FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Boundary Stadium, South Oxhey
Admission including Programme: £6.00
Attendance: 77
Match Rating: 4
With the long road to Wembley starting today, I wanted to take in an FA Cup game, at a new ground and ideally between clubs from different leagues. And so, for the third time in four Saturdays, I decided to visit a ground in the Spartan South Midlands League.
Although Carpenders Park is the closest train station to Boundary Stadium, I chose to alight at the station before, Hatch End, which is as far as the London Travelcard covers on the line, but is still only about a 20 minute walk to the ground, partly across countryside. After passing by a swimming pool and the clubhouse, spectators enter the ground by paying admission at a small white hut, at the top of a grass bank along one length of the pitch. To the left of the entrance, there is a wooden bench, whilst to the right, there are three rows of steps to stand on, uncovered but with a large incline between rows and white railings to the front. Straddling the half way line there are two modern metallic all-seater stands, with the players' tunnel between the two. Towards the far corner flag there is a further quite long stand, covering a flat standing area. Behind the goal and along the other length there is just hard standing, as there is behind the remaining goal closest to the entrance, apart from a small metallic all-seater stand located right in the corner, with the seats inside not in the best of condition. Indeed, the ground generally is rather scruffy and tired, but that does add to the character of the place, and apart from the busy train line passing close by, it is quite a pleasant place to watch football at. Programmes were free with admission and consisted of a generic 16 page shell printed in colour on glossy paper containing club facts and advertising, and inside was a 16 page insert which was a good enough read, with welcome messages, an introduction to the visiting team and various stats, as useful as they are with the season just a week old.
This match pitched a club from the Spartan South Midlands League hosting one from the Hellenic League Premier Division, and on paper at least, the away team would certainly have been favourites to progress today. Oxhey Jets finished joint bottom of their division last season, but were placed third from bottom on goal difference and goals scored. So far this season, they have picked up a win and a defeat from their opening two games this season. Wantage Town just missed out on promotion by two points, having finished in fourth place in their first season back in the Hellenic League following a three season stay in the Southern League, and have started this season with two wins.
On an overcast, fairly muggy afternoon, with the prolonged scorching temperatures this summer having finally come to an end earlier in the week, this was very much a case of a game of two halves in terms of entertainment levels, with the first half proving quite a dull affair with precious little incident or attacking intent. The visitors did look the better team, and they were awarded a penalty on 28 minutes, following a grapple in the box. Chris Jackson converted into the bottom right corner, just beating the keeper's dive. There was little else of note throughout the half, and so it was the visitors who held a slender lead at half time.
Within two minutes of the restart, the visitors doubled their lead and looked well on their way to the next round, Jim Glover crossing from the byline and Harvey Scholars guided the ball into the net with a lovely glanced header past the keeper. But three minutes later and the home side pulled a goal back, Luke Jones hitting a lovely shot on the run from the edge of the area into the top left corner. That really inspired Oxhey, and a couple of minutes after a header forced a fine fingertip save by the keeper, they equaliser on the hour mark. After an initial shot came back off the woodwork, Jones slotted the ball home. And the turnaround was complete four minutes later. Andrew Brennan ran into the penalty area, albeit increasing the angle towards goal, but he eventually struck the ball low past keeper and into the far bottom corner of the net. By now Wantage were looking quite desperate, but gradually they recovered their composure, and 71 minutes a powerful shot from a central position forced the Oxhey keeper into a fine reflex save. But from the resultant corner, a foul in the box resulted in a second penalty being awarded for the visitors, and Jackson scored in the bottom right corner but this time the keeper dived the wrong way. The match really could have gone either way, although it was Wantage who had the stand-out chances in the closing stages, and three minutes into added on time, it was Wantage who scored the winner, with a curling cross beautifully headed by Connor Mattimore across the keeper and into the net.
So a dramatic end to an eventful second half that no-one could have predicted at half time after a tepid 45 minutes of football. The result was harsh on Oxhey after battling back so well having been 0-2 down, but at least they avoided a midweek trip to deepest Oxfordshire, and Wantage probably just about deserved to progress over the 90 minutes despite their major wobble midway through the second half which almost proved fatal.
Video highlights of this match can be found by clicking here .
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