Match Preview

Next up - Biggleswade United home on Tuesday, 25th July at Wodson Park, Wadesmill Road, Ware, SG12 0UQ, Friendly. Kick off 7.45pm.

Admission - £5 adults, £2.50 concessions, children under 14 free with a paying adult.

Match poster here.

Biggleswade United are another team we might have been meeting in the Spartan South Midlands League this season if it weren't for Worcester City's decision to down size to Step 5.

In any event this will be their first visit to Ware, our three previous meetings all having been in Bedfordshire. We drew the first in the East Anglian Cup on a very frosty night back on 18th February 2003. An own goal and one from Peter Ulatowski (his only one for Ware) took us to extra time but there were no further goals until the penalty shoot out which we lost 8-7.

We had better luck in 2012 when Louis Rose scored the only goal of the game in an FA Cup preliminary round tie before we drew 2-2 again in last year's pre-season friendly with Gareth Price and Brian Haule getting the goals.

As for the club itself, a superficial view might suggest that United live in the shadow of Biggleswade Town who in 2009 emerged from years in what by then was Step 5 to join the Southern League and last season finished 7th in the premier division. But United have made a name for themselves with some interesting appointments including Sky Sports journalist Guillem Balagué as director of football. Balagué says he is in it for the long term as he and Chairman Chris Lewis continue to build for the future.

Certainly United have made progress and after a 20th place finish in 2010/11 they have improved their final position each year until last season's 9th place and the odds seem to be on further improvement in 2017/8. I expect a tough test for Ware in their penultimate friendly of the summer.