Kempston Rovers FC
Hillgrounds Leisure
Hillgrounds Road
Kempston
Bedfordshire
MK42 8SZ
Ground: 67
Date: Saturday 5th January 2019
Kempston Rovers 2-2 Yaxley
Southern League Division 1 Central
Attendance: 101 (official)
Kempston Rovers FC - History
Kempston Rovers were founded in 1884 and initially played in both the Bedford & District and Biggleswade & District Leagues, winning both twice before the outbreak of World War 1. In 1927, the club joined the Bedfordshire & District County League, which changed its name to the South Midlands League two years later.
The club remained in this league until after World War 2, joining Division 2 of the United Counties League in 1953 and winning the title in the 1955/56 season. The following season saw Divisions 2 and 1 merge to form a single division, with the club finishing as runners-up in the first season and then winning the title in the second. For the 1961/62 season the league split back into Division 1 and 2 and, despite finishing 4th the previous season, the club were placed in Division 2.
The first season back with two divisions saw the club finish 10th in Division 2, which somehow saw them earn promotion to Division. However, the club struggled in Division 1 and finished bottom to immediately return to Division 2. It then took five season in Division 2 until a runners-up finish in the 1967/68 season saw the club earn promotion back to Division 1 again. For the 1972/73 season, Division 1 was renamed the Premier Division (and Division 2 was renamed Division 1) and the club went on to win the title the following season.
After this, the club remained in the Premier Division until finishing bottom in the 1982/83 season to be relegated back to Division 1. However, it only took three seasons before the club won the Division 1 title to return to the Premier Division. The club then remained in the Premier Division for the next 15 or so years, but only broke into the top half of the table on two occasions (the 1999/2000 and 2000/01 seasons) and finished bottom on four occasions (the 1994/95, 1995/96, 1997/98 and 2002/03 seasons). The last of these bottom-place finishes saw the club relegated back to Division 1.
In 2004, the club changed its name to AFC Kempston Rovers and, at the end of the 2006/07 season the club finished 3rd in Division 1 to return to the Premier Division. However, a season of struggle followed and the club picked up just 11 points as they finished bottom to be relegated back to Division 1 at the first attempt. The return to Division 1 stabilised the club and, after two consecutive 5th-place finishes, the club won the title in the 2010/11 season to earn promotion back to the Premier Division.
Other than a 17th-place finish in the 2012/13 season, the club's position in the league steadily improved until a remarkable title-winning campaign in the 2015/16 season: the club lost just one league game all season but still only finished a point above Leicester Nirvana, but that was enough to earn promotion to Division 1 Central of the Southern League for the first time. After this promotion, the club removed the AFC from its name and have so far had two good Step 4 campaigns, finishing 6th and 7th in the last two seasons.
In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Qualifying Round in the 1978/79 season, beating Gornal Athletic, VS Rugby and Willenhall Town before losing to Wealdstone. In the club's three FA Trophy campaigns, they have progressed to the 1st Qualifying Round twice: this season, they beat Barton Rovers and Dereham Town before losing to Beaconsfield Town in a replay. As for the FA Vase, the club have twice progressed as far as the 5th Round, most recently in the 1980/81 season when they beat Royston Town, Sawbridgeworth Town and Burnham before losing to Devizes Town.
My Visit
As with last week's visit to Barton Rovers, I had been planning this as my first groundhop of 2019 ever since the fixture list came out last July. Not even a tough 4-0 defeat for Yaxley at home to Corby Town on New Year's Day could change that, so it was just a matter of waiting to see if the weather would cooperate or not. It quickly became apparent that there would be nothing to worry about on this front, so I booked my seat on the Supporters' Coach late on Thursday.
When yesterday came, I left the house at around 11:15am, as I needed to (or thought that I needed to) get cash out on my way to the ground and didn't know how long it would take. Ultimately, it barely took any time at all so I ended up arriving at the ground half an hour later, expecting to only have a 15 minute wait before the Supporters' Coach would depart. However, when I arrived the club secretary was there and told me that the coach wasn't actually going to depart until 12:30pm instead, so he allowed me to get out of the cold and sit in his car as we waited.
Eventually, the coach departed just after half past and it was swift progress down into Bedfordshire as we arrived at the ground just an hour after departing. Once again, I had been put down as one of our complementary guests for the game, so I got into the ground for free. As with last week though, I did put some money into the club by spending £2 on raffle tickets and then an additional £3 on a fish finger bap and some chips at half-time.
Due to the cold, I opted to stay inside the boardroom to watch the second half of the FA Cup match between Manchester United and Reading (which was ultimately pretty dull, but did kill some time). After being given a cup of tea upon arrival and socialising with the other Yaxley officials in the boardroom for a while, I eventually headed out just after a 4-page programme/teamsheet was given out to do my usual circuit of photos. Once this was done, I waited in front of the stand for kick-off and to see which way we were shooting, moving across that side of the pitch to the appropriate end each half.
