Horsham YMCA FC
Gorings Mead
Horsham
West Sussex
RH13 5BP
Ground: 58
Date: Saturday 13th October 2018
Horsham YMCA 0-2 Kensington Borough
FA Vase 1st Round
Attendance: 110
Attendance: 110
Horsham YMCA FC - History
Horsham YMCA were founded in 1898, initially playing in the Horsham & District League and then the Crawley & District League before later moving into the Mid-Sussex League. In 1959, the club joined Division 2 of the Sussex County League, eventually winning the title in the 1965/66 season to earn promotion to Division 1. The club then spent the next 15 years in Division 1, finishing as high as 3rd in the 1977/78 and 1978/79 seasons and as low as 15th out of 16 in the 1981/82 season, which saw them relegated back to Division 2.
The club spent one season back in Division 2 after relegation, winning the title to immediately return to Division 1. However, this second spell in Division 1 saw the club unable to break into the top half and eventually ended with relegation back to Division 2 in the 1987/88 season. It then took until the 1994/95 season for the club to earn promotion back to Division 1 again, a 3rd-place finish being sufficient on this occasion.
The club then spent 11 seasons in Division 1 and, after winning the title in back-to-back seasons in 2005 and 2006, they earned promotion to Division 1 South of the Isthmian League. They finished a respectable 9th in their first season at this level, but finished second-from-bottom the following season to return to the Sussex County League. They made an immediate return to the Isthmian League though, finishing 3rd to once again earn promotion.
As before, the club spent two seasons in Division 1 South before being relegated again after finishing bottom at the end of the 2010/11 season. The club have remained in the Sussex County League Division 1 (since renamed the Southern Combination League Premier Division) ever since, finishing as low as 16th in the 2011/12 season and as high as 4th in the 2013/14 and 2017/18 seasons.
In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Qualifying Round in the 1999/2000 season, beating Godalming & Guildford, Cray Wanderers, Corinthian-Casuals and Herne Bay before losing to Chelmsford City. In the FA Trophy, the club made it to the 1st Qualifying Round in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons, but only won one game in the process due to starting at that round in the latter campaign: in the 2006/07 season, they beat Aveley before losing to Dartford. As for the FA Vase, the club made it as far as the 4th Round in the 1999/2000 season, beating Thatcham Town, Eastbourne Town and Diss Town before losing to AFC Totton.
My Visit
Initially, I had hoped that Matt would be available again yesterday, but on Tuesday I learnt that this would not be the case. At this point, with none of the local Step 1 and 2 clubs seemingly having any decent offers for Non-League Day (other than Leyton Orient, who I'd already visited anyway), I had already looked through the FA Vase 1st Round ties and narrowed it down to six options.
To start with, I pitted these again each others in three polls, each consisting of two teams. This should have narrowed it down to three, but the poll between this game and the game at May & Baker ended with equal votes, so both went into the final poll on Thursday. I had no particular preference as to which tie I most wanted to go to, but I had some expectations of which would prove to be most interesting. Regardless, I decided to accept the results of the poll however it went (otherwise the entire process would be redundant), and I kept an eye on it as it progressed, with each of the four contenders looking likely to win at various points.
The final results of the poll
Surprisingly, the winning game option was the only one out of the lot that wasn't in London, and the one which I honestly only included as a last resort if I couldn't afford the London options for whatever reason (ultimately, such concerns proved unnecessary, as I had more than enough money to spare for any of the options). Still, the decision had been made for me and I had to accept it (although I decided to keep track of the other games as well, which ended 1-2, 2-4 and 4-2 (AET) respectively) and, with no issues with the weather yesterday, I was able to order my train tickets early in the morning.
An uneventful train journey followed (unlike last week, there were no delays or other issues to turn the process into an unnecessary nightmare) and I arrived at the station around 1:45pm, getting from there to the ground by 2pm. I paid £5 for admission (£2 less than I had expected, so no complaints) and received the programme for free with admission, before proceeding to do the usual circuit of the ground as I took my photos (stopping a couple of times to allow the players from each team to move their training onto the pitch).
