Dorking Wanderers - Meadowbank

Dorking Wanderers FC

Meadowbank

Mill Lane

Dorking

Surrey

RH4 1DX

Official Website

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Ground: 64

Date: Saturday 1st December 2018

Dorking Wanderers 0-1 Tonbridge Angels

Isthmian League Premier Division

Attendance: 526 (official)

Dorking Wanderers FC - History

Dorking Wanderers were founded in 1999, initially playing in the Crawley & District League but switching to Division 4 of the West Sussex League after one season. The club won this league at the first attempt, then finished as Division 3 runners-up the following season to earn another promotion. It took just two seasons for the club to move up out of Division 2, the club winning the title in the 2003/04 season to earn promotion to Division 1. Two seasons were then spent in Division 1 before a 3rd-place finish saw the club earn promotion to the Premier Division, and the club then won the Premier Division title in the 2006/07 season to earn promotion to Division 3 of the Sussex County League.

After three strong top-half finishes in Division 3, the club finally won the title in the 2010/11 season to earn promotion to Division 2, which was immediately followed by promotion to Division 1 the following season. The club initially struggled in Division 1 - finishing 3rd-from-bottom in the 2012/13 season - but they soon adapted, finishing 8th the following season and then finishing as runners-up in the 2014/15 season to earn promotion to Division 1 South of the Isthmian League.

In their first season at this level, the club finished as runners-up and found themselves in the play-offs as a result. However, they lost 2-1 in the semi-finals to Faversham Town and remained in Division 1 South. In the 2016/17 season, the club once again finished as runners-up and once again competed in the play-offs, beating Hastings United on penalties in the semi-final and then beating Corinthian-Casuals on penalties in the final to earn promotion to the Premier Division. In the club's first season in the Premier Division they finished in a respectable 14th, but they are currently finding themselves in a promotion battle this season.

In the FA Vase, the club only progressed as far as the 2nd Qualifying Round in each of their three campaigns: the most recent of these (the 2014/15 season) saw them beat Chichester City in the 1st Qualifying Round before losing to Hailsham Town. In the FA Trophy, the club are currently on their best run in the competition, having so far progressed to the 1st Round: they've beaten Sevenoaks Town, Tonbridge Angels and Poole Town to progress to this point, and they will play away at Carshalton Athletic in a couple of weeks to potentially progress even further. As for the FA Cup, the club's best run also came this season as they progressed to the 3rd Qualifying Round, beating Hartley Wintney and Leverstock Green before losing to Gloucester City in a replay.

My Visit

The original plan for yesterday was for Matt and I to head into London to visit Fire United at the Terence McMillan Stadium for their game against Benfleet, with several back-ups in place (including an FA Vase game between Redbridge and Chertsey Town) should that fall by the wayside. However, with the forecast looking dismal from early in the week, I was a little hesitant to commit to that option, given that neither Fire United or Benfleet update their Twitter pages very often (as it turns out, that game did go ahead and finished 2-4, so my concern proved entirely unfounded).

As such, I went through several phases of dismissing and reconsidering it and, while this was happening, I found a new first choice, albeit one that wouldn't utilise the Underground as I had planned: in the London Senior Trophy, Bridon Ropes were hosting Hashtag United and this seemed like a fascinating cup tie between two Step 6 promotion-chasers, as well as a chance to see in person what is going on with Hashtag United (there was a lot of controversy over them in the summer, but the discussion had gone quiet since the season actually started). However, on Friday morning I changed my mind again, noticing that Charlton Athletic were set to be at home yesterday as well. As a result, I figured Charlton station would be very crowded and decided that I'd rather not deal with that.

This left us once again back at square one as I thought to look at options in London again, only to remember that I had left it too long to order tickets, as they had gone up to almost £14 by Friday afternoon. So I had to look outside of London and found a few options (this, Lingfield, Hamble Club and Winchester City). The latter two of these were ruled out as they were too expensive for Matt, so we decided to leave our choice between the final two until yesterday morning. Eventually, it became clear that there was little-to-no chance of Lingfield's game going ahead, so the 3G card was played and we ended up here.

First though, Matt came into Guildford and we briefly went round the shops before heading back to my house, dropping off the Christmas presents I had bought and then heading out. A simple 20-minute train journey followed and then a 10-minute walk from Dorking Deepdene station to the ground. We each then paid £7 for admission and I picked up a programme for £2. I then did a quick circuit of photos and we then took a seat in the main stand as we awaited kick-off.

