The Hampton Roar (Part 9)

The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Tipton Town on 20th November 2007.

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

Tuesday 9th October – Hillingdon Borough v Slough Town, FA Trophy Preliminary Round Replay

I’m finding myself working down in West London most Tuesdays and Wednesdays these days which usually means an overnight stop and a dilemma as to what to do with an evening when I’m at a loose end. Well unlike almost everyone else on an overnight stay in a hotel in West London I elect to take in a game and do a spot of ground hopping with a trip to The Middlesex Stadium, home of Hillingdon Borough. It has rained heavily throughout the day today and when I arrive the whole place feels distinctly damp. Today is clearly a bad day to visit this particular football club because once I am inside and make enquiries about the whereabouts of the clubhouse I am informed that it is closed for refurbishment, but “it’ll be open on Saturday”  (about as much use as a chocolate tea pot that is!). Worse is to come as the refurbishments clearly extend to the kitchens too – I’ve travelled straight from work and am starving but have to make do with the decidedly limited catering facilities on offer from a small caravan parked near the clubhouse.

The crowd at tonight’s game is disappointing. It’s only about 100 and this for a team that were FA Vase finalists as recently as 2006. Most of tonight’s hardy souls seem to have come from Slough. The game starts like an express train with the ball being zipped to feet on the slick surface. Both sides create two or three excellent chances and I marvel at how two such lowly clubs can put on such a skilful showing. As if by magic I find out as the first 25 minutes prove to be the best part of the game by a street with Slough Town (“The Rebels” apparently) taking the lead in the 25th minute. The game turns scruffy with both sides taking it in turn to give the ball away and to attack without ever really threatening. That is until Hillingdon grab an equaliser just after half-time. At that point I just knew it was going to go into extra time and sure enough we are awarded another half an hour of honest endeavour but too little to enjoy. And then, just as we’re starting to savour the prospect of the drama and excitement of penalties, in the 119th minute up pops Leon Nelson to do his duty (geddit?) and secure Hillingdon’s place in the next round. I didn’t see anyone kiss him hardy though!

Good news also arrives shortly after by way of text message as I learn that Racing Club have secured what is only our third win of the season in the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup 2-0 against Coventry Sphinx. This is our first win in that particular competition for over seven years (we beat Coleshill in the millennium year). Following on from Saturday’s promising performance it looked like we might have even turned a corner! Oh how wrong I was about that.

Saturday 13th October – England v Estonia, European Championships Qualifier

Yet another Saturday where Racing Club’s league fixture clashes with an England game at Wembley. Once again this club versus country dilemma deprives Warwick of at least two through the turnstiles as Martin and I elect to make the trip to Wembley to see if the Three Lions can continue their excellent form. This is Estonia’s first trip to Wembley and is another one of those potentially David against Goliath affairs that plenty of so-called experts would like to deny us the right to see. I say welcome Estonia, a country with a population the size of Birmingham and with only one recognisable name: goalkeeper Mart Poom who has plied his trade on these shores for a few years now. England’s line-up is once again significantly affected by injuries as they start without Owen Hargreaves, Emile Heskey and John Terry. Once the result is assured we also see the withdrawal of Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen ahead of Wednesday’s do or die clash against the Russians.

The result is secure enough. 3-0 to England at half time and in the second half the players elect to take their foot off the gas and save their energies for Wednesday night’s forthcoming key match on the plastic pitch in Moscow. It therefore finishes 3-0 with the goals scored by Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wayne Rooney and a splendid own goal by the Estonians. If I am feeling a bit “glass half-empty” then I could tell you that Wright-Phillips’ goal appeared to go through Mart Poom, that Rooney’s goal got a deflection and that the own goal was undeserved but I prefer to be more of a “glass half full” (or even completely full – mine’s a pint) kind of guy. A comfortable 3-0 win, our fifth in a row at that, against minnows that we were expected to beat even with a below strength side is nothing to feel disappointed about.

The trouble is that everything came unravelled the following Wednesday night. Trying to follow the game via the BBC website whilst at work is never a satisfactory experience but, with England taking the lead, everything looked fine until a mad five minutes in the second half when the Russians first equalised and then took the lead to leave our boys shattered and the team relying on Russia or Croatia slipping up in the final round of matches to allow us to sneak into Austria and Switzerland via the back door (that is assuming that those countries do indeed have a back door!). Yes it’s out of our hands now and, sadly but not terribly surprisingly, the knives are immediately out for Steve McLaren. Let me be the lone voice who says that there’s no better English manager and I, for one, don’t wish us to go down the foreign coach route again just yet. So come on Israel against Russia and Macedonia against Croatia!

Saturday 20th October – Racing Club Warwick v Shifnal Town, Midland Football Alliance

At last a chance for me to go and see our heroes in action at home on a Saturday. Our last two Saturday home games have coincided with England games. The previous Saturday’s distractions at Wembley proved to be somewhat fortunate for this particular Warwick follower as it meant that I avoided our 1-5 drubbing by Market Drayton Town. This week’s opponents, Shifnal Town, are newly promoted into the Midland Alliance following a successful season last time around in the West Midlands League. Personally I hate playing newly promoted sides because they invariably come full of confidence and keen to impress in their new surroundings. This Shifnal outfit appear to have a bit of money around their club as they turn up with a team bus no less and seemingly with more officials than there are Racing Club supporters.

Our confidence must be low and we start tentatively with a little less of the marauding forward play than we have been used to recently. Gradually however we play our way into the match and are happy enough to go in goalless at half-time (having shipped 16 goals in our previous five league games). Neither side looks particularly good today and I wonder what happened to Racing Club’s passing side that performed so magnificently against Stratford a couple of weeks ago. With 51 minutes on the clock Ryan Howell bursts through in a one-on-one with the linesman-baiting Shifnal goalie and comfortably slots home to shut him up for a bit. A few minutes later and Terry Carpenter finds himself in an identical situation but fails to make the most of his chance and we are left to endure what must have been the longest second half ever (it must have lasted at least three hours) before the referee blew the final whistle. In case you think that I’m going a little overboard here, remember that this was our first home league win of the season and our first since April 7th when we beat Westfields 4-3 here. So that’s six months between home league wins then. I simply can’t wait until next April!

One other little personal milestone that I’d like to record here is the 30th anniversary this week of my very first proper match attended. Way back on the 15th October 1977 a youthful yours truly was allowed for the first time by mummy and daddy to go on the big adventure of getting the bus from Wetherby to Leeds with one of my school pals. This was followed by a long walk to Elland Road to see Leeds United take on the reigning European Champions, Liverpool, in a Football League Division One (remember that?) fixture. I can remember arriving there about three hours early and waiting for the turnstiles to open. I don’t remember exactly what it cost to get in but I think it was 50p for boys or something like that. I stood along the side of the pitch on the Lowfields Road Terrace, now occupied by the giant East Stand, and watched a Liverpool side win the game in front of 45,500 people. Leeds lined up as follows: Stewart; Stevenson, Frank Gray, McQueen, Cherry; Lorimer, Eddie Gray, Currie, Graham (sub Parkinson); Hankin and Thomas. Liverpool simply oozed class with every name being a household one as follows: Clemence; Neal, Jones, Hansen, Hughes; Ray Kennedy, Dalglish, Case, Callaghan; Heighway and McDermott (sub Toshack). It finished Leeds United 1 Liverpool 2 and that particular young man was hooked. Thirty years ago and it seems like only yesterday. Whatever did I start? I’d love to hear any other Racing Club supporters memories of their first ever match attended so let me know and we might even include the best memories in a future edition.

Keep the faith!

Comments