Potton United - The Hutchinson Hollow

Potton United FC
The Hutchinson Hollow
Biggleswade Road
Potton
Bedfordshire
SG19 2LU

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 116
Date: Saturday 4th September 2021
Potton United 0-1 AFC Sudbury
FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
Attendance: 211 (official)

Potton United - History

Potton United were founded in 1943 and joined the South Midlands League after the conclusion of World War 2. After finishing as runners-up at the end of the 1954/55 season, the club left the league and applied to instead join the Parthenon League. However, this application was rejected and the club had to sit out a season before joining Division 1 South of the Central Alliance League. In 1961, the club left this league to join Division 1 of the United Counties League.

The club remained at this level for the next 40 years, with the division being renamed the Premier Division in 1972. For roughly the first 30 of these 40 years, the club mostly finished in the top half of the table, including two title wins in the 1986/87 and 1988/89 seasons. However, the years following that second title saw the club start to slip into bottom half finishes more consistently, finishing bottom of the league in the 1998/99 season. Though the club were spared relegation in this instance, they were not so lucky when they finished second-from-bottom two seasons later.

The club made a swift return to Premier Division level, winning the Division 1 title in their third season at that level in 2004. Their first two seasons back in the Premier Division saw the club finish as runners-up, but fortunes quickly took a turn for the worse and they were relegated back to Division 1 at the end of the 2008/09 season. The club then remained in Division 1 until finishing as runners-up in the 2017/18 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League. The club finished a respectable 7th-place in their first season back at this level, before being transferred to the newly-formed United Counties League Premier Division South for the current season after the covid-enforced curtailment of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.

The club's best FA Cup run saw them reach the 3rd Qualifying Round in the 1974/75 season, beating Biggleswade & District and Irthlingborough Diamonds before losing to Bedford Town. In the FA Trophy, the club reached the 3rd Qualifying Round in both the 1971/72 and 1972/73 seasons, losing to Bexley United on both occasions. As for the FA Vase, the club reached the 5th Round in the 1989/90 season, beating Cheshunt, Finchley, Norwich United, Stevenage Borough and Hastings Town before losing to Billericay Town.

My Visit

With three weeks having passed between this and my previous groundhop, I'd had a lot of time to think about my plans for where I wanted to go next. My original plan had been to head to Hitchin Town on the train on Bank Holiday Monday, having had a blank Saturday last weekend as I went to see my grandparents for the first time in 18+ months instead. However, after dealing with big crowds on the train for that, I was a bit less keen to go and brave the Bank Holiday crowds again on the Monday.

Even before that plan was thrown by the wayside, I was planning to head somewhere in the FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round. Initially, I was hoping to head to Royston Town with Yaxley, but we lost our replay to lower-league Mildenhall Town to miss out on that. After that, I drew up a shortlist of options I could do on the train as well as some I could ask for a lift to. Royston Town would have fit the bill on both fronts, but seeing as it wasn't going to be Yaxley heading there I opted to rule it out. This left me with three options I could ask for a lift to (this, Anstey Nomads and Leicester Road) and four options feasible on the train (Bury Town, Enfield Town, Sherwood Colliery and Worksop Town).

Last weekend, it became apparent that I would be able to get a lift somewhere this weekend, so I passed the list of options to my mum with Google Maps links attached to help her decide. On Friday evening, she confirmed that this was where we would be heading, so I started to do my research for the blog to save some time today (in fact, this is going to be the approach going forward in cases where I've made a definitive decision in advance).

Yesterday morning, I woke up with no concerns about the weather possibly causing a postponement, so I went about my day as normal before we left the house at around 1:45pm. For whatever reason, the sat nav in my stepdad's new car decided to lead us down a very circuitous route to Potton, rather than just heading straight down the A1. While this meant we saw some very nice views along the way, it did mean we didn't arrive into the town of Potton until just after 2:30pm. On top of that, we missed the turn into the football ground and lost a few more minutes as a result of trying to find somewhere to turn around (to be fair, it's very easily missed even if you are fully paying attention).

As a result, I didn't get into the ground until 2:40pm, paying £6 for admission and then rushing to do my circuit of photos before kick-off. Once that was done, I ordered a cheeseburger from the tea bar immediately next to the entrance (for £2.50, it was quite a large burger) and then walked back down to the far side of the ground to watch the match. Normally, I'd prefer to take a seat in the stand, but the fact that it was almost completely full and that the sun was shining directly into it meant the idea didn't quite appeal in this case.

