Wednesfield - The Cottage Ground

Wednesfield FC

The Cottage Ground

Amos Lane

Wednesfield

Wolverhampton

WV11 1NG

Official Website

Twitter

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.

From last night, Cradley Town penalty saved by Wednesfield. Pivotal as Wednesfield won 3-2. pic.twitter.com/toHi4gx9Ir

— ⚽Russell Cox💙 (@RussWWFC) October 19, 2022

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

Denham United Ladies - The Den

Denham United Ladies FC

The Den

95 Oxford Road

Denham

Uxbridge 

UB9 4DE

Official Website

Twitter

Ground Number: 1124
Sunday 16th October 2022
Denham United Ladies Res 0-6 Hilltop Ladies
Capital Women's Cup

DENHAM UNITED LADIES - A BRIEF HISTORY

There is not a lot of information about the club online, but they claim to be the largest all-female club in the south of England. They have many teams, with lots of junior sides representing the club. They were established in 1998. They joined the London & South East Regional Women's League in 2008 and were runners-up to Ebbsfleet United in their debut season. The league sits at the 5th tier of women's football in England. Their best season here came during the 2012/13 season when they were champions, winning 18 out of 20 league games. This earned them promotion to the FA Women's National League Division 1 South East, their highest finish being 6th in their debut season of 2013/14 and they were relegated in 2019 after finishing 11th out of 12 teams. They would return to the league for the 2019/20 season, finishing 7th in their first season back.  Since then, they have struggled and last season they were relegated to Division 1 North, tier six of women's football. Their reserves play in the tier 8 Thames Valley Counties WFL Division 2.

Denham currently has no men's team representing them on Saturday to the best of my knowledge. Denham United were established in 1905 and played in the Chiltonian League from 1986 until 1998. They were Division 1 champions in 1995 and Premier Division champions in 1997 before leaving the league. They previously played in the Uxbridge & District & West Middlesex Leagues. They appear to have used the same venue as the ladies' team which is probably an offshoot of the original club. They have a Sunday league team which plays in the High Wycombe Sunday League. The village of Denham is located in south Bucks and has a population of around 7,000. It is a fairly desirable area with its own train station. Previous residents have included Cilla Black, Paul Daniels, Mike Oldfield, Roger Moore and Dennis Wise.

MY VISIT

It was pretty tricky to find a game on any Sunday, with choice really restricted. It would undoubtedly be a women's game or Sunday League, but searching for those was harder work than most, with no one source listing all of the games. I had to check each league on the FA Full Time site individually. I wouldn't have minded a day out on the train, but all of the London teams that I fancied visiting were away or not playing. In the end, I opted for something closer to home. Although it was only their reserves, Denham United Ladies against Hilltop was a pretty decent choice. The ground was not used for Saturday football to my knowledge and was pretty decent with a rail and club room. The opposition was also quite interesting, formed out of the Somali community and when I'd seen their men's team a year ago, it had been a good watch.

It has been a happy Saturday for me, which isn't always the case when watching Wycombe. It had been my usual pre-match routine of lots of walking, drinking and unhealthy food. I'd met up with Colin & Anwar as per usual and we provisionally planned Tuesday with the likely destination being Droitwich Spa or Wednesfield. On the field, it was a game against Peterborough United, a team that we have a pretty good record against, at least at home. Even so, we were in pretty poor form and so I wasn't overly confident. My fears looked to be well founded with us 1-0 down at halftime and going nowhere. Luckily, we turned it around in the second half and it was a fairly comfortable 3-1 win in the end. It was especially satisfying as Peterborough United have a motormouth local 'journalist' called Alan Swann who has been taking swipes at Wycombe for many years. He was especially upset with the resolution to the 2019/20 'Covid' season where the league was decided on points per game. Wycombe went on to win through the playoffs and gain promotion to the Championship and poor old Alan hasn't stopped mentioning it since.

The day of the game came, and I woke up around 9 am. I had breakfast and a shower and started doing my research for today's game. I'd have fancied a walk out in the fresh air, but couldn't be bothered in the end. I researched the club history which was easier said than done with a fair bit of digging needed. When I mentioned this game yesterday, Colin had tried everything in the book to stop me from going as he didn't want to lose his place at the top of the visits on Futbology. However, it turned out that he'd checked into the wrong ground with 'The Den' being incorrectly listed as being a cricket pitch on the other side of the village. Oxford Road was the proper venue and it did appear if it was the same place used by the men's team that once played there. I had a fish finger sandwich for lunch before leaving at 1.25. It was a nice easy journey with me getting to the ground ten minutes before kickoff. I had a walk around and got some pictures before settling down to watch the game.

Denham United Ladies Reserves played in the Thames Valley Women's League Divison 2 - tier 8 of women's football-  and sat 8th. They'd not won for a while, their only win coming on the opening day as they beat Oxford City 4-0. They'd certainly been amongst the goals recently, drawing 2-2 at Goring United. They'd also suffered 4-3 defeats to East Oxford and at Beaconsfield United and Stonesfield. Hilltop plays in the Greater London Women's Football League Division 2 North which was the 9th tier. They were in 2nd place. They'd won 16-0 at Alexandra Park, 3-2 at Rose, 9-0 against Edgware & Kingsbury and 5-0 against East Finchley. However, they'd lost 5-0 at leaders Impact. Early on, Denham were on top. They forced the Hilltop keeper into tipping a decent strike around her post and were unlucky not to score following a goalmouth scramble. Also, on 17 minutes, the Hilltop keeper placed a goal kick straight at the feet of a Denham player on the edge of the area but she was unable to capitalise, screwing the ball wide. This proved to be pivotal and from there on in, Hilltop grew into the game. They took the lead on 29 minutes, a shot from the edge of the area going into the right-hand side of the net. It was 2-0 on 38, and the home defence stood off the player who shot home from a similar position. By now, the hosts had lost confidence as the visitors took control. It was 3-0 on 70 minutes, the goal of the game with a chip from the edge of the area. Five minutes later it was 4-0, the Denham keeper palmed a 30-yard shot away but it was followed up from close range. The fifth came from a good corner which resulted in a close-range finish. The 6th was a cross across the face of the goal and a low shot by #21.

 It had been a bit of a traumatic afternoon for Denham United. Firstly, at 4-0 down, their keeper appeared to quit mid-game. I was noting down the goal details only to see the Denham #9 follow her down the tunnel and then the goalkeeper emerge with her bag and head off home. She'd not been especially at fault for any of the goals but was not happy. Even worse, a rib injury to one of the Denham girls was not nice to see and the game was held up whilst she was carried off in pain. It wasn't nice to see. I left just before 4 to a friendly goodbye by a club official. It had been a reasonable game, although a little one-sided. I was back home by 4.20 and I got on with this blog. I had a few drinks to round off the day, with me being back at work on Monday, I kept it sensible and planned to get an early night.

THE GROUND

THE DEN is a decent setup for what it is. The pitch is railed on two sides and has a decent area of cover along one side. There are also plenty of tables and chairs as well as a smart club room that sells soft drinks and snacks. The ground is a little untidy in places and would probably be considered a decent step 7 ground in men's football. There's plenty of parking and some food places nearby such as KFC, Mcdonald's and an Indian Restaurant.