Thetford Town FC
Mundford Road
Thetford
Norfolk
IP24 4NB
Ground: 88
Date: Saturday 7th September 2019
Thetford Town 1-2 Kirkley & Pakefield
Eastern Counties League Premier Division
Attendance: 68 (official)
Thetford Town - History
Thetford Town were founded in 1883, initially playing in the Norwich & District League prior to World War 1. After the war, the club joined the Norfolk & Suffolk League, playing in its various divisions before becoming founding members of the Eastern Counties League in 1935. However, after finishing bottom both seasons and winning just once, the club returned to the Norfolk & Suffolk League.
After World War 2, the club finished as runners-up of the Norfolk & Suffolk league for three seasons running (1951/52, 1952/53 and 1953/54) before winning the title in the 1954/55 season. In 1963, the club rejoined the Eastern Counties League and spent much of the next twenty five years in the bottom half, with the occasional top-half finish here and there. The first half of the 1980s was a particular low point as the club finished in the bottom two for four out of five seasons.
In the 1988/89 season, the Eastern Counties League gained a second division and the club were placed in the new Premier Division. After a respectable 9th-place finish in the first season, the club finished as runners-up in the 1989/90 season, which to date remains their highest ever league finish. However, just two seasons later the club finished bottom and were relegated to Division 1.
The club then remained in Division 1 for nineteen years, most of which saw the club languishing in the bottom spots of the division (a 4th-place finish in the 1995/96 season being a notable exception). However, a 5th-place finish came in the 2010/11 season and was followed by the club finishing as runners-up the following season to return to the Premier Division, where they have remained ever since (recording a highest finish of 7th in the 2016/17 season).
In the FA Cup, the club have progressed as far as the 2nd Qualifying Round on five occasions, most recently in the 1975/76 season when they beat Parson Drove United in a replay before losing to Stamford. The club also competed in the FA Trophy for two seasons at the beginning of the 1970s, losing in the 1st Qualifying Round both times (to Stevenage Athletic and Holbeach United respectively). As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Round in the 1990/91 season, beating Ipswich Wanderers, Canvey Island, Royston Town, Billericay Town and Haywards Heath Town before losing to Walthamstow Pennant.
My Visit
As frequent readers of this blog may know, I have tried to visit this ground several times in the past, but every previous attempt has been thwarted due to the match being moved from a 3pm kick-off on a Saturday to either a Friday or Saturday evening kick-off. In fact, this happened just a month ago when I attempted to visit in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round (that game was moved to a Saturday evening kick-off, so I ended up at Holbeach United instead).
With this matchday being on my 21st birthday, I had hoped that Yaxley would have an away game at a new ground so I could tick that off (as happened three years ago for my 18th, when I visited Peterborough Northern Star and saw Yaxley lose 3-1). Prior to FA Cup weekend two weeks ago, this was indeed the case, as we had an away fixture at North Leigh pencilled on. However, we went out of the FA Cup and North Leigh didn't, so the match was ultimately postponed (and then not replaced).
So with that being the case, I then asked my dad if we could go to a match in Norfolk after visiting my grandparents, but it turned out that he already had plans to visit them on the 21st (which I couldn't do due to the fact I'm going to Burnley that day). However, in looking for fixture options in Norfolk, I found this game and was hopeful of finally ticking it off after my previous failed attempts.
After writing up last week's blog entry, I checked with Thetford on Twitter as to whether there was any chance this game would be moved from a Saturday 3pm kick-off and, after being told this was not going to happen, I added it to the schedule. However, I didn't order my train tickets until yesterday morning, just in case the weather happened to intervene at any point during the week (fortunately, it didn't, but I prefer to be prepared when relying on public transport to get to a match).
After picking up my train tickets, my train left Peterborough station at 1:45pm (five minutes late, as is standard with trains) and made quick progress towards Thetford, arriving at that station at 2:40pm. From there, it was a quick five minute walk to the ground and, after taking a couple of photos outside, I paid £7 for admission and a programme before buying a raffle ticket for £1. After finding the team sheet in a clubhouse window, I did some of my usual circuit of photos before taking a seat in the stand in time for kick-off (I had to wait until half-time to get photos from behind the near goal).
