Tuesday evening and a chance to visit a new ground as well as take in a crucial Hellenic Premier League game. Thatcham Town, currently top of the league, versus third-placed Kidlington, five points adrift but in great form and with three games in hand.
Arriving at Waterside Park a good 20 minutes before the game it was clear to see that a larger than usual crowd had turned up. The car park attendant told me to find a spot anywhere but make sure I didn't block anyone in. Luckily there was a good spot right at the entrance which I quickly snapped up and made my way over to the ground. There was a short queue at the single turnstile and, a little disappointingly, they had already run out of programmes.

Waterside Park is a relatively new stadium, opened in 1992 but has managed to avoid the sterile feeling that some purpose built and new stadia suffer from. All of the facilities are on the car park side of the stadium. There is a single tier covered seating area which is part of an L shaped building that also houses the clubhouse, changing facilities, toilets and snack bar. There is a small covered standing area behind the goals to the left of the main stand and the dugouts are directly opposite the main stand. The rest of the ground is given to hard-standing.
The pitch looked to be in very good condition especially given the recent weather and the time of the season.

In front of close to 200 spectators, it was Kidlington who started the game the better of the two. The Greens created a couple of decent chances in the first 10 minutes but couldn't quite force the home keeper into action. Kidlington were playing some nice football, knocking the ball around well and completely dominating possession. Oddly though, their best chance in the opening 15 minutes came from a long ball which caught everyone out and allowed Odhiambo to get a run on the defence. As he was challenged he got a shot away but either the defender or keeper got a slight touch to deflect it wide for a corner. A few minutes later a ball across the box was just begging to be finished off but again the shot went wide. I was starting to wonder if Kidlington would regret missing these chances.

Just before the 25 minute mark there was an incident that didn't exactly change the course of the game but did change the pattern of the first half. As two players challenged for a ball in midfield the Thatcham player went down holding his face and the referee immediately blew for a foul. A brief melee followed with some of the home players and officials clearly incensed by what they had seen as a flailing elbow. The incident was less than 20 yards from my vantage point and I have to say, I thought it was a clear red card offence, as did a group of Kidlington supporters standing next to me. However, the referee didn't see it that way and, in fact, didn't even issue a yellow.

As I said, the incident changed the pattern of the game, certainly in the first half. Suddenly Thatcham got themselves going. They were no longer being pushed back by Kidlington and began to make some in-roads into the Kidlington half. Indeed, just 5 minutes later they had their best opportunity of the half but were thwarted by some quick thinking by the Kidlington keeper who was off his line quickly to clear the danger.

Clearly both sides had been fired up somewhat by the earlier incident and the remainder of the first half, a very tightly contested final 20 minutes, was littered with strong challenges both legal and illegal. We went in at half-time with the scores level at 0-0. Kidlington had definitely controlled the first 20 minutes but the rest of the half was pretty even and there was a prospect of a very good second half to come.

Kidlington emerged for the second half a few minutes ahead of Thatcham and, when the game restarted, it was clear that they had been told to go all out for the win. They started in the same manner as the first half and quickly established a strong foothold on the game, restricting Thatcham to long balls that were easily repelled by the Greens centre-half pairing.

Just about on the hour mark came the second game-changing incident, this time leading to a goal for the away side. After some sustained Kidlington pressure a shot from Castle took a wicked deflection and fell right at the feet of striker Odhiambo. He quickly controlled it and fired the ball past the Thatcham keeper amidst vociferous appeals for handball from the Thatcham team and supporters. At the risk, once again, of sounding like a certain Premier League manager, I really didn't get a good look at the incident. What I can say is that the Thatcham players appealed immediately, before the ball hit the net, and the supporters closest to that end of the ground were also adamant that a hand was used. Nevertheless, the referee and his assistant, who should have had a good view, gave the goal and Kidlington had the lead.

To be honest, once the goal had gone in, my thoughts were that the game was done. Thatcham had showed no signs at all of having anything in their game that could trouble the Greens defence. They seemed to be heavily relying on long balls to their forwards who, even if they got a head to the balls, were not being supported by their midfield.

It was actually Kidlington who continued to press forward and look the more likely to get another, keeping Rackley, in the home goal, very busy. The Greens were having great success down their right side, the runs of Brooks into the right-hand channel were causing all sorts of problems for Thatcham. Particularly impressive, throughout the whole game, was Kidlington's right-back Lewis Brownhill (?, no programme I'm afraid) who in my opinion gave a man of the match performance both defensively and pushing forward to assist the midfield.

