Didcot Town - Loop Meadow

Didcot Town FC

Loop Meadow

Bowmont Water

Didcot

Oxfordshire

OX11 7GA

Official Website

Twitter

Ground: 87

Date: Saturday 31st August 2019

Didcot Town 1-0 Yaxley

Southern League Division 1 Central

Attendance: 127 (official)

Didcot Town - History

Didcot Town were founded in 1907, initially playing in the North Berks League, before later joining the Reading League and then the Metropolitan League. In 1953, the club then became founder members of the Hellenic League and won the title, before returning to the Metropolitan League in 1957. They then returned to the Hellenic League again in 1963.

After suffering relegation to Division 1 in 1976, the club won the title to immediately return to the Premier Division. Their next relegation to Division 1 came in 1985, with it taking two seasons for the club to return to the Premier Division this time. They were relegated again in 1993 and again spent two seasons in Division 1 before returning to the Premier Division; a 10th-place finish in the 1994/95 season was somehow enough to earn promotion.

After barely avoiding relegation back to Division 1 in the 1995/96 season, the club consistently finished towards the top of the Premier Division. This culminated in a runners-up finish in the 2004/05 season, followed by finishing as champions the following season to earn promotion to Division 1 South & West of the Southern League.

After three seasons at this level, the club won the play-offs (beating AFC Totton 2-1 in the play-off final) to earn promotion to the Premier Division. However, they only lasted two seasons at Step 3, finishing 3rd-from-bottom in the 2010/11 season to return to Division 1 South & West. The club have remained at Step 4 ever since, generally finishing in the bottom half but coming close to the play-offs on three occasions.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Round in the 2015/16 season, beating Wantage Town, VCD Athletic, Northwood, Eastbourne Town and Brentwood Town before losing to Exeter City. In the FA Trophy, the club have twice progressed to the 1st Round, most recently in the 2014/15 season when they beat Marlow, Bideford, Uxbridge and Merthyr Town before losing in a replay to Forest Green Rovers. As for the FA Vase, the club won the competition in the 2004/05 season, beating Carterton Town, Abingdon United, East Preston, Gosport Borough, Ledbury Town, Colne, Bury Town, Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and AFC Sudbury in the final.

My Visit

After missing out on visiting this ground last season with Yaxley (due to running out of money for it) and the season before as a neutral, I was determined to make it this season whenever it came up in the fixture list. However, I was ever so slightly disappointed to see it come up at the end of August, as it was one of the few grounds in the league I hadn't visited yet that I could still feasibly manage from University (the only one, actually, considering the difficulties Wantage and North Leigh pose). It was also slightly disappointing as it clashed with Norwich's visit to West Ham, which would have been a game I'd have at least tried to go for.

Regardless, it was an opportunity to tick off another new ground with Yaxley and get one step closer to completing Southern League Division 1 Central, so I wasn't going to refuse, and on Friday I got myself a seat booked on the Supporters' Coach. On the day of the game, it was sunny and reasonably warm when I left the house at around 10:15am, but I decided to take a jacket with me just in case (a decision which later proved to be a smart one). On the way to our ground, I stopped at Spar and picked up a drink and some sweets for the coach.

I then made it down to the ground at around 10:40am, waiting outside for the coach to arrive. The coach arrived on time and was supposed to leave at 11am, but due to some confusion about the departure time on social media during the week some of the players arrived late and we couldn't leave until 11:15am. We made reasonable progress down to Didcot for the most part, eventually arriving at the ground at 1:45pm.

We immediately headed through the turnstiles and into the ground, immediately noticing the poor state of the pitch. I then spent the next ten or so minutes wandering around and trying to figure out where the boardroom was, eventually giving up and following other commitee members into it. Tea, biscuits and programmes were on offer, and we spent most of the build up to the match in here.

At around 2:40pm, even though it had started raining I decided to head out and do my circuit of photos (thank goodness I'd bought a jacket with me) before taking a seat in the stand to avoid the rain. By the time the second half had started, the sun was out so I stood in front of the turnstiles near the goal we were shooting towards.

