2021/22 Update

Today, my 2021/22 season of groundhopping gets underway and with it will come the proper return of this blog. After covid halted the 2019/20 season, I was completely disengaged from groundhopping for a while, such that even when football briefly came back for the 2020/21 season I didn't feel comfortable travelling and only ticked off two new and very local grounds.

However, the outlook now is a lot brighter and I feel much more confident in travelling around and getting back groundhopping again. So, after two seasons disrupted by the pandemic, what are my groundhopping targets for this season (besides not losing a third season because of the pandemic)?

Given that I currently either have to rely on trains or request lifts to get anywhere, my scope for how many new grounds I can tick is more limited this season than it was during my three years of University. Furthermore, having missed the vast majority of Yaxley's matches at Step 4 so far, I want to go to more of our home matches this season rather than hopping every weekend. With that in mind, I'm aiming to tick 18 new grounds this season to hit 130 overall, with 6 or 7 of those likely to be Yaxley away games due to our shift to a new league. I'm sure I can probably manage a little bit more than that amount, but that seems a realistic target to set and one I'll be happy with.

To get that started, I'm doing two FA Cup matches this weekend, one today (Wellingborough Town vs Newmarket Town) and one tomorrow (Baldock Town vs Wembley, at Arlesey Town). Beyond that, I've got rough plans through to mid-September:

Next Saturday, I aim to tick either Whittlesey Athletic or Stilton United. Then, on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of the month, I hope to pay a visit to Hitchin Town at last. On the 11th of September, I hope to get a lift to one of four FA Vase 1st Qualifying Round matches on a quick shortlist I drew up. And on the 18th my plan is to use the train to go somewhere a fair bit further afield than the norm as a late birthday celebration, with a current shortlist of Harwich & Parkeston, Hastings United and North Ferriby (pending the latter two's potential FA Cup progression, as that is 2nd Qualifying Round weekend).

The only thing that might cause a shift in that early schedule is if Yaxley get through their FA Cup Preliminary Round tie in two weeks and are then drawn away at a new ground in the 1st Qualifying Round on the 4th of September. Beyond that, I haven't thought about much besides the fact that my first away league match at a new ground with Yaxley this season will come on the 23rd of October when we visit Histon.

While I've been drawing up all these plans, I've also been working on some new pages for my blog. These consist of tables covering every level of English football from the 92 all the way to Step 6 of non-league, allowing my readers and myself to keep track of how I'm progressing on completing leagues and also providing another way to find my blog entries than just scrolling through the full list on the "My Grounds" page. These pages will go live early next week, after I've written up and posted both of this weekend's blog entries.

I am also working on a Step 7+ page to go with the rest of these, but there's still a lot of research I need to do into ground names and worthwhile grounds in leagues sitting below Step 7 structures. I'm also still waiting on a couple of leagues to release their constitutions so I can see if those have any worthwhile grounds to add to the list ("worthwhile" meaning has some form of cover to work with). Once that page is live, I'll gladly welcome any suggestions of notable grounds I've missed as there's so much at that level that I'm bound to have missed a few gems.

Other than all of this, the only other change I'm going to be making to the blog is adding attendance figures to my entries going forward. As the vast majority of these will end up being guesswork on my part (i.e. unless clubs I visit post or announce official figures), I will always welcome corrections from the clubs I visit if I do get the attendance wrong. I may try and go back and retroactively add attendances to my old blog entries as well, but that will be dependent on me being able to find those numbers somewhere.

 

With all that being said, it's good to be back and I hope everyone enjoys reading my blog this season and beyond.

Peterborough Rangers - Queens Park

Peterborough Rangers FC
Queens Park
Daimler Avenue
Yaxley
Peterborough
PE7 3AU

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 112
Date: Saturday 5th June 2021
Farcet United 1-4 Ramsey Town
Peterborough Junior Cup Semi-Final
Attendance: 55

Peterborough Rangers - History

Peterborough Rangers were founded in 2021 and competed in Division 5 of the Peterborough & District League for the 2021/22 season, winning the title after winning all but one of their league matches. This saw the club promoted to Division 3 for the 2022/23 season after league restructuring. They also won the Hunts FA Lower Junior Cup with a 3-1 win over Brampton Reserves.

