Stamford - Borderville Sports Centre

Stamford AFC
Borderville Sports Centre
Ryhall Road
Stamford
Lincolnshire
PE9 1US

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Ground: 127
Date: Monday 27th December 2021
Stamford 1-2 Yaxley
Northern Premier League Division 1 Midlands
Attendance: 624 (official)

Stamford - History

Stamford were founded in 1896 and initially played in the East Midlands League before going several years without league football. In 1909, the club joined the Northamptonshire League and won the title in the 1911/12 season. In 1939, they left what was now known as the United Counties League and joined the Peterborough & District League for a season.

In 1946, the club returned to the United Counties League, but they left again nine years later to join the Central Alliance League. In the 1961/62 season, they joined the Midland League but consistently finished in the bottom half. After consecutive second-from-bottom finishes in the 1970/71 and 1971/72 seasons, they left the Midland League and returned to the United Counties League once more.

This time, the club started to become a dominant force in the league, only finishing outside the top five once in the next fourteen seasons and winning the title five times (in the 1975/76, 1977/78, 1979/80, 1980/81 and 1981/82 seasons). The 1979/80 season also saw the club win the FA Vase, beating Soham Town Rangers, Letchworth Garden City, Skegness Town, Shepshed Charterhouse, Desborough Town, Cray Wanderers and Curzon Ashton before beating Guisborough Town 2-0 in the Final at Wembley.

After this, the club's fortunes dipped slightly for the next decade as they spent most of their time in the bottom half of the United Counties League Premier Division, even finishing second-from-bottom in the 1990/91 season. However, they soon recovered and won back-to-back Premier Division titles in the 1996/97 and 1997/98 seasons to earn promotion to the Southern League's Midland Division, transferring to the Eastern Division after one season.

In the 2003/04 season, the club finished 7th in the Eastern Division and were promoted to the Premier Division due to restructuring, only to be relegated back to the Eastern Division twelve months later. The club's return to the Eastern Division was short-lived as they finished 4th and won promotion via the play-offs by beating Barking & East Ham United and Wivenhoe Town. They finished a respectable 8th-place in their first season back in the Premier Division before being laterally transferred to the Northern Premier League's Premier Division.

The club struggled to adapt to their new league and they were relegated to Division 1 South of the Northern Premier League after one season in the Premier Division. After five seasons at this level, they won promotion via the play-offs in the 2012/13 season, beating Belper Town in the semi-finals and Chasetown in the final. This time, they spent three seasons in the Premier Division before being relegated in the 2015/16 season. They have remained at Division 1 level ever since.

The club reached the FA Cup 1st Round in the 2016/17 season, beating Sleaford Town, St. Neots Town, Gresley, AFC Mansfield and Wrexham before losing to Hartlepool United. In the FA Trophy, their best run saw them reach the 5th Round in the 2004/05 season by beating Bedford Town, Rocester, Willenhall Town and Walton & Hersham before losing to Exeter City. As for the FA Vase, the club have also been losing finalists on two occasions, losing to Billericay Town in the 1975/76 Final and to Stansted in the 1983/84 Final.

My Visit

When Yaxley's fixture list was announced in the summer, this was one of the matches that was always on my radar. However, it was always contingent on what the family Christmas plans would end up being. Furthermore, with the Omicron variant on the rise, I was wary of a new wave of restrictions coming into effect and jeopardising everything.

In the end, though, no new restrictions came into effect before Christmas (or after Christmas, at the time of writing) and my concern shifted to the match being postponed because of either the weather or covid cases in either squad. When a match at Spalding was announced as postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, I was fully expecting this match to follow suit but by yesterday morning it became apparent that wouldn't be the case.

In the end, we left the house at 2pm to make the 15-mile journey to Stamford. I thought this would get me to the ground for around 2:20pm, but traffic was slow and I ended up not arriving until 2:40pm, rushing to do a circuit of photos before kick-off and then choosing somewhere to stand pitchside for the first half. At half-time, I headed into the boardroom with the other Yaxley officials for some half-time hospitality before taking a seat in the main stand for the second half to get out of the rain.

Though we were on a very good three-win streak going into this fixture, I expected that Stamford would continue their play-off charge and stop us in our tracks. However, I was hopeful that we could at least get a point out of this, especially with the weather having the potential to act as a leveller.

