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.
Setting out and spotting new 25 car registration plates, it's past the King's Ransom, Watch House Cruising Club, UA92 and the Taylor Swift mannequin into Manchester. Then the Blue Whale supermarket and Victory Over Blindness statue at Piccadilly Station where I board the Bournemouth train in glorious sunshine. Numberplates en route are UPL1T (UP Lighting), NET 1N and A11 DUN, along with BJS furniture vans advertising 'Silver Service in Sheffield', 'Ready & Willing in Wednesbury' and 'Lighting Up Blackpool'.
Through Stockport with its iconic pyramid and hat museum, and MyHo and Inspired Co-working at Cheadle Hulme. Then Arighi Bianchi at Macclesfield, rusty waters at Kidsgrove and a china factory just outside Longton.
To The Hand of Chronos at Stoke on Trent and Wellbeing Park at Yarnfield, home of Stoke City Women's first team. After Stafford it's the Chubb Buildings and Molineux at Wolverhampton, then Soho depot, New Street and the Bullring in Birmingham.
Beyond lies St Andrews and the airport and this year's Crufts at Birmingham International. Here I change for a Euston service, bypassing Hampton-in-Arden, Berkswell and the industrial Tile Hill, featuring Britannia Cues.
Thereafter Fishing Republic in Canley, the cathedral at Coventry and onwards to Rugby - their football team known as The Valley. We get to Long Buckby and there the problems begin with a 45 minute delay due to a track circuit failure.
Detrained at Northampton - which seems to have more freight than passenger services - we eventually get going again through the countryside. Weyron at Wolverton, a soulless Milton Keynes featuring Planet Ice, then Bletchley (Park - Home of the Codebreakers) and finally Leighton Buzzard and Watford Junction.
The Abbey Line takes in Watford North, Garston, Bricket Wood, How Wood and Park Street before I end up at St Albans Abbey. St Albans is home to Raindrops on Roses, Anthropologie, Shake & Cow, Magnopus and TinkleTorium. It also features Wetherspoons Waterend Barn, with a pint of Oakham Harmonia, and Mad Squirrel St Albans Tap - thirds of Afterglow and Roadkill there. The Saint & Sinner appears popular too - and appropriate given Saturday's course of events...
Sightseeing takes place the following day: the Rose Garden, the Clock Tower, the Cathedral and Abbey brings me to the Roman Wall and St Albans Pudding Stone. A flooded River Ver means large parts of Verulamium Park are shut off but the walls, London Gate, St Germain's Block, the ramparts, Heron Lake and the hypocaust are still accessible - as are the Verulamium Museum, Grebe House Wildlife Farm and Roman Theatre.
Clarence Park is a Victorian public park, municipal sports ground and pleasure area, donated by Sir John Maple, owner of the former Maples furniture store in Tottenham Court Road, which went into administration and was bought out by Allders. It accommodates cricket, hockey, bowls and croquet as well as the football club. There is also a band stand and water fountain.
Inside there are the 1908, The Satellites and Parkside pitchside bars featuring Mad Squirrel ales. Add in ASM Construction Gin & Fizz bar, Academy Tea Bar plus Chicken George, Riot Burgers, The Pie Guys, Italian Indulgence and Nomad Coffee & Crepes means there's something for everyone 😋
The ground has three covered terraces - York Road Stand West, Youth Talk Stand North, Lawsons Stand East and the Main Stand and clubhouse South. There are also 48 uncovered seats in the North Stand, where we sit in gorgeous sunshine 🌞
Entry is £16.50 (£18 on the day) and the crowd is 1,801 with only a handful from Weymouth. Saints are in yellow and blue sponsored by local rock band Enter Shikari aka Jonny and the Snipers - bassist Chris Batten famously played one match for the club against Dagenham & Redbridge in 2022 to raise funds for Ukraine, whilst the Terras are in change pink and grey.
What follows is a tense, messy and scrappy affair, typified by the referee injuring himself in the warm up. City start better and Aidan Dausch shoots wildly over when he should have done far better, then Shaun Jeffers has a piledriver deflected for a corner.
Weymouth's best effort is from Malachi Linton, his shot badly fumbled by home keeper Mike Johnson and ultimately cleared off the line by Brandon Mason. Linton then has a goal correctly disallowed for offside and we reach the break scoreless.
The Terras start the second with intent but without creating chances. Jeffers heads over for the Saints on the hour.
Eventually with 13 minutes to go St Albans take the lead. A corner finds its way to Ken Charles who shoots and the ball is diverted in by David Longe-King.
And that would appear to be that; but in the fourth and final minute of injury time Longe-King goes from saint to sinner. From a hopeful cross he makes contact with Weymouth substitute Kelson Pollard, barely on the pitch two minutes, and a penalty is awarded by the referee.
Jake McCarthy's 90+6 Panenka effort draws the scores level at 1-1. A point apiece is not useful to either team: The Saints now two points from safety with ten to play and the Terras ten points off, with one less match.