Given that this was a top-of-the-table clash, I was expecting a very tight game (without knowing that these sides had already met in the FA Trophy this season, with Dorking winning 1-0 on that occasion), but I was also expecting that the game would be compelling despite that. Here's my report on a game that certainly was tight, but wasn't at all compelling until some very late drama changed things entirely:

The game got off to an exciting start, both teams attacking from the whistle and creating several good chances in the first five minutes. However, after this the game quickly lost its spark as both teams started cancelling each other out. This gradually saw the ball spending more and more time in the air as both teams started to hoof the ball up the pitch more often than not, with the ball then kept in the air by a series of headers. On the rare occasions that the ball stayed on the ground and one of the teams attempted to take advantage of the 3G surface and play some free-flowing football (such moments proved quite rare for much of the game), good chances were created and the match became much easier to endure. One of these fell to Tonbridge just after the half-hour mark when someone got a show away and it looked to be heading in, only for Dorking keeper Slawomir Huk to make a remarkable save to keep the game goalless. Other than this, little else of note happened before half-time, and already it was seeming like I was set to see my first 0-0 of the season.

After the second half opened with ten minutes of aerial tedium, there was a 5-10 minute spell when Dorking began to look much the better side and started to carve out some fine chances. The best of these came from a corner when the ball bounced around a little and was shot low and goalwards, but Jonathan Henly made an impressive reaction save to keep it out. Not long after this, the game once again reverted to type, with the next notable incident not even involving the football itself: I'm not exactly sure how it started, but there was a brief moment of handbags by the dugouts between one of the Tonbridge coaching staff and Dorking's Jerry O'Sullivan. After the incident was broken up, the coaching staff member (I couldn't tell from the main stand whether it was the manager or one of his coaches) was firmly reprimanded by the referee, whereas O'Sullivan received a booking.

In the last 15 minutes, the match finally started to open up a little, but this didn't lead to much in the way of clear-cut chances, so going into stoppage time the goalless draw was looking more and more likely. However, Tonbridge's Sonny Miles had other ideas: in the 94th minute, a Tonbridge corner was hit hard and over everyone in the box, reaching Miles just outside the box who, with his back to goal, decided to kick the ball over his head to play it back into the box, only for his effort to somehow make its way into the net. Dorking then went on one last push up the pitch to try and salvage a point, earning a free-kick on the edge of the box: this was floated in and initially reached a Dorking head, but the initial header was poor and it was eventually cleared, after which the full-time whistle went. 

My report is perhaps slightly harsh at times and a little light on details, but this game was legitimately frustrating to watch at times, to the point where at times I almost entirely zoned out of the game and instead kept an eye on other scores on my phone or talked to Matt. Other than this though, this was a good groundhop at a friendly club who seem very much on the up, with an impressive crowd of 526 taking in this game. I didn't get to try out any of the food on this occasion, but I've heard from other groundhoppers that it's better than your average football food, so if I end up revisiting (a distinct possibility when considering British weather) I'll have to give it a try.

The journey back was simple, a direct train from Dorking Deepdene to Guildford. Matt got off there to get a train back into London, while I headed back to the house and got in just after 6pm, which was a pleasant change from the norm (as recent groundhops haven't seen me get back until 7pm at the earliest).

As for next week, I had briefly reconsidered the possibility of going to Berkhamsted for Yaxley's away game there, but another dismal loss for us at home against relegation rivals Aylesbury swiftly put paid to that idea. Instead, where I go will depend on if Matt is able to join me again. If he is, we aim to finally tick off East Grinstead Town or, failing that, one of his most local options in Lewisham Borough (with his local 3G option at Fisher serving as a further back-up option). If he is not available, I'm not really sure where I will head, but I'll have a look at my options if/when it ends up being necessary.

The Ground

Meadowbank is not a new ground, but one that has recently been entirely rebuilt (see Russell Cox's blog entry on this ground to see some photos of the old Meadowbank). Compared to the old ground, this rebuild doesn't have quite as much character or history, but it is very impressive compared to a lot of other new builds I have visited. 

First thing to note is that it is a 3G pitch here, so barring a snowstorm there is never any need to worry about a postponement here. In terms of spectator facilities, there is an impressive main stand with around 250 seats on the near side of the ground, with a smaller area of cover (a small Arena terrace) next to it along with another one behind the near goal. There are additional buildings beside the main stand and behind the near goal cover, and I presume that these contain changing rooms, the bar and the restaurant, among other things as well (including the Surrey County FA's headquarters, it seems).

