Match Programme | Biggleswade FC v Cockfosters (League) - 26/1/19

Biggleswade FC Season 2018-19 Match Ball Sponsor: Shelly Swales Fine Foods

Biggleswade FC v Cockfosters Saturday 26th January 2019 3pm Kick Off Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division

Who’s Who? Chairman – Jeremy Reynolds Vice Chairman – Phil Gullefer Secretary – Lee Rusbridge Treasurer – Fay Northfield Management Team: 1st Team Managers: Dave Northfield and Mark Inskip Head Coach: James Petty Goalkeeping Coach: Gary Salisbury Fitness Coach: Dave Bass Reserves Manager: Phil Smailes Vice-President: Nick Smith

Committee Members: Ruth Reynolds Cherry Lee Mick Jarvis Terry Howard Hannah Reynolds Sarah King Sophie Northfield Sharon Inskip Associate Members: Jordan Inskip Jackie Warren Away Kit & Sweatshirt Sponsor:

Home Kit & Main Sponsor:

Club Tracksuit Sponsor:

Club Training Kit Sponsor: Reserve Team Kit Sponsor:

Biggleswade Football Club Member of the Spartan South Midlands Football League Web: www.biggleswadefc.co.uk Email: BiggleswadeFC@outlook.com

CHAIRMAN’S NOTES | Welcome to Langford Road Biggleswade FC v Cockfosters - 26/1/19 Good afternoon and welcome to Langford Road for our SSMFL Premier Division match against Cockfosters. We extend a warm welcome to all the players, management, supporters and committee of Cockfosters. We hope you enjoy your time with us and have a safe journey home afterwards.

We also welcome our match officials – please respect their role and the FA’s Respect and the League’s Mind Your Language campaigns, so that the match is enjoyable for everyone.

Many thanks to our main sponsor Raymond Smith, for his renewed support this season and also to today’s match sponsor, Shelly Swales Fine Foods. You will find Shelly cooking a variety of good quality hot food at the “Burger Van” inside the ground.

Now the festive season is well and truly behind us we are now reaching the “business end” of the season. We find ourselves in a very good position to challenge for some major silverware. After some recent disappointing league results we returned to our best form last Saturday by winning at Tring 2-0. It was a great performance and an important one against one of our rivals challenging for the League title. It was disappointing that we could not carry that form into our scheduled game on Tuesday against Leverstock Green, which was unfortunately postponed due to the poor weather conditions.

We remain in the League Cup and have reached the Semi-final stage and face a home tie against Tring on Tuesday 19th February. I am sure this will be another competitive encounter, especially with a cup final place at stake.

We are extremely looking forward to our home FA Vase 5th round tie against Windsor on Sunday 3rd February kick-off 3pm. Our previous game against Stowmarket was a fantastic occasion and it was so pleasing to see so many people (527) watching this spectacle. The away fans were certainly here to have a great day and despite the result they went home remembering a great occasion for both clubs. This has been supported by numerous communications we have received since the game. We are hoping that the game against Windsor will attract the same interest and another bumper crowd will add to the atmosphere of a very important game for both teams.

It is a massive achievement for us to have reached the last 16 of such a national prestigious competition. The players and management should be extremely proud of their efforts and hopefully we will be mentioning the Quarter-Finals in future programme notes!

The club continues its commitment to be an important part of the local community and is pleased to announce a partnership with Biggleswade Academy. A recent presentation to 120 pupils by myself and Ruth Reynolds along with Ryan and Conor Inskip at the school’s assembly, talked about shared values of both school and our club, such as resilience, pride and responsibility. They also presented the “FC Values Cup”, which will be awarded weekly to students demonstrating these values. Certificates were also presented to students who had been mascots at the Stowmarket game. Our objective is to continue to develop this and other partnerships.

We have several forthcoming fund raising events for you to enjoy. A Race Night has been arranged on Saturday 9th March at 7.30pm, so if you fancy a flutter why not come along and support the club. This will be held in the clubhouse. Another quiz night will be held nearer the end of the season but a date has not yet been confirmed. Watch this space!

Thank you for coming this afternoon and enjoy the game.

