Eastwood Town

Eastwood Town was a non-league football club formed in 1955 who were wound up in the  2013-14 season. The club played in the former coal mining town of Eastwood in Nottinghamshire. 

Eastwood was an amateur club in its early years, performing in the Notts Alliance as well as the Central Alliance and East Midlands Regional Leagues. The 'Badgers' turned semi-professional in 1971 and played in the Midlands Counties League.

They joined the Midlands League in 1971-72, finishing as runners-up in 1974-75. The title followed twelve months later before the side accumulated another second place in 1977-78. The club became founder members of the Northern Counties East League in 1982-83 as a Premier Division side.

In 1987-88 Town became members of the newly formed Division One of the Northern Premier League. They were relegated back to the NECL in 2002-03, with a runners-up place in 2003-04 saw the Badgers return to their previous elevated status.

Promotion to the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League was achieved in 2006-07, just before Robert Yong became Chairman in October 2007 with big ideas and ambitions. His investment led to promotion to Conference North in 2008-09.

Progress continued on the pitch but the club were told that they could not compete in the playoffs if the team finished in such a position, owing to Coronation Park not being up to standard. Local residents launched objections to plans to increase the capacity and facilities.

That scenario did play itself out as the team finished in fourth position at the end of the 2010-11 season. Work on the stadium was top of the agenda going forward. Consequently, Paul Cox left the club to take the manager's job at Mansfield Town as the team struggled and were relegated in 2011-12.

Further relegation followed at the end of the 2012-13 season as financial troubles were causing severe troubles at the club. Halfway through the 2013-14 season, the club were wound up and their playing record in the Northern Premier League Division One South was expunged.

A new club Eastwood Community FC was formed and joined the Central Midlands League South division for the 2014-15 season taking up residence at Coronation Park.

My visit

Wednesday 16th September 2009

As part of Nottinghamshire and little bits of Derbyshire groundhop, I took the excellent regular bus service from nearby Kimberley. The bus went past Coronation Park which stands a little back from Nottingham Road behind some housing and the ambulance station. 

I walked through the pleasant park and soon found an open gate into the ground as the groundsman was busy killing the grass that adjoined the perimeter pitch boards.

The Nottingham Road side contained most of the facilities. It had some flat concrete between the pitch and the facilities with a couple of steps of terracing at the front. That consisted of a Main Stand that straddled the halfway line. 

The Keith Smith Stand was basically a raised area with executive facilities at the rear and a few seats in front to try and attract corporate fans. The clubhouse and changing rooms were just behind.

Each end, which had extra turf between the goal line and the fence, had identical covered standing areas. The far side is open standing, save for a small low seated stand on the halfway line.

All in all the ground was a little bitty, but had room for the ambitious owner to develop the ground. Alas, he was never given the opportunity.