Langford - Forde Park

Langford FC
Forde Park
Langford Road
Henlow
Bedfordshire
SG16 6AG

Official Website
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Ground: 126
Date: Saturday 18th December 2021
Langford 2-1 Burton Park Wanderers
Spartan South Midlands League Division 1
Attendance: 65 (official)

Langford - History

Langford were founded in 1908, though it is believed that another team played friendly matches against other local villages for at least a decade before this. Initially, the club played in the Biggleswade & District Junior League, finishing as runners-up in the four of the five seasons preceding World War 1.

At some point after the War, the club joined the Bedford & District League and won the title for the first time in the 1931/32 season. After winning the title for a second time in the 1949/50 season, they moved up to Division 1 of the South Midlands League in 1951 and won promotion to the Premier Division in their third season at this level. However, they were immediately relegated back to Division 1 and then left the league entirely at the end of the 1956/57 season.

After spending one season out of the South Midlands League, the club returned to Division 1 for the 1958/59 season and stayed there for a decade before earning promotion to the Premier Division once more in the 1968/69 season. This time, they lasted two seasons at this level before dropping back down to Division 1, but it only took two seasons for them to bounce back.

This time, the club spent seven seasons in the Premier Division before being relegated back to Division 1. In 1985, they were once again promoted back to the Premier Division and remained at this level for thirteen years, suffering relegation from the newly-formed Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division North at the end of the 1997/98 season. They were able to return to the Premier Division once more after finishing as Division 1 runners-up in the 2003/04 season.

After seven seasons back at this level, the club finished bottom in the 2010/11 season and were relegated back to Division 1, where they have remained ever since. The club have mostly finished in the bottom half in this latest spell in Division 1, but they did finish 4th in the 2016/17 season.

In the FA Cup, the club have twice progressed as far as the 1st Qualifying Round: in the 1993/94 season, they beat Leighton Town before losing to Purfleet; in the 1995/96 season, they beat Bedfont after two replays before losing to Wembley. Their best FA Vase run also came in the 1995/96 when they reached the 2nd Round by beating London Colney and Hoddesdon Town before losing to Whitstable Town.

My Visit

Things haven't gone to plan with my groundhopping this month. I had intended to go to Yaxley's away match at Spalding United last weekend, but after ordering my train tickets and making it to the train station my train was cancelled and no replacement service was offered. That meant I had a rare blank Saturday and meant I was determined to get a match in yesterday.

However, that also proved difficult due to both money and covid issues for both clubs and trains. My initial plan from a few weeks back had been to head into London somewhere, with me doing a few Twitter polls to help me decide where to go. However, as I did that I was informed that Tube strikes were planned for yesterday and that removed several of my options from the equation.

As a result, I was at that point favouring going somewhere like Sherwood Colliery instead. However, after last weekend's debacle I was reluctant to go somewhere with an infrequent train service and was leaning back towards heading into London as there were still a few options I could do despite the Tube strikes. However, with cases rising at an especially high rate in the capital, I wasn't too keen on that idea and headed back onto the Futbology app to find some more options.

In doing so, I found this fixture and a fixture at Shefford Town & Campton and I started doing some research to figure out how to get to both on public transport. By this point in the week, another problem was starting to become apparent: rising covid cases were causing fixtures at all levels to be postponed and that meant I spent most of both Thursday evening checking social media and Full-Time both for postponements and for more fixture options I missed (including one at Letchworth Garden City Eagles that was my first choice on Thursday, but had been announced as postponed by the end of the evening).

The next step was to determine how well trains would be running and what options that would leave me, with it quickly becoming clear that Thameslink were probably the safest choice and that Langford and Shefford Town & Campton were my primary match options, with Langford being my first choice due to being a bit easier on public transport than Shefford Town & Campton would be.

So the plan yesterday was to get the 12:24pm Thameslink train to Horsham and get off at Arlesey (the train ticket cost £7.10) to allow me to head to either fixture if either was postponed late in the day. Unfortunately, this did not quite work out and I instead ended up on the 1:23pm train. This meant that I could only go to Langford, but at that point I wasn't concerned about a postponement.

To get to the ground, I had two options: either get off at Arlesey and walk 2.3 miles to the ground, or get off at Biggleswade and take the bus there. In the end, I opted for the latter and made it to the ground by 2:20pm (the bus stop is across the road from the ground), paying £6 for admission and a programme and paying an additional £3 for a pin badge. I then set about doing my circuit of photos before heading into the clubhouse fifteen minutes later to wait for kick-off. I also ordered a cup of tea and hot dog for £2.50 (both were nice and good value for money, but the hot dog roll was a bit big compared to the sausage for my liking) while in here to help me warm up before kick-off. During the match, I sat in the middle of the seated stand.

On paper, this didn't look like the most exciting fixture, but Langford were involved in a 5-3 thriller earlier in the week and were against a struggling Burton Park Wanderers side so I was hopeful of being entertained.

