Soham Town Rangers FC
Julius Martin Lane
Soham
Ely
Cambridgeshire
CB7 5EQ
Ground: 83
Date: Saturday 3rd August 2019
Soham Town Rangers 4-3 Yaxley
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 90
Soham Town Rangers - History
Soham Town Rangers were founded in 1947 as a merger of Soham Town and Soham Rangers, first playing in the Premier Division of the Cambridgeshire County League before moving to the Peterborough & District League in 1956. In 1959, the club applied to move up to the Eastern Counties League but were rejected. After winning the league in the 1959/60 and 1961/62 seasons, the club applied for promotion again in 1963 and were successful this time.
The club remained in this league for the next 25 years, generally finishing in the bottom half but occasionally breaking into the top half. However, after a second division was added in 1988, the club finished bottom of the Premier Division in the 1988/89 season and were relegated to Division 1. The club then spent four seasons in Division 1 before finishing as runners-up in the 1992/93 season to return to the Premier Division.
Initially, the club once again found themselves in the bottom reaches of the Premier Division, but other than a poor season here or there they steadily improved their position in the table, with a notable 3rd place finish in the 2002/03 season. After this, the club remained in the Premier Division until the 2007/08 season, when they won the title on the final day (by beating title rivals Needham Market 4-0) to earn promotion to Division 1 Midlands of the Southern League.
In their first few campaigns at Step 4 level, the club finished in respectable mid-table positions, never being majorly threatened with relegation or pushing on for another promotion. However, this changed when the club were transferred to Division 1 North of the Isthmian League for the 2011/12 season, a move which saw the club finish 19th to just avoid relegation. The club have remained in Division 1 North ever since, finishing as high as 7th in the 2012/13 season and as low as 19th in the 2016/17 season.
In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 3rd Qualifying Round in the 1970/71 season, beating Rushden Town and March Town United before losing to King's Lynn. In the FA Trophy, the club have progressed as far as the 2nd Qualifying Round on three occasions, most recently in the 2013/14 season: they beat Newcastle Town and Grantham Town before losing to Chorley. As for the FA Vase, the club reached the 5th Round in the 2004/05 season, beating Colney Heath, Royston Town, Sporting Bengal United, St. Neots Town and West Allotment Celtic before losing to AFC Newbury.
My Visit
I first found out about this match just over a week ago, having first heard speculation about it at the last Yaxley friendly I attended before going on holiday to Edinburgh. After returning from that holiday, I had a look on the Soham website to see if I could find confirmation that it was taking place. Once I did, I added it to the groundhopping schedule, asking my mum about it and next week's groundhop shortly after returning from Luton last Saturday.
Having received her approval of the plans, it was then just a matter of waiting for the day of the game to arrive (and hoping that the weather wouldn't be too bad. On the day of the game, though, there were no such problems and we left the house at around 1:15pm, heading into Farcet and then down the back-roads towards Ely (the same route that we used when heading to Ely City and Chatteris Town in the past), arriving at the ground roughly an hour later.
After taking a few photos outside the ground, I headed in and paid £5 for admission, before beginning my usual circuit of photos. Early into the circuit, I was for whatever reason asked to help put up one of the goal nets; in no rush, I was happy to oblige. Once that was sorted, I resumed my circuit of photos and, after finishing, sat on a bench by the main stand with other Yaxley supporters while we waited for kick-off.
As kick-off approached, I went over and ordered a cheese burger and some chips from the food hut by the turnstiles. The chips were very good and the burger wasn't too bad, though the bun was substantially thicker than the burger itself. After finishing these, I moved beyond the main stand with George and some other Yaxley supporters, before moving behind the near goal and then to the far side in the second half (which was spent amidst a flying ant infestation).
Here's my match report on Yaxley's penultimate pre-season friendly, which proved to be a reasonably entertaining match and a productive contest for both sides ahead of their respective seasons at Step 4:
We made an excellent start to this game, going straight on the offensive and taking the lead after 5 minutes: a ball down the left wing reached Charley Sanders and he outpaced his two markers to break into the box and shoot, slotting his effort under the keeper to score. After this, the rest of the first half was finely poised, with plenty of midfield play for both sides but not much in terms of clear-cut chances: our defence were sweeping up most Soham attacks well, while our attacks fizzled out more often than not. However, a sloppy mistake brought Soham back into the game on the stroke of half-time: a John-Paul Duncliffe pass wasn't strong enough to reach another defender and was pounced upon, with the Soham attack eventually forcing a corner; then, from the corner, no one picked up the run of the number 10 and he was free to head into the net.
Boosted by that first half goal, Soham made a positive start to the first half and took the lead in the 48th minute, with the 11 given space to curve a shot beyond James Blake and in from outside the box. After this, much of the second half saw Soham pressing in numbers, while our defensive solidity and organisation from the first half had largely vanished. This saw Soham dominate proceedings for the next 20 or so minutes, with their 3rd goal coming in the 66th minute: a free kick was floated into the box and one of our defenders accidentally poked it into his own net.
