For March 27th I'm going back 11 years to 2010 and the FA Vase Semi-Final 1st Leg between Barwell and Whitley Bay.
Barwell is a village in Leicestershire, not too far from Hinckley. It's well served for local sport and their Kirkby Road ground sits right next to the cricket club as well as an excellent indoor bowls facility. In 2007 the football club appointed a new manager in former Racing Club Warwick gaffer Marcus Law and began a hugely successful period in their history. Season 2009/10 was a particularly golden one for Barwell. They finished the season as Champions of the Midland Football Alliance (at the 9th level of English football) and almost made it to Wembley in the FA Vase.
The FA Vase is a prestigious national competition open only to clubs operating at the 9th to 11th levels of English football. It offers round by round prize money to competing clubs as well as having a showpiece Final at Wembley Stadium. Over 600 clubs enter the competition each year. Reaching the Semi-Finals is a big deal for any entrant therefore and Barwell were no exception.
Martin and I decided to go along to this game to offer a bit of support to Marcus Law's team. Marcus is fondly remembered at Racing Club Warwick as somebody who turned the club around and got them playing exciting attractive football. I have to say that we didn't expect to actually meet or talk to Marcus that day, it being the busiest and most important day ever in Barwell's history so you can imagine our surprise when we were walking round the ground pre-match to see Marcus banging on the window and coming out to say hello to us. It's great when people are humble and remember their roots. We had a chat, wished him well on his big day and went away to watch the game feeling suitably impressed. Top bloke Marcus!
Whitley Bay were the reigning Vase holders having won the previous year's Final 2-0 against Glossop North End. They were hungry for more of the same and went into this Semi-Final as firm favourites. Bay (or the Seahorses if you prefer) play their league football in the North East-based Northern League which had an unprecedented run of dominance in the Vase in the ten years between 2009-18 having either one or both finalists in each season. Why so successful? In my view, due to geography, the winners of the Northern League each season tended to refuse promotion to the next level in Non-League (Northern Premier League Division 1 East) on the grounds that they could not afford the required travel costs. This meant that the best teams remained able to enter the Vase whereas promotion would have required them to enter the more senior FA Trophy instead. For their part, the FA have been attempting to rectify this anomaly for several years through restructuring of the pyramid and, but for delays inflicted by Covid, would have completed the task already.
The capacity of Barwell's Kirkby Road ground is nominally 2,500 but it was tested on this day with an attendance of 1,279, probably ten times Barwell's normal gate. Bay scored first but then got the shock of their lives going in 2-1 down at half time thanks to two goals from Adam Cunnington. Cunnington, the eyes-closed programme cover star, must be the original "more clubs than Jack Nicklaus" journeyman striker. I counted that he'd had 24 different clubs in 25 years! When Barwell scored a third with 15 minutes to go, it looked like they were going to be taking a two-goal lead to the North-East for the 2nd Leg. Nobody told Bay substitute Paul Chow however who scored in the 88th and 90th minutes to break Barwell hearts and Bay escaped with a 3-3 draw. The 2nd Leg, played the following week, was a close run thing too with Bay coming out on top 3-2 for a 6-5 aggregate victory. Just to illustrate their strength that season they won the Final against Wroxham 6-1!
CRB Match No. 1739
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