WEMBLEY FC (Vale Farm)

I started the week where I will be finishing the week...at Wembley!

Ok, it's wasn't Wembley stadium itself but at the nearby Vale Farm, home of the Wembley football club.

Wembley, who are mid table in the Combined Counties League, recently hit the headlines when they began being sponsored by Budweiser, with the aim of having a good FA Cup run next season (because they sponsor the FA Cup too), who then brought in Terry Venables as a technical advisor.

El Tel wasn't here today, but there were plenty of camera's filming the proceedings (for a documentary I believe) and Martin Keown and (I think) Michel Salgado (if it wasn't him then his was a dead ringer) were in the home 'dugout' I assume as advisors in Mr Venables absence.

They would have their work cut on this evidence as the visitors from Hanworth Villa picked Wembley apart at will in a classic display of counter attacking football. In fairness though it was Wembley's first defeat in eight matches.

After early Wembley pressure, Hanworth took the lead after 15 minutes when Lawrie Shennan ran onto a defence splitting pass to give the visitors the lead. Wembley carried plenty of attacking threat but rarely troubled the Villa goalkeeper. Indeed it was Hanowrth who looked more likely to extend their lead.

It was still only 0-1 at the break but it soon became 0-2 when Levi King started and finished a move after 49 minutes. On the hour mark King had his second goal when he flicked home from a corner kick.

Wembley pulled a goal back, through  Daryl Atkins, with 15 minutes remaining to give themselves hope but, just moments later, Shennan restored Hanworth's three goal advantage. Deep, and it was deep, into stoppage time King completed his hat-trick when he tapped home from close range.

The ground resembled a building site and, with the camera's present, I was half expecting the ground force team to turn up. If the sponsorship has helped to pay for ground improvements then it's fair play, but I'll leave the final word to one supporter remarked "it will be good when all this malarkey is over and we can get back to concentrating on the football"

It was a very cold and wet morning at Vale Farm, but I never had any concern about the game being on, however the same could not be said of my next game at 3pm, Hemel Hempstead v Oxford City, which was called off due to a waterlogged pitch. This meant there was some hastily re-arranged plans for the afternoon...



Martin Keown and (is it Salgado? ) in the home dugout



11am, Monday 9th April 2012
Combined Counties Premier League
Wembley FC 1-5 Hanworth Villa
Attendance: 105 (h/c - but difficult to gauge who were genuinely watching the game and who were tv crew)