Dunstable Town FC
Creasey Park
Creasey Park Drive
Dunstable
Bedfordshire
LU6 1BB
Ground: 79
Date: Saturday 13th April 2019
Dunstable Town 1-2 Yaxley
Southern League Division 1 Central
Attendance: 107 (official)
Dunstable Town FC - History
Dunstable Town were founded in 1883, becoming founder members of the Bedfordshire FA the following year. After playing in local leagues for many years, the club joined the Metropolitan & District League for the 1950/51 season. The club had a wide range of finishes in this league (as high as 5th and as low as 14th once it changed name to the Metropolitan League) before joining Division 1 of the United Counties League for the 1961/62 season.
After a 4th-place finish in their first season in this league, the club finished 10th the following season and then left the league, rejoining the Metropolitan League soon afterwards. After a couple of seasons back in this league, the club moved up to Division 1 of the Southern League. The club struggled to break into the top half of the table and even finished bottom a couple of times after the division split into North and South.
At the end of the 1973/74 season, Barry Fry became manager of the club and attracted several big names to sign, most notably George Best and Jeff Astle. Unsurprisingly, the club finished as runners-up of Division 1 North the following season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. However, midway through the season the club folded due to massive debts, with a new club called Dunstable formed to fulfill their remaining fixtures. Despite finishing the season in 8th, the new club were demoted back to Division 1 North.
After two seasons of struggle in Division 1 North, the club were laterally transferred to Division 1 South, which became the Southern Division the following season due to restructuring. The club remained in this league for the next fifteen or so years, generally finishing in the bottom half but occasionally breaking into the top half and even finishing as high as 4th on two occasions. However, at the end of the 1993/94 season the club folded.
In 1998, the club was re-established as Dunstable Town and started in Division 1 of the Spartan South Midlands League. After finishing the 1999/2000 season unbeaten and winning the title, the club were promoted to the Senior Division, finishing as runners-up at the first attempt to earn promotion to the Premier Division. After two seasons at this level, the club won the title to earn promotion to Division 1 North of the Isthmian League for the 2003/04 season.
The club finished 5th in Division 1 North in their first season and, due to the formation of the Conference North and South, this was enough to earn promotion to the Southern League's Premier Division. However, a bottom-three finish saw the club drop into the Western Division for the 2005/06 season. In that season, the club once again finished in the relegation zone but were reprieved and transferred to Division 1 Midlands instead.
After two respectable mid-table finishes in this league, a downturn in fortunes saw the club finish second-from-bottom in the 2008/09 season to return to the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League. The club spent four seasons back at this level, finishing 7th in their first two seasons, then finishing as runners-up before going the entire 2012/13 season unbeaten to earn promotion to Division 1 Central of the Southern League. The club then went on to finish as champions to earn promotion back to the Premier Division.
After this, the club spent four seasons in the Premier Division, finishing in the bottom half on each occasion. The 2017/18 season saw the club without a playing budget and they finished bottom to return to Division 1 Central for this season, where they find themselves firmly in a relegation battle again with just three games to go.
In the FA Cup, the club made it to the 1st Round in the 1956/57 season, beating Vauxhall Motors (Luton), Wolverton Town & BR and Eton Manor before losing to Margate. In the FA Trophy, the club's best run saw them placed in the 1st Round in the 2004/05 season, losing to Histon. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 5th Round in the 2010/11 season, beating Hanwell Town, Cranfield United, AFC Wallingford, Cambridge Regional College, Tring Athletic and WIlland Rovers, before losing to eventual winners Whitley Bay.
My Visit
Having missed Yaxley's previous visit to this ground (for our away fixture against AFC Dunstable at the end of September last year), it was fortunate that this fixture happened to be at a time that I would be home from University (and, as with my previous groundhop, this game had been set in stone as my destination on this day ever since the fixture list first came out).
After foregoing groundhopping last week to take in a Yaxley home game (which saw us deservedly beat Coleshill Town 2-0), I was looking forward to getting another ground ticked off, and some dry but cold weather in the week building up to the game meant I had little to worry about in terms of a possible postponement.
