This weekend, the Men’s First Team take on Hartley Wintney at the Robert Parker Stadium. It is an odd quirk of the stop-start season the squad is enduring that this match is only the third Saturday fixture of the season, seven weeks into the campaign.
Thanks to the two clubs’ shared history in the Combined Counties League, Hartley Wintney are one of the sides the First Team has played most regularly, with Saturday being the 34th match between the Ash Trees and the Row. Between 1994 and 2000, Ashford reeled off 13 successive victories over the Hampshire club, including a 10-0 away win but the tables have turned somewhat over the last decade.
In the 2015-16 season, Ashford could only take one point from their two matches against the eventual League Champions but could take comfort in being promoted as runners-up because improvements to The Memorial Fields weren’t quite ready. Hartley retained their title the following season and were promoted into the Southern League Division One East. In their first Step 4 season, the Row did the double over Ashford on their way to a second successive promotion. The next three matches between the sides were all won by Hartley Wintney. The sides last met during the 2024-25 season; a Barsa Mirtahmasebi goal gave Ashford a 1-0 away win in the Isthmian League, a 0-0 draw in the Aldershot Senior Cup which Hartley won on penalties and a 3-1 defeat in one of the first matches played on our 3G pitch, Jack Arnold scoring Ashford’s goal.
Fast forward to the present day and an intriguing and evenly matched contest looks likely. Both have recently played Littlehampton Town with markedly different results. Although the Row romped to an 8-1 away win and Ashford drew 2-2 with the Golds, both matches were affected by dismissals. In Ashford’s case, the first half sending off of Reuben Collins had a massive negative impact, as Littlehampton rallied from 0-2 to claim a point. A week later, Littlehampton collapsed in spectacular fashion when Scott Faber saw red after 32 minutes. The score at the time was 2-0 and Hartley ran riot in the second half, scoring five unanswered goals.
Oddly, both teams then followed their match against Littlehampton with a game against AFC Stoneham. Here, Town fared better, winning 2-0 down in Southampton while Hartley needed a late equaliser to take a point off the Purps.
In terms of overall form, there is just a point between the Tangerines and the Row, who have eight points from five matches compared to Ashford’s seven from the same number of games.
With no Premier League or Championship football taking place this weekend, we hope as many local football fans as possible will visit the Robert Parker Stadium to enjoy some entertaining play, some of the finest food in non-League football and good value drinks pricing. Everyone is welcome to ‘double up’ and watch England v Spain in Ernie’s Bar after the main event has finished. The match programme and Football Web Pages data feed for the game will be available from the Match Centre.
