Rainworth 1-2 Grantham Town (Northern Premier League South)

The Trent 141 bus leaves Nottingham Victoria at half past the hour and takes about one hour to get to Rainworth. Ask the driver for the Kirklington Road stop. Its just a five minute walk to the ground. Buses return from the stop on the opposite side at quarter past the hour, the last one being 10.15pm.


The ground is quite basic for this level of football. Hard standing surrounds the pitch along with white metal fencing and floodlights.On the Kirklington Road side there is covered standing which spans the halfway line up to the eighteen yard areas. On the opposite side is a small covered seating stand which again spans the halfway line but extends about 25 yards either side. There is only hard standing behind the far goal and also behind the goal where the clubhouse and changing rooms are located.


Admission £7 Adult, £4 Concessions. Programme £1.50 (excellent, lots of information)
Choice of hot pies. pasties etc £1.50, good quality. Tea/Coffee 60p.


Rainworth boasted in their programme they had the third best defensive record in their Division, but five minutes into the game they were one nil down. A free kick was conceded midway into the Rainworth half close to the touchline. It was crossed into the Rainworth area just outside the six yard box, nobody got their head to the ball and it fell to the feet of Rhys Lewis who easily scored. The visitors were playing some good football, despite the windy conditions, and Lee Potts, Sam Saunders and Gio Carchedi were combining well down the left flank. Rainworth found it difficult to get a foothold in the game in the early stages but a solo goal from Ryan Goward brought Rainworth level on twenty minutes. After beating a player close to the touchline he sidestepped a defender and cut inside the area and sent in a superb curling shot into the top corner of the net.


The game was played at a fast pace and Gio Carchedi was causing endless problems for the hard worked Rainworth defence. Alessandro Barcherini the home goalkeeper pulled off a great save from Carchedi when he tipped over a ball heading for the top corner of the net. The windy conditions were getting worse in the second half and rather than being caught in possession both sides were booting hopeful long balls up to their forwards. Rainworth thought they had took the lead two minutes into the second half, a slick move along the right wing ended with a cross to the far post where Ben Spargo swept the ball into the net. Unluckily for Rainworth the linesman had his flag up for offside. After twenty minutes of pinball football, Grantham thumped a high ball over the Rainworth defence for Paul Grimes. He got to the ball first and played the ball over the advancing Rainworth keeper and into the net. Grantham were 2-1 up and Rainworth's toothless attack never really threatened their lead in the rest of the game. FT 1-2