The day before the game, I texted Jeff to check what time the coach was leaving, receiving the answer of "11:30-ish". So, on the morning of the match, I left the house at roughly 10:50am, making sure to wrap up warm before walking down to the ground to await the coach. I arrived 30 minutes later, heading inside the clubhouse to stay warm while waiting for the coach to arrive.
The coach arrived around 11:35am and departed five minutes later, making quick progress to the ground and seeing us arrive at 1pm (apparently, the coach left earlier than it really needed to as it had gotten lost on the first visit to the ground). We all then headed in and, with 2 hours before kick-off, I opted to do my circuit of photos before heading into the boardroom for pre-match hospitality.
I remained in the boardroom until just before kick-off, joining in with the general conversation about the football and all sorts else. As this was going on, I was keeping an eye on the weather outside (as the forecast had mentioned a small chance of rain) and was surprised to see it start hailing twenty minutes before kick-off (this certainly justified my decision to take my photos earlier, if nothing else).
Fortunately, by the time we kicked off this had stopped, and we didn't get any more rain or hail during the game either. Just to be safe, though, I spent the first half standing by the main stand (in case I quickly needed to get under cover), before spending the second half on the clubhouse side standing next to our dugout. At half-time, I also popped back into the boardroom for another cup of tea and some cake to warm me up a little.
Given that we had mathematically secured our Step 4 status with victory last Saturday, and with Dunstable Town still in danger of relegation themselves, I was expecting a difficult match. Above all else, though, I was hoping to see the players still putting effort in rather than relaxing now that there wasn't anything to actually play for.
Here's my report on a match in which we had to be patient but were eventually able to earn a deserved fourth win in a row:
The first half of this game was as poor a half of football as I've seen this season, with both teams trying and failing to really assert themselves on proceedings. The game flowed well enough, but there were misplaced passes from both sides and very little goalmouth action from either side. Of what there was, Dunstable looked the more threatening, while we were limited to a few efforts, several of which were on the counter. At any rate, there was little action of note in the first half and it was unsurprisingly 0-0 at half-time.
The second half got off to a slow start, but gradually the game came to life as both teams started to push further and further forward. This saw both teams create a few clear-cut chances, but even then it took until the 62nd minute for the deadlock to be broken, with what has to be one of the most absurd and farcical goals I have ever seen. After a throw-in, we failed to keep the ball and Dunstable played it over the top to Saul Williams. With only one defender covering, Aaron Butcher came out of his goal to block the initial effort and attempt to clear, but without success. Dunstable continued to push up to try and capitalise on the goal being empty, but a couple more blocks - including one on the line from Liam Hook - kept the ball out. However, we still failed to clear the ball and Williams was eventually able to poke it past Hook at the post.
Earlier in the season, our heads would have dropped after this, but confidence is high at the moment and we were quick to react, deservedly equalising in the 70th minute: a clever through ball set Hook loose in the box to shoot, Dunstable keeper Connor Coulson blocking the initial effort but unable to stop Hook from tapping in the rebound. A few minutes later, Tom Waumsley somehow managed to miss from two yards out: a free kick into the box eluded the Dunstable defence and reached Waumsley, who simply had to tap in but instead poked over the bar somehow.
Dunstable almost took the lead again not long after that, a low free kick into the box forcing a fine save out of Butcher. For the next ten or so minutes, the game was delicately balanced as both teams sought a winner, but in the 85th minute the in-form Charley Sanders finished the job: an excellent cross-field ball from John-Paul Duncliffe reached the edge of the box and was flicked on by Fraser Sturgess, setting Sanders through one-on-one to shoot low and score. This seemed to take the fight out of the Dunstable players and allowed us to calmly see out the final five minutes to secure the win.
Overall, other than conceding that calamitous goal on the hour mark, this was a perfect away performance: we weathered the storm in the first half and then took our chances when they came. It wasn't at all expected after the first half, but a fourth-consecutive win was well-deserved (and sees us climb all the way up to 11th in the table).
