Pre-season Friendly
Nottcutts Park, Woodbridge
Admission: £4.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 100 (estimate)
For my second and final game during my short stay in the Ipswich area, I headed ten miles north eastwards to the pretty town of Woodbridge, seduced by the opportunity to enjoy a five mile walk beforehand along the River Deben to Melton, and back through the historic town centre.
Notcutts Park is situated to the south west of Woodbridge, about a mile and a half from the town centre and train station and adjacent to the busy A12 which passes below behind one length. A sizeable car park is available on the complex, from which spectators walk around the large brick clubhouse, to the spectator entrance, which is a tunnel through an extension of the clubhouse building. The entrance is decorated with attractive signage welcoming visitors to the ground, and after paying admission at a turnstile inside the tunnel, spectators are led into one corner of the ground, where there is a further pitchside welcome sign. Stretching towards the half way line, several picnic tables are scattered on a grassed area in front of the clubhouse, along with a wagon serving hot food and drinks, and it makes for a really pleasant area to enjoy a pre-match drink, chat and a bite to eat. Just beyond the food wagon is a modern metallic stand offering a few covered steps to stand on, whilst straddling the half way line is an all-seater brick built stand. Hard standing is available around the rest of the ground. The ground is a pleasant, comfortable, neat and tidy place to watch football at, and its facilities are perfectly suited to host Step 5 football, and so it is a real shame that Notcutts Park is very much living on borrowed time. Built in 1990, the initial 25 year lease on the site was extended by a further ten, but the landlords have made it clear that no further extension will be agreed when the current term expires in 2024, and so the club is looking for alternative sites to relocate to - seemingly, without much success so far.
Woodbridge Town have been members of the Eastern Counties League since 1989, and have spent most of that time in the Premier Division, and finished in second place in the last complete, pre-Covid season of 2018/19, although they were in mid table during the last two abandoned seasons. Norwich CBS play in the division below Woodbridge, in Division One North, and since joining the Eastern Counties League in 2017, they finished in the top half of the table in their first two seasons and were having a decent season in the first abandoned season, although last season they had only won one of their ten league games.
On a warm but overcast afternoon, Woodbridge opened the scoring on 14 minutes, when a Woodbridge player cut in from the right and as the keeper came out to meet him, the forward tapped the ball past the keeper and struck it into the empty net. The Norwich keeper would be subtituted soon after, seemingly due to injury. Woodbridge created several chances to score again, a couple of lovely crosses from the right just evading a tap in and the substitute visiting keeper pulled off an excellent double save. On 35 minutes, Norwich thought they had scored with a neat finish on the turn, but it was ruled out for offside. A minute later, Woodbridge scored their second, when the ball was crossed in from the left to a player all alone 12 yards out, and he took a touch before firing the ball home, brushing the keeper's hands on the way through.
Woodbridge continued to create good chances after the break, and on 58 minutes, following a corner, a shot on goal squeezed between the post and defender, but the keeper just managed to gather the ball on the line. On 66 minutes, a far post header hit the outside of the post, and six minutes later, a free kick whistled just over the bar. And as the game entered added on time, a vicious shot following a corner forced an excellent tip over by the keeper, another shot came back off the post. Norwich had the last chance of the game though, when their forward had the ball just outside the area and with not much else on, fired powerfully at goal, and the keeper did well to deflect the ball over the bar.
This was a decent work out for both teams, played at a good tempo and both clubs will draw plenty of positives from the game. Woodbridge will be pleased at the way they created plenty of decent chances, but Norwich defended well and showed some decent attacking intent themselves against higher grade opposition, and perhaps deserved at least a goal to show for their efforts.
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