Mitres on the road: Five star Cleeve dampen Larkhall's special occasion.

The first word uttered by myself and Johnny, our placement student, when we stepped out of the car and caught our first glimpse of the sublimity that is Larkhall Athletic was, simply, "wow".

The tight winding lanes and meandering roads slowly led us higher and higher until we found ourselves atop Charlcombe Lane with a sublime view of the Cotswolds and Mendips which provided the perfect canvas with which Paul Collicutt's men could string out their footballing masterpiece.

We only made it to Plain Ham, the home of Larkhall Athletic, with around 30 minutes until kick-off, and that was purely my fault. I had spent the previous night at the Tram Shed seeing Sea Girls (some of you will have heard at least one of their songs, Violet used to be played before Cheltenham games) and spent the night in a Travelodge next to Cardiff Central Station and had requested to be picked up from Bath Spa with the proposition of a one hour walk dwarfed in my desires by the prospect of a ten minute drive. What I hadn't foreseen was the sheer scale of the traffic that the city has to offer on a Saturday afternoon with Bath Rugby against Bristol Bears exacerbating the situation. A brief walk and eventual collection later and we were en route to the grand opening of the Larks' brand new artificial pitch and stand. It was a very nice artificial pitch and stand but playing Bishops Cleeve on a pitch like that is better left avoided.

Sea Girls was very good, and so were Bishops Cleeve. But more on that later.

The aforementioned grand opening was for the new stand along the touchline to your left as you enter the ground, an impressive 250 seater number housing covered seating with room for supporters, press, directors, and disabled supporters, and providing a wonderful view raised above the action. Behind the goal to our left and the far touchline were lined with trees while the entrance, bar, and changing rooms were raised above the pitch to your right. I'm told that the food on offer from the catering container just before the stand is outstanding and while I didn't try anything myself, I suppose I still have to recommend it.

Now back to the action.

It took just six minutes for the new pitch to be christened with its first goal, unfortunately for the hosts it was not in the way in which they'd have preferred as Isaac Pearce's corner was headed back across goal by Matt Liddiard and fired home by Ben McLean to put Cleeve a goal up. Five minutes later and it was two, Joe Selmen doubled Cleeve's advantage after Larkhall squandered possession on the edge of their box and their heroic attempts to prevent a second saw his shot deflected in past a hapless Adam Forster.

The 20 minute mark brought the third goal of the day and Larkhall's first on their new pitch, with a stunning strike from Alexander Lambert (the Larkhall footballer, not the Polish pianist who died in 1929) halving the deficit and sending the teams into the break with only the single goal separating the sides.

A frantic first 20 minutes of the second period left the game well and truly dead and buried, there would be no glorious baptism for the sparkling new facilities as Ross Langworthy bagged two and Joe Selman added another to put the Mitres four goals ahead and 5-1 up. The game calmed down after this and not much happened towards the end, there were a few shots, a few saves, some silky skills and routine saves, but no more goals. It provided a valuable three points for a Cleeve side that hadn't featured in the Southern League since the 26th of August thanks to their FA Cup adventure and pushed the Mitres a few places up the league table despite giving absolutely no indication of where in the table they should really be.

The first of the three came after Ethan Dunbar played a succulent low ball across the six yard box with Langworthy meeting it at the back post to guide it over the line. Langworthy added another when he was played one on one and slotted the ball through the legs of Forster and into the bottom right corner. Selman provided the pick of the bunch as he rocketed the ball past a crowd of bodies to wrap up the scoring and seal the three points. In case my descriptions are lacking, you can watch all the goals below.

Up next is a trip to The Meadow to face National League South side Chesham United with the carrot of a certain former Championship club called Yeovil Town awaiting the winner. It's the second attempt at the replay as last week fell foul to the weather after Bishops Cleeve held Chesham to a draw at Kayte Lane, although it's fairer to say that Chesham would be happier with the replay given the balance of play.