Jeremy Reynolds, Chairman | Biggleswade FC

CLUB HISTORY | COCKFOSTERS FC The EARLY YEARS: The Club was originally formed as Cockfosters Athletic in 1921 by local residents and the ground allocated to the Club by Lady Bevan, from her family estate.

Season 1946/47 - 1st Team are Division 1 Runners-Up and promoted to the Premier Division.

1947/48: 1st Team are relegated back to Division 1. 1948/49 - 1st Team are Division 1 Runners-Up. 1949/50: 1st Team crowned Division 1 Champions and promoted to the Premier Division.

The 1950s for most of this decade the Club struggled with no honours coming its way.

2000 to 2010: The new century has seen promotion, demotion and promotion again to the SSML’s Premier Division, 2000/01: saw Tony Faulkner in his second season as 1st Team manager, the side finishes 6th for the second year running.

2002/03: Former player Dave Lee is appointed 1st Team Manager assisted by Frank Patrick. After finishing 7th, 7th, 8th and 8th, Dave Lee resigns at end of the ‘05/06 campaign.

2006/07: Former player David Craig appointed as Club / 1st Team Manager, assisted by former players Mark Standen and Ray Farley. There was an immediate upturn in the Club's fortunes with the 1st Team promoted into the Premier Division.

2007/08: With the elevation into the Spartan South Midlands League’s Premier Division the Club was accepted into the FA Challenge Cup for the first time in their history.

2008/09: A poor run of results during the early months saw the resignation of David Craig & his assistants.

However, due to planning refusals by the London Borough of Enfield, the Club was unable to upgrade their facilities to the level required by the FA for clubs competing in the SSM League’s Premier Division and were demoted back down to Division One. 2011 to Present Day: 2011/12: In October Mark Adams resigns due to family commitments. Vince Purdue then Don Bennett had periods in charge of the 1st Team, but by mid-March '13 both left due to personal commitments.

2012/13: Mick Roche was assisted by Dave Clark and Fabio Valenti. A successful season culminated in taking the Division One R/up spot on goal difference and promoted back to the Premier Division. The side reached the FA Vase 2nd Round Proper, losing to SSML Premier Division title contenders Oxhey Jet. 2013/14: Saw the 1st Team back in the SSML Premier Division after a gap of four seasons with Mick Roche continuing as Manager, again assisted by Dave Clark and Fabio Valenti. The season proved to be another successful one, with a very creditable 8th place. Both the SSM League's Challenge Trophy and South Midlands Floodlight (Senior) Cup were won.

2014/15: An extremely difficult campaign. Mid-season saw the management team together with the majority of 1st Team squad move to Edgware Town. Followed by several changes to both 1st and Reserves management / players for the remainder of the season. The 1st Team just managed to retain SSML Premier Division status.

2015/16: Saw a ‘new beginning’ for the Club. Former player Dean Barker, the Club record holder for most goals scored in one season (48), was appointed manager. The side were 9th in the Premier Division and reached the Middlesex FA Senior Charity Cup Final twice, the first Final being played pre-season after having been held over from the previous campaign.

For 2016/17 - Dean Barker added Steve Rolfe and former player Chris Stead to his management team as coach and goal keeping coach respectively. Steve Reid and Damien Corr remained in charge of the Reserves, with Paul Boxer and Steve Foot again with the U18s.

2016/17 : After a very successful campaign, which saw the 1st Team finish 3rd (its’ highest ever position) in the SSML Premier Div. 2018-19 – Sees another managerial change, following the resignation of Leigh Wooldridge, former St Margaretsbury player Ryan Wade was appointed for his first managerial role, assisted by Nick Mountford.

MATCH REPORT | Tring Athletic 0-2 Biggleswade FC Biggleswade FC turned in arguably one of their best performances of the season as they leapfrogged rivals Tring Athletic with a fine 2-0 away victory at The Grassroots Stadium on Saturday.

They may have found goals harder to come by in recent weeks, but this performance was much more like the pre-Christmas FC and they look to have added some impressive defensive steel to their unquestionably potent attacking arsenal.

