Saturday 22nd February

[Rhodes]

PREMIER DIVISION

0-2 Hatfield Town v Hertford Town

A report on this one from another Forum:

 

Saturday 22nd February 2014 @3pm

Spartan South Midlands Premier Division

HATFIELD TOWN 0-2 HERTFORD TOWN

Gosling Sports Park, Stanborough Road, Welwyn Garden City

 

Admission: £6 including programme

Attendance: h/c 46

Refreshments: Hot Dog, £2. Tomato & Veg Soup 70p. Mars bar, 70p

 

I was going to visit Crawley Green at their home for a rare venue instead of at Barton Rovers but coupled with leaving late and M25 being 50mph from M11 to A1, I chose my back up of Hatfield Town. Pitches with Athletic tracks are not my bag but I tried to have an open mind. After parking, the football is located to the left side of the complex, which includes a vast array of sports facilities. I entered down the hill and through the turnstile (shed) and located the snack bar on the right. The players changing rooms are further along the touchline and up the grass banking to the changing block. The covered seated stand is to the left of the entrance with large supporting pillars obstructing many of the seats. The pitch is surrounded by a 6 lane running track and a banked cycling 450 metre circuit. This makes the pitch about 20 yards away at its narrowest and much further behind each goal.

 

After counting 15 in the ground, I heard voiced support coming from above the stand a few minutes in. As I hadn’t had time to have a proper look inside the Gosling centre before the game, I would venture in at half time. Inside there are 5-a-side/badminton indoor pitches and at the end of the corridor “The Trackside Bar” with a note advertising the admission prices of the game. The visitor can enter the bar area, pay their admission and watch the match on a balcony on the roof of the stand. The view from here is much better so I spent the 2nd half there, together with the mainly Hertford supporters, who outnumbered the home support by 2:1. There was also some funny banter between them and the diehard Hatfield fan who shouts “Come on Hatfield” on regular intervals. Not as bad as Mr Ash Ash United though. I learned that half the gate money was being handed to the visiting committee to help them through their flooding troubles, which is a nice gesture.

 

The match was lacking quality, maybe as both teams have been short on match practice for 2 months. However, the first half was fairly equal. The best chance of the half fell to Hertford. The number 11 took it and hit the base of the keepers left hand post and rebounded into play. The follow up was excellently saved by Ricketts, palming right of the post at full length.

 

The second half started with a Hertford goal 4 minutes in. The offside trap was beaten by no 10 Leigh Rose who let the ball bounce twice before lobbing over the keeper into the corner of the net. After 70 minutes a similar pass split the defence and this time Leigh Rose controlled it, drew the keeper and slid the ball past him into the empty net. To be fair, Hertford from then on dominated the rest of the game and should have added to their score, but for the fascination for Rose to get a hat trick when at least 2 chances were easier to score than pass. However the visiting fans were happy to come away with a win as well as watching 90 minutes football and they are a good bunch to be with.

 

If anyone visits this ground, I recommend viewing the game from the balcony.

[Rhodes]

BEDS SENIOR TROPHY SEMI FINAL

3-0 Crawley Green v Wootton Blue Cross

A report from another Forum:

 

Crawley Green 3 Wootton Blue Cross 0 (Bedfordshire Senior Trophy SF) Att: 27 h/c f&n

 

Not a great day out. The plan was that this game provided a good opportunity to tick Crawley Green's own ground. Arrived at 1.30 to find game on, the pitch roped and nets up. At 2.25 the ref decided the pitch was unplayable. At first we thought this was a pretty poor call, but close inspection revealed three small but dodgy areas in the centre of the pitch, two of which appeared to be filled with quicksand. If the Crawley lot had done just a tiny bit of work, I'm sure they could have sorted it, but it seems they all settled down to watch the Chelsea match instead. So we all trooped next door to watch the match on an ageing 3G surface which seemed to me to have rather uneven bounce in places. The first half was dire, the second quite decent, and Crawley were deserving winners in the end. Needless to say, we weren't allowed in the cage.

 

Many thanks to Karen Browne for her assistance and to sjj2112 and youngster and his East Anglian minders for some good company, which redeemed a day spent at an almost totally unfriendly club, the exception being Mrs Tea Bar. I think that strictly speaking, the 3G was at the school next door, not Crawley Green Sports and Social Club. I will not, however, be going back.

[Dirtyclaret]

Wow. Very damning report Rhodes/Karen. Obviously I'm bias but it is known through out that our commitee and club house is one of the best and dedicated around so hearing your report is very disapointing and worrying.

 

I would love some more feedback to see why you felt the way you did, a reason from our end why things happened, and what we could do to improve our hospitality.

 

I can only apologise for our club not meeting the high standards we have reached in the past and aim at for the future

[Karen Browne]

Just to clarify Dirtyclaret - the report has nothing to do with me, my only part in the matter was supplying the particilar visitor (a groundhopper via another forum) the ground details of where the match was being played after he had e-mailed me saying he had got conflicting venues from his search.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Karen Browne

[Dirtyclaret]

Thank you Karen for your reply. The report is a bit vague and I just want some more info on what was wrong for this visit so that we can apologise if needed and improve for the future.

[OD's]

We did try in the summer to strengthen with a few div2 players in mind but the 'mates' factor is quite strong at the likes of Totternoe, Kents, 61, etc so really hard to drag them away from that.

Could be seen as a lack of ambition, or big fish small pond, or maybe some money is being exchanged, but mostly just those lads want to turn up have a laugh with their mates most prob win and get on the beers after.

Your spot on there Dirty Claret, there is some gems in Div 2 and we have given some a chance. I think also fitness comes into it as well. They dont like the training.

Its a shame though.

