Today I am visiting the Queen Street ground of Bilston Town Community FC in the Black Country. This has been on my radar for some time and will be my second visit to this town. I had gone there last July in order to see a friendly match before the start of the new season but due to bad weather it was cancelled.
It's a cold but sunny day and I take the train from Worcester as far as The Hawthorns station and from there I travel on the adjacent Midland Metro tramway. About 20 minutes later I alight at the Bilston Central station and take the short walk in to the town centre.
I have a quick look around the Market area and then double back for a meal at the Cafe Metro which is situated opposite the Town Hall. After a some lasagne and salad at this eaterie which has a nice relaxed atmosphere I walk up the road to the Bilston Craft Gallery. It's situated within the same building as the local library. I visited it the last time I came here, when it had a good exhibition of glass ware. This time round it's not so interesting to me personally. It's about felt, the textile manufactured from wool, featuring sculptures as well as clothing.
On my way to the Gallery, I noticed the locally and probably nationally famous music venue called the 'Robin 2' which holds concerts most nights of the week. It's certainly a venue I would visit if I lived in this area.
I then make the 10 minute walk to Queen Street and soon I am walking through the gate to pay my entrance fee and buy a programme. The ground has a fine stand painted in orange, which backs on to Queen Street. By the side of it lies the club house. Opposite to the stand there is space for cars to park and behind them above the wall are cube like structures on top of the wall, which have netting that look as if they are there to stop any footballs leaving the ground.
I take position at the far end of the ground to the entrance. Today's opponents are Sporting Khalsa, who lie in 3rd place in the league table but who have plenty of games in hand on the leaders, Gornal Athletic and second placed AFC Bridgnorth and look likely champions.
The sun is still shining when the teams take the field, with Bilston in orange and Khalsa in their blue and yellow strip. It certainly makes for a colourful spectacle.
Unfortunately today I was not able to make my usual notes during the game as my pen inexplicably decided to cease working even though I had just been using it for a week. Also, my camera's battery packed up after just 20 minutes. I'd noticed when I took it out of my bag that the it was already switched on so it must have been active for some time. So I have had to take notes from the Sporting Khalsa website match report for this Blog post.
The lively Khalsa forwards, Craig Bannister and Marvin Nisbett both go close to scoring in the first 10 minutes, especially Nisbett who shoots wide with just the Bilston keeper to beat and I was certain he would score. Although Khalsa have a few more chances they are unable to break the deadlock.
Although Bilston match the effort of their opponents they are not able to test the Sporting Khalsa as much as they'd like.
During the first half I realised that Khalsa have at least 5 ex-Gornal Athletic players from their West Midland Premier championship winning team of 3 seasons ago. This makes sense as the Khalsa manager is Ian Rowe who had managed that team.
I buy myself a cup of tea from the tea bar/club shop and also a club badge, with the help of the 2 friendly ladies working there. I am also impressed when just after play has resumed, one of the club officials, makes his way around the ground to make sure that everyone knows the winning draw ticket number.
The second half sees Sporting Khalsa stepping up their efforts and are soon seriously testing Bilston's defence. The home side finally concede the first goal when Craig Bannister fires home after 55 minutes. In the next 15 minutes they score 2 more to effectively make sure of the 3 points. First Nisbett scores with a lob and then Bannister strikes a great free kick in to the corner of the net.
Although Khalsa's keeper, James Pemberton, denies Bilston Town a consolation goal right at the end of the match, Khalsa have sealed a comfortable victory today. They have set themselves nicely up for their vital clash at Bridgnorth on Tuesday night.
I have been impressed by Bilston today. They are a friendly club who are striving to make a good connection with their local community. They run a local youth competition and also have started a soccer school for youngsters on Saturday mornings.
They have played at Southern League level in the past and it would be great to see them acheive that in the future.
Match entrance fee: £4
Match programme: £1
Match attendance: approx 50-60
Match entertainment: 6.5/10
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