My Visit

In recent weeks, I had become aware that local football had returned and would be running into mid-June before the start of the new season in late July/early August. Farcet had been playing games in the village for a few weeks now, but until recently the weather had been poor and I hadn't really felt like going to watch any football as a result. However, it had been consistently sunny for the last week or so and, having seen this fixture on Full-Time, I decided the time was right to get to my first football match of any kind since November.

On Friday, after a week of mid-20s temperatures, it had dropped to just below 20 celsius and rained a little bit, but there were no real worries about the game possibly being postponed. Instead, I was somewhat relieved to see the temperature fall as I knew this match would be on a pitch lacking any sort of cover. Yesterday morning, the sun was back out and temperatures were back narrowly above 20 celsius, but not too hot as to be an offputting prospect.

After having lunch, I left the house at around 1:25pm so as to give myself time to stop at the Co-op first and pick up a few snacks, some for the match itself and some for the next couple of days. After that was done, I arrived at the Queens Park site with ten minutes to spare before kick-off, taking a couple of photos before walking to the furthest pitch where the match was set to take place.

With it having been absolutely ages since my last football match, and a couple months longer since I last updated this blog, I felt somewhat out of practice regarding my usual matchday routine, so I spent parts of the first half updating social media and the Futbology app as usual. The only part of the routine I immediately slipped back into normal habits with was my writing of notes for the match report, though I know I can do more on that front once I get properly back into the swing of things early next season.

Naturally, being out of practice meant I didn't do any of my usual pre-match research beyond confirming that this match was taking place at all. That being said, I have since had a look while writing this entry to see that Ramsey were top of Division 2 when the season was curtailed with nine wins and one defeat, while Farcet were in 6th with five wins and four defeats from nine games.

Here's my match report from a convincing victory for Ramsey to send themselves through to the final in two weeks:

Ramsey took the lead two minutes into this tie, a long throw from the right wing headed in by Pete Waters at the near post. That lead was doubled on the half-hour when Charlie Hawkins curled a ball beyond the Farcet defence to Myles Roberts, who beat the keeper to it then smashed the ball into the empty net. On the stroke of half-time, Ramsey should have gone three up when a Farcet defender passed across the edge of the box to Roberts, only for the keeper to recover and stop both him and a second attacker from poking the ball into the net.

The second half started with a concerted spell of Ramsey pressure which saw numerous good chances spurned. However, they finally got their third on 54 minutes when Hawkins got a shot away inside the box and beat the keeper. Two minutes later, Ramsey had a penalty after a defensive scramble to clear in the Farcet box; Hawkins stepped up and placed his effort into the bottom left corner.

Just after the hour mark, Farcet pulled one back after 7 did well to get a cross in from the right wing, the ball being knocked on to 9 to turn and volley into the net from the centre of the box. Despite still having a three-goal advantage at this stage, Ramsey seemed to waver after this goal and that gave Farcet a chance to pepper the Ramsey goal with shots, but to no avail as they were let down by wayward shooting.

This was an enjoyable match for me after so long of only watching football on the TV, with both sides going for it and (mostly) just getting on with it without much of the gamesmanship seen in higher level football. Ultimately, though Farcet tried their hardest to get themselves back into the game, it never felt to me like they would as they struggled to break through the Ramsey backline and were largely wasteful in front of goal when opportunities did present themselves.

Even with a substantial amount of stoppage time at the end of the second half, the match finished by around 3:45pm, so I was able to get back in the house by 4pm and unwind for the rest of the afternoon.

Now that I've been to a football match again, I'm starting to think about future groundhopping prospects after investing very little time into that for ages. While I am still keeping a wary eye on changes in the pandemic situation, I have drawn up a list of grounds I want to visit in the next season or two, including all the new ones in Yaxley's division for next season (regardless of how likely I think it is that I'll be able to get to them) and a few local options at Step 7 and below; while I do prefer watching football in grounds with cover, I am no longer vehemently against watching football on basic pitches like this. It's still not my preference or first choice, but when opportunities for it arise I don't intend to flatly refuse anymore.

This list is by no means exhaustive - in fact, I'll be looking to add more to it as soon as possible - but I think it makes for a good starting point. Also, as you can see, I do intend to visit Ramsey in two weeks for the cup final, as I have heard that their ground does have some cover (or, at the very least, that it had cover in the past). I can't guarantee that I'll be able to make it, but I'll certainly give it a try to get one last ground in for the 2020/21 season. And then it'll hopefully onto an exciting new restart to my groundhopping for the 2021/22 season after so much disruption in the last 12+ months.

