St Johns Sports & Social Club
A418
Stone
Aylesbury
Bucks
HP17 8PT
Ground Number: 1370
Sunday 3rd November 2024
Aylesbury United 2-2 Didcot Town* won on pens
Thames Valley Womens League Cup
Thames Valley Womens League Cup
AYLESBURY UNITED WOMEN - A BRIEF HISTORY
The club was re-established in 2002 as the ladies' team of Aylesbury United FC. They were derived mainly from the players of Berkhamsted Ladies FC who were disbanded that summer. Their first season in the South West Combination was a struggle ending in relegation but the following year they established themselves in the Southern Region Premier Division. A move to the Thames Valley Women's League with the club starting in Division 1. They were relegated to Division 2 in 2008 but won promotion back to Division 1 in 2010 as runners-up to Oxford United. They spent five seasons back in Division 1 with a high of 6th in 2013. However, a bottom finish in 2015 saw them relegated to Division 2 North. Though they finished 3rd in their first season, a league restructure in 2019 saw them placed in Division 3 North. They were second to Banbury United Development when the season was curtailed in 2020 but they have tended to struggle since. They won the Thames Valley League Plate in 2007 & 2015. Today they have eight teams of all age levels and over a hundred players registered with them.
MY VISIT
Ideally on this Sunday, I would have been making the trip up to Curzon Ashton for their FA Cup game with Mansfield Town. It would only be a revisit but it was a ground I'd like to go to again sometime. An FA Cup game would have been perfect. But as ever, work reared its ugly head, as with every Sunday. I see it as a necessary evil as I am obliged to work one day of the weekend and I'd much rather work a good-for-nothing day of the week than my favourite Saturday. It was also not great to have a 5 am start but that did at least open up an opportunity for an afternoon game. Sadly, despite every other women's game I had been to kick off at 2 pm, they had opted to kick all WFA Cup games at 1. I could still get my cup fix though as the Thames Valley League Cup observed the usual 2 pm start. This gave me time to get there from work and although the ground looked pretty basic, I love a cup game.
We eventually left yesterday's game at Tavistock at 6.10. It was a long journey back to Didcot but I kept myself busy finishing the blog. I then confirmed my games for the week, a busy one with six games in all. Hopefully, my next new ground after this will be Whitton United on Saturday but having suffered a postponement on my last attempt, I'll be hoping for dry weather. There was also the Northampton Town v Kettering Town FA Cup game on my tablet, a decent local derby with former Wycombe manager Gareth Ainsworth on the punditry team. One person on the coach had a smelly arse and it smelt like when the farmers spread manure in certain areas. The last part of the journey dragged but we were in good company. I just wanted to get home and have a couple of pints before sleep though I'd be limited with a 4 am alarm. We were back just after 9.50 in the end. Thankfully it was a slightly different route and although the roads were slow back to the M40, I dropped Colin off at 10.55. It was 15 minutes to home and I had a couple of drinks intending to be in bed by midnight. I eventually got to bed twenty minutes later than intended, then took a while to drop off, getting three hours of sleep. I felt OK the next morning but on reflection, I should have gone straight to bed when I got in. It was the usual crowded and unpleasant Sunday, like some kind of satanic bowel movement. I had my break at 12.30 getting a sarnie and a muffin. I left at 1, the game having been confirmed by the Didcot Town Twitter. It was a 35-minute journey, mainly obscure country roads but nice and quiet. I was at the ground at 1.40 and pleasantly surprised that it was quite decent.
Aylesbury United were 3rd in Division 3, having won three, drawn two and lost three of their games so far. In their last game, they beat Muursley United 5-0. Didcot Town were bottom of Division 2 having won two and lost five of their games. Last time out, they had lost 5-0 to Kingsclere. Didcot had the early play but resolute defending saw Aylesbury survive. Aylesbury already had a chance when on 10 minutes they took the lead with a low shot from around ten yards. Another bout of desperate defending ended up with Didcot being awarded a penalty on 15 minutes for handball. It was converted for 1-1. The standard was noticeably a big drop from last week's step 3 game but it was still good honest football, if a bit scrappy. Didcot looked like the better side but lacked the finishing prowess. Aylesbury United had defended resolutely, getting players behind the ball. But persistence paid off for Didcot on 52 minutes when they netted a rebound at the near post. They then hit the bar a couple of minutes later. Didcot looked to have gone 3-1 up following a goalkeeper parry but it was ruled offside. They were nearly pegged back around 15 minutes from time. Aylesbury were awarded a penalty for a trip inside the area but the spot kick was blasted wide. Just as it looked like Didcot were home and dry, Aylesbury headed home from a corner in injury time. Didcot had been the better side though and they eventually prevailed on penalties.
My 81st game of the season was an entertaining one and I'll certainly be considering more games in this league, perhaps even a run in this cup competition. There had been around 30 in attendance, though not all of them understood the rules. Firstly a group complained that the Aylesbury goal had come after the final whistle, leading the ref to explain injury time to them. They then complained that he blew for full time just as Didcot were attacking. What they would have made of the famous Clive Thomas incident at the Argentina World Cup when he flew for full time just as Brazil scored against Sweden is anyone's guess. The ref was pretty decent in any case and contributed to the game's flow. I left around 4.10, taking 35 minutes to get home. The plan was to watch the FA Cup highlights and draw and grab an early night ahead of a busy week of work and football.
THE GROUND
The main focal point of ST JOHNS SPORTS & SOCIAL CLUB is the club itself. The club has its own team, St Johns FC, which I presume is a Sunday League team and Aylesbury & District outfit AW FC also play there. The bar offers a standard range of drinks and has Sky TV. It looks like a decent place to watch a game or go for a drink. In addition, there is also a food van, although this departed at 2 PM. Plenty of parking is also available and buses pass the entrance. There are two pitches, the far one was used when I went. It was a basic pitch with no dugouts although trees enclosed three sides and it's a nice place to watch a game. There is certainly potential to expand the ground to a higher standard if the need arises.
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