Match Information
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Hartpury University 7-0 Bovey Tracey
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When: Saturday 3th December 2022
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Kick-off: 3pm
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Where: Football Pitch 1, Hartpury University and Hartpury College, Hartpury, Gloucestershire GL19 3BE
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Competition: The Isuzu FA Vase Third Round Proper
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Attendance: 113
Once again, I scoured the fixtures with a fine toothcomb to find a match I could attend in my favourite competition - The Isuzu FA Vase. I decided on Hartpury University FC as they are in their first season at Step 6 of the national Non-League Pyramid.
The students’ side have moved up to the Hellenic League Division One from the Herefordshire Football League where they recorded a 100% record with 20 wins from 20 outings during the 2021/22 campaign.
I have been to a few higher education football clubs in the past. The most prominent at the moment are Loughborough Students FC who sit on top of the United Counties League Premier Division North.
Indeed, Loughborough reached the FA Vase Semi-Final last season before bowing out to Littlehampton Town.
Looking further back, Team Bath FC won promotions through the Western League and the Southern League in the early part of this century to play in what is now the National League South at Step 2.
They also appeared in the FA Cup First Round three times including 2002 when a bumper home crowd of 5,469 witnessed the 4-2 defeat against Mansfield Town.
Extensive highlights from that game were screened on BBC1’s Match Of The Day programme. However, Team Bath decided to drop back into university football in 2009.
With these lovely football nostalgia memories spinning around in my head, I set off on a 250 mile round trip to Hartpury which is a small village housing 1,600 people that lies five miles north of Gloucester.
Ground Description
Football Pitch 1 is railed off and has hard standing around the perimeter plus one covered area for 50 spectators. It is part of a huge 360-hectare sports academy complex that has seen £10 million worth of investment by Hartpury University.
State of the art facilities include a multi-sports hall, 3G artificial pitches, a rugby stadium complete with large grandstand, power and cross-training gyms, biomechanics and human performance labs, a restaurant and a rehabilitation suite.
More than 35 former Hartpury students have signed professional football contracts worldwide so the sports programme has certainly been a great success.
Programme Details
An A4 printed matchday teamsheet was handed out to spectators at the entrance hut. This supplemented the online digital programme produced by Zeeon Ltd that contained extensive video content.
In his matchday preview notes, Hartpury University manager Dr Martin Longworth set the scene by writing: "We’ve come from behind to win nine games this season, which on one hand is pleasing, but on the other is not good enough… We can’t afford to give today’s opponents that head start, they’re an excellent side who have proven themselves versus higher league opposition in the previous round.
"We’ve lost a few players through illness/injury but we have also got a few returning which is great news. We need to be on top of our game to come away with a positive result, I trust the players, it’s up to them to put in the performance on the field."
The Match
The visiting team of Bovey (pronounced “Buvvy”) Tracey were also from Step 6 having travelled 125 miles up from the Newton Abbot area in Devon as members of the South West Peninsula League Premier East.
In fact, Bovey looked decent for the opening 20 minutes of this Vase tie and had two or three well-worked chances to score. But once Hartpury found their rhythm, there was only going to be one winner.
A cascade of goals followed from Luca Robinson, Laiith Fairnie, Josh Beadle 2, Ben Baxter, Abdallah Ayobi and Kian Kang. All in all, a fine performance by Hartpury’s team of 16 to 23 year old students.
Special mention as well to the travelling Bovey fans who supported their team in good natured fashion until the final whistle despite this crushing defeat.
The People
Hartpury University club chairman Marc Richards gave me a warm welcome and filled me in on the future ambitions for his team.
In addition, I received an usual tweet from Maggie Cotter during the game which read: “Give @HartpuryUniFC a shout for me @TonyIncenzo. Pictures of my son (Hartpury Analyst) would be lovely!”
So I managed to find him filming the game and tweeted a photo back to Maggie!
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to @TonyIncenzo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 6th December 2022
