Ground: Hunters Stadium (Capacity unknown) Location: Pontefract, England Ticket price: £8 adult £5 concession. As of 2023, you need to pay by cash in order to get in.
Pontefract Collieries is accessible by bus or train. I used the 140 bus which goes from Pontefract -> Castleford -> Leeds, though the 141 should also take you to where you need to get off (just after the roundabout near the New College). The Pontefract Tanshelf station is also located near the ground and it's a rough 5-10 minute walk from either the bus stop or the train station.
Ponte Colls (which is what the team are colloquially referred to as) is a real community club, founded in 1958, they are managed by former striker Craig Rouse and a small but vocal and dedicated following, with many of the fans speaking of various away trips they have made to follow the Colls up and around the Yorkshire district and beyond. The club does have a strange system whereby if you have to buy anything by card, you have to do so at the bar and then bring the receipt back to the place of purchase. I was strongly recommended to try the chips (£2.30) but was left slightly underwhelmed.
The Colls boasted an international in their ranks which is somewhat of a rarity in the 8th tier of English football. Adam Priestley, the club's focal point in attack, has been, at the time of writing, capped 18 times by Gibraltar, scoring once in a Nations League game against Armenia. Priestley's entire career has been based in the lower leagues for various clubs in Yorkshire and after watching him play, you can see why he's such a highly regarded player. Priestley is a player who can pick out a pass, possesses a decent first touch and looks to keep up the momentum in offense with quick layoffs and slick movement to keep defenders guessing. His holdup play let him down on a number of occasions against Bridlington Town, but whenever he received the ball to feet, he always looked to make something happen.
Ponte Colls looked to use wide men Hinsley and Dunn to drive the ball forward and set up aggressively, playing a high line to counter Bridlington Town's threat from long balls. The coastal club did look to play this kind of game, playing long balls down the channels which were thwarted by the likes of Jack Sheppard, who didn't let Town's number 9 Dennison get a sniff of the ball all game and Lloyd Allinson, whose aggressive positioning out of his area baited the direct pass, which he was able to mop up on several occasions.
Ponte Colls took the lead in the 27th minute; a good floated ball from Jack Greenhough finding Mikey Dunn in the area, his glancing header trickling into James Hitchcock's far post. Dunn then threatened again minutes later, twisting and turning like an eel tangled in a fishing net, forcing a splendid save from the Bridlington keeper.
The majority of the game was a scrappy affair, with both teams trying to take advantage of the poor pitch conditions, and scrappy is the best term to use to describe Bridlington Town's equaliser. A low ball drilled into the box was met with the crack of the boot from Mackenzie Watts. His effort was initially blocked but the Bridlington Town man knocked in the rebound from close range. It was Bridlington Town's only real effort of the game, with Ponte Colls having a couple of half-chances throughout, but a draw was probably a fair reflection of the game. Not surprising considering this was a game contested between the teams that sat 10th and 11th in the table prior to the game.
The Ponte Colls fans were in good swansong, belting, "Ole, ole, ole, ole. Ponte! Ponte!" throughout the game. There was also an enormous cheer when one of the fans announced that Leeds United had beaten Wolves 4-2. Perhaps a better game, but one lacking in cue-ball cut Gibraltan strikers and mediocre fries.
Pontefract Collieries 1-1 Bridlington Town (18/03/2023)
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