November. The start of another FA Cup campaign. The 4^th Qualifying Round in October doesn’t yet count. I couldn’t make the Crewe game, so I looked around for a local game. AFC Wimbledon and Staines were on the short list, but Wealdstone v Rotherham won the day. Then my troubles started.

Various web sites had the game as happening on Saturday or Sunday. I established it was Sunday, next, where’s the ground. Their club site solved the problem. I typed the postcode into a web map site, "Postcode Not Found". I knew they’d moved ground several times, but this was silly Knowing they ground share, I looked up the Ruislip Manor FC , their landlord. They’re a minor league side, so minor they don’t have a web site. A few more searches and their home ground was located. Its in a pleasant, leafy suburb of Ruislip, set behind rows of semi detached houses in Betjamin’s Metrolands.

Back to the Wealdstone’s web site, it offered full details of how to get to the ground, but my local knowledge was better than the web site. They proffered a normal service on the underground. My local knowledge told me that they’d be severely disruption caused by the usual weekend engineering works.

Eventually, having navigated around the weekend engineering works on the replacement bus service, I got there just in time.

I wasn’t put off by high admission price or even the £3 programme.

A familiar face, Andy Warrington, was in goal for Rotherham. He gave a competent enough performance.

Wealdstone put up a good fight, without ever looking too dangerous, going down 3-2, with 2 goals from their midfield dynamo Ryan Ashe.

"Nimble with fast feet and excellent vision to pick a pass, always a threat in and around the opponent's box", says their web site, Ashe lived up to his billing If he wasn’t 29, I’d predict a Football League future. If he did, he’d be following in the footsteps of fellow Wealdstone old boys such as Stuart Pearce, Vinnie Jones, Jermaine Beckford and a host of other players who’ve graduated to the bright lights of Barnet and Dagenham.

When I first moved to London, I was working in central Harrow, literally 100 yards down the road was Lower Mead, the ancestral home of Wealdstone. Financial shenanigans saw them sell up and begin a nomadic existence, A ground share at Watford almost bankrupted them. They then plied their trade with ground shares with the likes of Yeading, Edgware and Northwood.

More recently, they hooked up with one of Barnet’s many plans for a new ground, hoping to return to the borough of Harrow. As those plans stalled, Wealdstone acquired a majority holding in Ruislip Manor’s ground and moved there in time for the start if the 2008/9 season. A move which saw Ruislip Manor’s then ground sharing incumbents, Tokyngton Manor F.C, unceremoniously booted out.

It is doubtful if Wealdstone will ever re-capture their glory days. In the 1960s, they were a leading amateur side, winning The FA Amateur Cup Final at Wembley or the 1980s when they reached the upper echelons of The Conference, won The FA Trophy and vied with the likes of Scarborough for the position of non league’s number one club. In the days prior to automatic promotion to The Football League, they once even applied for promotion.

Nowadays, they play in The Rymans Premier League, one division below Conference South. Let’s hope with a stable base in Ruislip they can prosper.