While the Football League and Premiership big boys continue their high profile campaigns the Londonist spotlight falls this weekend on two battles for non-league cup glory.
Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park ground hosts Woking in the first leg of their FA Trophy semi-final on Saturday at 3pm. The remarkable thing about this fixture is that, while Woking currently lie 10th in the Nationwide Conference, Boreham Wood are nine points clear at the top of the Southern League Division One East, three levels below their opponents. It’s the semi-professional equivalent of Leyton Orient facing west Ham United in the last four of the FA Cup. Fittingly the winner of the tie, whose second leg is at Woking next Saturday, will play the final at Upton Park in front of television cameras on Sunday May 14th. Boreham Wood can take heart that Woking succumbed to Ashford Town of the Southern League Division One West in the Surrey Senior Cup only ten days ago.
The first leg is all ticket and to secure a place you’ll have to make it to the Boreham Wood club shop by noon. 1,500 Woking fans are planning to be there and the home side hope they can have as many as that cheering them on inside the 4,500 capacity ground. Meadow Park is on Broughinge Road approximately one mile from Elstree and Boreham Wood station which is on a direct line from King’s Cross. You can contact the club on 020 8953 5097.
Meadow Park is also the home base for the Arsenal Ladies side which on Sunday afternoon at 3pm will be facing Charlton in the FA Cup semi-final, seeking revenge for a 2-1defeat at the hands of the Valiants in the League Cup Final a fortnight ago. The tie between the two pre-eminent Ladies teams in the south is a one-off game being played at Bishops Stortford FC’s 4,000 capacity Woodside Park. The stadium is a twenty minute walk from Bishops Stortford station on the Liverpool Street to Cambridge line and is situated just off Junction 8 of the M11.
Report by Duncan Young
