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Revenge of the Waders

29/11/2013

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Just a few weeks on from a 4-1 victory in the FA Cup, Stourbridge travelled to Biggleswade in the league for what the home team saw as a chance to show the cup result was a one-off. Biggleswade are playing at this level of the pyramid for the first time in their history. They obtained promotion to Division One the season after they moved to the Carlsberg Stadium on the edge of the town. Promotion to the Premier league was gained last season. Despite the cup exit to Stourbridge, the Waders have found their feet in the Premier League and currently sit comfortably just above mid-table.
The Carlsberg Stadium is, as I said earlier, a relatively new development. There is ample parking available, free of charge, even if the approach road does require some serious re-surfacing (take special care, there are some really large potholes in that road). On the car park side of the ground is the main stand, club house and changing rooms. There is also a smaller stand on the opposite side of the pitch. Total seating is for 300 people out of a capacity of 3000. There is hard-standing behind both goals. It is a pleasant enough stadium. Very clean and tidy but, as with most new facilities, it lacks a little charm. Maybe this is something that grounds acquire with age? One thing that stood out for me was the apparent condition of the playing surface. I have to say that it appeared to be one of the best I have seen this season. Obviously, not having actually been on the pitch, this is only an opinion based upon my view but it really did seem flat and true.
On to the game itself. Waders started by far the brighter of the two sides, looking very lively up front and forcing the Glassboys onto the back foot for the first 20 minutes or so. Gradually, Stourbridge began to get a foothold. Central midfield pairing of Sean Geddes and Ben Billingham were starting to spray passes around and the back four were beginning to be able to hold a higher line. In the 25th minute Ryan Rowe latched onto a through ball on the left and cut back across the edge of the area. The on-rushing Ben Billigham got to the ball first and fired low and hard past the Waders keeper. 1-0 to Stourbridge, possibly against the general run of play. For the rest of the first half, Stourbridge probably edged the game, certainly in possession, but there was no more scoring.
Waders began the second half as they had done the first. Pushing Stourbridge back again and looking increasingly threatening. This time the Stourbridge team didn't seem to have any answers and were increasingly being put under pressure. The resistance had to break somewhere, and it did in the 77th minute when Sam Reed stabbed home a driven cross from the right. At this point, it looked like there was only one winner. Biggleswade's tails were up and they were looking to avenge the cup defeat.
Stourbridge, to their credit, defended well and did start to push forward themselves making for a much more entertaining last 20 minutes. Then, in the 90th minute, a Stourbridge corner from the right was headed goalward and Ryan Rowe poked it just over the line. Credit to the referee and linesman at this point for spotting that the ball had crossed the line. It would have been easy to miss in the melee. Also, credit to the Biggleswade players, who didn't complain about the decision at all.
It looked like Stourbridge had grabbed an undeserved winner with only 4 minutes of injury time to go. However, with three and a half of those minutes already gone, Lee Reed picked the ball up on the halfway line, beat a Stourbridge player and then unleashed an absolutley unstoppable shot into Coleman's top left hand corner. Reminiscent of the goal that beat Stourbridge at Cambridge, there was nothing that the goalkeeper could have done to keep it out. The Waders scorer was absolutely flattened by his teammates, including the goalkeeper, who ran 80 yards to celebrate.
There was barely time to kick off before the referee blew the final whistle to scenes of more green and white jubilation.
In the end a draw was a fair result. Biggleswade had at least partial revenge for the cup match and Stourbridge had a hard-earned away point.

Biggleswade Town - @biggleswade1874
Stourbridge - @sfcofficial

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Saints entertain Pitmen

29/11/2013

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After taking my daughter to a birthday party on Saturday lunch-time, I handed over to my wife for party number two and took the short trip to St James Park, home of Brackley Town of the Skrill North.

Although I have been into Brackley town centre a number of times, I have never visited the football stadium before. The ground is a short distance from the town centre and, if you arrive fairly late as I did, it is probably a better bet to park in the town (3 hours free) and take  the short walk down the hill to the ground. There is parking available at the ground and in the surrounding roads but as there is only one route in and out this can get quite congested after a game.

St James Park has been the home of Brackley Town since 1974 when the team were  part of the North Bucks League. They only managed promotion to the Southern League in 1997 and, after some financial problems, quickly fell back into the Hellenic League. A return to the Southern League Division 1 was gained in 2004. By 2007-08 the club had managed to gain another promotion and played in the Southern League Premier.

