Marlow - Alfred Davis Memorial Ground

Marlow FC

Alfred Davis Memorial Ground

Oak Tree Road

Marlow

Buckinghamshire

SL7 3EQ

Marlow's Website and Twitter

Marlow United's Website and Twitter 

Ground: 100

Date: Saturday 30th November 2019

Marlow United 2-4 Milton United

Hellenic League Division 1 East

Attendance: 85 (official)

Marlow - 5 Facts

1) Marlow were founded in 1870 and seemed to alternate between their current name and Great Marlow in their early history. The club entered the first ever season of the FA Cup in 1871/72 and are the only club in England to have applied for FA Cup entry every season since then.

2) The club joined the Spartan League's Western Division in 1908, but resigned from the league two seasons later. The club then competed in local leagues until returning to the Spartan League in 1928, this time being placed in Division 2 West. Before World War 2, the club were able to work their way up to the Premier Division, but were placed in the Western Division afterwards and did not return to the Premier Division until 1951.

3) In the 1965/66 season, the club joined Division 2 of the Athenian League and were promoted to Division 1 five years later, remaining there until the league disbanded in 1984. This prompted the club to join Division 2 North of the Isthmian League in the 1984/85 season, before being transferred to Division 2 South the following season. The club then worked its way up to the Premier Division for the 1988/89 season, but had dropped back down to Division 2 by the 1997/98 season.

4) After having worked back up to Division 1 level, restructuring saw the club transferred to Division 1 West of the Southern League for the 2004/05 season. The club then remained in the Southern League for the rest of the decade until finishing bottom of Division 1 Central in the 2011/12 season to suffer relegation to the Hellenic League. The club won this league at the first attempt to return to Step 4, where they have remained ever since (albeit regularly being transferred between regional leagues).

5) In the 1881/82 season, the club reached the FA Cup semi-finals, beating St. Bart's Hospital, Dreadnought, Reading and Old Foresters before losing to Old Etonians. In more recent times, they reached the 3rd Round in both the 1992/93 and 1994/95 seasons. The club competed in the FA Amateur Cup for a few seasons at the end of the 1800s and twice reached the semi-finals (in the 1896/97 and 1899/1900 seasons).

In the FA Trophy, the club progressed as far as the 4th Round in the 2003/04 season, beating Bashley, Tonbridge Angels, Tiverton Town and Ford United before losing to Tamworth. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 5th Round in the 1974/75 and 2000/01 seasons: the former saw the club beat Chalfont St Peter, Aylesbury United, Bracknell Town and Chertsey Town before losing to Addlestone; the latter saw them beat Clacton Town, Flackwell Heath, Lowestoft Town, Epsom & Ewell and Stotfold before losing to Marske United.

Marlow United - History

Marlow United were founded in 1977 and first played in Division 5 of the Wycombe & District League. However, after earning promotion to Division 2 the following season, other clubs voted to expel them from the league. This forced the club to join the East Berks Football League for the 1979/80 season. However, they returned to the Wycombe & District League three years later and were placed in Division 1, remaining at that level until earning promotion to the Senior Division at the end of the 1984/85 season.

After three seasons in the Senior Division, the club left the league to join the Reading & District League, which became the Reading League two seasons later after a merger with the Reading Combination League. The club became founder members of this league and finished as runners-up of its Premier Division to earn promotion to the Senior Division for the 1990/91 season. The club were relegated back to the Premier Division five seasons later, but were able to win the Premier Division and return to the Senior Division for the 2000/01 season.

In the 2004/05 season, the club went on to win the Senior Division title, becoming the only team from Buckinghamshire to ever do so in the process. The following season saw the club finish as runners-up and earn promotion to Division 1 East of the Hellenic League for the first time, moving into a groundshare with Flackwell Heath to make it possible. In their second season at this level, the club finished as runners-up to earn promotion to the Premier Division.

The club spent two seasons at Step 5 level, finishing 15th out of 22 in the first and 18th out of 22 in the second. However, financial difficulties forced the club to resign from the league and rejoin the Reading League at the end of the 2009/10 season. Their first season back in the Reading League saw them placed in the Premier Division, with a 4th-place finish being enough to earn promotion to the Senior Division.

