No.59 - Sat 26th May 2012; Middlesex County Football League Premier Div;                         1pm at Hillingdon Borough FC (3G pitch); Breakspear Road; Ruislip; Middlesex; HA4 7SB.

Matchday images (62) https://picasaweb.google.com/footballgroundsinfocus/BroadfieldsUnitedFC02

Broadfields United (0) 4  Interwood (4) 7

An astro-nomical hop!

Just when you thought that the hopping season was finally over and it was safe to pack away the trusted  rucksack, digital camera, FGIF Match Stats Card and pen for a few weeks, along comes another fixture to lure you from the sofa and a summer full of exciting sport on TV! Compelled by the thought of visiting another new ground and the unexpected buzz a footy fix buzz can bring, the temptation proves too much and off we go again. To be honest my Mrs has long since refused to believe me when I tell her that the season is officially over! But do you blame her? 

Today we're making a long trip from our Racing HQ base down to West London for the rather hastily arranged Middlesex County League fixture between Boadfields United and Interwood. The game is being played on the 3G pitch at the Middlesex Stadium home of Hillingdon Borough Football (with whom they ground-share) as confirmed by hopping supremo, avid Queen's Park Rangers fan and Sky Sports TV pundit Tony Incenzo who contacted me (via E-Mail) a couple of days ago with all the vital information. Our journey is not an easy one either compounded by heavy traffic conjestion following an earlier accident on the A1 (M) near Stevenage and by the large number of Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town fans travelling to Wembley Stadium for the Football League Division One lay-Off Final. Despite our fears of not getting to the game on time, Serena (our trusty SatNav guardian angel) leads us successfully (once again) to our final destination arriving ahead of kick-off.

With the promise of a matchday programme the game as expected attracts a large number of mostly southern-based hoppers who take advantage of the chance to tick off a new ground and enjoy some beautiful warm sunshine normally associated with the cricket rather than the football season. As some of the Interwood players are delayed en route by the busy Wembley bound traffic this gives travellers a bit of extra time to track down the necessary 'bits of paper' courtesy of the always helpful Andy Molden logistics department and then to note down the essential team line ups for the game now rescheduled to start twenty-fives later than planned. Cheers you Kingston boys for letting me copy the required info!

The match was for both teams their final fixture of the 2011-12 campaign and would not affect the current MCFL league standings. Hosts United already guaranteed eighth place (out of sixteen clubs) in the division would certainly have their work cut against a strong Interwood side crowned as Premier Division champions after a terrific season that has seen only two defeats whilst amassing a +81 goal difference in all games. Although both teams were missing one or two key players nevertheless an exciting game was still in prospect. For United there was also the small matter of saving £125, the cost of a fine imposed by the league for not fulfilling a fixture!!

What a cracking game this turned out to be. Interwood playing some lovely neat passing football looked the much better side and went into the break with a comfortable four goal lead including a terrific hat-trick scored by pacey forward Toby Ajala. Poetry in motion no less. Most present at pitchside probably thought like myself that Broadfields were going to capitulate and be on the end of a real hiding come full-time. How wrong can you be? After the re-start United had made a real fist of it having miraculously pulled back three goals within twenty action packed minutes which also saw defender Kyle Watson sent off for a (dubious) dangerous tackle to make it 3-4. Even when the visitors extended their lead through Nick Salapatas (76), United replied once again when Sim Fearon (80) completed his hat-trick by heading home on the goal line after keeper Jamie Moore had misjudged a cross to make it 4-5. For United the chance of getting something out of the game sadly evaporated when Interwood nicked two goals late on to take all three points. Phew! Unbelievable stuff and a great advert for MCL football. 

I would not hesitate to suggest that this has been one of the most hotly contested MCL Premier Division title challenges for years. Uniquely for the first time in ages the top three sides have played some excellent football throughout the season. All clubs appear to have strong ambitions to climb the pyramid and I would not be surprised to see one, two or all from Interwood (Essex Senior); FC Romania (South Midlands) and Southall (Combined Counties) on the move. It will be interesting to see what happens over the summer months.   

A crowd approaching fifty spectators, nearly all hoppers were in attendance. Great to meet up with some old (and not so old) acquaintances from the grounds collecting world. The match played on a fast surface in bright sunshine saw temperatures rise close to 25 degrees celsius - it really was baking hot for both players and those watching! Incredibly neither side took a break in play to rehydrate possibly due to more to the time restriction necessitated by the two hour facility booking rather than out of choice. A basic but well received photocopied 12 page programme was issued for the game with brief snippets of news; playing squads and a few adverts relating to the club making up the main content. What a bonus! Cheers Tony, Andy and Ryan at Broadfields for making this possible.

So what's the ground like? Rather than writing a couple of paragraphs, I will let the ground photos (see link above) serve as a more accurate ground description. However there are a couple of useful pointers worthy of note here: the 3G cage is to be found at the end of the driveway, behind/adjacent to the main ground at Hillingdon Borough FC (incidentally where the pitch has been moved through ninety degrees since my last visit); the main clubhouse was open during the game; spectators are allowed to watch the game inside the cage and there are no facilities whatsoever at pitchside. We brought our own picnic chairs and parasol courtesy of FGIF mobile stands PLC! Needless to say a visit here comes highly recommended.

So as another season draws to a close I will finish my ramble by wishing you all a restful summer whatever you get up to. In the meantime enjoy all the fun of Euro 2012 in Poland/Ukraine; the Olympic torch relay; the 2012 London Olympics and a few pre-season friendlies (phew!!!) before the real stuff starts all over once again...see you soon!!       

FGIF Match Stats

                                      Scorers: (H) S Fearon (49; 66; 80); J Sikora (58) and                                       (A) T Ajala (17; 29; 40; 85); U Ageniji (45); N Salapatas (76); K Kransnigi (88)

Attendance: 47; Admission: None; Programme: £2, 12pp; Match rating: 5/5; Ground rating: 3/5.

Links

http://www.football.mitoo.co.uk/News.cfm?LeagueCode=MDX2011

edited on 27/05/12