Lowestoft Town - Crown Meadow

Lowestoft Town FC
Crown Meadow
Love Road
Lowestoft
Suffolk
NR32 2PA

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 123
Date: Saturday 30th October 2021
Lowestoft Town 2-3 Yaxley
FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round
Attendance: 297 (official)

Lowestoft Town - History

Lowestoft Town were founded in 1887 as Lowestoft FC, formed as a merger of East Suffolk and the first Kirkley club. Three years later, the club changed to its current name. In 1897, the club became founder members of the Norfolk & Suffolk League while also remaining members of the North Suffolk League, winning six titles in seven seasons in both leagues. In 1900, the club reached the FA Amateur Cup final by beating Leytonstone and Marlow, but they lost to Bishop Auckland.

In 1935, the club merged with another Kirkley club and became founder members of the Eastern Counties League, finishing as joint-champions with Harwich & Parkeston in the league's first season. Two seasons later, the club won the league title outright before winning the league cup the following season before World War 2 brought football to a halt. After World War 2, the club remained in the Eastern Counties League but spent most seasons in mid-table for the first post-war decade.

After turning semi-professional in 1962, the club became the league's dominant force and finished in the top two for the next ten seasons, winning the title seven times in the process. The early 1970s saw a slight decline in the club's fortunes, but they still consistently finished in the top half and won the title again in the 1977/78 season.

After this, the club remained in the Eastern Counties League for the next thirty-one years, being placed in the Premier Division when the league gained a second division. The club's next league titles came in the 2005/06 and 2008/09 seasons, the latter of which saw the club gain promotion to Division 1 North of the Isthmian League. The club won the title in their first season at this level to secure back-to-back promotions to the Premier Division.

The club finished in the play-offs in each of their first three seasons at this level, losing consecutive play-off finals to Tonbridge Angels, AFC Hornchurch and Concord Rangers. They reached the play-off final again in the 2013/14 season, but this time they beat AFC Hornchurch to secure promotion to the Conference North. The club finished a respectable 16th in their first season at this level, but were relegated at the end of the 2015/16 season after finishing third-from-bottom.

Upon returning to the Isthmian League Premier Division, the club finished 11th in their first season before narrowly avoiding relegation in the 2017/18 season. After this, the club were transferred to the newly-formed Southern League Premier Division Central for the 2018/19 season, finishing 14th in their first season in this new league.

The club has reached the 1st Round of the FA Cup on six occasions, most recently in the 2009/10 season when they beat Great Yarmouth Town, Dereham Town, Boston United, Sutton Coldfield Town and Gloucester City before losing to Wrexham. The club's best FA Trophy run came in the 1971/72 season when they reached the 2nd Round, beating Ely City, Wisbech Town, Bury Town and Stourbridge before losing to Barnet in a replay.

As for the FA Vase, the club finished as runners-up in the 2007/08 season: on the way to Wembley, they beat Desborough Town, Rye United, Blackstones, Dunston Federation, Concord Rangers and Whitley Bay before losing 1-2 to Kirkham & Wesham in the final. The following season saw the club reach the semi-finals again, but this time Whitley Bay beat them on aggregate.

My Visit

With yesterday originally being a blank date in Yaxley's fixture list at the start of the season (due to the FA Trophy), I had been planning to fit in a neutral groundhop somewhere to account for the possibility that we wouldn't progress in the FA Trophy. As such, I had drawn up a shortlist at the start of the month which placed Gorleston as my first choice due in part to their impending ground move. However, I didn't go too in-depth on that planning as my aim was to prioritise Yaxley's match if we did progress.

After we beat Biggleswade 2-0 on the 9th to secure our progress to the 3rd Qualifying Round, I deleted the neutral shortlist I had drawn up and waited for the draw to come out the following Monday and determine where I would be on the 30th. Naturally, I was quite excited when the draw came out to see that we had been drawn away at Lowestoft Town, as their ground had been on my radar for a while and it was one that was easily doable on the train (albeit at a cost of close to £20).

However, when I was watching Yaxley at Histon last week, I was told by our chairman that we'd be putting a coach on for the Lowestoft match at £10 per person and that it would be leaving our ground at 10:30am. With that being confirmed, there was little else to do but wait for yesterday to come around, keeping an eye on the weather just in case.

On Thursday, I wrote up the club's history for this entry and started working on a shortlist of groundhopping options for the 13th of November in case we did not progress. Then, I did the rest of my preparation for yesterday on Friday so I wouldn't have to rush around yesterday morning before getting the coach.

