Friday 29 June 2018

Longlevens - Saw Mills End



Longlevens AFC
Saw Mills End
Gloucester
Gloucestershire
GL4 3DG








Groud Number: 776
Friday 29th June 2018
Longlevens 0-3 Cirencester Town
Friendly









LONGLEVENS AFC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was formed in 1954 and initially played in the North Gloucestershire League, starting in Division 4 and winning it in their first season. In 1968, they made the switch to the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League, staying there for over 40 years and winning Division 1 in 2009. They earned promotion to the Gloucestershire Senior League in 2011 and started the most successful period in the history of the club.  A 9th place finish was a good solid debut season, but in 2012/13 season saw Longlevens crowned champions. The following season they repeated the trick and this time were promoted to the Hellenic Division 1 West. A third successive league win saw them promoted to the Hellenic Premier in 2015 where they remain to this day. Credible finishes of 10th and 12th were followed up with a record high finish of 9th last season.

Longlevens are fairly young participants in the FA competitions. They've had two seasons in the FA Cup - reaching the Preliminary Round on both occasions. In 2016 they beat Bedfont and Feltham before a 5-1 defeat to Farnborough before beating Fairford Town 5-1 in a replay before a narrow 1-0 defeat at Hanwell Town this season. They've played in the FA Vase for a season longer, but it took them until this season to get their first win. Ardley United were defeated 4-2 before a comprehensive 8-1 win over Tytherington Rocks. The run ended in the 1st Round with a 2-1 defeat at Southern Counties East League champions Sevenoaks Town. Local honours include the Gloucestershire County League (Les James) Cup which they won in 2014 with a 3-0 win over Rockleaze Rangers.

MY VISIT


Having only finished last season on the 9th June thanks to the CONIFA World Cup, I had a much shorter break than usual. Those 19 blank days had mainly been filled with the World Cup, with me doing my usual trick of watching every game that I could. I first spotted this game in the middle of my time off and mentioned it to fellow hopper Anwar. I needed him on board to make it happen, and thankfully, despite him not deciding until the day before, he decided to go for it. There were a couple of notable names within visitors Cirencester Town's squad. Former Wycombe player Charlie Griffin was their boss and ex-Cheltenham Town midfielder Michael Pook was also playing for them. The evening before, I watched England v Belgium with both sides putting out much-changed sides and the Belgians winning 1-0. On the day of the game, it was a brutally busy day at work and hopes of an afternoon nap were diminished as I had to work until 2 after getting up at 4 am. I only had am an hour at home, catching up online before leaving at 3.30.



Half an hour later I was picking up Anwar in Aylesbury. The journey was only 70 miles but it took two and a half hours thanks to woeful roads and Friday night traffic. We got to Gloucester at 6.30, going to a place called Muchachos where I had a Los Chillis Locos chicken burger meal for a fiver. For the money, it was absolutely fantastic and one of the best meals I have had whilst out groundhopping.  The ground was only a few miles away - or so I thought. It turned out that Google sent me to the wrong location where what I presume where the old ground was. There was a social club and club signs, but a helpful lady pointed us in the right direction. With the correct information, we had a few more miles to travel, getting there at 7.25. It was a blessing in disguise then, that the game kicked off at 7.45 rather than the advertised 7.30. I had a nice time to relax before kick off, getting some pictures of the ground and catching up online.


Cirencester Town started with a pretty strong squad but there were not many chances in the opening exchanges. The visitors won it thanks to a prolific 10-minute spell towards the end of the half. First, on 34 minutes, last season's leading marksman Ben Whitehead converted a penalty following a foul in the area. On 40 minutes, it was 2-0. A good ball found Whitehead and his low shot on the turn from around 10 yards produced his and his sides second. Two minutes later, it was game, set and match. The initial shot hit the post but Alan Griffin was on hand to scramble the ball home. Longlevens forced a series of corners just before halftime but they lacked the cutting edge to score. The second half passed off without much incident, but it was spent in the pleasant company of a group of groundhoppers who also supported Cheltenham Town and made up a healthy crowd of 79. We left at 9.45, getting to Anwar's at 11.10. I was home by 11.35 and listened to the Two Mikes while typing my blog. Next up for me is Fleet Town v Woking tomorrow. Initially, I thought that I'd have Anwar for company, but he had family stuff to deal with and quite rightly gave that priority. Thankfully, as a revisit, it's not too far from me and there are a few people that I know that will be in attendance.




THE GROUND

SAW MILLS END is a pleasant place to watch football. There is just the one stand, this is fairly long and has a couple of rows of seats at the front as well as standing behind. It's nice to see a solid structure rather than a metal stand. The rest of the ground is open hard standing. Food and drink at the ground appeared quite basic, cans and bottles in the bar, but I didn't check out the food. You'd be better off going into Gloucester city centre where there is plenty of choice, though the ground is quite a walk from there.

