Crowborough Athletic - Crowborough Community Stadium

Crowborough Athletic FC

Crowborough Community Stadium

Alderbrook Close

Crowborough

East Sussex

TN6 3BU

Official Website

Twitter

Ground: 36

Date: Saturday 27th January 2018

Crowborough Athletic 3-0 Hollands & Blair

Southern Counties East League Premier Division
Attendance: 133 (official)

Crowborough Athletic FC - History

Crowborough Athletic were established in 1894 and spent much of their early history in local leagues in the Tunbridge Wells area. In 1974, the club joined Division 2 of the Sussex County League, winning the Division 2 cup in 1978. They remained in Division 2 for a decade before suffering relegation to Division 3 at the end of the 1983/84 season. However, it only took them three seasons to return to Division 2, a runners-up finish in the 1986/87 season enough to earn promotion.

The club spent the next nine seasons in Division 2 before beating local rivals Stamco on the last day of the 1992/93 season to win the title and earn promotion to Division 1. However, they did not last long at that level, being relegated back to Division 2 at the end of the 1995/96 season. Things got worse for the club three seasons later with relegation back to Division 3, but they bounced back with promotion to Division 2 the following season, only to then suffer immediate relegation back to Division 3 at the end of the 2000/01 season.

In the 2003/04 season, Crowborough began to climb back up the divisions of the Sussex County League, winning Division 3 and then winning Division 2 the following season. This was then followed by promotion to Division 1 South of the Isthmian League at the end of the 2007/08 season after winning Division 1, but their time at Step 4 was short-lived and they finished bottom to immediately return to the County League.

After this relegation, the club initially struggled in Division 1 for a few seasons, but were able to stay up on each occasion. After finishing 5th in the league at the end of the 2013/14 season, Crowborough were transferred to the Southern Counties East League, where they have remained ever since, recording a highest finish of 2nd last season and fighting for promotion again this season.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 3rd Qualifying Round in the 2008/09 season, beating Ringmer, Walton Casuals and Leighton Town before losing to Harlow Town in a replay. In the club's one season in the FA Trophy (also 2008/09, incidentally), they reached the 1st Qualifying Round, beating Eastbourne Town before losing 2-0 at home to Northwood. As for the FA Vase, the club has progressed as far as the 5th Round on two occasions: in the 2007/08 season, they beat Hailsham Town, Chessington & Hook United, Brimsdown Rovers and Lymington Town before losing to Kirkham & Wesham (now known as AFC Fylde); last season, Crowborough beat Broadbridge Heath, Gravesham Borough, Banstead Athletic, Eastbourne United Association, Bedfont Sports and Eastbourne Town before losing 3-6 at home to Coleshill Town.

My Visit

Originally, I had planned to visit Abingdon Town yesterday, but the constant rain during the week made me decide against that plan (turned out to be the right call, as their game ended up being called off just 15 minutes before kick-off) and, after explaining the situation to Matt (who would be joining me for the first time since the Waltham Forest groundhop), I started to look for other options that would be equally interesting.

After some investigation, I ended up with a shortlist of 6 options, including this, East Grinstead, Tunbridge Wells, Slough (as obligatory 3G backup) and a couple of others that I cannot remember). This was quickly narrowed down to this, East Grinstead and Slough and, after looking at trains on Friday night (so as to figure out the logistics of when and where Matt and I would meet up), I was forced to reluctantly rule this out as, for some reason, there was no option to book tickets for any of the viable trains to Crowborough.

As such, come yesterday morning, I assumed that we would be going to East Grinstead, so long as the pitch survived the weather (which it did, with East Grinstead ultimately losing 8-1 to Whyteleafe). However, early in the morning Crowborough tweeted that their game was definitely on, so I decided to have a look at the trains again, hoping that I would actually be able to book train tickets after all: fortunately, this was the case (which makes me wonder why I couldn't on Friday night, but I digress), so I told Matt of the change in plans before we quickly sorted out where we'd meet on the way.

After a train journey involving two changes (one at Redhill, then another at East Croydon), I met Matt on the train at East Croydon and we arrived in Crowborough at 2:10pm. We then had the fun of having to walk half an hour in the rain from the train station to the ground, eventually arrived 20 minutes before kick-off. 

