The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Atherstone Town on 22nd March 2008.
Welcome
to today’s match and the latest instalment of the season’s diary by your
favourite Racing Club correspondent.
Saturday 1st March –
Birmingham City v Tottenham Hotspur, Premier League
Another
Saturday with no game for Racing Club and another chance for me to view Spurs,
my boyhood heroes, fresh from their victorious outing to Wembley in the Carling
Cup Final (it still sounds good doesn’t it Chief?). This was also a chance to
make my annual visit to St Andrews which must
be one of the poorest Premier League stadiums around. Spurs went into the game
with a number of changes from the previous week’s heroics and, significantly as
it turned out, fielded neither Cup Final centre back (King and Woodgate). The
Blues for their part were desperately in need of three points to put a little
more daylight between themselves and the bottom three.
Within
the opening minutes Birmingham
were a goal up thanks to Forssell but as the first half progressed, Spurs began
to assert themselves without really looking truly dangerous. 1-0 at half-time
and the second half looked set fair for a Spurs equaliser. Sadly, the
combination of Alex McLeish’s motivational team talk and a Spurs defence that
appeared to be full of strangers, meant that Birmingham filled their boots in the second
half. 1-0 became 4-0 with the classy Forssell grabbing himself his first ever
hat-trick. Spurs got scant consolation thanks to a goal from Jenas in the dying
minutes but Spurs had already been buried and there was no way back. Spurs
might as well have held their end of League Season party the previous Sunday if
this was the amount of interest that they were going to show the Premier League
given their qualification for the UEFA Cup via the Carling Cup. Count your lucky
stars that at least we’ve got something to fight for here at Warwick!
Tuesday 4th March – Racing
Club v Loughborough Dynamo, Midland Alliance
I
managed to make the dash up from London
for this one and was not to be disappointed by the performance of our boys.
Dynamo came into the match tucked nicely into second place with games in hand
over Atherstone in top spot and brought a fair few followers no doubt expecting
to secure three points against lowly Warwick. Loughborough in my view played
the tidier football throughout but struggled to cope with Racing Club’s more
direct approach and, in truth, we created the better chances and more of them.
In particular Jay Holtom had two golden opportunities to put us ahead just
before the break but failed to do so and we wondered whether we would regret it
in the second half.
Sure
enough, following the Law of Sod, Loughborough took the lead mid-way through
the second period. Racing Club heads did not drop however and we continued to
press forward whenever the opportunity arose. As the minutes ticked by, the
hopes of the home supporters began to fade until, after 88 minutes, a miracle
occurred and Ryan Howell notched a (suspiciously offside-looking) equaliser
which was no more than we deserved. Joy was unconfined! When I perused the
Loughborough message board the next day I was amused to see the comments of one
of their supporters decrying the state of our pitch and declaring it to be the
worst in the Midland Alliance. Sour grapes? I don’t know about that but I suspect
that we’ll get a bit more respect when we visit Loughborough on the last day of
the season. I bet that they’re hoping that they don’t need the points that day!
Saturday 8th March –
Leamington v Chasetown, Southern League Midland
Divition
This
was FA Cup Quarter Final weekend and, perhaps anticipating Racing Club’s shock
involvement in the last eight of the nation’s favourite cup competition, the
powers that be had left us with a free Saturday (again). The Cup weekend was to
prove perhaps one of the most memorable of all time with three of the four ties
going to the underdogs and, for the first time since 1987 (yes Sky Blue fans it
was that long ago), the Final would be contested without one or more of the so
called “Big Four” clubs participating. The romance of the Cup was fully
restored and all bar those supporters of the Big Four rejoiced in the
refreshing prospect of a few different sides contesting the Semi Finals. It
started with Portsmouth
going to Old Trafford and coming away with a 0-1 win courtesy of a harsh
penalty and a few slices of good fortune. Christiano Ronaldo was denied a
rather obvious penalty and Sir Alex didn’t like it one little bit. The old
saying that these things even themselves out in the end was obviously lost on
the poor old boy. Pardon me but didn’t Christiano win more than a few dodgy penalties
over recent seasons by going down rather too easily in the box? The biter bit
I’d say. Play up Pompey!
Next
up were the Barnsley Tykes who somehow outplayed Chelsea and won 1-0 at Oakwell to follow up
their heroics at Anfield in the previous round. In my view the FA should award
the Cup to Barnsley now on the strength of
their seeing off two of the Big Four. On Sunday it was the turn of the
Bluebirds from Cardiff who completely overawed Middlesborough
at the Riverside 0-2. And finally, an overdue
sense of normality was partially restored in the last game of the quartet as
the favourites for once did for the underdogs with The Baggies turning off The
Gas to the tune of 1-5. So that leaves West Brom as the only one of the four
sides left in the competition to have won the Cup since the War and radio
stations debating whether the FA Cup is now a more exciting competition than
the Premier League. My vote says that the Cup was always more dramatic but
somehow I don’t think that it’ll be too long before those experts in the media
will be bemoaning the Final for its lack of big names. Stuff ‘em I say – I’ll
be watching for sure!
With
no game involving our heroes, I decided to take a walk in the countryside, grab
a few lung fulls of that sweet smelling country air and see how the Brakes’
promotion bandwagon was coming along. Leamington were playing host to FA Cup
headliners Chasetown with the Brakes challenging Evesham hard for top spot and
Chasetown still in catch up mode following their long cup run but themselves
seeking a play off spot. The match was always going to be seriously affected by
the weather as strong winds ensured that the team attacking the North Bank end
would have the force behind them. Chasetown enjoyed wind advantage in the first
half and took a two goal lead thanks to an immobile Richard Morris for the
first and untidy defending for the second. To make matters worse, Leamington’s Adam Cooper was sent off for a second yellow
card and the Brakes long unbeaten run appeared to be over. However, the second
half saw Leamington fight back and their
manpower disadvantage was unnoticeable. First Josh Blake and then James Husband
scored to make it 2-2 with just over 10 minutes to go. The referee then decided
to send himself off because of what appeared to be a muscle strain and then, to
cap a dramatic afternoon Chasetown scored their third and fourth goals in the
last couple of minutes to secure victory. Apparently Chasetown have now won on four
out of four visits to Harbury Lane
whilst Leamington have done the same on the
Scholars’ ground. Leamington ended up falling seven points behind leaders
Evesham with only nine games to go and it looks like the Play-Offs for the
Brakes – what’s the betting that they end up meeting Chasetown at home in the
Semi-Final?
Keep the faith!
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