Arnold Town - Eagle Valley

Arnold Town FC

Eagle Valley

Oxton Road

Arnold

Nottingham

Nottinghamshire

NG5 8PS

Official Website

Twitter

Ground Number: 1569

Saturday 25th July 2026

Arnold Town - Notts County

Friendly

ARNOLD TOWN FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

Arnold Town was formed in 1989 by a merger of Arnold and Arnold, adopting the yellow of Arnold and the blue of Kingswell as club colours. The more successful of these, Arnold can trace their history back to 1928 and can claim two FA Cup 1st Round appearances and the 1986 Northern Counties East League title to their name. This was the club they took over from, starting in the Central Midlands League Supreme Division, which they won in 1993, followed by the NCEL D1 title the following year. Eighteen seasons were spent in the NCEL Premier, the highlight being a runner-up spot to Lincoln United in their debut season. Financial issues led to a ten-point deduction and relegation to the East Midlands Counties League in 2013, and then a bottom-placed finish here in 2019 after years of struggle led to relegation to the Central Midlands League. It has been all lower-half finishes in the Premier South division until they switched to the Notts Senior League.

Since the merger, the new club's best progress has been to the 4th Qualifying Round in 2002. They beat RC Warwick, Biddulph Victoria and Nantwich Town before a 1-0 defeat at Redditch United. They can also count two FA Vase 5th Round appearances to their name. Local honours include five Notts Senior Cups and the Wakefield Cup in 1990. The most famous players to turn out for Arnold Town are Jason Lee and Nigel Jemson, although there are several more Nottingham Forest links. The market town of Arnold has a population of around 40,000. Arnold was referred to as "Ernehale" in the Domesday Book of 1086. This name meant 'place frequented by eagles' or 'the valley of eagles'. It has a history of brewing and knitting.

MY VISIT

On this Saturday, I was really struggling to find a game. Anything within a reasonable distance was being played at a school or a neutral ground; the trains were their usual rip-off self and even the coaches, well, National Express, had hiked their prices due to the school holidays. But then I spotted that Arnold Town were playing Notts County, a decent new ground and not far from Nottingham. I checked out the Flixbus prices, and although times were not perfect, they were reasonable. The fare was a bargain at £11, and getting to Finchley Road and around Nottingham were reasonable too. There was also the opportunity to get in a few Spoons with the £6.90 ticket for unlimited travel in Nottingham on trams and buses. All in all, it seemed like a great option, and I was pleased to get such a decent deal when I booked on Tuesday evening.

After getting home on Sunday, I only had a couple of hours to relax before bed, and I really needed a good night's sleep. I finished off my bottle of cider whilst catching up and watching the first half of the World Cup Final. There was a daft half-time show, with Wayne Rooney having a rare moment of insight by calling it 'crap' whilst the other pundits tried to find positives. It meant that the second half kicked off at 9.25 and within ten minutes I fancied sleep. I was pleased when I woke up at 3.50 to find out that Spain had won. When I got to work, I found out that I'd left my clocking-in card at home as I'd taken it out of my wallet for last week's trip to Ireland. Luckily, my manager was super-helpful in clocking me in manually, and although I was feeling a bit rusty, it was not all bad to be back into a routine. I had a nice walk in the afternoon, and in the evening, I started looking ahead. Colin was desperate for me to take him to Farnham Town v Wycombe Wanderers Academy, but it looked a right pain to park, and it was a ten-mile detour after to drop him off. After his self-centred antics lately, I decided I couldn't be bothered and instead stayed local at Amersham Town v Everett Rovers, a late reversal that kicked off at 7.30, which was great for work. There was sad news that Kevin Keegan had died of stomach cancer; whilst a disappointment as England manager, his Newcastle teams were brilliant. The evil of cancer picking off another victim, and sadly there are too many losses against this nasty disease.

It was a great 9.5-hour sleep on my day off. I did my usual walk to Wycombe and back in the morning, getting ten miles in my legs and doing some shopping. The afternoon was spent updating the Step 7 leagues on my blog, a bigger undertaking than I expected. In the evening, I went up to Amersham Town; the free entry was good for balancing the books after some expensive trips lately. It was a decent game too; Amersham, who had only avoided relegation by reprieve last season, won 5-1 against Everett Rovers. The only downside was the five-mile, twenty-minute diversion after giving Colin a lift home, mainly due to road closures. Nothing but headaches with that lad!. It took me ages to get to sleep as I'd woken up so late, but I was OK the next morning. It was an easy day at work in any case, and in the afternoon, I did more work on my blog, plus planning upcoming trips. I finished the Scottish Leagues on Thursday, as well as looking at FA Cup options for two weeks. Beset by rip-off train fares, there was not much choice in the value department. Carlisle & Penrith were not so bad, but were long days out. Eventually I plumped for Kirkley & Pakefield v Little Oakley as it ticked most boxes. Ordering the tickets on Friday morning due to discounts, I took the chance to go home early due to it being quiet. The afternoon was spent walking to Spoons and back, a couple of pints with fish and chips and a cheeky bottle of vintage cider on the way home. When I arrived home, I found my Mum had outdone me thanks to the bad influence of my Uncle Alan, who is great company for a boozing session. Not as young as he used to be, I heard he went to bed when he got back home after a lift from my Aunt.

