Next up – Marlow
Saturday, 11th October at Wodson Park.
Pitching in Southern League, Divison One (Central); kick off 3pm.
Admission
Admission (card preferred but cash accepted) – Adults £10, Concessions £5, under 14 free with paying adult otherwise £2.50.
Printed programme on the gate for £2.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at https://warefc.co.uk/product/ware-v-marlow/
Background
There’s no Premier League this weekend. That provides an opportunity to encourage anyone you know who is feeling bereft on Saturday to get up to Wodson Park for this game.
Our opponents
We’ve been playing Marlow since the early 1950s though their history goes much further back. Saturday’s programme will doubtless tell you about their exploits in the FA Cup in the nineteenth century when they reached the semi-final. A hundred years later they were at it again, reaching the third round proper on two separate occasions before going out to Spurs and then Swindon.
At that time they were in the Isthmian premier division but dropped to Step 4 and even for one season to Step 5 in the Hellenic League. By last season they were back at Step 3 but it was another one-season stay as just five wins from 42 games in the Southern League premier (south) saw them come back down to Step 4. At the moment they are nineteenth of 22 sides in divsion one (central) with six points from eight games.
Form guide
Marlow started their home league programme with a 3-0 win over Aylesbury United and followed that up by knocking Binfield out of the FA Cup. Since then however a run of seven defeats has only been interupted by a 2-1 win at Northwood. They will come to Wodson Park chastened by a 4-1 home defeat to Hitchin last Saturday and a midweek 4-0 thumping at Thame United. With the benefit of a training session since then we can expect to find them very much up for the task of restoring their fortunes.
They will face a Ware team on something of an upswing after three consecutive league wins with eleven goals scored and three conceded. The first saw our ten men come from behind to win at MK Irish before two more wins without conceding a goal took us temporarily to the top of the table. Manager and fans seem to concur that the team are looking really good right now. All they have to do is continue with that form to the end of the season!
Previous Meetings
First meeting 29th November 1952 in the Spartan League Premier Division. A home game won by 3-1, our scorers being Cyril Long with two and Ron Wilkinson.
The most recent was on 29th February 2020. Our penultimate game before covid restrictions ended the season. A scoreless home draw.
Over all we have met 24 times in the Spartan, Athenian and Isthmian Leagues plus one league cup match and and an FA Cup second qualifying round game. Ware have won twelve of these and lost seven scoring 55 goals and conceding 34.
Commentary
Pete and Symon will be at the game if you can’t make it yourself. They’ll be delvering their ever entertaining and informative commentary from 2.55 at https://90minuteslivefootball.mixlr.com/events/4578502
The officials
The game will be officiated by referee Oliver Kaya with the assistance of Terence Dawkins and Jay Knight.
