Cobham FC
Reg Madgwick Stadium
Downside Bridge Road
Cobham
Surrey
KT11 3EP
Twitter
Ground: 71
Date: Saturday 9th February 2019
Cobham 1-1 Banstead Athletic
Combined Counties League Premier Division
Attendance: 57 (official)
Cobham FC - History
Cobham were founded in 1892 and initially played in local leagues. The last of these was the Kingston & District League, with the Division 1 title won in the 1928/29 and 1929/30 seasons before the club joined the Surrey Senior League in 1937. Before World War 2, the club finished in the top half in both seasons, but after the war the club struggled to break into the top half again. In fact, the club finished bottom of the league on eight occasions over the next thirty years: this was the case in the 1953/54, 1955/56, 1961/62, 1963/64, 1970/71, 1971/72, 1972/73 and 1975/76 seasons.
In 1978, the Surrey Senior League became the Home Counties League, before changing name to the Combined Counties League the following season and then splitting to East and West Divisions for the 1981/82 season; the club were placed in the East Division and finished in the top half, but the league reverted to a single division again the following season.
The club then remained in the League for the next twenty years, finishing as high as 2nd (in the 1998/99 season and finishing as low as third-from-bottom (in the 1992/93 season). After finishing fourth-from-bottom in the 2002/03 season, the Combined Counties League split into a Premier Division and Division 1, with the club placed in the Premier Division. The club then spent six seasons in this division but never broke into the top half, eventually being relegated after finishing bottom at the end of the 2008/09 season (having finished second-from-bottom in the previous season).
In their first two seasons in Division 1, the club finished in the top half, but after this they gradually started to slip down the table and in fact finished bottom in the 2013/14 season. After this, the club finished 11th, then 7th and then 11th in the next three seasons before finishing 2nd last season to earn promotion back to the Premier Division after a ten-year absence.
In the FA Cup, the club's best run has seen them reach the 1st Qualifying Round on three occasions: in the 2002/03 season, they beat Eastbourne United before losing in a replay to Tooting & Mitcham United; in the 2006/07 season, they beat Eastbourne United Association and Slade Green before losing to Slough Town; in the 2010/11 season, they beat Wick and Alresford Town before losing to Chipstead. As for the FA Vase, the club have twice progressed as far as the 3rd Round: in the 1985/86 season, they beat Frimley Green, Horndean and Ringmer before losing to Abingdon Town; in the 1998/99 season, they beat AFC Totton, Peacehaven & Telscombe and Stowmarket Town before losing to Camberley Town.
My Visit
After accepting that last week's groundhop meant that my planned trip to Didcot Town for Yaxley's away game wasn't going to be affordable, I had to quickly rethink and find some more local options to choose from. To that end, I looked on the Groundhopper app and quickly found three viable options: Farnham Town, Fleet Spurs and this.
Having missed out on this ground last weekend due to a lack of patience, I set this at my first choice while keeping an eye on the weather throughout the week. Unfortunately, it was raining the vast majority of the week, so I was concerned that none of my options would be likely to go ahead. In fact, as happened last week, Fleet Spurs already announced their game as postponed by Friday evening, so that was one option already gone. I also knew that Farnham's ground never handles the rain very well, so it was unsurprising to see that announced as postponed late in the morning.
At that point though, Cobham had already announced their game as on, so I'd already sorted out my train tickets. I then had lunch before heading off to the train station, my train eventually arriving at Cobham & Stoke D'Abernon station (to the sight of Chelsea's training pitches) just before 2pm. I then had the long walk to the ground to do (Google Maps had it as 30 minutes, but it probably took me 25 each way) and, just as I set off, it started to rain and this quickly became a downpour. Unfortunately, with no viable cover on my route to the ground, I had little choice but to keep going despite the rain.
Eventually, I arrived at the ground at around 2:25pm, paying £5 for admission and receiving a free programme as well. As I entered the ground, one of the club officials waiting nearby made a comment about me not being the first person to take a photo of the outside of the ground, so evidently there were other groundhoppers in attendance at this game (and I do recall seeing one posting about it on Twitter, but I didn't know who out of the crowd that was).
Almost right on cue with my arrival through the turnstile, the rain stopped and I went to do my usual circuit of photos as the sun started to come out. This killed roughly fifteen minutes of time, and afterwards I headed inside the clubhouse to have a cup of tea as I awaited kick-off. Once the game kicked off, I seated myself in the larger of the two seated stands, only leaving my seat at half-time to get a couple of burgers from the clubhouse.
Looking at the league table and the teams' recent form (the Groundhopper app shows these when I enter a ground, so in future I'll add that to these blog posts), I was expecting a close game with few goals, and a draw seemed a likely outcome (especially given Banstead's status as the league's draw specialists).