On 88 minutes Kidlington finally finished the game off when a clearance was charged down and the ball fell to Brooks to make no mistake.
There was still time for Kidlington to miss another chance when Brooks had a shot cleared off the line. Credit to the Thatcham defender for putting the effort in right up to the last seconds.
In the end though, it was Kidlington who took a very well-deserved there points back up the A34 , at least they would have done had it not been closed for roadworks.

Next up for Kidlington is another top of the table clash as the other title contenders, Flackwell Heath, visit Yarnton Road an Saturday. As for Thatcham, they need to pick themselves up for a visit to Brackley at the weekend. They can still console themselves with the fact that they are still top. The question is, for how long?

Thatcham Town - @thatcham_townfc
Kidlington - @kidlington_fc

​Although I have visited Bedford Town's Eyrie on a couple of occasions, even once this season, I had never been to their very local neighbours, BedfordFC. That was, until this Tuesday evening.
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Bedford FC have quite an interesting history. Originally formed in 1957 as a printing company works team they played under the name Bedford United and at one point shared a ground with local rivals AFC Kempston. A brief merger with Bedford Town did not go well and in 2002 the club joined forces with another local side, Unione Sportiva Valerio (founded by, unsurprisingly with that name, an Italian). The full merger took place in 2006 with the club being known as Bedford Valerio United for one season. The 2007-08 season saw the emergence of the name Bedford FC.

Their home ground McMullen Park, named after their late founder Jim McMullen, is within a decent goal-kick of The Eyrie. In fact, to get into McMullen Park you have to go past the the entrance to Bedford Town's stadium. It is a much smaller ground than The Eyrie boasting just one covered stand, which has a handful of seats and a standing area. The rest of the ground is hard-standing with the dugouts on the opposite side to the main stand. The clubhouse and players areas are outside of the main stadium area and there are no facilities within the boundary of the ground (ie, after the entrance gate).

It was a chilly evening in Bedfordshire and a fine drizzle was being blown around the ground in the cold wind. A perfect setting for a classic top versus bottom clash in the Spartan South Midlands Premier League. Bedford, promoted from Division One last season and finding Premier League life quite difficult, were sitting second from bottom on 20 points (not helped by a three point deduction). They had, however, beaten high-flying Berkhamsted 1-0 just a month ago and still had a number of teams, just above them, easily in their sights. Their visitors, The Lilywhites of Hoddesdon Town, sat at the top of the league with a 2 point advantage over AFC Dunstable and just one league defeat in 2016.

For the first five minutes of the game it was hard to tell who was the top side and who was struggling near the foot of the table. However, as the game settled and the teams got into their strides, Hoddesdon began to take control of possession more and more. Despite this though they rarely managed to muster a clear cut opportunity.

​The ball was being treated like a hot potato for the first half hour. No-one seemed to want to put their foot on it or take a look up. Consequently, there was very little rhythm to the match.

On 34 minutes, however, The Lilywhites got a lucky break. A right-wing free-kick was floated into the Bedford penalty area. A striker and a defender 
running across the flight of the ball got a small touch which sent the ball spiralling over the keeper and, as another defender and striker ran in the 
defender put his hand up to divert the ball away. A clear penalty and a yellow card for the defender who, it has to be said, really didn't need to deflect the ball away. However, that's easy to say in hindsight but much more difficult to make these decisions in the heat of the moment. The penalty was duly struck home by Ed Taylor even though the home keeper got a hand to it.

The remainder of the half was played out in a similar vein to the first 30 minutes. Plenty of possession from the away team but no serious threats to the Bedford goal. Bedford, for their part, rarely caused any consternation in the Hoddesdon defence.

Twitter was showing numerous red cards all across the non-league world and it made me wonder if we might see one at Bedford especially as the home number two did seem to be on a short fuse and had already been spoken to by the referee on two occasions.