Yesterday, I woke up at 8:30am and spent the morning watching Youtube videos and otherwise making sure I had everything I needed for the day ahead. Just after 10:10am, we left the house and I was dropped off at the ground just over five minutes later and got on the coach with plenty of time to spare before it was set to leave.

The coach eventually left at 10:40am and I spent the way to Lowestoft reading on my Kindle and eating my bag of FLIPZ Salted Caramel pretzels (not as good as the Strawberry Shortcake ones, but still far better than they have any right to be). Two-and-a-half hours later, we arrived at the ground and got off the coach and I headed into the boardroom with our other club officials. After receiving a warm welcome and a cup of tea on arrival, we were given shepherd's/cottage pie (I can't remember which, but I'm leaning towards it being the former) at 2pm.

At around 2:30pm, I headed out to do a quick circuit of photos before kick-off and, once that was done, I waited for kick-off with our other club officials in front of the terrace. When it became clear that we were shooting towards the other end, I moved up the pitch to stand up there, before moving across to the other side due to the sun shining directly in my eyes on the near side.

At half-time, we headed back into the boardroom and there were sausage rolls and cakes on offer, as well as more drinks (I had another cup of tea). For the second half, I again stood on the far side on my own to avoid the sun, moving behind the goal for the final five minutes.

Honestly, I didn't expect much out of this match at all. My expectation was that Lowestoft would have a bit more nous about them in terms of game management and they'd use that to see us off fairly easily. However, seeing that they were struggling in the league as well did give me some hope that we could pull off an upset and get a result.

Lowestoft took the lead after 9 minutes, Louis McIntosh shooting beneath Aaron Butcher from a tight angle at his near post. From there, the home side dominated for the first half-hour and created chance after chance as Yaxley struggled to get out of their own half; all they could do for a while was send the ball upfield to get it clear, only for Lowestoft to quickly regain possession and go straight on the attack again.

Yaxley started to grow into the match in the final fifteen minutes of the half, finding space and time to play the ball on the ground and work out from the back. The first half-chance came in the 36th minute as Dan Cotton shot narrowly wide from 25 yards. Then, a minute later, Matt Sparrow was able to drive into the box after a Hameed Ishola pass, but his low shot was well-saved by Lowestoft keeper Warren Burwood's foot.

After that promising end to the first half, Yaxley equalised a minute into the second half: a quick ball from Cotton picked out Sparrow in acres of space on the right wing and the winger's cross reached Tom Waumsley in the centre of the box, the striker holding the ball for a moment before setting up Ishola to shoot and score from the edge of the box. Seven minutes later, Yaxley completed the turnaround and took a 1-2 lead: Ishola won the ball in midfield and passed to Kyle Nolan, the midfielder setting Sparrow through to drive at the defence and shoot low past Burwood to score.

The second half was finely poised after this as Lowestoft were forced to push for an equaliser and Yaxley tried to see the match out, but chances were few and far between for a while. However, the match came back to life in the 81st minute when Lowestoft were awarded a penalty from a corner and Waumsley was sent off for a scuffle in the box as the corner came in. Two minutes later, Ryan Hawkins stepped up to take the penalty and scored despite Butcher diving the right way.

At this point, it seemed like momentum would shift firmly in Lowestoft's favour for the final ten minutes, but Yaxley had other ideas. Straight from the kick-off, the ball was played to Sparrow and he charged forwards. He was taken down on the edge of the box and the referee was going to blow for a foul, but the ball fell to Liam Hook who shot low into the bottom corner to restore Yaxley's lead. With five minutes of normal time to go (as well as five minutes of stoppage time), it was a tense finale as Lowestoft pushed for an equaliser once more, but Yaxley were able to hold out to complete the upset.

To call this match eventful would be nothing short of an understatement. With how much of the first half went, I thought Lowestoft were going to run away with this one, but once we started to get the ball down on the ground and started to look much better. Making such a quick start to the second half was very important, and the red card made for a tense finale. In the end, though, it was a deserved win to make it three wins in our last four.

After the match finished, we headed back into the boardroom and I had another cup of tea before heading into the main clubhouse area with the rest of the players, coaching staff and supporters as we celebrated and waited for the coach. Eventually, the coach left at around 6pm to begin the long journey back home. While the players were drinking and celebrating, I sat reading on my Kindle and ate the lunch I'd packed as a small dinner.

