HALLAM FC 0 V 1 REDCAR ATHLETIC NORTHERN PREMIER DIVISION ONE EAST 24th JANUARY 2026

 

My 14th game of the season takes me out to the wind swept and cold hills of the Sandygate/crosspool area in the west of Sheffield for the visit of top of the table Redcar Athletic, i won't bore you with the history of the club and the ground as its all pretty much well known and there to see, however the countrymen have had a bit of an upturn in there fortunes over the last few seasons, a promotion from the NCEL and a very steady and healthy upturn in the numbers coming through the gate points to the club on a well run footing, I've been here a few times over the years, I've stood watching with the rain and wind howling on a cold January night with less then 50 people in attendance.

An entrance fee of £9 gets you in and there's a very nice club bar with the usual sky sports tv a decent bar with a few excellent brews on if that's your tipple, outside there is a snack bar with all the usual delights and if you fancy a sit down there's plenty of room in the stand just below the dugouts and the halfway line or downhill if you prefer, i stood further up just outside the clubhouse and the way the ground is built it can be a struggle to see further down the touchline, there's standing behind the goal which is a quite lively section with the countrymen "ULTRAS" banging there drums and chanting all adding to a fairly good atmosphere. 

A first half and Hallam did the usual when winning the toss and decided to kick downhill a tactic that over the years Hallam have fine tuned to there advantage, plenty of long balls downhill into the Redcar goal but they seemed to cope pretty well with the tactic with Hallam only going close once,Redcar used the ball well when attacking uphill and made the ball do quite a lot of the work for them just going close before halftime with a header from a corner just going over with Redcar finishing the half looking the stronger of the 2 sides and also the advantage of kicking downhill in the 2nd half.

the 2nd half and redcar took full control of the game with having the advantage of the downhill angle, they stopped just about every attack Hallam made and they strengthened their position with substitutions  from a very strong bench, with 20 minutes left Redcar went very close to scoring and it forced Hallam to sit very deep with ten men behind the ball. With the game nearly at 90 minutes it was looking like a 0-0 draw only for redcar with a lovely Dink over the keepers head make it 0-1 to the steelmen and a certain 3 points to take back to Cleveland.

Overall a decent game, sometimes the slope of the pitch can work for Hallam but with the better sides now visiting Sandygate its not so much of an advantage as it once was, on a personal note its not one of my favorite Sheffield grounds, not sure what it is but at times i find it cold and i don't mean the weather it can get, however don't let my ramblings put you off visiting!