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