Fight Club

Brackley Town Saints  2  Abingdon United  0

Hellenic League Premier Division

It was a quite splendid moment in my football viewing history.

On a baking sunny day I was stood on the terraces at Brackley Town watching them play Bedford Town in a pre-season friendly. The year would have been 2004, and the hosts were on their way to a relatively comfortable 4-0 victory.

I can’t recall the exact moment in the game but I do remember it was during the first half. Anyway, a gaggle of kids were playing football behind the goal, a good old jumpers for goalposts game, I would say about fifteen of them were taking part. Suddenly, without warning, a fight between two of the kids broke out, and we are talking young kids here. Within seconds we had a full scale brawl, every kid in the vicinity was in on the act, it spilled down the grass bank and onto the hard standing at pitch side.

By now, one or two parents had noticed that something wasn’t right, and having deposited their wine / beer glasses, they came bolting round the ground to stop the mayhem!

It was brilliant, hilarious in fact, and no more so than when one of kids produced a mightily impressive drop kid that left his pal flat out on the floor.  The parents were horrified, kids got dragged away by their collars and their earlobes, clearly with stern words ringing in their tabs. For those of us not involved in it, the season had been made already, nothing could top it!

I’ve never been back to Brackley since, partly because the opportunity has never really presented itself, but also because part of me felt that it would be impossible to live up to that marvellous day.

However, with not much on offer for a trip back from a work jaunt to Milton Keynes, it seemed an obvious choice, principally from the perspective of geography.

The story of Brackley Town is an impressive one. They joined the Hellenic League in 1977 and then found themselves shunted sideways to the United Counties League in 1983, from where they were promoted to the Premier Division after just one season.  They moved back to the Hellenic in 1994, and after three seasons they were promoted to the Southern League.

This upwardly mobile venture only lasted a couple of seasons before they were relegated again, however, by 2004-05 they were back in the Southern League.

They won the Midland Division in 2006-07 and with it came promotion to the Premier Division, which they went on to win in 2011-12 to gain promotion to the Conference North.

Since being in the Conference, and more recently National North they’ve finished third twice. Losing in the play-offs both times, once to FC Halifax Town in the final, and then last season when they were defeated by Harrogate Town at the semi-final stage.

But, despite the disappointment last season, they achieved something quite brilliant by winning the FA Trophy at Wembley, defeating Bromley in the Final on penalties. They’ve also had some decent FA Cup runs over recent seasons, twice beating Gillingham in replays after drawing games at Priestfield Stadium. 

Not a huge club by any means, they aren’t the best supported club in the division despite the successes, but Brackley itself is a wealthy town, being the home of various F1 motor racing teams over the years, largely because of the proximity of Silverstone. I’m not sure of quite how it works or who funds the club, but I suspect someone, somewhere is backing them.

So that’s Brackley Town, but who are Brackley Town Saints?

The reserves, with no hidden agenda or any attempt to pretend they are something they aren’t. Unlike other clubs who try and claim the reserves are a separate club, Brackley are very open, it’s the same club, same ground, same everything but a slight change to the name.

They started life in 2014 as Brackley Town Development, joining the Hellenic League, but now find themselves in the top flight, the same level the first team were at not so many years ago.

What is St James Park like then? Well it’s changed a bit since I last went. The clubhouse and the stand remains in place on the North side of the ground, but now they've built some small cover behind the East goal, and behind the West goal is now a further seated stand with open terracing to either side. The South side is flat standing with a TV gantry, while it looks as though a new changing room block has been built adjacent to the clubhouse.

The game itself pitched a side inside the top three of the league, albeit it’s pretty tight at the top, against a side from Oxfordshire in the bottom three. A home win was the odds on favourite, but to be fair, Abingdon didn’t look a bad side and played some decent football on an excellent playing surface.

Ryan Knight gave the hosts the lead five minutes before the interval, but it took until the 64^th minute before George Ball got the second goal from the penalty spot. It was a deserved victory, but as I said, credit to Abingdon.

The run in will be very interesting, along with Saints the trio of Brimscombe & Thrupp, Wantage Town and Bishops Cleeve will all fancy their chances.

An attendance of 39 was recorded, and no fighting was observed anywhere in the vicinity of the stadium, but to be fair, despite my fears, it didn’t detract from the occasion!