Wednesday 17 September 2008

Tuesday 16th September 2008

Rainworth MW v Stourbridge FC FA Cup 1QR replay

As I was driving to the ground, I had a horrible thought ...did we once say we were going to avoid FA Cup replays?

Well, this game had the makings of a real upset, so we just had to be there!!

Arrived at the ground, and parked right outside - perfect... paid the obligatory £5 to get in ( the FA have set this figure I believe), and followed Kev to the snack bar -- nothing for me again, but Kev sampled the pie and peas and gave them a thumbs up.. although there is not a lot you can do to spoil a Pukka pie!

Stourbridge had apparently made several changes to their starting eleven, and according to one of their subs we were talking to, they were a bit stronger than they were in Saturday's game.

It took just 9 minutes for the visitors to notch the first goal. A long throw ( a la Stoke City), was misjudged by the home defence leaving Nathan Bennett an easy tap in at the near post.

Rainworth didn't let heads drop though, and were playing some decent stuff - and in the 24th minute they were awarded a free-kick 25 yards from goal -- Lee Wilkinson hit a sweet curler past Solly in the Stourbridge goal to level the scores. The keeper never even moved!

The Referee was having a half-decent game and on 35 he over-ruled his assistant and waved play on after an infringement by a Rainworth player - a good decision for the visitors because the ball was then played into the box where Ryan Mahon was on hand to flick home at the near post.

3 minutes later it was 1-3. A misdirected punt upfield by Stourbridge keeper Solly was collected by Sam "Rocky" Rock - the winger played a neat one-two with a colleague, entered the Rainworth penalty area and was promptly fouled. James Dyson made no mistake with the spot kick.... H-T 1-3.

After having a great bit of banter with the Stourbridge bench, we decided to relocate on the opposite side of the pitch -- attracting the one real Stourbridge "eccentric" -- blimey, what an accent !! To call it a thick Black Country accent would not half describe it -- imagine Jasper Carrott on valium. This bloke had a one-sided chat with Kev -- I could hardly understand him at all ... well, every other word was "effin" this and "effin" that, but apart from that it the topic of conversation will have to remain a mystery.

Rainworth played some good passing football early on in the second period, but barely troubled Solly - a hasty push out from a Whitehead corner but apart from that he was not over-worked. Mind you, Stourbridge did defend with 7 or 8 players a lot of the time, so Solly did have decent cover.

Things brightened up a little when it was announced that Malcolm McDonald was replacing Julian Brown -- until tannoy man Gordon realised he'd mixed up the names -- Malc Brown was replaced by Julian McDonald !! There was still lots of huff-and-puff from the home team, but the Stourbridge outfit held on and took the £3000 prize money. F-T 1-3

Saturday -- Kimberley v Gornal Athletic in the FA Vase - a game that should have been played ages ago...

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