We performed ‘Soccer Saturday’ and lucked out with drive to gorgeous new non-league floor

You may have heard of it, gather your mates around the TV at 3pm on a Saturday and head to the town of the first team to score. Well, that is all a bit chaotic for my liking so while maintaining the thrill of a lottery, for my football team’s Christmas social I instead gave us a week to prepare.

Still lost? I don’t blame you, so let me explain how I ended up driving half my team to one of the UK’s newest football grounds in questionable clobber, to say the least.

How it works

As most the team took to the pitch for the second half on December 7, those unable to play had our eyes firmly on the 3pm fixtures from the Premier League down to League Two. The fate of the following (match-less) weekend hinged on who would find the back of the net first. Adding a hint of spice to proceedings, Storm Darragh’s devastation managed to chalk off a few of the 29 scheduled matches, with grounds ruled unfit and conditions for fans deemed too dangerous.

Would we be travelling the length and breadth of the country or getting an underwhelming half-hour trip to the capital? I for one was hoping for a town I’d never considered visiting. As it was, Cambridge United bagged the time slot’s opening goal on the third minute. A good job too because Crystal Palace were second and I’m not too sure how a night in Croydon would have been received. With the U’s fixture on December 14 away at Wrexham, we had to look elsewhere in the city for our match day fix. Arise Cambridge City FC a few divisions lower in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division.

Getting there

According to Google Maps, our Chelmsford base in Essex is a mere hour away from City’s brand spanking new stadium in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. With a (planned) 18 of us that’s a fair few car loads. Funnily enough splashing out on trains into London and back out again only to then require taxis to run us to the ground and back again, wasn’t too appealing an idea. That’s where Turo came in, an app for car hiring and sharing other people’s vehicles when you need them most. You know like when you want to seat eight teammates on the road together.

Writing this I still feel bad making Godfred, the owner of our Hyundai i800, wait so long for me to meet him. The great thing about the app is for a fee, vehicle ‘hosts’ will come to you, saving the transport issue to a pick-up spot. The only issue for me was a delayed train back from Derby, where I’d watched Portsmouth on the wrong end of a battering the night before.

Godfred was super patient with me as I pinged him messages on the Turo app, updating him on my tardiness. Once I finally got home, there it was. My bastion of mobility for the next 24 hours. Glimmering under the Saturday morning sunlight and just like that the keys were in my hand. No faff of on-the-spot form filling or waivers, that had all been signed off on the app. Godfred explained it ran on Diesel and how to move the seats, then it was all me at the wheel of the giant 2017 motor.

Swiftly learning the Hyundai’s size as I navigated a couple single lane city roads, the tour bus was in full swing as teammates piled in at the Springfield FC clubhouse. The drive itself? Went without a hitch even if my passengers could tell the brake took a bit of getting used to. Most importantly, the car speakers passed the ‘party bus’ test with flying colours.

The Match

“What is it? A stag do? Better dressed for the darts as a Grays Athletic fan pointed out, the lot of us arrived in the surprisingly rural two-week-old FWD-IP Community Stadium. Our second-hand secret Santa went exactly how you’d expect with various degrees of stitching each other up on display for all to laugh / roll their eyes at.

Arriving 90 minutes early, we waltzed through the turnstiles to the sight of a stunning pitch a few yards away and to the left, a club shop under the shelter of a gazebo. Being a chilly, sunny afternoon, I couldn’t look beyond a City bucket hat before venturing into the bar for a coffee and Mars bar. The beer taps for non-drivers looking for a pint or two were complemented by an independent brewer’s van of craft options outside. Review of those must await.

Across one end of the pitch were two burger vans, one of which I hit up and I kid you not my Algerian burger for around £6 was the best I’ve had in and around a ground and well worth the 10 minute wait. Despite my new hat, I found myself behind the goal with the vocal Grays massive who saw a City shot dramatically cleared off the line.

It was a tasty 2-1 win to the home side come full time with a penalty save denying the visitors an equaliser. Post-match entertainment came courtesy of a busy body mate of mine who mistook an Isthmian club’s equipment budget for that of a Premier League giant’s. Spotting a boy upset he couldn’t take the match ball home, matey bizarrely had the audacity to march into the home team’s dressing room to plea for the ball back. Like some warped Robin Hood-Santa he left with the yellow Mitre in hand to put an end to those aforementioned tears.

Game’s gone.

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