Friday 4th October 2024 ko 19:45

Southern Counties East League Premier Division

SNODLAND TOWN 0

RUSTHALL 3 (Barton 5 Clover 60 Bissett 76)

Att 395

Entry £8

Programme £2

In GroundhopUK terms October added up to 12 games at 12 grounds in south-eastern England. The games were split over 2 weekends 3 weeks apart between the SCEFL and Southern Combination. In my terms that added up to 11 revisits, so I approached the two events as part organiser, part social event, and part seeing how some of the clubs and their facilities had changed. And nowhere across those twelve games saw more of a transformation than at Snodland’s Potyn’s Field.

The coach pulled into the car park and Robyn and I’s jaws dropped. We’d visited Snodland back in 2017 when the only structures pitchside were a small stand, a toilet block and a garden shed repurposed as a gateman’s hut. We made good use of that hut when the rains came, but the truth of the place was that just about everything was centred around the social club with the players picking their way through the gloom to the pitch.

The change in 7 years is remarkable with the club now having a social club of its own, changing rooms, a turnstile block, an outside bar and decking and that stand is now twice the size! They’ve even now got their own burger van which was doing a roaring trade in curry and chips. That was good to see as well as taste on a weekend where the catering wasn’t notably imaginative.

More than anything else though it was good to see Snodland be both able to, and take full advantage of a bumper crowd. I’m even told the old social club aren’t happy with the football club as they’ve had a drop off in trade as people now prefer to frequent the football bar. The answer to them of course is to use the football analogy, “Well up your game then!”

The big surprise was the the Rusthall win given they came into this game rock bottom of the table with only 5 points from 10 games. But on this occasion they were the better side, and I hope for better things for this notably friendly club. But despite the result the evening belonged to Snodland, both for being good hosts and really surprising Robyn and I. What a transformation!