At this point, the teams were coming out for the usual pre-match routines and I snapped a poor photo of that before taking off my jumper (it was a fair bit warmer than I had anticipated it being) and starting to eat my burger. I remained where I was standing throughout the match, other than when I headed into the clubhouse to find the toilets during an extended stoppage caused by a head injury. After this, I remained standing behind the near goal until the full-time whistle.

While it does still feel a tad early into the season to be checking out league tables, I figured I'd do so anyway to gain a more informed understanding of what to expect from this cup fixture. Even before doing so, my expectation was that Step 4 AFC Sudbury would likely have too much for Step 5 Potton, and seeing that Sudbury had made an unbeaten start to their league campaign only reinforced that view. Still, the FA Cup always throws out plenty of upsets so there was a small part of me hoping Potton could pull one off.

The first half was one of few chances as both teams probed for an opening, but Sudbury should have been in front after 21 minutes when Marley Andrews was put through one-on-one after a quick breakaway on the counter. However, he lacked composure and sliced his effort wide of goal. There were a few more half chances that followed as Sudbury gradually started to take control, but it remained goalless going into half-time.

Potton made a good start to the second half, but were unable to make it count with any noteworthy chances. After weathering that brief storm, Sudbury started to up the pressure again but struggled to break through a stubborn Potton defence, with Callum Wilson in particular getting in some vital defensive blocks to keep the score goalless. However, as the minutes continued to tick by, the match started to open up a little as both teams had to actively chase a goal and Sudbury almost had the lead in the 72nd minute when a header hit the crossbar and bounced down into the box before being scrambled clear by a defender.

As we approached the end of normal time, it looked like this match would be heading for a replay, but Sudbury's Tyrese Osbourne had other ideas and scored the match's only goal in the 89th minute: after a quick counter ended with a shot into the crossbar, Ethan Mayhew played a ball over his head back into the six-yard box and Osbourne was there at the far post to poke it in. Potton used the eight minutes of injury time to send the ball forwards and try and produce an equaliser, but to no avail as Sudbury held on to progress.

This was a cagey, closely-contested match that honestly provided little entertainment for the neutral. Potton ran their higher-level opponents close, but they never really looked like scoring when they were able to get forward. Sudbury had the better of the play and did create more chances, but it was far closer than I expected and a goalless draw probably would have been a fair result.

To be honest, this was probably one of my least enjoyable groundhopping experiences in quite some time, partially because the match was rather low on entertainment value but also because of the attitude of some Potton "ultras" behind the near goal. Usually, such groups provide an atmosphere and support their team with chants, drums and so on, but these did none of that (they banged the drum maybe 5 times in the entire match). Instead, they spent the match hurling abuse at the Sudbury players, supporters and coaching staff as well as to the occasional passerby (myself included). I'm sure the club are friendly on the whole, but that group really reflects badly on them and put a bit of a damper on the day (and my feelings about that probably enhanced my disappointment with the match itself).

Due to the extended stoppage for a head injury in the second half, there was eight minutes of stoppage time and so the match didn't finish until almost 5pm. When it did finish, I was picked up again in the car park and we headed back home. This time, the sat nav took the more logical route up the A1 to get back and so we got back into the house at around 6pm, after taking a detour so my stepdad could pick something up. While waiting for dinner, I sorted out my photos and wrote up my match report, before checking on some other results in the FA Cup and Football League.

As it stands, I'm waiting on tomorrow's FA Cup draw to finalise my remaining groundhopping plans for this month. Whatever happens, I'm going somewhere in the FA Vase on the train next Saturday and then somewhere significantly further afield than normal on the 18th. I'm currently looking at Atherstone Town as first-choice next Saturday and then a long trip towards Manchester on the 18th to visit Daisy Hill. However, that will change if Nantwich Town get a home draw in the FA Cup against a team not in their own league, or if something else really catches my eye in the FA Cup draw.

The Ground

The Hutchinson Hollow is a decent ground by Step 5 standards, with a 150-seater brick-built stand on the near side being the ground's most notable feature. The only other area of cover at the ground is a small Arena terrace behind the near goal which provides standing cover for around 50 people.

Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing save for a few benches behind the near goal and one next to the main stand. The clubhouse and tea bar are both situated behind the near goal and the latter provides a good mix of hot food options. A cricket pitch is located behind the far goal.

