The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Quorn on 4th February 2006.
Saturday 28th January and Racing Club Warwick are playing away at the Langland Stadium, home of Midland Alliance leaders Malvern Town. This game is one of our longer distance away games and also one of the most difficult. The bad news for Racing Club is that Malvern are having the kind of mid-term wobble that afflicts most sides at some point in the season. Since their resounding 4-1 trouncing of the team from Whitnash, Malvern have suffered two defeats on the road against Oldbury United and Coalville Town. Akin to dealing with a wounded animal, this may not be the right time to try to tame the Malvernites. I must say that I don’t know what Mavern’s nickname is. Do you? In the absence of fact I’ll opt for “The Waterboys” after the town’s famous Perrier equivalent – thankfully the pre-match beer in their clubhouse hadn’t been enhanced with any of the local H2O!
Another reason for the travelling Racers to be concerned was the worry that the boys morale may have been dented by the news that promotion this season is out of the question irrespective of our final League position due to our inability to meet the ground grading criteria for Step 4. Worse still, Chairman Jim Wright has suggested that he may throw the towel in if his heartfelt plea for more Warwick folk to get involved behind the scenes goes unheeded. And if that wasn’t enough, according to the local press, Marcus Law is threatening to quit at the end of the season unless Racing Club receive more support and backing from the community. Crisis? Quite possibly! If you care about your club then how much longer are you going to wait before getting more involved? Don’t wait until Marcus has gone taking the majority of the players with him and the other usual suspects who work their socks off behind the scenes have finally given up in exasperation. Your club needs you NOW! Speak to Chairman Jim on 01926 450998 if you would like to be more involved in helping the club.
Against this backdrop our pre-match hopes were not particularly high as you might imagine. It does seem a long time since Tuesday November 15th and Warwick’s 3-1 trouncing of Malvern at Hampton Road. On that particular night we could have won about 8-3 in terms of good chances and Malvern boss was reduced to complaining about the quality of our pitch. But that was then and this is now! After 8 minutes a super strike puts Racing Club one-up. Two minutes later and sadly Malvern are level as Phil Preedy breaks through to slot home. We seem to have inherited the arctic weather from Russia with temperatures close to freezing and the wind-chill making it feel much colder despite the cloudless sky and bright sunshine. 1-1 it is at half-time and everyone disappears into the warmth of the clubhouse to join the brass monkeys who were so cold that they stayed inside watching the TV!
The second half resumed with Warwick very much in the ascendancy. James Wood was leading the line at his predatory best and six minutes after the break he finished superbly to put us back into the lead. We all hoped that the next player to score would be a Warwick one and so it proved, but not in the manner we would have wished, as poor Nick Green cruelly deflected into his own net just after the hour mark. Was it time for heads to drop? No chance! Marcus has created a team with much greater resolve than that! With twelve minutes remaining Racing Club took the lead for the third time and this time it was for keeps. Who scored? It was that man James Wood again and he was really unlucky not to secure his hat-trick before the end after his scorching shot smashed against an upright but stayed out. A hugely entertaining match ended Malvern 2 Racing Club 3 and this time there could be no complaints about the quality of the pitch! Malvern have now lost six times in the League and one-third of those defeats have come courtesy of our heroes!
The game against Malvern was Racing Club’s 99th Midland Alliance fixture under Marcus Law. Weather permitting, the away game at Biddulph Victoria on Tuesday 31st January brought up the ton and today’s game against Quorn will see the commencement of the second century. Keeping Marcus and the boys at the club for another 100 games, the building of a new clubhouse and the elevation of three of the strongest sides from our league into Step 4 at the end of this season will, when taken together, leave Racing Club as one of the strongest teams remaining in this League next season and therefore strong favourites for promotion. But all of it could be spoiled for the want of community backing and personal involvement. Now we don’t want that do we?
Keep the faith!
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