Aylesbury Vale Dynamos - Haywood Way

Aylesbury Vale Dynamos FC

Haywood Way

Aylesbury

Buckinghamshire

HP19 9WZ

Official Website

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Ground: 78

Date: Saturday 30th March 2019

Aylesbury 0-1 Yaxley

Southern League Division 1 Central

Attendance: 107 (official)

Aylesbury Vale Dynamos FC - History

Aylesbury were founded at some point in the 1930s at Negretti & Zamba, a works team in the London area. After World War 2, the club moved to Aylesbury and joined the Aylesbury & District League in 1954, changing name to Stocklake. After several years of success in this league, the club moved up to the Wycombe & District League and remained here until earning promotion to Division 1 of the Chiltonian League in 1988.

After finishing as runners-up in Division 1 in the 1989/90 season, the club moved up to the Premier Division. They finished as runners-up in their first season in the Premier Division (as well as in the 1996/97 season) and generally had strong finishes in the league. After league restructuring ahead of the 2000/01, the club opted to move to Division 1 of the Spartan South Midlands League instead. That same summer, the club merged with Belgrave and changed name to Haywood United.

After one season in Division 1, it was renamed Division 2 and the club finished as runners-up to earn promotion to the new Division 1. A respectable mid-table finish in the 2002/03 season was followed up with the Division 1 title the following season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. After finishing 3rd in their first season in the Premier Division, the club again changed its name, this time to Aylesbury Vale.

After this name change, the next four seasons saw the club slip down the league table, before changing to the current name ahead of the 2009/10 season. This saw a major improvement in the club's fortunes on the pitch, as they won the league title to earn promotion to Step 4 for the first time, joining Division 1 Central of the Southern League. This is where the club have remained ever since, finishing as high as 3rd in the 2014/15 season (and losing 2-1 to Bedworth United in the play-off semi-finals) and as low as 2nd-from-bottom last season.

At the end of this season, regardless of league position the club will be demoted to Step 5, due to their inability to satisfy FA ground grading criteria regarding changing room sizes. For next season, the club are merging with local youth side Bedgrove Dynamos and once again changing name, this time to Aylesbury Vale Dynamos.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Qualifying Round in the 2009/10 season, beating Langford, Leighton Town, Erith Town, Wingate & Finchley and Chesham United before losing to Wealdstone. In the FA Trophy, the club have never progressed beyond the 1st Qualifying Round but have reached that stage in all but three of their campaigns in the competition: most recently, they reached that stage last season, beating Molesey before losing to Harlow Town in a replay. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 3rd Round in the 2008/09 seaon, beating Alton Town, Harrow Hill and East Grinstead Town before losing to Leiston.

My Visit

After a few consecutive weekends in which my initial groundhopping plans didn't pan out, it was nice to go into this weekend having a concrete plan that had no chance of changing (well, the weather could have been an issue, but ultimately proved not to be as it was hot and sunny for much of the week).

My last week of University before Easter break was fairly standard, with the only exception being that I got picked up by my mum on Friday to head back home. The journey home was a nightmare, but in this case it was due to the M1 rather than the usual culprit (the M25); having passed several signs to Aylesbury along the way, I was seriously concerned about the coach heading down the M1 and getting stuck in traffic for ages.

On the day of the match, we headed to Mulberry Tree Farm to have a cooked breakfast, before carrying out a couple other odd tasks. After this, I was dropped off at the ground to wait for the arrival of the coach. For whatever reason, the coach was late and ended up leaving the ground at 11:45am, rather than 15 minutes earlier as had been the plan.

To pass the time on the way, I read a book on my Kindle, but paid some attention to where we were going in the hope that we would avoid the M1 entirely, which fortunately we did. This meant that the journey was reasonably quick and easy, with the coach reaching the ground at 1:30pm. The only issue at that point was figuring out where to park it due to how miniscule the ground's car park was (I'm not sure where it did park in the end, but I'm sure something was figured out).