With Didcot having made a poor start to the season and seemingly having lost most of last season's team, I was hoping we could bounce back from a disappointing Bank Holiday weekend by picking up the three points. However, upon seeing our teamsheet and noting how few first-team players we had available, I realised it would be another difficult game for us.

Here's my match report on a game that was uneventful until some late second-half drama:

The first half was as boring a half of football as you are likely to see anywhere, with both teams trying to play but completely failing to produce any meaningful chances whatsoever. The second half, however, saw Didcot take control of proceedings as they somehow failed to take the lead in the 75th minute: after a pass across the face of goal, Joshua Pin simply had to tap in, but completely scuffed his shot straight into the arms of Aaron Butcher.

Then the last fifteen minutes turned into complete chaos: not long after that miss, Tom Waumsley was sent off for a second booking after an altercation in the box (which was seemingly instigated by the Didcot defenders). Our manager was then sent off for complaining about this decision.

Then we entered stoppage time and the referee gave Didcot a penalty, despite no contact appearing to be made: Mark Francis stepped up and scored. Then, mere moments later, we had a penalty shout of our own not given and had our physio sent off.

 

So, a disappointing result for us, though it was probably fair on the balance of play. However, I won't read too much into that fact with so many first team players missing.

The coach left the ground at around 6pm, with most of the talk amongst the players, supporters and committee being about the officials. However, I instead opted to engross myself in a book to pass the time on the 2 hour journey. The coach arrived back at our ground just after 8pm and, after waiting for the coach to move, I got a lift back home, arriving in the house at around 8:25pm.

With no Yaxley match taking place on my 21st birthday next Saturday, I've had a look at other options available to me and the one that sticks out is Thetford Town, providing that they don't move the game from a 3pm kick-off (as has happened every time I've tried to go there, including just three weeks ago). After that, my last groundhop before going back to University will see me heading to Burnley for Norwich's away game on the 21st, with me then going back to Uni the following day.

The Ground

Loop Meadow is a reasonable set-up for Step 4, with cover on two sides including three seated stands. The most impressive of these seated stands is a large, brick-built stand on the near side which contains seating for around 200 people. The other areas of cover are behind the near goal, with a large covered terrace flanked by two smaller Arena stands, each of which provide seating for 50 people.

That aside, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, with limited scope for expansion on the two uncovered sides of the ground. Still, the ground is most likely good enough for Step 3 should the club return to that level in the future. The ground has an overall capacity of 3,000, with a record attendance of 2,707 for that FA Cup 1st Round tie against Exeter City in 2015.

My only issue with the ground - as I mentioned above - was the pitch, which was genuinely the worst I have ever seen at any level of football, being incredibly hard, uneven and largely lacking in grass.

Photos

Biggleswade Town - Langford Road

Biggleswade Town FC

Langford Road

Biggleswade

Bedfordshire

SG18 9JT

Biggleswade Town's Website and Twitter

Biggleswade's Website and Twitter

Ground: 86

Date: Saturday 24th August 2019

Biggleswade 4-0 Yaxley

FA Cup Preliminary Round

Attendance: 124 (official)

Biggleswade Town - 5 Facts

1) Biggleswade Town were founded in 1874 as Biggleswade, first changing name to Biggleswade & District before settling on the current name at some point. In 1902, the club became founder members of the Biggleswade & District League, winning the title at the first attempt and twice more before World War 1.

2) In 1920, the club joined the Northamptonshire League (which became the United Counties League in 1934). They remained here until World War 2, after which they joined the Spartan League before returning to the United Counties League in 1951. After four seasons, the club transferred to the Eastern Counties League, but again returned to the United Counties League in 1963.

3) The club remained in the top division of the United Counties League until 1976, when they finished bottom and were relegated to Division 1. After finishing 3rd in the 1979/80 season, the club joined the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division. They suffered relegation to Division 1 in 1983 but returned to the Premier Division in 1987. After this, they remained at that level until the 2008/09 season when they won the league title to earn promotion to Division 1 Midlands of the Southern League.