The Ground

Queens Park is a multi-pitch facility, with multiple youth pitches closest to the changing room structure and two adult pitches at the far end of the site.

Peterborough Rangers play their home games here, but Farcet United and FC Hampton were both playing here for some of their home games in this late season cup competition (hence why I originally tagged this entry with FC Hampton). The facility has also been used by other local sides in the past, including Riverside FC.

Photos

Farcet United - Middletons Road Recreation Ground

 

Farcet United FC

Middletons Road Recreation Ground

Middletons Road

Yaxley

Peterborough

PE7 3LR

 

Official Website

Twitter

 

Ground: 111

Date: Saturday 5th September 2020

Farcet United 4-5 Peterborough Polonia

Peterborough & District League Division 2

Attendance: 13

 

Farcet United - History

Other than the fact that they were re-established in 1992 (having evidently existed in some previous incarnation before then), there was very little historical information about Farcet United that I could find online. In recent years, at least, the club has spent its time in Divisions 2 and 3 of the Peterborough & District League, winning the Division 2 Intermediate Shield in the 2016/17 season. Though the 2019/20 season was null-and-voided because of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, the club were elevated to Division 2 for the 2020/21 season having been 3rd in Division 3 when football was halted.

My Visit

With non-league football finally returning after almost six months away at the end of August, it was only a matter of time until I'd be back groundhopping again. However, now that I've graduated from University and am back home permanently, my options are much more limited than they were last season (I'll be happy with at least 10 new ticks this season). This is exacerbated by the fact that I cannot drive yet and hence can't get around on my own, meaning that I have to ask for a lift for anywhere I do want to go. Granted, I'm still not fully comfortable travelling around too much yet, but I don't want to be unable to drive for too much longer so am well into the job hunt to start getting money in to be able to afford driving lessons and then work from there.

In the meantime, I was assessing local options as Yaxley continued to intensify our pre-season preparations ahead of our competitive start next Saturday. After attending Tuesday night's pre-season friendly, though, I felt more in the mood for competitive football yesterday without having to travel far at all. Thankfully, there are several options within the village in the form of FC Hampton, Cardea (playing on the grass pitch next to Yaxley's ground) and Farcet United (who play at the village rec).

I wasn't aware of FC Hampton playing in the village until after I got back from the match yesterday, so I was only aware of both Cardea and Farcet being at home. Ultimately, I opted for Farcet due to Yaxley being at home on the main pitch at the same time as Cardea's home game on the adjacent grass pitch there. With reports that Chelmsford were planning to bring 200 fans up for the friendly against Yaxley, I figured it would be rather busy in the area even if only a few people were watching Cardea and instead opted to head to the rec to watch Farcet.

For a 2pm kick-off, I left the house at 1:30pm and arrived ten minutes later to find that the match was being played on the pitch adjacent to the park, rather than the pitch adjacent to the primary school. I took my standing position next to the pitch and flicked through social media while waiting for kick-off after taking a few photos of the pitch.

I didn't do much research on the teams prior to the match and there's no point posting league tables for a while yet, but I did know that Farcet had been elevated from Division 3 this season, while Peterborough Polonia had requested demotion from the Premier Division to Division 2 a few weeks ago for reasons unknown. Also, this was my first foray into the 13th tier (I'd previously gone as low as the 12th when I visited Wymondham Town, but never lower before this), so I had no idea what to expect in terms of quality, even more so for the first match of the season when teams would likely still be shaking off some of that pre-season rust.

Here's my report on an entertaining match which Farcet can feel unlucky to have gotten nothing out of despite having a three-goal deficit for much of the match:

This first competitive match of the season saw Farcet start on the front foot and earn themselves a penalty in the 4th minute, but the number 5's spot kick was tame and easily saved by the Polonia keeper before being cleared by a defender. From that clearance, Polonia broke quickly and took the lead, a shot from their number 11 taking a deflection off a Farcet defender to wrong-foot the keeper. Farcet had a chance to equalise 4 minutes later when former Yaxley left back Josh Pike picked the ball up on the left of the box, rounded the keeper and got a shot away, only for the keeper to reflexively and impressively block the effort with a stretched leg. In the 13th minute, it was Polonia's turn to break forward when their number 2 had space to run down the right wing and slice a shot narrowly wide.