Photos

Sleaford Town - Eslaforde Park

Sleaford Town FC
Eslaforde Park
Boston Road
Sleaford
Lincolnshire
NG34 9GH

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 115
Date: Saturday 14th August 2021
Sleaford Town 0-2 Heather St John's
United Counties League Premier Division North
Attendance: 115 (official)

Sleaford Town - History

Sleaford Town were founded in 1923 and have spent most of their history in the Lincolnshire League. After finishing as runners-up of this league at the end of the 2002/03 season (the second time they had recorded this finish, the first coming in the 1989/90 season), the club announced plans to move up to the United Counties League. After winning the title the following season and moving to RAF Cranwell, the club earned promotion to Division 1 of the United Counties League.

The club went on to win the Division 1 title in the 2005/06 season, but had to wait twelve months for Eslaforde Park to be ready before they could take promotion to the Premier Division. The 2006/07 season saw the club finish as runners-up to secure promotion to the Premier Division, losing just one game all season but having three points deducted. In the club's twelve completed seasons in the Premier Division (2007/08 to 2018/19), they generally finished in the bottom half, but managed a 9th-place finish in the 2009/10 season and a 7th-place finish in the 2015/16 season.

In the two seasons disrupted by covid, the club seriously struggled on the pitch, picking up just 15 points from the 40 league games they managed to play in that time. However, with the last two seasons declared null and void, relegation did not occur and instead the club were placed in the newly-formed United Counties League Premier Division North for the 2021/22 season as part of the FA's restructuring of the non-league pyramid.

Since the club first competed in the FA Cup in the 2008/09 season, they have progressed as far as the 1st Qualifying Round on three occasions, most recently in the 2013/14 season: in that season, they beat Ely City and Godmanchester Rovers but were then disqualified along with opponents Huntingdon Town after their 1st Qualifying Round match was abandoned. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Round in the 2015/16 season: they beat Peterborough Sports, Downham Town, Raunds Town, Sporting Bengal United and Yaxley before losing to Sunderland RCA.

My Visit

With my mum and stepdad planning to head into London yesterday and Yaxley away at Sporting Khalsa in Walsall, I needed to find somewhere else to go if I wanted to get a match in this weekend. To get anywhere, I'd have to take the bus into Peterborough first and then the train to go somewhere from there, so I didn't want to go too far if I could avoid it. As such, Whittlesey Athletic initially seemed ideal, taking just ten minutes on the train from Peterborough.

However, a combination of factors made me slightly reluctant to commit to the plan. Firstly, last Sunday's visit to Arlesey Town involved a lot of walking and I wanted to do a little less walking this time. Whittlesey's ground was noted on Google Maps as a 25-minute walk from the station (so, closer to 20 minutes at my walking pace) and, on top of this, I'd have to walk around 10 minutes from the house to the bus stop (and vice-versa on my return). This, combined with the fact that Whittlesey is, to the best of my knowledge, the cheapest train journey I can do to tick a new ground, meant I started looking for other options.

The problem with this was that, even at the time of typing this, my Word document of football grounds I can realistically visit by train is far from complete, so finding other options was trickier than I would have liked it to be. Furthermore, I was limited by not wanting to go too far, as there doesn't seem to be anywhere near as many cheap options doable from Peterborough as there was in Guildford, and I was also even more limited by not wanting to pay too much in terms of admission (thereby more or less ruling out anything above Step 4).

In the end, after looking at fixtures on the Futbology App and doing some research, two new options emerged: this and Nuneaton Griff. However, I was quick to rule out the latter as going there would mean I wouldn't be back in the house until close to 8pm when accounting for time to get the bus back and then walking back from the bus stop. So that secured this match as first choice, though I did keep Whittlesey in mind as a back-up in case the weather took a sudden and drastic turn for the worse.

The evening before the match, I did some very thorough research into the bus timetables and cross-referenced that with the train timetables to get proper plans in place for both of my options. Normally, I'd just do this on the morning of the match, but I don't use buses all too often so am far less confident with them than I am with trains. Even more so given I had to get the timing correct, otherwise I'd be waiting an hour for the next train heading to Sleaford (trains there to and from Peterborough only run once per hour).

