Berkhamsted FC
Broadwater
Berkhamsted
Herts
HP4 2AL
Ground: 65
Date: Saturday 8th December 2018
Berkhamsted 1-2 Yaxley
Southern League Division 1 Central
Attendance: 98 (official)
Attendance: 98 (official)
Berkhamsted FC - History
Berkhamsted were founded in 2009 after predecessor club Berkhamsted Town folded and they initially joined Division 2 of the Spartan South Midlands League. The club won this league at the first attempt to earn promotion to Division 1, before then immediately winning Division 1 to earn promotion to the Premier Division for the 2011/12 season.
Their first season in the Premier Division saw them finish 7th, but the following season saw them drop to 11th (their lowest finish in the Premier Division to this day). From the 2013/14 to 2015/16, the club consistently remained around 5th or 6th in the division, but in the 2016/17 season the club dropped down to 8th in the table. The 2017/18 season saw a significant improvement as the club lost just four games all season and finished 2nd in the Premier Division, which due to the restructuring at Steps 3 and 4 was enough for the club to earn promotion to Division 1 Central of the Southern League for this season.
In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 2nd Qualifying Round in the 2012/13 season, beating Hoddesdon Town, Hadley and Uxbridge before losing to Metropolitan Police. In the club's debut FA Trophy campaign this season, they made it to the 1st Qualifying Round, beating South Park before losing to Chipstead. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 5th Round in the 2015/16 season, beating Woodford United, Northampton ON Chenecks, Northampton Spencer, AFC Kempston Rovers, Saffron Walden Town and Hullbridge Sports before losing to eventual winners Morpeth Town.
My Visit
Originally, as I have made clear in a couple of my recent blog posts, I wasn't going to bother with this Yaxley away game and was instead going to go somewhere else. Initially, with it looking likely that Matt would once again be able to join me, we were thinking of finally going to tick off East Grinstead Town, as that was one of the ones (other than Windsor) that we had frequently discussed going to last season.
However, on Thursday Matt told me that his revision wasn't going as well as planned, so he would be unable to join me as a result. By this point, I was seriously considering going to this game again and indeed suggested it to Matt, but I also had a few more local options in mind (most notably Farnborough) if I ended up not feeling like it after all. On Friday though, it was clear that, despite my misgivings after some recent results, I couldn't resist the temptation of another Yaxley away day (not even one that would cost me just under £20 on the train).
It was then just a matter of waiting on news yesterday morning about whether the game was going to go ahead (as the Berkhamsted chairman had stated on Twitter that the pitch was heavy but playable and would be checked again in the morning on Friday night), and fortunately that news came through just after 10am, at which point I ordered my train tickets and started getting ready. I had an early lunch at 11am and left the house 35 minutes later, getting to the train station 15 minutes before my train into London arrived.
Despite the distance, the journey to Berkhamsted was probably one of the easiest I've ever done on the train (other than the most local options, obviously), with an initial train direct from Guildford to London Waterloo, then straight on the Northern Line in the Underground to Euston and then direct from Euston station to Berkhamsted. To make matters even easier, the ground was right next to the station, so I ended up arriving at the ground at around 1:45pm.
Initially, I headed into the clubhouse with a few other Yaxley fans (as it had just started raining again as my train came into Berkhamsted station) and sat down to watch the last half an hour or so of the National League match between Boreham Wood and Leyton Orient. By the time that match was finished, the rain had stopped again so I finally headed into the ground itself, paying £8 admission and £1.50 for the programme. I then did my usual circuit of photos before joining the other Yaxley fans standing by the near goal as we awaited kick-off. Before kick-off, a minute's silence was held in tribute of UCL chairman John Weeks who recently passed away.
A look at the league table showed that this would be another immensely difficult game for us, so I have to admit I went in with only hope rather than expectations of getting a result (and not just because I'd seen us lose all five away games I'd been to this season up to this point). Here's my report on what was a tough and competitive game in which we put in a strong performance to pick up a crucial three points:
The early stages of the game saw both teams struggle to adapt to a very slick and muddy pitch, with several wayward passes from both sides in the first 5-10 minutes. We soon found ourselves on top, with Dan Cotton causing the Berkhamsted right back all sorts of problems and with Tom Waumsley and Phil Stebbing putting plenty of pressure on the centre backs. As such, it was unsurprising when we took the lead after 20 minutes: the referee opted to play advantage after a tackle in midfield and the ball was then played central to Waumsley who then passed it to Cotton on his left, whose low shot from the edge of the box crept under the Berkhamsted keeper and into the back of the net. We then maintained control for a further five or so minutes, but Berkhamsted steadily started to wake up and force themselves back into proceedings.
