Date: 12th October 2024
Location: Gornal, West Midlands
Ground: Garden Walk
Location: Gornal, West Midlands
Ground: Garden Walk
My seventh new ground of 2024 was on Saturday 12th October at Garden Walk in Gornal, West Midlands. The game was Gornal Athletic vs. Birstall United in Midland League Division One.
Garden Walk is situated in a built-up residential area down a narrow path between housing. It is surrounded by housing on all sides and is three miles south-west of the nearest railway station at Tipton. The venue has been home to the club for over 70 years but they have announced they will be leaving at the end of the 2024/25 season to move to a new location at Burton Road.
The ground is a classic old venue but understandable why the club is moving given the amount of work that would be required to bring it up to modern standards. The main side of the ground is on the north-west side of Garden Walk. The entrance leads into a big concrete terrace which tapers from north to south peaking at 26 levels of concrete standing. It is mostly uncovered with a couple of covered areas at the top with a food outlet under one of them. Towards the southern end an awkward looking area of seating has been bolted on with 52 seats spread across four rows. The two dugouts are at the bottom of this stand while there is a clubhouse up the top by the entrance.
The only other stand is on the southern-eastern side - this stand takes up around a third of the length, running from just before the north of the halfway line down towards the southern end. It is a covered stand with a mixture of concrete standing and two rows of seating adding another 96 seats to the ground capacity. There is a walkway behind the seating so spectators can walk through without getting in the way of those in front. The rest of the ground is uncovered standing. The north-east end has paving slabs for the whole length with a grass bank behind which is not designed to be used for viewing. Meanwhile the south-west end just has a flat grass area behind a strip of hard standing.
The game was a mid-table clash between Gornal Athletic and Birstall United. The home side opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when Chad Carter played a ball through to Luke Sidaway and he slotted past the keeper. Into the second half it was Birstall who had the better of things initially. In the 56th minute a shot was deflected onto the bar and the rebound was blocked on the line. Despite appeals for a goal the linesman was unmoved. A few minutes later the visitors were reduced to ten men when Paul Pallett saw red for a mistimed tackle on Ben Worthington just outside the area. Gornal could have wrapped things up with ten minutes of normal time to go when the ball was worked from left to right and found Sidaway. The home attacker could not notch up his second of the afternoon though as he got the ball stuck under his feet and the chance was gone. Just when it looked like the home side had secured three points a soft penalty was awarded in the 93rd minute for a trip on the edge of the box. Ryan Seal stepped up and struck his penalty well to the bottom right of the goal. Indeed, the away side almost grabbed all three points at the death as a shot from the left was well saved by the Gornal keeper.
Result: Gornal Athletic 1-1 Birstall United
Division: Midland League Division One
Attendance: 170
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