At this point, those of us who had travelled with the players on the coach headed into the boardroom for some pre-match hospitality, which consisted of tea and biscuits while the Fulham - Man City game was on the TV. I stayed in here for an hour or so, in which time the conversation ranged from Aylesbury's demotion, our Supporters' Player of the Season, our starting line-up, our own situation and numerous other topics.

At just after 2:30pm, I headed out into the sun to do my usual circuit of photos, before standing with the other Yaxley fans awaiting kick-off (and moving to stand with them at each end during the match).

Taking the table and recent form into account, I was hoping that we could go on to win this game, as doing so would move us even closer to mathematically confirming safety at Step 4 for next season. At the same time, I knew it wouldn't be easy given Aylesbury's recent good form.

Here's my report on a match which was scrappy and not the most exciting to watch, but saw us do enough to earn us a vital three points:

After a late kick-off (the match didn't start until 3:06pm, for whatever reason), we made the better start, almost immediately going on the attack and putting Aylesbury under significant pressure. After 11 minutes, this paid off; Dan Cotton ran down the left wing and floated a cross into the box, which was headed towards Joe Butterworth who then volleyed into the bottom corner from outside the box. We almost doubled our lead roughly ten minutes later, Tom Waumsley nodding the ball into the box to Charley Sanders, who poked just wide from close range under significant defensive pressure.

We had another great chance in the 34th minute, a Cotton cross reaching the head of Waumsley but looping wide of the far post. In amidst all this, Aylesbury attempted to counter with route one tactics, but their only real chance came from a cross in the 20th minute, which Aaron Butcher had to stretch to punch clear. That aside, they struggled to break through our defensive three and create any clear-cut chances. 0-1 at half-time.

Aylesbury made a much better start to the second half and, in doing so, quickly pulled us down to their level: rather than playing the ball on the ground as we had done in the first half, we too started utilising route one tactics. While this turned much of the second half into a scrappy slug-fest, a couple of defensive mix-ups around the hour mark almost gifted the home side an equaliser: in both cases, there was confusion over whether Butcher was collecting the ball or not and the Aylesbury strikers almost capitalised, with last-ditch clearances required in both cases.

Apart from this, there was very little happening in the second half, partially due to the route one tactics but also due to several niggly fouls from both sides: this meant that the match barely flowed at all, so chances for both sides were largely limited to set-pieces, with neither side capitalising at all. For the last few minutes, we did our best to manage the game and did so in fairly comfortable fashion to secure the win.

Overall, this game was absolutely not a classic, but it was definitely a crucial result for us: it's another three points on the board, which for all intents and purposes secures our status at Step 4 for next season (it's not mathematically confirmed yet, but the 12-point gap over North Leigh is almost certainly enough with five games left). On top of that, we picked up another clean sheet, which is always a nice bonus to top things off with (especially with two young defenders in our back three today).

MOTM: Ross Watson (a dominant defensive performance, stopping dozens of attacks in their tracks, making crucial blocks and marshalling the younger defenders too)

Post-match hospitality, as is quite common in this league for whatever reason, was a jacket potato with some chilli, which was a decent way to round off the day. Before we had to leave on the coach again, I was able to head into the bar to watch the first 15-20 minutes of Norwich's match against Middlesbrough.

The journey back was perhaps slightly quicker than the way there, but not by much. Due to the match not finishing until 5pm, though, the coach didn't leave until 6pm so we didn't get back to our ground until 7:30pm. Once we did, Sean was kind enough to give me a lift back home, saving me a 30-minute walk.

As I said last week, Dunstable Town will be my next groundhop and Yaxley away game in two weeks time, and I will again be on the coach for that. As for other groundhopping plans, I'm going to start looking at options for the 20th later today, while I've found a game at Kintbury Rangers on the 4th of May that should be this season's final groundhop.