However, the home side's equaliser after 28 minutes had little to do with their steady improvement: a long ball was played up the pitch and it should have been a routine header clear from Charley Sanders, but he attempted to kick it clear and ended up scuffing it, with Berkhamsted's Jonathan Lacey capitalising with an overhead kick to level things up. Another Sanders mistake a few minutes later almost saw Berkhamsted take the lead, but Ollie Sutton kept his cool and saved the one-on-one effort. It was at this point that Berkhamsted started to dominate proceedings, putting immense pressure on our goal for the rest of the half: on several occasions, an excellent save from Sutton or an excellent defensive block was required to keep the home side out, and in all honesty we were relieved to go in at half-time with the scores still level.
The second half initially started with some more strong pressure from Berkhamsted, but the half-time break seemed to have taken some wind out of their sails, which allowed us to steadily grow back into the game. This initially saw us reduce the number of chances the home side were creating, but it wasn't long before we started pushing forward again ourselves. Chances came and went for both sides, but much of the second half was a tense impasse between the two sides, and as the game entered the final fifteen minutes it looked as if this would remain the case. However, a quick attacking move from us changed things entirely: a long ball was played from midfield and found its way to Waumsley (after initially being blocked by a defender), who then passed it on to Cotton who shot from just inside the box, the keeper parrying the shot into Stebbing's path for an easy tap-in.
After this, we made a couple of substitutions and tactical changes (Stebbing off for Hook and Butterworth off for Eagleton, with Watson moving into defence and Sanders moving up front) as we attempted to see the game out. While there were a few scares here and there in the final ten minutes (Berkhamsted always looked threatening from set-pieces and had a few of these to work with in the final ten), we fairly comfortably held out and actually looked slightly more dangerous in the final third, the combination of Sanders and Waumsley causing serious problems for the home defence.
Overall, this was a solid performance from us against a very strong and organised promotion-chasing side in Berkhamsted, and for once we came away with the points that our performance merited. It wasn't at all easy though and it was a little smash-and-grab, but at the end of the day the important thing is that the whole team applied themselves very well and maintained their composure throughout; if we can continue to do that in the upcoming home games we will be in a much better place in the table going into 2019.
While I obviously enjoyed this game and the result, I'd be hard-pressed to say that this was a good match for the neutral (although this Twitter post would suggest otherwise) as the ball did spend a lot of time in the air and there were a lot of misplaced and miscued passes from both sides. Regardless, I enjoyed this groundhop, partially because of the result but also because Berkhamsted came across as a very friendly club on the day.
The journey back was as easy as the journey there, the only difference being that the Underground was much less busy at 5:40pm than it was when I got into London five hours before (seems a little strange to me, but it was at least convenient). I got back into the house just after 7pm, which I was quite pleased with considering the distance I had travelled.
As we're nearing Christmas again, my groundhopping is going to slow down this month. I'll be heading home for Christmas break next Saturday and going to Yaxley's home game against North Leigh that day, while the following weekend I'll be watching Yaxley's home game against Dunstable Town. I don't think I'll go anywhere on Boxing Day this year (and Yaxley are away at Peterborough Sports, who I've already visited, anyway), so my next groundhop will not be until the 29th of December, when I'll be on the Yaxley Supporters' Coach for our away game at Barton Rovers (if the weather holds out, that is). That will be my 32nd and final groundhop of 2018, meaning I've fallen just two short of doubling my number of grounds visisted in the space of 12 months like I managed in 2017.
The Ground
Broadwater is a ground with a decent amount of character, but one that is showing its age here and there. The only seating at the ground is in the 170-seater main stand on the near side. Next to this and the turnstiles is a small uncovered terrace, while on the other side of the main stand is a red gazebo (I think that's what you'd call it), which I imagine is used for larger crowds, such as when Bromsgrove Sporting visit).
Behind each goal is an additional area of covered standing, each of which contain a few steps of terracing and could probably hold 150-200 people. Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, though on the far side this is ridiculously narrow (as you will see in the photos below). Behind the far goal and up a small incline is the railway line, so you see dozens of trains go by during the game. The record attendance at the ground (for the current club at least) is 366 for an FA Cup game against Slough Town in 2017.
The ground is tightly-hemmed in by houses on three sides and the railway line on the fourth, so there isn't too much room to expand should the club continue to rise up the leagues, but I imagine they could find ways to make the ground at least meet Step 3 ground grading requirements should that prove necessary in the future.
Photos
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