Promotion to the Conference North was gained in 2011-12. This was followed by a blistering start to the season that saw the Saints lead the division for the early part of the season. They eventually finished in a very creditable 3rd place.

The stadium itself has a capacity of 3,500 with seating for 600 in the two main stands that are on the clubhouse side of the ground. as well as the Evenley end which also has terraces either side of the seating area. The other end, or South Bank, has a small covered standing area. Opposite the main stands the ground is open with hard standing only at this time. Although, when I visited there was also a tv tower still in place from the Gillingham FA Cup replay. I don't know if this is a permanent fixture or not.

The ground felt fairly 'busy' with a crowd of just over 450. I would imagine that, if filled to capacity, it would be a noisy and intimidating ground for visiting teams. Hats off to teh stadium announcer for playing the Skids 'The Saints are Coming' when the teams came out and managing to get pretty much the whole track in.

On to the match. The visitors were the Pitmen, Hednesford Town, coming into the game as league leaders and on a good run. Brackley, only 4 points back in the league, were riding high on confidence after the giant-killing 1-0 replay victory over Gillingham. In the first half, barring a couple oif moments, the teams cancelled each other out. Neither side was living up to their top of the table billing.
The second half proved to be a much livelier affait with both teams having periods of dominance and both goalkeepers having to be on their toes.
Finally, in the 86th minute, the latest period of Brackley pressure paid off. A cross from the right flank was glanced home superbly by Steve Diggin. Hednesford did their best to up their rate fro the final few minutes but Brackley held on for a deserved, and much needed, victory.
Other results on the same day meant that, come 5 o'clock, only 1 point separated the top 6 in the Skrill North. It looks like it could be a very interesting season.


Brackley Town - @BrackleyTownFC
Hednesford Town - @Hednesford_Town






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Punts and Rockets

14/11/2013

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A cold clear night in Cambridgeshire and my first visit to the GlassWorld Stadium, home of Histon FC and temporary home of Cambridge City. Cambridge, famous for the university and punting on the river, also appears to be completely inundated with cyclists. I haven't seen this many people riding bikes since I was in Amsterdam. Not that this is a bad thing. It should be encouraged everywhere.
Unfortunately for me, I never made it to Milton Road, Cambridge's previous home. I say unfortunately because, from all accounts, Milton Road was a great place to watch football and one of the noisier grounds thanks to the Shed End support. Still, at least Cambridge City still exists after a few years of uncertainty. The club is now run by a supporters trust and looks to have a much brighter future. See http://www.cambridgecityfc.com/ for more information.
Having recently made it as high as the National Conference, Histon have facilities to match that level. The ground has covered areas on all four sides with the main stand and the opposite side both being predominently seating areas. Behind both goals are fairly large covered standing areas. The main stand, being raised well above the playing surface, gives a great view of the game. The capacity is listed as 4,300 but tonight there were just 241 hardy souls braving the winter air to see Cambridge City take on Stourbridge. At this point I shoudl add that there were a fair few Black Country accents around. A pretty good turnout for the Glassboys on a cold Wednesday night.
Stourbridge were going into the game on the back of an 11 game winning streak (admittedly 7 of these have been cup matches) and the 9-0 demolition of Chippenham in their last away league game. I was fairly certain that this game wouldn't end in a similar scoreline. Cambridge, although not prolific scorers have been tight at the back all season, conceding only 11 in the league up to this point.
Cambridge had by far the better of the first half. Apart from an early Drew Canavan effort, Stourbridge didn't trouble Barrett in the home goal. Nick Beasant, son of former Womble Dave, had a couple of chances for Cambridge and should really have put his side in front. However, at the break, it was still all square at 0-0 and could only get better as a game.
Stourbridge actually started the brighter of the two in the second half but went behind to a set-piece in the 53rd minute. A right wing corner was powered home by the head of centre-half and captain Lee Chaffey.
Roly Agbor came on for Jordan Fitzpatrick and almost immediately had a hand in the equaliser. It was Agbor's rolled pass to Sean Geddes that set up the speculative effort from out side the box. A small deflection bamboozled the home keeper and it was 1-1.
From that point onwards the game was fairly even. Stourbridge probably shaded possession but the game could easily have gone either way.
Then Cambridge brought on Josh Dawkins. In the 81st minute he went on a run that took him to within 20-25 yards of the Stourbridge goal and thundered an absolute rocket past Coleman into the top corner. It was the sort of shot that no goalkeeper stops and was well worthy of being a match winner.
Stourbridge pressed hard for an equaliser but, ultimately, the long run had to come to an end. Maybe the sheer number of cup matches has finally caught up with the players. They certainly didn't look as sharp as they had done in recent weeks. Or maybe it was just a ploy to give Stevenage boss, Graham Westley, a false sense of security?
Either way, in my opinion, Cambridge just about deserved the win and looked a far better team than when I saw them go down 3-0 at Chesham a few weeks ago. 

