MIDLAND FOOTBALL LEAGUE, DIVISION TWO
Red Lion Ground, Somerfield Road, Bloxwich, Walsall, WS3 2EJ
3rd January, 2022 2:00 pm Kick-Off
So here we all are in the spanking new year of 2022 and let's hope it will truly be a better experience than 2021 and worse still 2020!
For my first game of the year I have settled on seeing a new team, Lane Head FC, who play at a ground that I have visited 4 or 5 times in the past.
Later after I had watched the game I did a bit of research and found that 'Lane Head' is a district of the nearby town of Willenhall. In the Industrial Revolution era, it was where a colliery and a iron works were situated. The colliery supplied the iron works with the coal and the Wyrley & Essington canal was also close at hand to transport the finished goods. Willenhall is mainly known as a centre for lock making and to underline how important the Industrial Revolution was to this area, the population increased from 3,143 in 1801 to 18,515 one hundred years later!
I believe that Lane Head are a new club to this level of football and it will be interesting to see how they fare against the Div 2 leaders of Cadbury Athletic.
The weather today is a great improvement to when I last ventured out to watch Sutton United, as there is plenty of sunshine and it's not too cold either.
I travel to Walsall by train with no problems and after having a snack in the Saddlers Shopping Centre, I catch the No.32 bus for a 15 minute journey that takes me close to the ground.
I go in to the club house and there is a friendly lady waiting to take the entrance fee off me. There are no programmes available (not that unexpected) and no badges for sale. It's good to see though that the tea bar outside is still in use and I have a nice warming cuppa.
When the 2 sides come out on to the pitch, the home side are in an all blue strip while Cadbury are more like the 'White Chocolate Men' today in their all white change strip.
For the first 10 minutes, the visitors are on top and after 6 minutes their lively No.11, Emile Beckford goes on a good run down the left and crosses the ball just in front of the goal line and the Lane Head keeper, manages to claw the ball away from the waiting Cadbury striker, Tom Craine, (as shown below).
After 26 minutes, the Cadbury No.3 passes through the middle for their No.9 to hit a shot past the right hand post.
Lane Head have been getting in to the game more as this half progresses and their No.6 scores following a free kick awarded on the left hand side. So the home side have rocked their opponents and what will happen now?
They come back strongly in the last few minutes and Beckford sees his fierce shot turned over for a corner. In the 41st minute, their dangerman, Tom Craine manages to bundle the ball home for the equaliser following a free kick on the left.
So it's even-stevens at the end of this half and it looks as if Cadbury will have to dig deep to get the victory they so desire.
Before I arrived I at this ground today, I had been worried in what shape it might be in, as on my last visit here nearly 5 years ago (when Bloxwich United were the hosts), the ground had been experiencing a steady decline and looked quite shoddy. Although there is still work to be done, the general appearance of the ground has definitely improved. The end where the seating is situated appears to be out of bounds for now but hopefully will be repaired in the future.
When play resumes, Cadbury are the first to go close to scoring when Craine shoots across the goal from the left.
Lane Head though go close themselves when the ball is chipped neatly in from the right and their No.7 shoots just over the bar.
Cadbury Athletic though are stepping up the pressure on their hosts and it comes as no surprise when their No.14 slots home in to the right hand side of the net after 64 minutes.
Although Cadbury do look the more dangerous side, Lane Head are definitely not out of it and they are handed a lifeline when they are awarded a penalty, when I think the Chocolate Men's No.3 is adjudged to have handled the ball in the area.
The Lane End No.5 eventually steps up to take the kick, after some heated discussions between some of the Cadbury players and the ref. He decides to go for power down the middle of the goal and the keeper, Sam Smith is able to block this attempt.
There is further disappointment for 'The Lane' when their No.12 is shown a second yellow card for his rash and robust challenge on the Cadbury No.6, Stuart Cooke.
Right in front of the Ref too! So as he trudges of the pitch, so too do Lane End's hopes of salvaging a point as there is only 1 minute of normal time to go and so the match ends in a valuable 3 points gained by the league leaders. To their credit, Lane Head have pushed them all the way today and will be looking to improve on their current 9th place.
Cadbury Athletic will host promotion rivals Fairfield Villa (4th) next Saturday while 2nd placed Knowle (4 points behind) will be at home to 3rd placed Coton Green.
Entrance Fee: £4
Match Attendance: Approx 50 (guesstimate)
Match Programme: None Available
Entertainment Value: 7/10
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