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Sunday 17 June 2018

END OF SEASON AWARDS 2017/18

It has been a good season for me, albeit an expensive one with over £3,000 spent, though it was a shade less than last season. I also drove 10,000 fewer miles thanks to taking various coaches and I intend to get both down this season if possible. At least I enjoyed myself, visiting some great places and meeting some great people. Here are some of the highlights of the season.

FAVOURITE GROUND - SAFFRON WALDEN TOWN

A real gem of a ground with plenty of character. Lots of cover and good enough for a few steps higher. Pleasant location too.

BEST LOCATION - BARNSTAPLE TOWN
Close to an excellent town with all you could need for a day out at the footy.



FRIENDLIEST CLUB - QUORN
Pretty much everyone, so hard to choose. But gonna give it to Quorn, not often the team manager makes the effort to speak to you, but Dougie Keast also remembered his games against Wycombe back in the early 90's for Kettering.



LEAST FRIENDLY - NO ONE
Thankfully, I didn't encounter anything bad on my visits last season.

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY - EASINGTON SPORTS
Again, a strong category, with several offering free entry. But gonna give it to Easington Sports, a fiver with a programme was great value and it produced a decent game and the clubs record attendance. Good people too.



BEST SOCIAL MEDIA AND WEBSITE - ABINGDON TOWN
It was very disappointing that roughly only a third of clubs bothered to retweet my blog after the expense and effort taken to visit them. Though I didn't set up the blog to get views, more a way to note down my memories, it's still disappointing. I'm trying to promote visiting these clubs after all. One of those that did retweet was Abingdon Town. They also keep their Twitter up to date and went out of their way to message me about my original game choice being postponed. Excellent.



BEST PROGRAMME - SHOREHAM
It's sad to see the matchday programme dying, with most clubs putting together half-baked efforts, just because of rules. There were a few decent efforts though, Shoreham produced a decent one and it was only a quid - very cheap for step 4 and a decent amount to read as well as the essentials.




BEST MATCH - AFC ALDERMASTON 4-3 MILTON UTD
The dramatic late winner for Wycombe against Carlisle was probably the best game of the season for me. But whilst out hopping, AFC Aldermaston defeated Milton United by the same scoreline in a totally spellbinding game.



WORST MATCH - SWINDON TOWN 1-0 WYCOMBE WDRS
A truly miserable contest played in swirling winds. Both teams insisted on hoofing the ball and it wasn't very nice conditions for the fans either.



BEST TEA BAR - GLOSSOP NORTH END
Lots of competition here, but Glossop's varied, tasty and good value pie selection wins the day. Special mention to Bishops Lydeard for an amazing Thai Green Curry, but I think that was only available for the Western League Hop.



BEST BAR - CROCKENHILL
Understandably lacking in real cider, I barely drank in grounds this season. You can't expect teams to cater for minority tastes after all. Crockenhill deserves the award for decorating their bar with loads of scarves from different clubs, as well as cuttings detailing the clubs history. A real visual treat.



BEST CLUB SHOP - CHELMSFORD CITY
Again, thin on the ground. Rare that there was even a club shop, even rarer to see old programmes for sale. But Chelmsford City bucked that trend with an amazing selection of old programmes, books and mags as well as reasonably priced merchandise. A rare treat.



BEST PUB - THE DELIRIUM CAFE, BRUSSELS
Incredible place in Brussels with over 3,000 beers on offer. Loads of nooks and crannies and plenty of beer related stuff on the walls. Had a good few cherry beers, including some really rare local ones. The only problem was, it was so good I ended up spending a large chunk of my weekend away in there.



BEST WETHERSPOONS - THE WHITE BALL (TIVERTON)
If only all Wetherspoons were like this. Around 8 ciders on draught, plus a big fridge with around 40 different bottles in. It was in the public space, so you could browse and pick out the drink you wanted without keeping people waiting. All with Wetherspoons usual reasonable prices too.



BEST PINT - CHANT'S FIGHTING CIDER
One of two great ciders I had at the Hackney Carriage micropub before a game at Tudor Sports. Lovely and dry, had bags of taste and depth. too.



BEST MEAL - BUTCHERS FAGGOTS, CHIPS & MUSHY PEAS
@ THE PONY & TRAP, CULLOMPTON

The Pony and Trap didn't live up to its cockney rhyming slang name with this great meal. Sampled in Cullompton on the way to Exeter City v Wycombe Wanderers, it was streets ahead of meals that cost twice as much when travelling on the Wycombe Wanderers Independent Supporters Club coach. Nice, local fare and only a fiver