MOTM: Frazer Garner (a composed performance from the youngster in both attack and defence, keeping Dunstable back time and time again while also causing problems at the other end)
The first half of this game was as poor a half of football as I've seen this season, with both teams trying and failing to really assert themselves on proceedings. The game flowed well enough, but there were misplaced passes from both sides and very little goalmouth action from either side. Of what there was, Dunstable looked the more threatening, while we were limited to a few efforts, several of which were on the counter. At any rate, there was little action of note in the first half and it was unsurprisingly 0-0 at half-time.
The second half got off to a slow start, but gradually the game came to life as both teams started to push further and further forward. This saw both teams create a few clear-cut chances, but even then it took until the 62nd minute for the deadlock to be broken, with what has to be one of the most absurd and farcical goals I have ever seen. After a throw-in, we failed to keep the ball and Dunstable played it over the top to Saul Williams. With only one defender covering, Aaron Butcher came out of his goal to block the initial effort and attempt to clear, but without success. Dunstable continued to push up to try and capitalise on the goal being empty, but a couple more blocks - including one on the line from Liam Hook - kept the ball out. However, we still failed to clear the ball and Williams was eventually able to poke it past Hook at the post.
Earlier in the season, our heads would have dropped after this, but confidence is high at the moment and we were quick to react, deservedly equalising in the 70th minute: a clever through ball set Hook loose in the box to shoot, Dunstable keeper Connor Coulson blocking the initial effort but unable to stop Hook from tapping in the rebound. A few minutes later, Tom Waumsley somehow managed to miss from two yards out: a free kick into the box eluded the Dunstable defence and reached Waumsley, who simply had to tap in but instead poked over the bar somehow.
Dunstable almost took the lead again not long after that, a low free kick into the box forcing a fine save out of Butcher. For the next ten or so minutes, the game was delicately balanced as both teams sought a winner, but in the 85th minute the in-form Charley Sanders finished the job: an excellent cross-field ball from John-Paul Duncliffe reached the edge of the box and was flicked on by Fraser Sturgess, setting Sanders through one-on-one to shoot low and score. This seemed to take the fight out of the Dunstable players and allowed us to calmly see out the final five minutes to secure the win.
Overall, other than conceding that calamitous goal on the hour mark, this was a perfect away performance: we weathered the storm in the first half and then took our chances when they came. It wasn't at all expected after the first half, but a fourth-consecutive win was well-deserved (and sees us climb all the way up to 11th in the table).
MOTM: Frazer Garner (a composed performance from the youngster in both attack and defence, keeping Dunstable back time and time again while also causing problems at the other end)
Post-match hospitality consisted of some sausages and chips, which was a nice change from a jacket potato with chilli (not that the latter isn't nice, but I must have had it five or six times on the road this season). Overall, this was a good groundhop despite how cold it was: another good result and some excellent hospitality more than made up for that.
The coach left just after 5:30pm, getting back at our own ground at around 6:45pm. This saw me get back into the house at 7:15pm, at which point I went straight to work on writing my match report, sorting out my photos and so forth.
Up next, I'm planning to ask my mum to give me a lift to a game next Saturday with my favoured option being a visit to Stotfold (given that they are set to move to a new ground very soon), but with back-ups at Lakenheath and Rothwell Corinthians also reasonable options. After that, I'll be going to Corby on Easter Monday for our away match there, though I'm not yet sure if that will be with my dad or on the Supporters' Coach again. And then it'll be Kintbury Rangers to round off the season.
The Ground
Creasey Park is a good ground at this level, even if it perhaps lacks much in the way of character. There is cover on three sides of the ground, most notable of which is a large Arena stand (which contains roughly 300 seats, as a reasonable estimate). Behind each goal is a smaller Arena terrace, while the rest of the ground is open hard standing.
Obviously, as the ground was used at that level for several seasons, this is more than sufficient for Step 3, but even then there is plenty of room for future upgrades if they ever prove necessary. The ground has an overall capacity of 3,500. The ground is also shared by fellow Southern League Division 1 Central side AFC Dunstable.
Photos
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