After looking at the league table and noting that Kempston had lost to struggling North Leigh on New Year's Day, I was reasonably confident that we could win, but a draw seemed like an acceptable result as well, especially after seeing the teamsheets and noting that former MK Dons striker Izale McLeod was starting for the home side, while we were still without Matt Sparrow (the last game of his three-match ban) and Tom Waumsley was only on the bench (our bench arguably looked stronger than our starting 11 in this case).
Here's my report on an exciting end-to-end contest in which a draw was perhaps a reasonable result, even despite some intense Kempston pressure late on against our ten men:
The initial stages of this game saw both teams go straight on the attack, with Kempston just having the better of the early chances as we grew into the game. In the 17th minute, the home side took the lead after a poor defensive clearance gave Dan Clifton a chance to shoot from the edge of the box, his shot sneaking into the bottom corner. A Kempston fan near me was pleased but claimed that his side's lead wouldn't last long, and so it proved when we equalised two minutes later: some neat interplay between Fraser Sturgess and Joe Butterworth eventually saw the ball find its way to Dan Cotton, whose shot from the edge of the box was poked past Kempston keeper Carl Knox by the boot of Sturgess.
It only took another three minutes for Kempston to reclaim their lead though, an Izale McLeod shot blocked by Sam Spencer and then falling kindly for Shane Bush to finish on the rebound. Not long after this, it should have been 2-2 as a Dan Cotton corner was headed in at the near post, but the referee gave a foul, although what for is anyone's guess! The rest of the half saw us pushing for the equaliser while dealing with Kempston counterattacks, but there weren't too many clear-cut chances for either side. In fact, it was looking highly likely that we would be going into half-time a goal down, but in the 42nd minute we were given a penalty after a Kempston defender was judged to have handled the ball. Cotton stepped up to take the penalty and calmly converted to take us into half-time on level terms.
The second half was not quite as eventful as the first, but did at least start in the same end-to-end fashion at the first. However, it soon became apparent that our performance levels were dropping and this saw Kempston gradually push higher and higher and limit us mainly to counterattacks. This saw us commit a few risky fouls in places, but we weren't made to really pay for this until the 77th minute when, after tackling a Kempston player just outside the box, Charley Sanders received his second yellow and was sent off. With us down to ten men, Kempston tried to take immediate advantage from McLeod's free kick, but James Blake made an excellent fingertip save to tip it past the post.
Despite massive Kempston pressure, we brought on Tom Waumsley for the last five minutes (for his first appearance in almost a month) in an attempt to steal the three points on the counter, but the best effort we had was a Dan Cotton shot from just outside the box that went mere inches wide of the far post. Instead, it was Kempston who came closest to winning when the ball fell to an unmarked McLeod six yards out, only for him to somehow place his effort wide of the post (just one of several sitters he missed throughout the game).
So, on the whole, a point was a fair result and a decent response to our disappointing defeat on New Year's Day, especially after being down to ten men for the last 15 minutes. The team dug in well to hold on, but also did well to create a few chances and almost claim the victory. Good performance from Dalton Harris today, placing good pressure on the Kempston defence and making some intelligent runs in the final third; he is steadily improving with each game and will surely find the net soon.
MOTM: Fraser Sturgess (some excellent through balls and passes to aid our attacks, as well as a goal)
So, an enjoyable game and overall a good start to my 2019 groundhopping: lots of friendly people behind the scenes at Kempston and they provided some great pre and post-match hospitality (apparently chilli-covered jacket potatoes are a Bedfordshire specialty, as they were once again on offer here post-match like they were at Barton last week).
The journey back on the Supporters' Coach was easy and relaxed and, after walking back from the ground, I eventually got back home just after 7pm, only to see the disappointing yet unsurprising news on Twitter that Norwich had lost their FA Cup tie against Portsmouth in the last minute to make it six years since their last win in the competition.
With no Yaxley match next Saturday (thanks to Bedford's continued involvement in the FA Trophy), I am free for another groundhop next Saturday and, as long as the weather remains as it is currently, I'm hoping to visit either Bourne Town, Holbeach United or Godmanchester Rovers.
The Ground
Hillgrounds Leisure is a decent and well-kept ground that is part of a multi-sports facility, with several cages with artificial pitches next to the main ground, a swimming pool nearby and a few grass pitches elsewhere on site (and probably a lot more besides this that I did not see).
All the cover at the ground is one side, with the stand here containing a mixture of seating and standing. Closest to the turnstiles is the seating end of the stand, which contains around 100 seats. Beyond this is the standing area of the stand, which includes the tea bar. With three steps of terracing and space to stand in front of this, there is probably room for at least 300 people under cover here.
Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, with minimal room to expand due to the proximity of the cages on the dugout side of the ground and due to the minimal space between the hard standing and perimeter fence behind each goal. The only other notable feature is a gate halfway along the dugout side of the ground, which I imagine can act as some form of segregation if that ever proves necessary. The ground has an overall capacity of 2,000.
Photos
Great blog!
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