Saturday 19th July 2025 ko 15:00

Friendly

RAYLEIGH TOWN 2 (Acheampong 44 Philbrick 70)

missed penalty 10

FRENFORD 1 (13)

Att 58 at Rayleigh Sports & Social Club, London Road

Free Entry

To a groundhopper, one benefit of pre-season is that clubs who groundshare during the regular season tend to play “at home”. You may recall me visiting Benfleet well before they got Woodside up to Step 6 standards and you hope Rayleigh can do the same for their London Road home.

Currently Rayleigh play their Eastern Counties League Division One South fixtures at Concord Rangers’ Thames Road ground but this friendly versus Frenford was at London Road so it felt like a complete shot to nothing in going to explore.

A do recommend the Brookside Transport cafe roughly half a mile away, there is something endearing about an establishment that can find a hundred different varieties of the Full English Breakfast, all washed down with tea! From there it’s a case of find the petrol station then immediately turn left into the lane.

And I’m sure when you call in you’ll think along the same lines as me. It really wouldn’t take all that much to bring it up to standard. Floodlights are an issue, as will be separating the football and cricket, but there’s already cover and a barbecue did a roaring trade- perhaps I didn’t need that Full English!

As for the game Rayleigh beat their visitors fairly easily, but as the cliche goes- you shouldn’t read too much into friendlies! The question is though if and when Rayleigh can play all their games at London Road?