Roffey FC
Bartholomew Way
Roffey
Horsham
West Sussex
RH12 5JL
Ground: 91
Date: Saturday 5th October 2019
Roffey 1-3 Hailsham Town
Southern Combination League Division 1
Attendance: 71 (official)
Roffey - History
Roffey were founded in 1901 and were founder members of the Horsham & District League. They remained in this league until 1969, winning the title on four occasions (the 1931/32, 1934/35, 1954/55 and 1955/56 seasons) before joining the Crawley & District League in 1969. The club remained here until winning the Premier Division in the 1981/82 season, after which they moved up to the West Sussex League.
The club won the Division 1 title in the 1986/87 season before finishing as runners-up in the 1992/93 season. After this, the club remained in the West Sussex League until 2005, when they joined the Mid Sussex League. The club rapidly rose through the divisions with three consecutive promotions, winning Division 3 in the 2007/08 season, Division 2 in the 2008/09 season and Division 1 in the 2009/10 season.
After spending one more season in the Mid Sussex League, the club successfully applied for promotion to the Sussex County League in 2011 and were placed in Division 3. After finishing bottom in their first season at this level, the club stabilised and finished 3rd two seasons later. In the 2015/16 season, the club finished as runners-up in what was now known as Division 2 of the Southern Combination League. Two mid-table finishes followed before the club applied for promotion to Step 6 in the 2018/19 season, finishing 3rd in the league to earn promotion to Division 1.
With this being the club's first season above Step 7, they have yet to compete in either the FA Cup or the FA Vase.
My Visit
As I discussed in last week's blog entry, I've been changing my mind a lot for my first few groundhops back at University. This groundhop was no exception, as I was originally going to stay in sub-£5 territory to make room for a trip to East Grinstead next Saturday. Then, when it became apparent that East Grinstead was not going to be a viable option, I decided to change approach entirely and leave yesterday's choice to a poll and rely on somewhere cheap for Non-League Day.
However, not long after writing about the polls in last week's blog entry, I scrapped that idea entirely due to my bad luck with matches chosen by polls (normally, I'd just accept that and hope for the best, but after a goalless draw last week I wanted to control my choices). Instead, I suggested a few potential approaches on Twitter and kept an eye on the responses, eventually settling on this as first choice for yesterday and Croydon as first choice for Non-League Day. Even this didn't last long, though, as I noticed Aldershot Town's "pay what you want" offer for Non-League Day and put that in as first choice for next week.
Still, by that point I'd decided my destination for yesterday, so it was then simply a matter of keeping an eye on the weather and hoping that it wouldn't interfere with my plans. For the second week running, it was raining on and off in Guildford, so I had a list of back-ups prepared in case I needed it. However, as happened last week, yesterday was fine in terms of the weather, so there was no threat of postponement at all.
With everything in order, I booked my train tickets (and actually received my confirmation email properly this time, rather than 7+ hours later like last week), had an early lunch and headed out at around 12:10pm, arriving at the train station 20 minutes later, collecting my tickets and getting on the train when it eventually arrived.
The train journey was, in theory, relatively simple, but in practice less so as I was ignoring the suggested route South Western Railway gave me; rather than changing at Dorking Deepdene and having to walk to the other station for the next train, before then changing again at Horsham, I opted to only change at Redhill, heading direct to Littlehaven station from there.
The train arrived at Littlehaven station just after 2pm and, after trying to find an accurate route to the ground on Google Maps (I noticed that the one it defaults to does not provide you access to the ground), I had a simple fifteen minute walk to the ground rather than the twenty-five minute walk I was expecting. This meant I arrived just before 2:20pm, taking a couple of photos outside the ground before heading in and paying just £4 for admission and a programme.
After standing around for a few minutes taking in the scenery, I did my usual circuit of photos or, rather, as much of one as was possible with the ground layout (only two sides open to spectators). This meant that I was finished very quickly and that I had a lot of time to kill. I spent some of this time flicking through Twitter on my phone, before buying a cheeseburger at the tea bar for £3 (which was pretty good, even if the cheese being under the burger was slightly odd) and grabbing a photo of the teamsheet while I waited. Throughout the match, I stood on the near side roughly equidistant between the tea bar and the main stand.
In terms of recent form and the league table, there seemed to be very little to separate the two sides. However, both teams had been involved in a lot of goals up to this point, so I was hoping to see a goalfest to erase the memory of last week's goalless draw from my mind (even more so off the back of an 8-0 win for Roffey on Tuesday night).
Here's my report on an entertaining match which saw Hailsham claim victory despite Roffey producing the vast majority of the chances:
From the start, this match was end-to-end, with both teams going straight on the attack while also being wide open at the back. Despite this, there were few attempts on goal at first, with poor decision-making letting both teams down as they approached the final third. The first clear-cut chance came for Roffey in the 14th minute when Jordan Stallibrass was able to cut inside and shoot low, forcing the first of many fine saves out of Hailsham keeper Wester Young. Hailsham then attempted to push forward but almost immediately gave the ball back to Roffey, leading to Pat O'Sullivan spurning a golden chance for the home side: a Stallibrass shot was saved by Young and rebounded to O'Sullivan, who scuffed his shot into Young's arms rather than simply tapping in.
