Three Bridges - Jubilee Field
Three Bridges Football Club
Jubilee Field
Jubilee Walk
Three Bridges
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 1LQ
BRIEF HISTORY/FACTS ABOUT THE BRIDGES:
Three Bridges Football Club was founded in 1901, playing in local leagues and in 1952-53, they became founder members of the Sussex County League and changed their name to Three Bridges United the following season. A year later they became Champions of Division Two and gained promotion to Division One but they lasted only a season at that level as they returned back to Division Two. Later on in 1964, the club reverted back to Three Bridges and in 1968-69, the club were promoted back to Division One as they finished runners-up. Relegation occurred again in 1973 but only spent 1 season in Division Two as they finished runners up again. With relegation and promotions between Division One and Two, in 1981-82, they reached the last 16 of the FA Vase before losing out at Molesey by 2-1. In 1985/86, the club finished as County League Division One runners-up, a feat they repeated both in 1987/88 and 1988/89. They were also runners-up of the RUR Cup in 2003-04 but won the same prestigious trophy in 2007/08. Hopes were high in 2010/11 as Three Bridges won their 1st 9 league games of that season, however they did win the John O'Hara League Challenge Cup for the 1st time that season beating Rye United 2-1. In the FA Cup, the furthest the club have got is the 2nd round Qualifying rounds, losing to Kingstonian in 1982, Sittingbourne in 1983 and Aveley in 2002. At the time of typing, during the season I have visited Three Bridges, the club has been knocked out of the FA Cup after a 3-2 defeat against Phoenix Sports.
THE GROUND:
Three Bridges currently play at Jubilee Field and has a capacity 1,500, with the main stand holding around 200 and another smaller stand on the side holding about 70 in total. Three Bridges train station is around a 10-15 minute walk from the ground.
MY VISIT:
Three Bridges 2-0 Sevenoaks Town
Tuesday 18th September 2018
Isthmian League South East Division
My 1st visit to Three Bridges came in September 2018. It was a choice of 3 games (picture below) Potters Bar Town v Worthing, Bowers & Pitsea v Aveley and of course Three Bridges v Sevenoaks Town. After a phenomenal 257 votes from the people of Twitter, it was a brilliant poll to follow for a week as soon as I put the poll up. Early on Three Bridges was miles in front until Bowers & Pitsea came back and were 6% up at one stage. Three Bridges came back to draw until the last 10 minutes of the poll, where Three Bridges were 2% back in front and of course that's how it stayed, with Three Bridges winning the poll. This was only my 2nd poll I've done letting the people of Twitter deciding for me on where to go for Groundhopping. My 1st one being last season with Met Police vs Wingate & Finchley (which you can read here)
So, during the week that the poll was live on Twitter, I had an interesting message from a good mate of mine I've known for years, Dartford fan Phil who had voted on the poll (which was Three Bridges) saying to me about coming to the game with me if I fancied a bit of company, which of course I wouldn't say no to, always nice to have a bit of company on a Groundhopping day. So funnily enough, I saw Phil on Saturday as I arrived at Charing Cross as I was heading off to Rochdale, and he was heading off to work and let him know it was Three Bridges that won the poll and had a quick catch up. So as the week went on, my plan was to get to Three Bridges via Redhill/Tonbridge on the train, but as that might mean missing a train back and having an hour to wait, I decided to pay the extra 7 quid and go via London Bridge with only 1 change. So after deciding where to meet Phil, I left home just before 5pm and arrived into London Bridge around 5.50pm where Phil was already waiting at London Bridge and caught the next train a few minutes earlier. We arrived into Three Bridges around 6.35 and arrived at the ground around 10 minutes later. £8 admission with a £2 programme which wasn't too bad. After taking a few pictures, we then headed into the club bar, where I had a Rekordlig Strawberry & Lime, which is one of my favourite Ciders if I'm honest. Whilst having that and having a chat mainly about football on what grounds we have done and not done and just chatting in general, we got a tweet off a Crawley fan called Ross who was also heading to tonight's game, but in the end never got round to meeting, but wasn't to be helped. Afterwards Phil bought some raffle tickets, and then headed to the food bar as was getting quite hungry to this stage. I bought a Cheeseburger for £3 which was lovely and probably the best one yet so far this season. 1st half got under way and there wasn't too much between the sides with both sides having chances. Three Bridges 1st goal came from the penalty spot which did look a stonewall penalty, which saw Connor French put the ball in the net to make it 1-0. It looked like the keeper made a touch to it and it looked wide to start off with, but it did go in and Bridges made it 1-0. Before half time, the raffle numbers got announced, and luckily Phil won on the raffle which did make me laugh haha! Half time blew, and we then went to find someone who did the raffle, luckily we did and Phil picked up his prize as there was a few prizes in the raffle. Phil won a free bottle of white wine which also is one of his favourite wines apparently which was even better, so that was nice to see! 2nd half kicked off, and I was still feeling fairly peckish but also thirsty, so bought a portion of chips and a can of coke. 2nd half was pretty much the same as the 1st, with Three Bridges making it 2-0 after Trevor McGreadie on 50 minutes latching onto the keepers save from the shot to double the lead. Towards the end of the 2nd half I was hoping to see the visitors Sevenoaks pull one back to make it interesting, but sadly they didn't and that's how it stayed. It finished 2-0 to Three Bridges, with the home side picking up their 1st win of the season, and Sevenoaks staying winless with only a point so far this season. Afterwards we rushed to get the 9.43 train from Three Bridges which luckily we just made, and arrived into London Bridge around 10.38. Phil got his train a few minutes later and I left just before 11pm and arrived home shortly after 11.30pm. An enjoyable night which saw me tick off ground 140 and a good little ground to visit with some nice scenery.
GROUND PHOTOS:
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