It had been a boozier-than-intended night; originally, I was gonna stay sober as I had drinks last Sunday and I try to stick to two days a week drinking. But I decided that Sunday was part of my holiday and that the walk to town and back did me good. I was in bed at 9 and, as a consequence, woke up at my normal work time. I had two hours of trying to nap with limited luck before my alarm went off at 5.50. I freshened up, got dressed, and had breakfast before leaving at 6.25, getting my routine done far more quickly than I would for work. I drove to Amersham and parked up, arriving in good time for my 06:52 Metropolitan Line train to Finchley Road. I was at the stop 25 minutes in advance; sadly the local Aldi didn't open until 8, so I just waited on the pavement along with a load of people with suitcases. It was full to the brim, not surprising seeing that it was £11 return. The cheapest train I could find for two weeks' time came in at £63. The person next to me had broad shoulders, so it was tight for space. Something I'm used to with Colin but not as bad as a very uncomfortable trip to Scotland with PuffPuff in 2019 where I got half a seat.

 

It arrived ten minutes early, then it was ten minutes walk to the Lloyd's Number 1 bar, the only remaining Spoons I needed in Nottingham. It was busy due to some kind of Pride march going on, so service wasn't the quickest. It was then to the Canalhouse, where I met Paul, AKA Non League Rover. Sadly, my choice of Three Cats cider was sold out, so I made do with a pint of Cold River to be sociable and catch up. I then left and went to the Vat and Fiddle; here I struck gold with a pint of Seventh Cider. Both beverage and drink were sublime. Finally, it was a 20-minute walk to the bus stop I needed, past Pride folk having a great time. Nottingham had been a fantastic city, but I was off to the outskirts, namely Sherwood. The Samuel Hall was an excellent Spoons for a swift pint of Black Dragon. The Sherwood Arrow hourly schedule limited my chances of a quick dash to the ground and I had to be on the ball. I was, but the Sherwood Arrow drove straight past as they were behind schedule. Instead, it was the Pronto towards Chesterfield which dropped me off 25 minutes from the ground. After a fair walk, I was there at 2.25. Chips were £3, entry £3 and a programme was £1-50. All fairly priced, I met up with Paul in the ground who has travel problems of his own.

 

There were team photos and a minutes silence for a former assistant manager before the game kicked off a couple of minutes late. It was a fairly tepid first half with me struggling to stay awake. The very dry pitch didn't help. Notts County took the lead with a neat finish from a well-worked move on 43, Joe Bryan the scorer. The second half started in the same manner. Bryan got his second on 48 minutes with a lob to make it 2-0. Some poor communication in defence allowed Notts County to grab a scrappy third on 66 minutes. There was a sending-off apiece for a fairly tame scuffle four minutes from time. In injury time, the Arnold #18 scored with a neat finish to make it 3-1 just as I was leaving to get my bus. It was a fair result, and I was well on time for my connection back south. It had been a good day; the only negative was the ropey transport connections to the ground. I noted that Nottingham offered a huge range of destinations for the capped bus fare and bore this in mind for the future. Taco Bell and Tesco were utilised for food and drink on the way back, and I was at Broadmarsh bus station half an hour before my coach.

THE GROUND 

EAGLE VALLEY is a smart and functional stadium that could probably cope with step 4 football. Two small metal stands give 100 seats and 100 standing places, both under cover. The bar and food facilities offer a reasonable range at a fair price. The only bad thing is the location; with the nearest bus stop only offering an hourly service, the nearest regular bus stop is a half-hour walk away.