Managers Northfield and Inskip made two changes to the side that started the goalless stalemate with Leighton on Tuesday evening. Tom Cookman was restored to the starting XI after completing a fourmatch ban, whilst top scorer Alex Marsh also returned after missing out through illness last time out.

This meant Justin Leavers and Abraham Eze had to be content with places on the bench.

With FC having drawn four successive league games and Tring Athletic having lost and then drawn their last two outings, neither side could claim to be in top form ahead of this much-anticipated clash. 240 minutes of football couldn't separate them in two excellent FA Vase clashes in early December, so this was always going to be another game of fine margins and so it proved.

In fact there hadn't been a goal (barring penalties of course) between the two since the 53rd minute of the first Vase meeting, so you can imagine the visitors delight when they broke the deadlock inside 3 minutes on Saturday.

Lee Northfield seems to be making a habit of delivering in the big games this season and it was he who reacted quickest when an Alex Marsh cross from the FC left took a slight deflection off of Tom Cookman.

The ball went into a gap between defence and goalkeeper and whilst the former protested for an offside, Northfield delicately flicked the ball around the advancing Connor Sansom and it trickled over the line for his 10th of the season. Both defence and keeper were very vocal in their protestations for offside, but referee and assistant were unperturbed.

After getting over the early setback, Tring responded in a more positive manner with a teasing Luke Dunstan cross well held by Ross Tompkins and top scorer Ashton Campbell beating Benat Pena before driving into the side netting.

The visitors controlled much of the opening 25 minutes with some lovely approach play at times. Connor Sansom was at full stretch to keep out a Ryan Inskip corner that looped up goalwards off a home defender before both Northfield and Alex Marsh were unable to apply the final touches to two fine moves.

Former Harpenden Town and AFC Dunstable stopper Sansom bravely thwarted the advances of Tom Cookman following an Alex Marsh through ball. This was seconds after brother Lawrie was crudely brought down from behind by the recovering George Ironton, which earnt Tring's number 8 a yellow card for his troubles.

Then it was Tring's turn to start asking the questions. An Ashton Campbell header was again snaffled by the well-positioned Ross Tompkins and on 29 minutes a towering header from Carl Mensah rebounded back off the right hand post.

The hosts thought they had equalised four minutes later, but they found FC's Ross Tompkins in top form.

The visitors seemed a little slow in their attempts to deal with a quick throw-in on the Tring left and before they knew it the cross was being stood up towards the far post. Kieran Turner got a run on Sam Kelly and climbed above the FC left back, guiding his header towards the right hand corner. Tompkins though showed incredible agility to get down to his left to claw the ball out and some brave defending blocked the follow-up.

Tring finished the half strongly forcing a number of set pieces in good positions, but the impressive FC rearguard stood firm to take their slender lead into the half-time interval.

After a regroup, FC came out with a renewed purpose for the second half. A lovely give and go between Northfield and Pat McCafferty saw the latter have a shot deflected behind for a corner. From the resulting set piece, Ryan Inskip picked out Lee Northfield on the edge of the box and his effort was deflected wide by a trailing Tring boot.

The home side were pressing high to try and force errors in the FC half, but the visitors composure on the ball whilst under pressure was impressive to say the least. From one such passage on the hour, FC broke out of a tight area through Lawrie Marsh and he sent brother Alex clear with an excellent cross field pass.

As the ball sat up, he tried to lift it over the advancing Sansom, but the young goalkeeper just about did enough. However, his over-exuberant efforts to retrieve the loose ball though could've seen a penalty awarded on another day as he climbed all over the back of Marsh as he tried to shepherd the ball out for a corner. Tom Cookman clearly felt so and his protests lead to him being show a yellow card.

In a matter of seconds though, frustration swiftly turned to delight as FC doubled their lead. Ryan Inskip's inswinging corner looked to have been gathered by Sansom, but his fumble saw the ball fall invitingly for Alex Marsh to sweep home his 22nd goal of the season into the roof of the net. The two-goal cushion was huge and also a milestone one as it marked FC's 100th in all competitions this season. Full credit to Tring, who as they did in the first half, responded in a positive fashion. A corner into the box caused a bit of a scramble and the ball looped over, whilst both Pena and Nathan George were at the top of their game whenever the home side looked like finding a way through.

