The Ramblings of a Football Obsessive (Part 7)

The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Romulus on 16th October 2004. 

In recent seasons, pretty well since the advent of the FA Premiership, there has been quite a lot said and written about the FA Cup losing some of its sparkle. Has “the romance of the Cup” evolved into some form of acrimonious divorce proceeding between embittered lovers? Has “the magic of the FA Cup” turned into something akin to a Paul Daniels trick (“You’ll like it….not a lot!”)? What Racing Club Warwick would give for a bit of romance (a metaphorical quick snog round the back of the bike sheds would be enough)! Our losing run now stretches over more seasons than we’d all care to remember. How many of you have even seen Racing Club actually win an FA Cup tie? Were you there the last time we did it? Our FA Cup runs (does one game constitute a run?) over the last few seasons look like this:

1998    Preliminary Round           Lye Town                   Away               Won     1-0

1998    1^st Qualifying Round       Willenhall Town         Home              Won     1-0

1998    2^nd Qualifying Round      Stourbridge                 Home              Lost     0-1

1999    Preliminary Round           Blakenall                     Home              Lost     1-2

2000    Preliminary Round           Stourport Swifts          Home              Lost     1-2

2001    Preliminary Round           Barwell                        Away              Lost     0-2

2002    Preliminary Round           Arnold Town               Away               Lost     0-1

2003    Preliminary Round          Stafford Town              Home              Lost     0-1

2004    Preliminary Round          Shepshed Dynamo       Away               Lost     2-3

 Six years of “hurt” without a win! And then there’s the not inconsiderable question of the prize money. As Jim Bowen says to a losing Bullseye contestant: “Let’s see what you could’ve won” (Why does he do that? Why would anyone want to see something that they can’t have?). This year’s first round win bonus was £1,000. What could we have done with that? What a sickener!

Looking on the bright side and, as I console myself every year: “it’s only a Mickey Mouse tournament anyway!”. There’s the FA Vase (a proper competition!) to look forward to and, of course, now we can concentrate on the league whilst hoping that our rivals (just about everybody else in the top half of the league this season!) will go on long energy-sapping-fixture-backlog-inducing FA Cup runs! And don’t forget that Warwick scored two (yes 2!) FA Cup goals this season. You have to go back to 1997 and a Preliminary Round tie against St Neots Town for the last time Racing Club scored more than one goal in an FA Cup tie. Ah well…there’s always next season and a proper Wembley FA Cup final to look forward to! Come on Racing!

Getting back to League action following our Cup exit at Shepshed, Racing come up against bottom of the table Cradley Town. Last season I found myself feeling quite sorry for Grosvenor Park who came to Hampton Road and gave their all but eventually succumbed to the better side. This season it was the turn of Cradley Town to receive my sympathies. Behind after around 20 seconds, Cradley refused to give up despite having their keeper (and former Warwick player) David Hancock sent off early-doors. Just Warwick’s luck to find his replacement Paul Fellows in inspired form! Cradley certainly gave Racing Club several nervous moments before we secured our slender 1-0 win. I just can’t wait for Racing Club to “click” and until then I guess we’ll just have to settle for grinding out the results a la Liverpool in the late 1970’s (this is always the sign of a good side according to expert footie pundits!). I was certainly happy with 15 points out of a possible 21 and, if you need reminding, just cast your mind back to Racing club’s opening 7 games of last season and the exploits of that Dog & Duck pub side masquerading as Racing Club Warwick FC. Marcus, we are truly not worthy!

Keep the faith!