During my short and uneventful career in local semi-pro football, I never got to play at Redditch. It’s not a bad little ground, a few ramshackle stands, a decent-looking (but evil smelling!) pie stand and the regulation bobbly pitch, complete with puddles and bald patches.
I paid seven quid to get in and invested £1.50 in a programme. Not having heard the team, I got quite excited to see Blues line-up in the programme, which included Vaesen, Martin Taylor, Anderton and Blake. Sadly, the programme proved to be wildly optimistic and out trotted a Blues team comprised entirely of Academy kids and trialists. Young Jamie Price was on the bench – his hair seems to be getting longer by the day as he prepares himself to fill the void left by Robbie Savage, a role which patently includes growing his blonde locks down to his knees.
Blues started brightly, with wingers Bugsy Birley and Peter Till leaving the Redditch defenders trailing time after time and it was no surprise when they took the lead after 13 minutes. Trialist Oliver Allen sprung the offside trap, sprinting onto a neat through ball from Asa Hall, cutting inside a defender and hitting the post. Birley headed in the rebound. Allen was showing very good movement although his first touch looks a bit dodgy at times. Immediately after the goal, Barrowman found himself one-on-one with the goalie but sidefooted his shot straight at the keeper.
After 20 minutes, Blues should again have gone 2-0 up when Howland hit a rasping drive from 25 yards, with the goalie floundering. Luckily for Redditch, the shot was blocked by Barrowman. As a striker, he makes a good goalpost.
25 minutes, 2-0. Horland won a 50/50 in midfield and the ball spun free. Allen was on to it like a shot, advanced on goal and calmly placed the ball inside the post. By now, Blues were cruising, Redditch were attacking on the break but in general, Oji, Parratt, Blake and Alsop were defending well inside their comfort zone.
Redditch were playing 3-5-2 but the wingbacks were struggling to get forward and so it was really a 5-3-2, leaving Blues’ midfield pairing of Hall and Howland time and space to keep laying the ball through for Till and Birley to torture the wingbacks with. Unfortunately, I don’t know who most of the Redditch players were but I think their defence included Gary Knight (ex Swindon Town) and Matt Clarke who’s scored a goal live on Sky apparently. Rest assured Redditch are no mugs – they’d already beaten Wolves and Tamworth on their way to the Final.
Half time, 2-0. I tried to get in the bar for a pint but it was full. Went over to the pie stand but the dodgy smell put me off (even my battered constitution has some limits!). Settled for just a wee and found somewhere to shelter from the rain. Got chatting to some bloke who told me he’d seen Morrison and Pandiani in the crowd. I had to take his word for that.
Just after half time, Birley changed his boots. He put on a pair of fancy silver slipper jobs and from that point on, it all began to go wrong! Redditch had come out all fired up for the second half, their workrate was tremendous and they were snapping into the tackles. They gambled on pushing the wingbacks further upfield and turned the 5-3-2 into a genuine 3-5-2. Both goals had come from Blues winning the ball in midfield, so clearly their manager had decided to close things down in the centre. Blues front two weren’t creating anything of their own and as Redditch gained control of midfield they faded away.
60 minutes, a tired looking Ollie Allen replaced by Nick Wright. Wright has blistering pace and tricky skills, which frankly weren’t much use on a pitch that was getting greasier by the seconds as the rain drizzled down. The pitch favoured Redditch’s high tempo pressing game and stopped the Blues kids from passing the ball around the way they had in the first half.
Blues were relying on break aways, two of which ended with their keeper (Anstiss??) making a couple of top-class saves from Till, which kept his team in the game.
65 minutes, Redditch bring on Rory May, for whom the phrase “he’s a big fecker” must surely have been invented. Imagine a black Martin Johnson in football kit and you’ll get my drift!
70 minutes, I find a €50cent piece in my pocket, which was nice.
72 minutes, 1-2. Bit of a goalmouth scramble during which the inept ref decided the ball had crossed the line. I couldn’t tell from where I was standing. Sam Oji obviously didn’t think it had gone over, ‘cos he went all childish and wouldn’t give the ball back, which earned him a punch from a Redditch player and a silly booking from the ref. I won’t bother to give you the ref’s name because he’s a prat and doesn’t deserve the publicity.
80 minutes, Redditch are buzzing and the Blues kids look very tired. Blues win a series of corners but leave four men back, in an effort to hang on to what they’ve got. It doesn’t work though…
82 minutes, a terrible blunder from Blues’ keeper Meredith leads him to pass the ball straight to Redditch’s Scott Rickards who has the simple task of rolling the ball into an empty net. 2-2.
At this point, I’m getting pretty desperate for someone to grab the winner. I haven’t had me tea and really don’t fancy standing in the rain for another half hour. Thankfully, after 86 minutes, Blues fail to deal with a pretty straightforward free kick, punted into the box from midfield, the ball pings around a bit and then falls to the giant Rory May who neatly tucks it away. 3-2.
Now it’s Redditch’s turn to hang on to what they’ve got. About five minutes injury time is played, Redditch take the ball into the corners, Mr Prat blows his whistle and the Senior Cup goes to Redditch, who deserve it for their excellent second half performance.
I get lost in Redditch on the way home (I always get lost when I go to Redditch), eventually get home at about 10:30, have a Cornish pasty and a cup of tea, write this crap and then go to get myself a glass of red wine. G’night all.
Redditch United: Antiss, Clarke, Charlton, Flynn, Knight, Softley (Briggs, 32), Hollis, Taylor, Aubrey (May, 65), Rickards, Scheppel. Unused subs: Ward.
Blues: Meredith, Parratt, Alsop, Oji, Blake, Howland, Till, Hall, Barrowman, Allen (Wright, 61), Birley. Unused subs: Howell, Hinks, Curtis, Price.