Road Trip Season

Witham Town  1  Basildon United  5

Isthmian League – First Division North

Admission / Programme - £10 / Online

With the local stuff almost polished off bar a couple of stragglers, it’s getting to the time of season where the more challenging venues in Steps 1 to 4 fall onto the radar.

39 venues in total still to visit, so we are a few seasons away from the champagne bottle yet, however, slowly but surely that number is coming down. Saying all that, 32 teams are being promoted from Step 5 at the end of this season so I have a feeling it may be a campaign of stagnation, but either way, all good fun, and some potentially entertaining days out all the same!

Bit sized chunks, that’s how I like to go at it, so at the start of the season I formulated a list of the ten nearest to blighty to have a pop at, and, one of those clubs was Witham Town.

When I think of Witham Town I think of three things. The most banal of those three things was I remember going right past the ground on the train once when we were heading from London over to Ipswich, to watch Ipswich Town play Barnsley. Witham is on the main line to East Anglia from Stratford.

Secondly, when the Tony Kempster forum was full of people with half a brain as opposed to the dipsticks that occupy it now, there used to be a Witham Town that posted regularly, and quite angrily, about the way his club had been treated by the FA, the Isthmian League, the Essex Senior League, FIFA, the Pope, Nicholas Parsons, you name it, they had done wrong to Witham! Can’t remember the exact details but I seem to think it was a promotion denial that caused the angst.

Thirdly, I follow a chap on Twitter called James Beardwell, a lovely and remarkable fellow who suffers from Autism, Mental Health Issues and Learning Difficulties. He’s a Witham Town supporter, a very passionate one at that, and his posts on social media are entertaining, heart warming and life affirming. James received the British Empire Medal recently, for, and I think this is right, services to the public at Chelmsford Sainsbury’s during the pandemic (keeping trollies safe), and, his other claim to fame was an appearance on TV’s ‘Undateables’.

So, where is Witham?

Basically, if you happen to live in the East Midlands and fancy a trip, take the M1 down to the A14, then take that all the way to Cambridge where you join the M11. Exit the M11 at Stansted Airport and then follow the road to Braintree. When you get to Braintree head South on the road to the Notley’s, and the town arrives upon you. It’s basically to the East of Chelmsford, and kind of forms a triangle with Braintree.

Does the club have a history, well of course it does, and it goes a little something like this…

In 1971 they became founder members of the Essex Senior League, winning it at the first time of asking, albeit it was a league of just nine teams! They remained local until 1987 when another championship followed by a runners up spot saw them promoted to the Isthmian League, joining Division Two North. Restructuring and a relegation saw them drop to Division Three in 2000, and then further restructuring and a promotion saw them move into Division One North in 2006, but by 2010 they’d been relegated back to the Essex Senior again.

I think it was around this time that we had the issues, they finished runners up, then a third place with a points deduction (that may have been the issue!), before clinching the title and promotion in 2012.

The trajectory was now upwards, a play off defeat in 2013 was followed by victories over Needham Market and Harlow Town the year after, and now, the club were at Step 3.  The one and only campaign (2014-15) saw them finish in a relegation spot, and since then it’s been Division One North, and modest finishes at best.

FA competitions have seen a 5^th Round Vase defeat to Falmouth Town in 1986-87, while a 4^th Qualifying Round defeat to Weston super Mare in 2014-15 was as good as it got in the Cup. The Trophy, like for many Step 4 sides has largely been an unwanted distraction.

Upon arriving at the ground, which is located to the West of the town centre, right next to the railway line (as I’ve already noted), it was a meander up a long drive to the car park, and then in front of you is the large clubhouse. James was busy doing video interviews of fans from both clubs in the bar for his matchday vlogs, I sat down with a pint and watched Luton playing Spurs on the TV.

Once in the ground, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was, it exceeded what I was expecting. Behind both goals are covered terracing areas that stretch the full width of the pitch, while opposite the club house side is a seated stand on the half way line with uncovered terracing running either side of it up to the corner flags. On the clubhouse side is both a covered terracing area, and more covered seats, with a tea bar serving from the back of the club building. It was a lovely warm day as well, the pitch was in superb nick, and visiting Basildon United were well backed by a noisy following.

But what about the game, well, it didn’t go at all well if you were connected with Witham Town.

Samir Ali scored after five minutes for Basildon, and then repeated the feat on 38 minutes, by which time Witham were down to ten men after Abdul-Rasheed Ajani-Salou was deemed to have been guilty of dangerous play via a raised boot, which was a touch harsh in my view. Lewis Duberry got a third on half time and the game was effectively over.

Clyde Semazzi and Kai Brown netted the fourth and fifth goals as Basildon dominated, before Darius Ghinea grabbed a consolation goal. Parity in terms of players on the pitch was restored in added time when Alejandro Machado saw red for his part in a good sized brawl which livened up the closing stages, but it made no difference, the game had been over a long time.

James Beardwell and his merry men continued to support the team throughout the game, and fair play to them for the way they don’t turn against the side when things are not going so well. They are a credit to the club in so many ways.

A great day out on reflection, I do enjoy visiting these clubs in the higher echelons, the journey may be more cumbersome, but the experience is that bit more memorable.

So, Guernsey….?