On the morning of the match, I ordered my train tickets (costing me £13) before getting ready by packing some lunch (as I'd be leaving the house before midday) and double-checking the schedule I had drawn up. I then left the house at 11:45am - 10 minutes later than I had initially planned - to head to the bus stop. First, though, I headed into Serpentine Green and popped into Poundland to buy some sweets (Poundland still the place to go for my favourite Vimto Fizzy Pencils) and another cold drink to get me through the afternoon. As I was coming back out to head to the bus stop, the bus I needed to get on was rolling on so I had to run a bit to catch it.

15 minutes later, the bus rolled into the temporary bus station behind the Brewery Tap (due to ongoing works in Queensgate Shopping Centre) and from there it was a short walk to the train station, with more time spent waiting for the traffic lights to change than actually walking. I collected my train tickets and still had more than half an hour to spare as I made my way onto the platform. I used this time to eat the lunch I had prepared before the train eventually arrived a few minutes later than planned. With just 8 minutes between my train arriving in Grantham and my connection to Sleaford arriving and departing, this was somewhat worrying.

As it turned out, my train arrived in Grantham just as the connection to Sleaford was doing the same, so I had to move quickly across the platforms to get on my connection before it left. This arrived in Sleaford about half an hour later, just before 2pm and from there it was a simple 15-minute walk to the ground. As I reached the ground and took a couple photos from the outside, I ran into someone I've seen a few times at Yaxley matches in the past, and we had a brief conversation about the restructuring and what that has meant for local sides before heading into the ground itself, paying £6 for admission and £1 for the programme (an excellent effort from Castle Print, very impressive at that price point and in general).

With forty minutes still to go before kick-off, I went around to do my circuit of photos while the ground was still largely empty. Once that was done, I had a brief look inside the clubhouse before paying £1.50 for an excellent portion of chips. I took my seat in the main stand as I ate these and read the programme before kick-off.

As usual for these early stages of the season, I took a quick look at how both teams had started their seasons to get some sort of idea of what to expect in this match: Sleaford had drawn their opening league match 1-1 before losing 1-0 in the FA Cup to league rivals Anstey Nomads, while Heather St John's won their league opener 4-2 but lost 3-0 to Westfields in the FA Cup.

Heather St John's almost took the lead within 30 seconds of kick-off as James Spruce was set through on goal by a quick through ball. Fortunately for Sleaford, keeper Garry Doran was wise to the danger and charged out of his box to slice the ball clear before Spruce could get the shot away. This set the tone for the match's early proceedings as Heather dominated the attacking play and kept Sleaford largely pinned in their own half. In the 8th minute, Sam Ellis had Heather's next chance to take the lead, but his low shot was blocked inside the box. Then, in the 15th minute, Aaron Dickens picked up the ball in space on the left wing and set up Oliver Jarrett to shoot just wide from the edge of the box.

In the 20th minute, Ellis found himself with space in the box after an impressive Heather team move across the field, but Kieran Wiles sprinted across the box to get his body in the way and block the shot. After this, Sleaford began to grow into the match and had their first clear-cut chance in the 23rd minute when Abubaker Wadada robbed the ball off a Heather defender on the edge of the box and set Liam Mead up to shoot on goal, only for Aidan Jeynes to deny him with a good save with his foot. Wadada then tried to head in the rebound, but his effort was off-target. Then, on the half-hour mark, Ben Newman went close with a powerful free header from a corner, but it was narrowly wide.

The final third of the first half saw the momentum shift once again as Heather had two chances in quick succession: in the 39th minute, Ellis charged into space on the left-wing and squared the ball across the box to Spruce, who was only denied a goal by a fantastic reflex save from Doran; almost immediately after this, Jarrett turned and shot inches over from the edge of the box. From the goal kick that followed, Sleaford quickly went on the attack and earned themselves a corner. Once again, the ball into the box was excellent and a Sleaford player headed the ball towards goal, only for a defender to block on the line and scramble clear; there were some appeals from the Sleaford players for handball, but nothing was given.

The second half was initially quieter on the goalmouth action as Sleaford upped the pressure and Heather were forced to defend in numbers, but that changed on the hour mark when a flurry of Heather chances eventually led to a goal: first, Ellis got a shot away from the edge of the box after a brief period of pressure in that area, but his effort was saved and bounced back into play; then, as I was noting that first chance down, someone else got a shot away and forced another good save out of Doran; then, when the Sleaford defence failed to clear, Jarrett was there to shoot low across goal and in at the far post.

