell…with a few stops along the way, of course!

Having missed out on a Wetherspoon’s tick on my visit to Chesterfield’s ground a few years ago now, I thought I’d rectify that and pop into the town’s offering. The Spa Vaults was a fairly run-of-the-mill ‘Spoons, but it was nicely placed for me today – the bus departing from just across the road. As such, a quick pint of Corona (£3.70?) was had, before I popped over the way and made use of my PlusBus ticket to get to the outlying area of Hasland. Here, there are a few pubs and a micropub too – although the latter wasn’t open upon my initial arrival. Not to worry, it could wait for now.

Arriving in Chesterfield…

…and heading for the ‘Spoons!

As such, my first stop in Hasland was the Devonshire Arms, a decent place which was showing the football. As a result, it was a rather perfect starting point. Indeed, I managed to see the only goal in Liverpool’s win over Newcastle United here, whilst supping a pint of Amstel (£3.75), before heading a few doors down to the Shoulder of Mutton. There was a slight issue I had upon arriving at the doors of this pub, though; that being that it was a Craft Union. Now, my view on these has gone up a little in the past few months and this was another of the more decent Craft Union pubs I’ve been into.

It was also showing the game and was well-populated as I entered, with both humans and canines within. Indeed, I made a good friend in the latter category – but I did have to let it down when it wanted a treat as I didn’t have any and I reckoned the owners wouldn’t have been best pleased had I offered it some of my pint of Coors (£3.05). He was happy enough with a stroke, so all was well! From here, it was a short ten minute walk to Hasland’s next watering hole – the Three Cottages.

First stop in Hasland – the Devonshire Arms!

Shoulder of Mutton

This was a very nice place and seemed to be more food-led than the previous two places in the village. It also had a decent selection on the go, beer wise, though I did just settle on another Amstel (£4.65!), prior to grabbing the bus onwards into Glapwell. Unfortunately, only the dearer bus travels into the village and so I had to brace myself to pay and extra £7, with the Chesterfield plusbus ticket being nigh on pointless, really. But at least the timings worked nicely around the game, dropping me off outside Glapwell’s sole gastropub – the Young Vanish (no, I’ve no idea where that comes from! NB: It’s an old champion racehorse.) with just enough time to grab a quick pint in there.

Glapwell is a village and civil parish within the Bolsover District, north east Derbyshire. It lies between the towns of Bolsover, Chesterfield and Mansfield and is located upon a hill-top, with its neighbouring village, Bramley Vale, located at the foot of said hill. Glapwell was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Clapwell and was noted as being held by ‘Serb from William Percival’.

The village was once home to Glapwell Hall, former family home of the Hallowe and Jackson families, although the Hall has long since disappeared and the site is now a garden centre. However, the nearby Elizabethan mansion Hardwick Hall does still stand and lies upon the same high ground as Glapwell. Run by the National Trust, the hall is linked to the nearby working watermill, Stainsby Mill, by an old coaching road.

Glapwell

Glapwell

Glapwell was once home to its own colliery, but this closed in the 1970’s, leaving the village without its own industry centre, with most people living in the village now employed outside of it. The colliery site itself is now owned by a private industrial fencing manufacturing company. Glapwell also used to have its own railway station, situated on the London, Midland and Scottish railway, but this closed in 1930. It was located near to the, now closed, Plug and Feathers pub, which was previously the Glapwell Hotel station inn.

Unfortunately, with time running very much at a premium ahead of kick-off, I had to settle on a pint of Dark Fruits (£3.95), which was downed in good time to allow me to make it around to the gates of Hall Corner, just as the game was about to kick-off. I paid my £3 entry, plus the added bit for the small programme, of which I’d had one saved if the need had come about. It didn’t on this occasion, with more than enough still on the gate upon my arrival. Upon entering Hall Corner, I had a peruse of a ground which, being completely honest, has seen better days.

Three Cottages

Young Vanish

The ground is comprised of three stands – of which two are covered. As you enter, the ground opens out in front of you, with all the facilities (gate, dressing rooms, tuck shop thing and loos) located behind the near-end goal. At the far side is a covered standing area, which runs about half the length of the pitch, with the other half, beyond the dugouts, being open, hard standing.

