LONDON SENIOR TROPHY 1st ROUND, CROYDON 4-3 ATHLETIC NEWHAM, ATTENDANCE: 213
As the turning for the A14 approached, I pulled over to have one last look at social media but the was nothing to indicate the game was going ahead so I carried on down the M1 to London. There were plenty of pluses for watching a game at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, the biggest draw being the history behind the venue.
The modern incarnation of the ground was built in 1964 for athletics and it does resemble a monolithic stadium that wouldn't be out of place in an old Eastern Bloc country, but it is what went on the site previously that is the interesting part.
The ground is built on the site of the venue which hosted the FA Cup Final from 1895 to 1914. My team, Everton, played three finals at the ground losing to Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday in 1897 and 1907 respectively, and beating Newcastle 1-0 in 1906 to clinch the trophy for the first time in their history. The owners of the ground also wanted a team of their own to play on the ground, leading to the formation of Crystal Palace FC in 1905.
 |
| Everton's victorious 1906 team |
When these cup finals were hosted, they were played in the shadow of the Crystal Palace, which had been relocated to Syndeham Hill after being built in Hyde Park for the great exhibition of 1851. The building was destroyed by fire in 1936 after falling into a state of disrepair. The were plenty of other groundhoppers that had the same idea as taking the chance to see football on this historic piece of land.
A team called AC London played at ground during the 2015-16 season, where I missed out on a visit, but the ground is currently not being used permanently at this time.
Croydon FC are temporarily playing at the National Sports Centre whilst their traditional home at the Croydon Arena is unavailable at the moment. The club were formed in 1953 when the stadium was built to provide amateur football at the venue.
The club played in the Isthmian League for thirty years before joining the Kent League in 2006. The club transferred to the Combined Counties League in 2010 before rejoining the (renamed Kent League) Southern Counties East League in 2016.
The club finished bottom of the Premier Division in 2019 and were relegated to the first division. The opposition for this London Senior Cup tie were Athletic Newham, who play in the Division One South of the Eastern Counties Football League.
As the cliche goes, it was a game of two halves. The visitors from East London dominated the opening period and were three goals to the good after 42 minutes. Croydon had a chance to reduce the arrears but penalty in first half stoppage time was saved by the Newham goalkeeper.
The pedestrian early proceedings of the second half gave no indication of the drama that was to come. After 70 minutes JP Rylah scored what, on the face of it, seemed a consolation goal but just two minutes later it was 2-3 thanks to Jahquan Springer. The homesters were pushing for an equaliser and time was running out when the Newham goalkeeper dropped a corner ball at the feet of Rylah for his second goal.
In the final minute of the game Newham broke and scored what appeared to be a winning goal. However the assistant referee ruled it offside. Whilst the Newham players were clearly distracted by this decision a long punt upfield was lobbed over the goalkeeper, who had rushed off his line, by Martin Smith to seal the unlikeliest of wins for The Trams. Brilliant stuff!
This set one fan off to do a lap of the athletics track, whilst swirling his sky blue scarf, in celebration. I must give credit to both teams for producing a superb match on a very bumpy pitch.
It was long trip south and I was absolutely knackered on my return home but was great to get to a game after the lockdown hiatus.
For all the goals, click here to visit Croydon FC's YouTube channel
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.