Sunday 31 December 2017

Irchester United - Alfred Street


Irchester United FC
Alfred Street
Irchester
Wellingborough
Northants
NN29 7DR


Ground: 34
Date: Saturday 30th December 2017
Irchester United 3-2 Melton Town
United Counties League Division 1
Attendance: 35 (official)

Irchester United FC - History

Irchester United were founded as Irchester Excelsior in 1883, changing to the current name in 1895. Initially, the club joined Division 2 of the Northamptonshire League in 1896, but finished bottom of the league in their first season and left the league. They then spent time in local leagues, winning the Rushden & District League in 1929 and 1930, earning promotion back to Division 2 of the Northamptonshire League after the second title win.

The club won Division 2 in each of their first two seasons, but were not promoted on either occasion. Instead, they left the league in 1936 after it reduced to a single division and changed name to the United Counties League. The club returned to the Rushden & District League, winning it at the first attempt and then winning it a further four times between 1947 and 1957.

The club rejoined the United Counties League in 1969 in its Division 3, which became Division 2 in 1972. They finished runners-up in this league in 1974 to earn promotion to Division 1. This was followed by the club changing name to Irchester Eastfield in 1980, having merged with Wellingborough Eastfield due to a lack of players. However, this name change didn't last long, with the club once again reverting to Irchester United in 1990.

The next two decades saw the club struggle, finishing bottom of Division 1 on seven occasions, including three consecutive seasons from 2006/07 to 2008/09. However, the club then won Division 1 in 2009/10 to earn promotion to the Premier Division, where they stayed for three seasons before returning to Division 1, where they have remained ever since.

In the FA Cup, the club has never won a game in its three appearances in the competition, while in the FA Vase the club has only made it as far as the 1st Round, which was achieved in the 2014/15 season: they beat Staines Lammas in a replay, then beat Crawley Green before losing 4-0 at home to Fakenham Town.

My Visit

After my previous groundhop at Ascot United, I set myself the aim of visiting one more ground to round off 2017 (more on why later), with the original aim being to visit either Oadby Town or Thetford Town last Saturday (the 23rd). However, family commitments put paid to that idea, so I instead had to use yesterday for my final groundhop, which wasn't exactly ideal with Yaxley also being at home.

However, plans didn't go much better for yesterday either, with my first choice at Raunds Town postponed because of a waterlogged pitch, and with two of my backups at Bourne Town and Rothwell Corinthians suffering the same fate (and with another one of my backups in Birstall United not updating their Twitter to say if there was a pitch inspection or not). This left Holwell Sports from my original five options, but my mum was reluctant to drive that far with a trip to Norfolk to visit family on the horizon.

As such, I had to quickly look through the Groundhopper app to see if anything more local was still on and, as it turned out, Irchester ended up being an option and, with it also being very near the shopping centre that my mum, stepdad and sister had planned to go to while I was at Raunds (as had been the original plan), the choice was approved.

After an uneventful drive to Irchester, I got to the ground around 20 minutes before kick-off, paying a surprisingly-low £3 for admission. It also turned out that there was no physical matchday programme, as the club apparently only issue online now (not as though I could find this online programme, mind you).

In any event, I went round the ground to do my usual circuit of photos before opting to stand behind the near goal in front of the building housing the changing rooms; unlike how I normally do it, I decided not to buy any food or drink until half-time, and even then I only bought a cup of tea from the tea bar, which only cost 50p and was actually in a mug rather than some rubbish plastic cup like what seems to happen at most grounds.


Looking at the table, it was clear that this would be a close game, but it was only when I looked at the teams' recent records that it occurred to me that I may not see much quality or many goals: Irchester were on an eight-game unbeaten run going into this game and hadn't conceded a goal since the 18th of November, which also included two 0-0 draws in their previous five games.

Here's my report on a game that had more goals than I expected, and was also significantly more entertaining than everything I mentioned above had led me to predict:


With Irchester being 13th and Melton in 15th before kick-off, I wasn't expecting much in the way of quality or excitement on the pitch, and this was reaffirmed once I saw Irchester's recent record (winning most games one or two nil and having two 0-0 draws in the last five matches). However, while my suspicions about the quality of football were more or less spot-on, I was surprised by how entertaining the game eventually became.

However, I should perhaps strongly emphasise the word eventually above, as it took around 35 minutes for the game to come to life: prior to this point, both teams seemed more or less incapable of stringing two passes together (admittedly the strong winds didn't help on this front) and, as such, clear-cut chances were few and far between, with the only one of note coming on an Irchester attack after about 25 minutes when the number 10 had a shot from the edge of the box that the Melton keeper had to react to very quickly to get a hand on the ball and tip it over the bar. Other than this, the only notable chance in the first 35 minutes came when Melton's goalkeeper somehow dropped a ball that he should have comfortably caught, and he was then extremely lucky to grab the ball just before an Irchester forward got his foot on the ball and tapped into what would have been an empty net.

