Ground: Wodson Park Sports Centre
Capacity: 1,000
Club Founded: 1997
League: Youth Football (current level)
Wodson Park FC was a non-league football club from the
town of Ware in Hertfordshire, 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 placed in Division Three. Park won three promotions to be 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. 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. The team finished towards the bottom of the table for
their first four seasons in Division One before they made a marked improvement.
Park ended in fifteenth place in 2018-19. The side started the following season, but their record was expunged after resigning, not having enough players to fulfil their fixtures. Various youth sides continued playing under the same title thereafter.
My visit
Wednesday 31st 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
Hoddesdon’s Lowfield home was still in use by the cricket club.
As I arrived early, I headed 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 sports 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 of 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.
