The Hampton Roar (Part 11)

The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Coalville Town on 1st December 2007.

Welcome to today’s match and the latest instalment of the season’s diary by your favourite Racing Club correspondent.

Saturday 10^th November – Racing Club Warwick v Boldmere St Michaels, Midland Alliance

Not the most memorable game that you’ll ever see but this game was yet another sign that our fortunes may at last be turning. The point that was earned courtesy of a scrambled Martin Hutchcox goal stuffed in from a corner after Ryan Howell unluckily saw his shot blocked on the line. It was enough to take Racing Club third from bottom – and that’s progress in my book. It was an inauspicious start however with our visitors going in front thanks to a smartly taken goal by Nathan Gough after only 14 minutes and we did well to stay in touch during the remainder of the first half. The second half was a different story however: what did Bobby say to the boys at half time? Following the equaliser on 53 minutes, we proceeded to give at least as good as we got and, in my view at least, were unlucky not to secure all three points following close efforts from Levi, Stefan and Planty. Good performances all round from our heroes and Hutchcox’s goal was just reward for an excellent run of form. The only question remaining is can we now turn our run of draws into wins?

Saturday 17^th November – Rocester v Racing Club Warwick, Midland Alliance

I always enjoy going to Rocester. It’s just a shame that the same cannot be said for very many other Racing Club supporters. If I exclude officials and relatives of the players, I counted only four loyal Racers on this particular afternoon. Well to those who had better things to do that day, all I can say is: you missed a treat! Yet another point earned, making it three league draws out of three, although most would say that this was two points dropped with Racing Club managing to squander a winning position. We’re now demonstrably a match for every side in this league (Rocester for example were in fourth place at kick off) but we don’t yet appear to be ruthless enough to take the lead and then keep it. By the end of this particular match, nerves were jangling and I was grateful that the referee declined to add more than three minutes when, in truth, he should have added two or three more.

This particular match represented another personal milestone for me: it was my 200^th Racing Club match attended. For the stats fans amongst you my own personal record reads as follows:

            Matches Attended                                 200 (102 Home, 98 Away)

 Racing Club Wins                                  75

            Racing Club Draws                                39

            Racing Club Defeats                              86

            Racing Club Goals Scored                    293

            Racing Club Goals Conceded               335

            Racing Club Success Rate                   47.3%

Of course I understand that many of out there can lay claim to having attended hundreds of Racing Club matches more than this and I take my metaphorical hat of to you all. Indeed I’m sure that there’s one or two out there who have seen Racing Club over 1,000 times but allow me to savour my own little achievement. Certainly the gods rewarded my milestone with one of the most entertaining matches that you are ever likely to see.

We travelled with some optimism following our newly found form. What made it even better was that Rocester were on an eleven match unbeaten run. We started like an express train with a smartly taken goal by super striker Matty Blair on 13 minutes. Rocester were rocked back on their heels and one or two of their supporters were heard to remark that our early passage of play was the best they had seen from a visiting side this season. We beamed with pride but then came a fall as Rocester equalised 6 minutes later. Our hosts now assumed that the natural order of things would assert itself and, sure enough, Rocester scored again but, unfortunately for them, at the wrong end and Racing Club had the lead once more. Even better was to come just before half time as Blair plundered a second and we went in 1-3 ahead at the break. Not one of our travelling “army” thought that the game was as good as won however and Warwick fallibilities were plain for all to see within two minutes of the restart as Rocester pulled one back. The next 20 minutes should have seen our boys move out of sight of Rocester as we hit a post and had a number of other golden chances before the excellent Ryan Howell got our fourth just after the hour mark. At 2-4, we should have closed the game out and collected all three points but we were unable to kill Rocester off and they gradually began to assert themselves. Rocester made it 3-4 with 10 minutes to go and grabbed an equaliser on 87 minutes. It finished 4-4 and the game immediately took its place as one of the highest aggregate scores I have ever seen – what a way to celebrate my 200^th game watching our boys!

The following Tuesday night finally saw Warwick enjoy the victory that recent enterprising performances merited. A shaky 1-0 win at home to regular foes Tipton Town made it four games unbeaten and six points out of a possible twelve – mid-table form that is a welcome change after a more-or-less constant diet of relegation fare over the last couple of seasons. What has made the difference? Well one or two astute signings seem to have made a difference at the back plus Bobby has a new assistant in the form of Mark Shackleton – take a bow one and all – whatever is at the root of our recent improvement it is most welcome I can assure you!

Keep the faith!