The Ground

Haywood Way is a decent ground with a reasonable amount of character. There are just the two areas of cover, one of which is a seated stand with 150 or so seats on the near side of the ground. This contains the tea bar at the back, which looked like it provides a decent range of hot food and drink options. On the same side of the ground is some uncovered seating in the form of a few benches, but these are quite far away from the pitch.

The other area of cover is an area of covered standing behind the near goal, which could probably provide cover for up to 200 people if required. That aside, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, with raised fencing panels used to prevent people from watching for free from outside the ground. The pitch was one of the most bobbly I have seen this season, but did not cut up at least.

In terms of football furniture, the ground is sufficient for Step 4, but the issue for the club is the changing room sizes; they are only a metre or two too small, but to enlarge them would require a complete rebuild, which would not only be very expensive but also highly impractical while the works are underway.

Photos

Fleet Town - Calthorpe Park

Fleet Town FC

Calthorpe Park

Crookham Road

Fleet

Hampshire

GU51 5FA

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Ground: 77

Date: Saturday 23rd March 2019

Fleet Town 1-4 Cirencester Town

Southern League Division 1 South

Attendance: 310 (official)

Fleet Town FC - History

Fleet Town were founded in 1890 as Fleet FC. Initially, the club had two Saturday teams, one of which played in the Aldershot Senior League while the other played in the Basingstoke & District League. After several decades in these local leagues, the club joined Division 3 of the Hampshire League in 1961 and won the division in their first season to earn promotion to Division 2, only to immediately suffer relegation again.

In 1963, the club changed to its current name and finished 3rd to earn promotion back to Division 2 at the end of the 1963/64 season. Two seasons later, the club won the Division 2 title to earn promotion to Division 1. In the 1972/73 season, the club finished as runners-up in this league, but three seasons later they finished bottom and returned to Division 2. After finishing as runners-up of this lerague in the 1977/78 season, the club joined the Athenian League.

The club spent six seasons in this league and generally struggled, recording a highest finish of 13th in the 1980/81 season. After finishing second-from-bottom in the 1983/84 season and having struggled to meet ground grading regulations, the club were demoted to the Combined Counties League. However, this saw no improvement to the club's fortunes and they finished bottom for two seasons running before dropping down to the Surrey Premier League for the 1986/87 season, only to finish bottom of that league too.

After this, the club joined the Chiltonian League for the 1987/88 season and, after two seasons in this league, they moved up to the Wessex League. After a difficult first season that saw the club finish second-from-bottom, their fortunes improved and they steadily moved higher up the table, eventually winning the league in the 1994/95 season to earn promotion to the Southern League Southern Division.

The club struggled in this league and never broke into the top half, but remained at that level until being transferred to the Eastern Division for the 1999/2000 season: the club finished bottom of this league to return to the Wessex League. After two seasons back at this level, the club finished as runners-up to return to the Eastern Division of the Southern League, but they struggled again.

After finishing bottom of the Eastern Division in the 2003/04 season, the club were reprieved from relegation due to restructuring of the non-league pyramid and were transferred to Division 1 of the Isthmian League. Further restructuring in the 2006/07 season saw the club placed in Division 1 South. This season saw the club finish 5th and earn a place in the play-offs, but they lost in the semi-finals to Tooting & Mitcham United.

The 2007/08 season saw the club transferred to Division 1 South & West of the Southern League, with the club finishing as runners-up but again losing in the play-off semi-finals, this time to Uxbridge. After this, the club were transferred back to Isthmian League Division 1 South and finished 3rd, this time losing to Metropolitan Police in the semi-finals.

Since then, the club have been transferred between various Step 4 divisions on a regular basis: in the 2011/12 season, the club were transferred to Division 1 Central of the Southern League; two seasons later, they were transferred to Division 1 South & West again, before returning to Division 1 Central two seasons after that; they then played in Division 1 East last season before being transferred to Division 1 South this season. Amidst this constant instability, the club have unsurprisingly struggled in the bottom half of Step 4 and look likely to be relegated to Step 5 at the end of this season (barring a miraculous change in form, at least).