I didn't see a teamsheet anywhere at the ground or online, so I've only had numbers to work with for this match report (except the Langford goalkeeper and scorer, both of whom I figured out about via Twitter).

The early exchanges of this match can best be described as disjointed, with both teams passing to the opposition as much as to themselves. The first chance of note came BPW's way in the 19th minute when their number 7 - who was lively throughout - hit a low shot narrowly wide of the near post. Two minutes later, a chipped pass set BPW's number 11 through on goal, but Langford keeper Sam Galatis got a hand to his shot and then moved quickly to block the attempted rebound.

Six minutes later, BPW took a deserved lead when a through ball set 11 through one-on-one and he placed his shot beneath Galatis for an easy finish. Eight minutes later, Langford had the ball in the net themselves, but it was disallowed for offside. This was Langford's main problem in the first half: they got a few good attacks going, but couldn't seem to stay onside for the final pass. In any event, the first half petered out after this as offsides and niggly fouls disrupted the flow of proceedings.

Langford started the second half on the front foot and went close in the 48th minute when their number 8 had a shot from the edge of the box tipped wide for a corner. The corner reached a Langford head, but it was an easy save for the BPW keeper. Moments later, though, Langford went close again as a free kick was headed goalwards and palmed over the bar for another corner.

Five minutes after this, Langford had a player sin-binned and were temporarily down to ten men. The home side weren't deterred by this though and were awarded a penalty in the 63rd minute as their number 2 was brought down in the box by the BPW keeper. However, after consulting with his linesman, the referee changed his mind and gave a corner instead. A few minutes later, another Langford player was sin-binned just as the first one was about to return to the pitch.

In the 69th minute, Langford came close with a moment of individual skill: their number 16 weaved his way past some defenders before curling a shot just over the crossbar. Four minutes later, BPW responded with their first clear-cut chance of the second half as their number 7 ran down the wing into the box and did a step-over to elude a defender before having his shot well-saved by Galatis. In the 80th minute, he went close again as he was set through one-on-one but his shot went wide.

After that near miss for BPW, Langford went straight up the other end and were awarded a penalty as the BPW keeper once again brought a player down. This time, the decision wasn't overturned and James Younger stepped up and calmly converted the penalty. Having found their equaliser, Langford clearly upped their intensity and pressed higher up the pitch in search of a winner and BPW struggled to adapt. As such, it was no surprise when Younger scored his and Langford's second with two minutes to spare: their number 6 found space to shoot from outside the box and the BPW keeper pushed the shot back into the box, with Younger reacting quickest to scramble it in and secure the win for Langford.

This was a scrappy contest in which there was little to separate the two sides besides the fact that Langford were able to step up a gear late on while Burton Park Wanderers weren't. The fact that the match was very stop-start due to a lot of niggly and soft fouls being given didn't help, as it meant that neither side was really able to build any momentum.

The final whistle blew just before 5pm and I spent a few minutes checking trains and deciding what I wanted to do before heading out of the ground. In the end, to get full value for money, I decided to walk back to Arlesey station rather than getting the bus back to Biggleswade station. This was at least partially because I'd still be getting the same train back to Peterborough either way (the 6:25pm from Arlesey) due to the bus leaving at the same time as the previous train back to Peterborough.

This was a 2.3 mile walk and took me around 37 minutes, though if you were so inclined you could break that walk up by stopping at one of the several pubs along the way. In the dark, I was slightly nervous about it, but it was fully-paved back to the station and the vast majority was also lit by streetlights. The only exception to the latter was a stretch of Arlesey Road which wasn't lit, but I did have the torch on my phone for those sections. In the end, I reached Arlesey station at around 5:40pm, so I had a forty-five minute wait for the train.

The train left on time and I was back in Peterborough by 7:10pm and back in the house fifteen minutes later. After having enchiladas for dinner, I spent the evening sorting out my photos and writing up my match report before starting on my blog earlier today (unlike usual, I also had to write up the history due to how late my final decision was made).

Assuming there are no changes to covid restrictions, I have one final groundhop planned for this year when Yaxley visit Stamford on the 27th. After that, I might get in a groundhop on the New Year's Bank Holiday weekend somewhere, but if not my next concrete plan is a visit to Athletic Newham on the 15th of January for their FA Vase 4th Round tie against Littlehampton Town.

The Ground

Forde Park is a typical Step 6 ground with two Arena structures on one side providing the only cover at the ground. On one side of the dugouts is a 100-seater Arena stand, while on the other side there is an Arena terrace of a similar size. Besides this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing and it is surrounded by trees on all sides to give it a pleasant, rural feel.

The clubhouse is positioned behind the near goal and is where all food and drink can be purchased on matchday. The pitch distinctly undulates in places, most noticeably in front of the main stand.

The record attendance at the ground was 450 for a friendly against Queens Park Rangers in 1985, possibly played to celebrate the opening of the ground (Langford moved here in 1984).

Photos