Northamptonshire Combination League
Wednesday 19th August 2026
Kick Off 18.30 Actual 18.33
Wilby 4 Stanwick Rovers 1, attendance 51
8’ 0-1 (pen)
10’ 1-1
24’ 2-1
55’ 3-1
64’ 4-1
@ Wilby Recreation Ground
Main Road
Wilby
NN8 2UE
No Admission or Programme.
For a second successive night it was a game in Northamptonshire, in the village of Wilby, just southwest of Wellingborough. The ground is off Northampton Road and is just an open pitch, with a pair of brick built dugouts. There’s a small car park, but they did open the gate that allowed half a dozen cars to park inside the field once the former was full. The pitch runs widthways in front of you, with a considerable slope down towards the road, with the changing room/clubhouse building behind the right hand goal end, where a tea bar and toilets were available. As is now the norm, the game was on straw, rather than grass.
Both teams had opened their seasons with emphatic home wins, Wilby beating Corby Stewart & Lloyds Reserves 4-1 and Stanwick Rovers beating McPave 5-0. The visitors got off to the perfect start, scoring with a penalty after just eight minutes, but held the lead for just two minutes, before a 25 yarder, in off the far post, levelled the scores. Midway through the half Wilby went in front, when a diagonal free kick from the right was headed into the far corner. They made it 3-1 ten minutes into the second half, when a ball over the top saw a player cut inside from the left, beating two defenders, before sending a shot low under the ‘keeper. They rounded off the scoring nine minutes later, with a shot on the turn into the far corner. Stanwick almost pulled one back a few minutes later, but a free kick fumbled by the Wilby ‘keeper hit the far post, but bounced back right into his arms as he scrambled to his feet.
The usual M25 problems between M4 and M40 junctions saw SatNav divert along M4 and A408 via Uxbridge on the outbound journey and a closure of the M1 at J8, not advertised on the overhead gantries or picked up by SatNav until just past J9, meant losing around thirty five minutes queuing the last 800 yards to exit the motorway and the diversion route via Hemel Hempstead was also very busy, with roadworks operating on the diversion route too.
