The Hampton Roar (Part 1)

The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Biddulph Victoria on 11th August 2007.

Welcome back to Hampton Road for the start of another Midland Alliance season. Will this one be our year? Manager Bobby Hancock starts his first full season in charge of the Racers, hopefully with a much bigger budget than last season following previous overspending, and I’m sure that there’ll be a sprinkling of new faces aiming to become heroes before the season is out. This is our fifth Midland Alliance season so we’re now one of the more established clubs in this league and, with the league having been raided for its three strongest clubs last season as part of the formation of a new Unibond division at step 4 in the non-league pyramid, this is probably the weakest that the Alliance has ever been. The same can be said for this season’s FA Vase too as twenty or so of the stronger step 5 clubs must now pit their wits in the FA Trophy instead. So surely we have our best ever chance of making serious headway in all competitions (as, I suppose, does everyone else at our level!). Anyway Bobby and the boys, like every other fan with wild aspirations ahead of the big kick-off, I’ll settle for the League title and a Wembley Final appearance. No pressure then!

The FA could have helped us a bit more though couldn’t they? As I scanned the various draws for the FA competitions in early July I was astonished to see that in five separate draws for the first three rounds of the FA Cup and the 2^nd Qualifying and 1st Round proper of the FA Vase we had managed to come out of the hat as the away side on every occasion! What are the odds of that? 32-1 I reckon. We’ll just have to win a few of them and hopefully strike lucky in the draw for the next round.  I was however secretly delighted with the draw that pitches us against the winners of Pershore Town against Glossop North End in the FA Vase 2^nd Qualifying Round as I’ve always fancied a trip to Glossop – the name’s got a romantic ring to it hasn’t it? So no doubt we’ll be off to nearby Pershore then! The FA Cup draw’s also a bit of a disappointment with an away game against league rivals Oadby Town followed by a hugely challenging tie at Chasetown if we do make it to the heady heights of the Preliminary Round. Oh and of course Leamington get a home draw! One day our luck and prize winnings will improve.

Saturday 28th April – Cradley Town v Racing Club, Midland Alliance

Let me take you back to the final game of last season. Allow me a little scene setting if you will. Racing Club had been in catch-up mode for most of March and April and we witnessed our games in hand being whittled away with a few points being secured here and there but nowhere near enough to lift us out of the relegation places. 19 games had to be played in those final 7 weeks of the season and we went into the very last game in a seemingly hopeless position. Racing Club were second bottom with the table looking as follows:

Pos		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
19	Biddulph Victoria	41	10	8	23	51	81	-30	38
20	Studley	41	10	5	26	52	84	-32	35
21	Racing Club Warwick	41	9	8	24	52	88	-36	35
22	Cradley Town	41	4	6	31	35	124	-89	18

Safety was out of our hands. For our boys to avoid the drop zone we would require an away victory by at least a five goal margin and then pray that Biddulph would lose and, in the unlikely event that these things happened, we would need to win by at least four more than Studley did.

No chance then. Except that nobody remembered to tell our boys! And at least we did have the good fortune to be facing Cradley, the one team worse placed than Warwick, going into that final day. The Supporters Club were offering Racing Club goal scorers on the day £5 per goal and, Billy Big Bollocks that I am, I said that I’d personally pay them that provided that we got five. Before kick off I can recall telling Bobby tongue planted firmly in cheek that we simply “had to believe” to which he replied that he’d already told the players that in the dressing room beforehand. I think he meant it!

It was to be the day when, unbelievably, everything came right. The weather was fittingly beautiful and we were three goals up before time thanks to two well-taken strikes by Tom Leaver and another from the suddenly prolific Jamie Hammersley. Good news too on the phone at half-time from Barwell who were playing their part in our drama by leading at home to Biddulph and also from Studley who were two-down at home to Boldmere. As we took our places for the second half Racing Club had the ball in the net again straight from the kick off with Tom Leaver securing his hat-trick. Racing Club nerves started to jangle (at least amongst the supporters) and the theme tune to The Great Escape popped into my head as it began to dawn on us that we were witnessing something truly incredible. Thank God for Cradley. Their wretched season just got worse and worse as they lost their heads and began making comments to the referee that he wasn’t going to stand for. With Warwick 0-4 ahead they were soon down to ten men and worse was to come as they conceded a penalty and had another man sent-off. The all important fifth goal was now within our grasp. Martin Hutchcox was the brave soul who stepped up to slam home the spot kick. We were five-nil up away from home against nine men with half an hour still to go! At this point our game deteriorated somewhat. We began snatching at chances. Apparently somebody had mistakenly told the players that they needed to score six – it was probably a good job that they did because I wouldn’t have fancied us trying to defend our lead for half an hour even against nine men. The final whistle went and mobile phone calls were made to Barwell and Studley to put us out of our misery. No one from Warwick went home - everyone stayed to learn our fate. After seemingly an eternity, Pat Murphy emerged to inform us that Barwell had beaten Biddulph 3-0. Hurrah! And what of Studley? Amazingly they had come back from two down and scored in the final minute to win 3-2. We scratched our heads and out came the calculators. Had we stayed up or not? We had finished on the same points and goal difference as Studley but, crucially, Racing Club had scored two more than Studley and had escaped! The bottom end of that final, and remarkably beautiful, table looked like this:

Pos		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
19	Racing Club Warwick	42	10	8	24	57	88	-31	38
20	Studley	42	11	5	26	55	86	-31	38
21	Biddulph Victoria	42	10	8	24	51	84	-33	38
22	Cradley Town	42	4	6	32	35	129	-94	18

 

 

  

With the official attendance being only 42 and pretty well totally made up by Warwick supporters there’s only a select few believers who can rightfully claim that “I was there” on what was surely one of the greatest days in the club’s history. Of course I was obliged to part with £25 thanks to those five goals but it was truly the best £25 that I will ever spend. We’ll never see a final day quite like that one again and nor will the supporters of any other club. Ever.

Keep the faith!