Twitter feeds:
Cambridge City - @cambridgecityfc
Stourbridge - @sfcoffical
Histon FC - @HistonFC



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Nine against Nine

4/11/2013

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A Tuesday evening jaunt to deepest, darkest Wiltshire for my first ever visit to Hardenhuish Park home of Chippenham Town FC. Leaving straight from work, I made the mistake of following my Sat Nav rather than my instincts. The consequence was sitting in the lovely Slough rush hour traffic for the best part of an hour. Eventually, I got onto the M4 and set off West with my Sat Nav telling me that my ETA was 19:43. After parking up on the road I ran up the driveway to the ground to be confronted with a queue to get in. Now I know that it was the mighty Glassboys in town, but a queue? To be fair, it cleared very quickly and I made it into the ground just as the game began.

The crowd of 317 were not to know the drama that would unfold that evening.

A quick note for newbies to the ground. Programmes are for sale outside the main turnstile and are not available inside. However, if there is a queue you might lose your place so, go in and then ask a kindly steward by the main gate if you just lean through and purchase a programme.

Hardenhuish has become my favourite ground, not because of the result (as will be told later) but because it is a proper football ground. Covered on 3 sides, there is an array of structures around the ground, all different shapes and sizes, offering both standing and seating areas. The ground has clearly grown organically and has a great charm to it. With only the far goal not having a covered area behind it, there is feeling of the sloped playing surface being tightly enclosed which creates a good atmosphere. I have to say that I immediately loved the place. If it was closer to home, I would visit more often without a doubt. As it is, I will certainly make an effort to visit every time Stourbridge go there.
The game. Well, what can I say about the game? It was one of the most extraordinary matches that I have been witness to, which is saying a lot seeing as I was in Munich for the infamous 1-5 game and at the Battle of Bramall Lane when Neil Warnock got the game abandoned.

Everything started fairly quietly. Both sides looked to pass the ball about, both looked fairly threatening. The Chippenham number 7, in particular, looked very lively.
Then it all sprang into life.
On 6 minutes a Ryan Rowe header put Stourbridge ahead. Seven minutes later an appalling assault by Chippenham centre half Tindle on Sean Geddes lead to the match's first red card. A further seven minutes passed before a weak headed backpass was latched into by Rowe to put Stourbridge two ahead.
Just a couple of minutes later it was 0-3 when a Geddes shot took a deflection to loop over the keeper and into the net.
Still only halfway through the first half, Chippenham were reduced to nine when a goalbound header was palmed  away by Bluebirds defender Harvey. Step forward Sean Geddes, 11 successful spot kicks this season. Not this time though! Chippenham keeper John got down well to his right to push it against a post and out. At this point I was really struggling to tweet the events before the next incident happened.
Probably the most extraordinary statistic about this game was that from midway through the first half, playing against 9 men, it took the Glassboys 44 minutes to score again. In fact, for the first 10 minutes of the second half, Chippenham had the better of the game. Then on 67 minutes another long range Geddes effort nestled inside the bottom left corner sparking a flurry of goals in the last 20 minutes. Three more from Ryan Rowe and two Luke Benbow goals later the game finished Chippenham Town 0 Stourbridge 9.
To be fair to the Chippenham support behind the goal that they were defending in the second half, they took the result with great humour and dignity, staying to the bitter end to support their team. As one Black Country wag said "Yow'm good supporters. If they'm 1 down at half time, I'm off 'um". I'm not sure that this translated that well in rural Wiltshire, but I think they got the drift.
So, certainly Stourbridge's best away win for many a year (I'm sure some statto out there can tell me the exact date and where this results sits in the overall history book) and, as it happened, the end of a managerial reign at Chippenham who sacked their manager and his assistant the next day.
I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Hardenhuish, not just because of the scoreline. It really is a fantastic place to watch football. I would encourage anyone interested in visiting proper football stadia to pay a visit. I have nothing against places like the Emirates, which is a superb arena, or even Wembley (which is not such a great arena) but they don't have the charm and history that these old grounds have, IMO.

