Tamworth Lose At The Morgue
After a day of wracking my brain and indecisiveness, I took the decision to follow Tamworth down to London to watch them take on Hayes and Yeading United, who for the time being ground sharing with Woking while Yeading’s ground The Warren is redeveloped after the Sale of Hayes’ Church Lane ground was sold to make funds available for the redevelopment.
Hayes and Yeading are a curious team. Hayes and Yeading merged in 2007 after Yeading were relegated from the Blue Square South, there doesn’t seem to be much of a valid reason for the two teams to merge, other than the fact that Hayes were looking to relocate to a different ground and Heathrow Airport were proving stiff competition for any land in the area. It’s not clear how this move actually benefitted Yeading though, because up until a few months ago, the new team played at Church Lane, leaving The Warren shunned to just reserve matches and seemed to operate pretty much as Hayes had before. The move certainly hasn’t helped wither club in terms of attracting new fans however, with attendances some of the worst I have seen in football, only matched really by Vauxhall Motors and the now defunct Leigh RMI. Average home attendances last season were not much more than 400, with the only time the club attracting a crowd was when big teams like Luton Town and Oxford United took large followings with them.
The only logical explanation I can think of is that the chairman of the new club is on some money laundering mission to blow his money fast, because it is surely not possible for a club with gates of around 400 (and now even less as travelling to Woking seems to have put the slim fan base off even more) to sustainably operate as a professional outfit, run two grounds and now have a new ground built, which bizarrely the club seem to think that this new stadium will attract higher gates. If I was them, I’d just quit while I was ahead. Seriously, who are they trying to kid?
If it wasn’t for the pig on a skateboard me and Chris discovered in Nuts, then this day would have been extremely dull. The weather was dull and dreary as the heavens opened on the M42, we were lucky that the weather had cleared up just in time for a wonder around the Surrey streets. With not much around the ground, we went in early for something to eat and a marvel at the massive stand The Kingfield Stadium boasts, shame it’s behind one of the goals and completely out of place. Apart from that stand, the rest of the ground is pretty average, with an open terrace running the length of the left side of the pitch, a decent sized terrace behind the bottom goal, and an old, run down chewed up cabin at the other, consisting of three parts, providing more seating. When I came here before, I’m pretty sure Woking didn’t use this, but with only two sides open for Hayes and Yeading (not that they even needed that) they had to make do with it. The ground was completely dead. Hayes and Yeading do not deserve to be playing at a ground like Kingfield Stadium, so it’s just as well they’re only here for a bit, with those few backwards United fans rattling around in it, the stadium seems a shell of what it normally is when Woking play here. The crowd today for their standards was a pretty decent size, and the biggest of the season, 359 is a shocking attendance for competitive Blue Square Premier football, but this was still United’s biggest crowd of the season. God help them.
The game was as dull as the weather. Tamworth never got going and were full of mistakes. Marcus Law made a few changes from Monday against Telford, Sam Habergham came in for Scott Barrow, making his debut for The Lambs; Iyseden Christie replaced Nabil Shariff who was back on the bench, and Daniel Bradley replaced Liam McDonald in the middle. Hayes exerted pressure early on causing a few half chances, before strangely Ashley Cain and Danny Thomas swapped wings for Tamworth, a move which wasn’t overly effective and nothing really came from it, luckily mid way through the second half, the two swapped back. A few minutes later, Cain back on the right, went on a great run taking the ball past three United players, then undoing all of his good work by shooting rather than playing a simple pass in the box where both Christie and St Aimie were waiting, a wasted opportunity for both Cain and Tamworth. The two sides went in all square at half time, but if anyone was hoping for an improvement after the break, they would have been greatly disappointed.
The second half got off to a terrible start for Tamworth, as Hayes took the lead after yet more sloppy defending from Sam Habergham, allowing Luke Williams to cross the ball into the box, where nobody in the Tamworth defence was awake enough to pick up journeyman Richard Pacquette, leaving him to beat Jonathan Hedge with relative ease. That strike proved enough for United, while Tamworth made some attempt to try and level the game up, it seemed like a lot of the players were not singing from the same hymn sheet, as numerous crosses and shots went wayward. Tamworth were at least creating chances, but the forward line were not able to make any of their chances count, not troubling really troubling Steve Arnold, when perhaps they really should have bringing on Kyle Patterson Nabil Shariff and Danny Mills did little to help Marcus Law’s side, and it was pretty obvious from around the 70th minute with the slow pace the game was now moving in that the game was over.
So a bad day at the office for Tamworth, and although the result was a disappointing one, it’s worth noting that Hayes and Yeading are a bit of a bogey team for The Lambs, having never beat them in any of their previous meetings. The loss means Tamworth end the first month of the Blue Square Premier campaign in seventh position after seven games, a very positive start indeed, if Marcus Law can build on this start, and avoid many more performances like today, then Tamworth could start to give themselves a bit of breathing space between themselves and the bottom four early on. Six players went out on loan on Friday, Connor Gudger and Callum Reynolds both signing for Hinckley for a month, Liam Francis being loaned out to Solihull Moors for a month, Rico Taylor joining Stafford Rangers for a month, Troy Wallen joining Heather St. Johns until the new year and new signing will Grocott signing for Loughborough for a month too. With such a large squad, it is good that the younger players who aren’t quite ready to play first team football just yet go out on loan and get some first team experience early on, however, based on Connor Gudger’s great form over pre season, and Sam Habergham’s performance today, and throughout pre season, one does wonder if perhaps Gudger should have featured today and habergham should have been sent out for first team football instead, especially as Connor Gudger has played first team football in the past, while young Sam has only really played youth football at Norwich City.
Tamworth: Jonathan Hedge, Richard Tait, Sam, Habergham, Francino Francis, Paul green, Ashley Cain, (Nabil Shariff) Danny Thomas (Danny Mills), Jay Smith Dan Bradley, Kieron St. Aimie, Iyseden Christie (Kyle Patterson)
Subsnot used: Liam McDonald, Joe Collister
Hayes and Yeading United: Steve Arnold, Tom Cadmore, Jack Saville, Louie Soares, Pierre Joseph-Dubois ( Daniel Wishart), Luke Williams, Mark Bentley, Richard Pacquette (Nathan Elder), Curtis Ujah (Ryan Crockford) Subsnot used: Sam Argent, Hector Mackie
Man of the match: Ashley Cain – Seemed to be the only one who was any real danger, even if he did make a few bad decisions and eventually got replaced.
Picture Source: getsurrey.co.uk 4.9.11
How you see the stand in this picture is exactly as it was at the game. Dead and empty. A bit Like Hayes itself, really.