Wodson Park

Wodson Park FC was a non-league football club from the town of Ware in Hertfordshire who were formed in 1997 by John Murphy, moving  into the arena at the newly built Wodson Park Sports Centre. The men's side finished competing shortly into the 2019-20 season.

The club became members of the Hertford & District League where they were place in Division Three. Park won the title at the first attempt and won a further two promotions, from where they were accepted into the Herts County League for the 2006-07 season.

Wodson Park were placed in Division One, where they finished runners-up in 2007-08. Instead of accepting promotion to the Premier Division the club decided to apply to join the Spartan South Midlands League.

They were accepted and became members of Division Two in 2008-09. Around this time the club became tenants next door at Ware FC’s Wodson Park home. A fourth place finish in 2009-10 saw the team promoted to Division One.

The club played in the FA Cup for the first time in 2011-12 before moving back to their original home after the installation of a seated stand in 2013. The team finished towards the bottom of the table for their first four seasons in Division One before they made a marked improvement with a sixth place ending to the 2015-16 campaign.

This was followed up with a seventh place finish in 2016-17. Fifth place followed twelve months later, prior to Park ending in fifteenth in 2018-19. The side started the 2019-20 season, but their record was expunged after they resigned, not having enough players to fulfill their fixtures.

Various youth sides continued playing under the same title thereafter.

My visit

Wednesday 31^st August 2016

My visit to the Wodson Park Sports Centre was to visit the home of Ware FC who were hosting the match between Hoddesdon Town and Edgware Town in the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League, as Hoddesden’s Lowfield home was still in use by the cricket club.

As I arrived early I made use of my time and had a look next door and took some photos of the arena, which was in use by athletes doing their training. The venue had taken quite a bit of stick for its lack of facilities on various fans forums.

There was a single bit of cover by way of a modern seated stand beyond the athletics track on the sport centre side. It wasn’t any worse than some other venues I’d visited in the past at the same level of football. The near end had a grass bank behind the curve to offer a bit enclosure with 4G pitches atop.

I would imagine that the football club would struggle to collect admission fees as spectators had a free view of the pitch from several vantage points.

Although I’d see Wodson Park in action in away games against Edgware and Harpenden Town I had still to see a game at their home ground, which I vowed to put right when the opportunity arose.