At 8pm, we stopped at the services near Cambridge and I got off and got nine Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds before getting back on the coach again. All in all, we stopped at the services for half an hour before starting the final leg of the journey home. This meant we made it back to the Yaxley ground just after 9pm and I was picked up from there, getting back into the house ten minutes later. I then sorted out my photos before relaxing for the evening, eventually writing my match report earlier this morning.

I have a broad groundhopping plan for November, with a lot of variance depending on what happens next with Yaxley in the FA Trophy: next weekend, I'm down in Gravesend with friends from University for a few days and I'll be visiting Punjab United while I'm there; on the 13th, I'll be going to whatever tie Yaxley get in the FA Trophy 1st Round, whether home or away; on the 20th, I'll either head to Whittlesey Athletic in the FA Vase or Yaxley's away match at Bedworth United, depending on how the weather looks closer to the time; then, on the 27th, I'll go to Yaxley's next game in the FA Trophy (if we continue to progress), Yaxley's home league match against Ilkeston Town (if we lose in the Trophy and are drawn away at a new ground) or a new ground for a neutral match (if we're drawn at home or away at a ground I've already visited).

In any case, things will become much clearer on Monday when the next round draw comes out.

The Ground

Crown Meadow is a ground with a fair bit of character. There is cover on two sides of the ground, with two areas of cover on the near side. The only seated cover at the ground is in the main stand on the near side: this contains around 450 wooden seats and there are two floodlight pylons positioned in front of it. Next to this is an area of terracing which provides covered standing for around 200 people.

The only other area of cover at the ground is a small covered shelter behind the far goal. The rest of the ground is open hard standing and there is very little space for meaningful expansion on the current site. The pitch is noticeably sloped, with the near goal sitting at the bottom of the slope. Having seen use at Step 2 for a couple of seasons a few years ago, the ground is presumably still good enough for that level in its current form.

The ground currently has an official capacity of 3,000, but the record crowd was 5,000 for the FA Cup 1st Round match against Watford in 1967.

Photos

Histon - Bridge Road

Histon FC
Bridge Road
Impington
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB24 9PH

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 122
Date: Saturday 23rd October 2021
Histon 0-2 Yaxley
Northern Premier League Division 1 Midlands
Attendance: 194 (official)

Histon - History

Histon were founded in 1904 as Histon Institute and joined the Cambridgeshire League, where they remained until the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939. During the war, the club played in the East Anglian League, but they returned to the Cambridgeshire League after the war ended. They won the Premier Division title in the first post-war season, but left two years later to move up to the Spartan League. In 1951, the club were promoted to the Premier Division.

In 1952, the club dropped Institute from their name to change to the current name. Eight years later, the club joined the Delphian League and finished bottom in their second season at this level. After the league failed to complete its 1962/63 season due to poor weather, it disbanded and most of its clubs (including Histon) became founder members of Division 2 of the Athenian League.

After two consecutive bottom-place finishes, the club dropped down to the Eastern Counties League for the 1965/66 season. Initially, this did little to improve the club's fortunes as they finished second-from-bottom in the first season and again in the 1969/70 and 1970/71 seasons, while also finishing bottom in the 1980/81 season. A few top-half finishes in the mid-1970s broke this sequence, but the club generally finished in the bottom half until the club were placed in the Premier Division when a second division was added for the 1988/89 season.

The club finished 6th and 7th in their first two seasons in the Premier Division, but in the 1994/95 season the club finished second-from-bottom and were relegated to Division 1. However, it only took two seasons for the club to earn promotion back to the Premier Division, and this saw the beginning of a major period of success for the club.

The club finished 3rd in their first season back in the Premier Division and won the title two seasons later to earn promotion to the Southern League East Division. After four seasons at this level, the club finished as runners-up in the 2003/04 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. The 2004/05 season saw the club win the Premier Division to earn promotion to the Conference South.

In their first season at this level, the club finished 5th and competed in the play-offs, but lost the final to St Albans City to miss out on promotion. Twelve months later, though, they won the league title to earn promotion to the Conference National for the first time. Their first season at this level saw them finish 7th, before a 3rd-place finish in the 2008/09 season saw the club compete in the play-offs, but they lost 2-1 on aggregate to Torquay United in the semi-finals.

