Worcester Park FC
Skinners Field
Green Lane
Worcester Park
Surrey
KT4 8AJ
Ground: 74
Date: Saturday 2nd March 2019
Worcester Park 3-0 Staines Lammas
Surrey Elite Intermediate League Challenge Cup Quarter Final
Attendance: 32
Worcester Park FC - History
Worcester Park are believed to have been founded as early as 1900, but didn't become properly established until the Athletics Club inherited the Skinners Field site in 1921. In 1949, the club joined the Surrey Senior League and remained there for the next fifteen or so years, before dropping into intermediate-grade football.
In the 1982/83 season, the club became a founder member of the Surrey County Premier League, finishing 4th and 9th in their first two seasons. At some point, the club left the league, but they rejoined it again in the 1995/96 season and finished as runners-up. After finishing 8th in the following season, the club once again left the league, only to return for the 1999/2000 season and finish as champions.
The following season saw the league renamed the Surrey County Senior League, but the club finished as champions again regardless. The following two seasons saw the club finish well in the top-half, after which the club joined Division 1 of the Combined Counties League for the 2003/04 season.
Early finishes in this league were strong - including a 3rd-place finish in the 2006/07 season, with the club missing out on the runners-up spot on goal difference - before a runners-up finish in the 2009/10 season was followed up by the club winning the league the following season. Despite this, the club were not promoted to the Premier Division (presumably due to ground grading).
After this, the club spent the next three seasons in mid-table, following that up with three consecutive 4th-place finishes. Early into the 2017/18 season, the FA announced that the Step 6 clubs who weren't compliant with ground-grading criteria would be demoted at the end of the season. This saw the club's manager depart early in 2018, but despite this the club still went on to win the Division 1 title. However, this was not enough to stave off demotion, and the club were demoted to the Surrey Elite Intermediate League for the 2018/19 season.
My Visit
This was a ground that had been on my radar for a while, with my original intention being to visit last season while the club were still at Step 6. Ultimately, this didn't end up working out, so that meant I had to wait for an opportunity to arise this season. A couple of weeks ago (give or take a few days), that opportunity finally presented itself with this game: a cup Quarter Final between two sides who were playing at Step 6 last season.
At that point, I added it to the groundhopping schedule, but it wasn't until late last week that I asked about the key details: namely, kick-off time, admission price, programme and so forth. The club gave a fairly prompt response on Twitter (2:30pm kick-off, no admission fee, no programme) and that finalised the decision. It was then just a matter of keeping an eye on the weather during the week, but for the most part it was nice and sunny so I didn't have to worry on that front.
Though I didn't technically need to, I opted to get some cash out on Friday, as I'd heard lots of good things about the food on offer at the ground and wanted to give it a try (as well as putting at least some money into the club). I just had to remember to leave enough cash available for next week's groundhop, which I ultimately managed easily enough.
I ordered my train ticket yesterday morning and left the house at around 12:35pm, with my train leaving Guildford just before 1pm. 45 minutes later, I arrived at Worcester Park station and could see the ground, but still had to find my way to it. Ultimately, this didn't prove to be too much of a challenge, and I arrived at the ground with 40 minutes to go before kick-off. I killed some of this time by doing my usual circuit of photos (or, rather, as much as was possible with the ground's layout), before taking a seat on a bench in front of the clubhouse as I waited for kick-off.
At half-time, I headed into the clubhouse to try some of the food out (the menu pictured above shows just how much they had on offer, with the specials board just above that containing even more options). With next week's groundhop in mind, I was slightly limited on what I could choose, so I went for a cheeseburger and some chips. Though I missed a few minutes of the second half waiting for it, the food was as good as I'd heard it would be, and at £3.35 for the lot it was outstanding value as well.
Not knowing much about the quality of the Surrey Elite Intermediate League (having never seen a match in it before), I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from the match. The only thing I could tell was that, on paper at least, Staines Lammas seemed like the favourites for victory.
Here's my report on a scrappy but entertaining match that saw Worcester Park dominantly secure a place in the semi-finals:
From the start, Worcester Park looked much the better side and almost immediately started to pin Staines Lammas back into their own half. However, despite such strong pressure early on, there weren't many clear-cut chances for the home side for two reasons: firstly, the finishing and decision-making was far from perfect and secondly, the referee was blowing up for fouls so often that the game could barely flow. In the moments that the game did flow, Park tried to force the issue and get the opener, while Lammas had to work hard to keep them out and had to settle for a very occasional counter-attack as a result.
This was the pattern for the entirety of the first half, and as half-time approached it seemed less and less likely that the deadlock would be broken, However, a quick cross from the left found the head of Lee Davison to make it 1-0 to Park in the 36th minute. Having offered little up front up to this point, it would have been reasonable to expect this goal to wake the away side up somewhat, but in all honesty this didn't happen before half-time. As a matter of fact, little changed in the game's overall pattern before half-time, so the score remained 1-0.
