The Hampton Roar (Part 23)

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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