Wanderers v Old Rutlishians A

Mayfield Stadium

(home of AFC Croydon Athletic)

Surrey South Eastern League Junior Cup

(part of the club's triple bill)

October 24, 2015

Ground No 177

 

 

IT'S not often you can watch a team with such an illustrious history plying their trade so far down the pyramid that the peak is so far out of sight that even Sir Edmund Hillary would give up on reaching it.

But Wanderers are such a club. The original Wanderers lifted the first ever FA Cup and went on to win it a further four times.

Declining fortunes meant the club was dissolved in 1887 but in 2009, with the blessing of descendants of CW Alcock, funding father of the club and major mover and shaker in Victorian sport, Wanderers were reborn, with the aim of benefitting charitable causes.

They currently compete in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Junior Division Two and play their home matches at AFC Croydon Athletic's Mayfield Park stadium.

The landlords are a club with a tale or two to tell as well - forced under after the owner admitted he only bought the club for money-laundering purposes; the chairman found shot dead in a garage; forced into folding; revived by the fans; emotional return to their stadium which was refurbished after an arson attack on the clubhouse and travellers had set up camp on the pitch.

Wanderers joined Athletic at the Mayfield Stadium in November, although it seems no-one told the ref for the first of today's triple header of matches - he went to the club's former home in Dulwich, resulting in a delayed start and a club official taking charge for the first half.

That match was played on one of the outlying pitches and featured the A team as the club kicked off a packed programme, with all three of their men's teams - the firsts, the As and the reserves - playing at the same location on the same day.

Entry, as always for a Wanderers home game, was free, and the first XI match offered an opportunity to see a game a tidy little venue.

Centrepiece of the ground is a simple modern brick and steel stand with plastic seats situated in front of the changes and a spacious clubhouse.

To the left is a shallow area of covered hard standing with a few concrete steps behind the goal, opposite are a couple more covered areas and the hard standing continued around behind the other goal. There's also some terracing either side of the stand.

Wanderers have a small fan base but they've made great strides since their reformation, did an admiral job of publicising their triple bill event and produced an excellent eight-page programme with some good reading for a quid. Good on them.

I'd also like to return to the Mayfield to see Athletic. With a bigger crowd, the tea bar open and an a bit of matchday atmosphere, I can imagine it would be a great place to spend a Saturday afternoon.