New Roker Park
Arlesey Road
Stotfold
Bedfordshire
SG5 4HE
Official Website
Ground: 132
Date: Saturday 12th February 2022
Stotfold 1-0 Winslow United
Spartan South Midlands League Division 1
Attendance: 533 (official)
Stotfold - History
Stotfold were founded in 1946, though there are records of football being played in the town as early as 1904. In 1951, the club joined Division 2 of the South Midlands League and finished 2nd to earn an immediate promotion to Division 1. After two seasons in Division 1, they won the title and earned promotion to the Premier Division.
The club made a strong start to life in the Premier Division, finishing as runners-up in four of their first six seasons at this level. After two more runners-up finishes in the early 1960s, fortunes dipped with a series of bottom-half finishes going into the 1970s. Eventually, their fortunes improved once more and they finished as runners-up again in the 1977/78 season before finally winning their first league title in the 1980/81 season.
After another three seasons in the South Midlands League, the club were transferred to the United Counties League Premier Division and remained here for the next twenty-six years. They were almost relegated to Division 1 in the 2006/07 season when they finished third-from-bottom, but twelve months later they improved dramatically and went on to win the title.
The 2010/11 season saw the club transferred to the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League and this signalled a decline in their fortunes on the pitch: other than a 9th-place finish in the 2011/12 finish, they finished every season in the bottom half before being relegated to Division 1 at the end of the 2018/19 season after finishing second-from-bottom (curiously, they finished bottom in the 2017/18 season but were not relegated).
In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 3rd Qualifying Round in the 2007/08 season when they beat Leverstock Green, Potton United, Stansted and Chesham United before losing to Tonbridge Angels. As for the FA Vase, they have progressed as far as the 4th Round on several occasions, most recently in the 2009/10 season: that run saw them beat Broxbourne Borough V & E, Stewarts & Lloyds Corby and Badshot Lea before losing to Shildon.
My Visit
With Yaxley not having a game this weekend for whatever reason (we played in midweek instead), I had a free Saturday for a neutral groundhop. My original intent had been to head into London and watch Athletic Newham in the FA Vase, but not long after the 5th Round draw was made rumours started to emerge that they had fielded an ineligible player in the previous round.
This meant I had close to a month to consider my options and decide where I wanted to go instead. Initially, I considered heading into London anyway and instead visiting Dagenham & Redbridge in the FA Trophy, but a combination of their ticket prices and the awkwardness of getting there on the Tube from King's Cross put paid to that idea. I then considered asking for a lift somewhere to save money ahead of another trip to Gravesend to meet friends at the end of the month, but that would have proved impractical with my mum going to see family in Norfolk today.
At this point, budget reasons meant that my only realistic option was to head somewhere as cheap as possible on the train, but as I've mentioned before I have far fewer options on that front now than I did while in Guildford for University. Initially, the cheapest I could find was Boston Town, which would have been around £13 on the train. However, I ended up noticing that Stotfold's ground was actually closer to a train station (Arlesey) than I had been led to believe, so that pushed that up to first choice (along with the fact that it would be a 1st vs 2nd match there).
On Thursday, I got the research for this blog entry out of the way and then waited for Saturday to come by looking at options for future groundhops this season. When yesterday came around, I got ready in the morning and got dropped off at the station at around 12:40pm. I had a little trouble collecting my train tickets due to the machines not working properly, but I had plenty of time to get it sorted and catch my train.
For the first time in a while, there were no delays or other issues with my train yesterday and so it was a quick 40-minute journey from Peterborough to Arlesey, giving me enough time to eat some lunch and do some reading before getting off the train. From the station, it was around a 25-minute walk to the ground and more or less a straight path the entire way there.