Chippenham Town - @chiptownfc
Stourbridge FC - @sfcofficial
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Southam, 45 minutes in Chesham and visiting the Diddymen

4/11/2013

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For various reasons I haven't added a blog post for some time. Since my last entry, Dunstable v Daventry, I have been to 5 games and 4 new grounds. My latest trip, a Glassboys visit to Chippenham, is featured in the next post.
This blog will be a round-up of the other 3 new grounds. First up was a Midland Combination
tie between Southam United and Studley. Southam's Banbury Road ground on the edge of the town, has an official capacity of 1000. The ground has the rather unique, and unfortunate,  record
of having caused the team to be relegated. In the 80s, after a bowling green was constructed at one end of the ground, the pitch was found to be too short and the club were demoted. It took several years for them to return to their previous level.
The main stand at Southam is opposite the entrance and the dugouts and houses the seating area. With the exception of some low covered standing areas behind the dugouts, the rest of the ground is hard standing and open to the elements. There is a friendly clubhouse behind the players car park, behind on of the goals. On the night I was there England were playing Poland in the crucial World Cup qualifier. The match was on in both the main bar and the members bar. The main bar has, what is now classed as an old fashioned, non-flatscreen TV with a less than perfect picture quality. This actually added to the atmosphere of the televised match. Almost like watching the 1973 game all over again.
On the pitch, a well organised Studley team, particularly in defence, withstood early Southam pressure and then hit back with 3 goals of their own to run out worthy winners on the night. This was my first taste of the Midland Combination but it certainly won't be my last.
My next new ground was The Meadow, home to Southern Premier side Chesham United. Having lived in the area and been a member of the local athletics club, I knew where the ground was but had never been there before. It's certainly a good stadium for the level that the club are at and would serve them well in the next step if required. What strikes you most about The Meadow is the natural bowl. There are raised terraces on all 4 sides of the ground offering both covered and open standing and seating areas. The clubhouse, changing rooms and other buildings form a backdrop for almost the full length of one side of the ground. The evening that I was there saw Cambridge City as visitors. At the time this was 2nd against 3rd in the league and saw a decent size crowd which created a good atmosphere inside the stadium. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the entire game so I missed the key moment when the visiting keeper was sent off early in the second half. From what I saw in the first half, Chesham looked like the best team. Neat and tidy at the back and dangerous pushing forward. They were certainly worth the 2-0 lead (3-0 at FT) at half-time.
My third new ground in 2 weeks was The Loop, home of Didcot Town. Diddy, as they are known, were having a particularly torrid time at the start of the season and, at the time I visited, were sitting at the bottom of the league.
The drive from home, down the A34, to Didcot was made in torrential rain, so bad that my wipers were struggling to clear it off the windscreen. The short dash from car park to entrance, a distance of 30 yards, was enough for me to be soaked through before I had even got into the ground. I was concerned that the game would be called off. However, upon entering the ground it was apparent that there wasn't, yet, any standing water on the playing surface and everyone seemed confident that it would be going ahead.
The Loop has the majority all of the facilities along the car park side of the ground. Turnstile, changing rooms, clubhouse, tea bar, toilets and main stand are all on this side of the ground. Facing the main stand are the dugouts, backed by hard standing. The railway end of the ground has 2 small covered standing areas on either side of the goal with a further sheltered area, which was currently under construction, directly behind the goal. The opposite end was hard standing only.
One quirk of Didcot is that, to get to the clubhouse, spectators appear to have to use the same tunnel as the players. As I didn't actually visit the bar, I can't verify this from personal experience but I did see the crowd going that way at half time and there didn't seem any other entrance from within the ground.
The match itself was one way traffic for the entire first half. Visitors, Evesham, were perhaps unlucky to only be 2 up at the break. Didcot's best chance appeared to be for the rain to continue and for the match to be abandoned. However, after half time, the rain stopped and a different Diddy appeared. They eventually got a goal back and were looking the most likely to score again before being hit on the break in the last couple of minutes. 3-1 to Evesham was perhaps a bit harsh on Didcot who, on their second half performance, should pull themselves clear of the relegation zone.

Southam United - @southamunitedfc
Chesham United - @cheshamutdfc
Didcot Town - @didcottownfc

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