Dorking Wanderers - Meadowbank

Dorking Wanderers FC

Meadowbank

Mill Lane

Dorking

Surrey

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Ground: 64

Date: Saturday 1st December 2018

Dorking Wanderers 0-1 Tonbridge Angels

Isthmian League Premier Division

Attendance: 526 (official)

Dorking Wanderers FC - History

Dorking Wanderers were founded in 1999, initially playing in the Crawley & District League but switching to Division 4 of the West Sussex League after one season. The club won this league at the first attempt, then finished as Division 3 runners-up the following season to earn another promotion. It took just two seasons for the club to move up out of Division 2, the club winning the title in the 2003/04 season to earn promotion to Division 1. Two seasons were then spent in Division 1 before a 3rd-place finish saw the club earn promotion to the Premier Division, and the club then won the Premier Division title in the 2006/07 season to earn promotion to Division 3 of the Sussex County League.

After three strong top-half finishes in Division 3, the club finally won the title in the 2010/11 season to earn promotion to Division 2, which was immediately followed by promotion to Division 1 the following season. The club initially struggled in Division 1 - finishing 3rd-from-bottom in the 2012/13 season - but they soon adapted, finishing 8th the following season and then finishing as runners-up in the 2014/15 season to earn promotion to Division 1 South of the Isthmian League.

In their first season at this level, the club finished as runners-up and found themselves in the play-offs as a result. However, they lost 2-1 in the semi-finals to Faversham Town and remained in Division 1 South. In the 2016/17 season, the club once again finished as runners-up and once again competed in the play-offs, beating Hastings United on penalties in the semi-final and then beating Corinthian-Casuals on penalties in the final to earn promotion to the Premier Division. In the club's first season in the Premier Division they finished in a respectable 14th, but they are currently finding themselves in a promotion battle this season.

In the FA Vase, the club only progressed as far as the 2nd Qualifying Round in each of their three campaigns: the most recent of these (the 2014/15 season) saw them beat Chichester City in the 1st Qualifying Round before losing to Hailsham Town. In the FA Trophy, the club are currently on their best run in the competition, having so far progressed to the 1st Round: they've beaten Sevenoaks Town, Tonbridge Angels and Poole Town to progress to this point, and they will play away at Carshalton Athletic in a couple of weeks to potentially progress even further. As for the FA Cup, the club's best run also came this season as they progressed to the 3rd Qualifying Round, beating Hartley Wintney and Leverstock Green before losing to Gloucester City in a replay.

My Visit

The original plan for yesterday was for Matt and I to head into London to visit Fire United at the Terence McMillan Stadium for their game against Benfleet, with several back-ups in place (including an FA Vase game between Redbridge and Chertsey Town) should that fall by the wayside. However, with the forecast looking dismal from early in the week, I was a little hesitant to commit to that option, given that neither Fire United or Benfleet update their Twitter pages very often (as it turns out, that game did go ahead and finished 2-4, so my concern proved entirely unfounded).

As such, I went through several phases of dismissing and reconsidering it and, while this was happening, I found a new first choice, albeit one that wouldn't utilise the Underground as I had planned: in the London Senior Trophy, Bridon Ropes were hosting Hashtag United and this seemed like a fascinating cup tie between two Step 6 promotion-chasers, as well as a chance to see in person what is going on with Hashtag United (there was a lot of controversy over them in the summer, but the discussion had gone quiet since the season actually started). However, on Friday morning I changed my mind again, noticing that Charlton Athletic were set to be at home yesterday as well. As a result, I figured Charlton station would be very crowded and decided that I'd rather not deal with that.

This left us once again back at square one as I thought to look at options in London again, only to remember that I had left it too long to order tickets, as they had gone up to almost £14 by Friday afternoon. So I had to look outside of London and found a few options (this, Lingfield, Hamble Club and Winchester City). The latter two of these were ruled out as they were too expensive for Matt, so we decided to leave our choice between the final two until yesterday morning. Eventually, it became clear that there was little-to-no chance of Lingfield's game going ahead, so the 3G card was played and we ended up here.

First though, Matt came into Guildford and we briefly went round the shops before heading back to my house, dropping off the Christmas presents I had bought and then heading out. A simple 20-minute train journey followed and then a 10-minute walk from Dorking Deepdene station to the ground. We each then paid £7 for admission and I picked up a programme for £2. I then did a quick circuit of photos and we then took a seat in the main stand as we awaited kick-off.

