The Hampton Roar (Part 19)

The following article did not appear in a Racing Club Warwick programme due to postponements. 

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

Tuesday 29th January – Wolverhampton Wanderers v Sheffield Wednesday, Championship

It’s Molineux for me on a cold, windy and wet Tuesday evening. Luckily I won’t feel the discomfort of the elements as I’ve managed to wangle the delights of an Executive Box and will be able to watch the action from behind glass. This is the kind of game that I wouldn’t normally bother with as I don’t support either of the teams but because Molineux is literally one minute’s walk from my office it’d be rude not to go and have a look. It’s the proximity of the Wanderers rather than their performances that explains why I’ve seen them half a dozen times or so over that last couple of years. In previous games I’ve endured a series of tedious and scrappy single goal affairs but tonight was surely going to be different - a night upon which Wolves would finally show me why they are so handily placed in the Championship.

Neither side is exactly blessed with household names. I would venture that unless you are a serious student of Championship football then you would have looked at the line ups like I did and said to yourself “Who?” As far as big names go, Wolves offered Welsh International goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and ageing pro Michael Gray (formerly of Sunderland) whilst the Owls were all new to me apart from former Red Devil Ronnie Wallwork who is probably more famous for almost being murdered in a nightclub knife attack than for his football prowess.

Wolves were quickly out of their blocks and took the lead through Andy Keogh after 11 minutes. The Wednesday, who had looked every bit the relegation candidates that they most certainly are, equalised against the run of play thanks to a Marcus Tudgay goal which looked suspiciously offside to me. Two goals and not even 20 minutes gone: was this to be the Molineux goal-fest that I had been waiting for? Sadly not, albeit that the fare was more entertaining than I had seen at Molineux in recent seasons. This was to be one of those games which was to be settled in the 90^th minute, this one courtesy of another Manchester United cast off: Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. So it finished 2-1 to Wolverhampton but I continue to scratch my head and wonder how they would ever believe that they could survive in the Premier League without spending about £100 Million on a completely new squad.

Saturday 2^nd February – Racing Club Warwick v Oadby Town, Midland Alliance

The previous Saturday we had secured an unlikely victory away at Market Drayton. Why then did I enter the turnstiles in a none too confident mood the following week? Perhaps it was because my man of the match at Market Drayton Ryan Howell was suspended. More likely that this was a so-called six-pointer and, of late, we’ve always come away empty handed from such fixtures. Give me games against high-flyers like Stratford, Rocester or Market Drayton where we can surprise our opponents and squeeze out a point or three any time in preference to relegation haunted scrappers. When we’re up against clubs in and around the danger zone where we can go above our opponent if we win, quite simply, we don’t. Secretly I was pleased to be feeling like this in a perverse sort of way because I have found of late that it’s better to have low expectations and to be pleasantly surprised as far as Racing Club are concerned.

Our selection had a down-to-the-bare-bones look about it with two very young faces on the bench in Messrs Jordan and Footman and two of the substitute positions not even filled. What had happened to new signing from Coventry Sunday football Mark Woodhead that we had read about in The Courier? Apparently he’s a powerful (well, chunky anyway) lad and one for the future. I also understand that he can retrieve the ball from the most unlikely of positions and that he makes a mean cuppa at half-time. Come on Bobby, let’s have such talent on the bench next time out!

The game was scrappy from start to finish as both sides struggled to come to terms with the heavy conditions (I can’t wait for the drier pitches of late-season because we always seem to look better on a firm surface). A policy of get it forward as quickly as possible was adopted by both sides and this led to an absorbing game of few successfully executed passes but loads of 50:50 battles. Linton Bailey, making his second appearance for Racing looked formidable and won nearly everything that he went in for, the kind of midfield ball winner that we’ve been crying out for lately. The defence generally looked good and Martin Hutchcox had another solid performance. With Matty Blair back from injury we remained hopeful of a goal and, midway through the second half, young Blairy broke free, drew the keeper and fired agonisingly wide from a chance that I reckon he’d have gobbled up had he been fully match fit. Oadby remained none too impressive and were just about second best to our boys but could themselves have sneaked the points had they taken one of the few chances that fell to them. Even Racing Club old-boy Ryan Robbins, he of the Premier League fancy coloured boots and tidy pace, made an sub appearance for Oadby late on and could have snatched it for them given a bit more composure and control. On reflection 0-0 was probably a fair result but it continues to leave us looking anxiously over our shoulders. 29 points from 29 games and, with games beginning to run out with only 13 games left to save ourselves, we need your support to pull away from the wrong end of the table. I still say that a point a game should do it but a few wins wouldn’t go amiss. I had hoped that our home game against Cradley would be a more-or-less guaranteed three points but, just our luck, they’ve started to pick up points and, rather startlingly, beat title-challengers Loughborough 2-1 whilst we were drawing. Seeing as we’ve still got to play Loughborough both home and away make sure that we draw a bit of inspiration from that result Bobby!

Keep the faith!