We each paid £8 to get into the ground (way too steep for Step 5, if you ask me), and I grabbed a programme as well. After this, I went round the ground taking photos before we both sat in the main stand, with it still raining at this point. Ten minutes into the game, we went to get some warm food from the snack bar in the terrace behind the near goal, settling here for the rest of the game afterwards.

Looking at the table, the result seemed fairly easy to predict, with it seeming all-but-inevitable that Crowborough would have no trouble sweeping a struggling Hollands & Blair aside in their battle for promotion.

Here's my report on a game that went as I expected in terms of the final result, but was nowhere near as easy for Crowborough as I expected or as the scoreline implies:

With the pitch in a very slippery and muddy state from the ongoing deluge, the opening proceedings were slow and cautious, with both teams testing things to see what they could do despite the conditions, while also probing the opposition defences to find the gaps in them. As such, the first fifteen minutes or so were largely uneventful, with each side only having a few half-chances. The first notable incident was a mass brawl - one of many scuffles (of varying scales) in this game - after around 10 minutes, when a sliding tackle on a Crowborough player provoked an angry reaction, which then pulled in the rest of the players and caused the entire situation to almost escalate completely out of control. Fortunately, this incident didn't take too long to calm down after the initial scuffle, but the referee set the precedent by booking nobody, rather than meting out proper punishments for the brawl.

After this, Crowborough started to take control of the game and turn the screw, pinning H&B back into their own half for a period. Crowborough then had the ball in the net after 17 minutes, but Zac Attwood's effort was disallowed for offside. However, it was becoming clear that it was only a matter of time until Crowborough took the lead and, after a few more good chances and a couple more minor scuffles here and there, they finally had their first goal after half an hour: debutant Trevor McCreadie had space in the box and slotted home from ten yards out. While I say that the goal had been coming, it would be wrong to say that Crowborough were especially comfortable at this point as, while they did generally look more likely to score, H&B were having a few good chances here and there, but seemed to consistently take a moment too long to shoot, allowing a Crowborough defender to get back and clear or intercept with a last-ditch tackle (Crowborough were playing a very high defensive line, so H&B were able to carve out a few chances with the ball over the top); considering their struggle at the bottom of the league, this is not surprising and clearly indicates an understandable lack of confidence.

In any case, the last major talking point of the first half came with another major scuffle on 40 minutes, with this one finally being met by the first yellow card of the game, H&B's Scott Whibley being the man to end up in the book: with some of the tackles flying in (not helped by the slippery conditions, admittedly), and some of the reactions to these (one that stood out to me is a Crowborough winger being tackled on the edge of the box and, in response, pulling the leg of the H&B defender to bring him to the floor as well), it would have been appropriate for each team to have at least 2-3 players booked to try and curb the bad-blood, but the referee was far too lenient and indirectly contributed to such incidents continuing to occur throughout the second half. In any event, Crowborough went in 1-0 up at half-time.

With the rain having been falling all game so far, the second half started in much the same vein as the first, with the play being reasonably cautious and conservative and with some big tackles flying in, followed by a yellow card for H&B's Steve Dampier on 53 minutes. However, as in the first half, Crowborough started to exert some control over proceedings, and it was not at all surprising when Zac Attwood doubled their lead on 57 minutes, going on an excellent run before having his shot slightly deflected on its way in. Unlike the first half, though, this saw Crowborough almost take complete control of the game, starting to string together chance after chance while effectively stifling anything H&B could do to try and pull one back. However, my honest appraisal of the 20 minutes after the second goal is that the only side who looked like they wanted to score at this point was H&B, with the home side seeming to be more than happy to maintain their two-goal advantage rather than pushing for more (understandable after back-to-back losses in the FA Vase and league, I suppose).

An incident on 79 minutes seemed to change the Crowborough mindset, with Jack Walder suffering what looked to be a serious injury (I'm not sure how this happened, but I would assume it was caused by a tackle that, because of how slippery the pitch was, ended up with far more force behind it than intended). He was eventually replaced by Tom Vickers on 82 minutes and this seemed to spark Crowborough into action as, just two minutes later, captain Henry Muggeridge set through Dan Perry to slot the ball under H&B goalkeeper Louis Lawlor to make it 3-0 to the home side. At this point, the game was over and, despite a couple of decent chances for H&B in the final few minutes, Crowborough were able to endure and keep the clean sheet.