The rest of the ground is open hard standing, with there being a decent amount of room to expand should the club's meteoric rise up the pyramid continue. The ground has an overall capacity of 2,000, and it is also used by the club's Reserves (who compete in Division 1 of the Combined Counties League) and the club's youth teams. The club moved into the ground in July this year, but had originally intended to move in at the end of the March.

Photos

Redhill - Kiln Brow

Redhill FC

Kiln Brow

Three Arch Road

Redhill

Surrey

RH1 5AE

Official Website

Twitter 

Ground: 63

Date: Saturday 24th November 2018

Redhill 3-2 Hanworth Villa

Combined Counties League Premier Division

Attendance: 41 (official)

Redhill FC - History

Redhill were founded in 1894, initially only playing friendlies but eventually joining the South Suburban League in 1898. After spending one season in this league, the club moved into other local leagues for the next three years before joining the East & West Surrey League, winning the title in their first season. Then, in 1906, the club joined Division 2 of the South Eastern League and remained in it for three years, before joining Section A of the Spartan League in the 1909/10 season. The club finished 3rd and moved to the South Suburban West League the following season, again finishing 3rd before finishing as champions the following season.

From 1921 to 1923, the club competed in the London League, finishing as runners-up in their final season in the league before moving to the Athenian League. The club then remained in the league for the next 60 years, winning the title in the 1924/25 and 1983/84 seasons, but finishing bottom in the 1945/46, 1952/53, 1958/59, 1962/63, 1964/65 and 1977/78 seasons. In this time, the league grew to two divisions from 1963 until 1977, and in this time the club spent some time in both the Premier Division and Division 1. After the title win in 1984, the club made a sideways move into the London Spartan League, having been denied promotion due to the loss of their Memorial Sports Ground and due to their new Kiln Brow ground. lacking the grading required for promotion.

The club spent four seasons in the London Spartan League - the last of which saw it change name to simply the Spartan League - and finished between 2nd and 7th each time. However, after the 1987/88 season the club resigned from the league, joining Division 1 of the Sussex County League. They spent just two seasons at this level before finishing bottom and dropping into Division 2. It then took until the 1996/97 season for the club to earn promotion back to Division 1, a 3rd-place finish proving good enough for the club. 

The club then remained in Division 1 until finishing as runners-up in the 2012/13 season, which was enough to earn promotion to Division 1 South of the Isthmian League. However, the club lasted just two seasons at this level, initially finishing 3rd-from-bottom before finishing 2nd-from-bottom to be relegated back to Step 5, this time joining the Combined Counties League Premier Division. This relegation did nothing to improve the club's fortunes, and they finished 3rd-from-bottom to suffer a second consecutive relegation into Division 1. At this point though, the club stabilised and finished as runners-up to earn promotion back to the Premier Division for the 2017/18 season, which saw the club finish a respectable 6th in the league.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Round in the 1957/58 season, beating Horsham, Southwick, Bognor Regis Town and Tooting & Mitcham United before losing 6-1 to Norwich City at Carrow Road. In the FA Trophy, the club have never won a game and as such have never progressed beyond the Preliminary Round, but have taken their opponents to a replay in three of their four campaigns. In the FA Amateur Cup, the club made it to the semi-finals in the 1925/26 season, beating Ilford and Leyton before losing to Northern Nomads. As for the FA Vase, the club have twice progressed as far as the 4th Round, most recently in the 1981/82 season when they beat Deal Town, Burgess Hill Town, Cray Wanderers and Whitstable Town before losing to Hemel Hempstead.

My Visit

Unlike last weekend, which had been set in stone for quite some time, my destination for yesterday was undecided until Wednesday. Now, I knew for quite some time that, due to plans for next weekend (and maybe the weekend after, if I decide to go to Berkhamsted after all), I wouldn't be able to go too far out yesterday. However, with yet more strikes on South Western Railway, I wasn't really sure what options I would actually have on that front, particularly as I was slightly reluctant to head out to Berkshire/Oxfordshire again so soon (don't want to exhaust all my options over there just yet, after all).

