Inside the Lower Leagues: Behind the Scenes at Ossett United's FA Cup clash
The little market town just outside Wakefield hosted Chester-Le-Street in the final round of qualifiers for the Adobe Women's FA Cup, so WFC made the short trip to Ingfield for the day...
Ossett is your classic northern market town, and I say that from a well-qualified position as the place is on my doorstep, hence why on Sunday I made the short walk from my front door to their ground at Ingfield to watch Ossett United take on Chester-Le-Street in the third qualifying round of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.
It’s a stadium with a certain amount of stereotypical non-league charm, and one I’ve walked past many times in life, but only occasionally frequented in a social aspect, and never before for work purposes.
It has all the kind of quirks you’d expect, situated right on the side of one of the main roads through the town, it’s both a 30-second walk to the bus station across the road or the Londis next door, which also is the front of shirt sponsor for the team.
It has built up porter cabins galore for hospitality, a supporter’s bar or the lower floor ‘Kelly’s Function Room’, completed with outside picnic tables, where fans congregate en-mass on a matchday – 700 were in attendance at the men’s game the day before.
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No leafy suburban stadium in the middle of nowhere for Ossett!
Like many non-league grounds, this is a welcome throwback to what many consider ‘proper’ football, or at least a simpler social event away from the ever-increasing demands of top-level football.
Oddly, for a town of just over 21,000 people, Ossett used to have two football clubs, Ossett Town and Ossett Albion, before the two merged in 2018 into Ossett United, moving to Town’s home stadium and using Albion’s facilities for their women and academy training for a period of time.
Ryan Horsman, the General Manager, greets me at the gate to give me the tour. The club, like most at this level, is reliant on volunteers who come and run the turnstiles, sell programmes or get behind the bar pulling pints for the locals.
Horsman is a landscaper working in the property surveying business, and while it would be easy to make a joke about getting him involved in doing up the stadium, it’s actually remarkably impressive for the Tier 6 level Ossett United find themselves at.
The changing room area has had a recent renovation and is both clean and spacious as their jet blue kits hang from pegs ready for the players to arrive, while there are two match official changing rooms, rare at this level, and separate rooms for physios and even a dedicated office for the manager.
That in itself also shows where the club is at right now, because their current head coach is no standard run-of-the-mill manager, but Tony Walmsley, who just a few years ago was head coach of Central Coast Mariners in the Australian A-League.
The Manchester-born 58-year-old though is back home and around a busy life outside of football which has seen him only just return from trips to Barcelona and Saudi Arabia in time for the game, Horsman says he’s got involved with Ossett for the pure love of the game, which is about all that gets people involved at a level where there is no promise of a wage.
What would be important would be the £4,000 on offer to reach the first round proper, but former FA Women’s National League side Chester-Le-Street stand in their way, and while Ossett top their league table currently, so do their own opponents in the division above, looking for an immediate return to Tier 4.
The recent increase in prize money means they have claimed £4,800 from the first two rounds alone, and are guaranteed another £1,000 even if their day ends in defeat.
“These players don’t get paid, so hopefully the plan is we can give them the prize money to cover various costs,” says Horsman. “We’ve given them the money from the second round and obviously a win today would help even more.
“It just helps with various things. You only get travel assistance in the fourth round proper when teams like Chelsea and Arsenal join. The draws are regional but Chester-Le-Street is still pretty far away and a long journey for them.”
Horsman has just returned from watching his two-year-old daughter kicking a ball about herself, and while the visitors rock up on their team coach at 12:30pm bang on, Ossett players drift in in their various dribs and drabs, some less than an hour before kick-off depending on their circumstances.
For some, it’s even later. As Horsman and team captain Rowan Treagus await the swapping of teamsheets, the referee hasn’t yet arrived, sparking panic among the two officials who are in attendance, with contingency plans in place just in case, before they receive a text to say he’ll be here by 1:30pm.
At this level, this can be the second game they have officiated in the same day alone.
It does present an opportunity for a quick chat with Treagus who is in her fourth season at the club, but her first as the captain.
“Really exciting,” she describes the feeling as. “We’ve got a lot of support today and we get a lot of support from our little mascots. It’s been up and down, but hopefully on the way up now.”
She too is enthused about the investment from the club over the summer which has seen their facilities improved.
“It’s really good. We have this stadium, the facilities here compared to other teams in this league, I think we’re at the top.
“We want a professional environment, the girls take it seriously, we’ve all played at a good level and it’s nice to have it here.”
Treagus is originally from further south and played in Hampshire, but now up north has a 9am-5pm job as she puts it, like many of her teammates, so their two nights a week of training on a Tuesday and Thursday works neatly.
“9am-5pm. Full-time work, a mix of home working and out and about, so I’m quite lucky with that. We have quite a few teachers, shift workers, a few students.”
Horsman adds, “The balance here is pretty good,” before adding, regarding the impact the prize money on offer would make to the women’s team. “£4000 if we win today…it would help us build the club. Little old Ossett! If the dream is to have 200-300 come to watch us, then so be it.”
Treagus admits it’s a “massive game” but knows it will be tough, before she heads off to get ready for the warm-ups for a pitch while in ok condition, has seen better days after a week of generally heavy rain and a men’s game on it the day before, but it may prove a leveller against higher up opposition.
“I know some of their girls from playing futsal. It’s a good team, it will be difficult, but it will be a good test for us. I think we need it; we’ve been doing pretty well so it will be good to play a team from the league above.”
Even watching the warm-ups, there is a true lower division feeling to it, and what makes these games and stages of the FA Cup all the more special.
The Ossett goalkeeper coach is kitted out in oversized tracksuit bottoms, a casual hoodie and a cap, while manager Walmsley watches on from the sidelines.
On the sidelines, families of the players both stand and sit, socialising over the weekly goings on. Unsurprisingly, there is a community feel to it, many consuming snacks and drinks from the function room, many have even brought their dogs down and it becomes a social event for them as much as it does the families in attendance!
As the game begins, the volunteer woman behind the bar jokes “have we scored yet?” inside the first 30 seconds, and despite a fast start from the visitors, it is not too long before her quip becomes reality.
Chester-Le-Street have dominated so far, but it’s Ossett who take the lead as a corner into the box is scrambled home.
Dare to dream?
In the second half, it’s all change, as the greater quality and arguably fitness of the visitors takes over, and they score twice without reply, the second a superb strike from range.
A couple of last-minute corners sees poor goalkeeper Ella Jacobs have to do two full runs up the pitch and back to add an extra body to the chaos, but a foul on the second effectively ends the match before the referee brings proceedings to a climax.
All too quickly, the excitement dissipates, but there are smiles on faces as the teams make their way off the pitch, with the Ossett players rightly proud of their efforts against an opposition who just a few months ago were two divisions above them.
As Walmsley makes his way straight into the function rooms to chat away with some of those in attendance, for Horsman and the rest of the volunteers it’s quickly shoving equipment, balls, cones etc into the backs of cars and off back to the real world for a week before the action resumes against next Sunday, their cup run over for another season, but a valuable £4,800 in the bank which at this level at least will make a huge amount of difference, while Chester-Le-Street head back to their coach still parked outside on the road to look forward to the first round proper.