12noon 3 January 2026
Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior League, Division Two
Youdan 1 Elsecar Main 4 (att 12)
Sometimes it can be hard to decide whether or not a 'new' football ground really is a new ground. There are groundhoppers who count redeveloped stadiums, such as Wembley, AFC Bournemouth or Gloucester City, as new 'ticks', but I tend not to.
On the other hand the Cardiff City Stadium overlaps part of what was the playing area of the demolished Leckwith Stadium, and Spurs' new home may cover a tiny fraction of the former White Hart Lane pitch, and I counted both of those as new.
I'd been undecided about the Steel City Stadium in Sheffield, built as part of the Olympic Legacy Park on the site of what was the Don Valley Stadium. I visited Don Valley just once, for a Sheffield FC home game in 1991 when a crowd of less than 200 was lost among 25,000 seats.
The stadium was built for that year's World Student Games, but became something of a white elephant. I doubt the same fate will befall the Steel City Stadium, which has a more modest capacity and, I assume, much lower maintenance costs.
It's currently home to three clubs playing senior Saturday football, which means kick offs are often staggered to accommodate more than one game on the artificial surface.
I'm not aware of any scheduled afternoon game today, but it suited me that Youdan stuck with what is their regular midday kick off for the visit of Elsecar Main.
Youdan are struggling in the league, and so it was no surprise that they soon found themselves 2-0 down. But Elsecar failed to build on their bright start and the home side grew into the game, deservedly getting a goal back before half time.
They were always second best though. A third away goal, which looked offside and came while Youdan had a player serving time in the 'sin bin', was decisive. A late fourth goal was icing on the cake for Elsecar Main.
The Steel City Stadium may lack the scale of the Don Valley Stadium but it is a good venue. A stand provides a capacity of more than 2,000, and is closer to being filled when Barnsley FC's women's team or Sheffield Eagles rugby league side play here than for Youdan matches. Spectators who don't want to sit can access all four sides of the pitch.
I decided it was sufficiently different to the Don Valley Stadium to count it as my 5,637th football ground, rather than a revisit to my 698th.
After this match I headed to Doncaster, but was denied my 5,638th ground by a combination of a poorly-maintained artificial pitch and a very cautious referee, who eventually postponed the Doncaster and District FA Cup semi-final between Swinton Athletic and AFC Bentley 30 minutes after it was due to have started.
Comments
Post a Comment