Wednesday, 19 October 2022

Wednesfield - The Cottage Ground


Wednesfield FC
The Cottage Ground
Amos Lane
Wednesfield
Wolverhampton
WV11 1NG





Ground Number: 1125
Tuesday 18th October 2022
Wednesfield 3-2 Cradley Town
Birmingham Floodlit Cup 1st Round






WEDNESFIELD FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was originally formed in 1961 as Wednesfield Social FC, changing its name to the current one in 1989. They played in local leagues before joining the West Midlands Regional League in 1976 where they won Division 1A in their debut season. The following year, they were Division 1 runners-up to Chasetown in 1978 and this earned them promotion to the Premier Division. They'd spend a fair amount of time here and had a good 3rd place finish in 1987. Wednesfield won the title twice in succession in 1996 & 1997. After this, they were promoted to the Midland Alliance. Despite a 3rd place finish in 2002, they were relegated back the following year after a rock-bottom finish. There were a couple of 4th place finishes back in the West Midlands Premier but by 2015, they were relegated to the WMRL Division 1 which sits at step 7 of Non-League football. A runners-up spot behind Hereford Lads Club was good enough for promotion back up in 2017. They'd remain in the Premier Division for four seasons before transferring to the Midland Division 1 in 2021.

Wednesfield have reached the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round twice. The last occasion in 2010 saw them beat Bolehall Swifts, Castle Vale JKS and Rugby Town before a 5-3 loss at Newcastle Town. They also reached the FA Vase 3rd Round in 1978 & 1981. In terms of local cups, they won the JW Hunt Cup in 2008. The Cottage Ground in Amos Lane, Wednesfield has been the team's home since 1971. For the first ten years of their existence, they played at King George's Park. The Cottage itself was an institute for homeless and orphaned children until its closure in the early 1970s, and the land where the football club is now situated had been its sports field. The highest attendance recorded at the Cottage Ground is 480. In 2003 a crowd of just 10 people was recorded for the visit of Biddulph Victoria, the lowest attendance ever recorded in the Midland Alliance. The town of Wednesfield has a population of around 22,500. Famous people with links to the town include Kevin Rowland of Dexy's Midnight Runners, athlete Tessa Sanderson and TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse.


MY VISIT

This game was decided on Saturday between Anwar, Colin & I at the Wycombe match. We were keen to do a game together but this was complicated by Colin finishing as late as 4.30. In the end, there were only two options on the table - Droitwich Spa v Worcester City and Wednesfield v Cradley Town. Time was going to be tight whatever the option, but I favoured the latter. For one, it was a more interesting ground, plus with Worcester City having good support, Droitwich would be busy and potentially a pain to park. It was also 3G which could be saved for wet weather. However, it remained in place as a backup, should traffic be bad. On Monday I was back at work but in the evening, I walked up to Penn & Tylers Green for their Allied Counties Youth League game against Tring Athletic. It was a good, end-to-end competitive game. It was very harsh on Tring who battled well and were knocking on the door for an equaliser before Penn scored three late goals to win 5-1. It was a nice walk there and back, over six miles in all.
The day of the game came and I'd had a good night's sleep, waking around 8:30. I wanted to take my usual walk down town but was in no rush. After having some breakfast and a bath, I eventually got away around 10.30. From Lidl, I got a few bits, including some Thai fishcakes for lunch. I was a bit pushed for time so I got the bus home at a very reasonable £2.50.  I still got around 6 miles walk in and it saved me an hour. I had around two and a half hours to kill and tried to get on with my blog. It was disappointing not to see either Wednesfield or Cradley Town's Twitter accounts confirm that the game was on, but I was aware that volunteers ran them. In any case, FA Full Time still had the game as going ahead. It was confirmed on shortly after I set off at 4.15. Colin finished work early and so we got away straight away. There was the usual rush hour traffic getting into Aylesbury, so we didn't get to Anwar until 5.10. From there, some annoying roadworks, of course with nothing being done on them, delayed us near Waddesdon for 25 minutes. It put paid to our plans of a pre-match takeaway, but from there traffic was better with us getting there at 7.35. It was £6 entry and I also got some excellent well-cooked chips from the cafe for £1.50.
Wednesfield were in mixed form, having beaten Paget Rangers 1-0 on Saturday. They'd also thumped Old Wulfrunians 9-0 in the JW Hunt Cup. They'd drawn 2-2 at Ingles but had lost 2-0 to Heath Hayes and 4-0 at OJM Black Country. Cradley sat bottom and had beaten Haughmond 2-0 at the start of October but since then had lost 1-0 at AFC Bridgnorth, 2-0 at Nuneaton Griff and 2-1 at Dudley Town before a 5-1 defeat to Hinckley. Wednesfield took the lead with two early goals from Jack Dew and Jimmy Yates. I didn't see the first as I was still waiting for my food but the second was a close-range shot into the roof of the net. Around 25 minutes in, it was 3-0, this time a low shot from the edge of the area by substitute Reece Cotterill. The game appeared as good as over with the hosts 3-0 up but Cradley gave it a good go in the second half. They were awarded a penalty although this was well saved by the home keeper. He also pulled off a couple more great saves but finally, around the hour mark, Cradley pulled a goal back from long range. The visitors further reduced the arrears around 15 minutes from time. The home keeper saved the initial shot but it was followed up from close range to spark a nervous finish.

In the end, Wednesfield clung on, in front of around 40 fans. It had been an OK night, although rushing around thanks to roadworks took some of the enjoyment off. The perils of being the only one in my group that drives, as well as a limited choice of new grounds within easy reach I guess. I needed petrol and so headed to Total Energies in Wolverhampton. The petrol was very cheap here at 154.9, some 8p a litre cheaper than I paid last time out. We left around 10 and it was the usual Greatest Hits Radio on the way home. I dropped Anwar off at 12 and Colin 20 minutes later before getting home at 12.35. I wasn't really tired and so stayed up for around an hour before attempting to go to sleep.

THE GROUND

THE COTTAGE GROUND is a decent venue for the level. There's just one stand, a proper brick-built one and this holds around 250 on benches. The rest of the ground is open. The food and drink facilities are decent, the range of hot food being especially impressive. Otherwise, there are a few takeaways nearby. Parking is fairly decent but might be a bit tight for big games.

DAYTIME PICS FROM 27TH FEB 2010
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