British Airways 2 Amersham Town 2 (23rd March 2024)
At the start of the year I saw Amersham overcome Westfield to win 4-1 and stay well clear at the top of the table. On this day I saw them get a draw, to nudge them nearer that finishing tape, with 2nd place well behind.
2nd place, as it happened, were today’s hosts, British Airways FC, currently groundsharing with Bedfont. A spanner in the works scuppered plans to go further afield, so this was a decent substitute, especially after a bit of food in The Green Man, just up the road. The pub is directly under the Heathrow South Runway flight path, with the planes coming in so low that they look at risk of knocking off a chimney. Plenty of chatter in the bar along the lines of “…and that was the XWB variant, which obviously sounds completely different…” indicating that the runway proximity is a bigger draw than the beer and food for many – which is a shame as both were good.
Arriving about 20 minutes before kick off, the club car park was busier than I expected, in truth more due a function going on in the social club than that the football. 81 would be in attendance, significantly higher than the club’s average, but not so much that it would have turned the car park into the game of Tetris that it resembled.
First-timers to the ground must be obvious, as they’ll be the only ones still fascinated by the planes coming in to land 400m to the north, and I’ll happily admit to being in those ranks. When taking ground pics, it’s always nice to get something in the background, and a Singapore Airlines A380 does that quite well.
This is, after all, the 10th tier of the national game, and you aren’t going to get any genuinely impressive grounds. But for a club (ground owners, Bedfont) getting double-digit crowds, having cover on all four sides is certainly a plus, and on a (mostly) sunny afternoon, it’s not a bad place to while away a couple of hours. Having another club, Bedfont Sports, directly next door, is unusual though. And with both Bedfont and Bedfont Sports having groundsharing arrangements, the shouts from next door could regularly be heard, even if only 43 were present at that game.
Amersham arrived seventeen points clear of BA FC, with just eight games left in their season. Top spot couldn’t quite be guaranteed today, but with 129 goals already in the bag, they must have been confident of victory, even against a BA side having a very good season themselves.
Amersham did indeed start well, but went behind to BA’s first real attack of the game. A through ball had the keeper stranded, and after a moment of composing himself, the BA attacker passed the ball into the gaping goal to give the hosts an early lead.
Amersham threw what they could at BA to get back on level terms. Amersham’s assistant manager, Richard Pacquette, a veteran of more clubs than probably even he can remember, tried to lead from the front, but only got painfully taken out (accidentally) by the home keeper for his troubles.
When they did find a way through, it was yet another case of a goalkeeper being stranded, and an empty net chance taken. Maybe the keeper was distracted by the almost biblical hailstorm that suddenly whipped up on a previously sunny afternoon. The ref took the players off for shelter rather than restart immediately.
If Amersham thought they could press on for a win after half time, they were in for another shock, as BA took the lead again. This time, a cross couldn’t be collected by the Amersham keeper, and a looping header at the near post dropped into the net.
With the half being played in the odour of jet exhaust being blown in from the runway, and the roar every two minutes of departing aircraft, Amersham levelled with a shot that the home keeper, who had an otherwise decent game in his efforts to keeper the league leaders at bay, might feel he could have done better with.
British Airways then had a player sent off for a foul as the last man, although it was hardly a cut and dried decision. With twenty minutes left in the game, many might have expected Amersham to go on and win, but BA held out for a deserved draw. Amersham’s best chance was probably a shot that flashed across the six yard box, with nobody able to get a final touch, but BA had their chances too, and it’s a shame that the sending off probably robbed the game of a potentially exciting finish, where both teams would have been going for the winner. With the play-off situation, BA’s need was probably greater. On this showing, they’d be in with a very good chance.
For Amersham though, needing just eight points from their remaining seven games, it may not quite be over yet as far as promotion goes, but the fat lady is on stage and is clearing her throat, and will almost certainly be there doing an encore medley long before the season is out.
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