A VERY LOCAL DERBY FRIDAY NIGHT DERBY AS WOOTTON BLUE CROSS PLAYED WOOTTON BLUE CROSS
It's great to see such the historic name of Wootton Blue Cross Football Club on the up this season. The club have a heritage that stretches back to their formation in the late 1880's - they played in the United Counties League up until 2013 as well as the FA Cup and FA Vase as recently as 09/10 and 17/18. The history of the 'Blue Cross' name comes from reportedly the manager of Hitchin Blue Cross disbanded the team in Hertfordshire and formed the new club in Bedfordshire in 1887.
There will be fans in the village who fondly remember the club's run to the Fourth Round of the FA Vase in the 02/03 season when they beat Long Buckby, Holmer Green, Cheshunt, Didcot Town and Thamesmead Town before losing at home to Whitley Bay whom at the time were the current holders of the competition having beaten Tiptree United in the 2002 Final at Villa Park.
Blue Cross have their first team currently in second place of the Bedfordshire County Football League Division Two, their reserve team top of the table in Division Three and their under 23 side top of Division Five. They also have a ladies, the Wootton Blue Cross Lionesses, who play in the Eastern Region Women's Football League Division One North.
This made the Friday night fixture under the lights at Weston Park of Wootton v Wootton in the Bedfordshire County league's Watson Shield as the Reserves played the under 23 side a unique and very interesting one. It's certainly a rare occurrence in football when two teams from the same club play each other in a competitive game but I'm sure more knowledgeable people will be able to tell me when it's happened before in the comment's section below.
The last (and only) time I have visited the ground was back in 2019 when Shefford Town & Campton won the Bedfordshire County League title on the final day of the season with a 1-1 draw against Marston Shelton Rovers.
It was good to see a decent crowd mostly within the main stand with a few other's scattered around the fully railed pitch that could easily host Step Six football.
What wasn't good was the weather - For the first day of April it felt like mid-winter and easily below zero as the game progressed. It was definitely the coldest I've felt watching football for many years. It was certain we had had four seasons in a day in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire with it being sunny one moment and then snowing the next.
The game was a really well contested one with tackles flying in at times with the younger side giving as good as they got to the more experienced reserve side.
The under 23's rattled the cross bar from close range during the first half but neither team really threatened to break the deadlock during the 90 minutes meaning it finished 0-0 and went to penalty kicks.
Blue Cross's keeper was Jack Galatis who has played for Langford in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One this season and saved the first penalty kick diving down to his right hand side.
The third penalty for the reserves went miles over the crossbar giving the u23's some hope but they missed the target with their 4th and it was the Reserves who took the glory and moved into the next round with a 4-3 penalty shootout victory.
The crowd and atmosphere along with the success of the teams on the pitch as well as the ground in place shows that the name of Wootton Blue Cross may well be back playing at Step Five or Step Six of the non-league pyramid soon.
WOOTTON BLUE CROSS FIRST TEAM FIXTURES
Sat 9th April - BEDFORD SA
Sat 16th April - Soccerlise
Mon 18th April - AFC Oakley Reserves
Wed 20th April - AFC Kempston Town & Bedford College Reserves
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