After three strong seasons in the Senior Division, the league rebranded itself as the Thames Valley Premier League for the 2014/15 season, with the club going on to win the Premier Division title in the first season under the new name. The club then spent another four seasons at Step 7 before winning the title again in the 2018/19 season. With the club having moved into a groundshare with Step 4 side Marlow, this was enough to secure a return to Division 1 East of the Hellenic League.

In the club's three seasons in the FA Cup, they only once progressed beyond the Extra Preliminary Round, but did so without winning in 90 minutes: in the 2008/09 season, they drew with Hungerford Town twice before beating them on penalties in the replay, before suffering a narrow defeat to Beaconsfield SYCOB in the Preliminary Round. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Round in the 2007/08 season, beating Buckingham Athletic before losing in a replay to Lymington Town.

My Visit

For a while now, I've been aware that my 100th groundhop was on the horizon and I was eager to do something truly special for it. Initially, I had planned to pace my groundhopping out so that my 100th would come early next week when Norwich visit Southampton. However, I ended up scrapping that plan for several reasons: first, it would have been financially impractical on multiple levels; second, the travelling would have been impractical by virtue of it being midweek; third, Norwich's poor form on the road this season had put me off a little; fourth, the match is going to be live on Amazon Prime anyway, so there was no real reason to go to the trouble.

That first plan was definitively scrapped between the 2nd and 9th of November when I decided to do my first groundhopping double (as that meant yesterday would be my 100th groundhop rather than my 99th). At that point, my preference then turned towards an FA Vase fixture instead (as the Vase is easily my favourite cup competition), but very few options that I hadn't visited already were available. And of those that were, most were almost £20 on the train or required buses as well to make possible.

One of the options that did appear there was Lancing, though this would have cost me £18 on the train and was also a 3G pitch; having already wasted Carshalton Athletic's in October, I didn't want to needlessly use up another one so soon. More to the point, though, I found it hard to imagine that I would be able to afford that so close to Christmas, even if I did spend as little as possible on my other hops from the 16th onward. 

Eventually, I reluctantly ruled that out and chose to look at slightly less distant options. I say slightly less distant because I still wanted to head further afield than normal to make it feel like a more special groundhop than normal. However, I first looked at the local options that were available, just in case I couldn't afford to head far due to Christmas expenses. On this front, the only option that seemed special enough for my 100th groundhop was Farnborough, so I added that to the list in case I did need it (though, as one of my sub-£5 options, I was hoping I wouldn't as I am sure to end up there this season regardless).

As for options less distant than Lancing, there weren't as many as I was hoping. A few that did stick out initially were Fareham Town, Erith & Belvedere (who groundshare at Welling United) and Maidenhead United. I also briefly considered Crawley Town, having missed out on a chance to visit them at the end of the season, but quickly ruled it out. Of the others, I thought about it for a time and eventually put Maidenhead as first choice due to it being a Step 1 ground.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake last Saturday in buying a burger, as this meant that I wouldn't have change left to buy a programme if I did go to Maidenhead unless I took out £20, which would then make it unaffordable. By that stage, I had also realised that the likes of Fareham Town and Erith & Belvedere would also be just about beyond my budget, so I had little choice but to look at my options again.

Upon flicking through the Groundhopper app again, I spotted this match and put it down as my first choice; presumably I had missed it initially due to it being the tenants at home, but with almost no other options that really excited me it was easy to get over that. Beyond that, I had Farnborough as my back-up and Alton as a 3G back-up if required, though I hoped that I wouldn't need them.

The weather had been inconsistent during the week, but Friday had been largely dry so I was confident that the match would go ahead. However, I began to doubt that early yesterday morning as reports emerged of inspections everywhere due to frost and fog. Because of this, I put off ordering my train tickets for as long as I could possibly could, especially because Marlow United's Twitter feed wasn't providing any updates.

Eventually, just before 11am I decided to risk it and buy my train tickets anyway, deciding that if the match was postponed after that I would simply go to Maidenhead instead and just go without a programme. However, as I was about to buy my tickets, Marlow United posted an update confirming that a pitch inspection had taken place and that the match would be going ahead.