With 20 minutes still to go to kick-off at this point, I headed into the clubhouse to purchase some hot food (a cheeseburger and some chips, as well as a hot chocolate), taking a photo of the teamsheet on my phone when I saw it on the wall. I then sat in the main stand to eat and drink, before then moving across to the covered standing area ahead of kick-off.
As I talked a little about on Twitter to encourage more engagement with the poll, the difference in league standing between the two sides meant I could only see one winner, while at the same time I was aware that a one-off cup game could easily go either way on the day. I also had a look at how each team progressed in the FA Vase last season and found that both teams were knocked out at this stage of the competition last season: Horsham YMCA had beaten Snodland Town and Langney Wanderers before losing to eventual winners Thatcham Town, whereas Kensington Borough had beaten Chatham Town before losing to Broadbridge Heath. I also noted that a win for Kensington Borough would mean a new record for them, as they had never progressed beyond the FA Vase 1st Round before.
Here's my report on a game that went completely the opposite way to how I expected, as Kensington Borough pulled off a famous victory against the odds to progress to the 2nd Round for the first time:
In the opening 5-10 minutes, Horsham YMCA looked much more threatening and took early control of the game, as I had presumed would be the case based on the difference in league standings between the two sides. However, in these early stages (and, in hindsight, for large stretches of the game), there weren't very many clear-cut chances at all. Instead, some patterns that would continue throughout the game were apparent even in these early stages: YMCA were alternating between the ball over the top to their quick wingers and trying to play it through a packed defence, largely leaning more into the latter as their frustration grew and perhaps because of the wind (even though, as far as I could see, the wind was having surprisingly little effect on the aerial ball anyway); Kensington, on the other hand, often found themselves pressed back but weren't afraid to quickly counter when the chance arose, and outside of that they were doing a good job of playing to their strengths while also being fully aware of their limitations compared to YMCA. In addition to this, there was a clear difference between the two sides in terms of both quality and attitude (which is partially what I was referring to in terms of the above about how Kensington played): unsurprisingly, YMCA had better players than Kensington, but at the same time they clearly expected to just turn up and win and were complacent as a result, whereas Kensington had a real desire to win that only became more apparent as the game progressed.
The first chance of note came on 11 minutes when YMCA's Dean Bown was able to get a shot away in the box, only to shoot straight at Kensington keeper Sean McDermott (who, as you'll be able to gather from reading on, put in a heroic performance between the sticks for Kensington at times) for an easy save, which was then cleared for a corner that came to nothing. YMCA continued to dominate and try to exploit the flanks to break through but, as would also become a pattern throughout the 90, the Kensington defence (in particular Kelvin Odoro) held firm and made crucial defensive tackles to keep YMCA out. The deadlock was then broken on 18 minutes when Kensington's Ashley Flanore was given space to shoot from 25 yards out, with his low driven effort being too much for Aaron Jeal in the YMCA goal. This was very much against the run of play - being Kensington's first actual shot on goal - and seemed to give YMCA a slight wake-up call, as they then had two chances in three minutes (for Dean Bown and Alex Barbary respectively), but in both cases McDermott was there with impressive saves to maintain his side's lead. After this, though, chances for both teams became few and far between for the rest of the half, with the last noteworthy chance of the half coming on 43 minutes: Barbary was once again free to get a shot away in a threatening position, but an excellent reflex save from McDermott kept his shot from creeping into the bottom corner.
