'Around the Grounds' Edition 10: FC St Helens
Fri 8th November 2024 | FC St Helens | By Ben Wilkinson
Our new 'Around the Grounds' series reaches its 10th edition at Windleshaw Sports Ground, home of FC St Helens of the Premier Division. Currently known as the SMS Pro Soccer Park for sponsorship reasons, this ground a mile from the town centre has been the club's base since they were formed in 2014. The site has some historic significance in the town as the former home of the rugby and cricket clubs back in the 19th century, and it was the venue for the first organised clash between St Helens RFC and Wigan RLFC in 1890.
Back to the modern day, Windleshaw has seen FC St Helens progress through the Cheshire League system, before promotion into our First Division North was achieved in 2022. Their first season at Step 6 saw a 3rd place finish after losing only four games all season before falling agonisingly short in a play-off final shootout away at Chadderton. Not a club to take such a defeat lying down, they stormed to the league title last season, amassing 77 points in the process.
The facilities at the ground have grown with the club; the latest improvements of some additional lighting, a PA system and a new seated stand having been installed following promotion this summer. The placement of the new stand alongside the existing one creates a quite imposing entrance from the turnstile block, with a sign welcoming supporters to the ground creating an archway.
The clubhouse has a nice covered outside terrace providing a good vantage point for watching the game in the summer months and the food hut is something a bit different - being called the 'Chicken Shack' and offering chicken bites of various flavours rather than the pies and sausage rolls you'd usually expect at a ground! I visited for a much-anticipated Friday night fixture against Chadderton, for the first meeting between the two since the above-mentioned play-off final and with both teams in and around the play-off places in the Premier Division.
The game itself was a slow burner with neither side able to break the deadlock in the first half, FC St Helens coming closest as an effort from Josh Hall could only find the upright before being cleared away by the Chaddy defence. They were knocking on the door though and eventually the goal came just five minutes after the restart through number 9 Joseph Barker. They had a golden chance to make it 2-0 just three minutes later when the referee pointed to the spot but Jack Ball's effort from 12 yards was saved well by Morgan Bacon. Both sides traded blows but the home side held on to claim a huge three points.
I caught up with Club Chairman Steve Leather after the game and this is what he had to say about the new and future ground improvements...
"As part of the promotion requirements, we have successfully installed an additional 50 seater stand and a 50 covered standing area, both of which are now fully sponsored. In addition to this, we secured some funding to allow us to install solar powered lighting in the key populated areas and the walkway from the clubhouse to the car park area. This allows us to ensure we switch off the floodlighting in good time in a residential area while still providing light for spectators to leave the ground safely - and it saves us a few quid on the cost of running the floodlights!
We are also currently looking into improving the current PA system we have at the club for match days and with the help of George Cox Construction Contractor we have increased the car parking spaces at the club & installed new gates at either end. In the coming months we will be working closer with our community partner Buzz Hub (St Helens CDP) to provide a club shop on site. This almost brings to close our initial CAD drawings we created when we first considered applying for the NWCFL, as you will see from the attached images we are not a million miles away from the designs."
Thank you to Steve and FC St Helens for providing us with the below images.
CAD drawings:
'Around the Grounds' Edition 10: FC St Helens
Fri 8th November 2024 | FC St Helens
By Ben Wilkinson
Our new 'Around the Grounds' series reaches its 10th edition at Windleshaw Sports Ground, home of FC St Helens of the Premier Division. Currently known as the SMS Pro Soccer Park for sponsorship reasons, this ground a mile from the town centre has been the club's base since they were formed in 2014. The site has some historic significance in the town as the former home of the rugby and cricket clubs back in the 19th century, and it was the venue for the first organised clash between St Helens RFC and Wigan RLFC in 1890.
Back to the modern day, Windleshaw has seen FC St Helens progress through the Cheshire League system, before promotion into our First Division North was achieved in 2022. Their first season at Step 6 saw a 3rd place finish after losing only four games all season before falling agonisingly short in a play-off final shootout away at Chadderton. Not a club to take such a defeat lying down, they stormed to the league title last season, amassing 77 points in the process.
The facilities at the ground have grown with the club; the latest improvements of some additional lighting, a PA system and a new seated stand having been installed following promotion this summer. The placement of the new stand alongside the existing one creates a quite imposing entrance from the turnstile block, with a sign welcoming supporters to the ground creating an archway.
The clubhouse has a nice covered outside terrace providing a good vantage point for watching the game in the summer months and the food hut is something a bit different - being called the 'Chicken Shack' and offering chicken bites of various flavours rather than the pies and sausage rolls you'd usually expect at a ground! I visited for a much-anticipated Friday night fixture against Chadderton, for the first meeting between the two since the above-mentioned play-off final and with both teams in and around the play-off places in the Premier Division.
The game itself was a slow burner with neither side able to break the deadlock in the first half, FC St Helens coming closest as an effort from Josh Hall could only find the upright before being cleared away by the Chaddy defence. They were knocking on the door though and eventually the goal came just five minutes after the restart through number 9 Joseph Barker. They had a golden chance to make it 2-0 just three minutes later when the referee pointed to the spot but Jack Ball's effort from 12 yards was saved well by Morgan Bacon. Both sides traded blows but the home side held on to claim a huge three points.
I caught up with Club Chairman Steve Leather after the game and this is what he had to say about the new and future ground improvements...
"As part of the promotion requirements, we have successfully installed an additional 50 seater stand and a 50 covered standing area, both of which are now fully sponsored. In addition to this, we secured some funding to allow us to install solar powered lighting in the key populated areas and the walkway from the clubhouse to the car park area. This allows us to ensure we switch off the floodlighting in good time in a residential area while still providing light for spectators to leave the ground safely - and it saves us a few quid on the cost of running the floodlights!
We are also currently looking into improving the current PA system we have at the club for match days and with the help of George Cox Construction Contractor we have increased the car parking spaces at the club & installed new gates at either end. In the coming months we will be working closer with our community partner Buzz Hub (St Helens CDP) to provide a club shop on site. This almost brings to close our initial CAD drawings we created when we first considered applying for the NWCFL, as you will see from the attached images we are not a million miles away from the designs."
Thank you to Steve and FC St Helens for providing us with the below images.
CAD drawings:
