The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Stratford Town on 21st April 2007.
The
ongoing saga of one man’s season.
Thursday
29th March – Racing Club v Friar Lane & Epworth, Midland Alliance
After Tuesday’s successful 6-pointer against Cradley
only two days later we find ourselves facing newcomers to the Midland Alliance,
Friar Lane & Epworth. Can it be fair that Warwick have to pit themselves against Friar Lane and Epworth? Surely we’ll be
outnumbered! This match is another winnable one for our boys. We should have
beaten FLAE at their place earlier in the season having led 1-3 and then 3-4
deep into injury time before Ryan Millerchip decided to fire a spectacular own
goal into the top corner to deprive us of all three points. Tonight’s game
proves to be a tale of chances taken and, sadly, our boys fail to take theirs
whilst our visitors have no such trouble. 0-2 down at half time we have to
chase the game and FLAE proceed to give the score line a look of unreality as
they exploit spaces at the back to go 0-4 up before Michael Hayden grabs a late
consolation. There’s no way that 1-4 is a fair reflection on the game but probably
the least said about it the better!
Saturday
31st March – Racing Club v Coalville Town, Midland Alliance
Perhaps I’m just too caught up in the fervour of the
relegation dog fight but by my reckoning this game is an absolute classic,
albeit that the wind spoils any hopes that the two sides may have of playing in
a controlled manner. For the third home game running we go behind, this time
courtesy of former Racer Kelvin Phillips, the Coalville Manager Brendan’s son. Thankfully
our heads do not drop and we battle on and secure a spot kick for a foul on
Michael Hayden that he dispatches with aplomb to take us in level at the break.
It was no more than we deserved and after the interval we proceed to dominate
the second half. For the second time in the match Coalville have what looks
like a valid goal ruled out and within minutes we have our noses in front
thanks to a tap in first goal for the club from Tom Leaver who had already hit
the bar from distance in the first half without scoring.
It finishes at a well deserved 2-1 to our boys who
have secured a vital six points from nine at home this week. We know that the
victory won’t take us up the table unless bottom side Cradley somehow manage to
beat Biddulph away and, sure enough, we discover later in the day that Biddulph
have slaughtered Cradley 8-0 (!). Nonetheless, Warwick remain only three points behind
Biddulph and also now Studley and have respectively seven and five games in
hand on these sides. Rumours in the clubhouse suggest that, as we feared, there
will be three Midland Alliance sides falling through the relegation trap door
this season so we will need to overhaul both Biddulph and Studley if we are to
retain our step 5 status.
Tuesday
3rd April – Barwell v Racing Club, Midland Alliance
April
dawns and we’ve got to squeeze in eleven games in 26 days. That’s more or less
a game every other day or, if you prefer, over a quarter of our season in one
month! It leaves all loyal Racers concerned as to the strength in depth of the
playing squad and whether we’ve got the sheer stamina to turn the games in hand
into points in the bag (as well as whether we can secure the requisite
permissions from loved ones to attend so many matches!). Our first game of this
extraordinary month is at Kirkby
Road, Barwell on an unseasonably cold and blowy
April evening. Barwell, you may recall, murdered Racing Club 3-5 at our place
last November but haven’t been in great form of late. Warwick on the other hand go into the match
with their tails up following Saturday’s win over Coalville. We think that
we’ve got a chance but we’d all take a point if it was offered before kick off
tonight.
Yet
again, over the course of the first half, Warwick
match top-10 opponents in every department and the two sides go in goalless and
level at the break. Sadly the second period is frustrating for everyone from Warwick. Barwell score
twice in three minutes just after the hour mark mainly due to sloppy play. What’s
worse is that we manage to fritter away three one-on-ones and on balance surely
deserved to secure at least a draw. But it was not to be. 10 games to go and
we’re still in the trap-door positions.
We
subsequently learn that the outcome of Warwick’s
season has been dramatically affected by off the field developments courtesy of
the latest round of FA restructuring plans (thank you oh wise and wonderful
people at the FA!). The announcement that the addition of a sixth division at
step 4 (one level higher than the Midland Alliance) will definitely go ahead
means that there will be a minimum of three clubs to be promoted from our
league this season. At the time of writing this looks likely to be Leamington, Romulus and Quorn with Atherstone Town
being the only other club having applied to go up and meeting the requisite
ground grading requirements. The loss of three clubs together with the strong
possibility that nobody will be relegated into the Alliance this season is likely to mean that
there will be no need to relegate three clubs to step 6. Nevertheless I’d
prefer to finish outside the bottom three positions in any event just to be
sure.