Overall, this game can be best described as a workman-like performance from Crowborough, with them seemingly doing the bare minimum needed to win against a Hollands & Blair side who battled their hardest to try and get something out of the game, but ultimately didn't have enough to do so. However, I would say that they looked like a far better side than I expected considering their position in the league, and in fairness they never gave up at all: they're bound to pick up more points playing the way they did today, but whether that'll be enough to stay up is a different matter.

Overall, while the traveling was a pain (and not just because of the constant deluge), this was an enjoyable day out at a ground I've been eager to visit and a club who came across as extremely friendly as well.

The Ground

Compared to the last few grounds I've ended up visiting, the Crowborough Community Stadium was a massive step-up on all levels. For the first time since Waltham Forest, there was hard standing on all four sides of the ground, and in addition to this there was four separate areas of cover, albeit only on two sides of the ground (realistically, there doesn't look as if there would be enough room on the dugout side or behind the far goal for any football furniture, and besides the available cover was sufficient and much-appreciated on such a wet day).

Behind the near goal is an impressive covered terrace which spans almost the entire length of the near goal and could probably hold 500 people if the need ever arose. The rest of the cover is on the near side, with a covered Arena terrace providing covered standing for around 50 people, a 50-seater Atcost stand and an impressive 100-seater  main stand between the Atcosts.

The ground's overall capacity is 2,000 and, by the looks of it, would almost certainly be good enough for Step 4 (unsurprising considering the club has been at that level before, albeit only for one season) or, if not, isn't far off being good enough. There's also a decent amount of room to expand on the near side if necessary, but not many other options on that front at the current site.

Photos

Wymondham Town - King's Head Meadow

Wymondham Town FC

King's Head Meadow

Back Lane

Wymondham

Norfolk

NR18 0QB

Official Website

Twitter 

Ground: 35

Date: Saturday 13th January 2018

Wymondham Town 3-1 Sheringham

Anglian Combination League Division 1
Attendance: 60

Wymondham Town FC - History

There's little information available on this front online, but from what I have been able to find, Wymondham Town were founded in 1883 and have spent their entire history in local leagues. They joined the Norfolk & Suffolk League in the aftermath of World War 2 before being placed in Section B of the Anglian Combination League when this formed in 1964 after a merger of the Norfolk & Suffolk League and the East Anglian League. Despite some struggles in recent years (they almost folded in 2014), the club are currently in Division 1 of the Anglian Combination League, competing for promotion to the Premier Division.

Other than this, the club notably played in the FA Cup for six seasons, from the 1950/51 season to the 1955/56 season. The only game they ever won in the competition was a 2-1 win at Cromer Town in their final season in the competition, before losing to Beccles in a replay in the 2nd Qualifying Round.

My Visit

I knew from the start that I was going up to visit my grandparents in Attleborough yesterday, but it wasn't until Friday that I knew my options would be very limited. Initially, I had been hoping to go somewhere like Walsham-le-Willows or Downham Town, but I was told I would have to stay very local to get to a game at all.

With this in mind, my thoughts initially turned to Mundford, but as they were playing a struggling Cromer Town side, I thought the game would be farcical and not worth it, as much as I wanted to visit the ground (Mundford ended up winning 10-0, so my prediction seems to have been spot-on, unfortunately). I was then set on going to Attleborough Town for their game against Watton United, but I was somewhat reluctant as I knew there wasn't any football furniture at their ground.

As such, when my grandfather said that, as far as he knew, Wymondham Town had a stand, I asked my dad to make the short drive there for their game against Sheringham. However, when we got to the ground, it turned out that there was no football furniture at all, just a clubhouse and a pitch. This was somewhat disappointing, but at this point I figured I may as well make the most of it and, after picking up a couple of programmes (one for my dad and one for me), I took a small amount of photos while waiting for kick-off. 

With it being elevated above the pitch - and hence a good vantage point - and being the only area of the ground with hard standing, my dad and I opted to stand in front of the clubhouse, with the initial idea being to go in at half-time for a hot drink (which we didn't end up doing).

