Next up – Welwyn Garden City
Bank Holiday Monday, 31st August at Wodson Park, SG12 0UQ.
Pitching in Southern League, Divison One (Central); kick off 3pm.
Admission
Admission (contactless preferred but cash accepted) – Adults £10, Concessions £5, under 14 free with paying adult otherwise £2.50.
Printed programme on the gate for £2. This is a joint edition also covering Saturday’s FA Trophy game against Brightlingsea Regent.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at https://warefc.co.uk/product/ware-v-welwyngc/
The match
This is our first Hertfordshire derby of the league campaign though for the Citizens it is their second. A 3-1 win at Hadley in their first league game of the season has helped lift them into the play-offs in these early days.
This Bank Holiday fixture has pitted us against Hertford in recent seasons but police concerns nationally that close local derbies can attract some unwelcome spectators and spark trouble have brought changes. Not in the Northern Premier League though where Warrington Town and Warrington Rylands are due to meet on Boxing Day and Easter Monday. Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t digress.
Form guide
Well, losing to Step 5 Enfield in the FA Cup wasn’t a good start to Welwyn’s season. New manager Gavin Kelsey had brought a number of his players from Cockfosters, a team that reached Wembley in the FA Vase last season. Maybe they needed time to settle down. If so, they did and quickly, winning their next three league games all away from home. Saturday’s FA Trophy game with Mulbarton carried on in the same manner as they recorded a 3-0 victory over over a side that hadn’t lost or conceded a single goal so far this season. The Citizens are on a roll and are going to be a difficult proposition.
Ware stayed unbeaten with Saturday’s 1-1 FA Trophy draw against Brightlingsea Regent. A game that failed to reach the heights saved the most excitement to the very end. Debutant keeper Zack Braverman made two saves in the penalty shoot out to turn a potential deficit into a tie winning 5-4 surplus. Zack is on loan from Chesham United whilst Fred recovers from his injury and will be on duty again in this match. Beyond that we can’t say.
Previous Meetings
We first met almost a hundred years ago, winning a Herts Charity Shield game at the Buryfield ground by 5-2 (George Dearman and Sam Goodey with a brace each and Bill Clibbon). Mostly after that it was Spartan League games. There were 30 in total of which we won twelve and drew nine. The last Spartan meeting was in 1950, another 5-2 win with goals from Cyril Long 2, Stan Aitken 2 and Ron Goodey (no relation to Sam Goodey as far as I know). As we moved up to the Delphian, Athenian and Isthmian Leagues it would be 71 years before we met again in league football. There were just 13 meetings in the interim, some friendlies and some in cups. This will be our eleventh meeting under the Southern League banner with the Citizens ahead with five wins to four but with Ware having scored 18 goals to 16.
The biggest attendance of which I’m aware was the 1500 at the Perry Cup final in Hertford 7th May 1927. A 6-1 win for Ware with goals from Dearman again (four this time) and two from Walter Green who went on to be one of Enfield’s most notable goal scorers.
Commentary
Pete and Symon will be at Wodson Park for those who can’t make the game. Their commentary will start at 2.55 and can be found at https://90minuteslivefootball.mixlr.com/events/5249546
Match Officials
A welcome to all three match officials for this match. Our referee is Rikki Woolford who took charge of our senior cup game against Hemel Hempstead last season and was due for our league game at AFC Dunstable before it was postponed. The assistants are Daniel Hawkins who did get to run the line in the home game with AFC Dunstable and Christopher Rammell.
