To keep myself amused during these strange times I've decided to give you a treat and share the programme cover from a memorable match that I attended which was played on this date. For May 6th I'm going back 15 years to 2006 and the FA Vase Final at St Andrews, Birmingham.
For the uninitiated, the FA Vase is a prestigious national competition open only to clubs operating at the 9th to 11th levels of English football. It offers round by round prize money to competing clubs as well as having a showpiece Final at Wembley Stadium. Over 600 clubs enter the competition each year. Back in 2006 however, with Wembley under reconstruction, Vase Finals were held elsewhere: Villa Park, the Boleyn Ground, White Hart Lane and, on two occasions, St Andrews. The 2006 Final between Hillingdon Borough and Nantwich Town was one of those St Andrews occasions although the venue clearly didn't light up the imagination of the population with only 3,286 attending.
Hillingdon's ground is located in Ruislip, Middlesex and the Hillmen (nice nickname eh?), members of the Spartan South Midlands League, played eleven games in order to reach the 2006 Final. In more recent years the club has struggled financially and come close to giving up on more than one occasion. Hats off to former player and Congolese international Yannick Bolasie who offered to support the club financially in 2017 in one of the club's latest brushes with insolvency.
Nantwich Town is another club with a splendid nickname. They're known as the Dabbers, apparently a reference to the towns traditional leather tanning industry (please don't ask me why it's not the Tanners). Nantwich can be found in Cheshire. North-West Counties League based Town played nine games en route to the Final. The year after their Vase Final Nantwich moved into a brand new stadium and have enjoyed much greater levels of support since. In addition to their nickname, the Dabbers have a splendidly named stand at their new home: the Whitby Morrison Ice Cream Vans Stand - I have no idea of the stand's seating capacity but I rather hope that it's 99 who are sprinkled about.
Nantwich dominated the Final and won 3-1 with Hillingdon's goal being something of a consolation being scored in the 90th minute. Andy Kinsey, Nantwich's two-goal hero that day, made national headlines for all the wrong reasons however. Seen here in the video, after scoring his second and Nantwich's third with just 21 minutes to go, he managed to dislocate his shoulder in the ensuing goal celebrations! Nevertheless I'm sure that he would have enjoyed a bit of 'armless fun post match!
CRB Match No. 1500
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