Worksop Town - Sandy Lane

Worksop Town FC

Windsor Food Service Stadium
Babbage Way
Sandy Lane
Worksop
S80 1UJ

07962 346514
Official Website
Twitter

Ground Number: 437
Sunday 23rd November 2014
Worksop Town 2-1 Ellistown & Ibstock
FA Vase 2nd Round





WORKSOP TOWN - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club's official date of formation is 1861, although this is disputed, with the earliest evidence of football being played in Worksop in 1875, and the first time the Worksop Town name was used was in 1882. Early days were spent in local Sheffield leagues before the club settled in the Midland League. A few 3rd place finishes were achieved before and after their title win in 1922. The club left the Midland League in 1930 and briefly folded before returning to local Sheffield football and then the Yorkshire League for four seasons from 1935 until 1939.

World War 2 put a stop to football, and Worksop Town would disband during the hostilities, reforming in 1950 and joining the Midland League. The club won its second title in 1966 and was a founder member of the Northern Premier League. They only stayed for one season, though, finishing bottom and returning to the Midland League. A third Midland League title was won in 1973 before Worksop rejoined the NPL a year later. This time, 7th was as good as it got. When a second tier was added in 1987, Worksop lasted two seasons in the Premier Division before going down to Division 1 in 1989.

In 1998, they were promoted back to the Premier Division as runners-up behind Whitby Town. Finishes were better this time, and when the Conference North was introduced, Worksop made the cut. They lasted for three seasons before relegation. They returned to the NPL for seven seasons, finishing as high as 4th in 2014. However, the owner decided to withdraw funding and the club dropped down to the NCEL Premier. It had been a tricky few years for the club as disputes with the landlord forced them to groundshare. Finishes were good here, and they were promoted back to the NPL as champions in 2019 and then won Division 1 East in 2023. Following a 5th-place finish in 2024, they finished 2nd in 2025 and beat Guiseley and Ashton United in the playoffs to win promotion to the National League North.

Worksop Town's best FA Cup campaign came during the 1955/56 season. They fought through the qualifying Rounds and then beat Bradford City in a 2nd Round replay before losing 1-0 at Swindon Town in the 3rd Round. They've twice reached the FA Trophy quarter-finals and also the FA Vase 4th Round during the 2014/15 season. In terms of regional competitions, Worksop have won the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup 16 times, two Northern Premier League President's Cups, the Northern Premier League Chairman's Cup in 2002 and the Northern Counties East League League Cup in 2019.

Worksop initially played at two different grounds on Netherton Road before moving, along with the cricket club, to Bridge Meadow, also known as Newcastle Avenue, in 1891. This had separate cricket and football pitches along with a quarter-mile track. In 1901, it moved across the River Ryton to Central Avenue, where it stayed until 1988, when it was forced to move and play in Gainsborough. It returned to its home town in 1992 when a new ground was built on Sandy Lane. It lost ownership of Sandy Lane in 2005 and again had to groundshare elsewhere before returning to Sandy Lane in 2011, this time as tenants of Worksop Parramore. The nomadic Parramore were originally based in Sheffield and disbanded in 2013 to join forces with Handsworth FC.

MY FIRST VISIT

I'd wanted to go to Worksop Town for a while, and had indeed planned to go last year on the way home from up north. But an error in my Sat Nav file directed me a lot further south to their groundshare at Hucknall Town. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise - I ended up at Matlock Town, which was a cracking ground, and the person that I was supposed to meet could not make the game anyway as work called him away at the last minute. It was a shame that I would never get to see last season's side which scored (and conceded) so many goals and had just missed out on the playoffs. But it wasn't to be, and after financial issues in the summer, they were relegated to the Northern Counties East League, which was my favourite of the step 5 leagues. I first heard about this FA Vase game through another mate, Luke, who is a Chesterfield fan who lives in Worksop told me about it, and as my parents would be away that week, I said yes to it. I knew it would be tight getting out of work, and it would cost a fair bit in petrol, but then fellow groundhopper Anwar said he would come with me. Sadly he couldn't make it after all as he had a load of bills come in at the same time, and also he was ill. Had it not been for me meeting a mate, I'd have given it the elbow, but I had given my word, and I wasn't backing out.



