Ellistown - Terrace Road

Ellistown FC

Terrace Road Ground

1 Terrace Road

Ellistown

Leicestershire

LE67 1GD

07718 155556

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Ground Number: 1070
Tuesday 26th April 2022
Ellistown 0-0 Glenfield United

Leicestershire Senior League - Premier Division

ELLISTOWN FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established as United Collieries Football Club in 1993 by a merger of Bagworth Colliery and Ellistown Colliery. They immediately joined the Leicestershire Senior League, starting out in Divison 1. Despite only finishing 7th in 1997, they were promoted to the Premier Division, finishing bottom of the table in their debut season. However, they were not relegated and changed their name to Ellistown over the summer of 1998. After struggling for two more seasons, they were finally relegated in 2000 but would bounce back straight away as runners-up to Thurnby Rangers. This time, the results were better and they finished a credible 3rd in 2005. In 2008, the East Midlands Counties League was established and Ellistown were invited as a founder member. They found the going tough though, their best finish was 15th in 2011 and 2013. After the latter finish, they briefly merged with local club Ibstock United and this bought about a brief uplift with the side finishing 3rd and 4th in their first two seasons. However, results soon tailed off and after a bottom-place finish in 2017 and Ibstock having already started out on their own again, Ellistown did the same, removing Ibstock from their name. Since then, they've been playing back in the Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division with varying degrees of success.

 
The club enjoyed a good run in the FA Cup in 2014. They beat Studley 2-0 and Kirby Muxloe 1-0 before a remarkable 3-2 win over Hereford United who were having real financial issues. Their run ended in the 2nd Qualifying Round with a 7-1 humbling by Halesowen Town. In the FA Vase, their best run came in the same year as they beat Bromyard Town 4-0 and Hanley Town 2-1 before a narrow 2-1 defeat at Worksop Town in the 2nd Round. The village of Ellistown is in Leicestershire, around two miles from Coalville. It is named after Colonel Joseph Joel Ellis who died in 1885. The population is just over 2,000. It was once a colliery village but this closed in 1989 and is now a small industrial estate.

  
MY VISIT

It had been a fair while since I had done a groundhop with Anwar, in fact, looking back the last time I took him was when we went to Stone Old Alleynians on 22nd March. This was due mainly to the lack of options for us to do - having done over 250 grounds in the ten years that we have been hopping together, we were out of options. It wasn't helped by teams like Loughborough Dynamo being evasive due to playing in a league with a smaller number of teams. Thankfully, the clocks going forward and the evenings getting lighter opened up a whole load of options. There was Rayleigh Town but this didn't have any backup. Far better was the Leicestershire Senior League with a choice of seven games for us to pick from. I felt the best was Ellistown, a ground that has served higher up the pyramid. Anwar was agreeable and let me know straight away, rather than the usual of letting me know the day before the game.

 Since my last game on Wednesday, I'd drawn a blank when looking for a Friday night game. It was another visit to Adams Park on Saturday, my 906th of all time. It was a good day generally, meeting up with mates, visiting my usual pub, and having a nice pizza for lunch. The day was made even better with Wycombe Wanderers getting a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. In a game of few chances, Wycombe took theirs through Jordan Obita although Wednesday had the lion's share of possession. It was an unhealthy day, but I deserved it before a typically morale-sapping Sunday. It was also disappointing to see my local team Holmer Green relegated. I don't get up there as often as I might as they don't play anything other than the standard Saturday & Tuesday, despite lots of competition for spectators in the area. If they played Friday & Monday (subject to opponents agreeing) I'd be up there a lot more often. I think they are content just being a village club and getting their usual crowd and there's nothing wrong with that, even though they haven't updated their Twitter in over a month.

On the day of the game, it was the same as always. Day off, walk down town to get a few bits with only a haircut making it any different from any other Tuesday. I had lunch and spent a few hours at home before leaving at 3.30. The trip over to Anwar was fine and I was there at 4. He had bought his son Hitcham which put to bed any plans of a revisit to Weymouth on Saturday on hold as he'd decided to go to Burton v Wycombe. I'll now be looking for something else but the choice is quite sparse. The first 40 miles of our trip were on obscure country roads with us eventually getting on the M1 at Northampton. The journey went well from there and we were at Ellistown by 6. I paid £3 to get in and got some fresh pictures. We took a spot on the near side as the far one was quite chilly. With local side Coalville at home tonight and TV football on, the attendance was sparse and we had been the first three in the ground. Glenfield had travelled 13 miles for tonight's game.

 Ellistown were sat in 6th place in the table. They were unbeaten in ten games but had drawn their last two games 0-0 at FC Khalsa and against Desford. They'd also beaten FC Khalsa 5-2, won 2-0 at Thurnby Rangers and beaten Pro Chance Football Academy 3-0. When the two sides had met in the reverse fixture on 16th April, Ellistown won 3-2. Glenfield United were 9th in the table. They were in poor form having lost their latest game 3-2 at Blaby & Whetstone Athletic. They'd also lost 3-2 at Fleckney Athletic and 4-1 at Magna 73. On the positive side, they'd drawn 1-1 at Thurnby Rangers and baren FC Khalsa 2-0. The opening exchanges saw chances for both sides but it was pretty scrappy. Both sides defending really deep kept the chances at a premium and there were few chances in the final third. The game really livened up in the last 20 minutes but it was not to be and Ellistown had their third 0-0 in succession.

It hadn't been the best game for the 35 in attendance, nor had it been the worst. Glenfield were the better side on the ball but Ellistown were physically stronger and gave them little time to settle. Anwar and Hicham were both fasting for Ramadan and so we'd waited until after to eat. We made our way to Sultan Grill in nearby Ibstock and I had a half-pound chilli burger meal. It was very well cooked and enjoyable. We left at 9 and the journey home started in good spirits. With both Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday behind, it meant that Wycombe's playoff fate would be in our own hands. However, both mounted comebacks of sorts and we are now the team outside of the playoffs, albeit only on goal difference to Plymouth by two goals. At least the main commentary on Five Live was good, Manchester City beating Real Madrid in a 4-3 thriller. We then put Greatest Hits Radio on as usual. I dropped the lads off at 10.40. I needed petrol and for the sake of saving 40p on the tank, decided to fill up tonight rather than to wait until tomorrow. It would save time and get me back at 11.10. I stayed up for a while, as ever finding it tricky to drop off to sleep after my day off.

 

THE GROUND

TERRACE ROAD is an excellent ground for the level, having been used at a higher level. The vast majority of the pictures below are from Monday 14th October 2013 when I popped in on the way to Harrogate Railway Athletic v Northwich Victoria. The pitch is fully railed and concreted and it has basic floodlights, although these are rarely used. There are two stands - a small seated covered stand and a larger uncovered unit that can be used for seating or standing. In addition, on my third visit, I noticed a smaller covered standing area. There were no food or drink facilities that I could see on my visit, although they do have a clubhouse that probably opens for Saturday games.

2022 PICTURES