Match Information
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Avonmouth 2-2 Shirehampton
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When: Boxing Day Thursday 26th December 2024
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Kick-off: 1.30pm
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Where: King George V Recreation Ground, Avonmouth Road, Avonmouth, Gloucestershire BS11 9ND
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Competition: Western League Division One
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Attendance: 528
Local derbies on Boxing Day were a massive integral part of the football calendar when I was growing up. However these seem to have disappeared from the Premier League and the Football League in modern times.
Thankfully though, such neighbourly bragging rights contests continue to flourish in Non-League circles across our festive period. Accordingly, I carefully studied the fixtures to find my match of choice.
Ultimately, I opted for Avonmouth versus Shirehampton as it featured two teams based less than one mile apart as the crow flies. Avonmouth are newly promoted to Step 6 of the National League System this season in the Western League Division One.
They clinched the Gloucestershire County Football League Division One title during 2023/24 amassing an impressive 13 point margin. Avonmouth itself is a port and outer suburb of Bristol (eight miles out of the city centre) housing 3,400 residents.
Bearing the aforementioned ingredients in mind, I set off on a 300 mile round trip utilising the M25, M4 and M5 motorways.
Incidentally, opponents Shirehampton recently moved back to their traditional home venue after a spell in exile groundsharing thereby becoming another club on my list to visit.
Ground Description
Access by car is through a narrow lane almost hidden between two houses. In fact, despite having Google Maps blaring on Bluetooth speakers I inadvertently drove up and down past the entrance three times before recognising it was my intended destination!
The football amenities embrace a clubhouse and dressing rooms building plus two sections of covered standing spectator accommodation - including ‘The Craig Franklin Stand’ which is an unusual potting shed style structure.
A 50-seater grandstand will be installed shortly to attain stringent Step 6 grading requirements. There is also a smaller adjacent warm-up pitch where several youngsters enjoyed a kick-around throughout the afternoon.
It was interesting to spot an elevated section of the M5 looming large directly behind the top goal. I must have previously sped along that section hundreds of times without realising a football ground lay underneath!
Programme Details
The superb 36 page effort was available online or in printed format.
Contents incorporated a welcome column, respective histories of both Avonmouth FC and Shirehampton FC, manager’s viewpoint, a football quiz, league table, Avonmouth player pen pictures, fixtures & results, news from around the Western League, a match report, reserves & ‘A’ team round-up and the matchday line-ups.
The People
Avonmouth are an incredibly friendly club and I lost count of the number of folk who approached me for a chat. They were all quite rightly very proud of rapid progress being made on and off the pitch at King George V Recreation Ground.
Indeed, I heard someone excitedly say moments prior to kick-off: “It is a huge occasion for us today. We’ve been in Shirehampton’s shadow over the years. But now we are playing them at the same level. So if we can win this game in front of a big crowd, it will be the perfect Christmas present!”
The Match
With 14th hosting 11th in the Western League Division One rankings, anyone possessing good football betting knowledge in the online betting stakes would have expected a tight encounter.
The preceding home attendance here was 85 therefore I was staggered to be part of a bumper 528 crowd for the local derby.
Supporters stood four deep against the pitch perimeter barriers in front of the clubhouse. Repeated chants of “SHY-ERR…SHY-ERR” emanated from a noisy contingent of away fans. The action was suitably pulsating involving a catalogue of meaty challenges.
Avonmouth’s scorers were Charlie Aldom (38 mins) and Josh Pearce (67 minutes) while the two Shirehampton equalisers came via Ben Adam (62 minutes) and Ciaran Greening (90 mins). Overall the really entertaining draw was a fair result.
Football grounds visited: 2,613.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Tony Incenzo*
