The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Boldmere St Michaels on 23rd January 2007 and v Cradley Town on 27th March 2007.
The ongoing saga of one man’s season.
Saturday 4th November – Racing Club v Barwell, Midland Alliance
If you ever see me at a football match with my little daughter Grace, you can be sure that there’ll be a few goals about. Over the years I’ve attended over 1,500 matches but less than 1% of them has yielded 8 goals or more. Grace on the other hand has attended just a handful of matches and has witnessed bagfuls of goals in those few games. Perhaps Sky Sports or the BBC would like to employ her? That said, plenty of goals doesn’t always make a match a cracker does it? This one wasn’t great to watch unless you’re a Barwell supporter that is. Matty Brown’s clever free kick after 13 minutes gave little clue as to the eventual outcome of the match. Racing Club were pretty well overwhelmed during a disappointing first half performance and were lucky to go in at half-time only 1-3 down. The second half looked like it might get even worse when Barwell scored their fourth a couple of minutes after the restart. Cue a little bit of respectability from the boys. It cannot be a coincidence that the upturn followed the introduction of super-sub Michael Hayden. Hot-shot Hayden scored twice, the second being the faintest of flicks with the head following yet another good free-kick from Ubong (are you sure you touched it Michael?) but Barwell had already made the game safe with a fifth with 10 minutes to go. It ended Racing Club 3 Barwell 5. Not the kind of scoreline that you’ll see every week. Perhaps that’s for the best!
Saturday 11th November – Friar Lane & Epworth v Racing Club, Midland Alliance
It
was with some trepidation that we travelled to deepest darkest Leicester to the
home of Friar Lane & Epworth (abbreviated to “FLAE” which is nowhere near
as charming as former club Friar Lane Old Boys’ acronym “FLOB”). We had heard
rumours that the locality was a bit like Beirut and that we’d be lucky to
return to a car with 4 wheels intact. Actually, nothing could be further from
the truth. Knighton Lane East bordered a public park and a Railway Line but
certainly wasn’t an intimidating place to visit in the way that Paget’s old
ground at Castle Vale for example was and the people there were very friendly.
This was a match where Racing Club took the lead three times but just couldn’t kill the opposition off. Our first scored just before half-time courtesy of Matt Brownt gave no hint of the seven goals that were to come in the second half. FLAE’s Mark Orton equalised after 63 minutes before Michael Hayden restored Racing Club’s lead after 68 minutes. Orton’s antics in that second half kept several of us amused. Right in front of where I was standing Orton fell over close to the touchline. There was clearly no contact with the Racing Club player and the officials rightly allowed play to continue. However that was an injustice too far for Orton who proceeded to berate first the linesman and then the referee for almost five minutes before his whingeing became too much for the man with the whistle who gave him the yellow card he deserved. It’s such a shame that so many players are unwilling to admit that they simply fell over or that the ball did, in fact, come off them for a throw in or a goal kick. No wonder the officials feel that they are under pressure when nobody is willing to accept their correct decisions!
A rare collectors item from Lee Hunt after 72 minutes gave Racing Club a seemingly unassailable 1-3 lead and surely the points were ours? Sadly not as FLAE pulled one back pretty well straight away and then equalised on 82 minutes. 3-3 and we were breathless. Cue a 90th minute Racing Club penalty and step forward Hot-shot Hayden for the pressure kick and his second brace in 8 days. Michael’s technique seems to be to blast them straight down the middle: effective if a little worrying – it’s a good job that the keeper decided to dive. So there we were 3-4 ahead and into added time. What could possibly go wrong? Take a bow Ryan Millerchip! An innocuous ball desperately lumped forward by FLAE was a candidate for Row Z (or the FLAE equivalent: Row C) when Chippie decided to knock it out for a corner from about 25 yards. His connection flew over the bemused Farmer into the top right corner for the wackiest own goal of this or any other season. Ryan clearly owes his team mates and us long suffering supporters two points. Ready when you are Mr Millerchip!
Saturday 18th November – Histon v Weston-super-Mare, Conference South
The following Saturday, with Racing Club being without a game due to our planned game with Barwell postponed due to their continuing participation in the FA Vase, I decided to take the opportunity to ground hop. Histon are a club on the up. At the time of writing they’re riding high at the top of Nationwide South (Step 2) and threatening promotion to the Conference itself. That said, I’m not sure whether their ground meets Conference standards, charming and well presented though it undoubtedly is. If you’re unsure where Histon is, head east towards Cambridge and you’ll find it just off the A14 and just north of Cambridge. Their ground has just one seated stand but does have cover of the other three sides.
Racing Club supporters from our Southern League days will remember Weston-super-Mare, another club on the up and now proudly installed in a new stadium of their own. Weston went into the game in need of points at the wrong end of the table. The league leaders, having had a few poor results of late, found their visitors dogged and determined and took the lead twice, only for Weston to level the scores each time. With 90 minutes on the clock, super skills from Histon’s Ian Cambridge in the penalty area led to a stunning winner. And the crowd went wild! 3-2 to Histon. It will be interesting to see how they fare as the season unfolds.
Saturday 25th November – Didcot Town v Newport County, FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round
Another Saturday and another Racing Club-less day as our trip to cider country and Westfields was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. If I’m without a fixture I do like to try to get to a new ground and I also like to try to find a cup-tie, be it FA Cup or FA Trophy. This week sees the Third Qualifying round of the FA Trophy, revamped this season due to the addition of all the new eligible clubs following the expansion of Step 4 to five divisions. This round is the one that sees the entrance of the clubs from Conference North and South. The short trip to Didcot Town’s Loop Meadow for the visit of former League club Newport County proved too hard to resist. Didcot is perhaps most famous for the six massive but ugly cooling towers at the local power stations which apparently provide enough electricity for over 3 million people. If that doesn’t take your fancy then another form of power made itself known throughout the match as steam trains chugged back and forth near to the ground.
Loop Meadow is yet another tidy little ground. Didcot Town’s clubhouse is new, bright and spacious. The main stand that backs onto the clubhouse offers the only seating to be had and this was soon filled. Newport brought two coachloads of fans and the attendance of 632 was comfortably Didcot’s best of the season. Didcot Town were FA Vase winners as recently as 2005 but having been promoted from the Hellenic League into Step 4 of the Non-League game last season they now find themselves to be one of the smaller sides in the FA Trophy. Surprisingly Newport are the highest placed team that Didcot have ever played in competitive football and, whether it was down to an inferiority complex I don’t know but, the difference in class soon told. Newport were never seriously troubled and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Of interest to older Racing Club followers would have been Newport’s third goal which was scored by former Racer Julian Alsop. Julian has a bit of a reputation for being a hard man at the moment but I for one wouldn’t mind seeing him back at Hampton Road one day.
Keep the faith!
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