Merthyr Town v Chippenham Town, Tuesday 13th December, 2016

As the name suggests, ground-hopping involves dropping in to a football club, watching them play and then moving on to the next ground. Tonight I was in the rare position of watching a team for the second time in a week. Here I was at Penydarren Park in Merthyr, watching them take on Chippenham who I'd witnessed play Slough in a thrilling 3-3 draw last Tuesday.

Originally for this Tuesday I'd planned to travel to Newport to watch their FA cup replay against Plymouth. Due to T.V. scheduling this had been moved and so I found my self looking for a football fix elsewhere. The game at Merthyr seemed the obvious option and not just because I had been so entertained by Chippenham last week. I'd been wanting to visit Penydarren Park for a while, having heard tales of it's charms from various fellow travellers.

I was also aware that Merthyr Town are one of the growing number clubs owned by their supporters which was an attraction. In addition, they have a rich history stretching back over 100 years. In the mid 20th century they had a period in the football league and then in the 80's pulled off one of the great European shocks when they beat Atalanta from Serie A in the Cup Winners cup.

The dawn of the 21st century saw Merthyr Tydfil struggle financially before they were eventually wound up 2010. Fortunately the supporters trust which had formed in 2006 was on hand to reform the club immediately as Merthyr Town FC. A lot of hard work and a couple of promotions followed and the club nicknamed 'The Martyrs' now find themselves towards the top of the Southern Premier league. 

                         

                        

On entering the ground the first thing that struck me was it's size. The big terraces and stands hint at the history and success of the club in years gone by. It also felt like quite an open ground with the stands set back from the pitch with a fair bit of shiny tarmac in between. I wasn't surprised to find out that it once accommodated a greyhound track. This was the first time I'd seen a 4G pitch in the flesh and it's lush greeness was very easy on the eye. Along with a very shiny silver building which I think houses the club offices, the artificial pitch juxaposed with the rest of the ground, much of which looked like it had remained unchanged for many a decade.

                             

The old and the ....

...Very futuristic looking building next to the main stand

Initially I found my self in a covered stand behind the goal to which Chippenham were attacking in their green away kit. It was a good sized stand with a mixture of terracing and seating. In addition the stadium comprised of a seated main stand with the dug outs in front and the futuristic building next to it. Behind the other goal is an open terrace which with the rain coming down wasn't very busy as I arrived. The final stand is a beaut, a large covered terrace stretching the length of the pitch and then some. Whilst a lot of lower non league grounds have terraces stretching the length of the pitch it's rare to find such a large one these days. It reminded me a bit of the one at Bath City's Twerton Park. 

                           

                               

From inside the terrace it felt even bigger. It's roof over hangs and it doesn't have much in the way of lighting, so from opposite it's hard to see quite how far it goes back or how many people are in there. The darkness added to the feel of the stand as a big cavernous enclave from which to peer out at the football below.

The ground seemed so big that it felt like corners and sections of it had literally been forgotten about and had been close to being reclaimed by nature.

  

                            

Whilst I enjoyed the seemingly never ending expanses of concrete terraces around me, the game was in full flow. Travelling from Bristol after work on a Tuesday night, I knew I was pushing it trying to make it for a 7.45 kick off. As it turned out, due to not being able to find my wallet at home and a closed lane on the M4, my fears proved well founded and I arrived ten minutes after kick off. The man on the turnstile informed that I'd missed a goal. Merthyr were already 1-0 up courtesy of a headed goal from Ryan Prosser.

Fortunately I didn't have to wait long to witness the second goal of the evening and it was that man Prosser again. The bearded target man displayed some strong hold up play before playing a one two with Jarrad Wright, slotting home the return with a low shot to the keepers right from inside the box. 

With Merthry taking an early 2-0 lead, the away team looked to get back in to the game. The good news for them is that in Pratt and Sandell they have what must surely be the most feared strike partnership in the Southern League. Chippenham have scored more goals than any other team and Sandell is comfortably the top individual scorer in the league. Though they struggled to make inroads in the first half, it wasn't hard to see why they are such an effective duo. The running that Pratt does is incredible, nothing seems to be a lost cause for him and aswell as the goals he scores himself, the space he creates for Sandell must help explain why their partnership is so prolific.

                        

2-0 at the half time saw me head for the bar at the back of the main stand. It was a good size, with plenty of T.V. screens on the walls, it certainly wasn't as old or as characterful as much of the ground. Devoid of much club memorabilia, it had a bit of bland feel to it. The beer was cold though and I had a nice chat with a couple of locals who filled me in on on some of Merthyr's fortunes over the season to date.
                               