After this, the club's fortunes took a considerable downturn as they finished bottom of the league in the 2010/11 season and were relegated to the Conference North. After three seasons at this level, the club finished second-from-bottom and were relegated back to the Southern League Premier Division. The club were then relegated twice in three seasons to return to the Eastern Counties League Premier Division for the 2017/18 season, but they won the league title in the 2018/19 season to return to Step 4 football, this time being placed in Division 1 North of the Isthmian League. For the 2021/22 season, the club were transferred to the newly-formed Division 1 Midlands of the Northern Premier League.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 3rd Round in the 2008/09 season, beating Durham City, Swindon Town and Leeds United before losing to Swansea City. In the FA Trophy, the club reached the 4th Round in the 2004/05 season, beating Dunstable Town, East Thurrock United and Team Bath before losing to Gravesend & Northfleet. As for the FA Vase, the club made it to the 5th Round in the 2018/19 season: after receiving a walkover against Team Bury in the 2nd Qualifying Round, they beat Colney Heath, Woodbridge Town, Leverstock Green and Lye Town before losing to Northwich Victoria.

My Visit

As soon as Yaxley's fixture list for the current season was confirmed, I had pencilled this one into my schedule. Our away match here against Cambridge City was earlier in the season but as it was a midweek and as City are set to move into their own ground fairly soon (I believe at some point in early 2022), I chose this fixture as my opportunity to visit this ground.

Naturally, because I had decided on this fixture so early on, there isn't really as much to say about my planning for this as there has been for my last few groundhops. My initial plan had been to head here via the guided busway, as I recalled that the ground is right next to it when it passes through Impington. However, having moved since the last time I needed to use the guided busway, I was disappointed to see that it wasn't really a practical option from where I'm now living.

As a result, I was instead thinking of asking for a lift from someone at Yaxley, but realised at our FA Trophy match against Biggleswade two weeks ago that this also wasn't going to be especially practical. Instead, I asked my mum to scrap the plan for a lift to Kettering Town last weekend to instead get a lift to this match.

After doing my research into Histon's history on Friday, I had an early start to my day yesterday when I went to get my flu jab at 10:30am. After that, we stopped off at Costa for drinks and cake before heading back home. I spent the rest of the morning watching videos on Youtube before having lunch around 12:30pm, shortly after Norwich's match against Chelsea kicked off on the TV (as I went downstairs to make lunch, I saw Chelsea score the first of their seven goals).

In the end, we left the house at 1:20pm and made it to the ground around 50 minutes later, having initially missed the turn-in to the ground (very easy to miss, to be fair). After going through the turnstile for free as a guest with Yaxley, I went to the toilet inside the ground before starting my circuit of photos, talking to a couple other Yaxley fans on the way. As I was finishing, I bumped into our chairman and headed up to the boardroom in the main stand for a cup of tea before kick-off.

After finishing my cup of tea five minutes before kick-off, I headed back outside and stood on the near side with the other Yaxley fans to await kick-off, moving to the other end of the pitch for the second half. At half-time, we headed back into the boardroom and were given a jacket potato topped with chilli to round off the excellent boardroom hospitality.

Even at this relatively early stage of the season, this had the feel of a relegation six-pointer and I was seriously hoping we could build on our win in the last round of the FA Trophy and get our first league win since August.

Yaxley took the lead 21 minutes into this match, Matt Sparrow being set through by what initially looked like a wayward ball from Ross Watson and placing a low shot beneath Sam Roach in the Histon goal. This came a minute after Sparrow had been brought down in the box, but was booked for diving: cue a Klinsmann-esque diving celebration for the goal.

Six minutes later, Hameed Ishola came close to doubling Yaxley's lead: he received the ball on the right wing from John-Paul Duncliffe, used his strength to hold off some Histon defenders before shooting across goal and narrowly wide of the far post. Histon had two excellent chances to equalise in the 43rd minute: first, Connor Peters had to clear a shot off the line after Butcher was caught out of his goal; then, when the ball wasn't fully cleared, a cross was played from the right wing to the far post and Butcher had to make a close-range save to keep the header out.

After a tense start to the second half, Yaxley had the ball in the net again in the 62nd minute, but were denied by the linesman's flag: a long throw from Duncliffe reached Tom Waumsley in the box and the striker passed to Sparrow to poke home from close range, but Sparrow was judged to be narrowly offside.