The near side features some covered benched seating towards the far end, with some open seating available right next door – the remnants of a roof still in situ! Today, these were well-populated, but I guess that’s the exception, rather than the rule! The far end is off-limits for some reason, though I did take a bit of an explore at the end of the game to get to the cricket ground out beyond the fencing a bit quicker! That’s Hall Corner in a nutshell and this is the story behind Glappy…

History Lesson:

Glapwell Football Club was founded in the mid-to-late 1980’s as the pub side of the village’s Young Vanish hostelry. In 1989, they changed name from Young Vanish F.C. to Glapwell F.C. and made the move into the National League System and the Central Midlands League Division One. They won the divisional title in their first season there and were promoted to the league’s Supreme Division, which they also won in 1992 along with the Wakefield Cup – the latter silverware coming via victory over local rivals Oakhill United.

Two seasons after their league triumph, the club finished as runners-up and this time were promoted to the Northern Counties East League Division One. Here, they finished their first campaign in a highly-respectable fifth place and reached the 2nd Round of the FA Vase for the first time. In 1998, the club won the Derbyshire Senior Cup in a two-legged final vs. Matlock Town, despite having lost the home leg, 2-1, against the higher-ranked team. Going to Matlock’s Causeway Lane ground, they won the second leg by the same score-line, before overcoming their opponents on penalties.

Arriving at Hall Corner

Glapwell were promoted to the NCEL Premier Division in 2000, with the runners-up spot in Division One being enough to secure them promotion to Step 5 for the first time. In 2001, the club narrowly missed out on a second Derbyshire Senior Cup win, this time being on the wrong end of a final decided on a penalty-shoot out – with Glossop North End being the victors on that occasion. Meanwhile, in the NCEL Premier Division, the club consolidated their place over the years following their promotion, leading to an eventual runners-up placing in 2008 and promotion to the Northern Premier League’s Division One South.

Having narrowly missed out (by a single goal, no less) on the play-offs at the end of their first NPL campaign, they came even closer to promotion the next season when the club reached the play-off final, but lost out to Chasetown, by the only goal, at The Scholars’ Ground. For the 2010-’11 season, Glapwell reached an agreement with Mansfield Town to play their home games out of the Stags’ Field Mill ground, but when Mansfield were locked out by the landlord at Christmas of that year, Glapwell returned to Hall Corner to complete the second half of their NPL Division One South season. However, they’d be forced to step down at the end of that season, despite a 9th-placed finish, due to ground-licensing issues and differences between the club and the local parish council.

Glapwell F.C.

For Season 2011-’12, Glappy found themselves back in the Central Midlands League Premier North, but having had a big overhaul both on and off the pitch, the season was a huge struggle and they finished second-bottom of the table. However, despite going through a number of managerial changes over the next few seasons, their league standing improved to see them become a rather steady mid-table outfit. Indeed, this re-consolidation allowed the club to gain the foothold to lead them to win the 2016 CML North title, achieving a club-record 17-game unbeaten run in the process and breaking the league’s goal-scoring record in a single season, eventually hitting a grand total of 148 in 28 games.

However, the club’s recovery hit the buffers at some speed, as they folded just weeks later. The club wouldn’t return to the senior football scene until 2020, when they returned to the Central Midlands League and were placed in the Division One North. They also fielded a development side in the Midlands Regional Alliance, although the senior side would see their return to competitive football affected somewhat by ‘you-know-what’, but they would eventually finish 2nd in the Division One North table and achieve promotion to the Premier North Division. The club’s first season back at this level has been a solid one, with the club securing a 5th place finish this year.

The game got going with the hosts’ #2, Max Denton, seeing an early effort well blocked by a Phoenix defender, but they would go ahead inside the first ten minutes, as #8, Ritchie Matthews netted a rebound, after #11 Thomas McTighe’s initial effort had come back off the crossbar. #3, Trent Jules, then saw a shot comfortably saved, as Glapwell continued to dominate the first half, before #9, Ben Copestake, doubled his side’s lead when he was played in by McTighe and the striker followed up his shot to make sure it crossed the line.

