Chalk Lane, Cockfosters, Herts EN4 9JG
Kick-Off 3pm
FA Cup with Budweiser
First Qualifying Round
Saturday 14th September 2013
Cockfosters FC v AFC Rushden & Diamonds
AFC Rushden & Diamonds will play their third ever tie in the FA Cup on Saturday when they head south to face Cockfosters FC.
Cockfosters are a fellow Step 5 club, playing in the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League. Although the Diamonds have won two cup ties in replays against teams from that league this season, they will also be aware that in both of the original games which were away, they had to survive late scares in both games that could have seen them slip to defeat.
Admission prices and other information will be provided here once available. The club have provided specific car parking information – see below.
Should a replay be necessary this would be at the Dog & Duck on Tuesday evening – 17th September – KO 7:45pm.
The winner of the tie will play in the Second Qualifying Round on the weekend of 28th September. You can see more information on this season’s FA Cup on the FA Website here.
The FA have also featured this game, as well publicising AFC Rushden & Diamonds first season in the competition here.
Match Status information is here.
Our Opponents
Cockfosters FC was originally formed in 1921 by local residents and the ground allocated to the Club by Lady Bevan, from her family estate. After starting the Barnet League the club moved into the Wood Green League in the 1930’s and then the Northern Suburban Intermediate League after the war. In season 1966/67 the club joined the Herts County League before being awarded senior club status in 1991 and joining the London Spartan League – which became the Spartan South Midlands League in 1997-98 after a merger with the South Midlands League.
After being demoted to Division One due to ground grading issues in 2009, they won promotion back to the Premier Division for the start of this season after finishing as runners up in Division One last season.
You can read more about their history on their website here.
Their club colours are red, and their club website is here and their twitter feed here. They are managed by Mick Roche. There are references to their use of the nickname “Fosters” but this does not appear to be in common use, and a more common nickname is the “Reds”.
Ex-AFC Rushden & Diamonds player Peter Okechukwu plays for them.
You can see a report on their previous game in the FA Cup here – noting the usual warning about Pitchero / Mitoo websites that play unsolicited videos without warning.
Last weekend they knocked UCL Premier Cogenhoe United out of the FA Vase – 5-3 after extra time.
Directions / Getting There
Cockfosters FC play at Cockfosters Sports Ground, Chalk Lane, Cockfosters, Herts EN4 9JG. For directions for the trip of around 60 miles from the Dog and Duck see here.
Cockfosters FC have emphasised that parking in Chalk Lane itself is very limited due to yellow lines which do apply on Saturdays, and that they have extremely enthusiastic local traffic wardens, with ticketing and tow-away a regular occurrence. There are two obvious alternatives:
- Small size coaches and private cars can be accommodated free of charge within the Trent Park Country Park, the entrance of which is situated adjacent to the ground, although the actual parking area is about a ten minutes walk to the ground.
- An alternative closer car park to the ground (about 2-3 minutes walk) is the one situated at Cockfosters Underground Station, operated by NCP. This is an extremely large car park (up to about 500 cars – no coach parking) but there is a Saturday parking charge of £2.00.
You can see both car parks, and the ground on the annotated map below.
The club is running a coach for this fixture, which is now fully booked. For detail see here.
Getting to Chalk Lane by public transport is an option. The most obvious route involves getting a train to St Pancras, and then taking the Piccadilly Line, as Cockfosters is at the northern end of that line. The station is very close to the ground – see below for an overview map (courtesy Google Maps / Streetview)
For door-to-door directions see the Traveline website. Those travelling by train might consider the Groupsave Travelcard fare offers from First Capital Connect from Bedford, which can reduce the cost to a total of £40 for four people – noting this fare cannot be used on East Midlands Trains.
Other Info
A summary set of profiles for the Diamonds Players and Management is here. The fixture list for this season is here, with fixture news and a downloadable fixture list here. Individual player profiles are here, with player and match stats available here.
Player and Match Sponsorship options are detailed in the Commercial Brochure as referenced here.
Latest fixture news is here, and specific match status information here along with the next planned fixture for the various AFC Rushden & Diamonds teams. Don’t forget you can get a regular Diamonds news bulletin delivered to your inbox, including details of all the forthcoming fixtures by signing up to the Club Newsletter – you will see a sign-up box on the right-hand side of the site homepage – just under the EA Sports Logo.
For details of the history of AFC Rushden & Diamonds see here.
There are details on how to become a member of AFC R&D here, as well as news on Season Tickets, Multiple Game Tickets and related prices here.
The club depends upon volunteer support from its fanbase. If you would like to join the group who help either on matchdays or behind the scenes see here.
A full directory of UCL clubs, including links to websites, ground details (with a map pinpointing all the UCL grounds), along with club links including Twitter details plus some general UCL links is here.
The UCL Handbook, along with links to competition rules for the current season are here.