On the occasion they did breach "the wall" in the centre of the FC back line, they were denied by further goalkeeping excellence. Ross Tompkins has been going through a tough time recently. When you make an error as an outfield player, you can tend to be bailed out by a team-mate, but as a goalkeeper they are normally magnified as the last line of defence. It was great then to see him come through this spell and show great mental strength to deliver this top drawer performance. If his save in the first half wasn't impressive enough, the save sixteen minutes from time to deny Ashton Campbell was even better.

The hosts worked the ball out to the right hand side and the cross was "right on the money" for the unmarked Campbell, who did everything right to power his header goalwards into the ground. Tompkins again showed incredible reactions to not only save it, but also parry the ball to safety. It was every bit a points-clincher to Marsh's second goal. From then on Tring looked resigned that it wasn't going to be their afternoon. Five minutes from time FC very nearly added gloss to the scoreline when a terrific run and cross up the right from Adam Hunt found Alex Marsh in the box. He impudently tried a back heel, but fortunately for the hosts it was off target.

Frustrations for Tring came close to boiling over as FC ran the clock down in the dying moments, but referee Charles Martland eventually brought proceedings to a close and although there are still a number of twists and turns to come in terms of the title race, this felt like a statement win that will hopefully now kick FC on again after a difficult run of form.

Following leaders Hadley's fourth successive 3-0 victory this time against London Colney on Saturday, they still remain three points clear at the top - albeit having played four games more.

TODAY’S FIXTURES Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division Arlesey Town Biggleswade FC Colney Heath Edgware Town Harpenden Town Leverstock Green Oxhey Jets Potton United Stotfold

v v v v v v v v v

Hadley Cockfosters London Tigers Biggleswade United Crawley Green North Greenford United Leighton Town Baldock Town Tring Athletic

CAN WE TAKE ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO WEMBLEY?

Spartan South Midlands Football League

Saturday 26th January 2019 BIGGLESWADE FC V COCKFOSTERS Today’s Officials: Referee: Tom Cartwright, Assistants: Trevor Gregory & Adam Marsh

TEAMS TO BE SELECTED FROM Ross Tompkins Daniel Child Benat Pena David Lenton Adam Hunt Michael Carroll Sam Kelly Darren Woodend Nathan George Michael Simpson Pat McCafferty Conor Inskip Matt Richardson Adam Drakulic Ryan Inskip Lawrie Marsh Joe Bradbury Alex Marsh© Lee Northfield Abraham Eze Tom Cookman Justin Leavers Dave Northfield Mark Inskip James Petty India Bunnage Gary Salisbury

Green Green Green

Michael Corderoy Malvin Prempeh Joel Nakatani-Brown John Cush Charlie Morgan© Billy Murray Nick Mountford George Beattie Harley Haag Alex Michaelides Mark Summers Rian Carroll Ceykan Kargozlu Reece Mosanya Ryan Wade

Manager Manager / Asst. M Coach Physio Goalkeeper Coach COLOURS SHIRTS SHORTS SOCKS

Ryan Wade Nick Mountford Jamie Vine Margaux Ridgewell

Red Red Red

Todays Match Sponsor

Swales Fine Food

Future Fixtures Date

Opposition

C

V

Time

Sun 3rd February

Windsor

FA Vase

Home

3.00pm

Sat 9th February

Hadley

League

Home

3.00pm

Weds 13th February

Baldock Town

League

Away

7.45pm

Sat 16th February

London Tigers

League

Home

3.00pm

Tues 19th February

Tring Athletic

Cup SF

Home

7.45pm

Tues 26th February

Leverstock Green

League

Away

7.45pm

Phil’s Question Time Answers can be found next week on our website; www.biggleswadefc.co.uk

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Which 17 year old made his league debut for Newcastle United against Queens Park Rangers in 1985?

This time (we’ll get it right), was a song that accompanied which England World Cup final campaign?

With which Japanese team did Gary Lineker finish his playing career?

Which club once had snooker magnate Barry Hearn as it’s chairman?

Who played twice for Brazil in 2003 and made his debut for his adopted country Italy, in 2011?