The away side almost doubled their lead in the 67th minute when Daniel Hanson decided to have a go from 35 yards and managed to hit the crossbar. After this, there was another period of respite for both goalkeepers as both teams made changes to try and swing the match in their favour. In the 81st minute, Sleaford were unlucky not to equalise when Wadada had a shot blocked on the line after being unable to work the space to chip Jeynes after he came out to meet a through ball.

As we entered stoppage time, Sleaford continued to press high in search of an equaliser and they were eventually caught out on the counter in the 91st minute when Mitchell Woakes went on a driving run down the right wing and crossed to the far post, only for his teammate in the box to poke wide. 60 seconds later, Heather broke on the counter again and this time made it count, Spruce finding space to turn onto his right foot and tap a cross in at the far post.

While it may not be immediately apparent from the scoreline, this was an excellent and entertaining contest between two closely-matched sides who exchanged attacking blows throughout. The only real difference was that Heather St John's tended to look more likely to score with the chances they did create. Regardless, a good advert for the newly-regionalised United Counties League Premier Division structure.

The journey back home after the match was similar to the way there, the only real difference being that I took a direct train back to Peterborough from Sleaford rather than changing at Grantham as I did on the way there. This train got back into Peterborough at 6:20pm, just after my bus departed. This meant I had a twenty-minute wait for the bus and, when all was said and done, I got back into the house at 7:15pm and ordered a KFC while I went for an early shower. This meant I didn't get started on sorting out my photos and writing my match report until around 8pm.

My current plan for my next groundhop is to head to Hitchin Town on Bank Holiday Monday, but I might hold off on that if Yaxley progress in the FA Cup and get an interesting away tie, or if something else pops up during September.

The Ground

Eslaforde Park is a relatively new ground - having only opened in 2006 - and as a result is a basic but functional venue. The only areas of cover at the ground are a 200-seater Arena stand on the far side and a small Arena terrace behind the near goal providing covered standing for around 100 people. The terrace is decked out in Castle Print signage which makes it a bit more interesting to look at, not least because their colours happen to match the club's green.

Near this Arena terrace is a small building with a table and some club signage on the wall. According to this Tweet from the club's official Twitter account, this building is called the Greens Lounge and is set to be used for hospitality after its recent refurbishment. A couple of benches are positioned in front of this to provide uncovered seating. The clubhouse is on the dugouts side of the ground and also houses the changing rooms. There is a tea bar hatch on the outside and a range of hot and cold food and drinks is available.

The rest of the ground is open hard standing and it has an overall capacity of 1,000. The ground is very similar to that of fellow Step 5 side Cogenhoe United.

Photos

Arlesey Town - New Lamb Meadow

Arlesey Town FC
New Lamb Meadow
Hitchin Road
Arlesey
Bedfordshire
SG15 6RS

Arlesey Town's Website and Twitter
Baldock Town's Website and Twitter

Ground: 114
Date: Sunday 8th August 2021
Baldock Town 1-0 Wembley
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Attendance: 214 (official)

Arlesey Town - 5 Facts

1) Arlesey Town were founded in 1891 and initially plaed in local leagues such as the Biggleswade & District League before joining the Bedfordshire County League - which would later become the South Midlands League - in 1922, yo-yoing between Divisions 1 and 2 until the outbreak of World War 2.

2) The club won the South Midlands League in the 1951/52 and 1952/53 seasons, before moving to the Parthenon League in 1954. A move to the London League followed in 1958, but two years later the club returned to Division 1 of the South Midlands League. Despite a bottom-three finish in the 1961/62 season, the club were promoted to the Premier Division but were relegated back to Division 1 after one season. A third-place finish saw the club immediately return to the Premier Division.

3) After almost 20 years in the Premier Division of the South Midlands League, the club transferred to the United Counties League Premier Division, winning the title in their third season in this league (the 1984/85 season). The club remained in this league until they resigned at the end of the 1991/92 season, returning to the South Midlands League once more. In the 1994/95 season, the club won the league title with a record 107 points and also went on to win the FA Vase: Hoddesdon Town, Boston Town, Barnstaple Town, Diss Town, Cammell Laird and Raunds Town were beaten on the way to Wembley, before the club beat Oxford City 2-1 to win the final.

4) The club won the league title again in the 1995/96 season and once more in the 1999/2000 season (by which point the league was now called the Spartan South Midlands League) to earn promotion to Division 3 of the Isthmian League. Twelve months later, they finished 3rd to earn promotion to Division 2, before being placed in Division 1 North for the 2002/03 season due to restructuring. The club moved between Division 1 North of the Isthmian League and various Southern League Division 1s for the next few years before winning the Division 1 Central title in 2011 to earn promotion to the Southern League's Premier Division. The club spent four seasons at this level before being relegated, then dropped back down to the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division after finishing bottom of Division 1 East in the 2017/18 season. This is where the club have remained ever since.