I was still getting food in the clubhouse as the second half got underway, so I didn't have the best view of the opening stages of the half. However, I did see Park spurn several chances early on from free-kicks and corners, before a corner in the 50th minute was headed in by Davison to make it 2-0. Despite this setback, Lammas had made a better start to the second half than the first, but it still took this second goal for them to truly wake up. Their best chance came a few minutes after the goal, when their number 18 ran the full length of the pitch on the counter and got a shot away, placing it inches wide. Not long after this, they had a header rattle the woodwork before being cleared.
After about ten minutes of increased Lammas pressure, though, Park were able to regain control of the game. In doing so, they started to carve out some great chances again, but in doing so started leaving themselves more open at the back. For the next 20 minutes, the game became very tense as both teams attempted to score and change the flow of the game; at this point, it was clear that one more Park goal would mean game over, but at the same time a Lammas goal would open the tie up again. Ultimately, though, it was Park who scored next, a cross from the right reaching the head of T'Jay Johnson to make it 3-0. Park could have had a further two goals after this through their number 16, but both times he was denied by the referee's whistle: the first was denied because he handled the ball as he charged down the Lammas goalkeeper's clearance before tapping in, and the second was denied by the full-time whistle going just seconds before he tapped into the empty net.
Overall, this wasn't exactly a bad match or anything, but like last week there wasn't actually too much to write about. As with last week, the main reason for this is that the match was pretty scrappy (not at all helped by a ridiculously bobbly pitch) and that there wasn't actually too much goalmouth action because of this (and because of poor finishing and decision-making, as I mentioned previously). Also, this was extremely one-sided to boot as Worcester Park dominated against a static Staines Lammas team; on another day (one that was less windy, perhaps), they could have easily doubled their margin of victory.
So, before I talk about my thoughts on this groundhop, I feel like I should address the elephant in the room here: the FA's ground-grading criteria and the demotions suffered by both Worcester Park and Staines Lammas (and numerous other teams at Step 6 last season). On the one hand, the FA are well within their rights to enforce their own rules, and I don't think many people dispute that fact.
However, the issue that I have is the rules themselves on the ground-grading front. Simply put, it's excessive at all levels of non-league. Take the changing-room directive that the FA are cracking down on this season, for instance: Aylesbury will be demoted to Step 5 at the end of the season because they can't get the necessary work done, but they've hosted Step 4 football without any issues for the best part of a decade.
When you then drop down to Step 6, it gets even more ridiculous in terms of how much the FA want clubs to have relative to their expected crowds. For example, I visited the ground of Peckham Town at the end of the last season and it was an excellent set-up, with seating for around 100 people and additional covered standing besides that. Despite everything that ground had when I visited it, though, it still fell far short of the Step 6 grading at the time, which just goes to show how absurd the FA's demands are.
Last season's Combined Counties League Division 1 table (Worcester Park, Staines Lammas and Farleigh Rovers were all demoted to the SEIL at the end of the season)
Then you get onto the likes of Worcester Park and Staines Lammas, who have hosted Step 6 football without issue for years and were both popular members of the Combined Counties League. Despite that, they and so many others were needlessly demoted to Step 7. In particular, it's sheer insanity that Worcester Park won their Step 6 league last season and were demoted for it, while the universally-unpopular AC London were given a stay of execution in the division (they've since been removed, though).
And that's not even mentioning the fact that demotion almost killed former Hellenic League club Letcombe, forcing them to drop into Division 3 of the North Berks League to survive (a drop of four or five tiers, I believe). Frankly, it's a complete and utter farce that this has happened, and the FA seem oblivious to the damage this decision has caused.
The journey back was uneventful, but the fact that the game started and finished so early really threw off my sense of timing for the day, even more so when I was back in the house at 5:15pm; in many cases, I'm lucky to even have started the journey back at that point.
As for what's next, I've currently got the rest of the month planned out and, if the weather doesn't change anything, here's what's coming up:
Saturday, 9th of March: Farnham Town vs Eversley & California (for my 75th groundhop)
Saturday, 16th of March: Woodstock Town vs Moreton Rangers (another trip to a club demoted from Step 6 last season)
Saturday, 23rd of March: Chertsey Town vs Northwich Victoria (can't resist the allure of a local FA Vase semi-final)
Saturday, 30th of March: Aylesbury vs Yaxley (back home for an early start to Easter break, and back on the Supporters' Coach too)
The Ground
Skinners Field is a good ground for Step 7, with a good amount of character. There is some cover on the near side in the form of a small stand, but this does not contain any seats. The dugouts are in front of this. The only seating at the ground is in the form of numerous benches in front of the clubhouse.
There is hard standing on these two sides of the ground: some of this extends beyond the stand in the form of a very narrow path (from pictures I've seen online, a rope was placed in front of this last season to allow spectators to stand there). Other than this, the rest of the ground lacks hard standing.
Photos
No comments:
Post a Comment