On the day of the game, I had an unusually busy day at work for a Sunday, which was really the last thing I needed. I'd been checking Twitter every now and then, as well as the BBC weather site, as I was a bit concerned about being on due to the rain. In the end, I finished at 11 and had a quick 15-minute break to get ready before leaving at 11.15. I had one last check, and happy that the game would go ahead, I set off up north. With an ETA of 13:56, I made good time, and the journey was good apart from having to go slowly through the extensive roadworks on the M1. I arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule at 1.45, parking as directed by the friendly steward. After paying a very reasonable £5 for entry and £1 for an excellent programme, I made my way to the club shop. This little cavern of delights was one of the main reasons I wanted to come here, with a huge range of programmes and lots of other stuff. Though they didn't have any of the ones that I needed, I still got a couple of old 'Non-League Digest' magazines, plus a Worksop Town pen. Sadly, shops like this are a dying breed, as clubs go towards a more profitable leisurewear-only operation, or indeed not bothering at all.
As I was coming out of the shop, I bumped into Luke, and we got a picture together and chatted about football and had a good catch-up. I was hungry by then and so went to the tea bar. I got a decent sausage roll and chips, which filled me up and cost me only £2.50. Normally I would have a pint too, but I'd had quite a lot over the past couple of days, so I gave it a miss. I was gonna go to a nice-looking pub in town called 'The Mallard ', but my later-than-wanted arrival put pay to this. I stood behind the goal that Worksop were attacking with Luke and a few other people he knew to watch the game. You can see the report from the Worksop Town website below. 

After the game, I said my goodbyes and made my way back to the car. As I was about to drive off, I saw my mate and fellow groundhopper Tony as he was parked in front of me, and we said a brief hello and goodbye as we left for home. For me, it was a different route home. I'd come up the M40, M42 and M1 on the way up, but as I was going back home it took me down the A1. It was frustrating at first as both lanes slowed right down when lorries got in the 'fast' lane and brought everything down to 50MPH just so they could go a fraction faster than their fellow trucker. Soon enough it opened up to more lanes once we got into Hertfordshire and the M25 was even well behaved for once. I got in at 7.45, and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching TV before going to sleep at 11PM.

MY SECOND VISIT

1-1 v Barnsley, Friendly, 19/07/26

I was always keen to revisit clubs that I had seen in my early hopping days, with Worksop being as far back as 2014; this applied here. There was also the fact that I'd not been to the Wetherspoons yet. I did try and get Colin to do a Friday night at St Joseph's Rockware, a few hundred yards away, but he was busy elsewhere. He was far keener to do Worksop Town as they played in the National League North and this opportunity on the way back from our Lake District trip was almost perfect. I did briefly consider doing Fryston instead, but given that I'd had one failed visit due to opposition withdrawal, I thought this was a safer bet for a game.

After uploading my blog in Kendal Wetherspoons, it was a final pint of Old Rosie and some Shawarma chips before the walk back to the campsite with Colin. He borrowed plenty off of me having come ill prepared, but we did watch a few YouTube videos before the England v France game. Shockingly, England led our Gallic neighbours 4-0 at the break, which was bonkers given the circumstances. I went to sleep with the score 4-2, and when I woke up at 4, I found that England had won 6-4, remarkable. After watching YouTube for a while, I went back to sleep for an hour and got up at 7. After getting changed, having a shower and packing up, we were away at 8.15. We stopped at Walkden Wetherspoons for breakfast and a soft drink. From there I needed petrol, then it was a far longer journey to Worksop than I'd have liked. Problems on the M62 took us cross-country. We got to the ground at 11.55 and walked to the Liquorice Gardens Wetherspoons. Shawarma Wrap, chips and Aspalls were £9.14. It was a pleasant, quiet pub and had a nice bit about Graham Taylor, who was born in the town, on display.

From there, it was a 15-minute walk back to the ground. I paid £10 to get in. It was all Worksop first half, but they didn't really test the keeper, and it was 0-0 at the break. Just as it looked as if it might be a 0-0, Liam Waldock put a screamer into the top corner from outside the area. They also hit the post with just over ten minutes to go. Having not had much in the way of attack, Barnsley equalised on 84 minutes when a cross from the right was poked home. Although the ground had improved, I'd not enjoyed my revisit as much as the first time. Too hot and too rushed (totally not Worksop's fault), as well as a poor game in comparison. The club shop was amazing still, but cash only. Whereas that was common on my first visit, it's not so nowadays. Maybe it was good for my bank balance, as I would have been like a kid in a sweet shop. It was a testing journey home with diversions; to cap it all, Colin left his tablets in my car, and I had an extra half hour added to my journey. A complete pain, and I can't find any way to get the government to pay me carers allowance for all the extra work he causes me.

THE GROUND

SANDY LANE is one of the better grounds at step 5, thanks to them being in the NPL last season. It's actually owned by the other Worksop team Handsworth Parramore, who also play in the NCEL Premier, though it was Town's ground originally. The main stand holds around 300, whilst there is more seating in the form of metal stands behind one goal and a couple along one side near the dugouts. As for covered terracing, there is s stand that holds around 250, whilst the seats total 1000. The ground holds around 3000 in all. The club shop and tea bar are great, whilst there is also a bar at the ground. The town is walkable, but sadly I didn't get to check it out. 

2026 GROUND PHOTOS