Tuesday 11th March

[Rhodes]

PREMIER DIVISION

1-1 St Margaretsbury v Colney Heath

A report from another Forum:

 

St Margaretsbury 1 Colney Heath 1

Adm: £7 inc decent up to date programme. Att: 31

 

I'd visited before for photos but wanted to tick off agame, so I put my trust in East Anglia Trains, which was a mistake. Owing to a train ahead failing I missed my connection at Cheshunt, getting to pretty St Margarets at 7.44. Fortunately for me one of the linos had arrived late so I got inside the ground for kick off. Nice pleasant set up at Bury with one stand on top of a bank providing shelter for sitting and standing patrons. Apart from that its just a hard standing path around the pitch at that level.

 

The game played on a dry pitch was fast and physical, with bits of skill and plenty of errors; ideal step 5 football. Colney missed a great chance from a set piece when an unmarked player headed wide at the far post, colliding with it as he continued. A few minutes later St Margaretsbury were awarded a penalty after the ball had gone in the net from a shot. After confurring with his linesman the ref gave a penalty, which was slotted away.

 

Colney's players must have had a bad day at work as they constantly whined at the official, although he probably didn't help matters as he was a little too theatrical for my liking. He put me in mind of a cross between Brian Glover in Kes and Billy Bowden with his exagerated runnning and gesticulating, but at least he tried to be communicative. Someone in the seats in an FA coat was taking notes. Probably a dreaded assessor? The visiting keeper was charmless personified when he requested an elder home fan "F**k off back to his coffin" after the fan suggested he should calm down. The centre back also offered feedback to the same group later in the half.

 

I enjoyed a steady pint of Greene King IPA at the interval for £2.90 before taking a seat in the cold stand. If Colney Heath had any complaints about decisions going against them before the break, they definitely had no cause upon resumption as the ref gave them every call for the following twenty minutes. This led to the home players questioning decisions. The shouts of ref, ref, ref (and several expletives) echoed around the ground at regular intervals. The play followed a similar pattern with forward play broken up by uncompromising defending or errors.

 

Unfortunately because of the late kick off and for some reason a lengthy break, I had to leave a few minutes before full time to catch the 9.47 train - thus missing the equaliser. To be honest I was slightly shocked that there'd been one.

 

Really nice people at St Margaretsbury. The gent on the gate asked if I was a groundhopper as I was waiting to leave. He thanked me for attending and was very enthusiastic about the SSML. How nice! I recommend it, but probably at the start or beginning of the season to fully appreciate the town and setting of the ground. I hope the Colney players had a dose of gripe water before beddy byes.

[Rhodes]

Tuesday 11^th March

PREMIER DIVISION

4-0 Tring Athletic v Cockfosters

A report from another Forum, what on earth is a bracketed tick, honestly!:

 

South Midlands Premier at the Grass Roots Stadium!

Kick off 19:42 (first early KO all season, and welcome!)

Admission 5:00, programme 1:00, badge 3:00, bottle of Tring Brewery beer 3:30.

Tring Athletic (Red/Black) 4-0 Cockfosters (White/Red), ht 2-0, attendance 59.

 

A 'bracketed' tick for a ground I visited last in 1993 for a Tring Town (defunct) fixture.

Sometimes revisits for completing a league are a chore, this one was not. A really lovely venue, nice old wooden stand from the 1950s (seats too dirty/dusty to sit on mind!), and a nice cover behind one goal, with Tring Athletic FC on the fascia. A great tree directly behind the other goal, growing out of the hardstanding, or should say, hardstanding built around it. One of the top 2/3 grounds in the South Midlands League IMO.

 

Didn't manage to get the lineups, the promised sheet on the clubhouse door never materialised, but found out the scorers from friendly locals. An even first half, but two goals for TA, early doors on 5 mins from Paul Jeffrey, then on 29 mins a penalty from captain Trevor Gibbs.

Cockfosters had matched TA, but in the second half, TA looked the far better team, as Fosters heads dropped, and a couple of players looked a little old/slow for this level, two more goals were added from Jack Seaton, 52 mins and Gibbs with another penalty (both clear penalties) on 62 mins.

Could have been 5 or 6 frankly. Cockfosters have a lot of games to complete, on this showing, they wont win many of them!

 

Hadley (at Potters Bar), London Tigers (at old Viking ground) and London Lions (Sat Arkley Midweek at Hemel?), required, to complete this division.