The Victoria Ground (home of Bromsgrove Sporting) in Bromsgrove is my destination today as I am going to watch the Final of the Worcestershire Junior (Saturday) Cup. It's between the north Worcestershire rivals of the village teams, Fairfield Villa and Feckenham, who both also play in the 1st Division of the Midland Combination. I figure that Fairfield should be the favourites as they are placed in the top half of the league while Feckenham are in the bottom half.
It's a pleasant, mainly sunny day when I venture out at 9:30 this morning to buy the daily newspapers. When I get to the main road I see a minibus sporting a Newport County logo go past. Later I find out that they must be on there way to Grimsby to play against their play-off rivals.
I later make my way to Bromsgrove by bus and when I arrive there about 30 minutes later I have a look round the regular Saturday street market.
At about 1:30pm I walk up to the ground as it is a 2:00pm kick-off probably to enable spectators to watch this game and then travel the short distance to watch the later match at Kidderminster where the Harriers are taking on Stockport County.
Ten minutes later I arrive at the ground and although it's only a £2 entrance fee today, this is waived aside as I have said I will supply photos to the Worcestershire FA website. This is because I emailed a cousin of mine called Chris, who works for the FA, inform him I will be going to Bromsgrove and as he can't make it there himself, would like some pictures taken for them.
After buying my usual pre-match cup of tea, I'm a bit dismayed as there only seems to be about 20 fellow spectators in the ground. Eventually though around 100-150 people turn up.
Both teams are playing in their usual strips, Fairfield in yellow & blue and Feckenham in their green & white.
Fairfield press strongly for the first 10 minutes but Feckenham are the first to score! This encourages the underdogs and play is pretty even until Feckenham score again later in the half. This certainly wasn't in the script.
Feckenham dominate the rest of play before half-time and the Fairfield manager must be a worried man.
10 minutes into the second-half and things get even worse for the favourites. A cross from the right of their defence is met by the head of the Fairfield No.5 and he steers it beautifully in to the corner of his own net, instead of the intended destination of past the post for a corner. Surely that must be game over by the look on his face.
However, Fairfield do come back fighting and although they find it tough to get the better of their opponents defence, their No.7 does go close with a free-kick. 2 minutes later and the same player scores the best goal of the match with a dipping volley from just outside the penalty area. Fairfield are now putting on pressure in the last minutes of the game and right near the end they are awarded a penalty. It is not going to be their day though as the Feckenham keeper makes a good save to his left to deny Villa any chance of a remarkable comeback.
(The victorious Feckenham team with the Cup)
Feckenham deserve their triumph as they took their chances well while Fairfield look as if they had an off-day today. That's cup competitions for you!
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