Yaxley made the better start to this match with Bradley Gothard having a header cleared off the line early on and Matt Sparrow shooting narrowly wide from a corner in the 9th minute. Stamford fired their first warning shot in the 10th minute as Jack Duffy scooped a shot narrowly over the bar after a quick counter-attack. After this, the home side quickly took control and they went close again in the 21st minute, Cameron Johnson being denied by an excellent save from Yaxley keeper William Larkin.

Stamford took a deserved lead in the 29th minute when Jack Duffy latched onto a Rob Morgan through ball and shot beneath Larkin. This was followed by a prolonged period of Stamford pressure, with Yaxley struggling to find an outball to relieve the pressure or get some counter-attacks going. However, they did spurn two golden chances on the stroke of half-time: first, Florian Tsaguim had a shot from inside the 6-yard box saved after taking the time to turn and shoot; then, from the resulting corner, Hameed Ishola somehow headed over the bar from a yard.

The second half took a while to get going as the rain caused conditions to deteriorate, though Stamford remained in control and continued to put pressure on the Yaxley backline. Surprisingly though, it was Yaxley who scored next as Ishola made amends for his first-half sitter with a wonderful solo goal: after picking up the ball on the halfway line, he charged forwards, eluding several challenges before hitting a powerful shot into the net from a tight angle. Fourteen minutes later, Ishola scored his second by pouncing on an underhit backpass and sliding the ball beyond Stamford keeper Dan Haystead as he rushed out and slipped.

After this, Stamford threw everything forward in search of an equaliser but were denied again and again with a series of blocks from Yaxley centre backs Bradley Gothard and Connor Peters. Yaxley almost nicked a third on the counter as Ishola set Sparrow through on goal, but the winger scuffed his shot and it was easily retrieved and cleared by the Stamford defence. Then, with the last action of the match, Stamford launched a cross into the box, but Larkin was there once more to push the ball clear under pressure from Jack Duffy and with Rodrigo Goncalves unmarked waiting to tap in at the far post.

I'd be lying if I were to describe this result as anything other than a smash and grab win for us in very difficult conditions for both teams (lots of players slipping and sliding all over the park as the rain kept pouring). However, the fact that we held out under so much pressure says a lot about the confidence in the squad and how much we have improved since our struggles earlier in the season. William Larkin was undoubtedly man of the match, but Hameed Ishola also deserves serious credit for basically making both goals happen on his own (it was his pressure on the defender that caused the backpass leading to the second).

After joining some of our other fans in congratulating the players as they left the pitch, I headed out of the ground and traversed the very muddy overflow car park to get back to the car. After we eventually got out of the car park, we made swift progress back home and were back in the house by around 5:30pm. I then sorted my photos out before getting my match report written up after a light dinner.

As this was my final match of 2021, it's time to have a look at my stats for the year. Overall, not too bad considering I couldn't watch any football at all until June due to covid restrictions. Really, the only disappointment is that I didn't see a match with more goals so I could fully excise that Loughborough Dynamo match from my memory.

While my first match of 2022 won't be a groundhop (I'll be watching Yaxley host local rivals Wisbech Town on New Year's Day), I am planning to get my first groundhop of 2022 in on either the 3rd (as it's another Bank Holiday Monday) or Saturday the 8th, though I've not yet had a look at what sort of options I will have. So, as before, Athletic Newham on the 15th remains the next groundhop I've definitely got planned.

The Ground

Borderville Sports Centre (or the Zeeco Stadium as it is known for sponsorship purposes) is a fairly new ground, having opened in 2014 after Stamford left their old ground. By new build standards, it's a decent ground with two big areas of cover. The only seated cover at the ground is a large 250-seater stand on the near side. Views from this stand are mostly excellent, though the floodlight pylons do get in the way of each corner area on the near side.

The clubhouse is next to the main stand and contains a tea bar at ground level and the bar and boardroom areas elevated above pitch level via a stair case. A small hut where programmes are sold is also situated on this side of the ground. The ground's other area of cover is a large terrace behind the far goal, which contains standing cover for up to 500 people. Next to this terrace is the club shop.

The other two sides of the ground are open hard standing, with the toilets situated on the corner between the near goal and the near side. There doesn't appear to be much room for ground expansion on the current site footprint, but the ground is almost certainly good enough for at least Step 3 level, possibly even Step 2 level.

The record attendance at the ground was 1,572 for a 2019 pre-season friendly against Peterborough United. The ground has an official capacity of 2,000.

Photos