After what I can only assume was a stern half-time team talk from their manager (to put it lightly), YMCA came out of the blocks with a much higher intensity in the second half, pressing far higher and faster than was seen at any point in the first half. For a while, Kensington had no answer to this and were completely pinned in their own half, giving away several fouls and receiving a couple of bookings as they desperately tried to weather the storm. However, while YMCA certainly created chances during this initial 10-15 minutes of the second half, very few of these were actually at all clear-cut, with the most notable being a free header from a corner on 56 minutes that McDermott was able to get a hand to, with the rebound then being put well over the bar. As the game approached the hour mark, the YMCA intensity began to drop off again and, in the midst of a series of substitutions for both sides, Kensington were able to grow back into the game again, with Shadrach Williams using his pace to orchestrate a few unsuccesful counter-attacks when his team got the ball. Kensington's confidence then received another massive boost on 67 minutes when Ashley Flanore added his second of the game: the ball was won from a YMCA throw-in and then passed to Flanore, who used his pace to elude a couple of defenders and beat Jeal with a low shot from the edge of the box.
The game then started to die down a little after this, Kensington happy to run the clock down and YMCA growing ever-more frustrated as it became clear that the tie was slipping away from them: even with 15 minutes to go, YMCA were already frustrated and, with even their captain Ashley Dugdale losing his temper, it seemed inevitable that things would boil over eventually, especially as Kensington continued to understandably intensify their efforts to waste time and kill the game off entirely. In fact, it was surprising that it took until the 89th minute for a YMCA player to be sent off, when Callum Donaghey received a second yellow for persistent dissent relating to a drop-ball decision. While there were still a few chances for both teams in this final stretch of the game, Kensington were able to hold out without much difficulty - as several YMCA players had practically given up entirely in the final ten minutes - to earn an impressive victory and progress to the 2nd Round of the FA Vase for the first time in their history.
On the whole, this was a decent and interesting game despite the lack of goalmouth action, mainly because there was much more happening elsewhere on the pitch than at Windsor last week. For Horsham YMCA, this was a dreadful performance, as they were made to pay for serious complacency in a game in which, despite dominating possession and creating far more chances than their opponents, they never looked like winning (and they certainly wouldn't have deserved it, if they had managed it somehow). For Kensington Borough, however, this was a composed and impressive performance against their higher-level opponents, with heroic defending from Kelvin Odoro and co, fantastic goalkeeping from Sean McDermott and, most importantly, some clinical finishing from Ashley Flanore to score the two goals and secure a famous victory for the Step 6 side. This was also Kensington Borough's first clean sheet all season, which makes the result even more impressive.
The first chance of note came on 11 minutes when YMCA's Dean Bown was able to get a shot away in the box, only to shoot straight at Kensington keeper Sean McDermott (who, as you'll be able to gather from reading on, put in a heroic performance between the sticks for Kensington at times) for an easy save, which was then cleared for a corner that came to nothing. YMCA continued to dominate and try to exploit the flanks to break through but, as would also become a pattern throughout the 90, the Kensington defence (in particular Kelvin Odoro) held firm and made crucial defensive tackles to keep YMCA out. The deadlock was then broken on 18 minutes when Kensington's Ashley Flanore was given space to shoot from 25 yards out, with his low driven effort being too much for Aaron Jeal in the YMCA goal. This was very much against the run of play - being Kensington's first actual shot on goal - and seemed to give YMCA a slight wake-up call, as they then had two chances in three minutes (for Dean Bown and Alex Barbary respectively), but in both cases McDermott was there with impressive saves to maintain his side's lead. After this, though, chances for both teams became few and far between for the rest of the half, with the last noteworthy chance of the half coming on 43 minutes: Barbary was once again free to get a shot away in a threatening position, but an excellent reflex save from McDermott kept his shot from creeping into the bottom corner.
