Salts

I had a choice of two games within a mile of home tonight as both Baildon Trinity Athletic and Salts FC were playing evening home games. I don't get much of a chance to watch either, as on Saturdays I'm often at a game higher up the pyramid and mid-week fixtures are usually restricted to the first and last month of the season given the lack of floodlights.

As locals will easily identify from the picture, I chose Salts tonight. They play in the Premier Division of the West Riding County Amateur Football League, level 11 in the pyramid, and a feeder for the Northern Counties East League. They are an up and coming club, and are slowly developing the infrastructure at the Salts Sports Ground where they are co-located with the cricket club, tennis club etc. in the thin strip of land that lies between the River Aire and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal on the edge of Saltaire. Any club at this level that produces a matchday programme is clearly ambitious.

Tonight's visitors were Route One Rovers, a Bradford-based team promoted at the end of last season and now playing their matches at Esholt, a mile or so down river. Route One started the brighter and were anything but eponymous in their play. I'd say they edged the first half, although it was Salts that took the lead before Rovers equalised.

Salts grew into the game and controlled the second half; strong defensively and in attack. They should have scored more than the one further goal, but will be happy to have secured a 2-1 win, and with that move to the top of the table. It was a fairly entertaining game.

Given I'd spent most of the day seething about work related matters it was probably therapeutic to wander down the Bank to the game and have a couple of peaceful hours in a pleasant spot. And the sunset was nice too.