By Wednesday though, SWR released a graphic showing the routes affected by the strikes, so at this point I looked on my Groundhopper app to find viable options, cross-referencing with the graphic and then the National Rail Journey Planner to make sure the options were viable. In the end, I found myself with three options: this, Horley Town or Farnborough. From the start though, I set this at the first choice, mainly because it was cheaper on the train than Horley, but also because I was planning to stay local on the 8th, with Farnborough as one of my options on that day if I stick with the decision to not go to Berkhamsted.

It was then just a matter of keeping an eye on the weather but, by the time yesterday came it was clear there wouldn't be many issues, though with rain forecast all day for Redhill I waited almost as long as possible before ordering my train tickets, just in case something came up late in the morning (i.e. a pitch inspection or a postponement). With this not proving to be the case, I ordered my tickets at 11:30am and was leaving the house to head towards the train station just an hour later.

After a couple of changes and a 15-minute walk to the ground, I arrived with around 35 minutes to go until kick-off, paying a rather-steep - for Step 5 at least - £8 for admission and £1 for a good programme. I then did my usual circuit of photos before sitting in the main stand awaiting kick-off, before going to the food hatch to get a photo of the team sheets and to order some chips. This meant I missed the first couple of minutes of the game while waiting for my food, but that wasn't particularly an issue. Once this was done, I took my seat back in the main stand, where I remained for the entirety of the match.

A look at the table suggested that Redhill were firm favourites going into this game, but I found it interesting that Hanworth Villa had the worst attack in the league, yet at the same time had the second-best defence despite their lowly position in the table. That had me a little wary about what was to come, and in all honesty I expected a tight game with few goals, but one that Redhill would ultimately just about edge.

Here's my report on a game that almost perfectly matched my expectations, with the only real surprise being the amount of goals in it:

The first half of this game was very slow, both teams passing the ball around well enough but taking far too long to do anything with it, allowing the opposition defence to get back and nullify the attack more often than not. The first chance of note came after 6 minutes, Redhill goalkeeper David Trivino being caught off his line and having the ball chipped over him. However, he got a hand to it to largely slow the ball's momentum, and the second Hanworth attacker scuffed his shot over the bar to waste the chance. Other than this though, Redhill had most of the play in the first half, their first chance of note coming on 17 minutes when a pass was played across the box to Steve Burford, whose shot then somehow went just inches wide of the far post. Another notable chance came for the home side on 31 minutes, an excellent free kick in the box eluding a few heads and almost finding its way into the net, but ultimately going narrowly wide. Three minutes later, with neither side particularly looking likely to break the deadlock, the referee controversially awarded Redhill a penalty for a supposed handball in the box: from my position in the stand, the decision looked slightly harsh and I was surprised the referee could see through several players to catch it, but catch it he did.

Before the penalty was taken though, Redhill's Tony Halsey and Kery Kedze got into a very heated argument about who would take the penalty, with it eventually seeming that the manager's decision was adhered to (as far as I could tell, based on gestures from the dugout and the two's acknowledgement of them) and Kery Kedze stepping up to take it. This didn't deter the striker though, and he calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner - to Hanworth keeper Terry Buss' left - to give his side the lead (notably, despite strict words from his teammates, Halsey did not join in the celebrations). Though not strictly deserved (despite having more of the chances up to this point, I didn't think either side had done close to enough to deserve to be in front), this lead did spur the home side on a bit while somewhat damaging Hanworth's confidence, so it was unsurprising when Redhill came close to doubling their lead three minutes later: a free-kick was played into the box and fell to the unmarked Clyde Ipko Ondo, who got a shot away but ultimately put the ball over the bar. Redhill then had a few more chances before half-time, but none were particularly clear-cut and so it was unsurprising that it remained 1-0 going into half-time.

The second half began in a low-key fashion, similar to how much of the first half proceeded. However, unlike the first half, the second quickly became actively tedious as both teams started to frequently foul each other, causing the game to become extremely stop-start and lose any sense of flow it had developed. As the half progressed, the frustation of both teams was becoming more and more apparent and, on a couple of occasions, this threatened to spill over into a mass brawl, particularly after a couple of nasty tackles around the hour mark. To the referee's credit (and despite his increasing unpopularlity with players and supporters alike), he largely kept things well under control and was more than happy to explain his decisions, but I do feel he could have nipped things in the bud by giving out yellow cards more quickly. Regardless, the game moved past the hour mark without any real clear-cut chances since the start of the half, but on 66 minutes Hanworth somehow failed to equalise: there was a simple pass across the face of goal to an attacker who, despite having an open goal in front of him, hesitated on the ball and did not shoot quick enough, allowing Trivino to get a glove to it and keep it out.