After what I can only assume was a stern half-time team talk from their manager (to put it lightly), YMCA came out of the blocks with a much higher intensity in the second half, pressing far higher and faster than was seen at any point in the first half. For a while, Kensington had no answer to this and were completely pinned in their own half, giving away several fouls and receiving a couple of bookings as they desperately tried to weather the storm. However, while YMCA certainly created chances during this initial 10-15 minutes of the second half, very few of these were actually at all clear-cut, with the most notable being a free header from a corner on 56 minutes that McDermott was able to get a hand to, with the rebound then being put well over the bar. As the game approached the hour mark, the YMCA intensity began to drop off again and, in the midst of a series of substitutions for both sides, Kensington were able to grow back into the game again, with Shadrach Williams using his pace to orchestrate a few unsuccesful counter-attacks when his team got the ball. Kensington's confidence then received another massive boost on 67 minutes when Ashley Flanore added his second of the game: the ball was won from a YMCA throw-in and then passed to Flanore, who used his pace to elude a couple of defenders and beat Jeal with a low shot from the edge of the box.
The game then started to die down a little after this, Kensington happy to run the clock down and YMCA growing ever-more frustrated as it became clear that the tie was slipping away from them: even with 15 minutes to go, YMCA were already frustrated and, with even their captain Ashley Dugdale losing his temper, it seemed inevitable that things would boil over eventually, especially as Kensington continued to understandably intensify their efforts to waste time and kill the game off entirely. In fact, it was surprising that it took until the 89th minute for a YMCA player to be sent off, when Callum Donaghey received a second yellow for persistent dissent relating to a drop-ball decision. While there were still a few chances for both teams in this final stretch of the game, Kensington were able to hold out without much difficulty - as several YMCA players had practically given up entirely in the final ten minutes - to earn an impressive victory and progress to the 2nd Round of the FA Vase for the first time in their history.
On the whole, this was a decent and interesting game despite the lack of goalmouth action, mainly because there was much more happening elsewhere on the pitch than at Windsor last week. For Horsham YMCA, this was a dreadful performance, as they were made to pay for serious complacency in a game in which, despite dominating possession and creating far more chances than their opponents, they never looked like winning (and they certainly wouldn't have deserved it, if they had managed it somehow). For Kensington Borough, however, this was a composed and impressive performance against their higher-level opponents, with heroic defending from Kelvin Odoro and co, fantastic goalkeeping from Sean McDermott and, most importantly, some clinical finishing from Ashley Flanore to score the two goals and secure a famous victory for the Step 6 side. This was also Kensington Borough's first clean sheet all season, which makes the result even more impressive.
So, overall, this was a decent groundhop and a decent way to spend this year's Non-League Day. Sure, by the sounds of it all my other options ended up having more goals and presumably being more interesting games (as often seems to happen when I leave it to a poll to decide my groundhopping destination, for whatever reason), but this was certainly enjoyable regardless. At the very least, this was a decent first excursion into Southern Combination League territory, and will most certainly be the first of many in my remaining two years of University.
Next Saturday, I know I'm on my own and, if the weather during the week and the forecast for the weekend isn't too bad (i.e. minimal rain, especially on the Saturday forecast when I look on Thursday/Friday), I'll be heading in Southern Combination League territory for the second week running to visit Mile Oak for their Division 1 game against Selsey. However, if the weather continues to be like today's (lots of rain in Guildford this morning), I will have to rethink that. I may also be forced to reconsider if Yaxley get an away tie in the FA Trophy that I can reach, depending on what that forces me to do budget-wise.
The Ground
Gorings Mead is a good ground by Step 5 standards, one where it is obvious that the ground has seen use at the next level up (both by YMCA themselves and by Horsham FC, who groundshared here for a few years after selling their own ground). There's a large 150-seater main stand on the dugout side of the ground and behind this is the clubhouse.
The only other area of cover at the ground is an area of covered standing on the near side, which can probably hold around 100 people when required to do so. The rest of the ground is open hard standing, except from behind the near goal as this is where the car park is situated. The ground is hemmed in on all sides by houses, so there is minimal scope to expand the ground beyond its current form. However, having been used at Step 4 before, the ground is at least good enough for that level should the club earn promotion this season.
The ground apparently has a capacity of 1,575, with a record attendance of 950 for the FA Cup game against Chelmsford City in the 1999/2000 season.
Photos
