The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Coventry Sphinx on 1st January 2008.
Welcome
to today’s match and the latest instalment of the season’s diary by your
favourite Racing Club correspondent.
Tuesday 18th
December – Windsor & Eton v Gosport Borough, Southern League Division 1
South & West
Another
Tuesday night saw me working away in London and so I decided to while away an
icy cold evening by enjoying the delights of the Queen’s local side, Windsor
& Eton (Patron HRH Prince Phillip according to the programme who was
nowhere to be seen on this particular evening), at their home of Stag Meadow
situated just a stones throw from Windsor Great Park. I was greatly amused to
pass a sign welcoming visitors to Windsor Great Park right outside the ground
which listed out a whole load of do’s and don’ts and ended with the warning
that “Branches can fall from trees in the park at any time”. Oh my god! I had
never thought of that before and, as a result, you will never see me out
walking amongst the trees in Windsor
in future without my crash helmet on. I was disappointed to note that the
Health & Safety brigade hadn’t also seen fit to advise of the dangers of
lighting, tornadoes and tsunamis coming up the Thames.
I
had tried to visit Stag Meadow a few weeks earlier, also on a Tuesday night but
I was surprised to discover on arrival that the ground was in darkness despite
an apparently fine evening. The truth was revealed to me tonight: Windsor had been forced to
postpone the game due to unpaid fines amounting to £25 by their local FA.
That’s the first time I‘ve heard of such a thing and it left me feeling
somewhat annoyed: I wonder how many others had wasted their time and fuel that
evening travelling to that game. I do agree that all clubs should pay their
dues but forcing them to postpone a game for such a paltry amount seems a
little extreme don’t you think? Tonight Windsor were offering a BOGOF
arrangement according to their website (Buy-one-get-one-free to the
uninitiated) which brought the £8 admission price down to Racing club levels –
I don’t begrudge small clubs the income but the goodwill it generated resulted
in one or two spending more on catering and behind the bar than might otherwise
have been the case.
Stag
Meadow is a tidy little ground with standing cover along one side and a small
seated stand on the other side. The pitch looked to be in magnificent condition
and perhaps it brought the best out of both sides as they zipped the ball
around to feet in the early stages. Windsor
(nicknamed The Royalists apparently) soon began to assert themselves and gained
a penalty when one of their strikers was brought down from behind when clean
through. His Gosport assailant rightly got his marching orders but I was left
wondering why the referee seemed to take an age lecturing the culprit and
taking his details before finally giving him an early (and red) Christmas card.
What is there to talk about? Whatever happened to “Right son, you’re off”? With
the penalty duly converted, Windsor
increased their advantage in the second half, finally finishing rather
convincing 3-0 victors. Overall it was an enjoyable way to spend a cold evening
albeit that my night was spoiled when I learned that Racing Club had been
eliminated from the League Cup. With our last chance of silverware now gone,
we’re able to concentrate on the league as they say. Ah well.
Saturday 22nd December
– Tipton Town v Racing Club Warwick, Midland Alliance
On
previous visits to Tipton’s Sports
Academy home we had
passed Mad O’Rourke’s Pie Factory and remarked that “next time we’ll come early
and have a pre-match pie”. Well today was that day! We left Warwick just after noon and were pulling into
the car park at the Pie Factory just before 1PM. I’d not been there before but
Martin had regaled me in advance with tales of the Cow Pies and Lump Hammer on
offer. He wasn’t wrong! The premises are a little rough and ready with sawdust
on the floor just like in olden days. Lump Hammer is the house bitter alongside
its stronger stable mate Sledge Hammer and the menu is rather industrial strength
(the healthy option was deep fried black pudding!). We selected a Desperate Dan
Cow Pie and awaited our fate. The pie comes without accompaniment – all the
vegetables are inside along with huge lumps of steak and kidney – and it had
horns just like in The Dandy! I’d had no breakfast following Martin’s advice
and did manage to polish the pie off but boy was I stuffed. Good preparation
for the excesses of Christmas I suppose?
After
the appetiser comes the main course. Tipton
Town against Racing Club
in our case, played before a last-shopping-Saturday-before-Christmas attendance
of only 48. The stay aways clearly knew something that we didn’t. Warwick got out of the
game precisely what we deserved - absolutely nothing in a lacklustre
performance. Our only goal threat came in the closing stages when substitute
Neil Stacey hit the crossbar but by that time we were 2-0 down and the game was
out of reach. After all the promise of recent weeks this was a real let down
and worrying considering that our next two fixtures would be against two of the
top three in the table.
Wednesday 26th December –Racing
Club Warwick v Stratford
Town, Midland Alliance
And
so to the season of goodwill to all men (and women) and our Boxing Day fixture
against third placed Stratford.
In previous seasons I don’t think that the game would have taken place due to
the state of the pitch. However, following some overdue investment in the pitch
over the summer, the playing surface just about stood up to a serious
pre-Christmas soaking – it was a Christmas pudding certainly but playable
nonetheless.
You
may remember that we matched league leaders Stratford away from home back in October. We
ended up losing 2-0 but gave a real good account of ourselves and I think that
that game was something of a turning point for Racing Club as it gave us the
belief that we could match the best sides in our league. Today we did it again
- only more so! We gradually gained supremacy during the course of the first
half and Neil Stacey smashed our first home after 38 minutes. 12 minutes into
the second half however and Stratford’s
Rawlinson equalised leaving us wondering if Stratford would finally assert themselves.
However, if Stratford
were supposed to do that then they obviously hadn’t read the script. Instead
Racing Club went straight up the other end and regained the lead two minutes
later with a scruffy but all-important goal from Steffan McGrath. Even better
was to come with Ryan Howell heading home following a corner with 20 minutes to
go. Once again it made for pleasurable viewing to see Stratford struggling to get the ball out of
their own half. We finished as worthy winners. This was our first win on a
Boxing Day since 2000 when we beat Rugby Town away (notable in my household at
least as being the first Racing Club game that I ever attended) and our first
win against Stratford in almost two years (a 2-1 home win on 2nd January 2006).
Four wins out of six in the league has us showing upper mid-table form so it’s
a case of Merry Christmas one and all!
Keep the faith!
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