Bromsgrove Sporting

Midland Football League - Division One
Bromsgrove Sporting 1 Cadbury Athletic 2
Programme £1 (decent)
Atten 322




 


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Fantastic Classic Main Stand at Bromsgrove Sporting

 An enjoyable day in the Midlands, not far from The Crossroads Motel

The Victoria Ground is a superb step 6 venue and they have the highest average attendance of any team at this level in the country.
Once inside you can smell it has hosted much higher leagues. In 1993 the former tennants Bromsgrove Rovers reached the dizzy heights of Runners-Up in the Football Conference behind Wycombe Wanderers. You can still see reminders of the green team colours of Rovers around the ground,mostly on the big stand behind the top goal. The obvious focal point of the ground is the superb main stand which overlooks proceedings like a Head Master during Asembley !.

At the start of play it was 2nd v 6th and the game itself was an even affair with the opening goal by Sporting coming as a complete suprise. HT 1-0.
It only took a matter of seconds for Cadbury to equalise in the 2nd half and they continued to dominate as the game unfolded. They showed the greater desire and were well worth the win and the team of chocolate fame had more Quality (street) and they came up 'Roses' with plenty of 'celebrations' as they scored the winner and proved they were no soft centre !

Leigh Centurions

Sunday 15th February 2015

Kingstone Press Championship
Leigh Centurions 36 Bradford Bulls 24
Atten 7499
Programme £2.50 - Superb 48 pages of interesting articles and colour photos. Great read. No wonder it got sold out.




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From start to finish this was a pulsating match including six sin-binnings between possibly the two heavyweights of the Championship.
Bulls got off to a flyer and sort of caught Leigh by suprise by combining very well to score an early try and took a 12-0 lead. But Leigh were able to finally get in the Bulls 20' and score under the posts. Leigh's fightback was momentarily halted after a massive players brawl which ended up on the terraces. It soon became 11v11 as star Leigh signing Fuifui Moimoi entered the pitch. Few minutes later Leigh thought they had scored another try only for it to be ruled out for a forward pass. Moments later Leigh had yet another player shown the yellow card for a tackle of a Bulls player in mid air. It was an action packed first half. HT 6-20 During the interval i got mobbed by a group of beautiful Models who for some reason kept wanting to kiss me ! 

Leigh exploded in the 2nd half and fought back impressively.
Centurions’ hopes were further enhanced when Siejka was sinbinned for a second time for obstruction on the hour. A shattering break from Fuifui Moimoi put Leigh on a roll and Sean Penkywicz sent Tom Armstrong over for a try which leveled things at 20-20. Ridyard added the conversion to give Leigh the lead for the first time in the game, 22-20. But Bulls pounced on a Leigh knock on to nudge ahead 20-24 (conversion was missed).

Just when we thought the game was over with a Bulls win the Centurions came fighting back in gladiator fashion.There was no time to even draw breath in this breathless finale when late on Leigh grabbed a famous victory with a try, conversion and penalty. But then Leigh tried to seal the win with a drop goal but it hit the post and bounced out into the arms of a Bulls player who surged forward to get something from the game but then Leigh got the ball and scored a fantastic breakaway try in the last few seconds to send the home faithful into celebration.

I loved the way the players came and met the fans at the end of the game on the pitch. Signing autographs, posing for photos, and shaking everyones hands.

Both sets of fans generated an awesome atmosphere and LSV was bouncing all afternoon in Leigh Centurions' biggest match for many years.
It was a fantastic afternoon's entertainment and believe me, it very rarely gets better than this ... how could it ?

North Shields

FA Vase 5th Round
North Shields 4 Phoenix Sports 1
Atten 1092










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 Match & Day Enjoyment : 10/10
 

"Hoo ye gannin" ? (how are you ? to you and me !) was the typical warm Geordie welcome I was given upon arrival in Toon (Town) by good friend 'Big Gerry' , ready for today's big FA vase 5^th Round game only a few games from Wembley. Whey aye, man (thats ok , thats right !) he carried on whilst pulling up his Breeks (trousers). I had only been in Geordie Land a few minutes and was feeling at home already.

Today's opponents were Phoenix Sports from 280 miles away in South East London. Who themselves were riding high and still undefeated in their league this season. It was always going to be a decent tie and so it proved. I love these North v South Vase matches as they seem to have extra intrigue.

In 1908, North Shields Athletic joined the North Eastern League. After the First World War, the club continued playing in that league, but the name was changed to Preston Colliery in 1918. The name was changed again, this time to North Shields, in 1928. Their record attendance was 12,800 for the local derby with South Shields in 1936. After the Second World War, the club had increasing success in amateur football, culminating in 1969 with winning the FA Amateur Cup by beating Sutton United at Wembley Stadium and becoming joint winners of the European Amateur Cup. It is said that the attendence that day was near 100,000. The Wembley matchday programme even described Appleby Park as one of the finest grounds in amateur football – praise indeed.

Todays venue locally known as “The Morgue” was far from quiet as over a thousand Geordies packed the place out to cheer North Shields to victory. The Reds took and early lead with a delicious curling free-kick which the Phoenix keeper didnt even move for. When they scored a second before half-time they had a firm grip on the match and eventually ran out 4-1 winners.

Phoenix were just second best on the day and have done excellent so far this season. But it could be fair to say they hadn't met a team of North Shields' calibre in their own league.

'Jumping for Joy' - Shields score a 4th goal to secure victory

But today was not Phoenix's day but dont worry as they will rise again . I would imagine the return 280 mile journey felt long.

So Shields march on and based on today's evidence it will take a strong side to stop them from reaching Wembley , just like their predecessors did all those years ago.

Today was a brilliant day in every respect and one I shall remember for a long time.