CB Hounslow United FC
32 Green Lane
Hounslow
Middlesex
TW4 6DH
Ground: 97
Date: Saturday 9th November 2019
CB Hounslow United 1-4 Redhill
Combined Counties League Premier Division
Attendance: 26 (official)
Attendance: 26 (official)
CB Hounslow United - History
CB Hounslow United were founded in 1989, with the CB in the name coming from Cater Bank (which was the company owned by the father of the club's chairman at the time). The club initially played in the Hounslow & District League before moving up to the Senior Division of the Middlesex County League in 1997. The club were then promoted to the Premier Division after finishing 4th in the 1998/99 season.
The club finished as runners-up for two consecutive seasons (the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons) and successfully applied for promotion to Division 1 of the Combined Counties League for the 2006/07 season. The club spent most of their first few seasons at this level finishing in mid-table before slumping to a bottom-place finish in the 2012/13 season. Three seasons later, though, the club won Division 1 to earn promotion to the Premier Division, where they have remained ever since (recording a highest finish of 9th in the 2017/18 season).
The club's best FA Cup run came in their first season in the competition (the 2016/17 season) when they reached the 1st Qualifying Round, beating Fairford Town and Petersfield Town before losing to Metropolitan Police. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run came last season when they reached the 1st Round, beating Rothwell Corinthians and Potton United before losing to Spelthorne Sports.
My Visit
As I talked about in the Bedfont & Feltham blog entry, the reason I added that back onto my groundhopping schedule was because the 1pm kick-off allowed for a double with a game at next-door neighbours Bedfont Sports. However, what I didn't realise at the time I made that decision was that Bedfont Sports had an FA Trophy replay on Wednesday night and that, if they were to win that match, they would be away at Hitchin on Saturday instead.
Inevitably, because I needed them to lose for an easy double, they ended up winning, so I was forced to look for other potential options. The only two there seemed to be were this match and a Southall match at the ground of Ashford Town. Both of these were technically feasible from Bedfont & Feltham, but the 1pm kick-off meant that it would be very tight, if not downright impossible, to make either match in time for kick-off.
The possibility of missing some of a match (and missing goals or other important events) in the process did not please me, but there was little to be done about it. That being said, I didn't want to miss more than the first fifteen minutes of the second match of my double, so I had to check the bus routes to make sure it was viable and this quickly ruled out Southall (as even in the absolute best-case scenario, I would miss the first twenty minutes of the match). With this match, however, I could get there fairly easily and only miss the first ten minutes of the match in the process, which seemed ideal.
Naturally, though, things are never quite that simple and the delayed kick-off and prolonged half-time break at Bedfont & Feltham meant that it would be next to impossible to get to Hounslow by bus without missing at least twenty minutes of football in the process. So, knowing that fellow groundhopper The Terrace Traveller was doing the same double and had his car with him, I asked for a lift on Twitter and he was kind enough to oblige.
Even with this being the case, the first match didn't finish until just before 3pm, so we quickly headed out and to his car and began driving to Hounslow's ground, arriving there at around 3:10pm. We then missed a further five minutes of the match trying to find the entrance, with it turning out that we had parked in the wrong car park.
Upon reaching the turnstiles, we were strangely asked which side we were watching and, after saying that we were watching Hounslow, we were charged £4 rather than the adult rate of £8 for admission, also receiving a free programme with admission. This was a strange experience to say the least, partially because I've never been asked that when entering a ground before but also because it seemed to lead to us being charged less for admission (I'm not sure if that was the case, but it certainly seemed like it).
Either way, we were in and, after I snapped a photo of the team sheet on my phone, we went to sit in the main stand and get out of the rain. At half-time, I did most of a circuit of photos before heading to the tea bar behind the clubhouse to order a cup of tea and a burger to warm me up (as, along with the worsening rain, it had become bitterly cold at this point). I then returned to my seat in the main stand to watch the rest of the match.