Fifteen minutes later, Yaxley had the ball in the net again and this time the goal stood: Roach came out to punch away a Yaxley corner, but he could only punch it back into the box and into the path of Ross Watson to power a left-footed shot into the top corner. Deep into stoppage time, Yaxley had another goal disallowed for offside when substitute Pierre Omombe-Epoyo was judged to be offside when he tapped in a Dan Cotton pass.

So, an absolutely massive and well-deserved win for Yaxley to pull us out of the bottom four for the time being. Still a few minor concerns with some aspects of the performance, but in the end getting the result was probably more important than the manner of the performance and hopefully it provides the confidence boost to help us pull off a shock in the FA Trophy next week.

As soon as the full-time whistle blew, I exited the ground and was picked up near the entry to the car park and it was a quick journey back home, with us making it back at around 5:40pm. This gave me plenty of time to sort out my photos and get my match report written up before dinner (said report will also go upon the Yaxley club website once this blog entry is finished) and that made for a relaxing evening overall.

Up next is Yaxley's FA Trophy match at Lowestoft Town. I had been planning to go there on the train, but I was told yesterday that we're putting a coach on for this one, so I'll be using that instead as it saves me a good amount of money.

The Ground

Bridge Road is an interesting ground with cover on all four sides. Each goal is fully covered by Arena terraces, while the far side is fully covered by Arena seated stands with faded red seats. Each of these Arena stands has sponsorship signage at the top of them.

The ground's most interesting features are the two main stands on the near side, one of which also serves as the Cambridgeshire FA's headquarters. Looking from across the pitch, the Steve Fallon Stand is on the left and contains the boardroom and bar, while the Cambs FA Stand is on the right with an unusual blue pillar on the roof (I'm not sure what purpose that serves, but it's interesting to look at). Both of these stands provide decent elevated views of the pitch.

The ground has an overall capacity of 4,300, of which 1,700 is seated. Back in 2008, the ground was deemed to be good enough for the Football League and I would imagine that is still the case unless ground grading requirements have become much stricter since then. The record attendance at the ground was 4,103 for the FA Cup 2nd Round match against Leeds United in 2008.

Photos

Diss Town - Brewers Green Lane

Diss Town FC
Brewers Green Lane
Diss
Norfolk
IP22 4QP

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 121
Date: Saturday 16th October 2021
Diss Town 2-2 Framlingham Town
Eastern Counties League Division 1 North
Attendance: 102 (official)

Diss Town - History

Diss Town were founded in 1888 and initially groundshared with the local cricket club. In 1906, the club joined the Norwich & District League, before moving up to the Norfolk & Suffolk League in 1935 and finishing as runners-up in the 1955/56 season. After winning the league cup in 1957, 1960 and 1961, the club became founder members of the Anglian Combination League in 1964.

The club first won the Division 1 title in the 1967/68 season and also won the league cup that season. The title was won again in the 1973/74 season and was followed by a second league cup two seasons later. The club also finished as Division 1 runners-up that season to move up to the Premier Division, winning the title in their first season at this level. The club won the title again in the 1978/79 season and followed that with another two league cups in 1980 and 1982.

After moving into their current ground during the 1983/84 season, the club became founder members of Division 1 of the Eastern Counties League in the 1988/89 season. After four seasons at this level, the club won the title in the 1991/92 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. They finished 5th and 4th in their first two seasons at this level, but the 1993/94 season is more notable as the season the club won the FA Vase: they beat Tring Town, Ford United, Torpoint Athletic, King's Lynn, Tiverton Town and Atherton Laburnum Rovers before beating Taunton Town 2-1 in the final at Wembley.

The 1995/96 season saw the club record their highest-ever league finish as they finished as Premier Division runners-up, five points behind champions Halstead Town. After several years of mid-table finishes - broken up by finishing 5th and 4th in the 2002/03 and 2003/04 seasons respectively - the club finished third-from-bottom in the 2006/07 season to suffer relegation to Division 1.

It only took four seasons for the club to return to Premier Division level, but this time they struggled in the bottom five and were relegated after four seasons when they finished second-from-bottom in the 2014/15 season. The club have remained at Division 1 level ever since, being placed in Division 1 North when Division 1 was split into North and South Divisions in the 2018/19 season.

The club's best FA Cup run has seen them reach the 2nd Qualifying Round on three occasions: in the 1956/57 season, they beat Whitton United before losing to Bury Town; in the 1994/95 season, they beat Lowestoft Town and Sudbury Town before losing to Braintree Town; in the 2002/03 season, they beat Cogenhoe United and Romford before losing to Chertsey Town.

