It's not everyday you see a jet plane at a non-league ground, well, apart from the decommissioned Red Arrow, Folland Gnat at Folland Sports FC ground!
Last Saturday myself and two mates decided to attend the Wessex League Division One Step 6 game between Folland Sports and Romsey Town down in Hamble, Hampshire on the South coast.
The reason for the visit was not only to tick off a new ground but also was the idea of my friend who was intrigued by the club who are known as the Planemakers after recently being offered the job to manage them on the Champoinship manager game! 😂
Two of us set off early from London and got the train down to Eastleigh to hook up with our other pal, the new manager of Folland Sports! who himself had travelled all the way down from the West Midlands to run the rule over his new team! 😄
After a few beers in Eastleigh we went back to the train Station to get on the rattler to Hamble Station only to find out their was engineering works and a bus rail replacement service!
Considering the 3 of us are train drivers and hadn't realised, it left us more red faced than we was when we left the pub! 😂
So a taxi was called and we arrived at Folland Sports ground just before kick-off.
In 1937 Henry Folland, chief designer of Gloster Aircraft, was looking for a new opportunity to pursue his own ideas so he left Gloster and took over the British Marine site and set up the Folland Aircraft Company.
Folland began aircraft assembly at Hamble making parts for Bristol Blenheim and Beaufort bombers. Follands also made 15,000 rear portions out of the 22,000 constructed for the Supermarine Spitfire.
The factory also had its own football team created by the workers in 1938 called Folland Aircraft who are now called Folland Sports FC.
Although Hamble airfield closed in 1986, BAe continued to use the premises there for the production of major assemblies for Harrier and Hawk jets.
So, back to the game, after all paying the £6 entrance fee including the new manager who was surprisingly not allowed free entry we made our way into the ground.
The ground has a capacity of 1,000 and was pretty much what was to be expected for a tier 10 club with a covered area along one half of the side of the pitch with a small standing area and bench seats.
First port of call was the Follands Tea Hut and the 2 friendly young ladies behind the counter served up 3 delicious Bacon, Cheese Burgers with onions which we demolished in record time and then took our place ready for the game.
The players entered the pitch and the 1 minutes silence for Remembrance Day was impeccably observed by the 50/60 fans in attendance.
The game kicked off and after a quick look at the League table to see how the two teams had faired this season, Folland were rooted to the bottom with 6 points with only 1 win in the 16 matches played whilst Romsey Town were midtable with 22 points.
The first half didn't represent the teams standings as the home side looked to be the better side although chances were few and far between with both teams forward lines looking isolated.
Hats off to the 3 young Romsey Town supporters who attended the game though with their banner 'Romsey Till I Die' behind the goal who gave the home keeper the obligatory bit of stick when taking a goal kick. 😄👏🏼
It was all square at halftime so we made our way outside the ground across to the social club where all the changing rooms were and had a chat with the officials about the game so far and then went into the bar which was really big and busy with players from the surrounding pitches having a post match pint, plenty of beers to choose from and lots of TVs to watch all the half time scores come in from around the country.
Onto the the second half and Follands had an early chance which smashed off the bar!
But Romsey then started to come into the game more and were in the ascendancy looking more likely to get the 3 points.
As always at non-league football you get chatting to others at the game and we met two lovely fellas who were volunteers for the away side and told us how important the club is to the community and that they had a very successful fireworks display at their club the previous day bringing vital funds into the club and also invited us to come down to one of their future matches, which I'm sure we will. 👍🏻
As the game went on and the sun disappeared and the floodlights shone brightly but did very little to light up a very close game lacking chances that was clearly going to end 0-0
The referee blew up for fulltime and the spoils were shared and now it was time for a wander around the picturesque town of Hamble-le-Rice which is situated next to the River Hamble.
What a beautiful hidden gem with many old pubs with open fires and a friendly warm welcome and a town well worth a visit.
All in all it was a great day out, a new ground and town visited and catching up with friends, sadly for my mate, he has since been relieved of his duties as Folland Sports manager after accumulating millions of pounds worth of debt and has since started a new game on Championship manager!
Best of luck to both teams in the future.
Opmerkingen