For April 19th I'm going back 13 years to 2008 and a Midland Football Alliance match between Friar Lane & Epworth and Racing Club Warwick.
Unless you're really into your Midlands football I'm betting that you won't have a clue where Friar Lane & Epworth play their football. FLAE's home can be found at Knighton Lane East in the heart of Leicester, only around a mile away from Leicester City's King Power Stadium, Rugby Union side Leicester Tigers' Welford Road and Leicestershire County Cricket Club's Grace Road.
This was only Racing Club's second ever visit to the home of Friar Lane but, for those that were there, who could ever forget the first time? We checked around the back of the stands to see if the body of former Racer Ryan Millerchip was still strung up there following his thirty-plus yard own goal deep into stoppage time in November 2006 that had turned three points into one with a 4-4 draw much to the annoyance of the rest of the team, especially when he tried to laugh it off immediately afterwards. He never played for Racing Club Warwick again.
I regret the re-titling of Friar Lane Old Boys following their merger with Epworth which deprived the football world of the acronym “FLOB”. Makes you spit doesn't it? FLAE were ahead after only three minutes but Neil Stacey levelled it up for Warwick just a minute later and visions of another 4-4 extravaganza floated before our eyes. In fact, shortly afterwards Stacey had an attempt from fully forty yards than only just missed the target with the keeper stranded but it stayed 1-1 until half time. However with one or two Racing players looking ordinary I began to fear the worst for their long unbeaten run and sure enough the home side made it 2-1 and then 3-1 after 70 minutes. One or two spectators in the crowd numbering just 80 felt that Bobby Hancocks' Warwick should have had a penalty for a push on future York City legend Matty Blair and, when Terrence Carpenter rifled in a stunning volley in added time, to make it 3-2 there were complaints that the referee chose to add only three minutes despite six substitutions and a couple of significant stoppages. Whilst the complaints had merit I felt that FLAE were just about the better side on the day and there was no disgrace in defeat.
FLAE fell on hard times in the years after this game and, in 2011, resigned their place in the Midland Alliance due to their financial struggles taking the place of their reserve side in the Leicestershire Senior League instead which is where they play their football to this day. Racing Club fell on their own financial hard times and were eventually relegated out of the Midland Alliance and into the Midland Combination in 2009. However things are looking up in Warwick today and the club was promoted back to Midland Alliance level (now known as the Midland Football League Premier Division) in 2019. With considerable money having been spent refurbishing the ground and on the installation of a 3g pitch it's now looking possible that Racing Club can return to the Southern League, a League that they haven't played in since 2003.
CRB Match No. 1626
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