The FA's Historian and Super Fan The Barber, aka David Barber, was up in the Midlands at the weekend and didn’t do badly for goals!
On Saturday I saw Worcester City 3 Colwyn Bay 5 in the Conference North and on Sunday morning it was Bearwood 3 Pheasant 11 in the Warley & District Sunday League Division One.
It was dry and sunny on Saturday, but with a chilly breeze, and a London Midland train took me from Smethwick Galton Bridge to Kidderminster and I was in the ground 2.30-ish for a game that visitors Colwyn Bay had to win to have any chance of avoiding relegation.
Worcesters lost 5-3 to Colwyn Bay, but Bay still went down
What a game! It had eight goals, a red card, a penalty, a goal direct from a corner and a six-foot seagull – who insisted on standing next to me behind the goal.
Colwyn Bay’s cause was arguably helped when Worcester, conquerors of Coventry City in this season’s FA Cup (which has them in the running for the Ronnie Radford Giant-Killers award), had a player dismissed for a ‘professional foul’ after just seven minutes.
Bay certainly weren’t looking to ‘keep it tight and nick a goal’ and attacked in numbers from the start. It was 1-1 at half-time, Bay’s freakish equaliser coming when the home defence left a cross that looked to be going off for a goal kick.
When the No.9 flicked the ball back into the goalmouth, two Bay players were virtually standing on the line with the ball at their feet. Then, in ten minutes, it went from 1-1 to 1-4.
Seagulls follow the Colwyn
Bay won 5-3 but in the end it all counted for nothing, because the two teams above them, Brackley Town and Stalybridge Celtic, won and drew and poor Bay went down on goal difference. But they had really had a go!
Thimblemill Rec is a ten-minute walk from my sister’s house and Bearwood were playing their last game of the season at 10.30 on Sunday.
On my only previous visit Bearwood had won impressively 4-1, so it was puzzling that they were bottom of their division.
As they were four points adrift, they were destined to stay there. After three minutes Bearwood were ahead against mid-table Pheasant, the No.8 cutting inside from the left to loop an amazing shot into the far top corner.
The Barber was back at Thimblemill Rec on Sunday
The crowd (of 12) went mad. But that was as good as it got for the home side. They were 5-1 down at the break and the final scoreline of 11-3 was one that I’d never seen before in 54 years.
On Monday night I was at Stamford Bridge for the second leg of The FA Youth Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester City.
The pre-game nosh in the Executive Club Suite was outstanding as usual and Chelsea won 2-1 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate.
My ‘birthday treat’ on Wednesday is Southall v Baldock Town in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One. It’ll be my 164th game this season and 6,824th in total.
