Pre-Season Friendly
Stratford Fields, Buckingham
Admission: Free
Programme: None
Attendance: 30 (rough headcount)
With my first visit to Brentford’s new-ish ground for a Women’s Euro 2022 game planned for this evening, I was struggling to get much inspiration of where to go for my afternoon game, wanting to tick off a new ground. I hadn’t really considered this game until this morning, but after doing some calculations to make sure I would get down to Brentford in good time after the game, aided by a 2pm kick-off, and getting the impression that Stratford Fields would make for a very pleasant place to visit on a summer’s day, I chose to head up to north Buckinghamshire.
On arrival at Milton Keynes train station, I then caught a bus for a 20 minute journey to Buckingham High Street bus stand, from where Stratford Fields is about a five minute walk. Just inside the entrance from the passing road is a small car park and the clubhouse building, which is quite bright and roomy inside, and with a very decent range of drinks on offer including a couple of ales on tap from Rebellion Brewery. I found their Smuggler ale most enjoyable. There is a patio with wooden picnic tables complete with parasols to the front, with distant views of the football pitch available. The football ground itself is enclosed by see-through metal fencing, which allows views over the very pleasant country park surroundings. There is only one stand present, but it is quite substantial and pleasingly old-fashioned, containing three rows of wooden bench top to sit on, and a row to stand on along the back. Tall trees line this length stretching round behind one end of the complex, further enhancing the green backdrop. There is just hard standing around the rest of the ground, with Perspex dugouts located on the opposite side to the stand.
Buckingham Athletic finished a steady ninth in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One last season, their nineteenth consecutive season in that division. Potton United finished in tenth place in the United Counties League Premier Divisions South, but for this coming season they will return to the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, having spent just the one season away.
On an afternoon that was probably too hot for football, credit to both teams for producing what was, for the most part, quite an energetic performance that was enjoyable to watch. Potton opened the scoring on 8 minutes when the ball was laid off into the path of a team mate, who ran on before striking low past the keeper, but Buckingham equalised two minutes later when a pass into the striker to the left of goal drew the keeper out, but the Buckingham player managed to slot the ball home. Potton went back into the lead on 14 minutes, when the ball was pumped high downfield, the Buckingham defender misjudged the bounce of the ball, allowing the Potton forward to run clear on goal before coolly taking the ball round the keeper and tapping it into the net. The visitors were awarded a penalty on 24 minutes, when the Buckingham keeper tried to dribble the ball along the byline, but after being closed down, in trying to retain possession, ended up fouling the Potton man instead. But he made up for it when he quite comfortably saved a pretty poor and weak penalty with his foot. But on 31 minutes Potton did score their third, when a deflected cross-shot went past the keeper, with the ball kissing the inside of the far post before gently rolling just over the line.
The second half, perhaps inevitably, was played at a slightly slower tempo. Buckingham scored their second on 72 minutes, when their player ran towards goal and into the penalty area before being bundled over, and the resultant penalty was converted low into the right side of the net, sending the keeper the wrong way. A couple of minutes later, Potton had a powerful shot well parried by the keeper, but they did score their fourth on 86 minutes, when a shot on the run from the edge of the area took a slight deflection to send the ball past the keeper and into the net.
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