4) The club spent four seasons at Step 4 and twice finished in 4th to compete in the play-offs: in the 2010/11 season, they lost to Daventry Town in the semi-finals, while in the 2012/13 season they beat Godalming Town and Rugby Town to earn promotion to the Premier Division, where they have remained ever since. Last season saw the club record its joint-best finish at Step 3 level, finishing 7th and narrowly missing out on a place in the play-offs.

5) In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Round in the 2013/14 season, beating Wingate & Finchley, Chelmsford City, Leatherhead and Canvey Island before losing to Stourbridge. In the FA Trophy, the club reached the 2nd Round last season, beating Harrow Borough, Hendon, Gloucester City and Wealdstone before losing to eventual winners AFC Fylde. As for the FA Vase, the club made it all the way to the Quarter Finals in the 2008/09 season, beating Berkhamsted Town, Kentish Town, Wivenhoe Town, Croydon and Market Drayton Town before losing to eventual winners Whitley Bay.

Biggleswade - History

Biggleswade were originally the Under 18s of Biggleswade Town, but in 2016 they chose to break away and become their own team, groundsharing with Town and joining Division 1 of the Spartan South Midlands League. They won the title at the first attempt to earn promotion to the Premier Division. The 2017/18 season saw the club finish 5th in the Premier Division, and last season saw them push on and win the title to earn promotion to Division 1 Central of the Southern League.

In the FA Cup, this result seals a new record run for the club as they are now set to compete in the 1st Qualifying Round for the first time. This season will also be the club's debut in the FA Trophy, with an Extra Preliminary Round tie against Bedford Town. As for the FA Vase, last season saw the club reach the Quarter Finals, exactly ten seasons after Town did the same: Norwich CBS, Tring Athletic, Stowmarket Town and Windsor were beaten before the club lost to Canterbury City.

My Visit

Originally, when the league and cup fixture lists came out in mid-July, I was hoping that Mildenhall Town would beat Biggleswade in the Extra Preliminary Round, as this would mean two new grounds rather than one (with Yaxley visiting Biggleswade in the league on New Year's Day). However, this wasn't to be as Biggleswade won convincingly, so my visit to the ground was moved forward.

On the day of the game, I first left the house at around 10:30am to buy an additional drink and some sweets before heading back to finish preparing. Then, at 11:25am, I left again to walk down to the ground to get the Supporters' Coach, going slightly slower than normal due to the heat. Eventually, I arrived at the ground just over 25 minutes later, immediately taking a seat on the coach.

After a brief delay, the coach left just after 12:05pm, making slow but steady progress down the A1 towards Biggleswade. After a brief stop at Brampton services to pick up a couple of the players, the coach continued on its way, eventually arriving at the ground just after 1pm. 

We then headed into the boardroom and received a warm welcome from the Biggleswade chairman, before sitting down for tea and biscuits to pass the time (cake was also on offer at half-time, and I gladly had some). I was keeping an eye on the Norwich score throughout all of this, but as our kick-off approached I started to lose interest in that, even more so after Chelsea took the lead again midway through the second half.

At around 2:15pm, some of us headed out into the sun and I took the opportunity to do my circuit of photos while the ground was still largely empty. Once this was done, I stood in the shade of the main stand with other Yaxley fans, popping back into the boardroom a couple of times for team news and to escape the heat. During the match, most of us moved over to the far side to stand in the shade, moving to whichever end Yaxley were shooting towards in each half.

Biggleswade's start to life at Step 4 had proven difficult, so I was hoping we could capitalise on that to progress to the next round of the cup. However, with a few first team players missing I was slightly concerned about how we would fare.

Here's my match report on a terrible Yaxley performance, easily our poorest (that I've seen, at least) since Kidlington away last season:

The first half-hour of this match can be best described as uneventful, with both teams failing to make the ball stick up front and hence being unable to produce any chances at all. The only threat either team could provide was from set pieces, which were also few and far between for the most part. However, Biggleswade gained the advantage in the 37th minute when a hopeful long ball over the top saw us give away a penalty: Dalton Bettles' header to Aaron Butcher was weak and the attacker picked up the ball, with Butcher diving and bringing him down in a desperate attempt to stop the attack. Alex Marsh stepped up to take the penalty and calmly chipped over Butcher to score.