It got a lot busier than this

The home side looked to pick up where they left off after the break but soon found their lead halved as that man Sandell pulled one back. Chasing a through ball after some neat passing in midfield, he was strong and composed enough to shrug off his marker, round the keeper and from a very tight angle, pass the ball in to the net in off the far post.                                  

Merthyr were soon on the front foot again and had a period of sustained pressure resulting in a flurry of corners at the Chippenham end. I was watching from the second half from the main stand where a few vocal away fans had chosen to sit and were soon enjoying some banter with the Merthry fans as they both sought to 'encourage' the linesman on the near side to give decisions their way.  

  

                             

Merthyr came close to restoring their two goal cushion when Barrow hit a fierce left foot shot from distance which Chitty in goal did well to acrobatically turn over the bar. Merthyr continued to win more corners but they couldn't convert one and soon Chippenham had a golden chance to level. Sandell was adjudged to have been bought down in the box by centre back Curtis McDonald and stepped up himself to take the penalty. He smashed it past the keeper and it was all square. 

A couple of minutes later the linesman called the ref over and after a hushed conversation and much confusion, McDonald was summoned and promptly shown a straight red card. Word in the crowd was he must have said something to the lino over the award of the penalty. 

      

McDonald see's red after ref consults with the "whispering assassin"

With 12 minutes left on the clock, Chippenham had the chance to push for a winner. Merthyr looked to the bench to sure things up and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that Eliot Richards was among their substitutes and was coming on. Richards started his career at Bristol Rovers and broke in to the first team as a teenager, going on to make over 100 appearances. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance when he scored a hatrick in a 7-1 demolition of Burton Albion. Still only 25 he is rebuilding his carer having battled through cancer. It was nice to see him back on a football pitch.

Chippenham were unable to exploit the numerical advantage and the final few minutes passed without either team coming close to grabbing a winner.

                     

Full time: Merthyr 2 Chippenham 2.

An enjoyable evening amongst the 386 in attendance at Penydarren Park. Now in safe hands and with a big stadium and catchment area, Merthyr feels very much like a club on the up.
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Chippenham Town v Slough Town, Tuesday 6th December, 2016

With 75 miles between the two clubs, it might be stretching it a bit to call this an M4 derby. But with both teams in fine form and looking for promotion, a fiercely contested game was expected. Chippenham went in to the match in 4th place with games in hand, whilst the visitors Slough were second behind league leaders Leamington. As it turned out I counted myself lucky to be one of the 328 in attendance who witnessed a pulsating 3-3 draw.

Having dragged my mate Bryan along, we parked on the main road and walked up the hill through a slightly confusing car park and in to the ground. We paid our £10 to the young man on the turnstile and walked in to Hardenhuish Park. As the evening progressed it was noticeable that a lot of the stewards, volunteers and supporters could still genuinely claim to be in the first flush of youth. It's nice to see a set of young people volunteering and getting behind their local team. Forgoing the ipad /playstation / sniffing glue or what ever it is the younger generation tend get up to these days on dark Tuesday nights.

We entered at one end of the main stand which runs most of the length of one side of the pitch. This is a smart covered all seater in the club colour of blue. The highlight of the ground in my opinion was the bar, situated at the top of the main stand. It's long and thin and on the long side is all windowed offering great raised views of the pitch. It had an impressive display of club memorabilia including team photos on the wall going all the way back to the start of the 20th century. In addition, there was a wide selection of beers on tap and myself and Bryan enjoyed a refreshing pint of East Coast IPA as the teams warmed up below us. The rest of Hardenhusih Park is enclosed with a long narrow tunnel like covered terrace opposite the main stand with the dug outs in front. Behind the goals are two good size terraces, one covered and one open to the elements.

The players emerge watched from the bar

When looking in to the teams beforehand, the one man that stood out for me was Andy Sandell. I'd seen him a few times during his time at Bath City and then been a season ticket holder at Bristol Rovers when he moved there from Bath for the 2006/7 season. Mainly used as a winger, Sandell played a big part in Rovers promotion to league one that season. With promotion secured, perhaps fearing his first team opportunities might be limited, he made the seemingly strange decision to drop down to the conference with Salisbury whilst barely in to his mid 20's. Not surprisingly he found his way back in to league football with Aldershot, Wycombe and Newport before moving to Chippenham last season where his scoring has been prolific.