Given that this was a top-of-the-table clash, I was expecting a very tight game (without knowing that these sides had already met in the FA Trophy this season, with Dorking winning 1-0 on that occasion), but I was also expecting that the game would be compelling despite that. Here's my report on a game that certainly was tight, but wasn't at all compelling until some very late drama changed things entirely:

The game got off to an exciting start, both teams attacking from the whistle and creating several good chances in the first five minutes. However, after this the game quickly lost its spark as both teams started cancelling each other out. This gradually saw the ball spending more and more time in the air as both teams started to hoof the ball up the pitch more often than not, with the ball then kept in the air by a series of headers. On the rare occasions that the ball stayed on the ground and one of the teams attempted to take advantage of the 3G surface and play some free-flowing football (such moments proved quite rare for much of the game), good chances were created and the match became much easier to endure. One of these fell to Tonbridge just after the half-hour mark when someone got a show away and it looked to be heading in, only for Dorking keeper Slawomir Huk to make a remarkable save to keep the game goalless. Other than this, little else of note happened before half-time, and already it was seeming like I was set to see my first 0-0 of the season.

After the second half opened with ten minutes of aerial tedium, there was a 5-10 minute spell when Dorking began to look much the better side and started to carve out some fine chances. The best of these came from a corner when the ball bounced around a little and was shot low and goalwards, but Jonathan Henly made an impressive reaction save to keep it out. Not long after this, the game once again reverted to type, with the next notable incident not even involving the football itself: I'm not exactly sure how it started, but there was a brief moment of handbags by the dugouts between one of the Tonbridge coaching staff and Dorking's Jerry O'Sullivan. After the incident was broken up, the coaching staff member (I couldn't tell from the main stand whether it was the manager or one of his coaches) was firmly reprimanded by the referee, whereas O'Sullivan received a booking.

In the last 15 minutes, the match finally started to open up a little, but this didn't lead to much in the way of clear-cut chances, so going into stoppage time the goalless draw was looking more and more likely. However, Tonbridge's Sonny Miles had other ideas: in the 94th minute, a Tonbridge corner was hit hard and over everyone in the box, reaching Miles just outside the box who, with his back to goal, decided to kick the ball over his head to play it back into the box, only for his effort to somehow make its way into the net. Dorking then went on one last push up the pitch to try and salvage a point, earning a free-kick on the edge of the box: this was floated in and initially reached a Dorking head, but the initial header was poor and it was eventually cleared, after which the full-time whistle went. 

My report is perhaps slightly harsh at times and a little light on details, but this game was legitimately frustrating to watch at times, to the point where at times I almost entirely zoned out of the game and instead kept an eye on other scores on my phone or talked to Matt. Other than this though, this was a good groundhop at a friendly club who seem very much on the up, with an impressive crowd of 526 taking in this game. I didn't get to try out any of the food on this occasion, but I've heard from other groundhoppers that it's better than your average football food, so if I end up revisiting (a distinct possibility when considering British weather) I'll have to give it a try.

The journey back was simple, a direct train from Dorking Deepdene to Guildford. Matt got off there to get a train back into London, while I headed back to the house and got in just after 6pm, which was a pleasant change from the norm (as recent groundhops haven't seen me get back until 7pm at the earliest).

As for next week, I had briefly reconsidered the possibility of going to Berkhamsted for Yaxley's away game there, but another dismal loss for us at home against relegation rivals Aylesbury swiftly put paid to that idea. Instead, where I go will depend on if Matt is able to join me again. If he is, we aim to finally tick off East Grinstead Town or, failing that, one of his most local options in Lewisham Borough (with his local 3G option at Fisher serving as a further back-up option). If he is not available, I'm not really sure where I will head, but I'll have a look at my options if/when it ends up being necessary.

The Ground

Meadowbank is not a new ground, but one that has recently been entirely rebuilt (see Russell Cox's blog entry on this ground to see some photos of the old Meadowbank). Compared to the old ground, this rebuild doesn't have quite as much character or history, but it is very impressive compared to a lot of other new builds I have visited. 

First thing to note is that it is a 3G pitch here, so barring a snowstorm there is never any need to worry about a postponement here. In terms of spectator facilities, there is an impressive main stand with around 250 seats on the near side of the ground, with a smaller area of cover (a small Arena terrace) next to it along with another one behind the near goal. There are additional buildings beside the main stand and behind the near goal cover, and I presume that these contain changing rooms, the bar and the restaurant, among other things as well (including the Surrey County FA's headquarters, it seems).

The rest of the ground is open hard standing, with there being a decent amount of room to expand should the club's meteoric rise up the pyramid continue. The ground has an overall capacity of 2,000, and it is also used by the club's Reserves (who compete in Division 1 of the Combined Counties League) and the club's youth teams. The club moved into the ground in July this year, but had originally intended to move in at the end of the March.

Photos