Looking at the table, it seemed reasonable to assume that this would be a close and competitive game between two strong sides, with the outcome either being a tight draw or one of the two teams suffering just their second loss of the season.

Here's my report on a game that was better than I expected for my first below Step 6, as well as my first time seeing the sin-bin rule in action:

With both teams competing near the top of the league for promotion (with Wymondham in 2nd and Sheringham in 3rd going into the game), and with only two losses between them this season, I was expecting a tight, competitive game. Right from the kick-off, the latter proved to be true, with neither side holding back in the tackle and the game quickly becoming very physical and aggressive, to the point that I started to wonder if the two sides have some kind of history with each other, as there seemed to be a lot of bad blood between the two teams: for instance, Wymondham could have easily had Charlie Blake sent off within the first ten minutes, and come the end of the game I was surprised he had lasted the full 90. In any event, this approach to the game meant that clear-cut chances were few and far between in the opening fifteen minutes, with neither team looking particularly like scoring.

However, after 17 minutes, Wymondham broke the deadlock, a cross into the box headed in from close range by Danny Pennell. Their lead was then doubled nine minutes later when an excellent through ball put Ashley Mitchell into the box, leaving him to calmly shoot past Chris Bird in the Sheringham goal. Sheringham started to push hard for a way back into the game, but were unable to make the most of their chances to do so. Their frustration was then compounded when, on 40 minutes, Wymondham's Aaron Nixon scored an outstanding goal, chipping the ball into the net from 35 yards out, much to the surprise of everyone in the ground; at Step 8, you definitely don't expect to see someone able to score like that, even if inept goalkeeping definitely contributed to it (Bird was more or less on his line, yet was unable to do anything to stop the ball from dipping behind him and into the net). While this should have seen Wymondham comfortably clear, and Sheringham out of the game, the away side were seemingly woken up by this goal and cranked up the pressure, taking just four minutes to pull one back: a free kick was played into the box and Ben Boyce had a free header from which to score. The situation continued to improve for Sheringham during added time when Wymondham's Charlie Blake was sin-binned for persistent dissent.

As for the second half, Sheringham started on the front foot, having been gifted a way back into the game through Boyce's goal and the man advantage for the first ten minutes of the half. However, despite chance after chance after chance throughout the half, I would be hard-pressed to say that they ever actually looked like scoring, as their efforts were hindered either by wasteful finishing or by overly-slow build-up play allowing Wymondham to bring bodies back to defend with. In fact, even though Sheringham had the vast majority of the chances in the second half, Wymondham had the best chance after around 75 minutes, Ashley Mitchell set through one-on-one but having his shot well-saved by Bird in the Sheringham goal (his first save of the entire game, I seem to recall). In the end, the game finished 3-1 to the home side, with the second half ultimately being more notable for some, shall we say, lackluster refereeing, the most notable mistakes being that he missed a blatant back pass and a blatant handball in the box; other than this, he just generally didn't control the game enough, in that he didn't book or send off anyone to curb the increasing physicality of tackles in the second half, something which undoubtedly hindered proceedings.

Overall, for my first trip below Step 6, it was a better game than I expected, but it did pretty much completely peter out during the second half, which was a shame really as the first half had been a good contest despite its physicality. Still, it could have been a whole lot worse, I suppose.

On the whole, while I can't say this was where I hoped or expected to end up for my first groundhop of 2018, it was a decent start to the year, as well as being decent for the last game I'll be watching before heading back to University this coming Friday.

The Ground

It feels strange to be saying this for the second groundhop in a row, but King's Head Meadow is now the most basic ground I've ever visited, something which is perhaps not surprising considering this was two levels lower than Step 6. The only area of hard standing is in front of the clubhouse which, as I said above, is elevated above the pitch. There is no cover of any sort at the ground, while the rest of the standing at the ground is little more than grass banks.

The area in front of the clubhouse has a proper perimeter fence, but the rest of the pitch is only enclosed by a rope. There are also three floodlight pylons in front of the clubhouse, but none of these were in use, though whether this is because they don't work or not I can't say for sure.

Overall, though it is a very basic ground, it is sufficient for the club's needs, and I can't help but feel that it is probably slightly better than the typical set-up at Step 7 or below (there are some notable exceptions to this, but most grounds from Step 7 downwards are little more than pitches from what I've gathered).

Photos