The first half was poor - we failed to produce a meaningful chance and gave away a penalty and goal from almost nothing - but Biggleswade hadn't been that great either, so we had hope that we could make the comeback. However, this hope only lasted eight minutes into the half, as Biggleswade doubled their lead through Lawrie Marsh after he rose highest to head in from a corner. Things then got even worse three minutes later when defender Cameron Baldock-Smith was sent off for a two-footed challenge and gave away a penalty: as before, Alex Marsh stepped up and chipped over Butcher to score. Biggleswade's fourth came in the 68th minute through what looked like an own goal, but has officially been given to Sean McMonagle. The rest of the game saw Biggleswade dominate without doing anything meaningful, seeing out the game without having to work very hard at all.

To be blunt, this Yaxley performance was unacceptably bad, the lack of fight, leadership and overall quality being concerningly reminiscent of our 6-1 defeat away at Kidlington last season. The first half wasn't great, but it's the second half that was more concerning: a few key players were missing (two to holidays and one to a suspension), but that doesn't excuse the complete lack of fight and desire shown in the second half. However, it does raise a concern that we lack any sort of strength in depth this season, with one or two of the young back-up players looking hopelessly out of their depts. We'll also need more tactical flexibility than we showed here, as we made no changes until it was already too late, even though it should have been clear by half-time that the tactical system was not working.

An immensely disappointing FA Cup exit for the second season running, but there's not much point dwelling on it, with the two teams meeting again in the league on Monday. Instead, all we can do is move on and hope to put it right in that home match on Monday.

So, a terrible result (in my 350th match watched) that really put a downer on the whole day. However, the hospitality from the Biggleswade chairman was excellent so it wasn't all bad as a day out.

Naturally, the coach trip back was more subdued than normal, but the actual journey wasn't any more difficult (other than waiting around until 6pm for all of the players to be ready to leave). We got back to our ground just before 7pm and I was given a lift back home, arriving in the house five minutes later.

Up next is Didcot away next Saturday, but after that is completely in the dark now, as North Leigh won their cup tie (meaning our visit there on the 7th is going to be postponed). I'm looking at a few options to allow me to get one more groundhop in before I go back to University, but I'll update more on that with next week's blog entry.

The Ground

Langford Road is another good new ground, having only opened at the beginning of the 2008/09 season. The most impressive feature of the ground is the large 300-seater main stand on the near side of the ground, though this is the only covered seating at the ground.

Other than this, there's an additional two areas of cover in the form of small Arena terraces: one of these is on the far side between the dugouts, while the other is behind the far goal (though not directly behind it as is often the case). The rest of the ground is open hard standing, and with an overall capacity of 3,000 there is still plenty of room to expand should Town rise to Step 2 in the near future.

Photos

St Neots Town - Rowley Park

St Neots Town FC

Rowley Park

Kester Way

St Neots

Cambridgeshire

PE19 6SN

Official Website

Twitter 

Ground: 85

Date: Tuesday 20th August 2019

St Neots Town 2-5 Yaxley

Southern League Division 1 Central

Attendance: 203 (official)

St Neots Town - History

St Neots Town were founded in 1879 as St Neots, spending the majority of their early history in the Biggleswade & District League. In 1924, the club changed name to St Neots & District, before joining the Bedfordshire & District League (which later became the South Midlands League) in 1927. The league title was won in the 1932/33 season, and four years later the club moved to the United Counties League.

After World War 2, the club rejoined the South Midlands League, before becoming founding members of the Metropolitan League in 1949. After two successful seasons in this league - a title win in their first season and a 4th-place finish in the second - the club rejoined the United Counties League for the 1951/52 season, entering its Division 1. After five consecutive bottom half finishes, the club moved to Division 1 South of the Central Alliance. Around this time, the club changed to its current name.

In the 1960/61 season, the club rejoined the Metropolitan League, this time finishing as runners-up. They remained in this league for a further five seasons before returning to Division 1 of the United Counties League in the 1966/67 season. After three top-three finishes (2nd, 1st then 3rd), the club transferred to the Eastern Counties League, believing it to be a stronger league. And so it proved, with the club finishing in mid-table in their first two seasons before finishing fifth-from-bottom in the 1972/73 season.

