Whittlesey Athletic - Feldale Field

Whittlesey Athletic FC
Feldale Field
Drybread Road
Whittlesey
Cambridgeshire
PE7 1YP

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Ground: 125
Date: Saturday 20th November 2021
Whittlesey Athletic 0-0 Worcester City (7-6 on penalties)
FA Vase 2nd Round
Attendance: 314 (official)

Whittlesey Athletic - History

Whittlesey Athletic were founded in 2014 as a merger between local sides Whittlesey United (founded in 1957) and Coates Athletic (founded in 1950). The newly-merged club replaced its predecessors in the Premier Division of the Peterborough & District League and finished as runners-up in the 2015/16 season to earn promotion to Division 1 of the United Counties League.

Seven matches into their first season at this new level, the club resigned from the league after funding for the needed floodlights was withdrawn (meaning the club would face demotion at the end of the season). The following season saw the club return to the Peterborough & District League Premier Division and they gained promotion back to Division 1 of the United Counties League at the end of the 2018/19 season, this time with floodlights in place.

After both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons were declared null and void due to the coronavirus pandemic, the club were transferred to Division 1 North of the Eastern Counties League for the 2021/22 season. They have made a strong start to life in their new league and currently sit in the play-off places.

The club have yet to compete in either the FA Cup or Trophy, but have competed in the FA Vase for two seasons (including this current season): in the 2020/21 season, they reached the 1st Round by beating Debenham LC before losing to Mildenhall Town; this season, they have gone one step further so far by reaching the 2nd Round, having beaten Framlingham Town and Wolverhampton Casuals prior to this tie against Worcester City.

My Visit

With Whittlesey being one of the few grounds in England's top ten tiers to be within ten miles of me, a visit here has been high on the agenda for a while now. In fact, when I looked through their fixtures at the start of the season, I'd initially put their match on this date down, though at that point it was a league fixture against Norwich CBS listed.

However, this date did clash with Yaxley's visit to Bedworth United and that was always in the back of my mind, especially with the prospect of the weather starting to turn for the worse by this point in November (Bedworth play on a 3G pitch). The other possibility I had in mind was that the FA Vase 2nd Round was going to take place on this weekend, so I wanted to keep an eye on the situation until closer to the time.

Around a month ago, I was starting to lean towards the Bedworth match, even with the logistical difficulties I'd have to work around to make it happen. However, after the previous round of the FA Vase took place on the 23rd of October, I noticed that Whittlesey had progressed again with an impressive win against Step 5 side Wolverhampton Casuals, so I kept a close eye out for the 2nd Round draw that Monday.

When the draw came out and threw out this fixture, I was very interested but still undecided due to my interest in visiting new grounds with Yaxley. So, with Bedworth playing on a 3G pitch, I decided to hold off on making my final decision until a week or so beforehand based on what the weather forecast looked like: if lots of rain was forecast, I'd play it safe and head to Bedworth, but if not I'd head to Whittlesey.

In the end, by the time last Saturday rolled around I had more or less made my decision, and Yaxley's disappointing defeat cemented my choice. With that being the case, I asked for a lift and then just kept my eyes on the weather forecast during the week in case anything suddenly changed (as is very often the case). By Friday morning, it became apparent that such concerns would be unfounded, so I got to writing up the club history after coming back from having my booster jab.

Yesterday morning, I had my usual slow start to the day, perhaps even slower than usual given that we wouldn't have to leave until around 2pm for this match. After having lunch, we ended up leaving just before 2pm and made relatively quick progress to the ground, arriving roughly 20 minutes later.

I was dropped off outside the ground and made my way in, paying £5 for admission. At this point, I had 45 minutes before kick-off, so after getting my winter gear on (it was colder than I was expecting it to be) I went about my usual circuit of photos for around 20 minutes before buying a 1/4lb cheeseburger with bacon for £4 from the tea bar.

With this in tow, I took a seat in the main stand to wait for kick-off and was pleasantly surprised to run into one of Yaxley's regular supporters in the stand. We had a bit of a chat as we waited for kick-off and as I ate my burger (which I had evidently put too much burger sauce in, given how it dripped out a couple of times onto my bag). I remained in the stand throughout the match and was fortunate that penalties were taken at that end later on.

