FA Vase R3 AFC Stoneham 4 Cinderford Town 0

6 December 2025

So that’s three successive away Saturdays for Brock, and three postponements – the weather hasn’t been treating us kindly!  However, today we found an alternative: FA Vase, Round 3, Stoneham v Cinderford Town.   Cinderford, known as The Foresters, currently sit 15^th in the Hellenic League Premier, with 20 points from their 16 games – and it’s a long old trek from Gloucestershire to take on the mighty Purps in their own back yard.

By the way – were you, dear reader, also wondering why it’s called the Hellenic League?  The answer is that nobody seems to know – the original clubs wanted to call it the Coronation League (as it was founded in 1953) but that was rejected by the FA, so they went with Hellenic, with at least one note that several leagues (including the Isthmian after all) were “named after things to do with Ancient Greece whose values were widely admired, especially sportsmanship and hospitality”.  So now you… don’t really know, no. 

It would be harsh to call this a walk in the park for Stoneham, but they were comfortably the better side and didn’t have to be at their best to progress...  Cinders didn’t go to the ball.  An early Martins shot span just wide after it deflected off a defender… the visitors were using their flanks well, especially down the right, and a decent cross on 6 minutes just evaded Kian Davis at the back post, but the Purps took the lead on 12: Owen Fee in space down the right, seemed to delay too long but then clipped a pass to the edge of the box, met sweetly on the volley by Mat Bainbridge to open the scoring.  Stoneham were kept interested by visiting keeper Lewis Adams not readily catching the ball and preferring to punch or slap it away, but their next real chance was a Martins header over the bar from a Fee free kick – and then the best goal of the game, excellent slide-rule pass from Tom Annetts, Fee played the ball across for Martins to tap home from a couple of feet for 2-0, 35 minutes.  It was now looking tough for Cinderford, and it was about to get a whole lot worse: into overtime at the end of the half, Lewis Powell seemed to lead with the elbow against Jake Thomson, the officials agreed so Powell got his marching orders and the visitors were down to ten.  HT 2-0

The Foresters made a change at the start of the second half, bringing on Ryan Hiller who did bring energy and commitment up front but the early energy soon dissipated and the Purps assumed control of the game again… and on 54 minutes, a most unusual sequence of events, a powerful shot from Welch, almost caught in front of his body by Ben Vine, penalty awarded.  It was probably the right decision, although there was an argument for proximity and also that Vine had to put his arms somewhere.  Presumably these were the arguments being made by keeper Adams because he complained so much that he was sin-binned, with centre back Matthew Dennis donning the yellow jersey for ten minutes – which he started by saving Fee’s penalty, to the amusement of everyone around me.  That ten minute period of 11 versus 9 was pretty much the alamo, with the visitors sitting in and just about managing to block everything thrown at them (huge credit here to Dennis, who had one uncertain moment but was confident under the high ball and brave at feet).  Back up to ten, Cinderford weren’t able to mount a sustained challenge; 69 minutes, a shot from Sampson through a crowd of players, missed by everyone and bouncing back off the far post… one minute later, Sampson cut inside and hit a curling shot which was destined for the far corner until it smashed into Martins about six yards out and went wide (and he was also miles offside).  Two minutes later, a lovely move, Martins with the final pass but sub McIlroy arriving at the back post put his effort wide.  But finally, 74 minutes, McIlroy down the left, his cross caused chaos, bounced loose and Martins smashed home for 3-0.  After that the game rather meandered towards its conclusion, the Foresters showed some resistance but the outcome was inevitable, and with 6 minutes left Annetts was tripped in the box, Martins scored the penalty to complete his hattrick, and the scoreline took on a look which was more in keeping with the game.  FT 4-0

So yeah, it was quite fun.  Of course I’d have preferred watch Brock, but that wasn’t available and a Vase game is a reasonable alternative.  And while I may not be a Stoneham fan, I was with them today, supporting the Wessex League.  Let’s hope for some better weather this week and a cup tie for the Badgers next weekend.