My Visit

Originally, I had pencilled in this Saturday as my new date for going much further afield than normal after giving up on doing so mid-September. However, that plan was scrapped a few weeks ago once I started putting the plan to head to Crook Town in place and I was instead planning to ask for a lift somewhere.

After the draw for the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round was done, I asked for a lift to Kettering Town's home match against Buxton and this was approved. The next day, I went to Yaxley's home match in the FA Trophy (which we won 2-0) and learned that I would not be able to get a lift to our away match at Histon that way as planned. As such, even before last Monday's FA Trophy draw, I had to ask to scrap the Kettering plan to instead get a lift to that Yaxley match.

With that change in plans being approved by my mum, I had to start searching for other options for where to go yesterday. After flicking through the Futbology app for a bit, I ended up with an initial shortlist of this, Gorleston (my preference) and Blackstones as a cheaper option, my plan being to wait on the FA Trophy draw to finalise anything.

When it was confirmed that Yaxley had been drawn away at Lowestoft Town, I added that into my schedule and assumed that I wouldn't be able to afford doing both that and somewhere like Gorleston or Diss on the train. At the same time, though, I wasn't hugely keen on heading to Blackstones this time around as Leicester were also at home yesterday and against Manchester United to boot (the train from Peterborough to Stamford eventually goes to Leicester and would have undoubtedly been packed).

So, it was time for another rethink and I once again went onto the Futbology app to see if I could find many more options of note besides Boston Town. As such, I decided to double-check my finances to see if Gorleston or Diss would be viable and it turned out that, even with my plans for Gravesend in early November, I could manage it. With that confirmed, I started to do research into both this and Gorleston to figure out the best approach. In doing so, I realised a few things: whenever I want to go there, Gorleston is going to be a fair bit more awkward than I thought it would be due to both bus and train times; with Norwich being at home as well, I was less keen on heading to Gorleston and dealing with both the awkward timings and the busy trains of football fans; to get to Diss, I didn't necessarily have to go into Norwich as I could change at Stowmarket instead.

All of this shifted Diss Town to my first choice, but I'm still aiming to get to Gorleston at some point this season before they move ground (just not when Norwich are also at home). Regardless, I researched Diss's history for this blog entry on Friday in preparation, being entirely confident the match would go ahead after a week of dry and mild weather. When I woke up yesterday morning, I checked Twitter and the weather forecast just to make sure before ordering my train tickets (they cost me £17.45 this time) and getting my bag packed for the day.

We left the house at 11:20am and I was dropped off at the station fifteen minutes later. For whatever reason, the machine I usually collect my tickets from outside was not working, so I went into the foyer to use one of the machines in there instead. I then headed over to Platform 6 to wait for the train to Stowmarket to arrive. Once it arrived, the train was more or less empty so it was nice and quiet as I snacked on a small bag of pretzels and an oat bar while reading on my Kindle.

At 1:15pm, my train arrived in Stowmarket and, having half-an-hour to wait until my connection to Diss, I went to the coffee shop on the station and bought a sausage roll and a bag of FLIPZ Strawberry Cheesecake pretzels (which ended up being far better than it sounded like it would be). I ate the sausage roll in the waiting room and put the pretzels in my bag to have when I got home in the evening.

At 1:50pm, my connection to Diss arrived and ten minutes later I was at Diss station. From there, it was a thirty-minute walk to the ground, part of which was uphill through the pleasant-looking town centre. This had me arrive at the ground at around 2:30pm, paying £6 for admission, £1.50 for a programme and £1 for a raffle ticket before starting on my circuit of photos. Ten minutes before kick-off, I bought a cheeseburger from the burger bar for £2.80, taking a seat in the main stand once I received it.

I remained in my seat in the stand throughout the match, except for heading back to the burger bar at half-time to collect my raffle winnings: it was just a humble £10, but it was nice to win something for once nonetheless, not least because it saw me more or less recoup my matchday costs for the day.

Going into this match, both teams were in fairly similar form and were positioned just outside the play-off places, so it seemed like it would be an interesting and close contest.

Framlingham were firmly on top for the first ten minutes of this match, pressing high up the pitch and keeping Diss pinned back around their own box. However, it was the home side who had the first clear-cut chance in the 14th minute when James Bemrose received the ball on the edge of the box and went past a defender before smashing a shot into the gloves of Framlingham keeper Edyn Cummings.