Banstead Athletic team sheet (Cobham didn't publish one online and I didn't see one at the ground)
Here's my report on a game that went much the way I expected, but was still a reasonable contest in patches:
The match started with Banstead on the front foot, placing some early pressure on the Cobham defence with some decent chances in the opening ten minutes. The best of these came from a corner in the 10th minute, a shot bouncing off the crossbar and back out into play, with there being some appeals that the ball had crossed the line. It wasn't given though, and after this Cobham started to grow into the game and put on some pressure of their own: this paid off in the 15th minute when they won a free kick just outside the box, with Nathan West taking and seeming to score direct from the free kick (although there is some debate as to whether James King got a touch on the ball's way in, but with so many people in the box at the time it is hard to tell).
After this frantic opening fifteen minutes, the game started to die down a little as the two teams began struggling to break each other down. This was at least partially caused by a whistle-happy referee - who gave way too many normal 50/50 tackles as fouls - but was mostly caused by resilient defending by both teams. Of course, that isn't to say that both teams stopped attempting to attack (far from it, in fact), but for much of the rest of the half almost every attack from either side broke down before it got into the box. As a result, the rest of the first half saw both teams restricted to set pieces, but neither had much joy from them so the score stayed 1-0 going into half-time.
The second half saw Banstead make a quick start again and almost immediately equalise at one end, while at the other Cobham almost scored on the counter-attack: a ball over the top set the striker through on goal, but he slipped as he shot and Banstead keeper Jack Minchin was able to palm it away. After this, the game reverted to the patterns of the first half, with neither team having much success breaking the other down. On the bright side, the game was able to flow a little more than in the first half as the referee didn't have to stop play quite as often, but clear-cut chances were still few and far between.
However, this changed in the last ten minutes when Banstead were able to finally equalise in the 82nd minute: a ball was played into the box and substitute Joe Jones was able to head into the bottom corner from close range. This saw the away side come alive and massively up the intensity, attacking in far greater numbers and creating several great chances to claim the three points. At the same time, though, they left themselves vulnerable on the counter-attack and this allowed Cobham to carve out a few chances of their own late on. The best of these came just at the end of stoppage time when a low cross was played into the box from the right wing and fell to a striker a few yards out, but rather than simply tapping in to score he attempted to backheel it into the net and wasted the chance. Despite this, no further goals came and it finished 1-1.
Overall, this is a game that is not likely to live long in the memory, as both teams simply cancelled each other out for large stretches, with the draw ultimately being a fair result; with Banstead being the league's draw specialists as well, this outcome should have been expected really, but I digress. Still, in those brief periods where caution was thrown to the wind, this was an entertaining contest. However, what will perhaps live long in the memory is the officiating, as from a neutral perspective it was pretty poor: as I've said already, the referee gave a lot of fair 50/50s as fouls one way or the other and just generally made a lot of baffling decisions, while one of the linesmen were more notable for his bizarre fixation on (and immense frustration with) the fact that the Banstead subs kept standing in front of the dugout rather than sitting in it. I'm not sure if that's something that's mentioned in the laws of the game (if it is, I've not heard of it before), but his obsession with it was strange regardless.
All things considered, this was a pleasant groundhop, with a friendly welcome at the turnstiles, some good food at half-time and a reasonable game of football to watch. It certainly made up for the pre-match weather and for the fact that I was missing a Yaxley game I could have easily gone to if I had the money (though given that we lost 2-0 that may well be a blessing in disguise anyway).
Up next will be my first tick of one of the 92 since Arsenal last season, as I have ordered my ticket to Charlton Athletic for their "Football for a Fiver" game (in fact, I ordered it on Friday and it arrived as I was about to leave the house yesterday). After that, I'm planning to go to Clapton on the 23rd to take advantage of their offer of free admission for their Essex Senior League game against Barkingside (weather permitting, of course).
The journey back was a simple 20 minutes on the train, with me getting back into Guildford at 6pm and back into the house ten minutes later.
The Ground
Cobham's Reg Madgwick Stadium (formerly called the Leg O' Mutton Field, a remarkable name) is a surprisingly good set-up for Step 5, with cover on three sides of the ground. In terms of seating, there are a couple of Arena stands, one of which has 100 seats while the other - which looks much newer - has 50 seats. Behind these stands is the clubhouse, which is smaller than many I've seen but perfectly sufficient for the club.
Behind the near goal is a small area of covered standing in the form of some scaffolding: this is presumably quite new and unfinished, or at least it looks like it. Behind the far goal is a small black covered terrace which seems to be one of the oldest features of the ground; it also has quite a low roof that I almost banged my head on.
The rest of the ground is open hard standing and, in terms of footballing furniture, there is probably enough here for Step 4, along with plenty more space to expand should it prove necessary. The ground has an overall capacity of 2,000.
Photos
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