Steve Jupp, BA11's Club Historian, previews this weekend's league opener on the South Coast.
The waiting is over, pre-season is done and Frome Town, at long last, can resume life back in
the Southern League Premier Division on Saturday. They last played at this level on 27th
April 2019, a 0-2 defeat at Kings Langley and it’s taken a Herculean effort, overcoming
financial disaster, a global pandemic, and near misses on the pitch, to regain their Step
Three status, won so thrillingly in that play-off final back in May.
They face a tough opener away at promotion hopefuls Gosport Borough and it will be a
poignant occasion for Sam Teale and Alex Monks, the only two players involved in that
relegation campaign who have remained with the club ever since.
Danny Greaves begins his SEVENTH season in the managerial hotseat and has brought in a
smattering of new signings in Albie Hopkins, Marcus Day, Matt Goulding and Curtis
Jemmett-Hutson, and the warm-up games have seen them blend in well. Good luck boys
and hopefully, your time at the club will be long and successful.
Gosport finished in an impressive fourth place last season, attracting an average home gate
of well over 800, but were edged out by Salisbury in a play-off semi and our paths last
crossed in the 2018-19 campaign, The Robins winning 2-0 here at The Hill but going down
1-3 at Privett Park.
The Hampshire side had a fabulous and rapid rise up the non-league ladder a decade or so
ago with Frome playing no small part in their success. Gosport had won promotion to the
Southern Prem though the play-offs in 2012 and on the last day of the following season, a
team managed by none other than Derek Graham and including Luke Ballinger in goal for
the entire match, drew 1-1 at promotion hopefuls Barwell, enabling The Boro to leapfrog
them and claim the final play-off spot where they were triumphant once again.
Now, all of a sudden, in National League South, they made it all the way to Wembley for the
2014 FA Trophy final. Losing out to Cambridge United but they enjoyed three further
campaigns at Step Two.
Their own pre-season has gone well, winning seven games out of eight, including a small
degree of revenge at Salisbury (1-0) and while this is one of the toughest fixtures Frome
could have been handed, fans can take heart from an impressive opening day record
accumulated by their side.
The Robins have not lost their first game of any season since 2003 when they went down
0-2 at Odd Down in the Western League. Since then, that’s TWENTY opening day fixtures
unbeaten, fifteen wins and five draws including the most recent, that forgettable 0-0 with
Cribbs twelve months ago.
Will they make it twenty-one? If they can reproduce that play-off form from three months
ago which procured the prize of promotion, they’ve every chance.
Match Details
For those who plan on travelling to this game, tickets can be purchased at the link below with adult entry currently priced at £12, concession entry at £8, U16s entry at £4 and admission for U12s is FREE.
Tickets for our home game against Merthyr Town are available for sale!
Now the fixture list is out, don't miss the chance to take advantage of our Season Tickets which you can secure on the FanBase app (link below) as well as all of our league fixtures in August and September!
I think that most Frome fans would feel that a draw would be an excellent result and set us up perfectly for the next two home games . Hopefully we can keep our unbeaten home record, get our first win and pick up some points to achieve a solid start to the season.
If we can avoid defeat at Gosport , get some decent weather and with a few making the long journey from Merthyr, I reckon we could be looking at a gate of between 800 – 1,000. Kane returning in Merthyr colours adds to the draw of the game.
We last we played in the Premier Division was in 2018 / 19 when our average gate was only…