Canvey Island FC
Park Lane
Canvey Island
Essex
SS8 7PX
01268 682991
Ground Number: 222
Saturday 13th October 2012
Canvey Island 1-1 Bognor Regis Town
Isthmian League Premier Division
MY VISIT
As I had had a few days up north earlier this week with plenty of travelling, I was planning on keeping fairly local for this Saturday's game. Initially, I was planning on going to Banbury v Weymouth to meet a mate, but he couldn't make it, so I looked for an alternative. I was considering Whyteleafe or Corby Town but when I saw that Canvey Island was offering free entry for all Premiership and Football League season ticket holders, I decided on that, even though it wasn't my first choice. It was Non-League day, an idea thought up by a QPR and Harrow Borough fan to promote the non-league game during international weekends. There were all kinds of special events going on, including a 3 match hop in Cheshire and various ticket offers including gaining free entry if you dressed up as a pirate at Bexhill United of the Sussex County League!
I set off around 1PM after watching Soccer AM and getting ready. Well, I say getting ready, I faffed around for ages trying to download a Youtube video to listen to in the car, a random waffle about computers. But after several attempts and half an hour later I gave up and got on my way. I went straight to the ground for once, arriving just before 2.30. As had been promised on the website, I showed my Wycombe season ticket an got in for nowt. So to put a bit of money in the club coffers I bought a programme, a couple of portions of chips, a Bovril and a pennant to add to my collection.
I had seen Bognor Regis Town fairly recently, in an epic 4-4 draw against Godalming Town in last seasons Ryman League Division 1 South playoff semi-final, which eventually went to penalties. Bognor won through, then went on to beat Dulwich Hamlet to progress to the Ryman Premier. The last time I saw Canvey Island was way back in 2006 when they played at Burnham in an FA Cup tie, progressing through in a competition they have a lot of history in, having famously beaten Port Vale and Wigan Athletic in recent years. There was one former Wycombe player for the sides, former sub keeper Ashlee Jones played for the home side, he was with Wycombe in our 08/09 season under Peter Taylor as we won promotion up to League 1 in unconvincing fashion. He went onto deputise at Darlington and Braintree Town amongst others but now seems to have found his level at Ryman Premier. He went on to make some good saves throughout the afternoon.
The game itself started well and Bognor had a lot of the first half. They deservedly took the lead early on, but about 5 minutes later Canvey equalised. Bognor continued to have the better of the first half but it was still level at the break, having been a good first off. I went and got some more pictures of the ground at halftime and also went and got my coat from my car as it was getting pretty chilly. The second half was a different kettle of fish. It was not as open as the first half and Canvey Island had the better of it. There were chances for both sides to win it near the end, but in the end, it stayed 1-1. I'd had another enjoyable day out at a new club and after a fairly simple journey, I arrived home at 6.30. I worked out how much I had spent on my 39 games this season, and it turned out to be £653 - and we are only a couple of months into the season. Still, I have enjoyed it, so I guess it's worth the money.
THE GROUND
PARK LANE is a traditional non-league ground and has hosted Conference Football in recent years. I had actually been there before when on the way to a Southend v Wycombe game. The main seated area is at one end of the ground, along the side and reaches the halfway line. Opposite there are a couple of small covered terraces whilst the rest of the ground is open standing. One end of the ground has a very big terrace for this level, and although open offers the best view in the ground The ground certainly has a lot of colour to it and the yellow and blue gives the place a bright and homely feel. The tea bar is pretty decent whilst being unspectacular, same with the bar which has a load of Canvey Island history on the walls and also Sky Sports. The club shop is good as well, I got a pennant for just £3 and there was a large selection of old Canvey programmes at cheap prices.
Buxton FC
The Silverlands
Buxton
Derbyshire
Ground Number: 221
Wednesday 10th October 2012
Buxton 2-1 Hednesford Town
FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round Replay
MY VISIT
On the final day of my footballing marathon, I had decided to go into Manchester beforehand. Initially, I had planned to park in Bury and get the tram in, but after looking at various websites it looked like I could get parking for around £4 in Manchester and that would make things far easier. So after having a breakfast of grapes and a few mince pies, I set off. After trying to find a reasonably priced car park, I saw one fairly close to the centre that was advertising all day parking for £4. However, it turned out to be lies and they wanted £13. Even worse I scraped my bumper on a well hidden low wall, luckily most of the damage can be polished out, but a pain all the same. Eventually, I found somewhere that did 12 hours parking for a fiver, luckily they offered payment over the phone as I didn't have much change on me. First stop was the Football Museum. I had previously been to it when it was at Preston North End's ground but that was around 10 or so years ago. The fact that it was free admission made it even more attractive, though I did make a small donation to help out with the upkeep. The place turned out to be fantastic, so much to see, I must have spent an hour or two in there. My favourite section was the media part, covering all the sensational headlines in the papers and radio and TV commentaries.