While the first 35 minutes were easily the worst period of football I've seen this season (other than in the two games I saw at Carrow Road earlier in the season perhaps), the game suddenly came to life after this when Irchester got a free kick after 39 minutes: the ball was played across the box to Nathan Heycock, who turned and shot from the edge of the box to score. This had been in line with the general progression of the half (while both teams looked dreadful, Irchester looked more threatening than Melton did), but what followed next was some surprise. After Irchester's first goal, and while I was still writing down the details of the goal, Melton charged up the other end and caught Irchester napping, the ball eventually reaching Matt Hendley for a tap-in. Then, things got worse for Irchester when, after a corner was floated into the box, they needlessly gave away a penalty with a shove in the box on 44 minutes: Matt Hendley stepped up and calmly put the ball past the goalkeeper.

Unfortunately, the second half started in a similar fashion to the first, with both teams constantly giving away the ball and then being wasteful in front of goal, with the only difference being that, for the first 25 minutes or so, Melton looked more likely to score and had several good chances that were either saved or wasted, as well as having a goal disallowed for offside after around 70 minutes, just as Irchester had been starting to grow back into the game a little: it was an extremely tight call and, ultimately, proved to be a turning point in the game (had the goal stood, I imagine that would have knocked the confidence out of Irchester completely, especially as they had just started to get some decent chances together). I say this because, in the aftermath of this, Melton started to become sloppy like in the first half and, on 77 minutes, Irchester were finally able to take advantage and equalise, a ball in the box reaching Nathan Heycock again (I think, but it was hard to tell from behind the other goal) who, with the goalkeeper bearing down on him, was able to quickly turn and volley past the keeper and into the net. After this, Irchester continued to press, while Melton tried to maintain their composure and keep the ball long enough to reduce the pressure. However, they could only hold out for another 9 minutes as, after 86 minutes, Irchester scored a third, a goalmouth scramble eventually being bundled into the net by Nathan Heycock for the hat-trick (again, not 100% certain on this, but that's who it seemed to be). After this, Irchester just tried to run down the clock, while Melton frantically fought for an equaliser which ultimately never came.

Overall, while the quality of football on display was absolutely abysmal for large periods of the game, this was still an entertaining match, with the back-and-forth in the scoreline adding some much-needed drama. However, on the balance of play, I feel that Melton probably deserved a draw for their efforts, as there was really very little between the two teams (it is not at all surprising that they are so close together in the league table). However, Irchester were able to show some character and, despite utterly crumbling at the end of the first half, slowly worked their way back into the tie and then managed the game well to hold onto the win: while I'm sure they weren't at their best today, it is easy enough to understand how Irchester are currently nine games unbeaten in the league.
 





Overall, this was a far more enjoyable match and groundhop experience than I had expected, what with this game not even being on my radar at all before the start of the day: Irchester are another very friendly club and the whole place has a real homely feel to it, not least because of getting given a cup of tea in a mug (which is not something I've personally experienced before in my limited groundhopping experience).


Now, with this being my last groundhop of 2017, it would be remiss not to have a look at my stats for the year, and for this season so far. While you can see the general outline above, there's a couple of extra pieces of trivia that make this particular groundhop significant. Above, I mentioned that after Ascot I was determined to fit in one more groundhop before the start of 2018, and there are two reasons for this: first, this was my 12th groundhop of the season, which is already the most I've ever done in one season (last season's 11 was the previous record); also, this was my 17th groundhop of the year and my 34th overall, meaning that in the space of 12 months I have doubled the amount of grounds I have visited, something which I don't know if I will be able to do ever again (I was determined to do it this year, as it would have been annoying to be just one short of it).

The Ground

Alfred Street is perhaps the most basic ground I've visited so far, with only two-and-a-half sides of the ground having hard standing: the far side is off-bounds to spectators and doesn't even have a perimeter fence (due to the fact that the football club and cricket club share the ground), while only half of the area behind the far goal has hard standing, for some inexplicable reason; the area behind the near goal and the dugout side are both fully hard standing, though.

In terms of cover at the ground, all of this is on the near side, with the main stand being a typical 100-seater Arena stand, while there is also some cover and seating (in the form of small benches) in front of the building housing the changing rooms. 

Overall, the ground supposedly has a capacity of 1,000, but with only two-and-a-half sides open to spectators and with a tiny car park (room for at most 20 cars, at a guess), I would be surprised if the ground could actually handle that. As this suggests, there is little room for any real expansion, although I doubt the club will ever need to expand the ground much beyond its current state.

