Otley Town FC

 A beautiful summers evening for a visit to another West Yorkshire League side, one that I'd been trying to do for a long time, having already acquired a pin badge from ebay. We made a day of it, having fish and chips in the excellent Wharfe chip shop restaurant, before a walk down to the river and then back into town. I had some brilliant raspberries from the fruit shop in town before we went in Whitakers pub and just caught last orders for the food, as a side note, everywhere in Otley either closes early afternoon or stops serving food after 4pm, it's all catered for senior citizens, who all go home at 1pm. I had a beautiful homemade muligatawny soup with warm crusty bread and we both had half a lager.

We made our way to the ground in good time, expecting a 1830 kick off, the opposition from Harrogate being Beckwithshaw FC. I'm not sure of the league they are in but my good friend Marc 'Wal' Watson used to be involved with them in some kind of coaching capacity many years ago. I think they are possibly in the York League. For reasons unknown, the kick off was delayed until 1900.

The game eventually got going, with the bar doing a roaring trade in the searing heat, Otley were ahead in the fifth minute catching Beckwithshaw 3 on 2 at the back and the ball was squared for a simple finish for the striker, being unmarked. 

Beckwithshaw had an excellent corner taker and it was from one of these they immediately equalised, from right underneath the crossbar for a tap in. Just before the break in the 40th minute, Otley were given a suspect free kick, with the ref 50 yards away, he gave it for shirt pulling. A good delivery in caused chaos and was eventually bundled over the line for an own goal. 

Straight from kick off, the Otley number 9 skipped around numerous challenges and finished from a central position, Otley were beginning to show dominance, a fairly equal first half but the gulf in class really showed this half, with Beckwithshaw struggling to have any momentum or possession. The fourth goal came when the number 2 marauded forward and crossed for the number 9 to bury another. Then with less than 10 minutes left, a soft floated ball bounced into the net for 5-1 and that's how the game finished. 

As a side note I heard several funny conversations about Otleys Saturday opposition Farsley Celtic, with many mutterings about David Stockdale and who he played for, I heard Middlesbrough mentioned, he is in fact a product of the York City academy and don't think he ever represented Boro. By the sounds of it they will get a big crowd with him being possibly the biggest celebrity to ever visit Otley and maybe the most exciting thing that has happened there for years! I also heard someone saying how he had visited Spofforth Castle earlier in the day and been massively disappointed! For anyone that doesn't know, it is little more than a pile of rubble, not something to travel 15 or 20 miles from Otley for. 

The ground has a perimeter fence albeit it is a bit low down. There is a bar with toilet facilities and a good sized car park.