I didn't know much about the Slough team before the game, I was aware though, having met a Slough fan in exile at Swindon Supermarine in pre season, that this is an exciting time for the club from up the M4. They moved back in the town in to a brand new stadium in the summer, Arbour Park, having been exiled for 10 years in Beaconsfield. Along with their fine form this season, the new ground has seen them attract regular crowds of over 500 as they try and get in to the National League South,

Kick off found us watching from the covered terrace that Chippenham were attacking. It turned out we'd chosen the right end as the home team made the early running, Sandell was combining well with his strike partner David Pratt (Infamously Pratt once got sent off after 3 seconds and apparently holds the unenviable world record for the fasted ever dismissal.) It wasn't a surprise when  Chippenham went ahead. Sandell chased a through ball from Beeden, got there at the same time as his marker, managed to out muscle him, keep control of the ball, before dropping his shoulder and neatly slotting home past the Slough keeper, Mark Scott.

Sandell was in the thick of the action again as a few minutes later he raced on to another through ball, the keeper rushed out and in what looked a 50 - 50 challenge, they ended up kicking each others legs as the ball bounced away, Scott came off worse and took a while to get up from the floor. It was clear he struggling as he gingerly staggered around his box. The word in the crowd was that there was no keeper on the bench so he bravely embarked on hobbling through the 65 or so remaining minutes.

Slough gradually came back in to the game and were passing the ball around nicely at times. Their right back had possibly the longest throw I've seen this season and almost caught the home defence out when he rifled in his first one. Importantly they managed to restrict the amount of shots Chippenham could fire in at the struggling goalie, meaning it was 1-0 at the break.

I found Chippenham to be a very friendly football club, it was also clear that this was a club somewhat in shell shock. On the Saturday before this game they had been at home to Chesham, unfortunately a Chesham player suffered a serious leg break. This resulted in an air ambulance landing on the pitch and the game being abandoned. Evidently the experience had left a mark on those who witnessed it and it was nice to see the club collecting donations throughout the game to aid the players recovery. All the best to Bruce Wilson.

After buying a chicken and mushroom pie from the snack bar it was time for the second half. It was a bit scrappy to start with and it took a while for the quality that had been on display in the first period to reassert itself. The ref was being called upon regularly and soon both sets of players and bench's were in his ear as the game heated up.



Slough ended up equalising on 51 minutes. After a deep corner was neatly chested down by Nesbit, he laid it off to Guy Hollis who hit a shot from outside the area, it took a big deflection and gave the keeper no chance.

Slough weren't level for long. Chippenham were awarded a free kick on the right. James Guthrie delivered what looked like a curling cross, it carried on bending in and with no one getting a touch, sneaked in to the corner passed the struggling Scott. If not injured, I'm sure he would have banked on being able to turn it round the corner. Scott did make an impressive save from another free kick, hit high and to his right, he some how managed to hop along his line and beat the ball away with his fists.

When Andy Sandell converted a pentaly to make it 3-1 with 25 minutes to go, it looked like Chippenham had the points in the bag. Pratt looked to put things beyond doubt when he went on a lovely run, wriggling through two defenders, only to be denied by Scott who made up for his lack of mobility by getting his angles right and saving well from close range.

Slough bought men on from the bench in a bid to freshen things up. They were soon right back in it when Simon Dunn scored with a low shot from the edge of the area. Again there was an element of luck involved as another deflection insured that the ball was diverted to the far corner and out of the reach of Chitty in the Chippenham goal.

I very almost wore this one

For the second half the travelling Slough fans were in the covered terrace. Now they were back in the game and had a roof to aid their acoustics, they were making a fair old din as they cheered on their team.
When they were awarded a penalty with ten minutes to go they must have sensed a great come back was about to be completed. Moone stepped up and hit the spot kick firmly to the keepers left, Chitty dived the right way and stuck up a very strong right hand and somehow managed to push the ball on to the bar before it was cleared away for a corner. A fantastic save.

Chippenham again looked to restore their two goal cushion but they were continually frustrated by the hard working Slough defence. In the final couple of minutes the travelling fans eventually got an equaliser to celebrate. Another long throw from the right found it's way to the back post where it was bundled in by Charlie Moone. 3-3 at the final whistle.

Chippenham will feel this was very much two points dropped and an opportunity to go second missed. Slough though had a quiet efficiency to their play and I'm sure both these teams will be in contention for promotion at the end of the season. It was nice to see the Slough team make a big effort to to go to the travelling fans at the end of the game and applaud them for their efforts. Clearly the vocal support had aided there comeback.

An enjoyable first trip to the home of the Bluebirds.