sutton witton

Sutton Coldfield Town 2 Witton Albion 3 (aet)

FA Trophy First Round Replay

Mon Oct 19th

At half past four yesterday afternoon, I contacted Oops' Central England Correspondent for his opinion on this game. His response? "I live 10 minutes from the ground, my mate is manager, I have a free ticket, and I'm not going" Well, who was laughing as the clocks struck 10pm and the ref blew the final whistle eh?


It's downhill from here

I didn't make Retford's Trophy game against Nantwich on Saturday. Couldn't raise the enthusiasm for an inter-league match-up. Instead I renewed a few old acquaintances in darkest Staffs, and at the same time remembered why "proper" football is a load of old toss. But faced with a night listening to Fulham v Hull, the FA Trophy suddenly became the most glamorous competition in the world.

Sutton Coldfield Town sit at the wrong end of the Zamaretto League Midlands Division, whilst Witton Albion were relegated to the Unibond Division One South last season, but unlike their hosts are doing fairly well this season. The aforementioned correspondent reported that they were two distinctly average teams, but on this showing SCT at least are in a false position.


This was supposed to be an arty shot. It didn't work, did it?

Straight from the kick off, the game promised much. The hosts looked to play some attractive passing football, whilst the visitors were content to absorb their best efforts, before breaking speedily down the flanks. An end to end first half brought two goals each, including one penalty, some hefty challenges on the more flamboyant members of the Coldfield team, one in particular on right winger Matt Dodds could well have been a red card offence. Whether intentional or not, the fleet-footed youngster was much quieter after this challenge, which was unfortunate for Town. Previously he had been keen to run with the ball at every opportunity, and created havoc whenever he did. With a bit of coaching and TLC, he could play a couple of levels up from here. And who knows, he may yet do so.


Craig Marshall puts the penalty away safely

The second half was poor by comparison, which was unfortunate as the temperature dropped considerably! It could have been different, had Witton not fluffed their penalty early on, but the game petered out into a battle of long balls and misplaced passes. The contrast to the first 45 minutes was stark. And disappointing. The visiting fans, of whom there were a surprising number, had already taken a dislike to the home keeper (and the rest of the world, judging by their forum), and whilst their bating of him proved a mild distraction, truth be told so little of note happened outside of the missed penalty that I am struggling to find anything to write. And so it was that extra time came, and latterly penalties loomed. Until one last foray down the Sutton left finally bore fruit for Witton. A cross was poked across, and the hapless Craig Owen routed it into his own net with three minutes to go. Cue much jubilation from the travellers.

I was left with the impression that Coles Lane deserves much better. It's one of those places you could imagine turning up to on a fairly regular basis, and looking upon fondly.