Football Days

The Spectrum - Guildford City FC

Guildford City 1-1 Slough Town

06/02/13 - Southern League Division One Central

Att: 140

One of the positives about the winter weather decimating the non-league schedule is that the re-arranged matches allow me to shoe-horn visits to new grounds into my weekly routine and this was no different as my Wednesday evening was spent visiting The Spectrum, home of Guildford City FC, for their re-arranged home match against Slough Town.

It was only a half an hour drive from Farnborough, so I didn't leave the house til about 18:45 and after stopping for petrol I arrived at The Spectrum Leisure Centre with about twenty minutes to go until kick off. One big positive about the football club playing at a leisure centre is that there is plenty of parking on site, so that wasn't an issue and after going through the turnstile I made the long walk down the hill to the club house for a swift pint before the match.

As with any football team that plays at an athletics track, it's a strange set up. There is one stand that runs down the side of the pitch which is raised and has terraced areas either side of some covered seating, with the club house and tea hut underneath. There is a hill behind one goal where the entrance and exit is and the other two sides are open and surrounded by trees - Probably how The Withdean looks now that the temporary stands have been removed.

Guildford have played at the venue since re-forming in 1996, but football has been played in the town since Guildford FC were founded back in 1877, although it wasn't until 1921 that the club turned professional and they were accepted into the Southern League. In 1927 the "City" suffix was added to the club's name in preparation for the city status that many believed the town would achieve following the building of a cathedral in the town, however this honour was never forthcoming but the name Guildford City stuck and continued to be used.

City achieved some of their most famous results just before the war, firstly in 1928/29 when they defeated QPR 4-2 in the first round of the FA Cup in front of over 8,000 fans. In 1937/38 they knocked Reading out of the cup and they also won the Southern League title for the first time. Their record attendance at their old Joseph's Road ground was achieved the following season when 9,932 witnessed an FA Cup first round replay against Aldershot, with The Shots triumphing 4-3.

After the war things went downhill for City who reverted to being a part-time club due to financial pressures. In 1951/52 the club reached the Second Round of the FA Cup, only to lose against Gateshead and that same season they sold future England international Jimmy Langley to Leeds United for £2,000. Despite growing financial problems the club managed to win the Southern League Cup in 1963 and 1967, as well as recording a famous 2-1 win over Brentford in the FA Cup in 1968. Goalkeeper Peter Vasper was sold to Norwich City for £5,000 that year but it did little to ease the financial problems at the club and in 1970 Joseph's Road was sold and by 1974 the club merged with Dorking, with 625 fans watching City's final match - A 2-0 victory over Folkestone on 12th February 1974.

It's unusual for a town of Guildford's size (population around 130,000) to not have a football team and in 1996 a new club was founded, as AFC Guildford moved into The Spectrum. After a brief spell in the Surrey Premier League the club joined the Combined Counties League, winning Division One in 2003/04 and a year later the club's name was reverted back to the original Guildford City. 2010/11 saw the club have a good run in both the FA Cup and FA Vase, as well as winning the Combined Counties Premier League, but promotion was denied due to The Spectrum failing to meet the criteria for the level above. Twelve months later City won the league again and with the necessary ground improvements being made they made a return to the Southern League thirty-eight years after leaving it.

City have made a solid start to life in their new league and going into this match they found themselves just outside the play off places having just achieved a 2-1 win at home to league leaders Rugby Town. This season has also seen City's biggest crowd since moving to The Spectrum when 295 fans saw them lose 3-0 at home to Kingstonian in the FA Cup first qualifying round.

Their opponents Slough Town have also been through hard times lately, having been homeless since 2002/03 and currently groundsharing with Beaconsfield following a spell in Windsor. Last season they finished second in the league and were beaten in the play offs - They went into this game in tenth position, having not played for three weeks due to the weather.

There was a good turnout of Slough fans and they seemed to make up at least half of the crowd at the match, but with all the fans on one side it's quite difficult to judge. As the match got underway I opted to move to the terraced area for an elevated view of the game, although the howling winds seemed much colder from up there.

It was Guildford who made the brightest start to the match, having plenty of the ball but struggling to string anything coherent together on a bobbly, sandy pitch. It was a half of few clear cut openings, but the deadlock was broken on nineteen minutes when Slough were awarded a penalty. Danny Burnell made no mistake from twelve yards and The Rebels had the lead, against the run of play. Guildford pressed in search of an equaliser and just over a quarter of an hour later they got it when a ball into the box was headed home by Will Heavey. It was 1-1 at the break, with Guildford in the ascendancy.

After burning my tongue on a hot cup of Bovril at half time, the match got underway again and within minutes Guildford had rattled the visitor's crossbar and had the ball in the back of the net, only for the linesman's flag to cut short any celebrations. Despite this Slough grew into the game and it was to prove a pretty even affair, with few chances being created by either side. As the half wore on Slough grew into the game and went to dominate the latter stages of the match. Guildford struggled to get out of their half as Slough enjoyed plenty of possession, but again without creating too much. Slough were denied by a couple of smart saves by Guildford's Antony Hall late on and had to settle for a point, which on reflection was probably a fair result.

After the match I was delighted to get back to the warmth of my car, although a crash caused the A31 to be closed and the journey back turned into a bit of a nightmare and took the best part of an hour.

Although it wasn't the most thrilling of matches I was still glad to have made the journey and visit a club that has an interesting story to tell. Playing at an athletics stadium is never ideal, but I get the feeling that they're just glad to have a football team back in the town. Hopefully one day they'll be able to move somewhere a bit more football friendly and push on as a club and I wish them all the very best.