Saturday 2 April 2016, Hoddesdon Town 3 Colney Heath 2 - Spartan South Midlands League, Premier Division - Lowfield
Another visit to a non-league ground, but this is one club that stands out from others, a club that continues to make ground improvements- all done with style and a friendly club house but they still have their problems with a shared ground with the cricket club and attempts to screen the pitch from people wishing to watch for nothing from Barclay Park.
But it is their history that really makes them stand out, the ground may be shared with the cricket club but they have played here since the 18th Century and Hoddesdon have also been to Wembley and won! The Hertfordshire club were the first EVER winners of the FA Vase and the only Spartan League club ever to win it.
Today they opened a new turnstile block, they have a whopping 56 page programme, new stand, new cover and top of the league - what could go wrong today!
What went wrong is their opponents, Colney Heath near to the bottom of the league played out of their skins and were winning with just minutes left - but Hoddesdon did in the end get an equaliser but maybe they had taken the result for granted. Come the end of the season they might look on this game as 2 points dropped.
One disappointing thing today was the bad behaviour of one of the visiting coaching team, my second Spartan League game and the second time one of the visiting coaching team has been lucky not to be sent off- 2 games, 2 displays of poor behaviour - so much for the FA Respect campaign - maybe the Laegue needs a quiet word with a few clubs!