I had already begun the process of ordering my tickets at that stage, but the confirmation of the match going ahead was still a relief as I paid £10.70 for my tickets. I then quickly got myself ready and left the house just after 11:30am. I arrived at the station fifteen minutes later and collected my tickets, before heading into WHSmith's to buy a couple of drinks (as I hadn't yet had lunch at this point).

I then headed all the way to the other end of the station to get the 12:06pm train into Reading. Upon arrival at Reading, I had to head all the way from Platform 5 to 15 to catch my connection to Maidenhead, though unlike previous stops at Reading I had plenty of time to get across the massive station. The train then reached Maidenhead fairly quickly and I had a twenty-minute wait for my connection to Marlow.

When all was said and done, I arrived at Marlow station just after 2pm. From there, it was a relatively simple ten-minute walk to the ground. Upon arrival, I took a few photos of the outside on my phone before waiting in front of the turnstiles for a minute or two before a club official appeared, I then paid £5 for admission and £1 for a programme, before carrying out my usual circuit of photos.

After I had finished, the poster from Tony's Non-League Forum I met at Fleet Town appeared - I had seen on the forum that he was planning to go to this match as well - and we talked for much of the time before kick-off. After I mentioned that the return train was only once an hour and at 6 minutes past the hour (hence meaning I'd be hard-pressed to make it if there was a substantial amount of added time in the match), he offered to give me a lift back to Marlow station afterwards, which I was happy to accept.

For the duration of the match, I sat in the middle of the main stand, though at half-time I headed into the bar below in search of toilets and a teamsheet (I found the former, but not the latter) before purchasing some tea and chips from the food hut next to the stand (both of these were excellent, much better than standard football fare). Throughout the match, I had on fingerless gloves I'd bought at Primark during the week, allowing me to keep my hands warm while also being able to write all my notes for my match report (it was a significant improvement on going without gloves to do so).

When it comes to the Hellenic League's two Division 1s (East and West), the disparities between the amount of matches teams have played (as well as the relatively small number of teams) means that it's generally hard to assess what to expect based on the table. In this case, Marlow United and Milton United were 2nd and 3rd respectively, but most of the teams below Milton had games in hand, so it was hard to tell if their position truly reflected their quality or not. 

However, the form guide showed that both teams were doing well as of late, so I was expecting a close but entertaining contest (partially because of the sheer amount of goals in games involving Milton United so far this season, but also because the Hellenic League has yet to disappoint me in terms of entertaining matches).

As mentioned previously, I couldn't find a team sheet at the ground (besides one from a recent Marlow home game), but Milton United at least posted theirs online.

Here's my match report on a highly entertaining match which saw Milton United win by making their numerical advantage count:

Both teams went on the attack from the start and the match quickly became end-to-end. Milton just about edged the opening exchanges and should have found themselves in front in the 14th minute: a Louis Bloomfield shot was blocked by a defender and ricocheted to Louis Joyce, who turned and crossed to James Organ - who proceeded to head his effort wide - rather than trying to score himself. Marlow United then came close nine minutes later when a through ball set their number 9 through, only for him to scuff his shot and drag it wide rather than tapping in. From the goal kick that followed, Milton went up the other end and almost took advantage of some defensive uncertainty: the Marlow United defence struggled to clear the ball in their own box and it ended up falling for Joyce, whose shot earned his side a corner.

Though Milton had arguably made the better start and produced the better chances, it was the home side who took the lead in the 28th minute: from a corner, their number 5 scored from a header after his first attempt was blocked. This lead was short-lived, though, as the away side responded immediately by equalising from a free kick: Bloomfield crossed from the edge of the box and Joyce rose highest to head home (he then found himself in the sin bin after a break in play after the kick-off). Chances continued to come after this, but both sides struggled to threaten the opposing keeper. However, this looked likely to change going into the second half as Marlow United found themselves down to ten men, with their number 2 receiving two bookings in as many minutes.