In the FA Cup, the club have twice progressed to the 3rd Qualifying Round: in the 2007/08 season, they beat Slough Town, Gosport Borough and Mangotsfield United before losing to Havant & Waterlooville; in the 2008/09 season, they beat Brockenhurst, Cowes Sports and Newport Pagnell Town before losing to AFC Totton. In the FA Trophy, the club have twice progressed as far as the 1st Round (by virtue of entering at that stage - and then losing - in the 1998/99 and 1999/2000 seasons). As for the FA Vase, the club progressed as far as the 2nd Round on three occasions, most recently in the 1979/80 season: they beat Sholing Sports and Worthing before losing to Newbury Town.

My Visit

Earlier in the week, I had intended to look for more midweek options to do early next week due to other plans I had today, but it soon became apparent that my midweek options were severely limited. Upon realising that, I decided to look for any Sunday options, at which point fellow hopper Russell Cox suggested Greencourt (who play at the former ground of Alma Swanley). For a while, this seemed appealing, but after a while I remembered that I already had plans on Sunday as well.

With that in mind and considering how little the midweek options appealed to me, I decided to cancel my Saturday plans (they weren't anything essential, but it was still frustrating to have to cancel) and look for groundhop options again. Upon doing so, I noticed that Woodstock Town were at home again and, having changed my mind on visiting them at the last minute last week, I bumped them up to first choice, with this as back-up if required.

All was looking good for these plans for most of the week, but yesterday some unforeseen expenses came up that meant that I would not be able to afford going to Woodstock (well, I would have been, but it would have been at the expense of upcoming groundhops), so I had little choice but to make this first choice.

With my decision made and no issues with the weather, I ordered my train tickets late in the morning and headed out at 1:15pm, my train leaving the station 20 minutes later. While it pales in comparison with last week's travel nightmare, there was a very minor issue on the way: my initial train to Woking was a couple of minutes late, meaning I was left with just a few minutes to make my connection heading to Fleet, which I just about managed.

The train arrived at Fleet Station at around 2:10pm and, after a 20-25 minute walk to the ground I arrived, not having to pay for admission due to the club's offer of free admission for this game (to celebrate their recent change in ownership). There also wasn't a programme (as the club only do online programmes now), but there was at least a teamsheet by the entrance for me to photograph.

Almost immediately after this, a fellow poster on Tony's Non-League Forum - who was also at the Frimley Green match I went to a couple of weeks ago - introduced himself, and we had a brief chat before I went around to do my usual circuit of photos as the crowd gradually increased (the free admission offer really paid off for the club, as the attendance of 310 was the best they've had for several years). At half-time, I decided to put a little bit of money into the club by buying a hot dog for £3 and donating a further £1.50 to the club (to fund repairs to their tea bar, which was recently vandalised).

Considering the league table and recent form, only one outcome seemed likely here, but there was always the possibility that the long-distance that Cirencester had to travel would have some effect on the match.

Here's my report on a match that ended up following the form book, but only after a spirited performance from a Fleet side who looked much better than their league position suggests:

There was a chance for Cirencester within the first minute as a long ball over the top reached Aiden Bennett on the edge of box, with Fleet keeper James Stroud tipping over the effort. From this and the table, you would have been forgiven for expecting the away side to quickly take control, but this wasn't what happened. Instead, Fleet went on the attack and almost immediately looked much more threatening, so much so that it was little surprise when they took the lead after 11 minutes: a cross was played into the box and Billy Oram was there to head in from close range. It was almost 2-0 six minutes later, as an excellent aerial ball from Oram reached Bradley Wilson, who tried to lob Cirencester keeper Mateusz Wieczorek but put the ball well over.