Two minutes later, though, Polonia doubled their lead when their number 9 received the ball unmarked in the box. His first shot was well blocked by a Farcet defender, but the ball came back to him for an easy finish past the keeper. Seven minutes later, Polonia were awarded a free kick from 25 yards out and their number 6 made it 0-3 by curling it low around the wall and into the bottom left corner, just narrowly beyond the keeper's reach. Despite Polonia having a resounding lead at this point, the difference between the teams didn't seem as wide as the scoreline suggested as the match was very much an end-to-end affair. If anything, Farcet were having more of the ball and creating more chances on the whole, but with little luck when it mattered. By contrast, Polonia were only infrequently breaking forwards, but they made it count almost every time. This difference became clear when Farcet somehow failed to pull a goal back in the 27th minute: they had multiple attacking players in and around Polonia's box, but they seemed reluctant to shoot and kept passing it around on the edge of the box. When someone eventually got a shot away, it was blocked and eventually cleared after an initial defensive mix-up that was not pounced on. At the other end, Polonia's fourth goal came on the half-hour mark when their number 7 shot low from distance and beat the keeper at his far post (just like the earlier free-kick).

Farcet still hadn't given up, though, and pulled one back in style in the 36th minute: number 10 instinctively flicked the ball over his head as it came to him from behind, rushed past the defender into the box and effortlessly chipped over the rushing keeper's head. It was then 2-4 four minutes later as a Farcet free kick was headed away as far as their number 6 in centre midfielder. He played a pass to the 10 on the right wing, before he crossed low into the box for Pike to tap in. There was still one more goal to come in an action-packed first half, though, as Polonia restored their three-goal cushion in the 43rd minute: someone on the left wing floated a deep cross into the box and over the Farcet keeper's head as he attempted to catch it, with Polonia's number 7 standing behind him to head into the empty net.
2-5 at half-time.

After an end-to-end second half, the second half saw a drop in intensity and fewer chances for both sides. The big difference was that Farcet came out much stronger and started to take control of the match, while Polonia struggled to find any cohesion in their attacks. Farcet had their first chance of the half in the 50th minute as their number 10 dribbled into the box from the left and shot low across goal to force a save and earn his side a corner. Four minutes later, Farcet's number 9 should have reduced his side's deficit when the Polonia keeper failed to catch a cross, but his header on the empty goal was weak and gave the keeper time to correct himself and make the save. Then, after 20 minutes of probing without success, Pike scored his second of the afternoon to make it 3-5 in the 76th minute: Polonia's 9 had a chance blocked by the keeper and the ball was quickly kicked upfield, with Pike breaking beyond the defensive line and poking past the keeper to score from the edge of the box.

Eleven minutes later, Farcet had a goal disallowed for offside: their number 10 volleyed after a cross-field ball from Pike and it was heading goalward, only to bounce into the net off the number 6 from an offside position. Undeterred, Farcet pulled another one back in the third minute of stoppage time, bundling in from a set piece after the keeper pushed an aerial ball into the path of an unmarked Farcet player. Then, with one last roll of the dice, Farcet went on the attack from a 95th minute throw-in, their number 10 punting a hopeful ball into the box that Pike got on the end of and narrowly poked over the bar. That was the last kick of the game and enough for Polonia to hold on for a 4-5 victory.

So an excellent return to competitive football and an excellent match for this blog to come back for. Though Farcet lost this crazy match, they could have very easily gotten all three points out of it on a different day and against a goalkeeper not putting in the performance of a lifetime.

There were a couple of extended stoppages in the second half as tempers flared at times, leading to just over 5 minutes added on at the end. This meant the match didn't finish until around 3:50pm, but when it's only just over ten minutes back to the house that doesn't overly matter much.

Regarding future groundhopping plans, it's still a little up in the air. Besides Cardea and FC Hampton in the village (do second pitches on the same ground complex count as new grounds, or would it be cheating to count that for Cardea?), I've drawn up a shortlist of other relatively local options I'd be comfortable visiting at the moment, but much depends on the Yaxley fixtures and what is happening with away games this season, i.e. if away travel is still happening or not (I assume not, but I've yet to receive any confirmation one way or the other). Regardless, I'm eyeing a visit to Whittlesey on the 10th of October in the FA Vase, but hoping I can get something else in before that. 

The Ground

Middletons Road Recreation Ground is a typical village rec set up, comprised of a couple of pitches with no football furniture besides the changing rooms. This match was played on the upper pitch next to the park, rather than the lower, sloped pitch across from the primary school.

