Next up - Bishop's Stortford home on Tuesday, 7th February at Wodson Park, SG12 0UQ, Herts Senior Cup semi-final. Kick off 7.45pm. MATCH ON after inspection.
Admission £8, concessions £4.
Both clubs will look on this game and competition as the only chance they have of winning honours this season. That is unless you count avoiding relegation as an honour in which case both would take that if it came to a choice.
Bishop's Stortford have spent most of the season struggling in the National League South. A change of management saw Gordon Boateng replaced by Steve Smith and Mark Hawkes in October but the circumstances at Woodside Park at the moment have offered the duo little more chance of success and at the time of writing Stortford are second from bottom with three teams due to go down.
Former Ware player Corey Davidson joined them in January this year. He played six games for us last season and scored one goal - against Northwood in the Southern League Cup. Corey appeared in last Tuesday's Charity Cup semi-final which Stortford lost at home to Cheshunt by 2-1.
Ware's league troubles don't seem as severe though a poor run at the end of 2016 saw the club drop worryingly close to the relegation zone. That too prompted a management change and the raising of hope which seemed justified by the 5-0 win at Great Wakering not to mention the weekend win over Aveley. But it's still early days so a win in the Senior Cup would help reinforce those hopes.
The other semi-final is between the holders and 13 times winners Hitchin Town and Cheshunt who are yet to win the trophy but have been runners up on nine occasions.
A bit of historical analysis.
This will be the 16th meeting of Ware and Bishop's Stortford in the Senior Cup though only the second in a semi-final. We won the other semi 2-1 but lost to Boreham Wood in the 2008 final after taking a 2-0 lead. That was the last of our two appearances in the final so far this century. Stortford have made four final appearances in the same period, winning the cup on three occasions.
In total, Ware have won the cup five times since it was first competed for in 1886/7. Four of those victories came before Stortford had won it at all but they have since overhauled us with 12 wins.
At least the 15 previous pairings between us in the Senior Cup have been shared more evenly with Ware winning 7 and Stortford 8. One of their wins was via a replay so there have been 16 matches overall but interestingly only four of them have been at Ware. In fact we played away to Stortford on ten consecutive occasions after the 2-2 home draw of 22nd November 1930 and didn't play at home again until that semi-final on 26th February 2008.
Of course there have been plenty of other meetings between us with Tuesday's game being the 122nd in all competitions. That places Stortford 4th in the list of our most regular opponents behind Hertford (184 meetings), Hoddesdon (165) and Harlow whose recent run of league matches against us has raised our total of meetings to 129.
Our ten latest matches against Bishop's Stortford:-
9 May 1997 | Herts Charity Cup Final | A | 0 | 4 | |
29 July 2003 | Herts Charity Cup Rd 2 | H | 2 | 4 | Mangodza, Greenwood |
26 February 2008 | Herts Senior Cup Semi Final | H | 2 | 1 | Frendo, Neilson |
26 July 2008 | Herts Charity Cup Rd 1 | H | 4 | 0 | Berry, Sharman, Frendo, Ellerbeck |
9 December 2008 | Herts Senior Cup Rd 2 | H | 4 | 1 | Stewart, Gudgeon, Frendo, Bardle |
22 February 2011 | Herts Charity Cup Semi Final | H | 0 | 3 | |
30 July 2011 | Herts Charity Cup Rd 1 | H | 0 | 1 | |
29 January 2013 | Herts Senior Cup Rd 3 | A | 0 | 3 | |
1 August 2013 | Herts Charity Cup Rd 1 | A | 1 | 6 | Foster |
19 January 2016 | Herts Senior Cup Rd 3 | A | 0 | 1 |
Our best and worst against Bishop's Stortford:-
24 October 1925 | Herts Charity Shield Rd 1 | H | 10 | 0 | Brenchley 5, Dearman 4, Capel |
6 October 1987 | Herts Senior Cup Rd 1 | A | 0 | 6 |