Six minutes later, we pulled one back through Tom Waumsley after some excellent play from Cameron Gow left Sanders free to cross to Waumsley for a tap-in. However, as we continued to push for an equaliser - and in amidst a series of substitutions - we perhaps over-committed and this gave Soham the chance to regain their two-goal cushion in the 82nd minute, albeit in slightly controversial fashion: a winger played a cross into the box that was tapped in, but he and the ball appeared to be behind the touchline as he made the cross. Neither the referee or the linesman were able to spot this though, so the goal stood. Either way, we started to press and attack high again after this, but little came of it until we earned a penalty in the 89th minute, which Phil Stebbing emphatically converted.
Overall, this match was decent enough to watch and a productive contest for both sides ahead of the new season, but it wasn't as entertaining as the scoreline would suggest (most likely because it was a pre-season friendly and hence lacked the normal sense of urgency). From our perspective, though, it was a decent if somewhat frustrating performance: we maintained our defensive discipline until the very end of the first half and from that point on we became much less tactically disciplined and hence much more open. Better that it happens now rather than during a competitive match though.
Boosted by that first half goal, Soham made a positive start to the first half and took the lead in the 48th minute, with the 11 given space to curve a shot beyond James Blake and in from outside the box. After this, much of the second half saw Soham pressing in numbers, while our defensive solidity and organisation from the first half had largely vanished. This saw Soham dominate proceedings for the next 20 or so minutes, with their 3rd goal coming in the 66th minute: a free kick was floated into the box and one of our defenders accidentally poked it into his own net.
Six minutes later, we pulled one back through Tom Waumsley after some excellent play from Cameron Gow left Sanders free to cross to Waumsley for a tap-in. However, as we continued to push for an equaliser - and in amidst a series of substitutions - we perhaps over-committed and this gave Soham the chance to regain their two-goal cushion in the 82nd minute, albeit in slightly controversial fashion: a winger played a cross into the box that was tapped in, but he and the ball appeared to be behind the touchline as he made the cross. Neither the referee or the linesman were able to spot this though, so the goal stood. Either way, we started to press and attack high again after this, but little came of it until we earned a penalty in the 89th minute, which Phil Stebbing emphatically converted.
Overall, this match was decent enough to watch and a productive contest for both sides ahead of the new season, but it wasn't as entertaining as the scoreline would suggest (most likely because it was a pre-season friendly and hence lacked the normal sense of urgency). From our perspective, though, it was a decent if somewhat frustrating performance: we maintained our defensive discipline until the very end of the first half and from that point on we became much less tactically disciplined and hence much more open. Better that it happens now rather than during a competitive match though.
Overall, this was a good groundhop to end my pre-season on, even if the result wasn't the one I had hoped for. After the match, I got picked up with perfect timing and we headed home, arriving home at around 5:40pm. I then got straight to work on sorting out my photos, but didn't get my match report done until late in the evening due to the fact that we headed into Peterborough in the evening to have dinner at Five Guys.
My upcoming plans still remain as they were last week, with an FA Cup game planned next weekend. However, I likely won't know until Wednesday or Thursday whether I'm going to Desborough or Holbeach, as it'll be my mum making that decision. Other than that, it was announced after the game that Yaxley will have one more pre-season friendly this coming Tuesday (away at Stamford), but while I'm tempted to go I'm going to save that ground for another time.
I'm also still figuring out how I'm going to fit one more groundhop in before I go back to University, and it seems my best bet for that will be to hope that Yaxley get through to the FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round (which takes place on my birthday) and get an away draw at a ground I've yet to visit. If that scenario doesn't happen and if Yaxley don't make it through at all (and hence don't have a game, as I'll go if we do whether it's at home or at a ground I've visited before), I may head to Whittlesey Athletic instead (as I'm pretty sure they're at home that day).
The Ground
Julius Martin Lane is a good Step 4 ground, one with plenty of character compared to most and one that is also very well-maintained on top of that. There is cover on three sides of the ground, with covered standing extending most of the way behind each goal. The food hut is behind the near goal on the edge of the covered standing there.
On the dugout side of the ground is three separate areas of cover, with two areas of covered standing separated by the main stand. The first of these areas of cover is an overhang from the clubhouse roof, while the cover beyond the main stand is essentially a smaller version of the large covered areas behind each goal.
Then there's the impressive elevated main stand, which apparently provides seating for 250 people (from below, it looks like it holds a lot less than that, but as I didn't go up into the stand itself I can't reasonably judge). The only uncovered area of the ground is the far side, which isn't normally open to spectators due to league rules (but it seemed to be open for this match).
The ground currently has a capacity of 2,000, but the record attendance was 3,000 for a Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup game against Pegasus in 1958. In its current form, the ground is more than good enough for Step 4, and with all the space on the far side there is plenty of room to expand should the club ever reach Step 3 in the future.
Photos
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