I had a fabulous trip to Atherstone. Met some really nice people, learnt about the Atherstone Ball Game which happens every shrove Tuesday. Touched this years ball after a chat with the upholsterer who makes it. Apparently they board up the shops 1000 or so people turn up to watch a couple of 100 fight (each other and) for the ball all afternoon. The police just let them get on with it.
Witnessed some idiocy. A small group of alleged Atherstone fans lighting flares, throwing full cans of beer at away fans ... to be fair Atherstone knew it was coming and had got lots of fans who volunteered as stewards to mitigate it. The police applying their standard policy to ball games in Atherstone. The game was a tense affair, Worcester had brought about 400 fans (of all ages) which added to the atmosphere in a tight little ground, the gate well over 800. Against the run of play Atherstone (step 6) took the lead on about 25 minutes, a screamer from the edge of the box and then held on until half time. Worcester missed an opportunity to roll the ball into the back of the net purely due to a both of dithering by the centre forward who created the chance. Arggggh.
We had a bit of half time idiocy during the change of ends and then Worcester came out all guns blazing for the second half. A streaker in pants! Is that a thing? provided brief punctuation before Worcester equalised. Although on top the game opened up with both sides trading metaphorical punches and hand bags, Worcester conceded their advantage with a rash tackle and a sending off 5 minutes before the end of normal time. 30 minutes of back to the wall defending and hey ho here we go again on Wednesday night in beautiful Bromsgrove!
Wroxham dunked out the favourites Stowmarket Town in the all east Anglian affair. Consett beat Deal but Corinthian (based on a farm! close to Brands Hatch) beat Sporting Khalsa keeping the strongest SCEFL side in the competition, wins for Hebburn (more Northern league representation), Plymouth Parkway, Leighton Town (Leighton Buzzard) and Bitton (Bath) means there is good spread of teams across the U.K. for the QFs! Some great potential days out and at least Worcester are still in the draw on Monday! The Black spot being the northern powerhouse! do they play football in Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool?
Had a brief chat with the Worcester and Atherstone chairmen, separately, but have to say there are some really decent people out there voluntarily make colossal efforts to bind together these community clubs at this level. Really felt for the Atherstone chairman whose primary focus yesterday was probably just getting through the day and everyone off home safe.
-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Sunday 9th of February 2020 09:01:54 AM
The last non league side exited the Scottish Cup at the L16 stage with BSC Glasgow losing 4-1 at home to Hibernian.
"Home" since 2016 has been in Alloa but they are really from the Broomhill area of Glasgow. Currently they are on the fringe of the Lowland League title race so an outside chance of getting into the end of season Scottish League play-offs.
Brechin City, adrift at the bottom of League Two, look very likely to be the Scottish League side fighting to retain their status in these play-offs.
The two sides who have come up since these play-offs were introduced ( Edinburgh City and Cove Rangers ) are currently in a battle for the one automatic promotion spot into League One.
The last non league side exited the Scottish Cup at the L16 stage with BSC Glasgow losing 4-1 at home to Hibernian.
"Home" since 2016 has been in Alloa but they are really from the Broomhill area of Glasgow. Currently they are on the fringe of the Lowland League title race so an outside chance of getting into the end of season Scottish League play-offs.
Brechin City, adrift at the bottom of League Two, look very likely to be the Scottish League side fighting to retain their status in these play-offs.
The two sides who have come up since these play-offs were introduced ( Edinburgh City and Cove Rangers ) are currently in a battle for the one automatic promotion spot into League One.
Thanks Indy - what I thought was wonderful (and maybe instructive!) is that the team that goes down from League two, if any, gets assigned to the Highland or Lowland League on the very specific rule "
If the Highland or Lowland team wins the final they are promoted to League Two, and the team finishing 10th is relegated to the appropriate regional league depending on whether they are north or south of 56.4513N latitude (middle of the Tay Road Bridge. If the League Two side prevails, they retain their place in the following season's competition".
In England, they effectively just move teams around to create a best fit regionally , but this suggests Highland and Lowland as a concept is very clearly defined - is the same Tay Road Bridge aspect used by anyone describing the Highlands or Lowlands?
Interesting, I wasn't aware of this rule for assigning the teams, and no, never heard anyone using the Tay Bridge as a Highlands / Lowlands divider - partly because it doesn't really work at the Tay Bridge side of the country.
In generality it's not bad but the east coast teams north of the Tay Bridge are not in the true Highlands, certainly not Dundee. That line divider is much more a diagonal line from not far north of Glasgow in the west to north of Aberdeen in the east.
But it's not unreasonable as a geographical Highland / Lowland League divider and would assign Brechin to the Highland League if the worst came to the worst.
A Highland League by the way, since yesterday, remarkably not propped up by my old hometown club, Fort William. Yay
NB Worcester City have a 100% record against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
Klopp needs to show a bit of respect for the cup. A rampant City having dumped out Millwall in the previous round on the 15/1/1959 gave his boys a thrashing down St Georges Lane in front of 15K. We did of course share the gate receipts with the 2nd division outfit! Without the meritocracy of the English football pyramid Liverpool would not be where they are.
I couldnt get the link to work but presume it relates to Harrogates game being off.
On a similarly unhappy note Worcester lost to Atherstone on penalties so really given Worcesters mid table mediocrity thats it for the season. Depending on work commitments may go out to Corinthian for their QF.
They are a step 5 club with great facilities strong youth set up but no budget. There are two of the chairmans (Ron Billings) grandsons in the side (a canny way of not paying players) part of a very talented sporting family with Sam Billings captaining Kent @ cricket also having played for the club (he also played tennis for Kent).
The ground is on the chairmans farm so unlikely to be in imminent danger of property development!!
I couldnt get the link to work but presume it relates to Harrogates game being off.
On a similarly unhappy note Worcester lost to Atherstone on penalties so really given Worcesters mid table mediocrity thats it for the season. Depending on work commitments may go out to Corinthian for their QF.
They are a step 5 club with great facilities strong youth set up but no budget. There are two of the chairmans (Ron Billings) grandsons in the side (a canny way of not paying players) part of a very talented sporting family with Sam Billings captaining Kent @ cricket also having played for the club (he also played tennis for Kent).
The ground is on the chairmans farm so unlikely to be in imminent danger of property development!!
Nope, harrogate never has that problem, it was a local club tadcaster albion,