Saturday
7th April – Burton Albion v York City, Conference
My
childhood heroes the mighty Minstermen are in the Midlands and so I elect to
visit Burton’s
brand new Pirelli Stadium rather than view Racing Club’s nail biter at home to
Westfields. York have been in the play-off positions pretty well all season but
lately have failed to pick up enough points at home and are now in serious
danger of missing out on the play-offs for a second season running. The Brewers
themselves are having possibly their best season ever and begin the game in the
final play-off place. Albion are actually the
highest placed part-time club in the Conference and there is currently plenty
of talk in non-league circles about the ability of a number of Conference clubs
to support a full-time staff.
York break the deadlock in a tight and competitive game after
72 minutes and notch a second on 80 minutes to the delight of the large
following from York.
Burton look
somewhat deflated and score a consolation too late into stoppage time to make any
difference. City’s 12th away win of the season is a vital one and the players
celebrate in front of the fans at the final whistle, their destiny being back
in their own hands. With four games to go York
may well need to secure maximum points to be sure of their play-off place.
Talking of destiny I’ve obviously picked the wrong day to miss a Racing Club
game! Our home match against Westfields is a thriller and finishes 4-3 despite
our boys being 0-2 down after only eleven minutes. At the fourth attempt it’s our
first ever home win against Westfields and is priceless in that it takes us
onto 32 points and therefore level with both Biddulph and Studley. Our superior
goal difference means that we are out of the bottom three for the first time
this year and we’ve still got six games in hand on them both. Causeway United
are only four points further ahead and we’ve got them to come on the Wednesday
after the little matter of our visit to Leamington
on Easter Monday. Now that’s one that I won’t be missing!
Monday
9th April – Leamington v Racing Club, Midland Alliance
It’s
no great surprise to learn that Quorn beat Romulus the previous Saturday. That result
leaves the Brakes requiring only one win to secure the title and who’s up next?
You guessed it! According to The Courier poor old Bobby Hancocks has managed a
team facing a Brakes side requiring three points to win a league title once
before and came off second best to the tune of 7-0 on the previous occasion.
Today’s match, like Boxing Day’s encounter, is lacking in atmosphere despite
the more than healthy gate of 1,151. Racing Club keep their hosts relatively
quiet for almost half an hour until Ben Mackey lets rip from almost 30 yards
into the bottom left corner leaving Tom Farmer grasping thin air. It was a
wonder strike and it is followed up by another long range effort this time from
Jon Adams after 36 minutes. Leamington have
stepped up a few gears and Racing Club are failing to live with them. A corner
headed in three minutes before half time sees Jon Adams get his second and Leamington’s third. They’re over the hills and far away
as far as Racing Club are concerned.
Sadly,
for fans of local football at least, this derby is possibly the last time that
the two clubs will ever face each other in league match action. Leamington continue their advance up the leagues
following their reformation as Racing Club look to consolidate in the Midland Alliance.
We’ve met four times in all and the Brakes have secured four victories to
provide conclusive proof as to which is the better side. This season Racing
Club have lost twice to Leamington by three goals to nil and today’s game is a
virtual carbon copy of the Boxing Day game with Leamington getting three goals
ahead relatively early on and then sitting back on their lead. On this occasion
however there is a league title to be celebrated and the tannoy announces that
there will be a lap of honour from the players a full ten minutes before the
end of the game. Irrespective of the one sided nature of the game that’s
disrespectful in my book but what do Leamington
care?
A
further kick in the teeth comes after the final whistle when we learn that
Biddulph have beaten Market Drayton to overhaul us in the table and dump us
back into the bottom three. Causeway United have also beaten whipping boys
Cradley 5-0 away from home to pull seven points clear of the Racers. We’ve got
to dig deep in two days time as we visit Causeway’s Tividale home looking for
all three points.
Keep the faith!
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