I decided that my final game of the 2023-24 season would involve a DLR trip from Lewisham, near to where I had been working, up to Stratford and then back to West Ham, where I could access Plaistow and the Memorial Park ground.

Tonight’s fixture was a late catch up fixture in the step 7 Middlesex County League Premier Division between Stonewall FC and Camden United. A look at the league table showed that Stonewall came into the fixture in sixth place, with two games left to play this season but being an unreachable eleven points outside the play off places. Camden United sat in fifteenth place, although with five remaining fixtures to play.

The scarcity of fixtures at this very late stage of the season brought out a number of my groundhopping friends, old and new, to the only game of the day, including Charlie Bradford, of non-league Chronicles fame, Daniel Turner, Dave Morgan, Geoff Pearson and Alex Irons. It was great to have time tonight to chat and to get to know some of them a bit better.

The Memorial Park ground consists of simple changing facilities and then a decent 3G surface. Waiting for the game to start there were scores of children playing and being coached on the surface, so it clearly serves a valuable purpose locally.

The match kicked off with both sets of teams pushing the ball forward and taking risks in their attempts to score. With fifteen minutes on the clock, Camden United’s Vinicius Santana stabbed the ball home to put his team 0-1 ahead.

The remainder of the first half saw opportunities for both teams to score but without any real success. Just when it looked as if Camden United would head into the break 0-1 up, in the 45th minute, Stonewall’s Kola Soyoye scored with a simple tap in, to tie the half time scores at one-all.

After the break Camden United asserted much more control on the ball and began to perform at a level which belied their league form to date. Meron Barham was played neatly through on goal in the 53rd minute and he neatly slotted the ball away to put Camden United 1-2 ahead.

Camden United extended their lead in the 85th minute, to put the game out of reach of Stonewall FC, at 1-3, with a finely struck free kick by substitute Ali Abdalla.

The game ended shortly after this, when the referee made the decision to end the game on 88 minutes, after an injury to a Camden United player, which required an ambulance. I hope that the player in question recovers quickly. The score however stood and Camden United could be proud of their victory.