Photos


















Saturday 9 December 2017

Ascot United - The Racecourse Ground



Ascot United FC
The Racecourse Ground
Winkfield Road
Ascot
Berkshire
SL5 7LJ


Ground: 33
Date: Saturday 9th December 2017
Ascot United 4-2 Fairford Town
Hellenic League Premier Division
Attendance: 54 (official)

Ascot United FC - History

The current Ascot United were founded in 1965, but records show that there were other teams playing under that name as far back as 1928. Shortly after forming, the club gained permission from the Ascot Racecourse Trustees to convert some land near one of the coach parks into a football pitch, with a wooden clubhouse being built and the club winning several local honours.

In 1980, the men's team disbanded, with the club continuing through numerous youth teams until the men's team reformed in 1988. In 2001, after having enjoyed numerous years of success in the East Berkshire League, Ascot joined the Reading Senior League, which was soon followed by promotion to Division 1 East of the Hellenic League at the end of the 2006/07 season.


Both seasons in this league saw the club challenging right at the top, finishing 4th in 2007/08 and then finishing 2nd the following season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. Their first three seasons at this level were inconsistent, all ending in mid-table finishes, but a 7th-place finish in the 2012/13 season was followed by two consecutive 3rd-place finishes and one 4th-place finish. However, the 2016/17 season saw a dramatic reversal in the club's fortunes with a 15th place finish, and this season sees the club once again in a relegation battle, sitting second-from bottom going into today's game.

In the FA Cup, the club's best progress came last season when they reached the 1st Qualifying Round, beating Milton United and Didcot Town before losing in a replay to Tonbridge Angels. As for the FA Vase, the club has twice made it as far as the Quarter Finals: in 2012/13, Ascot beat Slimbridge, Chinnor, Witney Town, Reading Town, Colliers Wood United, Borrowash Victoria and Newport (Isle of Wight) before losing to Shildon in a replay; in 2014/15, the club beat Holmer Green, Horndean, Newport (Isle of Wight), Colliers Wood United and Norwich United before losing to AFC St. Austell.

My Visit

Originally, my intentions for this day had been entirely different, with my initial aim being to go somewhere a little further out than usual due to this being my last groundhop at University in 2017 before going home for Christmas. While looking for options that fit the bill, I first left it to a poll - which was won by United Services Portsmouth - which, after much consideration, I planned to ignore in favour of heading to Crowborough Athletic. 

However, a few days ago, the financial realities of Christmas as a student firmly sunk in, and it became clear that I would have to stick somewhere local again. On this front, the first game that stood out to me was Henley Town's game against Penn & Tylers Green in Division 1 East of the Hellenic League, but this idea was scuppered a few hours later once the news emerged that Henley had resigned from the Hellenic League.

At this point, I was in a tough spot, with none of my other options massively grabbing my attention and forcing me to just pick one at random, with Highmoor Ibis coming out on top on this occasion. However, this morning I had to change plans yet again with news of a pitch inspection both there and at my second option at Chertsey Town. After looking around for a while, I found this game and, after hearing it was definitely on, waited until just after midday to see if news would emerge from Highmoor or Chertsey: with this not being the case, I couldn't risk either of them and opted to head for Ascot instead.


The train journey from Guildford to Ascot was uneventful, but what I did not enjoy was the walk from the station to the football ground: a 25 minute walk, on what has been an extremely cold day, was not at all my idea of fun, especially considering I was having to expose one hand to the elements to properly use Google Maps. Eventually though, I got to the ground at 2:35pm, with Fairford's players arriving five minutes later: as it turned out, they had been delayed in traffic, so kick-off was delayed until 3:15pm. This was problematic because it meant I had to wait an extra 30 minutes to get the train home, arriving at the station 10 minutes after my originally-planned train had left (I ended up getting the 5:53pm back to Guildford rather than the 5:23pm as I had originally intended).


With this realisation, I grabbed a hot dog from the tea bar and ate that before doing my usual circuit of photos. After this, I headed into the clubhouse at 3pm to sit in the warm while waiting for kick-off. When the players did come out to get started, I opted to stand outside the clubhouse, but level with the pitch (the clubhouse is slightly raised above the pitch).


The table made for grim reading for both sides heading into this game, with both struggling at the wrong end and in a battle to avoid the drop, leading me to expect a scrappy affair that would likely be low on quality, but possibly be high on goal-mouth action.


In any case, here is my report on a game that was certainly scrappy, but was a little better than I expected, not least because it definitely delivered in terms of goalmouth action:

I expected a pretty scrappy affair, partially because of the conditions and also because of the fact that both these teams are battling near the bottom of the Hellenic Premier. And so it proved, with the game being very physical from the get-go, not helped by the fact that the referee tended to be fairly lenient in such instances. In the opening stages, Ascot seemed to have more cohesion and more of a game plan than their opponents (no doubt helped by the minimal preparation time they had), with Fairford's primary strategy in all departments being to hit it and hope. At this point, it seemed likely to come down to if/when Ascot could start to take advantage of this, with several offside calls saving Fairford early on. And so it proved when Ascot took the lead on 17 minutes, with Ben Harris finishing from close range after a pass across the box.

