Southern League Division One South
Alfredian Park, Wantage
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 106
With three grounds left for me to tick off in each of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division and the Southern League Division One Central, I decided to set about completing both divisions as soon as practicably possible, thereby promising plenty of trips to Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire for me in the coming weeks. I decided to make a start with a trip to Southern League outfit Wantage today
With Wantage not connected to the rail network, it is necessary to catch a train to Didcot Parkway, with a half hourly bus service to Wantage taking just over half an hour. Alfredian Park is about a ten minute walk southwards from the town centre, and rather conveniently a gloriously old fashioned boozer, the Royal Oak, is located en route, offering a wide selection of real ales - my choice of Titanic's Plum Porter Grand Reserve went down very well indeed. The ground is accessed down a short lane from the passing main road, with the entrance turnstile block, which is decorated in green with prominent club signage and admission fee information, located in one corner of the ground. A long brick building with a flat roof is set back some distance behind the goal, housing a very bright, spacious and comfortable clubhouse, with pitch facing windows along the front which no doubt make an appealing place to watch games from in inclement weather. A tea bar hatch is located the other side of the entrance to the clubhouse, and a covered area with wooden seating to the side. There are a couple of breeze block stands with a green roof along one length, with one stretching from the corner flag to the half way line offering a section of wooden bench seating in the middle with areas to stand either side, and a very similar looking but smaller stand is adjacent, with three rows of plastic seats inside. There is just hard standing around the rest of the ground. The setting is peaceful and rural, with hills behind one end, and just about behind the length opposite the stands, making for a pleasant backdrop. Pleasingly, the club issues a printed programme and a really nice touch is a message of gratitude expressed to visitors on its front cover. Indeed, there is very friendly and welcoming feel about the place which is always appreciated.
Wantage are facing a real uphill struggle to remain in the Southern League beyond this season, as they find themselves in the relegation zone, following three wins and three draws from their 25 league games so far, and are ten points adrift of the relegation play-off spot, and eleven points from safety. They have conceded the most goals in the division, 71, and had lost their last seven league games, a run which included 8-1 and 10-1 defeats away from home, prior to claiming a very much needed 0-1 win at Aylesbury United last Saturday. So there was certainly a ray of hope that they might be able to back that result up with their first home league win of the season today at the eleventh attempt. It would be a tall order though, with the visitors occupying a promotion play-off position, up in fifth place in the table, following 14 wins and four draws from their 23 league games. They have been unbeaten in their last three games, including two draws, but they needed an equaliser seven minutes into added on time to snatch a point in their last game, at home to North Leigh. When the two clubs met earlier in the season, in early October, AFC Dunstable won 3-0.
The only time I had watched Wantage Town previously was for a fabulously entertaining FA Cup game at Oxhey Jets in 2018, which Wantage won 4-3 with a goal in the seventh minute of added on time. Well, today’s game was the polar opposite of that game. The first half was an even affair, and all credit to Wantage for that given the respective league positions. The closest Dunstable came to opening the scoring in the first half was from a free kick, which Newman Carney fired just over the bar, whilst in the 27th minutes, Wantage saw a goalbound header from a corner hacked away on the line.
There continued to be a real dearth of attacking threats from either side in the second half, and although Dunstable looked the more likely to break the deadlock, the only real chance of note to break the deadlock came for the visitors on 54 minutes, when Bernard Christie saw his low drilled shot blocked by the keeper's legs for a corner. So in the end the points were shared, and this probably was a better point for Wantage psychologically than mathematically, as they remain ten points adrift of possible safety, but with bottom side Colney Heath winning today, Wantage are now only off the bottom on goal difference. But a second consecutive clean sheet will surely give the squad belief that they are building some momentum under their new manager James Keller. As for Dunstable, any away point is surely a good point, but it meant that they dropped out of the play-off positions on goal difference.