This meant I arrived at the ground at 2pm and, with an hour to spare before kick-off, I had plenty of time to do my circuit of photos after paying £6 for admission and £1.50 for a programme. Once my circuit was done, I bought a ham and cheese toastie and some chips from the tea bar for £3.20, sitting on one of the benches in front of the clubhouse while I ate (very thin bread on the toastie, but very nice all the same). There was a lot of other unusual food options on offer here compared to the usual football fare, including mini pizzas, scampi and chicken nuggets as well as the various toasties they had.
Throughout the match, I decided to stand on the far side near the home dugout, as I wanted to avoid having to look into the intense sunlight to see (as would have been the case if I stood at the far end of the ground) and I wanted to be able to make a quick exit at the end to make sure I didn't miss my train back to Peterborough. This did mean I was exposed to the very cold wind throughout the match, but there wasn't really much I could do about that.
The main reason that this match caught my attention was that it was a clash of the runaway top two in the Spartan South Midlands League Division 1 and one that had the potential to go a long way to deciding who would win the title and who would win the play-offs: a win for Winslow would put them two clear of Stotfold with two games in hand, while a win for Stotfold would put them four clear of Winslow and increase the pressure on their games in hand. However, I was fully aware of the possibility that the two teams would just cancel each other out, especially with the wind being a very distinct factor in proceedings.
Stotfold had the better of a first half of few chances and really should have taken the lead in the 33rd minute when Luke Smith hit a side-footed shot over the bar from close range after being found unmarked from a cross. Very little else of note happened in the first half, the only other shots coming from tame free kicks that were easily saved by both keepers.
The second half wasn't much better than the first, but it was Winslow who started to find themselves on top as the half progressed. In the 73rd minute, they had their best chance to take the lead as a backheeled pass from their 7 set their 10 through on goal to have a powerful shot saved and held by Stotfold keeper Liam Gooch.
The only goal eventually came Stotfold's way two minutes into stoppage time when a clever pass from midfield gave new signing James Younger (he joined from Langford just 24 hours before this match). the space to hit a shot into the back of the net from the edge of the box.
This was probably one of the worst matches I've attended this season, partially because the wind seriously hindered both teams but also because the two defences gave away very few chances at either end. This is something that I notice happens almost every time I attend one of these "1st vs 2nd" matches due to the teams seemingly being more concerned with not losing than with trying to win. Honestly, a draw really would have been a fair result on the balance of play, but Stotfold's new signing made the difference late on and strengthened their position at the top of the table.
Underwhelming match aside, this was another enjoyable groundhop and it was good to see an impressive crowd of over 500 in attendance at a friendly club who are very clearly on the up again after a difficult few years before covid. The toastie was up there as some of the best football food I've had all season, and I wish more clubs would experiment with their matchday food offerings like this.
Due to a lot of stoppage time in the second half, the match only just finished before 5pm and so I had to make a quick exit at the final whistle to make sure I wouldn't miss my 5:25pm train back to Peterborough. Thankfully, I was able to walk quickly enough to get back to the station with five minutes to spare and it was then a simple 40-minute journey back to Peterborough again. In the end, I was back in the house at around 6:20pm and got my photos sorted and match report written up before having a ragu for a late dinner.
Next week's groundhop will be another Yaxley away day as we visit Shepshed Dynamo in the league, amidst rumours that they might fail the ground grading and be demoted to Step 5. That will be my last groundhop of February and I'll be aiming to do another three groundhops in March.
The Ground
New Roker Park (currently known as the JSJ Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a very new ground, having opened in February 2020 after the club left their original Roker Park ground. It's a pretty good new build as well, with a 150-seater stand on the near side and a similarly-sized covered terrace on the far side. Neither of these are the generic Arena stands that so many new builds go for. The clubhouse is positioned next to the main stand and has benches in front of it for additional uncovered seating. The toilets are positioned behind the main stand.
The rest of the ground is open hard standing, with plenty of space on all four sides for additional football furniture to be added as and when needed. That said, the ground is probably good enough for Step 4 even without any improvements being made.
The food options on offer at the ground are very good and diverse, but for those so inclined the Fox & Duck pub is only a couple minutes walk away from the ground.
Photos
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