The players went off at half-time with the score 0-1 which was a fair reflection of the first half.
We all trooped off to get a warming cup of tea from the clubhouse which. it turns out, is accessed via a ramped walkway. I have to say, that ramp must have been fun on any day where the weather was either much damper or icy, especially the bottom section that had no handrail.
Nevertheless, tea in hand, I negotiated the ramp and made my way back pitch-side for the second half.
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When the second 45 kicked off it was immediately apparent that Bedford had been instructed to up their game. The intensity of their tackling and the urgency of their play was noticeably higher. The closing down of the Hoddesdon players who, in the first half had been given plenty of room to play, was causing them some difficulty and they gave possession away numerous times in the opening encounters of the second half.
However, as often happens in these situations, the away side then broke forward and put together a very nice move which culminated in left-winger Rickie Light sending over a very inviting cross. This was met by the stooping Brett O'Connor who had got ahead of his marker and suddenly The Lilywhites had a two goal lead.

​In fairness Bedford heads did not drop at this point and they continued to up their work rate, closing down the Hoddesdon players very quickly. They got their reward 11 minutes after going two down. A pinpoint left-wing cross was met with a header (sorry, I didn't catch the goal-scorer) at the far post to give the home side a foothold. 2-1 with more than half of the second period remaining.

Bedford set about trying to find an equaliser which did leave them a little exposed at the back at times. Hoddesdon tried to exploit this as much as they could, trading blows with Bedford for the remainder of the half. Hoddesdon did clip the woodwork in the second half but Bedford probably edged possession and, although mainly limited to long range efforts, looked the more likely to get the next goal.

There was still time for some off the ball niggle, all involving the aforementioned home number 2, who did seem intent on winding up the Hoddesdon players. To his credit, he was quite willing to take it as well as hand it out though. The referee, thankfully, didn't dish out any red cards.

In the end Bedford didn't quite have enough to pull it back but they can be proud of their efforts and, if they continue to perform in the same way as they did in the second half, can certainly expect to pull away from the drop zone.
As for Hoddesdon, they take a five point lead (having played two more games) into the Saturday showdown at home to second-placed AFC Dunstable.

Bedford FC - @bedford_fc
Hoddesdon Town - @hoddesdontownfc

Tuesday night and a chance to visit arguably the best supported side in Step 6, Bromsgrove Sporting. Of course, South Shields may dispute this statistic. Whatever the case, Sporting certainly pack them in these days with an average hovering around the 300 mark. Sporting are what the media like to refer to as a phoenix club. Although in their case the club actually formed before the demise of Bromsgrove Rovers rather than growing out of the ashes of the old club.

The fall of Rovers, from second in the Conference (National League) to winding up, was a rapid descent and, seeing the impending disaster, a group of former Rovers Directors and supporters quickly created a new club in order to keep non-league football in the town. As things transpired, the new club was offered the lease of Rovers' ground the year after their formation just before Rovers were expelled from the Southern League. The new club began life in the old Midland Combination Division 2, Step 8, but following two promotions in their first two seasons, now play in the newly-formed Midland League at Step 6 level.

The Victoria Ground is, I would say, one of the best examples of a non-league stadium in the country. The ground is dominated by two features, the large main stand on the far side from the entrance and the words Bromsgrove Sporting FC in 3ft high red lettering behind the uncovered terracing at the town end which, for me at least, gives that end of the stadium an Eastern European feel to it. There is also a large covered standing area behind the opposite goal and covered standing areas on the clubhouse side of the pitch. It is, by Step 6 standards, a very large ground but, with over 300 in, doesn't feel empty by any means.

Sporting's opponents this evening, Cadbury Athletic, are also a relatively new club having been formed in 1994. As their name suggests, the club is affiliated with the world-famous Cadbury Chocolate company based in Bournville, not a million miles from Bromsgrove. They play in Cadbury's corporate purple colours (although this evening, somewhat disappointingly, they chose to wear pale blue shirts). Until fairly recently the club was ground-sharing with Alvechurch (currently battling it out with Hereford in the Midland Premier League) who are the closest local rivals of Bromsgrove. Both Liverpool and England international Daniel Sturride and Leicester City winger Demarai Gray, played for Cadbury Athletic in their early years.

So to the game. A local derby with some extra significance. A Sporting win would see them leapfrog Coventry United and go a point clear at the top of the league, albeit having played 2 more games than their rivals. This all in anticipation of the game on Saturday when Coventry are the visitors to the Victoria Ground.