As I'm not looking at league tables this early in the season (and won't be until my first groundhop back at University in three weeks time), I had absolutely no idea how either of these sides were doing, and this remained the case until I checked in on the Groundhopper app and saw the above. So, with both sides in very poor form, I was expecting a tight and tense encounter.
Here's my match report on a match that was closely-contested despite Thetford being down to ten men for 75 minutes or so:
Kirkley & Pakefield started on the front foot and had their first chance after just two minutes, a low shot forcing a fine save out of Will Viner. Then the game quickly settled into the pattern it mostly followed throughout, with both teams probing but seemingly reluctant to shoot; Thetford's approach to this was to play the ball on the ground and try to pass through, while K&P mostly utilised an aerial approach with long balls over the top. One such long ball set Cameron Russell through on goal in the 16th minute, causing Viner to race out of his box and slide in. A free-kick was given and, after consultation between the referee and linesman, a red card was harshly shown to Viner (a video posted on Twitter shows there was no contact made), with Elliot Gibson taking his place in the Thetford goal.
Despite this sending off, the game remained fairly even for the rest of the half as both teams continued to struggle to produce chances. In fact, it took until the 32nd minute for the next clear-cut chance to come, with a shot from K&P's Kyle Haylock almost going through Gibson's legs but eventually being held. Thetford then had their first notable chance nine minutes later, a Bradley Sandell shot going across the face of goal before being palmed clear by K&P goalkeeper Jordan Rhys Smith. Then, on the stroke of half-time, K&P took the lead through Kaiden Goldspink: his low shot from 25 yards looked to be heading wide but ended up in the bottom corner, with it taking a few moments for anyone to realise that he had scored at all.
Thetford made the better start to the second half and almost equalised in style in the 50th minute when Elliot Smith audaciously shot from 30 yards out, with his effort rattling the crossbar. The home side continued to press with urgency as the half progressed and this eventually paid off in the 66th minute when they deservedly equalised: Max Melanson received the ball on the edge of the box and, with plenty of space and time, calmly curled a shot into the top corner. Seven minutes later, K&P regained the lead, just moments after Thetford had almost taken it themselves: after saving a shot from Melanson, Smith booted the ball upfield to Haylock who somehow broke the offside trap, ran half the pitch unchallenged and then shot low past Gibson to score. This proved to be a real sucker punch for the home side and, despite their best efforts, they could not find an equaliser.
So, not a match that was especially high on quality or entertainment, with both teams seeming to have a real reluctancy to shoot for much of the match (so much so that I'm positive there were more offsides than shots). However, despite a disappointing result Thetford deserve credit for never giving up and for making it difficult for Kirkley & Pakefield throughout. All in all, it was a reasonable enough day out to celebrate my 21st with.
The train back to Peterborough didn't leave Thetford station until 5:25pm, so I was waiting around for the best part of 20 minutes. The train then got back around an hour later and, after picking up my train tickets for Burnley, I headed outside and waited for the rest of the family to arrive for my birthday meal at Handmade Burger Company. After that, we then got back home at around 8:15pm, at which point I got to work on my photos while eating a slice of my birthday cake (my match report wasn't written up until this morning, in a slight change).
So there's one more groundhop for me before I go back to University, and that'll see me heading to Burnley in two weeks time for Norwich's away match. It'll be a long day (and a long weekend, actually, as I'm going back to Guildford for University the following day), but I'm very much looking forward to it. After that, it'll be back to University groundhopping, though I won't know my exact plans until the draw for the FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round takes place (presumably on Monday the 23rd of September).
The Ground
Mundford Road is a good ground that is somewhat similar to Bourne Town's ground, with the ground dominated by an impressive main stand on the near side: in this case, the main stand contains seating for around 400 people, mostly in the form of wooden benches but with a few plastic seats on the back row. The views from the stand are restricted somewhat (partially because of a floodlight pylon directly in front of the stand, but also because of the solid sides), but not as much as some other older stands.
Next to this is the clubhouse, but apart from that the ground is open hard standing, with the dugout side inaccessible to spectators. The ground is certainly good enough for this level and has enough seating for Step 4, but there is no real space for any expansion beyond the current football furniture. The record attendance at the ground is 394 for a Norfolk Senior Cup game against Diss Town in 1991.
Photos
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