CADBURY ATHLETIC 3 - 1 KNOWLE

 

    MIDLAND FOOTBALL LEAGUE, DIVISION TWO

Cadbury Recreation Ground, Bournville Lane, Birmingham, B30 2HP

                 5th November, 2022                 2:00 pm Kick-Off  

So the rail strike has been called off but not in time for most services today to be disrupted. This has helped to make me make a decision to go to a venue that will be easy to reach by local bus and I have plumped for the MFL Div 2, top of the table clash in the 'village' of Bournville, between 3rd placed Cadbury Athletic v 2nd placed and unbeaten Knowle F.C.

It's also a good excuse to visit this unusual ground set in beautiful surroundings.

I initially have trouble getting a No.1 bus from Acocks Green as the one I wanted doesn't show up, so I have to wait another 15 minutes for the next one. I then get off opposite the Edgbaston Cricket Ground, walk round the corner on to the Pershore Road and catch the No.5 to Stirchley, where I find my planned meal stop at the Bournville Cafe is not possible as this establishment is not open, or even closed for good?

As I'm pushed for time, I grab a coffee at another cafe, (which doesn't serve food) and then walk in to Bournville, buy some cheap chicken sandwiches at a local corner shop and eat them on the way to the ground.

I make it to the ground with 20 minutes before kick-off, pay my entrance fee and buy a programme, which is quite unusual and welcome for this level. I'm even able to buy a welcome cheese roll at the tea bar at the bottom of the magnificent Pavilion building, which is the headquarters of the football and cricket teams.

I take up a position at the opposite end to the pavilion, with the factory building and team dug-outs on my left and the rest of the playing fields to my right.

Unfortunately the kick-off is delayed to 2:15 pm due to the match officials for some reason arriving late to the ground.    

Cadbury troop out on to the turf, in their usual purple shirts, white shorts and purple socks while Knowle are also in their first team colours of red shirts, black shorts and socks.

I had made a mental pre-match prediction of a 1-1 draw, given that Knowle have the meanest defence in this division and they take an early lead, when they are awarded a free kick on the right, the shot hits the right hand post, comes out to the Knowle No.6 who hits a goal bound shot and is deflected off a Cadbury defender in to the right hand corner of the net.

After this set back, the 'Chocolate Men' begin to take control of the game. After mounting pressure, a cross comes in from the right and is headed in by their lively No.11 after 21 minutes.

It's no surprise when goal number number 2 arrives when the Knowle keeper, Craig Johnson, is beaten by a shot across the goal from the left.

Johnson then does well to make a save from an incoming header but it proves to be a short reprieve, when in the 32nd minute he comes out to block the Cadbury N0.9, Tom Craine, only to see the ball rebound off him to the oncoming Jeson Dinanga to slot the ball home.

So my pre-match prediction has been destroyed by a 'purple patch' of 12 minutes play by last seasons champions, Cadbury Athletic, who take this 2 goal lead into at the interval. 

I have a cup of Cadbury's hot chocolate and wonder if there will be any more goals in the second period?

I think this ground is a haven for ground hoppers as I have met 3 today. I get talking to one guy who has managed to travel by train from Coventry. He originally comes from Barnet in North London and we reminisce about grounds we have visited in the past and also music concerts. It turns out that he is going to watch the old 70's punk band 'The Damned' this evening.

Also there is a guy from Leicester, taking photos for a website (called 'Football Grounds In Focus') about football grounds around the country and abroad too, which is worth checking out.

The second half of this game sees Cadbury Athletic largely content to keep the visitors at bay. 

Knowle's stand out player today is undoubtedly their No.10, Reece Hewitt, who has shown great skill and energy in his efforts to rally his team (as shown below).

 Knowle do go close late on in the game to getting a second goal when a header hits the base of a post and out.

The match ends in a well deserved win for the home team, who by courtesy of a surprising slip-up at home by the league leaders, Sutton United (1-2 losers v Inkberrow), duly take over Knowle in second place and 2 points behind Sutton. 

Knowle drop to 4th place on goal difference from Alcester Town. The top 7 teams are only seperated by 7 points, so this bodes well for a possible tight title race this season.

It's been good to visit this ground (one of my favourites) again and I might make another visit, possibly for a cup match, in the next few months.

Match Attendance:                     75

Entrance Fee:                              £5 (£3 concession)

Match Programme:                    £ 1.50

Entertainment Value:                7.5/10  

  

 

   

LANE HEAD 1 - 2 CADBURY ATHLETIC

 

      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

 

 

  

  

CADBURY ATHLETIC 4 - 0 F.C. DARLASTON

 

      BIRMINGHAM SATURDAY VASE, 3RD ROUND 

Hayes Playing Fields, Birmingham Rd, Hopwood, Worcestershire, B38 8LP

                              20/11/2021   2pm Kick Off

I had at first thought of going to a FA Vase 2nd Rd match and Atherstone Town had been top of my list but in the end I wimped out and decided to go to a more local competition, namely the Birmingham Saturday Vase.