[Monkey8]

Your spot on there Dirty Claret, there is some gems in Div 2 and we have given some a chance. I think also fitness comes into it as well. They dont like the training.

Its a shame though.

 

Training twice a week is a no no for some players.

[Dirtyclaret]

Training is a big issue. Really hard to get lads to commit to training when they have to work so hard to be available for games.

Yeah not a lot of div2 teams I would imagine train during the week, and if they do it would be just once and as we all know in div1 your playing 2 games every week and towards the end of the season 3 games in a week.

Div1 along with the cups I would think is nearly double the amount of games a season. Sure I worked out I played 50 odd games in the season we reached 2 finals. So my point is div2 to div1 is a bigger step up than people think, fitness wise aswell as quality wise

Edited February 27, 2014 by Dirtyclaret

[BigDogCol]

A report from another Forum:

 

Crawley Green 3 Wootton Blue Cross 0 (Bedfordshire Senior Trophy SF) Att: 27 h/c f&n

 

Not a great day out. The plan was that this game provided a good opportunity to tick Crawley Green's own ground. Arrived at 1.30 to find game on, the pitch roped and nets up. At 2.25 the ref decided the pitch was unplayable. At first we thought this was a pretty poor call, but close inspection revealed three small but dodgy areas in the centre of the pitch, two of which appeared to be filled with quicksand. If the Crawley lot had done just a tiny bit of work, I'm sure they could have sorted it, but it seems they all settled down to watch the Chelsea match instead. So we all trooped next door to watch the match on an ageing 3G surface which seemed to me to have rather uneven bounce in places. The first half was dire, the second quite decent, and Crawley were deserving winners in the end. Needless to say, we weren't allowed in the cage.

 

Many thanks to Karen Browne for her assistance and to sjj2112 and youngster and his East Anglian minders for some good company, which redeemed a day spent at an almost totally unfriendly club, the exception being Mrs Tea Bar. I think that strictly speaking, the 3G was at the school next door, not Crawley Green Sports and Social Club. I will not, however, be going back.

 

Can't wait for Saturday now! Is it really that bad and unfriendly?

[Savagebee]

A report from another Forum:

 

Crawley Green 3 Wootton Blue Cross 0 (Bedfordshire Senior Trophy SF) Att: 27 h/c f&n

 

but it seems they all settled down to watch the Chelsea match instead.

 

Watch Chelsea play what a load of Sh*t I wouldn't watch that lot play if you paid me. Just another bunch of over rated and over paid chavs

[Munchkin]

Training is a big issue. Really hard to get lads to commit to training when they have to work so hard to be available for games.

Yeah not a lot of div2 teams I would imagine train during the week, and if they do it would be just once and as we all know in div1 your playing 2 games every week and towards the end of the season 3 games in a week.

Div1 along with the cups I would think is nearly double the amount of games a season. Sure I worked out I played 50 odd games in the season we reached 2 finals. So my point is div2 to div1 is a bigger step up than people think, fitness wise aswell as quality wise

We train twice a week, but attendance is sporadic at best. It's a shame, sometimes they are justifiable reasons others are just a piss take.

 

I agree the biggest difference as you move higher up is the commitment level. One of my mates was at Windsor when they had to play Truro. It was 2 days off work.

 

Fitness wise it should be achievable, yes it will be higher. But you only have to look at the clubs that have been promoted, they tend to do ok in the division above.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Munchkin

[stingray]

Must be a different committee to the one that does their League games at Barton Rovers. I do several of these a season and have never encountered any attitude either to myself or anyone else.

[Dirtyclaret]

Can't wait for Saturday now! Is it really that bad and unfriendly?

Absolutely not anywhere near that bad. Trying to find out exactly what the issues were and improve if needed. However I'm sure if you asked the likes of Kents, Afc Dubstable, Dunstable town and others out commitee and club house is one of the better around, but we are aware that because first team games are generally played at Barton the crawley club might need a bit more practice and brush up on hospitality skills. Sandwiches are decent though. Cheap beer.

[Dirtyclaret]

Must be a different committee to the one that does their League games at Barton Rovers. I do several of these a season and have never encountered any attitude either to myself or anyone else.

Thank you.

Only thing I can think of is there were a couple of members late or away and the switch from grass to 3G may have thrown then a bit.

[Dirtyclaret]

Can't wait for Saturday now! Is it really that bad and unfriendly?

If on, it's at Barton, tea not as good and beer not as cheap.

 

But I'm sure you'll get a smile and a friendly "£5 please" from the gate men. Haha

[Dirtyclaret]

We train twice a week, but attendance is sporadic at best. It's a shame, sometimes they are justifiable reasons others are just a piss take.

 

I agree the biggest difference as you move higher up is the commitment level. One of my mates was at Windsor when they had to play Truro. It was 2 days off work.

 

Fitness wise it should be achievable, yes it will be higher. But you only have to look at the clubs that have been promoted, they tend to do ok in the division above.

Yep agreed, fitness achievable but the games come thick and fast and very rarely an easy game, just through my experience of young lads stepping up that's what I felt they struggled with, good start then come Xmas they start to struggle.

[BigDogCol]

If on, it's at Barton, tea not as good and beer not as cheap.

 

But I'm sure you'll get a smile and a friendly "£5 please" from the gate men. Haha

 

Barton? Not at Crawley's ground? Where's Barton?

[HTFCew]

Barton? Not at Crawley's ground? Where's Barton?

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=508045&y=230812&z=1&sv=508045,230812&st=OSGrid&lu=N&tl=~&ar=y&bi=~&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

 

Entrance is off Luton Road

[BigDogCol]

Cheers for that. Do they play all their games there?

[HTFCew]

The first team do for all league games - reserves play at Crawley