Preparing For The Tractors

Bracknell Town  3  North Leigh  2

FA Challenge Trophy – First Round Proper

Admission / Programme - £10 / No

Bracknell Town have just played the biggest game in their history.

On Monday 7^th November, Ipswich Town were the visitors to Bottom Meadow in Sandhurst for an FA Cup First Round Proper tie. The tie was live on terrestrial television, and almost 2,000 spectators packed into the ground to watch the Tractor Boys win 3-0 on a night that will live long in the memory.

But, let’s be honest, it’s not the FA Cup where the glamour really lies is it, it’s the FA Trophy, a competition where the final is also played at Wembley Stadium, and, for a club like Bracknell, one they have a chance of getting to the latter stages of. Not only that, if they do get to the final, no one would have a problem getting a ticket!

Yeah, Steve and I weren’t that fussed about a Monday night in Sandhurst where we would have probably had to park in a neighbouring county, but not only that, with 2,000 folk in the ground, the chances of getting a pint were going to be slim, and lets be right, they’d probably put the prices up as well! No, we had a different idea.

A Sunday afternoon against North Leigh, in the FA Trophy, with Steve at the wheel, it would be like Beckenham all over again.

So, I suspect the first question on my regular audience of 14 readers lips will obviously be, why don’t Bracknell play in Bracknell? Well, they did, up until the start of last season, in fact if you go back in my blog archives to February 2020 and look up an article called ‘Spectrum’ it will tell you more about the clubs history, the old ground at Larges Lane and why I’ve probably got autism……

It's all changed though, they got very good on the pitch and won their Step 4 Isthmian One Central Division last season, having left Larges Lane and moved into the ground used by Sandhurst Town. They are now in the Southern League Premier South, and are more than holding their own, the club seems to be on an upward trajectory with new owners, investment and a pretty decent side on the pitch.

The move to Sandhurst did raise some eyebrows, but it appears it’s not designed to be a permanent move, because ultimately Larges Lane is meant to be going through a significant programme of re-development and ultimately they’ll move back. That said, how long that is going to take is open to debate, so for now, it’s Sandhurst and if you ain’t got a car, it’s the half hourly 194 bus which drops you off a five minute walk from Bottom Meadow!

We’ve got a car though and with Steve in command it was a nice early start from Belperville, down the M42 and M40, before edging down past Maidenhead and over to Bracknell via Holyport. Sandhurst is around seven miles from Bracknell, and to be fair, on reflection the whole journey was a pretty smooth one which took under three hours.

We parked in the Memorial Park Car Park, and both of us immediately worked out, having surveyed the area, that parking when Ipswich come to town was going to be a whole World of pain. You have to walk across a large grassy expanse to get to the football ground which isn’t instantly visible as it’s surrounded on all four sides by large trees. But that said, we found it, and having fathomed out how to use our pre-purchased tickets in the scanning machines, we were in.

Right, I’ll describe the ground, but I suspect quite a few of the readership of 14 will kind of already have an idea what it looks like as you’ll have seen it on the telly the other night, but anyway…..

You come in at the corner of the ground, with the smart but small-ish clubhouse immediately to your right, we did spend a considerable amount of time in here having secured a prime spot, but I guess you’ll want to know about the rest of the ground? The players tunnel sits between the clubhouse and an area of terracing with the tea bar positioned at the back of it. This structure runs pretty much the rest of the width of the pitch, but then moving round anticlockwise, flush up to the corner flag at the side of the pitch is a seated stand, with the newly erected TV gantry and Lee Dixon co-commentary position alongside straddling the half way line.

The rest of the side of the ground is flat standing, as it also was behind the far goal, although I did see against Ipswich a temporary bar was erected at this end for the away fans. On the side opposite the stand and the TV gantry is an area of covered terracing, but it looks like the kind of terracing you see where grounds have been converted to safe standing, with every fan having a designated space behind a barrier.

Overall, two things stood out, it was very smart and clean, but also, it was very black, which I suspect is related to the livery and colours of the educational company that is owned by the man who now runs the football club (the football club and the educational organisation work together as you would expect).

First impressions were positive, yeah, the beer wasn’t cheap but this was Sandhurst not Shirebrook, let’s be fair. Once all pre-match sustination had been taken, it was about time to go out and have a look what was happening on the superb playing surface.

The game was a pretty eventful one. North Leigh, who compete in the same division but are struggling somewhat, gave the hosts a bit of a shock by taking the lead in the eighth minute via an own goal, and then on the 25 minute made it 2-0 thanks to a cracking strike from Aaron McCreadie.

Bracknell reduced the arrears on the stroke of half time thanks to a penalty which was converted by Jordan Esprit, at which point we made a hasty beeline back to the clubhouse only a rumour was circulating that the Moretti was about to run dry….

With the Moretti secured, yet barely finished, Esprit scored the equaliser almost straight from the kick off and from that point you sensed there would only be one winner. That winner came pretty quickly in the 52^nd minute when Kamaron English smashed the ball home from a tight angle.

We left Sandhurst pretty promptly and probably dropped our only clanger of the day by electing to go back by the M25 and M1, which on s Sunday tea time is never a good move. Not to worry though, by 8pm I was back at Casa Hatt, Steve was on his way to Chez Vegas and Mrs H could relax knowing I’d been returned safely (not that she doesn’t trust the pair of us on a day out, honestly!)

But for Bracknell Town, it was now all about preparing for Ipswich Town, and considering that has now been and gone, it’s now about making it to the National League and Step 2. I wouldn’t want to bet against that happening.