Moments later, Hanworth were made to pay for that miss as Kedze embarked on a rapid counter-attack down the left wing before twisting into the box and converting past Buss to double Redhill's lead. In the aftermath of this goal, there was some handbags off the ball between a Redhill attacker and a couple of Hanworth defenders, but this didn't descend into anything more serious. In the 75th minute, Redhill went 3-0 up: a corner was played into the box and bounced around a little, a couple of shots blocked before the ball finally fell to Jon Trotter to tap in from close range. At this point, I thought that was game over, as Hanworth had only produced a couple of notable chances and didn't really look like scoring at all, but they clearly hadn't given up as they pulled one back three minutes later: a cross was played into the box and someone had a shot saved by Trivino, but debutant William Montague was quickest to react and tapped into the net to give his side some hope. This hope was increased in the 85th minute when, after some good interplay on the edge of the box, Montague got another shot away, with a slight deflection off of a defender eluding Trivino and ensuring the ball went in. In the last minute of normal time, Hanworth were very unlucky not to equalise, a corner floated into the box and not cleared, a couple of shots then blocked by Redhill defenders before the ball once again fell to Montague, but this time his shot was just wide. It was then a matter of added time, and Redhill did well to hold out for the victory in those final few minutes.

Overall, I wouldn't necessarily say this was a good game, but it was most certainly an entertaining one in the end: the quality wasn't always great, but both teams fought hard and either could have got something out of the game. On the whole, Redhill probably deserved the win, but the massive shift in momentum late on as Hanworth attempted to make the comeback really made it feel like Hanworth deserved at least a point from the game. Based on this game alone, it's difficult to imagine that Redhill will be able to go the distance and beat Chertsey to the title and promotion, but maybe I just caught them on an off-day today (and even then, the pace they have in their attacking options made them look very threatening at times). As for Hanworth, it's clear why they struggle to score goals, but also why they generally don't concede very many either: in my opinion, if they can find a solution to their issues in front of goal (Montague looks like he could possibly be that solution, though it's probably hasty to say so after one substitute appearance), they should be able to stay up fairly comfortably despite their current lowly position in the table.

After the game, rather than returning to Earlswood (Surrey) station and waiting in the cold for around 40 minutes for my return train to arrive, I instead decided to embark on the 35-minute walk to Redhill station, in the hope that there would be an earlier train I could catch back to Guildford (this didn't prove to be the case and so I still had to wait for around 40 minutes for my train, but there were at least waiting rooms unlike at Earlswood). On this walk back, I also came to the realisation that it was this weekend 12 months ago (and, at the time of writing, exactly 365 days ago) that I first saw Redhill play, when I saw them pull off an impressive 3-1 win away at eventual runaway champions Westfield. I hadn't planned this at all, but it's certainly one hell of a coincidence that it ended up working out like that.

On the whole, this was a far better groundhop than I was expecting, with a good game, some good food and a warm welcome from the club's chairman at half-time (and some good conversations with a former referee at half-time and during much of the second half). After last week's misery at Kidlington, a day like this was much-needed and I'm glad I made the decision I did. My only complaint would be the price, as I do feel that £8 for Step 5 is too much. However, I understand that clubs need to do whatever they can to make money at this level, so I can't begrudge it too much.

Next weekend, Matt will be able to join me again and we'll be heading into London, with the plan being to tick off the Terence McMillan Stadium (with Fire United hosting Benfleet there next Saturday in Division 1 South of the Eastern Senior League), due to very strong rumours that the ground will no longer be used for football after this season. If that particular option doesn't work out for whatever reason, there are plenty of back-ups available, with the most interesting of those looking like the FA Vase 3rd Round clash between Redbridge and Chertsey Town.

The Ground

As with Kidlington's ground last week, Kiln Brow is fairly basic, with a 162-seater Arena stand providing the only covered seating at the ground. The only other cover at the ground is a small area of covered standing, the placement of which is very bizarre: rather than being directly behind the goal as you would expect, it is actually behind the corner flag on the near goal side, closest to the turnstiles.

Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, but there is plenty of room to expand should that prove necessary in the future (although, given that the ground has met Step 4 grading requirements in the past, I would imagine that would only be necessary if the club rose to Step 3). The ground has an overall capacity of 2,000, with a record attendance of 1,200 for a game against Crystal Palace in 1989.

Photos