Trafford

Ground 17

Match 18

Ground Shawe View

Capacity 2,500

Evo-Stik Div 1 North

Trafford C 0-0 Garforth Town

Admission £7

Attendance 141

Programme £1.50

Distance Travelled 34 miles




Trafford F C  .   Opponents Garforth Town Yellow shirts blue shorts

Great opportunity to visit a team near the Trafford Centre , ideal for the women to go shopping as i head to a game . Trafford FC , just a couple of miles away , provided my ground visit for Saturday afternoon . Trafford were on a losing streak of three league games and been involved in a few goal feasts , i was expecting a high scoring match . The club provides ample parking and on entering the ground i was warmly greeted by staff .

Joe Shaw signs the match programme

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The ground has three covered stands , two included seating and there was a cosy little press box in the covered seated stand next to the players entrance . There are some higher banked grass verges which request fans not to use . A club official chased after me and gave me an official team sheet which was a great gesture as they can be difficult to obtain . The lounge was small but adequate and there was a big tv screen . Next to the lounge an outlet selling pies , bugers , tea and coffee . There was a decent following from Garforth whom i chatted with as the teams headed onto the pitch . A lovely day with a few light windy showers , almost perfect for football .


The game got underway with the home side starting well , making some good passing moves . Chances were limited with Trafford going close twice , on one occassion Cheetham and Murray combined but Cheetham failed to fire home after rounding Higginson in the Garforth goal and allowing the ball to run out of play . On another , Cheetham narrowly failed to get his head to a low cross . Garforth almost went ahead on the stroke of half-time only for a great stop by the Trafford keeper Tom Read .
Half - time 0-0 . The second half saw Garforth doing most of the pressing without creating any clear cut chances . There were several affrays and bookings but both sets of players got on with the game making life less tricky for the referee . Town appealed for a penalty late on after an incident in the penalty area but nothing was given . Late on , Trafford made several forays forward and almost grabbed the points with a spectacular overhead kick from Joe Shaw sailing narrowly over . Higginson was faultless on crosses and has a reputation for a safe pair of hands - might be a good idea for opponents to fire in some low crosses and definately keep the ball away from him in the air .  Trafford stayed on the pitch to warm down so i sensed an opportuinity to grab a few autographs by hanging around while everyone else was leaving . I thought about asking the trainer but he smiled politely as he was carrying the drinks holdhalls in both hands . A couple of players came over and got me the whole team s autographs . This was a tremendous gesture , one i appreciated greatly as collecting autographs has become a hobby , by chance really ; it adds something extra to collecting programmes and provides a more complete record and memory of the game .
Thanks to the players & staff of Trafford who made my visit a superb day out .

You can't ask or expect anymore from a club . Well worth a visit or if you live in the area , deserving of your support .

More Photos click the link Below

https://picasaweb.google.com/106951314873209777955/TraffordFCPhotos1092011#5667152634512521330