5) The club's best FA Cup runs saw them reach the 1st Round in both the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons: in the 2011/12 season, the club beat Tilbury, Hampton & Richmond Borough, Thurrock and Forest Green Rovers before losing to Salisbury City; in the 2012/13 season, the club beat Barton Rovers, Dulwich Hamlet, Brackley Town and Didcot Town before losing to Coventry City.

As for the FA Trophy, the club's best run saw them reach the 5th Round in the 2003/04 season: they beat Fleet Town, Hampton & Richmond Borough, Boreham Wood, Hayes and Dagenham & Redbridge before losing to Exeter City.

Baldock Town - History

The current incarnation of Baldock Town were founded in 2003 as Baldock FC, two years after the original club (founded in 1905) resigned from the Eastern Division of the Southern League and folded. The new club were comprised of members of the old Baldock Town's youth team and they joined Division 1 of the North Hertfordshire League. After a 3rd-place finish in the 2004/05 season, they earned promotion to the Premier Division.

In 2006, the club became founder members of the North & Mid Hertfordshire League Premier Division and changed name to Baldock Town. A runners-up finish saw the club earn promotion to Division 1 of the Hertfordshire County League, and they won this league at the first attempt to earn promotion to the Premier Division for the 2008/09 season. At this point, the club changed its name to Baldock Town Letchworth due to playing their matches in Letchworth. In 2011, the club reverted to the Baldock Town name as they returned to playing their matches in Baldock.

The club won the Premier Division title in the 2011/12 season, but were denied promotion to Step 6 as their ground did not meet the necessary ground grading criteria. This saw the club move into a groundshare with Hitchin Town for the 2012/13 season, which allowed the club to earn promotion to Division 1 of the Spartan South Midlands League after a runners-up finish.

The club spent five seasons in Division 1 - moving groundshare to Stotfold in 2015 and then to Arlesey Town in 2017 - before finishing as runners-up in the 2017/18 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division. They earned an impressive 5th-place finish in their first season at this level, but were on course for a mid-table finish in the 2019/20 season before it was curtailed.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run came in the 2017/18 season when they reached the 2nd Qualifying Round: they beat Ardley United, North Greenford United and Thame United before losing to Aylesbury United. As for the FA Vase, the club progressed to the 2nd Round in the 2018/19 season, beating Long Melford, Stanway Rovers and Brimsdown before losing to Stowmarket Town. Besides this, they have reached the 1st Round in almost all of their FA Vase campaigns, only missing out in the 2009/10 and 2015/16 seasons.

My Visit

As I mentioned on yesterday's entry, I originally had a visit to this ground on the shortlist for Saturday when Arlesey were at home, but a chance look at a thread on the Non-League Matters forum revealed that this match was taking place on the Sunday and I decided to add it to the schedule, thinking that the ground was really close to the train station. However, a look on Google Maps dispelled this misconception as the ground was listed as a 40-minute walk from the station.

Generally speaking, I'm not keen on walking any more than half an hour from a train station to a football ground, but at this point I was so eager to start getting to matches and new grounds again that I was happy to make an exception to fit this in. The only potential concern with the weather forecast was that it would rain during that long walk and I would end up getting soaked.

More pertinently, I was keeping an eye on both the forecast and social media for potential news of a weather-related postponement, though with Arlesey's game here going ahead on the Saturday I wasn't too worried about a postponement happening. Still, as is my usual approach when going to a football match on the train, I didn't go to order my tickets until the morning of the match. In this case, that was after writing this section of yesterday's blog entry.

Due to my train being due to leave Peterborough station at 12:45pm, I didn't get time beforehand to get an early lunch again, so I packed a lunch before leaving with plans to eat that on the train. As I had to collect my tickets from the station first, we left the house at 12:20pm, arriving ten minutes later. I'd taken an umbrella with me in the car, but after taking another look at the weather forecast for the afternoon I took a risk and decided not to take it after all.