After this, the club returned to the United Counties League, this time joining the Premier Division. They remained in this league for the next fifteen years, finishing as high as 4th in the 1976/77 season but struggling in the bottom five in their final few seasons. At the end of the 1987/88 season, mounting debts forced the club to fold, but they returned two seasons later, initially joining the Huntingdonshire Junior League.

Four consecutive promotions saw the club return to Division 1 of the United Counties League for the 1994/95 season, before winning it at the first attempt to return to the Premier Division. Progress slowed somewhat after this, with the club remaining in the Premier Division for the next fifteen years. In this time, the club mostly finished in the top half, but it wasn't until the 2009/10 season - when they finished as runners-up - that promotion seemed like a possibility.

The 2010/11 season saw significant amounts of money spent by the club as they stormed to the Premier Division title, earning promotion to Division 1 Central of the Southern League. This too was won at the first attempt, with the club earning promotion to the Premier Division. After a couple of respectable mid-table finishes, the club almost won another promotion in the 2014/15 season when they reached the play-off final. However, they missed out as Truro City beat them 1-0.

After this successful campaign, the club found themselves struggling to avoid relegation, finishing 20th in the 2015/16 season and 19th the following season. Things seemed to have improved after a 12th-place finish in the 2017/18 season, but midway through last season the club was forced to slash its budget to survive. This saw the club finish third-from-bottom to return to Step 4 for the first time in eight years.

In the FA Cup, the club's best run saw them reach the 1st Round in the 1966/67 season, beating Ely City, Desborough Town, Rushden Town and Wisbech Town before losing to Walsall. In the FA Trophy, the club reached the 3rd Qualifying Round in the 2014/15 season, beating Ilkeston and Darlington before losing to AFC Sudbury. As for the FA Vase, the club have twice progressed as far as the 5th Round: in the 2001/02 season, they beat Stowmarket Town, Wembley, Romford, Melksham Town and Rushall Olympic before losing to Durham City; in the 2010/11 season, they beat Felixstowe & Walton United, Burnham Ramblers, Epsom & Ewell and Gresley before losing to King's Lynn Town.

My Visit

This was always going to be one of the new grounds I visited with Yaxley this season, so long as the fixture list put it at a time when I was at home rather than University. As it turned out, it was put in as our first away game of the season, so after finding that out I asked my dad about it at Luton Town, and he was happy to take me to the game.

On the day of the game, there were no issues with the weather, but as it was an evening game I decided I would take a jacket out with me as the temperature was bound to notably drop once the sun went down (and so it proved, with me ultimately wishing I'd taken a slightly thicker jacket than what I did).

After having an early shower and early dinner, my dad picked me up at around 6:30pm and we made quick progress down the A1 towards St Neots. We arrived at the ground half an hour later, parking in the nearby school car park due to the main one being closed. Being on the Yaxley complimentary list, I got into the ground for free, while my dad paid £7 (excellent value for Step 4 football, to be fair).

As we entered the ground, we bumped into one of my dad's coworkers (something he wasn't entirely happy about) and they chatted for a bit while I took a few photos. We then moved around the ground for me to do as much of a circuit of photos as the ground layout allows, stopping to talk with other Yaxley fans and the chairman on the way. Once that was done, we stood at the far side of the stand while awaiting kick-off, moving across once it became clear we were shooting at the near goal. In the second half, we stood behind the goal in the terrace.

At this early stage of the season, it's never easy to know what to expect, especially when coming up against recently-relegated opposition like this. For our part, we'd lost in the last minute at home against recently-relegated Halesowen Town (who are said to be overwhelming favourites for the title), while St Neots drew against the third recently-relegated side in Bedworth United. I was hoping to see a response after Saturday's promising performance, but with St Neots seeming to be in transition I had no idea what result to expect.

