Didcot Town FC
Loop Meadow
Bowmont Water
Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 7GA
Ground: 87
Date: Saturday 31st August 2019
Didcot Town 1-0 Yaxley
Southern League Division 1 Central
Attendance: 127 (official)
Didcot Town - History
Didcot Town were founded in 1907, initially playing in the North Berks League, before later joining the Reading League and then the Metropolitan League. In 1953, the club then became founder members of the Hellenic League and won the title, before returning to the Metropolitan League in 1957. They then returned to the Hellenic League again in 1963.
After suffering relegation to Division 1 in 1976, the club won the title to immediately return to the Premier Division. Their next relegation to Division 1 came in 1985, with it taking two seasons for the club to return to the Premier Division this time. They were relegated again in 1993 and again spent two seasons in Division 1 before returning to the Premier Division; a 10th-place finish in the 1994/95 season was somehow enough to earn promotion.
After barely avoiding relegation back to Division 1 in the 1995/96 season, the club consistently finished towards the top of the Premier Division. This culminated in a runners-up finish in the 2004/05 season, followed by finishing as champions the following season to earn promotion to Division 1 South & West of the Southern League.
After three seasons at this level, the club won the play-offs (beating AFC Totton 2-1 in the play-off final) to earn promotion to the Premier Division. However, they only lasted two seasons at Step 3, finishing 3rd-from-bottom in the 2010/11 season to return to Division 1 South & West. The club have remained at Step 4 ever since, generally finishing in the bottom half but coming close to the play-offs on three occasions.
In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Round in the 2015/16 season, beating Wantage Town, VCD Athletic, Northwood, Eastbourne Town and Brentwood Town before losing to Exeter City. In the FA Trophy, the club have twice progressed to the 1st Round, most recently in the 2014/15 season when they beat Marlow, Bideford, Uxbridge and Merthyr Town before losing in a replay to Forest Green Rovers. As for the FA Vase, the club won the competition in the 2004/05 season, beating Carterton Town, Abingdon United, East Preston, Gosport Borough, Ledbury Town, Colne, Bury Town, Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and AFC Sudbury in the final.
My Visit
After missing out on visiting this ground last season with Yaxley (due to running out of money for it) and the season before as a neutral, I was determined to make it this season whenever it came up in the fixture list. However, I was ever so slightly disappointed to see it come up at the end of August, as it was one of the few grounds in the league I hadn't visited yet that I could still feasibly manage from University (the only one, actually, considering the difficulties Wantage and North Leigh pose). It was also slightly disappointing as it clashed with Norwich's visit to West Ham, which would have been a game I'd have at least tried to go for.
Regardless, it was an opportunity to tick off another new ground with Yaxley and get one step closer to completing Southern League Division 1 Central, so I wasn't going to refuse, and on Friday I got myself a seat booked on the Supporters' Coach. On the day of the game, it was sunny and reasonably warm when I left the house at around 10:15am, but I decided to take a jacket with me just in case (a decision which later proved to be a smart one). On the way to our ground, I stopped at Spar and picked up a drink and some sweets for the coach.
I then made it down to the ground at around 10:40am, waiting outside for the coach to arrive. The coach arrived on time and was supposed to leave at 11am, but due to some confusion about the departure time on social media during the week some of the players arrived late and we couldn't leave until 11:15am. We made reasonable progress down to Didcot for the most part, eventually arriving at the ground at 1:45pm.
We immediately headed through the turnstiles and into the ground, immediately noticing the poor state of the pitch. I then spent the next ten or so minutes wandering around and trying to figure out where the boardroom was, eventually giving up and following other commitee members into it. Tea, biscuits and programmes were on offer, and we spent most of the build up to the match in here.
At around 2:40pm, even though it had started raining I decided to head out and do my circuit of photos (thank goodness I'd bought a jacket with me) before taking a seat in the stand to avoid the rain. By the time the second half had started, the sun was out so I stood in front of the turnstiles near the goal we were shooting towards.
With Didcot having made a poor start to the season and seemingly having lost most of last season's team, I was hoping we could bounce back from a disappointing Bank Holiday weekend by picking up the three points. However, upon seeing our teamsheet and noting how few first-team players we had available, I realised it would be another difficult game for us.
Here's my match report on a game that was uneventful until some late second-half drama:
The first half was as boring a half of football as you are likely to see anywhere, with both teams trying to play but completely failing to produce any meaningful chances whatsoever. The second half, however, saw Didcot take control of proceedings as they somehow failed to take the lead in the 75th minute: after a pass across the face of goal, Joshua Pin simply had to tap in, but completely scuffed his shot straight into the arms of Aaron Butcher.
Then the last fifteen minutes turned into complete chaos: not long after that miss, Tom Waumsley was sent off for a second booking after an altercation in the box (which was seemingly instigated by the Didcot defenders). Our manager was then sent off for complaining about this decision.
Then we entered stoppage time and the referee gave Didcot a penalty, despite no contact appearing to be made: Mark Francis stepped up and scored. Then, mere moments later, we had a penalty shout of our own not given and had our physio sent off.
The first half was as boring a half of football as you are likely to see anywhere, with both teams trying to play but completely failing to produce any meaningful chances whatsoever. The second half, however, saw Didcot take control of proceedings as they somehow failed to take the lead in the 75th minute: after a pass across the face of goal, Joshua Pin simply had to tap in, but completely scuffed his shot straight into the arms of Aaron Butcher.
Then the last fifteen minutes turned into complete chaos: not long after that miss, Tom Waumsley was sent off for a second booking after an altercation in the box (which was seemingly instigated by the Didcot defenders). Our manager was then sent off for complaining about this decision.
Then we entered stoppage time and the referee gave Didcot a penalty, despite no contact appearing to be made: Mark Francis stepped up and scored. Then, mere moments later, we had a penalty shout of our own not given and had our physio sent off.
So, a disappointing result for us, though it was probably fair on the balance of play. However, I won't read too much into that fact with so many first team players missing.
The coach left the ground at around 6pm, with most of the talk amongst the players, supporters and committee being about the officials. However, I instead opted to engross myself in a book to pass the time on the 2 hour journey. The coach arrived back at our ground just after 8pm and, after waiting for the coach to move, I got a lift back home, arriving in the house at around 8:25pm.
With no Yaxley match taking place on my 21st birthday next Saturday, I've had a look at other options available to me and the one that sticks out is Thetford Town, providing that they don't move the game from a 3pm kick-off (as has happened every time I've tried to go there, including just three weeks ago). After that, my last groundhop before going back to University will see me heading to Burnley for Norwich's away game on the 21st, with me then going back to Uni the following day.
The Ground
Loop Meadow is a reasonable set-up for Step 4, with cover on two sides including three seated stands. The most impressive of these seated stands is a large, brick-built stand on the near side which contains seating for around 200 people. The other areas of cover are behind the near goal, with a large covered terrace flanked by two smaller Arena stands, each of which provide seating for 50 people.
That aside, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, with limited scope for expansion on the two uncovered sides of the ground. Still, the ground is most likely good enough for Step 3 should the club return to that level in the future. The ground has an overall capacity of 3,000, with a record attendance of 2,707 for that FA Cup 1st Round tie against Exeter City in 2015.
My only issue with the ground - as I mentioned above - was the pitch, which was genuinely the worst I have ever seen at any level of football, being incredibly hard, uneven and largely lacking in grass.
Photos
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