I am heading to the Autotech Stadium at Solihull today to watch the play-off hopefuls clash of Solihull Moors and Boston United. It's a cloudy day with a chance of a shower this afternoon. I set out at 12:17pm from Worcester Foregate Street station and reach Solihull town centre for 1:35pm. It just gives me enough time for a mooch around the excellent shopping centre here and a quick bite to eat before catching the No.966 bus for the ground.
We soon have 8 Boston fans boarding the bus and I think there will probably be a good sized contingent of their supporters today, as they seem to have a good loyal following.
20 minutes later I alight at the stop which is located near the back of the Land Rover works, right on the outskirts of the town and it's also close to Birmingham Airport.
I have a pleasant surprise when arriving at the entrance as I find it's only £9 to get in. At Worcester City it's £12 for an adult ticket and going up to £13 for next season. It's £2.50 for the match programme but it's a decent effort and it's the first programme Iv'e bought for a while now.
I also have some in interest in the match because Solihull feature several ex-Worcester players in their squad, most notably, Rob Elvins who is now their captain and the No.5 linchpin of the team. He was one of my favourite players at Worcester and was sad to see him leave at the end of last season when City vacated St.George's Lane. Their team today also features Michael Taylor at No.10 and Richard Taundry at No.8 who were at the City recently too.
When the teams come out, Solihull are in this season's new colours of blue & yellow horizontal stripes and Boston in their usual gold & black kit.
Solihull seem to be relying a lot on long balls played to their strikers, the tall No.9, Omar Bogle and Michael Taylor. Boston seem to be a bit more composed on the ball and I am impressed by their No.3, Rene Steer who makes a couple of dangerous runs down the left.
The Solihull keeper, Jasinder Singh makes a good save after about 15 minutes and a bit later on their is a nasty looking collision between Bogle who stumbles while racing for the ball and crashes in to Boston's No.8, Junior Konadu.
After a few minutes of treatment though both players appear to be ok although a little shaken.
On 37 minutes though Boston take the lead when Boston's Ricky Miller is brought down in the penalty area, much to the delight of the Boston fans behind that goal and he fires in the resulting penalty to give the visitors the advantage.
Before the interval arrives though, Solihull have 2 penalty appeals themselves. They both feature their striker Michael Taylor and only the 2nd one is upheld by the ref. Omar Bogle though blasts the ball wide though and Boston go in still clinging on to their 1-0 lead.
There is a crowd of 459 today and I reckon that at least 200 of these are Boston fans. They have a very good fan base considering the population of the town is only about 35-40,000.
Solihull's stadium has been renamed this season due to be being sponsored by Autotech. It's probably the reason they have changed their team colours too. You can't blame them as they are not a well supported club and need the money to survive at this level. They have a strong looking squad this season and although they sat in ninth place before today's game, earlier on in the season had been amongst the pace setters in this division. Boston are sitting in 6th place, just one point behind Guiseley in the play-off positions and have been having a good run recently.
Solihull's ground has one main stand along the side of the ground nearest the entrance,which also houses the changing rooms and club house. There is also a covered seated area at the end near the entrance too, while brave souls like myself are out in the open. This is not much of a problem today as there was only a period of about 15 minutes when there was a light smattering of rain.
Play resumes for the next 45 minutes and soon Boston go close when McGhee fires in a cross and Singh in the Moors goal almost lets the ball go behind him in to the net.
Solihull do equalise though in the 62nd minute when they are awarded a free kick on the left, 20 yards out. Bogle takes it and the ball takes a big deflection off a defender in to the net with the keeper having no chance of saving it.
Boston who are playing the better football in this half are awarded another penalty with 15 minutes to go. Singh brings down Miller in the area and Miller fires in the penalty in off the underside of the bar.
The visitors manage to see out the win and collect 3 vital points. This result puts paid to Solihull's last chance of making the play-offs this time round while Boston are still in with a chance. I notice that their last game is away to.....Worcester City! Should be quite a game.
I have been to this ground 3 times now and I notice that Birmingham City Ladies will be playing here in the Women's Super League in the summer after switching their home games from Stratford Town. Maybe I will visit again soon!
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