After several tame shots in the opening fifteen minutes, Framlingham's Danny Smith almost gave his side the lead in the 24th minute, weaving through the Diss defence with some quick footwork before curling a shot narrowly wide from 20 yards. Four minutes later, the away side took the lead from a quick free-kick routine: a quick pass was played to Joe Berry and the striker had two shots blocked by defenders before the ball fell to George Exworth behind him, the midfielder placing his shot into the bottom corner to score.

Even as Diss started to grow into the match in the final fifteen minutes of the half, Framlingham continued to apply the pressure but were unable to find a second goal as their finishing was letting them down: for example, there were several occasions where Smith beat the offside trap on the left wing, cut inside into the box but only got a tame shot away that Diss keeper Charlie Phillips easily saved. In the 40th minute, Exworth came close to a second goal as he picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box and curled a shot narrowly wide of the post. Then, on the stroke of half-time, Diss equalised against the run of play as Bemrose was left unmarked to head home an Adam Race corner.

Five minutes into the second half, Smith spurned a golden chance for Framlingham as he received the ball in acres of space on the edge of the box and somehow skied the shot over the bar. After an end-to-end fifteen minutes, Smith came close again in the 65th minute when he beat the offside trap and the keeper and shot towards goal from a tight angle, only to be denied by a Diss defender clearing the ball off the line. Two minutes later, Diss took the lead in unusual fashion: Race took a free kick from 25 yards and it was straight at Cummings, but he was unable to hold onto the ball and it fell behind him into the net.

At this point, Framlingham found themselves chasing the game for the first time and they started to throw bodies forward in search of an equaliser. By contrast, Diss were able to focus on soaking up the pressure and trying to limit Framlingham to as few clear-cut chances as possible. However, they only managed to hold on for fifteen minutes before conceding a second from a corner in the 82nd minute: much like Diss's equaliser in the first half, Brett Crisp scored with a free header after being left unmarked.

This was an entertaining contest from start to finish, though in truth I'm not entirely sure how Framlingham didn't manage to come away with all three points with all the chances they had. At the very least, Framlingham keeper Cummings will want to forget his mistake for Diss's second goal and their strikers will be lamenting some of the chances they wasted throughout the match.

After the match finished, it was a thirty-minute walk back to the station again, but this time the uphill part was downhill which made things slightly easier. I had a twenty-minute wait for my train once I arrived at the station, my train to Stowmarket leaving at around 5:45pm. Upon arriving at Stowmarket again, I quickly popped to the toilet before my train back to Peterborough arrived (this time, I only had a ten-minute wait).

An hour and a half later, I was back in Peterborough and waited ten minutes in the car park before getting picked up (mainly due to the car park now being an absolute mess). This meant I was back in the house at 8pm and I went straight onto making dinner. After that, I had a quick shower and starting sorting through my photos before relaxing for the evening. I wasn't able to get onto writing the match report until this morning, and I then wasn't able to start on this until after lunch due to having to go to Specsavers.

I've currently got my next three groundhops planned out: next Saturday, I'll be heading to Histon for Yaxley's away match in the league; on the 30th, it'll be off to Lowestoft Town for Yaxley's FA Trophy match; then, on the 6th of November, I'll be visiting Punjab United while down in Gravesend seeing friends from University for a long weekend.

The Ground

Brewers Green Lane is a great Step 6 ground with cover on three sides. The ground's most prominent feature is the 200-seater brick-built main stand on the near side, just in front of the clubhouse. Views from this stand are excellent, even with the dugouts being positioned directly in front of it. The clubhouse is situated behind the main stand and contains the bar, burger bar and tea bar. A few benches in front of the clubhouse provide uncovered seating. A club shop is also positioned on this side near the corner flag, but it did not appear to be open despite the sign on the front suggesting otherwise.

Behind the near goal is a pitch-length covered terrace with two steps of terracing that probably provides cover for around 400 people. The final area of cover at the ground is a smaller structure on the far side that is positioned away from the pitch. This seems to be partially used as storage, but some chairs also provided some additional covered seating.

The rest of the ground is open hard standing, with limited room for expansion in the current ground footprint. However, the ground in its current form is probably good enough for as high as Step 4 should the club climb the pyramid in the future.

The record attendance at the ground was 1,731 for the FA Vase semi-final against Atherton Laburnum Rovers in 1994.

Photos