After picking up my train tickets, I made my way onto the train and took a seat, starting on my lunch as I waited for it to depart. It left Peterborough a few minutes late and I occupied myself by reading the online programme for the match as well as some Japanese short stories. The train arrived at Arlesey station at around 1:30pm and the ominous sight of black clouds in the distance was very worrying. Thankfully, the rain was little more than a very light drizzle as I left the station, set up Google Maps and began to make my way to the ground.

The route to the ground was more or less a straight path through Arlesey, so I barely needed to keep Google Maps open to track where I was going. I passed a few pubs on the way, a couple of takeaways and some nice Tudor-style houses before eventually arriving at the ground at 2pm, just as the turnstiles were opening. I paid £7 for admission and immediately started on my circuit of photos while the ground was more or less empty. This took about 20 minutes and once I was done I took a seat in the main stand, before leaving 20 minutes later to order a bacon cheeseburger and some chips for £5 overall (£3.50 for the burger, £1.50 for the chips); the burger was fantastic, but the chips were somewhat overdone (though I can forgive this given how large the portion was for £1.50).

I ate my food in the stand as I waited for kick-off, getting a photo of the teams as they came out. For the second half, I was going to move across to the stand on the opposite side, but ended up settling for the terrace behind the far goal once I noticed that the sun was shining directly into the stand on the far side.

I had a quick look at how the two teams had started their seasons before this match and noticed that this would be Wembley's first competitive fixture of the season due to the Combined Counties League not starting until tomorrow night. Baldock, on the other hand, had slumped to a 2-0 defeat in their opening league match against Leverstock Green. My gut feeling was that Baldock would narrowly edge this tie, based solely on the possibility of Wembley's squad being at least somewhat changed after their lateral transfer to the newly-formed Combined Counties League Premier Division North.

After having the best of the opening proceedings, Baldock took the lead after 20 minutes when Tommy Reynolds intercepted a poor defensive clearance and drilled a first-time shot past Wembley keeper Raheem Belgrave into the opposite corner of the net. Wembley had their best chance of the first half in the 31st minute when they almost scored direct from a corner; Cameron Groom made the save in the Baldock goal, but looked like he may have gone behind the line in the process. The appeals of the Wembley players were dismissed and Baldock maintained their lead going into half-time.

Wembley made a much better start to the second half and almost equalised in the 47th minute when someone narrowly poked over from a corner. After a period of Wembley pressure, Baldock began to regain a foothold and this saw the match peter out as the two sides cancelled each other out. The best chances for both sides came from brief lapses in defensive concentration, but neither team was able to capitalise with another goal.

One of the problems of watching two matches in very quick succession - either on the same day or on consecutive days - is that drawing comparisons between the two is more or less inevitable. In that sense, this match was a disappointment as play regularly broke down for both teams in the final third and most of the clear-cut chances came from attackers latching onto defensive mistakes from the opposition. Baldock just about deserved the win as they produced more meaningful chances than Wembley managed to, but just didn't take more of them.

The full-time whistle blew around 5pm and, after taking a few minutes to navigate through the crowds getting out of the ground and into the car park, I made my way back to the station and arrived with just short of fifteen minutes to spare before my train arrived. I started reading again as the train made its way back to Peterborough, arriving at 6:30pm. This meant I got back into the house for 6:45pm, having a packet of crisps and donut in lieu of an actual dinner before I got started on sorting out my photos and writing out my match report (it ended up so short because midway through the first attempt my browser crashed, and I couldn't be bothered to rewrite it in full once I got back onto it).

With this FA Cup weekend double done, I plan to be visiting my most local unvisited ground at Step 6 or above in Whittlesey Athletic next Saturday. After that, I'll hopefully be able to visit Hitchin Town on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of this month, as that's a ground I've been looking forward to visiting for a long time.

The Ground

New Lamb Meadow is an impressive ground for Step 5, no doubt due to the fact that Arlesey have recently spent time as high as Step 3. There is cover on three sides of the ground, with the main stand being attached to the clubhouse on the near side. This stand holds 200 people and is raised above pitch level, but views aren't the best from the lowest row of seats.

Directly across from this is another covered stand on the far side. This stand has seats on one side and covered terracing on the other, providing seats for 150-200 people and standing cover for a similar amount. Behind the far goal is a tall uncovered terrace and a small area of covered standing, the latter of which seems to currently be used as a storage area.

The rest of the ground is open hard standing, though the greenery surrounding this is becoming somewhat overgrown, causing some damage to the perimeter fencing enclosing the ground.

Baldock Town have groundshared here since the start of the 2017/18 season.

Photos