Ten minutes later, the home side were made to rue that miss as Hailsham broke with pace and took the lead: Connor Townsend found himself one-on-one with Roffey keeper Jordan Markey and had his shot saved, with Rhys Taylor reacting quickest and shooting first-time from outside the box to give the away side the lead. The home side attempted to respond straight away, but several saves and defensive blocks kept them at bay. After this, the rest of the half saw Roffey continue to press for an equaliser, while Hailsham had to largely contend themselves with the occasional counter-attack. In the 41st minute, Young was again called upon to keep Roffey out, reacting excellently to stop O'Sullivan tapping in at the far post. Then, in stoppage time, it was the crossbar that denied Roffey an equaliser: an early cross from O'Sullivan was volleyed by Stallibrass and rattled the bottom of the crossbar, bouncing back into the box before eventually being cleared.
At the start of the second half, Roffey once again went straight on the attack and almost reaped the rewards: Jake Chadwick was able to drive into the box and get a shot away, but Young made the save and pushed it wide for a corner, which was duly wasted. Four minutes later, though, the home side made a corner count and deservedly equalised: the corner was played short to Craig Goodsir on the left wing and he floated a cross into the box after cutting inside, with O'Sullivan rising highest to head home. The intensity of the match noticeably dropped for a while after this, with few significant chances coming for either side for the next ten or so minutes (both sides were still producing chances, but most were wasted).
In the 65th minute, Young was again called on to deny Roffey in style, as he was forced to stretch full-length to keep a curled shot from 25 yards out. Three minutes later, the home side had two more excellent chances to take the lead, with an initial shot hitting the post before the rebound was blocked by a Hailsham defender on the line. Ten minutes later, Hailsham again had to put bodies on the line to stop the home side from taking the lead: a low shot from a numberless Roffey player was heading goalwards, but a Hailsham defender was there to clear it on the line for a corner. From this corner, Roffey's bad luck continued as a goalbound effort rattled the woodwork and was subsequently cleared.
With the match remaining finely poised going into the final ten minutes, it seemed more and more likely that we were heading for a draw. However, the away side had other ideas and took the lead against the run of play in the 82nd minute: Connor Townsend was able to dribble unchallenged into the box and shoot low past Markey to score. This rattled the home side and, before they could properly recover, Townsend scored again three minutes later with a powerful shot from just inside the box. Roffey regained their composure after this and threw everything they could at Hailsham in an attempt to salvage at least a point, but it simply wasn't their day and the away side held out for victory.
Overall, this match was a lot more entertaining than I had initially given it credit for, though if I'm honest I'm not entirely sure how Roffey managed to lose: they produced chance after chance and could have easily scored up to 10 goals, but the ball just wouldn't go into the net for them. That being said, credit must go to Hailsham for taking their chances when they came and defending valiantly to keep Roffey out, and particular credit must go to Wester Young for his match-winning performance between the sticks. The day out was also enjoyable as a whole, as the club were very friendly and welcoming (definitely the friendliest I've visited so far this season, and probably one of the friendliest in all of 2019 as well).
On the journey back, I once again ignored South Western Railway's suggested route and headed back to Guildford via Redhill. This saw me get back to Guildford at around 6:40pm, getting back into the house just short of half an hour later (as I stopped in Tesco Express on the way).
Next week will see me finally visiting Aldershot Town for Non-League Day, while the 19th will now see me head somewhere else in the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round (as I was originally going to go to Aldershot that weekend if they were at home). We'll see what the draw for that throws up on Monday, after which I'll be able to make my decision for both that Saturday and the next (potentially).
The Ground
Bartholomew Way is a new ground at Step 6 this season and this shows, as the ground is very much a work-in-progress at the moment. The only cover at the ground currently is a 50-seater Arena stand, though it seems that there are plans for an additional stand of some sort as a base is in place for one immediately next to the current stand. The ground also currently lacks floodlights, though these are evidently on the way as the bases are visibly in place (I didn't check the far side, but they were certainly visible on the near side).
Other than this, the ground is fenced off on three sides, though only two are currently accessible to spectators: this is due to a lack of hard standing on the far side or behind the far goal. Of these, there seems to be scope to add hard standing on the far side (as it is currently fenced off), but there seems little room behind the far goal for a perimeter fence or hard standing. There is also a tea bar in the bottom corner of the ground closest to the pay hut.
That aside, the ground is in a lovely rural location, surrounded by a wall of trees on all sides. At this time of year (and also in the summer, I would presume), this is really pleasant and provides a relaxed atmosphere, though I imagine it would be much less enjoyable when it's cold and wet in the winter. Either way, this wall of trees separates the ground from the nearby A264, though it does not block out the noise of the passing cars.
Photos
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