Here's my match report on a match which saw us run rampant against an inexperienced St Neots side despite not necessarily being close to our best:

After Saturday's last-minute defeat, we flew out of the blocks at the start of this match, going straight on the attack and taking the lead after 5 minutes: a throw-in was nodded down by Charley Sanders in the box, with Tom Waumsley pouncing to tap-in. After some more bombardment of the St. Neots box, we doubled our lead in the 12th minute: Ross Watson headed in from a corner, with a defender getting a slight touch in his attempts to stop the goal. It should have been 0-3 to us three minutes later, but Tom Waumsley wasted a golden chance, shooting tamely at keeper James Philp after intercepting his poor pass.

We lowered our intensity after this, gradually allowing St Neots to grow into the game as a result. However, due to some poor decision-making and finishing in the final third, they struggled for a while to create meaningful chances, even as they took more and more of the possession. Their first clear-cut chance came in the 27th minute, an audacious long-range shot from Prince Mutswunguma forcing an excellent save out of Aaron Butcher. However, even with their poor finishing, the amount of possession we were granting St Neots - particularly in the midfield area - was always going to come back to bite us, and so it proved when the home side pulled one back in the 35th minute: a free kick was played into the box and one of our defenders got a touch on it, but this just saw the ball fall perfectly for Sam Goode to tap-in. 1-2 at half-time.

The second half saw St Neots continue on the front foot, with our midfield continuing to sit deep and leaving St Neots space to attack. Early in the half, there was a mass brawl after a terrible tackle on Joe Butterworth, with the referee inexplicably only giving out one booking after everything calmed down. In any case, we extended our lead against the run of play in the 55th minute: John-Paul Duncliffe played an excellent early cross into the box and Waumsley was in the perfect place to shoot and score. This should have calmed us down and allowed us to retake control of the game, but St Neots caught our defence napping and responded immediately, Mutswunguma shooting beneath Butcher to score.

After a quieter fifteen-minute period, we began to take control of the game again, with a couple of substitutions in the 70th and 75th minutes improving our overall play. In the 76th minute, Waumsley had another excellent chance after a Dan Cotton cross, poking narrowly over the bar in front of goal. However, the referee judged that Cotton had been fouled inside the box while making the cross and pointed to the penalty spot. After a couple minutes delay, Cotton stepped up to take and calmly converted. The rest of the game saw us dominating proceedings and attacking quickly, resulting in our fifth goal in the 87th minute when Watson volleyed inside the box.

Overall, despite the margin of victory, I feel somewhat hard-pressed to call this an excellent performance. This is because, outside of the opening and closing fifteen minutes, we struggled to retain possession and were frequently overrun in the midfield. Fortunately, St Neots were profligate in front of goal and our defence did well to hold them out, but there's certainly a few things for the manager and coaching staff to think about going into the Biggleswade double-header this Bank Holiday weekend.

Overall, while a few aspects of our performance weren't fantastic (the midfield sat far too deep for most of the match, for instance), there's no disputing that it was an excellent result so early into the season, not least because it was the joint-largest away win I've seen Yaxley pick up in my four years following the club.

On the way back, as happened this time last year when we visited Bedford Town, we had to contend with road closures, diverting through Godmanchester due to parts of the A1 being closed. Fortunately, this only added around five minutes onto our journey time, and I was back indoors by around 10:20pm. Upon getting back, I first updated my records before writing up my match report, not finishing that until 11:30pm (it may be less coherent than usual as a result).

Up next is the FA Cup game at Biggleswade Town this coming Saturday, before we visit Didcot Town in the league the following Saturday. The next groundhop after that will depend on what happens in the FA Cup on Saturday, so I'll update accordingly in the next blog entry.

The Ground

Rowley Park is a relatively new ground, having opened as recently as 2008. And it's a good one compared to most new builds, with cover on three sides of the ground and no Arena stands to be seen. The only seated stand is on the near side and provides seats for 250 people, while there's an additional area of standing cover on this side by the near goal.

Behind each goal is a covered standing terrace extending the full length of the pitch. Each of these contains three steps of terracing, so you could probably get around 500 people in them (although it would be very tight). There's no football furniture on the far side of the ground, and nor is there any room for any.

The ground has an overall capacity of 3,500 and, having been used at Step 3 for several seasons recently, is certainly good enough for this level. I would imagine it's not too far off being good enough for Step 2, though I imagine more seats would be required were the club to ever reach that level.

Photos