Today I'm going back 19 years to 2002 and Racing Club Warwick's home fixture against Gresley Rovers in the Southern League Western Division or, as it was known under it's sponsor name, the Dr Martens League Western Division. It's always good to stick the boot in isn't it?
I had started watching Racing Club when I moved to the town in 2000. I say "town" conscious of the application that is presently underway to claim City status for Warwick as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Many people think that there needs to be a cathedral for a place to be designated as a City but apparently that's not been true since medieval times. Personally I don't support the proposal as I don't buy the argument that there are economic benefits arising from the change in status. I think that the whole thing is something of a distraction and there are lots of people who, in any case, don't wish to have to start calling their town something different. Being the County Town of Warwickshire is good enough for me and plenty of others thank you very much.
My choice to start watching Racing Club was primarily because I wanted to cut down my football travelling and yet still take in a match on a Saturday afternoon. Attending Townsend Meadow permitted me to leave home at 2:30pm and get back in the door just after 5pm if I wanted to. All in all, less aggravation at home compared to the whole day affair of travelling to York City or Tottenham from Warwick. I have found that, once you start watching the same group of players week in week out, it becomes more interesting than simply watching a bunch of random players. You develop your own favourites as well as the odd scape goat or two when things go wrong. This happens at every level of football and, in my opinion, you can get at least as much enjoyment out of following a Non-League team as you can following a League club. It's certainly considerably cheaper and the logistics of getting to and from the match is a lot easier too. For sure the levels of skill on show aren't the same further down the pyramid but, providing the level of effort is high, a good competitive match can be absorbing irrespective of the level.
Perhaps you're wondering where Gresley Rovers come from? Gresley Rovers are based in Church Gresley okay? Which is near Swadlincote. Still none the wiser? It's actually in deepest, darkest Derbyshire and is on the county border with Leicestershire. Their ground, the Moat Ground, is a little jewel and well worth a visit. It has a capacity of 2,400 but only about 10% of that is normally required. The original Gresley Rovers were liquidated in 2009 and a newly reformed club called Gresley FC rose, phoenix-like, from the ashes of Rovers. Just to be confusing (well it confused me anyway), Gresley FC have since had the "Rovers" monicker restored to become Gresley Rovers once again.
Warwick's pitch, since replaced with an artificial surface, was a mud bath and survived more than one pitch inspection before the game went ahead. On 15 minutes Gresley got the opening goal. A half cleared ball was picked up by Richard Wardle who ran on a few steps and then cracked a low shot into the bottom corner of the net. On 21 minutes Gresley beat the home side's offside trap and Bourne sent a through ball through a flat defence for Smith to easily beat the Racers keeper and make it 2-0. On 34 minutes Warwick had their best chance of the half when Marcus French met Danny Hollywood's free kick with a close-range header that brought off a superb save by the Gresley keeper Lindley but seconds later the ball was down the other end for Gresley's third goal. Again the visitors breached the offside trap with Bourne playing the pass for Barrett to run onto and beat the keeper. In first half stoppage Gresley went four up. Again Smith punished the static Warwick defence, waiting forlornly for an offside flag. The striker lifting his shot over the helpless Warwick keeper after Hopkins had sliced open the back line with his pass to Smith. Warwick began the second half much brighter and on 53 minutes reduced the deficit. Hopkins was adjudged to have fouled Cooper in the box and the home side were awarded a spot kick. Paul John made no mistake sending Lindley the wrong way. On 84 minutes, Gresley got their fifth goal of the afternoon and Smith completed his hat trick when he smashed in from close range.
It was a difficult season for Warwick and they ended it in bottom spot and were duly relegated into the Midland Football Alliance for the following season with just 18 points to show for their 42 games (they won just three games all season). Gresley had a solid season and finished ninth but a long way short of Champions Merthyr Tydfil and runners up Weston-super-Mare who were both promoted.
CRB Match No. 1291
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