A bit of a drive from home, on a warm Friday evening in yet another heatwave to hit the South East, took me to the home of Sandhurst Town to enjoy some FA Vase action against Wokingham Town.

Bottom Meadow (The SB Stadium) was built with lottery funding and opened in 1997. The ground has capacity for 1950 with seating for 250, although the record attendance of 2449 was achieved in a fixture against AFC Wimbledon in 2002. An artificial pitch was installed in 2023 and the clubhouse modernised. Sandhurst Town now ground share with Bracknell Town.

Sandhurst Town, known as “the Whizzers”, play in the Wessex League Division 1, having transferred from the Combined Counties League Division 1 at the end of the 2025-26 season. Manager Carl Barrie took over in May 2026 and will have been keen to see his side continue their excellent start to the season having won their first two league games, a 0-5 victory away at Whitchurch United and a 4-1 home victory against Colden Common.

Wokingham Town play a step higher than the home side, in the Combined Counties League Premier Division. Last season “the satsumas” finished eleventh and they have started this season with four points from their opening three games. Manager Matt Eggleston would have been keen to see his team progress into the next round of the FA Vase, having secured a win in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup, with a 2-0 victory over Corsham Town, last week.

The game opened with both sides playing open and entertaining football, in stark contrast to the stereotype of cagey cup football. With fifteen minutes gone, the deadlock was broken, when a long throw was neatly finished by Sandhurst Town’s Jason Cowler to put the home side 1-0 ahead.

On thirty two minutes Wokingham Town’s captain, Sam Lynsey fired his side level, with a low shot that dipped past the keeper into the far corner, tying the scores at 1-1.

A minute later Reece Miller scored after a quick break away move, to put the home side back into a 2-1 lead. The move was so quick that it caught my filming out too! The timing of this goal really put a nail into the belief of the Wokingham Town players, coming so quickly after they had pulled themselves level. Despite a spirited remaining fifteen minutes, which saw chances for both sides, there were no further additions to the score in this entertaining game, before the half time break.

With 53 minutes on the clock Jacob Cowler added his second making it 3-1 on the night with a fine run and shot in the Wokingham Town penalty area.

Despite absorbing some opposition pressure with sixty six minutes on the clock Sandhurst Town put the game out of reach going 4-1 ahead, when Jude New latched onto an error in the Wokingham Town defence to stab the ball home.

Wokingham Town didn’t give up and created some clear cut chances but were unable to further close the gap. At fulltime it was the whizzers who progressed into the next round of the FA Vase. This was a highly entertaining game and while Sandhurst deserved the victory, Wokingham Town can take away some clear positives from the game which they can build on.