After that, I had a look around some shops. Manchester was a brilliant city, I'd probably put it as my second favourite place after Newcastle. After buying not much I went to my final stop before heading off somewhere else, a pub called the Crown and Kettle. It turned out to be fairly decent, had a pint of Broadoak Cider. It was while in here that I was left with the decision of whether to go to Ashton United v Marine in the Northern Premier League or Buxton v Hednesford Town in the FA Cup. After much deliberation, I opted for the Buxton game as it was not that much further in terms of mileage, and was also in the FA Cup, which I am a big fan of. It was 4PM and as Buxton was only an hour or so away, I decided to travel up to Salford to see what that was like as I had time to kill. It turned out to be a letdown, as after heavy traffic I arrived at 5PM and some of the shops had closed by then. But still I picked up a cider that I had never had before to take home, and at around 5.40 I had finished and was on my way to Buxton. After a couple of brief delays on the motorway, I was well on my way. Whilst I had checked out the mileage on my Sat Nav, I had not accounted for the single track roads and some numpty sticking at half the speed limit. Still, I arrived with half an hour to go to kick off and so went straight in. £9 plus £1.50 for a programme was decent value. I had been told that The Silverlands was a ground with a bit of character and so this turned out to be the case, I got some nice pictures. I then sought out the club shop which had a fair selection of programmes. I opted against a pennant this time as they wanted £10, which is way too much when space on your wall is very tight.
After reading a bit of the programme and looking at my phone it was time for kick off and so I took a seat in the stand. The game started really scrappily and there were no goals in the first half for the 300 fans in attendance. Hednesford keeper Dan Crane had already made a number of great saves, but he was unable to prevent Mark Reed converting Lee Morris' cross. Their lead only lasted four minutes, following Dave McPherson's dave from Elliott Durrell, Aaron Rey followed up from close range. It went to extra time with Buxton captain Steve Istead getting his marching orders for a second booking. Lee Morris got his second from the penalty spot at the start of the second half of extra time, and overall it was a deserved win for the hosts. To make matters worst for Hednesford, they had Ben Bailey sent off after he also got a second booking to make it ten-a-side. I had enjoyed my visit, but now faced a pretty gruelling drive home, thanks to some of the aforementioned single carriageway roads. Eventually, I was back on the motorway though, but I still didn't get home till 1.30am. After checking my laptop for various updates I got to sleep around 3am and had the best nights sleep I'd had in a long time.
THE GROUND
THE SILVERLANDS is a traditional non-league ground with some nice features. The main part of the ground is the stand which holds around 400. There are also some covered areas, mainly behind the goal to the right, where the home fans normally congregate, as well as down the opposite side. There is a decent sized bar too as well as a club shop and tea bar, neither of which are amazing, but do the job perfectly well.
Ground Number: 220
Tuesday 9th October 2012
Guiseley v Colwyn Bay
FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round Replay
MY VISIT
For the second day of my football marathon, I decided to head to Guiseley, near Leeds for their FA Cup replay against Welsh team Colwyn Bay. The 2 teams had drawn in the initial game in Wales at the weekend and so a replay was required. I was initially planning to go to Barrow v Southport in the Blue Square Premier, but the mate who I was planning on meeting there had done his ankle playing football and couldn't make it. On the day I was staying at my hotel in Bury and so nipped across the road to ASDA for a bit of breakfast. Suitably fed, I set off for the game, first stopping at Silsden FC to take some pictures. It was a pretty modern ground with some great scenery around the area, a lot of which was visible from the ground, giving it a really nice setting. I then went to Guiseley, parked up at the football ground and after getting some pictures of the ground in daylight, set off for the train station to get a train into Leeds. I had planned this beforehand and bought a return for £4.10, so I could save on petrol, parking and have a couple of pints as well.