From the open seats

Tunnel vision

Match Action

Copestake then secured a first-half brace, when he met #10 Joel Moore’s headed flick. On this occasion, the latter had won a header and flicked it onto the forward, who duly slotted home. 3-0 and it could have been four just before the break, but the Phoenix stopper pulled off a solid stop to deny #10 Joel Moore’s low effort. Half-time, 3-0 and after a visit to the food hutch for a bag of crisps and being half-flashed by the Glapwell full-back on his way to, ahem, relieve himself, (and me saying it wasn’t the first time it’d happened to me!) we were soon back underway.

Again it was the home side who had the first chance, #15, Scott Manlove, firing over from said full-back’s ball to him, whilst dangerman Copestake shot straight at the ‘keeper soon after. Phoenix did eventually have a sight of the Glapwell goal, with #11 having two half-chances – neither of which truly troubled the home custodian, skipper Ross Etheridge. #8, Ritchie Matthews, then blazed over for the hosts and Manlove had the ball in the net around the hour mark, only for the goal to be chalked off – seemingly pretty randomly!

Match Action

Match Action

On the bench(es)

Matthews would eventually grab Glappy‘s fourth, though, as he met a Jules delivery to plant a header beyond the visiting ‘keeper, before Copestake fired narrowly wide, as he looked to secure a hat-trick against the bottom side. A header flew narrowly over by either #14, Logan Liggins, or Manlove, before a penalty was awarded for a rather blatant push and Copestake slotted home confidently for 5-0 and his hat-trick. Bar a half-chance that was well-blocked into stoppage-time, that was pretty much that and the three points remained at Hall Corner. Full time; 5-0.

Post-match, I headed through the gate behind the goal and into the neighbouring cricket club, as to watch a bit of Glapwell CC’s 2nd XI game. This was basically just to waste the twenty minutes or so I had until the bus was due to whisk me back into Hasland. It proved its worth too, with some good shots being unveiled by the visiting batsmen (I don’t use the dumbed down terminology ‘batters’. They’re men with bats. It’s akin to ‘maximum’. Stupid.)

Anyway, tangent rant over, the bus duly arrived and I was soon heading back to Hasland…well, I was, but then I remembered there was a pub in a village named Heath, a village I was passing by. I mean, it’d have been rude to miss it out now, wouldn’t it? As such, I hopped off and headed through someone’s garden (it was a public footpath, before anyone tries to get me arrested for trespassing!), and headed on through the village to the Elm Tree. A split pub/restaurant, I was a little confused upon entry by where I was supposed to go, but was directed by the pair of girls working the eatery part to the bar area, where I opted for a pint of 61 Deep (£3.75). Lovely stuff, as always and a chance to watch some of the final frame of Judd Trump vs Mark Williams at the Crucible, back in Sheffield.

GFC

A touch of cricket

The Elm Tree; Heath

Sadly, I would have to depart before the match reached its end and re-trace my steps back through Heath and to the bus stop for the next service back into Hasland. This went smoothly too (shocker, I know!) and I was soon hopping off right outside…well, Hasland Hops! I entered in to find a pretty narrow micropub, but it had a decent amount of options on the go, despite its seemingly small size. I opted to have a pint of the Neck Oil (£3.90), although I did end up having to rush it a little more than I originally planned, as I spotted a quicker way back homewards that I wasn’t about to spurn! I didn’t want an hour of next-to-nothingness back in Chesterfield!

I was soon being dropped back in the centre of Chesterfield, just as a bit of drizzle began to fall upon this part of Derbyshire. Luckily, I wasn’t too far away from the station, so wasn’t going to be too wet-through if the weather gods decided to try and pour cold water on my day (they’d wait for Monday for that; not that they needed to!). The train journey back went smooth as silk and I was home for just before 10pm. Not bad at all. The transportation system actually working? What’s going on?!

Hasland Park, earlier on.

Rounding off back in Hasland, with Hops!

So ends off April and we enter the final month of the season. I would say my 0-0 run is still intact but, at time of writing this, it had gone down the drain in as comprehensive fashion as you could possible imagine. More on that in a few days…if you want to join my depression via a schadenfreude-type feeling? I’ll leave you with that thought going forward!

As for this day out, well, it had been as good as it could be, really. The game was decent, if a little one-sided, whilst the ground is full of character, but desperate for a bit of upkeep. The pubs I visited were all pretty good too and I couldn’t even have complaints about the transport. Yes, I was clearly being led into a false sense of security ahead of my Bank Holiday Monday game and the horror that was to come along with it…