Friday Night FA Cup - Mole Valley SCR vs. Cherstey Town (At Cobham FC)

On a showery evening (see rainbow above) I headed to Cobham to watch the current top two in the Combined Counties League - Mole Valley SCR and Chertsey Town. Both teams has scored eight goals in their opening two goals and so it had 0-0 written all over it! Cherstey had finished second to North Greenford United last season and Mole Valley won the First Division and so it was set up for a decent game.

The ground was quite basic but had cover at three ends of the ground which is good for grounds at this level. The clubhouse is quite small and compact but there is a good atmosphere. No beer on draught, just cans. There is a section on seating next to the clubhouse and there is a small area of covered standing at each end of the ground.

Area of seating and clubhouse.

Small area of cover at one end.

The match started in torrential rain (see picture below) and Cherstey dominated from the start. They had a few half chances before the Mole Valley keeper spilled the ball and the striker ballooned the ball over from 5 yards out. Just as Mole Valley started to get back in to the game Cherstey broke and the striker was chopped down when clean and the inevitable happened. Chertsey scored this penalty and converted another just before half time.In the second half despite Mole Valley's best efforts Chertsey added three further goals to continue to the preliminary round.

Heavy rain just after kick off.

Just before half time a rather odd thing happened. I was wearing my Scunthorpe United rain jacket and a man asks if I support Scunthorpe. He then pulls out a programme from a Scunthorpe United vs. Hull City 2006 - 2007 season youth team fixture. He tells me that that the Chertsey No. 6 and captain (Jack Francis) used to play for Scunthorpe and was released by Nigel Adkins. Small world!

The ground is about 5-6 miles from Cobham and Stoke D'Abernon station. There it is advisable to get a taxi from just outside the station. This costs six pounds which seems very steep! The trains leave on a regular basis from London Waterloo and takes around forty minutes. Another point is that there aren't many pubs around Cobham High Street. There's the Cricketers which is about 10-15 minutes walk from the ground and serves real ales. There is also The Plough which is five minutes away from the station.

Dugouts on the opposite side of the pitch to the clubhouse.