28/08/21 Review: Weston-super-Mare vs Metropolitan Police

Weston-super-Mare 0-1 Metropolitan Police (Southern League Premier, South Division) The Optima Stadium

Bank Holiday weekends are a thing of beauty and in particular the August edition always makes for some great groundhopping. The chances of decent weather are as high as they can be in this country, so this time around I headed off to the South-West of the country in search of a triple-header. Having ticked off fifteen grounds in the region already, The Optima Stadium would be my 207th ground altogether but astonishingly my first Southern League Premier, South Division ground.

Behave yourself lads, the police are in town

Last weekend's trip to Essex to see Basildon United beat White Ensign in the FA Cup took me to what traditionally had been more geographically familiar territory for this match's visitors who played in the Isthmian Leagues up until 2017/18. The 2018/19 restructure saw them shuffle over to the Southern League which means they face many trips across the M4 nowadays, being one of the league's most Easterly outfits. Compared to the 500-mile round trip to Truro City, this mere three hour each way trek across to Weston-super-Mare would be considered light work for the lads. Having travelled almost three hours myself from Stafford in the delightfully caravan-heavy Bank Holiday traffic, I was grateful at least to be spending three days in Severn Beach with Pint of Football's other half, Tom, to make it feel a bit less of a mission. Arriving in the Somerset seaside hub by around 2pm, I met up with local loony Andy Baxter so we could observe our first trip to The Optima together.

Always a pleasure to remind an Everton fan what proper football looks like

Both sides had made reasonable starts to the 2021/22 campaign, with WSM starting the day in 3rd place after two wins and one defeat, whilst the Met Police sat just below their hosts having won one game and drawn their other two so far. The Seagulls and the Old Bill were expected to contest a fierce game in the sun and in my pre-match prediction I guessed that the hosts would just about edge it- wrongly backing the home side for a 2-1 win. Weston-super-Mare has a fairly rich and unique history within the beautiful game, having been moved around the leagues over the years. Interestingly, they have only ever suffered one relegation in their 134 year history and that came in 2019. Their highest ever league position was a 7th place finish in the 2012/13 edition of the Conference South and a couple of years later they raked in their largest crowd in an FA Cup bout with Doncaster Rovers. The club has gone as far as the Second Round in the world's oldest cup competition and also boast a trophy cabinet filled with local cups such as the Somerset Premier Cup as recently as 2019 and the Western League title of 1992. Their opponents on the other hand are mainly known for being the team of the Metropolitan Police and perhaps more substantially for their recent run in the FA Cup where they unfortunately lost out to Newport County in a match that could have arguably gone either way.

Alas, we're here for some Southern League action this time

The Optima Stadium is a decent ground and although it's not the best step three non-league ground in the country it's definitely a good effort. Rumours are that the club aims to rebuild and shoot for the EFL in the future, but as a first-time viewer I'd be pretty happy to call this my local. For the game in question, things kicked off as expected with the hosts on top- although the visitors very much had the best chances of the first-half. Baxter and I were slightly distracted by the fact that a local "character" came over and spent as much time as he could spare telling us all sorts of weird and wonderful stories of the club. I won't go into too much detail in the blog, but highlights from the Scotsman included tales of being a Berwick Rangers fan years ago, apparently getting sacked by the Seagulls twice whilst serving as a steward for the club. Safe to say that we soon moved away from the storytelling senior in order to try out the bar whilst the action on the pitch continued to unfold. With a pint in one hand and a portion of chips and curry sauce in the other, it was time to get stuck into the game.

No goals to report yet, though

Despite the first-half ending goalless, there were plenty of decent chances with the hosts hitting the bar from range and the Met had a couple of golden opportunities themselves that their striker some how didn't put away. Much like with my other August games to this point, it would prove to be a tense goal with only one goal to separate the teams. With Eurovision banger "Euphoria" playing at the start of the interval, we got chatting to a different character from the ground and this time it was a travelling supporter the kit man from the Old Bill's team. Unlike the whacky tales shared with us from the home fan earlier, this guy gave us an interesting exchange of conversation which included a bit of information about the Met's Imber Court ground, how the club operates in terms of relying on youth recruitment due to their low budget, the lowdown on how the club have been finding trips to the likes of Swindon Supermarine and Taunton Town compared to Canvey Island and Leatherhead, and most crucially he told us a story about how the club made an enemy out of Theo Paphitis whilst the Dragon was the chairman of the Isthmian League. Between the crazy Scotsman ranting at us about how stewarding should be done and this guy from the Met, we'd learnt all we needed to know about the two clubs on display and with that we took up a standing position away from the crowds for the start of the second-half.

Photo of the main stand, located behind the goal and housing plenty of home fans

According to the matchday announcer, the official attendance at The Optima Stadium on this day was 537... which may or may not have included the 1 away fan/kit man from The Met. But ultimately it would be the visitors who got the decisive goal with around fifteen minutes left of play- a corner was swung into the WSM box and defender Bernard Tanner rose like a salmon to head home. The only goal was enough to maintain their unbeaten run. Weston 0-1 Met Police. After the goal the hosts continued to put pressure on the Police, but despite the efforts of their big target man Mike Symons and former EFL striker Dayle Grubb, the Met made it to the end of the 90 minutes without the ball entering their goal. A hard blow for Weston to take after dominating large spells of the battle, although questions will no doubt be asked about why their possession didn't lead to more regular chances. Lloyd Humphries, a Welshman formally on the books of Cardiff City, snapped up the Player of the Match award but ultimately it'll be a pretty hollow honour after he was unable to inspire his team to at least one of the three points they'd have been hoping for before kick-off. And with the August Bank Holiday the games come thick and fast for the clubs, with Weston-super-Mare hosting midtable Tiverton today (Monday) and Met Police will head out for their fourth of five straight away days as they face local rivals and fellow unbeaten club Walton Casuals. No doubt I'll keeping an eye on how these two clubs progress with their respective seasons, but in the meantime I'm going to sign off with a thanks to the Seagulls for hosting a decent game on a sunny Saturday afternoon which provided me with another chance to tick off a really good non-league ground. Keep up the good work and best of luck for the season.

There's plans for a new ground, but personally I'm a big fan of the Optima

And as for the Met Police, it seems a weird thing to write down but I look forward to visiting you in the future- hopefully in a non-legal capacity!