While I wanted Whittlesey to win this fixture due to the Yaxley connections in their squad, on paper it very much looked like Worcester City were the favourites, being at a higher level in the pyramid and being on a fine run of form lately as well.

Whittlesey started on the front foot and came close to opening the scoring after 8 minutes when Jack Bates almost beat Worcester keeper Jake Daniels to an aerial ball (had he done so, he'd have had a tap-in). Six minutes later, Lewis Cook spurned a golden chance for the hosts when he headed over the bar unmarked from a corner.

Worcester's first chance of note came in the 26th minute when a bobbled pass back to Whittlesey keeper Aaron Bellairs caused him to mishit his clearance straight to an attacker just outside the box. Fortunately for Bellairs, the shot ended up going narrowly wide. Twelve minutes later, Worcester went close again as a shot from the edge of the box deflected off a defender and forced Bellairs into a reactive palmed save.

In the first half, Whittlesey had done a good job of remaining compact and limiting Worcester's chances while also providing a threat on the counter and from set pieces, but the match was always going to become more stretched in the second half and Worcester started to find themselves on top, but Bellairs was in fine form to keep them at bay.

In the 64th minute, Bellairs was there again to keep Worcester out: an aerial side-foot volley looked to have caught everyone out, but he somehow got back to save it on the line. Fifteen minutes later, Bellairs denied James Douglas with another fine save from the midfielder's curled shot from the edge of the box. Towards the end of normal time, Whittlesey broke away on the counter and had a golden chance to nick it, but the shot was sent way over the bar.

With it finishing goalless in the 90 minutes, it was time for penalties. Whittlesey were going first but had their first penalty saved, while Worcester scored theirs to take the lead. However, Whittlesey were given a lifeline when they scored their second but Worcester skied theirs over the bar. Worcester then missed their fourth penalty and it looked like Whittlesey were going to progress, but they hit their fifth penalty into the crossbar and Worcester took their chance to take it to sudden death.

In sudden death, both teams scored their first three penalties to make it 6-6 from eight penalties. Then, Whittlesey scored their ninth penalty while Bellairs saved Worcester's ninth to send Whittlesey through to the 3rd Round of the FA Vase for the first time ever.

Despite the goalless scoreline, this was an entertaining if nervy cup match which Whittlesey played exactly how an underdog should play such a match: they kept things tight at the back, made use of set pieces and always tried to give Worcester something to think about on the counter. For Worcester's part, they did generally have the better of proceedings and became more threatening as the match progressed and gaps opened up, but they were either let down by their finishing or kept at bay by man-of-the-match Aaron Bellairs.

After the final penalty was taken and the celebrations began, I headed out of the ground to get picked up but took ten minutes to find the car in the dark. As a result, we didn't end up leaving until around 5:15pm, getting back into the house again twenty minutes later. It made a nice change to be back that early after how late I got back from my previous two, not least because it meant I had longer in the evening to both relax and warm myself up after an afternoon in the cold.

Overall, this was an enjoyable afternoon out at what was my most local unvisited ground in the top ten tiers of English football. I can say without a doubt that I will be back again, not least because I want to pay the Straw Bear pub a visit next time (which will mean going on the train as well).

After this, I'm aiming for three more groundhops this calendar year, but it'll be three weeks before my next one on the 11th of December. That will either be Yaxley's away league match at Spalding United or Whittlesey's next match in the FA Vase if they're drawn away at a ground I haven't visited and that I can somehow get to (I'll find out about that tomorrow). On the 18th, I'm planning one final neutral groundhop for the year, hopefully somewhere in London if my budget allows. Finally, the 27th will see me at Yaxley's away league match against Stamford.

The Ground

Feldale Field is a fairly typical Step 6 ground with just the two areas of cover. On the near side is an area of covered standing built out of scaffolding which provides standing cover for around 50 people. Directly across from this on the far side is a 50-seater stand (thankfully not the typical Arena structure). The clubhouse is positioned on the near side next to the scaffold stand.

The rest of the ground is open hard standing on all sides, though this only extends as far as the dugouts on the far side due to a lack of space. The ground is very exposed to the elements, but this does mean you get great views of the changing late-evening sky at this time of the year from the main stand.

All in all, the ground is perfectly sufficient for the club's current needs and seemed to handle the bumper crowd for this fixture very well.

Photos