Despite having a numerical disadvantage, the home side started the second half on the front foot and almost regained the lead in the 48th minute: a shot from their number 11 was blocked and number 9 pounced on the rebound, only for his shot to be blocked by a Milton defender. At some point after this, Marlow United had a player sin-binned and the away side ruthlessly took advantage: in the 60th minute, Joyce broke the offside trap and crossed for Jake Steele to tap in; then, in the 63rd minute, the home keeper dropped the ball from a corner and Kieran Strange poked it in. However, Marlow United were given a glimmer of hope from the kick off as they earned a penalty after a handball: their number 9 stepped up and scored.

The combination of this and the return of their sin-binned player really revitalised the home side and they began to attack with confidence despite their numerical disadvantage. However, Milton almost regained their two-goal lead in style in the 67th minute when one of their players attempted an overhead kick from the edge of the box, forcing the Marlow United keeper to tip over for a corner. Marlow United almost equalised in the 72nd minute after their number 11 played a free kick into the box, only for the attacker to head over from close range. Milton then had two counter-attacking chances in quick succession, with Taylor Janes curling a free kick from the edge of the box narrowly wide before Organ wasted a golden chance: he was one-on-one with the keeper after a defender ducked out of a clearance, but he chose to control and shoot rather than hitting it first time, giving the keeper time to make the save.

Going into the final ten minutes, Marlow United made some attacking substitutions as they tried to find an equaliser. This seemed incredibly risky at the time, but a few minutes later it seemed much less so as Milton also found themselves down to ten men, with Strange receiving a second yellow for a late tackle. After this, the home side threw everything they could at the Milton goal, but they seemed unable to find the finish they needed.

This was fortunate for the away side, as they had the space to break on the counter and find a fourth in the 87th minute: Janes received the ball after some neat play on the wing, turned past his defender and shot low from just inside the box to score. Though this was a massive sucker punch for the home side, they didn't give up, but all Milton had to do was remain calm and soak up the pressure. Despite this, they almost scored again with the last kick of the game: substitute Jack Powell shook off a pursuing defender and charged into the box before hitting the post with his low shot.

Overall, this was up there as one of the most entertaining matches I've watched this season, with high intensity attacking football from both sides throughout. Milton United probably just deserved the win by virtue of taking their chances and capitalising on Marlow United's ten-minute spell with 9 men. At the same time, Marlow United can certainly feel hard done by as they could have got a draw with better finishing; at the very least, they deserve full credit for never giving up on their attacking style even as they spent most of the second half with a numerical disadvantage. The referee also did an excellent job of keeping things under control while still letting the match flow.

Including the actual match, this was as good as I could have hoped for from my 100th groundhop, with excellent football, an excellent ground and some great food to boot. My only complaint at all would be the lack of a team sheet either at the ground or online, which is slightly frustrating in terms of my match report.

The match finished late due to all the drama of the second half, so the lift I was offered before kick-off was definitely needed. Even with that, though, I only made it to the station with a few minutes to spare, but that was all I needed. After that, the journey back was relatively quick, as I only had to wait five minutes at Maidenhead for my connection back to Reading. I eventually arrived back in Guildford at around 6:45pm, getting back into the house 20 minutes later. 

With South Western Railway on strike for virtually all of December, my plan for next week is to remain in Hellenic League Division 1 East territory to visit Wokingham & Emmbrook, but we'll see how things work out in due course.

The Ground

The Alfred Davis Memorial Ground is an excellent ground for both Step 4 and Step 6. Naturally, the most exciting feature of the ground is the classic main stand, which apparently dates back to 1928. It contains 250 seats and provides excellent elevated views of the pitch while also doing well to protect from the wind. The bar is in the bottom of the stand, as well.

Beyond this, there's two areas of covered standing at the ground, one behind the far goal and the other directly across from the main stand. Each of these provide cover for around 200 people and each contain a step of terracing. Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, with two or three steps of uncovered terracing on all sides.

The ground has an overall capacity of 3,000 and would presumably be good enough for use at Step 3 should the club earn promotion to that level in the future. The record attendance at the ground is a capacity ground for an FA Cup 1st Round game against Oxford United in 1994.

Photos