Photos

Haywards Heath Town - Hanbury Stadium

Haywards Heath Town FC

Hanbury Stadium

Allen Road

Haywards Heath

West Sussex

RH16 3PT

Official Website

Twitter 

Ground: 110

Date: Saturday 7th March 2020

Haywards Heath Town 0-1 Phoenix Sports

Isthmian League Division 1 South East

Attendance: 137 (official)

Haywards Heath Town - History

Haywards Heath Town were founded in 1888 as Haywards Heath Juniors and changed name twice in the next few years: in 1894, they changed name to Haywards Heath Excelsior before becoming Haywards Heath a year later. In 1900, the club became founder members of the Mid-Sussex League and finished as runners-up of the Senior Division in the 1901/02, 1902/03, 1903/04 and 1905/06 seasons. 

The club dropped out of the Senior Division in 1908, but went on to win the Division 2 title in the 1911/12 season. The 1919/20, 1922/23, 1923/24 and 1924/25 seasons saw the club win the league title and the club eventually moved up to Division 1 of the Brighton, Hove & District League in 1926. The club won the title at the first attempt and moved up to the Sussex County League for the 1927/28 season.

Four of the club's first five seasons in the league saw them finish in the top 4, but a drastic downturn in fortunes saw the club finish bottom in the 1932/33 season, with two further finishes in the bottom 3 to follow. In the final few seasons before World War 2, the club's fortunes improved again and they consistently finished in the top half. After the war, the club were placed in the new Eastern Division and went on to win the title.

The league reverted back to a single division after one season, and the club won consecutive titles in the 1949/50 and 1950/51 seasons. The 1952/53 season saw the club's rise continue as they joined the Metropolitan & District League, finishing a respectable 5th in their first season. However, the club struggled at this level after that and eventually finished bottom of the renamed Metropolitan League in the 1960/61 season, returning to the Sussex County League as a result.

The club remained at Division 1 level for almost twenty years, winning the title in the 1969/70 season and finishing as runners-up in the 1974/75 season. However, after finishing second-from-bottom in the 1979/80 season, the club were relegated to Division 2. Six seasons were spent at this level before a runners-up finish in the 1985/86 season saw the club earn promotion back to Division 1.

The club's first season back at this level saw them finish 3rd, but fortunes soon tailed off and the club regularly found itself in the bottom half. The 1989/90 season saw the club change to its current name, before a bottom-place finish in the 1991/92 season saw the renamed club relegated back to Division 2. Things got worse for the club as they finished bottom of Division 2 the following season and suffered relegation to Division 3.

It took close to a decade for the club to recover from this, but after three bottom-three finishes the club finished 5th in the 1999/2000 season. Two more top-half finishes followed, before the club finished as runners-up in the 2002/03 season to return to Division 2. Once again, though, the club finished bottom and made an immediate return to Division 3. 

This time, it took the club until the 2012/13 season to earn a return to Division 2 with another runners-up finish (just one season after the club had finished second-from-bottom). The club have had upward momentum ever since, winning the renamed Southern Combination League Division 1 title in the 2015/16 season to earn promotion to its Premier Division (formerly Division 1 of the Sussex County League). 

The club finished as runners-up in their first season at this level, before winning the title in the 2017/18 season to earn promotion to Division 1 South East of the Isthmian League. The club finished 5th in their first season at this level to earn a place in the play-offs, but lost in the semi-finals to Horsham. This season sees the club positioned on the fringes of the play-off race.

The club's best FA Cup run came in the 1945/46 season when they reached the 4th Qualifying Round, beating Newhaven, Southwick and Hastings & St. Leonards before losing to Trowbridge Town. The club reached the FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying Round this season, beating Ramsgate, Bracknell Town and Aylesbury United before losing to current semi-finalists Royston Town. As for the FA Vase, the club reached the 3rd Round in the 1990/91 season, beating Chatham Town, Crockenhill and Farnham Town before losing to Thetford Town.

My Visit

After the drama of my midweek visit to Tottenham, I was hoping for a slightly more relaxed groundhopping experience yesterday. At the same time, with my groundhopping opportunities while at University beginning to run out (if the season isn't extended, I'll only have three more opportunities due to how my Easter break works out in relation to the end of season), I'm trying to make the most of the opportunities I have left. In other words, I'm trying to get to some of the best grounds I've yet to visit while down here, because getting down this side of the M25 will be a lot harder once I've finished University.