When the game kicked off, for the first few minutes, it was hard to see which team was pushing for promotion and which was marooned in mid-table. In fact, in the opening salvoes it was The Chocolate Men who had the best opportunity when a speculative effort sailed narrowly over. However, that was to be their best chance of the half and, once they had got warmed up, Sporting began to take over the game. Their initial tactic of hitting diagonal balls to their speedy right-winger, failed when pretty much every attempt was cut out. They adapted their approach and put together one or two lovely moves that cut through the Athletic defence with ease. In fact, after twenty minutes, Bromsgrove should really have been three up, spurning a series of good chances.

Then, just before the half-hour mark, they made the breakthrough. An attack looked as if it had broken down when Athletic cleared again but the ball fell to Nathan Walker 30 yards out. He took a few strides and hammered an unstoppable 25 yarder past the keeper and into the top corner.  This brought great joy from the massed ranks behind the goal and a little more mickey taking out of the, shall we say big-boned, Cadbury keeper.
At this point it was pretty much all Bromsgrove, but try as they might, they couldn't get a second goal.

The aforementioned away keeper then produced a superb fingertip touch to divert another shot onto the post, temporarily hushing the taunting home supporters. Unfortunately for him, it was very temporary. Just a few seconds later Athletic conceded a free-kick 30 yards out on the right flank. The kick was swung in by Walker and, as a group of players threw themselves at it, the ball bounced past everyone and into the far corner. As far as I could see, no-one got a touch on it. However, I have since seen on the Sporting website that the goal was credited to centre-forward Jozsef Jakab, so maybe he did get a slight touch?

So 2-0 at half-time and to be honest, Cadbury were quite lucky to still be in it. Making my way around to the snack bar to grab a warming cup of tea, I can at this point confirm that at least one of the Sporting supporters' chants about the visiting keeper was a fallacy. There were, actually, plenty of pies left.

With the home side dominating possession, I decided to take up a position on the opposite side of the pitch towards the goal that Cadbury were defending for the second half. I immediately got chatting to a gentleman who, it transpired grew up and still lived in the area that I grew up in, knew a lot of my Dad's friends and frequently could be found at the War Memorial watching Stourbridge (frequent readers will know about my allegiance to The Glassboys). We actually spent a fair bit of the second half chatting about The Black Country and it's football heritage such as Brierley Hill Alliance and Dudley Town. He was a really nice bloke who had a pretty in-depth knowledge of football, especially non-league football in the Midlands.

I digress. Within a few minutes of the restart the game was effectively over as a contest when visiting number 10 Dean Lea collected a second yellow and was ordered off. I'll be honest, I didn't have the best view of the incident but I think it is fair to say that Lea was not best pleased with the decision.

Despite being down to 10 men and being under heavy pressure most of the time, Cadbury did actually fashion more second-half chances than they did in the first. All to no avail though.

Bromsgrove, taking full advantage of their extra man, swarmed forward at every opportunity but just couldn't find a finish. Chance after chance went begging or was blocked by the visiting keeper who, I have to say, had a very good second half in my opinion. It wasn't until 3 minutes from time that captain Craig Jones met a deep corner at the far post and headed the third goal. Then, a minute later, Umit Eminoglu gave us his entry to goal of the game by smashing in an unstoppable shot from well outside the box.

4-0 gave the scoreline a much more realistic look on the balance of play. Don't get me wrong, Cadbury put the effort in but on the day they were second best for 99% of the game and once they were down to 10, there was no way back for them.
Sporting played some lovely football at times without giving their moves the finishes that they deserved.
Nevertheless they go top of the league, at least until Saturday when Coventry United come to town. What a match that promises to be.