Planes were also flying over this ground throughout the game (and often lower than at Bedfont too).
Being entirely honest, I expected virtually nothing out of this game, with both teams struggling near the bottom of the league and struggling to find the net. However, both previous times I'd watched Redhill they had been able to score three goals, so I was hoping for a repeat of that luck here.
Here's my brief report on a match which saw Redhill dominate and deservedly come out on top in awful conditions:
What I saw of the first half was largely uneventful, with lots of miscued aerial balls and a general lack of control from either side. However, as the half progressed Redhill started to look stronger and deservedly took the lead in the 43rd minute: Nathan Williams curled a shot into the top corner from 25 yards out.
Redhill continued to be on top as the second half began, doubling their lead in the 52nd minute through Stefan Joseph, whose shot from inside the box initially hit the post before rebounding into the net. Fifteen minutes later, Hounslow gave themselves hope of a comeback when Shakeel Morris was able to turn and shoot inside the box, a deflection seemingly helping it go in past Redhill keeper Jack Minchen.
However, this hope only lasted seven minutes as Hounslow gave a penalty away in the 74th minute when a defender clipped Mo Diakite: Evan Lopes stepped up to take and placed his effort into the bottom corner. Ten minutes later, Redhill's victory was confirmed when Williams scored his second: Fred Hill charged down the left wing and crossed to the far post, where Williams was able to poke in a volley from close range. Conditions deteriorated rapidly after this and the match lost all energy and intensity before concluding.
Overall, what I saw of the first half was nothing short of dismal, but the second half was a lot better even as the conditions drastically deteriorated in the final ten minutes. More importantly, though, it was nice to finally see a match with more than three goals again after some bad luck with matches since returning to University at the end of September.
As with my Bedfont match report, this one is much shorter than normal, the main reason for that being I lost my pen somewhere between matches 1 and 2 and could hence only take notes on Twitter (and, with it being very, very cold I only took notes of goals and any other notable incidents). That being said, even if I had taken more notes I doubt I would have had the motivation to write much more by the time I got home. That's the only real downside to come from this groundhopping double, but it's something to learn from in future at least.
After the match, The Terrace Traveller was kind enough to give me a lift back to Hatton Cross station, but we accidentally got lost initially before then missing the turn-in when we did find it, which wasted at least ten minutes. This meant I had to rush my way across the Underground to get a reasonably-timed train back into Guildford, just about making it onto the 6:30pm after it was delayed by a couple of minutes. As such, I didn't get back into the house until 7:35pm, at which point my motivation to write a prolonged match report for either match was almost non-existent.
After three consecutive weekends in London, I'm going to try to go elsewhere as much as possible in the coming weeks (with the exception of the 14th of December, when I have to do so for a Yaxley away game, so as to be able to get home for Christmas). In fact, I more or less have plans through to the end of the year, but given how frequently things change I'll just state what the direct next groundhop is planned to be: next Saturday, I'm aiming to visit Reading City for their match against Hellenic League leaders Westfields.
The Ground
Green Lane is a very new ground, having only opened in 2017. It's a good ground for Step 5, though, with a large 100-150 seated main stand on the far side as the main area of cover. There's additional cover on two sides of the ground, with a small covered terrace behind the far goal providing standing cover for around 50 people.
In front of the impressive clubhouse is a couple of smaller areas of cover, one on each side of the dugouts: closest to the near goal is a small area of covered standing that provides cover for around 10 people, while closest to the far goal is another area of cover with bench seating inside.
Apart from this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, with an overall capacity of 2,100 and plenty of room for expansion (though the ground probably has sufficient football furniture for Step 4, should the club earn promotion to that level in the future). The tea bar is situated on the other side of the clubhouse, forcing you to walk around it and out of sight from the pitch to get hot food or drinks. Behind the clubhouse is an additional pitch which is presumably used by the club's reserves and other youth teams.
Photos
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