With this in mind, I had set Fareham Town as my first choice for yesterday, with this, Maidenhead United and AFC Portchester in place as back-ups. I had tried to get to Fareham last Saturday, but as with most matches on grass it had ended up being rained off by Storm Jorge. However, they had a home match on Tuesday which ended up going ahead, so that made me slightly more optimistic.

However, it rained all day Thursday in Guildford, so I began to make preparations for another potential weekend wash out by checking on all the 3G options and adding Slough Town to the list as a last resort. I also posted on Twitter asking the four clubs to keep me posted about how their pitches were looking going into the weekend.

Fortunately, my concerns largely proved unfounded, as the sun came out on Friday and ended up staying out all day. This seemed to do a good job of drying out most of my grass options, though Fareham mentioned that they were having an early morning pitch inspection, just in case the sun hadn't been enough to dry out the pitch. 

When yesterday morning came around, it quickly emerged that all my options were going ahead, so I went to buy train tickets to Fareham on the South Western Railway website, having first checked the National Rail Journey Planner. However, I was annoyed to find that some of the options advertised on the Journey Planner - which involving changing at Woking and heading to Fareham from there - weren't actually available, and that the rest were hindered by engineering works. 

This meant that I would have to take a rail replacement bus into Haslemere first if I wanted to go to Fareham or Portchester and this was an idea I was not remotely keen on, given the recent outbreak of coronavirus in Haslemere. As such, I had to scrap those two options and opted to head here instead, deciding that National League level football at Maidenhead probably wouldn't be relaxing enough for what I was looking for after Wednesday night.

With everything decided, I paid £12.60 for my train tickets and had an early lunch before leaving the house at around 12:10pm. I then got cash out at the station and collected my tickets before getting the 12:45pm train to Redhill. I changed at Redhill to head towards Gatwick Airport, before changing there to head to Haywards Heath. Throughout the journey, I sat on my own and did some more reading for my course, reading a few Edgar Allan Poe short stories and the entirety of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (well, most of it, as I didn't finish it until the train back to Guildford).

I eventually arrived in Haywards Heath at 2:10pm and went straight onto Google Maps to find my way to the ground. Initially, though, when I searched for the football club it pointed to a site just two minutes away, which I knew to not be correct. Instead, I had to search for the ground by its name to find it on Google Maps and begin to head towards it. Then, heading out of the station, there were two possible exits, one leading to a car park and the other to a road on the other side. I wasn't really sure which way to go, so I just headed to the closest exit which happened to take me through the multi-storey car park. Fortunately, this happened to take me in the right direction.

The way to the ground from the station was one of the more complicated ones I've done so far, though it started simply enough. Google Maps led me through Clair Park and past the pavilion of the local cricket club. After that, however, I had to pass through large residential areas, and Google Maps seemed to lead me by a very indirect and circuitous route towards the ground, forcing me to take several side streets and narrow footpaths on my way. Then, once I got close to the ground, I was almost led to the wrong entrance, but by that point it was easy enough to figure out where I was actually supposed to be going.

In any event, I arrived at the ground with twenty-five minutes to spare before kick-off, paying £9 for admission and £2 for the programme. I then did my usual circuit of photos before paying £3.50 for a cheeseburger at the food hut next to the main stand. This wasn't as good as the one I had last weekend, but it did the job of filling my appetite. 

I then headed up into the main stand and attempted to find a seat from which I could see both goalmouths, which was easier said than done due to the stand's support pillars and the floodlight pylon positioned directly in front of it. I eventually found myself a good seat near the back and centre of the stand and remained there throughout the match, only moving to put rubbish in the nearby bin when it became necessary.

A quick look at the table highlights why this match wasn't my first choice: the two teams were so close in the table that I simply expected them to cancel each other out in an evenly-matched contest.

Here's my report on an even contest which was ultimately decided by a red card just after the hour mark:

Haywards Heath had a flurry of chances in the opening ten minutes: in the 4th minute an aerial ball was played to Nico Cotton and he touched the ball into the path of Trevor McCreadie, who shot into Phoenix Sports keeper Steve Phillips' arms; two minutes later, Raheem Sterling-Parker received the ball in the box and let it roll through to McCreadie to shoot from the edge of the box, again being stopped by Phillips; another two minutes later, Luke Robinson intercepted a poor pass and played the ball to Cotton further down the left wing, the latter then dribbling past a defender before shooting from the edge of the box and having his effort saved.

