BALDOCK TOWN BEAT THE BIG FREEZE!

The snow covered terrace yesterday afteroon

Away from the many organised ground hopping games that are played each year yesterday’s Hertfordshire Senior County game at Norton Road between table topping Baldock Town and Standon & Puckeridge may well lay claim to being the most hopped game ever.

With no games on in the local area due to the snow and severe weather there was a large crowd of neutrals at the ground that has a 3G artificial pitch.

Baldock Town are having their best season since the club were ‘re-formed’ out of the ashes of the old Baldock Town in 2003. The new club were simply called Baldock from 2003 to 2006 and then Baldock Town.  Going in to the game they were top of the table by six points above their nearest challengers Metropolitan Police (Bushey) with third placed Codicote (who have played 3 more games) way back by a margin of 13 points.

Town had a record of 18 wins from their 21 games with only one defeat coming at home against Sandridge Rovers on Saturday 29^th October.

S&P were in eighth position on 8 wins from 23 games with their last game being a 3-5 home defeat to Chipperfield Corinthians.  They have been involved in some amazing games this season with a 4-8 defeat to Bedmond Sports & Social in the Aubery Cup and a 5-5 league draw at Met Police Bushey standing out.



Some of the snow that had been previously removed off of the 3G pitch

The two teams had met twice before in the league (Baldock won 2-3) and in the Anagram Records Trophy (Baldock won 5-0) and it was another defeat for Standon yesterday.
Most of the people present made the excellent decision of sitting in the far stand at the ground which has an unobstructed view from the cage around the pitch and also an added bonus of the sun warming them up in the sub zero tempretures. It was reported that it was -3 at midday in Baldock Town centre.

Baldock’s front pairing of Kane Dougherty and Louis Taylor were impressive all afternoon against a Standon backline which worked hard and didn’t really deserve to be on the back of a 5-1 defeat. Both have played at a higher level in the Spartan South Midlands League with Stotfold with Taylor leading the league’s scoring charts on 29 goals prior to yesterday afternoon’s game.

Standon’s goal was arguably the best  of the game coming in the second half when a mazy run was finished off from the edge of the box with a outside of the boot strike into the top corner.  Baldock may argue their fifth was the best which was a chip from outside of the box also into the corner of the net. Both goals were fantastic high quality finishes.

Hopefully some of the money generated from the bumper crowd yesterday will help Baldock raise some of the £2,160 needed to get their pitch inspected and passed for possible promotion (if they finish in the correct position in the league) to the Spartan South Midlands League for the 2012/13 season. If the club do get promotion it’ll be brilliant to see the Hertfordshire  town’s name represented further up the non-league pyramid towards where the old club left in 2001.

Yesterday’s goal haul was the seventh time in twenty six league and cup matches Baldock have scored five+ goals this season

Baldock travel to Metropolitan Police Bushey on Saturday 7^th April which is looking like the title decider in the Premier Division.

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS BELOW
(minus Baldock's 2nd goal which wasn't captured on camera. They are worth a watch for Standon's goal from 4mins 17secs and Baldock's fifth goal from 5mins 55secs)  


Finally a note for my lovely sister-in-law (she's married to a Manchester United fan but it doesn't make her all bad!) who works with Baldock's Kane Dougherty - I tried and failed to get the word Smorgasboard into the match report.