Marston Shelton Rovers FC
Marston Playing Fields
Marston Leisure Park
Bedford Road
Marston Moreteyne
Bedfordshire
MK43 0LD
Ground Number: 1411
Wednesday 9th April 2025
Marston Shelton Rovers 3-0 Elstow Abbey
Beds County League Premier
MARSTON SHELTON ROVERS FC - A BRIEF HISTORY
The club was established in 1898. They joined the Bedford & District League and after winning Division Two in 1933, the club were league champions for four consecutive seasons between 1936 and 1939. Marston Shelton Rovers would join the South Midlands League following the end of the war. They finished as high as 6th in the Premier Division in 1949 but by 1952 they were relegated to Division 1. They bounced back in 1954 as runners-up to Stotfold. Relegation followed again in 1961 and the club would leave the league altogether in 1973 after finishing bottom of Division 1. They moved back to the Beds County League and won Division 1 at the first attempt. They must have suffered relegation as they were Division 2 champions in 1978. Ten years later, they won Division 1 again. In 2003 they finished 4h in Division 2, earning promotion to Division 1. However, they finished bottom of Division One in 2005 and were relegated back to Division 2. A third-place finish in 2010 saw Marston Shelton Rovers promoted to Division 1. They finished third in Division 1 in 2012 earning promotion to the Premier Division. They've been there ever since, finishing as high as 3rd in 2019.
Marston Shelton Rovers played one season in the FA Cup in 1950. They beat Bedford Corinthians 3-0 before losing 2-1 at Hitchin Town. A groundshare at Wooton Blue Cross allowed them to play in the FA Vase in 2017 & 2019 but they went out at the first hurdle. Locally, they have won two Bedfordshire Junior Cups, two Bedfordshire Intermediate Cups, the Aubrey Tingey Memorial Cup in 1977 and the Britannia Cup in 2017. The club is based in Marston Moreteyne, a village on the A421 between Bedford & Milton Keynes. It has a population of around 4,500. The village is served by Millbrook railway station, approximately 1 mile away on the Marston Vale Line. The place-name 'Marston Moretaine' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 969, where it appears as Mercstuninga. It appears as Merestone in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name derives from the Old English mersc-tūn meaning 'town or settlement by a marsh'. It was held by the family of Moretaine, from Mortain in Normandy in France.
MY VISIT
I was overwhelmed with choice for the second 'silly season' game of this year. It was annoying though that everything I fancied was on Wednesday. This was the polar opposite of the normal midweek games, where everything is stuck on Tuesday. For this Wednesday, I could have seen various games in the East Berkshire League, one I really fancied was Old Windsor. The same could be said for the Surrey League, where Addlestone was a contender. However, I decided to crack on with the Bedfordshire League and Marston Shelton Rovers. Conversely, on Tuesday, the nearest step 7 option was over 80 miles away in Rotherfield of the Mid-Sussex League. That, combined with it being a basic venue in a league I was not going to complete. made me decide to have a night in watch Huddersfield Town v Wycombe Wanderers on TV. I did consider Bampton United in the Witney & District League as it looked decent. However, I decided against it due to the lack of social media - understandable for a side primarily about playing as opposed to spectating.
From the Bideford v Didcot Town game, it was a long journey home. We didn't leave until 6.10 and then we had a lengthy stop due to the abysmal service at the awful Roadchef in Sedgemoor. What should have been 15 minutes turned into 45 minutes. Then a road closure on the M4 saw us thrown off to navigate the back sheets of Swindon, adding 40 minutes to the journey. All this resulted in us getting back to Didcot at 10.15. We then had the dreadful roads from Didcot to High Wycombe although at least Daniel drove it. He had yet more time off work, whilst Colin had his usual four-day weekend. I wasn't looking forward to working but wouldn't let it ruin my night. We were back in Wycombe at 11:15 and I was home twenty minutes later. I had a nightcap to send me off and was in bed by 1. After three hours of sleep, I had an OK day at work and caught up with an extra hour the following afternoon. It was my usual day off on Tuesday and also my end of 23 years selling on eBay. Thanks to their ludicrous insistence on using their 'Simple Delivery' service, the minimum postage charge is now £2.94. With most of my items being listed at under £3, I'd be paying them to take them away, plus have the inconvenience of taking them to a drop-off point. I never agreed nor was informed about this and joined loads of angry sellers on their forums.
The evening was pleasant. I had a few drinks as I watched Wycombe win 1-0 at Huddersfield online. It was a good, controlled performance from Wycombe, with the hosts offering very little. It was nice to get an early-ish night before work. The six-hour shift didn't go as quickly as I'd have liked, but I was home by 11:30. The afternoon was spent killing time and waiting for the Football Traveller to turn up which it eventually did at 15:30. Too late to have a chance to have a proper look but I did decide to stick with Wycombe Wanderers v Stevenage on Saturday due to a lack of decent options to tempt me away. I was late leaving at 4.05 but picked Colin up on my way. He slept all the way meaning I got some peace and he was in good shape for the match. We got there at 17:35 and I eat the sausages I had bought to save money whilst I walked to the local chippy with Colin. It looked better than I expected but I was glad I'd bought my own as his small scampi and chips were £11.80. We walked back to the ground and I got some pictures of the ground before kickoff.
Marston Shelton Rovers were in 2nd place and had an outside chance of the title if results went their way. They were in mixed form but had won their last game 5-1 against Flitwick Town. Elstow Abbey were in 6th place and had only won one of their last six. Last time out they lost 1-0 at Queens Park Crescents. Marston Shelton Rovers started the brightest but it was Elstow Abbey who clipped the crossbar after five minutes. The hosts volleyed home after 11 minutes but the fine strike was ruled offside. After 31 minutes, Marston Shelton Rovers took the lead. An excellent delivery from a left-sided corner was firmly headed home at the back post by #11 Harry Baker. The hosts continued to dominate and the same player put them 2-0 up from the penalty spot on 40 minutes. Right on half time, it was 3-0 after a lot of headed pinball in the box was finished off by Lewis Steele. It was a seven-minute halftime before we got going again. The second half saw Elstow Abbey have a lot of possession, but not so many chances. They did have a header against the post just after the hour though. The visitors continued to dominate the second period but it wouldn't go in for them as they hit the post on 77 minutes. There were no further goals on a chilly evening. There were around 35 in attendance, as with these events there were many groundhoppers with some having travelled from as far away as Leicester.
THE GROUND
MARSTON PLAYING FIELD is a nice setup which has a natural enclosure on three sides with the cricket side on the 4th. There's a hard fence behind the goal and a rope down one side. There's a nice club building alongside the cricket Pavillion. Plenty of parking is provided. Less than ten minutes walk away is a shopping park with a large Co-Op and a chippy. It is a pleasant venue to watch a game at, aside from the noise from the nearby A421 which at least provides easy access to the village.
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