Though this early series of chances suggests otherwise, the opening stages of this match were mostly even, with both sides having their fair share of the ball. The only difference was that Haywards Heath were producing good chances from the start, whereas it took Phoenix Sports 17 minutes to have their first: James Dyer worked his way past home keeper Luke Glover in the box, but was forced wide after stumbling and had to settle for crossing across the face of goal, a defender heading clear before it could be nodded in.

Three minutes later, Cotton and McCreadie combined to create another good chance, Cotton crossing to McCreadie and the latter turning and shooting narrowly wide. After some more end-to-end interchanges, Phoenix Sports came close again in the 29th minute as they passed their way through the middle and someone eventually got a shot away, which went narrowly wide for a goal kick (though it looked to me like there was a deflection on its way).

McCreadie again went close three minutes later when a cross floated into the box and eluded Phillips: he had an open goal to aim for but somehow managed to head over the bar. The best chance of the half came on the stroke of half-time when Phoenix Sports earned a penalty, Dyer being brought down by Glover in the box as both chased a long ball over the top. Kenny Alireu stepped up to take, but his penalty was poor and hit the post; certainly not one he will want to see again.

Compared to an end-to-end first half, the second half was less eventful as both teams became more solid at the back. However, after Phillips dropped the ball from a corner in the 50th minute, Haywards Heath could have taken the lead but the header was off target. Six minutes later, Phoenix Sports' Lauris Chin took the ball from a home defender in his own half, charged forward and shot from the edge of the box as Glover charged out. His shot went beneath the Haywards Heath keeper, but the deflection took the power off the effort and gave defenders time to clear.

Just after the hour mark, Haywards Heath defender Joshua Spinks received his second yellow for cynically bringing Chin down to stop a counter-attack. This would prove to be the match's turning point, but that was not immediately apparent as the teams continue to cancel each other out. However, as the match wore on, Phoenix Sports started to have more of the ball and take control of the match, with Haywards Heath only able to get forwards with occasional counter-attacks.

In the 80th minute, Haywards Heath almost nicked a winner on one of these counter-attacks, Andrew Dalhouse holding up the ball before passing to Hamish Morrison on the right wing. The full back initially attempted to cross into the box, but after this was blocked he tried his luck with a shot, but it was easily held by Phillips. Two minutes later, the away side scored the winner: after some excellent control on the edge of the box, Chin rounded his marker and shot on the half-volley to score. Haywards Heath almost equalised in stoppage time after a goalmouth scramble, but it wasn't to be and Phoenix Sports held on for the win.

Though this match did play out largely in line with my expectations beforehand, it was still a reasonably entertaining contest despite the scoreline. The only thing that was really missing for both sides was quality finishing, as so many of the chances both sides created went straight at the opposing keeper, making it all too easy to keep them out. A draw would have been a fair result, but Phoenix Sports made excellent use of their man advantage to win.

After a late start to the second half, the match didn't finish until almost 5pm, but thankfully I had plenty of time to spare before my train would depart towards Gatwick Airport. On the way back to the station, Google Maps took me on a much more direct route than it had done on the way to the ground, so I made slightly quicker progress back to the station than I expected. 

This meant that I was able to get on a slightly earlier train to Gatwick Airport, though this did mean waiting over 20 minutes for my train from there to Guildford to arrive. Eventually, I was back in Guildford at 6:45pm and back in the house just over twenty minutes later after topping up on toothpaste at Sainsbury's.

Weather permitting, next weekend should see me pay a long overdue visit to the impressive-looking ground of Farnborough as I continue to make the most of my few remaining groundhops at University. As for Fareham Town, I'll get there on either the 21st or the 28th if SWR and the weather are kind enough to allow it.

The Ground

Hanbury Stadium is a traditional non-league ground which is dominated by the impressive old main stand (this alone makes the visit worthwhile). This is an imposing structure which contains around 500 seats, some in the form of plastic seats and the rest in the form of the steps of the stand. Next to the main stand is a food hut selling a decent range of hot food and drink options, while the bar is seemingly found beneath the stand or somewhere behind it.

The only other area of cover at the ground is a small area of covered standing behind the near goal, immediately next to the turnstiles. This is where the programme seller can be found on matchday. That aside, the rest of the ground is open hard standing and there is little room for expansion, though the ground presumably wouldn't need much work to meet Step 3 grading criteria if the club were promoted in the future.

Photos