Match Information
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Lingfield 2-1 Croydon
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When: Saturday 25th June 2022
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Kick-off: 3pm
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Where: Edenbridge Rugby Club, Lingfield Road Recreation Ground, Coomb Field, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 5HL
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Competition: Pre-season friendly
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Attendance: 81 (my headcount)
The hobby of groundhopping sees enthusiastic football fans travelling up and down the country to watch matches at as many different venues as possible.
There are no rules and each individual can count what they want. I started groundhopping when I was at school in London. My first aim as a 14 year old was to watch a game at every Non-League club in the capital.
Then I took a part-time job at a petrol credit card company so that I could fund travels further afield.
By the time I was 17, I had visited all 92 Football League grounds in England and Wales. After that, I went to all the Scottish League grounds whilst still a teenager.
Since then, I’ve continued pounding the motorways and I have racked up 2,445 grounds so far as I attempt to visit every Non-League team.
What I really like about this level of football is that the clubs are run by unpaid volunteers who give up their free time for the love of our national game.
Overview
It was the last Saturday in June and I was eagerly searching for my first match of the 2022/23 season. This was just six days after my last game in the 2021/22 campaign (a Somali British Champions League Semi-Final tie in Leicester).
Having been to so many grounds, I sometimes have to be quite creative in order to find somewhere new to visit.
Having watched my final match of the 2021/22 season on Sunday, I am heading to my first pre-season friendly of 2022/23 today. So my close season lasted six days!
— Tony Incenzo talkSPORT (@TonyIncenzo) June 25, 2022
This pre-season friendly stood out as it was being staged at a rugby venue rather than Lingfield FC’s regular home headquarters which I had previously been to.
So I set off on a 150 mile round trip although my journey was elongated by a good 15 minutes as I missed my turning on the M25 after misinterpreting a verbal instruction via my phone from Google Maps!
Even so, I arrived half an hour before the 3pm kick-off. The rugby car park was overflowing by that point so I ended up driving back out to find a space on the main road.
Ground Description
Edenbridge is four miles from Lingfield on a direct country lane which crosses from Surrey into Kent.
The rugby club are based just behind Edenbridge town centre and have a smart-looking clubhouse bar which was originally built in 1987 but has since been refurbished to a high standard.
There is some overhang on the side of this building which provides a little cover for spectators next to the football pitch in case of rain.
Overall, the recreation ground has a fairly enclosed feel due to the presence of the clubhouse, some well-maintained bushes and a small perimeter fence behind one goal.
There are also facilities for the benefit of the local community including a popular children’s playground.
The Match
Quite often, pre-season friendlies are just a training exercise with multiple substitutions which break up the flow of play. But this game lacked those constant changes and therefore had a very competitive feel to it.
The two clubs are based just 18 miles apart but don’t normally play each other in the regular season.
It was a Southern Combination League Premier Division (Step 5) team against their opponents from the Southern Counties East League Division One (Step 6).
The ‘Step’ system in the national Non-League Pyramid structure is best explained by stating that Lingfield – for example – would have to gain five promotions to reach the Football League whilst improving their stadium facilities accordingly along the way.
Easier said than done unless you have a benevolent sugar daddy financing this entire multi-million pound project!
As for the match itself, Lingfield opened the scoring through Michael Redfearn on 21 minutes before Lee Peacock snatched a close range equaliser for Croydon a minute into first half injury time.
Then with seven minutes to go, a lovely patch quilt passing move was emphatically finished off by Tim Beckford for Lingfield’s winning goal.
At least half the crowd were groundhoppers and some had already been to a game elsewhere in the morning.
So it was good to catch up with a number of old faces and compare notes on plans for travelling around the footballing circuit in 2022/23.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to @TonyIncenzo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 3rd July 2022
