Ground #389 - Muglet Lane

Date: 5th August 2023
Location: Maltby, South Yorkshire
Ground: Muglet Lane

My fourteenth new ground of 2023 was on Saturday 5th August at Muglet Lane in Maltby, South Yorkshire. The game was Maltby Main vs. Pinchbeck United in the F.A. Cup Extra Preliminary Qualifying Round.

Muglet Lane is on the south-east edge of Maltby and the football ground forms part of a complex with three football pitches and one cricket pitch. The complex is bordered by housing on three sides with allotments and then open fields to the southern side. The ground is several miles from a railway station with the most convenient bus connections towards Rotherham and Sheffield stations. 

The southern side of the ground has the car park and a basic entrance to the venue. There is a large grass area behind the goal with a strip of concrete providing hard standing. The south-east corner has a club building which doubles for the cricket club with a balcony facing the cricket pitch. This structure contains the dressing rooms and a snack outlet. The cricket field itself is directly behind the eastern flank of the pitch which is uncovered standing for spectators to face either direction for football or cricket.

The northern end is also uncovered standing with a small amount of grass behind. The western side is the main side of the ground - it has a covered two-level concrete standing area towards the southern end. Working northwards then sees you pass the home dugouts, then a seated stand with 4 rows of benches and then the away dugout. The positioning of the two dugouts mean sight lines from the stands are mostly obscured for one goal or the other.

The match was an F.A. Cup Extra Preliminary Qualifying Round tie between Northern Counties East League Premier Division side Maltby Main and United Counties League Premier Division North side Pinchbeck United. The first half was an even but scrappy one with few chances. The best opportunity for the hosts came mid-way through the half when Khalid Suleiman's neat run past a defender on the right saw him in on goal but he shot straight at the keeper. The visitors had a similar chance five minutes before the break as Logan Tate went one-on-one with the keeper but the home shotstopper stuck out a hand to save. Just when it looked as if the sides were going into the break level Pinchbeck's Joe Melson went close with a dipping free-kick that was touched over by Levi Owen. From the resulting corner Melson crossed into the middle and Owen Sherrif headed down through a number of bodies and into the net. The Maltby manager was not happy at conceding in injury time and delivered a halftime tongue lashing that could be heard from outside the dressing room. His team reacted immediately to this by equalising less than a minute after the restart when Matt Ord drilled a great 25-yard free-kick low past the keeper. Any excitement this delivered was short-lived as what followed was a really poor spectacle of a 2nd half punctuated by various stoppages for injuries to Pinchbeck players. The visitors had settled for a replay well before the end of the ninety with much of the final stages played down Pinchbeck's left wing. The closest Maltby came was in the 78th minute when a corner was headed towards goal by Sam Ackroyd and deflected behind off a defender's thigh. With the scores level a replay was confirmed with Maltby Main coming back from Lincolnshire with a 3-1 win and passage to the next round.

Result: Maltby Main 1-1 Pinchbeck United

Competition: F.A. Cup

Attendance: 113