I left Guiseley at 11.50 and was in Leeds just after 12. To be honest, Leeds was a bit of a letdown. It wasn't that it was a bad place or anything, just that it wasn't as good as other big cities I had been to, such as Newcastle and Liverpool. One good thing about it though was a pub called The Hop. I found it using the good beer guide app on my phone and also the UKCider website. And it turned out to be a richly deserved reputation. They had some great pies from a bakery in Huddersfield and also a good range of ciders. I opted for a pint of Three Sheets T'Wind at 6.5% and very nice it was too. After a visit to another pub, where I had a Belgian Cherry beer, I realised I had nearly 5 hours to go to kick off and decided to go back to the station and see how much a train to Bradford cost. It turned out to be just over £4 so I got a return ticket and caught the train, arriving about 4PM. Bradford was a much better city, and one I have been to a couple of times before, having visited for the football with Wycombe on a number of occasions. After looking around the shops, I made my way to another pub that had come recommended, called the Fighting Cock. If the one in Leeds was good, this one turned out to be epic, having an even better range of real cider and other stuff well worth a try. I'd certainly rank it up there with the best pubs I had been in and I was disappointed to only have enough time for one pint. I will certainly be returning in the future.
I walked the mile or so to the station, picking up a chicken wrap at a local takeaway before getting the train back to Leeds and changing for Guiseley. I got back about 6.50 and was in a pretty good mood after a decent day. After stopping at a local Chinese takeaway to get some chips, I made my way to the ground, arriving at around 7.15. After paying £10 to get in, plus £2 for a programme, I went straight to find the club shop, as I heard that they did old programmes. Sadly there weren't any of the ones that I needed there, but I did pick up a pennant, for the bargain price of £1. The bloke in the club shop was really friendly, as in fact was everyone there, and it was by far my favourite of the three clubs I visited that week. After taking some pictures of the ground, I settled down in the stand and checked my Facebook and Twitter on my phone, finishing just before the game started.
Despite dominating the game in terms of possession, Guiseley were behind at halftime. Rob Hopley put the visitors ahead on the half-hour mark. It was a half of few chances, despite some good football being played. James Walshaw, the ex Darlington player was probably the biggest threat for Guiseley. At halftime, I was delighted to see Wycombe were winning 2-1 at Portsmouth in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy having been 1-0 up after 13 seconds thanks to Joel Grant, and then 2-0 up after 8 minutes. I celebrated in buying a Yorkshire delicacy at the tea bar - a hot pork pie, along with some mushy peas, a nice generous portion too for £2.70, and very tasty too. The second half was a different story as the hosts seized the initiative and took the game to Colwyn Bay. The most amusing part of the second half was a Guiseley fan having a go at Colwyn Bay's number 11 for something or other, the player responded by calling the fan a 'f**king inbred' in a very loud scouse accent. The game was turned on its head by 2 goals from Wayne Brooksby in the space of a few minutes on the hour mark. It was no more than they deserved, having started to create more chances. The first was the pick of the bunch, a low drive which put his side back on level terms. Ex Wycombe and Chelsea defender Frank Sinclair was sent off for an off the ball incident, at the age of 41 he should be old enough to know better! The game was wrapped up after more good work from that man Brooksby, Gavin Rothery benefiting from his good work on the wing when he put a fairly simple chance away to give Guiseley a deserved 3-1 lead. They could have had more too, but had to settle for what they had in the end. They would now face the winners of the Buxton v Hednesford Town game, which unbeknown to me, I would be going to. At the time my mind was still set on Ashton United v Marine. It had been a good evening after a decent day, and after being made to feel really welcome at Guiseley, I hope they win their tie in the next round and get themselves a plum draw for the extra revenue and glory. After a fairly simple drive back, I arrived at my hotel just before 11PM. As with the previous night, I watched a few videos on my tablet before going to sleep.
THE GROUND
NETHERMOOR PARK is a smart modern ground, perfect for Guiseley and the support that they get. As mentioned above, the tea bar is good and club shop excellent. The bar is great too, having got Thatchers Gold and Gaymers Pear on draught, as well as some real ales. It is spacious and also has Sky so you can watch the live game beforehand or after seeing some real football on the pitch outside. The only seating in the ground is provided by 2 metal stands, owing to Guiseley's quick rise up the leagues. Although not blessed with huge character, they do the job well and are quite tall, unlike the other arena stands I have seen. Behind both goals is open standing, whilst the other side there are a couple of areas of covered standing. The town is a 5-10 minute walk away, I didn't try it, but I have heard good things about a pub called Coopers.