As Cadbury Athletic at present cannot use their own excellent recreation ground pitch, due to covid restrictions, they are currently hiring out an artificial pitch on some playing fields that Alvechurch FC now own. This is the site that's primarily going to be developed for their new ground in the future and the articial pitch is hired out to different clubs in the meantime.

The Cadbury match secretary, Russell Cooke, informed me by email that this ground is a caged affair but one side has room for spectators. At first, I was not that keen but as the weather forecast is quite good I decide to go for it, plus Russell also mentioned there are refreshments available and match programmes too! 

I travel by train to Longbridge and go browsing around the local shopping centre, even buying some Christmas Cards, have a meal at Sainsbury's cafe and walk to the ground, which takes me about 50 minutes. I definitely need the exercise!

I don't realise until later that this facility lies just over the border in Worcestershire, my home county.

I make my way up the new looking road and come to a table where 2 guys from Cadbury are taking the gate money and selling the match programmes and club badges.

The road takes a left turn and the pitch is on the left as I walk up and beyond are some toilets (much needed by now), with the changing rooms behind them plus a club house that's still not fully completed inside.

I go to the entrance of the cage and walk along the spectator area till I am just over half way along and get ready for the match.

 Soon the 2 teams, come out on to the pitch, with Cadbury in their usual home strip of purple and FC Darlaston from the West Midlands League are in their away kit of all red.

The 'Chocolate Men' are in control at the start and are pressing for an early goal. Darlaston have a set back after just 6 minutes when their No.8 has to hobble off the pitch and take no further part in the proceedings!

Cadbury Athletic press well and are playing with a confidence that underlines their current good form which sees them top of the 2nd Division of the Midland Football League.

Their best first chance falls to their No.10 who I think is Tom Craine, their joint top scorer but his shot is blocked by the visitors keeper. Then their No.2 lets fly with a shot that fly's just over the bar.

Eventually the Cadbury No.9 does score and later on Tom Craine wrong foots the goalkeeper and slots home in to the bottom right-hand corner of the goal, when his team are awarded a penalty.

Darlaston do mount attacks of their own but these are usually snuffed out before they reach the penalty area and the home keeper has competently dealt with anything coming his way.

So Cadbury Athletic are 2 up at the break and are looking comfortable to move forward in to the 3rd Round draw.

At half time I go in to the club house and have a cup of tea and a ham roll. When I walk out a club official points to some steps that lead to a raised area, where the Alvechurch ground will be built. He tells me that I'm welcome to go and have a look but of course there is not much to see yet. 

The fortunes of Alvechurch have been taking an upturn in recent years and that's very good considering they are basically a village team but with a very proud history of course.

FC Darlaston are a club that was only formed in 2017 by 2 former officials of Darlaston Town, Paul Foster and Mark McIntyre. They started off by recruiting mainly local players and then signed up some former 'Town' players the next season and achieved promotion to Division One but this will (hopefully) be their first full season in the top flight, following the covid restrictions of the previous 2 league campaigns. 

The second period commences and it's Cadbury Athletic mainly on top but Darlaston do manage to implement more attacks this time round.

Tom Craine is foiled twice by the visitor's keeper in quick succession and then hits the rebound over the bar in the 59th minute.

   The Chocolate Men miss a great chance to go 3 goals up when their No.12 substitute hardly makes contact with the ball when it's passed invitingly in front of him in front of goal.

One of FC Darlaston's best players, their No.7, hits a shot over the bar after 75 minutes as a reminder that his side still intend to fight all the way.

Cadbury have other ideas and do score the all important 3rd goal soon after when the ball is glanced in at the far post when a cross comes over from the left.  

        (The Cadbury Athletic No.3 almost bends it in like Beckham)

The home side complete their scoring with 8 minutes remaining when their No.9 goes on a good run down the right and scores from close in.

Cadbury Athletic have been well worth their victory today and next week sees them hosting their close rivals and second placed team, Knowle FC. Should be quite a contest. They will be playing here at 'The Hayes' until the end of this season and then hopefully will be able to go back to their ground in Bournville.

FC Darlaston will be trying to resurrect their season as they currently occupy bottom place in their division.

Before I leave the site, I get chatting to a guy called Dougie Griffiths, who turns out to be a director of Alvechurch FC. He's an ex-player and informs me when I tell him I come from Worcester, that he was the deputy manager for 2 seasons when George Rooney was in charge at Worcester City in the 1980's. It turns out he has been involved with several Midland clubs in the past and has plenty of stories to tell.

All in all a good trip and it will be interesting to see the new Alvechurch stadium in the future.

Match Attendance:        60

Entrance Fee:               £4

Programme:                 £1

Entertainment value:  7/10