After struggling to cope with Fleet's intensity in these early stages, Cirencester rallied and came very close to equalising in the 19th minute: a looping header by Bennett from just inside the box forced Stroud into an excellent fingertip save. The away side then had another great chance nine minutes later after some neat attacking interplay saw them break through the home defence, only for the pass across goal to be cleared for a corner. In the 33rd minute, it was the home side who almost scored, as Callum Abraham-Barlow charged forward, cut inside and shot low and wide from just outside the box. The rest of the half continued in this end-to-end fashion, but it remained 1-0 going into half-time.

After a frustrating first half, Cirencester would have been hoping to start the second half in style and did so by scoring within its first couple of minutes: a ball was played across the box and Tommy Anderson was able to run in unchallenged to score at the far post. They then almost took the lead moments later, as Fleet cheaply gave the ball away, allowing Alan Griffin to get forward and shoot, with Stroud once again making the save. Ten minutes later, Fleet missed two golden chances of their own: first, Anderson crossed from the right wing to Kofi Halliday, who should have had an easy tap-in but scuffed the shot; and second, Anderson played an excellent driven cross into the box that Halliday just couldn't get a touch on to tap in at the far post.

With Cirencester having looked much stronger since the start of the half, it seemed almost certain that they would punish Fleet's missed chances, and they did so in style in the 64th minute: Griffin cleverly controlled the ball outside the box to guide it to Bennett, who used his chest to take the ball past the defender before volleying to score. Four minutes later, it was Griffin's turn to score an excellent goal: after a long ball over the top, he controlled well before shooting on the half volley to score. After this, the game died down somewhat, insomuch as there were chances but none that were truly clear-cut. It looked like it would finish 1-3 right until the end, but a last-minute penalty for Cirencester changed that: Stroud caught Owen Windsor when punching clear, with Griffin stepping up to take and score the penalty. 1-4 at full-time.

Overall, this was a great match for the neutral, with both teams playing attacking football throughout and very little in the way of bad blood or niggly fouls (other than a few moments of handbags in the final ten minutes). For much of the match, Fleet belied their position at the bottom of the league and played some excellent football, but in the second half Cirencester upped the intensity and showed why they are competing for the play-offs. Even so, I don't think Fleet deserved to lose this game by a three-goal margin, as that doesn't truly reflect the balance of play here.

So, even though this wasn't my intended destination originally, this was another enjoyable groundhop, with a good match to watch and a great atmosphere amongst the bumper crowd despite the result. After this, I'd really like to see them stay up, as unlikely as it does seem now; if they do go down, I'll be wishing them luck in whatever league they end up in.

The journey back was easy, just with longer waits at each connection due to the timing of my arrivals (had I arrived at Woking even a minute earlier, I would have been able to catch an earlier connection back to Guildford). I eventually got back into the house at 6:35pm.

At this point, with the season steadily approaching its end and with me set to go home for Easter break next week, I'm going to roughly outline my groundhopping plans for the rest of the season (but at this month has shown, things can change very easily):

Next Saturday will see me on the Supporters' Coach for Yaxley's game away at Aylesbury. After that, my next groundhop will likely be on the 13th of April, this time for Yaxley's away game at Dunstable Town. Then I intend to do a neutral groundhop on the 20th of April, followed by another Yaxley away game on Easter Monday (against Corby Town). To finish the season, I will then do a final groundhop on either the 27th of April or something in early May (if there actually is anything available in that latter category this season).

The Ground

Calthorpe Park is a decent Step 4 ground with three areas of cover. The most notable of these is the impressive main stand on the near side, which contains roughly 200 seats (most of which were in use today by the bumper crowd). This has supporting pillars, but for the most part the views are very good despite this.

Behind each goal is a small area of cover in the form of scaffolding, both of which can probably provide cover for 50 or so people and are clearly in place to satisfy ground-grading criteria. The rest of the ground is open hard standing, with the only other notable feature being a small area of hard standing above the rest on the near side.

The ground has an overall capacity of 2,000 and is perfectly-equipped for both Step 4 and Step 5 football, with a reasonable amount of space available for upgrades should they ever be required or desired.

Photos