Below is a table of the Spartan South Midlands Premier league teams we will be travelling to this season. Based on our departure point of Langford Road, we will travel 1,046 miles in total (return) compared to last season’s 1,305.

The miles section below is ground to ground.

Our average return journey will be 55 miles compared to last season’s 65 miles.

Team

Postcode

Miles

Match Day Sponsor

Arlesey Town

SG15 6RS

8

John Evans

Baldock Town

SG15 6RS

8

John Worsley – All Clean

Biggleswade Utd

SG18 0AA

2

H B C Logistics

Cockfosters

EN4 9JG

37

Shelly Swales Fine Foods

Colney Heath

AL4 0NP

29

Tony Wren – Innovation on Site

Crawley Green

LU2 9AG

18

Tom Jarvis

Edgware Town

NW9 7NE

42

Tony Wren – Innovation on Site

Hadley

EN5 3LD

36

David Albone

Harpenden Town

AL5 2EF

27

Terry – Fairview Carpentry

Leighton Town

LU7 1RX

26

Gullefer – London Walks

Leverstock Green

HP2 4NQ

37

Mick Jarvis

London Colney

AL2 1DW

30

Brian Darnell

London Tigers

HA6 1HR

47

Tony Wren – Innovation on Site

North Greenford Utd

UB6 0NX

44

Rob Butcher

Oxhey Jets

WD19 6FW

43

Kevin Webb

Potton United

SG19 2LX

5

Joseph Sneap

Stotfold

SG5 4AN

7

Richard Charles

Tring Athletic

HP23 5NT

34

Nick & Michelle – The Cock

Wembley

HA0 3HG

43

Nick & Michelle – The Cock

FIRST TEAM KIT SPONSOR

CLUB HISTORY | BIGGLESWADE FC Biggleswade Football Club was formed in May 2016 from the very successful Biggleswade Town Under 18s side that competed in the Thurlow Nunn Youth League.

2016/17 - In our very first season in senior football, Biggleswade FC’s squad of young, talented players won the SSMFL Division One title. We finished with 99 points, six clear of Harpenden Town in second place and were duly promoted to the Premier Division - totally vindicating the decision to start off at Step 6 football.

The new club made a huge impact both on and off the pitch and succeeded in doing things the right way. The players, under the astute management of Dave Northfield and Mark Inskip, deserved a huge amount of credit, not only for playing football as it should be played, but also for working and bonding so well together – a real team in every respect.

Some of the performances were breath-taking and the 8-1 destruction of high-flying Langford at Christmas and the 4-2 away win at previously unbeaten Baldock Town were both particular highlights.

As well as the successes in the league, the Club also had a thrilling FA Vase run, which saw us win two rounds, one against Takeley who were top of the Essex Senior League and the other away to Canning Town. The toughest possible draw came in the Second Round Proper where FC were handed an away draw at Peterborough Sports, who went on to win the United Counties League Premier Division by 15 points. However in going down 5-3 to Peterborough Sports, FC made a huge impression on their high-flying opponents and they were glowing in their praise of the football the youngsters had played.

2017/18 - The club made a solid start to life in the SSMFL Premier Division, at Christmas we were lying in 7th place with games in hand on some of the sides above us as well as progressing to the Semi-Finals of both the League Challenge Trophy and the Bedfordshire Senior Cup. However, the highlight of the campaign was our run to the 4th Round (last 32) of The Buildbase FA Vase. Following impressive wins against Northampton Sileby Rangers, Basildon United and Crawley Green, FC stunned much-fancied the eventual SSMFL Premier Division Champions Welwyn Garden City with a last-gasp extra-time penalty clinching a 2-1 win before unfortunately losing a tight affair away to the Hellenic League’s Thatcham Town, 2-1 in the 4th round. Thatcham Town went on to win both their league and also win The FA Vase itself at Wembley Stadium beating Stockton Town one nil in the final.

We finished a very creditable 5th Place in our first season in the SSMFL Premier Division, lost on penalties to Southern Premier side Biggleswade Town after a thrilling one all draw in the Bedfordshire Senior Cup Semi-final and expectations have risen for the 2018/19 season.

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