Trail By Heat - Badshot Lea vs. Farnborough

Close to the action at Westfield Lane

Like so many other ground hoppers I was enticed by a new ground and a programme at Badshot Lea's recently opened Westfield Lane ground, therefore this will be a fairly brief post as the ground has been covered so much across numerous blogs. So after many years of ground sharing at numerous grounds (including at today's opponents Farnborough) Badshot Lea have a ground of their own. This was the third at the venue following matches with Aldershot and Woking and I had read good things about the set up at Westfield Lane. I visited Cherrywood Lane when Farnborough when they were reigning Southern League champions and was able to get close to the monster winner's shield.

Kick off at a very muggy Westfield Lane

A quick look at the team sheet shows that out of the 23 Farnborough players named, only 6 are not trialists so the game was never going to flow. They do however force the first chance when the Badshot keeper is caught out trying to play out from the back but he does well to recover and win the ball back. The hosts take the lead when a long ball down the left plays the man in who slots past the Farnborough keeper. Both sides have half chances throughout the rest of the game without seriously troubling either keeper as the game ends one nil.

Farnborough attack the clubhouse end

Westfield Lane is actually in Wrecclesham while is reached by taking the number 18 bus from Farnham which takes 10 minutes. Farnham is served by direct trains from Waterloo, taking just over an hour. I spent an enjoyable morning in Farnham looking at the castle and the town museum. The pubs (The Wheatsheaf and The Hop Blossom) both did the job without being spectacular. Right next to the bus stop in Wrecclesham is The Royal Oak which is a good village pub and is just opposite Westfield Lane itself. The clubhouse was of course all very new and had the standard selection of drinks and was very welcoming. Big credit to the folks at Badshot Lea for building themselves an excellent set up of their own.

Much sought after team sheet with programme

Second half action at the far end