The Nearly Ground

Hanwell Town  0  Marlow  6

Isthmian League – Division One South Central

I nearly went to Hanwell Town in December 2008.

I was sat in the clubhouse on a Tuesday night at the home of Wingate & Finchley, only for an official to walk in and say the game was off because the referee was unhappy about a floodlight bulb being out!

I needed a Plan B, and quickly, I spoke to a bloke who was a locally based groundhopper, and recalling that Harrow Borough were at home to Enfield Town that night, I asked him if he fancied a very quick run across the North Circular!

He did, I think his name was Graham, I’m not too sure, but as we got to Hanger Lane Gyratory, he mentioned that we were very close to Hanwell Town’s ground and they were at home that night.

Nice!

You see, I am a man of targets, Harrow Borough was a target at the time, Hanwell Town wasn’t, and my sat-nav said we could just make kick off at Earlsmead. We drove past the floodlights at Hanwell with Harrow very much in my sights, Graham was muttering something about missing kick off etc, but I was driving, I called the shots.

The gamble paid off, we pulled into the car park at Harrow just as they game was kicking off, and saw a 6-2 home victory. I dropped Graham off at the tube station and that was the last I ever saw of him. I think he enjoyed it, but, I suspect he had a secret hankering deep down for a trip to Hanwell, or, it was an easier ground to get home from in terms of his journey back to East London?

Anyway, as is often the case, Hanwell came onto the radar this season, and I got an early taste of them earlier in the campaign when I saw them play away at Waltham Abbey.  They lost 3-2 that night but I was impressed with what I saw.

Cover

Going back to the mid-eighties, Hanwell were a London Spartan League club, and then were part of the league when it merged with the South Midlands League, to form the, wait for it……Spartan South Midlands League!

One of the stronger sides from the noughties onwards, they never finished outside the top eight and then after a third placed finish in 2005-06 they won promotion to the Southern League.

That adventure lasted just one season, finishing next to bottom, and with it came a swift return back to the SSML. However, 2013-14 season was a glorious one for Hanwell, they won the league and the Southern League beckoned once again.

Nice (again)

Four seasons into Step 4 football, after a couple of solid campaigns and a couple of struggling ones, they found themselves moved to the Isthmian League via a restructuring. What that did do was present a large number of locals derbies in and around the West and South West London area, so arguably a very good move for the club.

This season has been a very reasonable campaign, a good FA Cup run saw them reach the 3^rd Qualifying round only to lose a replay to Leatherhead on penalties, while in the league, they occupy a mid-table placing.

The journey down was gloriously problem free, ok, the M1 between Northampton and Milton Keynes is a pain in the arse due to the 50mph limits, but once that had been negotiated it was all the way to the very end and then round the North Circular to the A40. Graham was right, once you get past Hanger Lane, the ground is a stones throw away and sits on the Perivale junction.

The Pitch

Reynolds Field is a very nice football ground. The car park sits behind the goal, as does the turnstile block. Once through having parted with £8, to your left is an area of cover that runs the width of the pitch. To your right is the dressing room and clubhouse building that is raised up from the pitch, with a viewing veranda in front of it, while moving around the ground, beyond the building is a small area of covered seating.

The rest of the ground is hard standing, barring a small covered shelter on the opposite side of the ground to the dressing rooms. But the focal part of this side of the ground is a large electronic scoreboard. The pitch, with it’s in built sprinkler system, I have to say, was in absolutely fantastic condition, and it will come as no surprise that Sheffield United have used it to train on this season before an away game at Brentford.

A friendly and progressive club, a cracking set up, but I have to say, on the field it really wasn’t a good day at the office.

Panoramic

Marlow, who sat third, were very good indeed and absolutely swamped Hanwell with six goals scored without reply. Pace, power, precision, confidence, are all words that could be used to describe the performance of the visitors from one of the posher parts of Buckinghamshire as they set about creating and taking chances with a nerveless ruthlessness.

In front of an encouraging crowd of 153, James Clark scored the opening goal on the half hour mark, while seven minutes later Devontae Romeo had doubled the lead.

James Clark bagged a third ten minutes into the second period before Tristan Campbell scored from the penalty spot.

The fifth goal came in the 68^th minute from Chris Ovenden and then with sixteen minutes still on the clock, Adam Richards scored the sixth and final goal for Marlow.

White Lines (Don't Do It)

You did have visions of Hanwell going for seven or eight, but in all fairness they dug deep to keep the score down, but to be honest, it was definitely a day to forget. Marlow on the other hand, look a very useful outfit indeed.

So that was Hanwell Town, ten years after temptation had been initially thrown my way, but it was definitely worth the wait. Unlike the wait on the M1 near Northampton while travelling back, as a Citroen 2CV was rescued by a breakdown truck, which to be fair, while annoying, was not really enough to sour a very enjoyable day out.

I didn’t think Citroen 2CV’s existed anymore? Oh well, maybe I’ll see a Dodo walking down our garden path next………..

Scoreboard