I find myself going back to Malvern today to watch another match in the Worcester Sunday League. Again it's at the Langland Stadium but this time it's to watch a Division 2 encounter between Malvern Rangers and the league leaders, Worcester Raiders.
When I set out on the train from the Shrub Hill rail station in Worcester, it's sunny but with a bit of a chilly breeze. Nothing too unpleasant though.
Again, I'm going to a Sunday match due to other commitments that rules out watching a match on a Saturday. Originally I had thought of going to see Lye Town play at Bilston Town in the West Midlands League on Saturday, as I still haven't made it to their ground for a visit yet.
After getting off at Great Malvern station I walk up hill to the town centre and get some breakfast at the local Costa Coffee shop as I can get a free coffee with my loyalty card.
When I get down to the stadium just before 10:30 am, I'm surprised that the game has already started! I hope they didn't start at 10am.
I quickly walk in to the ground and set myself up alongside the goal at the southern end of the ground. Worcester Raiders are playing in yellow & blue while Malvern are in a red & white kit.
Although Worcester Raiders are still the better team, for the next 30 minutes, Malvern put up a better fight of it, although they don't threaten the Raiders goal much.
Then Worcester score another goal and only a minute later have a third in the back of the net, (the shot is shown below).
While I am taking photos, a young guy in a track suit who I had seen pacing up and down the touch line nearby comes over to talk to me. He is with the Worcester Raiders team and asks me if I'm taking photos for the Worcester News. I tell him I'm just taking them for my Blog but will send the newspaper some photos just in case they have a use for them. I tell him that I had a photo published in the Malvern Gazette from a game 2 weeks ago and I give him the address for this Blog. Later I wish I had got his email address from him so that he could identify some of the Raiders players for me.
He did put me right on the fact that his team are different to the other Raiders team in Worcester, who are correctly called WCT Raiders and their Sunday team play in this league's Premier Division!
Back to the game and just before half-time, Rangers have a corner and their No.10 gets in a header which just goes over the bar.
So it's 0-3 at the interval and looks like a matter of how many Worcester Raiders can score to boost their goal difference. The interval only lasts for 5 minutes and then we're off again. These Sunday players are made of sterner stuff obviously! Either that or they wan't to get to the pub early.
Raiders score another 4 goals in this half. They are usually quicker to the ball, have stronger players and some of the Malvern Rangers players look very young. One of them only looks about 15! So it's a bit of a mis-match football wise and it's obvious that the Raiders are destined for bigger things when they get promoted.
One of the highlights for me in this half is the Raiders fifth goal which is rifled in to the corner of the net by their No.9 I think. Very good shot.
Also I'm impressed by the skill of the Rangers No.10 (featured above) who at one point in this half keeps possession from 4 Worcester players in succession.
So Worcester Raiders have gained a convincing win today at Rangers expense, who have looked a bit demoralised in the last 20 minutes.
I reckon there were about 20 spectators at this morning's match. When I walk back to Great Malvern station, I look up at the Malvern Hills in front of me and can see that the sunnier weather has brought out the walkers in large numbers as I can see lots of people on the top of the Worcestershire Beacon, which is the tallest hill.
Just a few weeks to go till the end of the season and not many opportunities to visit new grounds.
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