The first half continued in this manner, with Ascot generally having the better chances - but often being let down by profligate shooting - while Fairford's haphazard style of play seriously hindered their ability to have any influence on proceedings, other than in the form of numerous rough tackles. In fact, such was how poor Fairford looked in the first half that it was a complete surprise when they equalised through captain Lee Smith on 40 minutes, a pass across the box leading to an initial shot that was saved before Smith pounced on the rebound. However, while it was against the run of play up to that point, it did feel oddly appropriate for the two teams to be on level terms, although as it turned out this wasn't the case for very long anyway: on 44 minutes, Ben Harris made a cross into the box that eluded the Fairford defence and goalkeeper, leaving Trevor Mutero free to tap into the net at the far post. 2-1 to Ascot at half-time.

In the second half, Fairford came out looking slightly better than they had in the first half, in that there actually seemed to be some kind of game plan other than just randomly kicking the ball away and giving it straight back to Ascot. However, Ascot still looked the better side - just - and had an excellent chance to increase their advantage early on, with an excellent reflex save from Fairford's Ben Mitchell keeping the Ben Harris shot out of the net. Ascot continued to have more chances than Fairford, but as in the first half it was the away side who pulled one back against the run of play, with Callum Preece's shot from the edge of the box on 57 minutes eluding Lee Allen in the Ascot goal. After this second equaliser, the game started to become even more scrappy and came close to boiling over on a couple of occasions, but fortunately the players all had enough restraint to prevent this from happening; generally speaking, Fairford were more at fault for this (there were a couple of occasions when I thought that Fairford should have had a man sent off, only for the referee to settle for a yellow card) and seemed to be constantly moaning at the officials as well, but it's fair to say that both sides were at fault for this to a degree.

In any case, Ascot regained their lead on 68 minutes in some style, with Ben Harris picking up the ball and dribbling round a couple of defenders before taking a curling shot past Ben Mitchell in the Fairford goal. After this, it was no surprise whatsoever when Harris completed his hat-trick on 77 minutes, this time scoring from a header after a free-kick was speculatively floated into the box; I don't know if it was a "perfect hat-trick or not" though, as while I know his second was scored with his right foot, I don't remember which foot Harris scored his first with. In any case, both sides had decent chances to score more goals after this point, but ultimately Ascot were able to hold on for the win.

All in all, while this is the joint-highest amount of goals I've seen in a game this season, I feel like I'm slightly hard-pressed to say it was massively entertaining: it was certainly more entertaining than the game at Westfield, or the game at Waltham Forest, but the game was also rather low on quality of times. On that note of quality, I would say that neither of these sides looked as good as Bicester did when I went to visit Sandhurst a few weeks ago: considering what I saw on both occasions, I would expect Bicester to beat both of these teams who played today, although they would probably have a much easier time with Fairford than Ascot.





A couple of asides here: this now means I have seen games in eight of the fourteen Step 5 leagues, with the aim being to do a game in both the Southern Combination League Premier Division and the Southern Counties East League Premier Division (the only other two I can realistically afford to do while at University) before the end of the season; also, while I didn't see him myself, FA Chairman Greg Clarke was apparently in attendance, as seen in the below photo from Ascot's Twitter (Greg Clarke on the right, Ascot's chairman Mike Harrison on the left):


Overall, other than the bitter cold and the long walks to the ground from the station and vice-versa, this was a reasonably enjoyable day and another good groundhop, although honestly with so many games postponed today I was just happy to get in a decent game with plenty of goals in. It also helped that Ascot seemed like a nice and friendly club, one that is definitely worth visiting if you can.

The Ground

The Racecourse Ground is a fairly basic one, but one that is sufficient for the club's fanbase and current league standing. The only seating at the ground is a 100-seater Arena stand to the right of the clubhouse, with the overhang of the clubhouse providing the only other cover at the ground.

Other than this, three sides of the ground are open hard standing, with the area behind the goal on the racecourse side lacking hard standing. The ground's overall capacity is 1,150, with the record attendance being 1,149 for the club's FA Cup debut against Wembley in 2011.

What makes the ground slightly more unique than it appears at first is its location: firstly, it is located directly next to part of the iconic Ascot Racecourse (as seen in some of the pictures below), with the Royal Ascot Golf Club and some sort of miniature railway also nearby. 

However, this location may prove to be a nuisance for the club if they ever progress higher up the pyramid, as I can't imagine it being easy to get planning permission for ground improvements here. Saying that, the club has since laid down a 3G pitch on the ground.

Photos