Yateley United v Camberley Town
Despite only being six and a half miles from where I live, this was my first visit to Sean Devereux Park, the home of Yateley United. As regular readers will know, I travel to every game via public transport and, for such a short distance to travel, getting there was an absolute nightmare! Being a lovely sunny day, my plan was to bus it to Sandhurst and walk from there, a total journey time of around an hour.
When I checked the bus route I found it only ran to Crowthorne due to the Sandhurst Road being closed so I needed an alternative. Train to Sandhurst was the next option so I made the journey to Wokingham to pick up the GWR service to Sandhurst only to find that train had been cancelled due to points failure somewhere and there wouldn’t be another train for an hour stopping at Sandhurst.
So the next option was a train to Blackwater and get a bus from there so after half an hours wait I was finally on the way again. Luckily this worked and I made the connection with the bus to Yateley and set about the 15 minute walk to the ground from there. Once again Google maps sent me walking down roads with no paths but finally I made it to the ground, a total journey time of two and a quarter hours to travel six and a half miles, it would have been quicker to walk it! The joys of travelling by public transport.
The ground itself is very impressive, what looked to be an impressive playing surface, a nice clubhouse with a very spacious bar and plenty of places to sit outside in the sun. You have a small stand with seating on the clubhouse side of the ground and a covered area for standing on the left. The great thing is the club owns the ground and there is plenty of scope for additions should they need them.
After my trials and tribulations getting there I needed a drink so had a nice cold cider which cost £4.40 and ordered some food, a hot dog (£2.50) and a bacon cheese burger (£3.50) which were both very tasty and very reasonably priced! I managed to grab a quick chat and a welcome to the club from the club’s secretary and then got ready for the preseason game with local rivals Camberley Town.
The game started very evenly and it was the 12th minute before the first chance came along; the Camberley keeper somehow keeping out Redford’s shot from point blank range. Yateley came close again in the 24th minute when a long throw from Mitchell dropped to the feet of Scott whose first time shot went narrowly over the bar.
Camberley were by now playing a very high pressing game with the hosts finding it hard to build from the back. The Krooners kept pushing and, from a corner, took the lead. Passfield found himself unmarked in the six yard box and he steering his header into the bottom right corner. 0-1
An incredible passage of play should have seen the visitors double their lead but for an astonishing triple save from Parslow in the Yateley goal. He saved the first two attempts but the ball kept falling at the feet of the Camberley forwards, another effort was blocked, the next crashed off the bar until the final shot was turned away for a corner by the keeper. Quite how they didn’t score from that I have no idea!
H-T: Yateley United 0 Camberley Town 1
The home side came out quickly in the second half. Substitute Ward, hassled the Camberley full back as he tried to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick and nicked the ball away, his pull back finding Scott whose shot was well saved with the rebound falling to Redford but he could only blast the ball over the bar.
On 56 minutes Camberley doubled their lead, a long throw from the left was flicked on, finding their centre back, who headed goalwards where Parslow managed to parry with the ball away only for it to fall to the defender again who rifled it low into the net. 0-2
Yateley continued to try to get back into the game with Jones finding space a couple of times down the right flank and firing ‘come and get me’ balls across the box but on both occasions there was nobody in a green and white shirt there to take advantage.
Camberley controlled the game in the final ten minutes and nearly made it three when a pass from a free kick on the edge of the area found their number ten. He hit a fierce drive to the near post which Parslow managed to save and, once more, the ball rebounded straight back to the Town player who had another go only to see the keeper get enough of a touch to send the ball wide.
F-T: Yateley United 0 Camberley Town 2
A good win and performance from the Krooners who look a strong side on this showing. Yateley will be pleased with the amount of chances they made but will rue not making them count. A good run out for both teams in very warm conditions. Special shout out to the big number 5 for the visitors, his banter with everyone on the Yateley side was worth the admission money alone!
A very enjoyable day at the Sean Devereux, a nice friendly, welcoming club with excellent facilities. I will be back at some point and hopefully there will be a lot less drama travelling next time!
Best of luck to both sides for the coming season!