And so to Clarence Park in St Albans for a crucial National League South clash between St Albans City FC and Weymouth FC.
St Albans FC was established in 1881 and played in the Southern League for two seasons between 1897 and 1899. Formerly playing at Bernards Heath, Holywell Meadows and Gombards, the Saints moved to Clarence Park in 1894 before disbanding in 1904.
St Albans City FC was founded in 1908, becoming members of the Spartan League and the Herts County League. Champions of both leagues in 1910, Saints joined the Athenian League in 1920 and City was crowned as Athenian champions in 1921 and 1922 😊
The club's most famous match materialised in November 1922 - a fourth round FA Cup qualifier against Dulwich Hamlet. Having been held 1-1 at Clarence Park, the replay saw the Saints mysteriously without their usual keeper and fielding a half back in goal. He conceded eight times and City could only manage seven in reply - all scored by Wilf Minter; a record tally from a losing side unlikely to ever be beaten....
The Saints joined the Isthmian League in 1923 and won it in their inaugural season. More championships followed in 1927 and 1928 but thereafter City only finished as runners-up in 1955.
Relegated to Division Two in 1974 alongside Corinthian Casuals - the first clubs ever to go down in the Isthmian - further demotion to the new Division Two came about in 1983, but City went straight back up the following season finishing as second. The Saints regained their Premier League status in 1986. They were denied promotion at the end of the 1992/93 season due to a low ground grading because of a diseased oak tree on one of the terraces.....
In 2004, after a league restructuring and despite finishing 19th that season, St Albans competed in the play offs for the new Conference South - beating Heybridge Swifts 4-3 and Bedford Town 5-4 to claim their place in the newly formed division. Better was to follow in 2006 as City beat Histon 2-0 in the play offs to gain promotion to the Conference National.
Sadly it only lasted one season as they were relegated in bottom place. Thereafter it was a struggle as owner John Gibson's building firm, William Verry, went into administration in 2009. Subsequently in 2011 the club was fined £7,500 and deducted 10 points for financial irregularities - allegedly illegal payments to players - and inevitably that season saw relegation to the Southern Premier. But new owners brought about a brighter future and City reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup in 2013; however The Saints were shellacked 8-1 at home to Mansfield Town.
Promotion back to the Conference South followed in 2014, via a 3-1 win over Chesham United in the play offs. There was play off disappointment in 2023, 4-0 at the hands of Oxford City, and the Saints finished 11th last season. This time a terrible start has seen the sacking of manager David Noble, with Ian Culverhouse taking over - and he has steadied the ship with the Saints 21st, but only a point from escaping the relegation zone, with a game in hand and superior goal difference compared to their rivals.
Weymouth Football Club was founded on 26 August 1890 and played their first fixture on 24 September against a Mr Popes XI at Lodmoor, winning 2-0. In 1896 the Terras (nicknamed after their original terracotta strip) became a founding member of the Dorset League. In the following 1897-98 season, they took a lease at the Recreation Ground, their home for 89 years, and won their first Dorset League title. They continued as a member of the Dorset League over the next 20 years, winning a further league title in the 1913-14 season.
Weymouth was elected to join the Western League from the 1921-22 season, where they competed as well as continuing in the Dorset League. Following a Dorset League win that season, they followed it up in the 1922/23 season with a Western League title. The following year the club turned professional, and was elected to the Southern League for the first time - but debts, a recurrent theme, saw the club revert back to amateur status in 1928, moving back to the Western League where they won championships in 1937 and 1938 before folding for five years.
Football resumed after the Second World War in 1947 and the club soon achieved promotion back to the Southern League, and were champions in 1965 and 1966. The Terras moved to the Wessex Stadium in 1987 - now renamed the Bob Lucas Stadium in July 2010, in honour of the club president at the time.... and who died a month afterwards...
Weymouth was a founding member of the Alliance Premier League in 1979, finishing runners up to Altrincham in its inaugural season. Relegation in 1989 to the Southern was followed by further demotion in 1991; a one season return to the Premier preceded 6 more seasons at the lower level, before promotion and then joining the newly formed Conference South in 2004 in the halcyon days of Ian Ridley's chairmanship and with Steve Claridge managing the team.
Promoted as champions in 2006 despite having 4 points deducted, the Terras were relegated in 2009 amidst financial turmoil, John Hollins and Bobby Gould having little effect in the dugout, and sank into the Southern Premier the following season. Notice of appointing administrators in October 2009 prefaced a Company Voluntary Arrangement in March 2010 with debts standing at £822,000.
The club was taken over by lifelong fan Nigel Biddlecombe in February 2012, after George Rolls' controversial reign, epitomised by fielding their youth team in a 9-0 home defeat by Rushden with first team players unpaid - Biddlecombe currently still retains a minority shareholding. The Terras were promoted in 2019 and again in 2020 back to the National League Premier, but were relegated in 2022 and miraculously avoided back to back demotions to the Southern League on the final day of the following season on goal difference, after winning their last three games - Dulwich Hamlet going down on goal difference 😒
Last time, after a slow start, the Terras achieved mid table mediocrity and safety, but surprisingly parted company, with safety not assured at that point, with the previous season's saviour Bobby Wilkinson. Mark Molesley retook the reins but was sacked in November as Weymouth plummeted to bottom spot - Warren Feeney was appointed as Weymouth's new manager, but to little effect as the Terras sit next to bottom with a record of 4 wins, 12 draws and 20 defeats and 9 points adrift of safety.