Bromsgrove Sporting - @sportingfc
Cadbury Athletic - @cadburyathfc

TalkSport presenter and ground-hopper extraordinaire Tony Incenzo talks about his love of non-league football, how it all began, entering the Guinness Book of Records, watching a match behind bars and what the future holds as a ground-hopper.
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The bug sweeping it's way through BoTP Towers at the moment completely wrecked any chance of a Tuesday evening game. However, feeling a little better on Wednesday I wrapped up against the cold and headed off to deepest, darkest Wiltshire for a Hellenic Premier game featuring Royal Wootton Bassett Town and Highmoor Ibis.
The summer of 2015 was an exciting time for Wootton Basset football club. They adopted the prefix 'Royal' to their name after the town gained royal patronage in 2011. They also moved into their new, purpose built stadium situated on the northern extremities of the town opposite the rugby club. The New Gerard Buxton Sports Ground, as it is named, is a fairly large sports complex which incorporates cricket, tennis, and various levels of football on artificial and grass pitches. There is also a conference facility and function room at the ground. It is a very nicely put together complex which, I have no doubt, is a great asset to the town. However, as I have said before in previous blogs, although I completely understand the attraction of new, easy to maintain facilities, they do not have anywhere near the character of older football stadia.
The football ground at the Gerard Buxton complex is, pretty much, typical of these new arenas. Completely enclosed with wooden fencing and with two covered areas. The one nearest the car park side of the ground is a covered seating area whilst on the far side, in between the Perspex covered dugouts, is a covered standing area. Also on the car park side, towards the corner of the ground, is the club house, changing areas and tea bar. To be fair to the club, the playing surface at the ground is absolutely perfect and could be used as a great argument for these new developments. When the pitch was laid it is quite obvious that great care was taken to install excellent drainage because, whilst the surrounding grass areas were completely boggy and had patches of standing water, the playing surface was perfectly drained with no sign of any mud at all.
One more point to make before going on to the game itself is the programme. At £1.50 it is slightly more expensive than most at this level. However, it is also one of the best programmes that I have seen at Step 5, full of information and statistics, it really is a good read.
So, the game. Neither team has set the Hellenic League alight this season with Highmoor, in 11th, having a one league position edge over their hosts, but only on goal difference. The home side, however, came into the game having never beaten their visitors in the Hellenic League, with two draws and three defeats, the latest being a 4-0 setback in October.

It was, however, the home side who started the better of the two creating a couple of chances in the opening salvoes without really stretching the Ibis keeper too much. The first half turned into a very entertaining game of football with each side taking it in turns to attack in an end-to-end encounter. Overall it was Wootton Bassett who managed to manufacture the best chances forcing a couple of decent saves and last ditch tackles from the visitors. However, Highmoor always looked dangerous when they attacked with the pace and trickery of Parker on the right flank being a particular threat. Towards the end of the half a long ball down the Bassett right side was chased down by one of their strikers who was then pulled back on the edge of the box. The assistant flagged for the free-kick much to the dismay of the away side who's number 5 showed his displeasure by angrily volleying the ball in the general direction of the linesman. It was never going to hit him but was a display of petulance which would re-surface later in the game.
So, at half-time it was all square but the home side would have been slightly the happier having created the clearer cut opportunities.
The second half started in the same manner as the first with the home side pushing Highmoor backwards for the first few minutes without really threatening. It was, however, the away side who finally made the breakthrough. A low, hard, Parker cross from the left side was met by the stooping White who headed powerfully past the home keeper to give Ibis the lead.
Just a couple of minutes later and it was 2-0, Parker scrambling a loose ball over the line and the linesman flagging that it had actually gone in, despite the protestations of the home defence.

From that point onwards the game was as good as over as a contest. Highmoor, although conceding ground to their hosts, looked to be comfortably able to cope with the home forwards and Wootton Basset, even with plenty of huff and puff, didn't really look like they had the ideas to break the Ibis defence down. However, the game was getting increasingly niggly with the aforementioned Ibis number 5 in the thick of the action. Chasing a long ball with a Bassett striker he went down holding his face but no free-kick was given. To be honest, I didn't have a good view of the incident but the striker did raise his arms. Whether he made any contact is a different matter. A few minutes later and a Bassett player went down holding his face after an off the ball clash with the same Ibis defender. This time a free-kick was awarded but no action taken by the referee. Then, with a few minutes left on the clock, the same defender was involved again with the home number 5. Following a corner there was some off the ball wrestling from both players but, following a flag from the assistant on the far side and a conference with the referee, a penalty was a warded and a red card issued to the Ibis defender. It wasn't clear what the actual offence was because there were a number of players between my viewpoint (starting to sound like Arsene Wenger here but I genuinely didn't have a clear view) and the action, but the increasingly aggressive actions of the Ibis defender had been leading to something for the majority of the second half and a red card was not entirely a shock to anyone.
Bassett summed up their evening by missing the penalty and Ibis saw out the remaining few minutes fairly easily to clock up the three points. So, it really was a case of new name, new stadium, same result for the home side. Six league fixtures against Highmoor and still without a win.

Royal Wootton Basset Town - @rwbtfc
Highmoor Ibis - @highmooribis