Aspire Midland Alliance
At: Kirby Muxloe Sports Club, Ratby Lane
Kick-off: 3-00 pm
Admission: £5; Programme: £1 (20 pages)
Attendance: 63
Weather: cold, weak sunshine
Duration: first-half: 45:57; second-half: 48:35
On Wednesday evening I was parked up outside a local high school waiting for Junior ‘iwf’s orchestra practice to end, with rain lashing down and large pools of water forming on the car park tarmac. I wondered what the weekend would have in store in terms of finding a game that would survive this and further deluges.
Come today, I had a shortlist of three possible games but one of them, which would have had me meeting up with Malc the ‘On the Road’ blogger, became a none starter. Uncertainties over waterlogging as their ground was close to the River Trent, an unobtainable ground phone number and the slowness of Junior ‘iwf’ to get ready – she was spending the afternoon with her Grandad – meant a trip to Gedling Town will have to wait for another day. Gedling’s game was on and Malc saw them pull off a 3-1 win to defeat leaders Heanor Town.
So with the shortlist down to two – Coventry Copsewood or Kirby Muxloe – I plumped for the latter as their Ratby Lane ground was the only one in the Aspire Midland Alliance I hadn’t previously visited. A quick phone call en route confirmed the game was definitely on.
I can only recall only ever visiting the village of Kirby Muxloe once to see the castle a couple of years ago.
I approached Kirby Muxloe on the A47 from Hinckley and via the shiny new Earl Shilton bypass. The SatNav suggested ignoring left-hand turns towards the village and eventually I crossed over the M1. At the lights by the Co-op, I finally took a left-hand turn, signed B5380 to Kirby Muxloe and continued through the next lights to the first roundabout. It was the first exit, back over the M1 and over the next roundabout in the village, following signs to Desford and Ratby, to the next mini roundabout. The machine suggested I had arrived but the ground was 100 yards on the right towards Ratby next to the 40 mph sign.
Through the gates, the car park was straight ahead, as was the social club, with the entrance on the left. It picked up a programme (£1) at the white paybox and the pitch (orientated south-east–north-west) ran lengthways. Down the left-hand side between the near corner flag and halfway was a white painted brick-built stand containing around 100 individual blue seats in four rows as well as a press area for one reporter. A new wooden fence down that side separated the football ground from the adjoining cricket field. Dugouts were positioned down the left-hand touchline either side of and close to the halfway line. Behind the far goal was what looked like a newly-constructed area of cover.
The club official manning the paybox asked me where I’d come from and he remembered me after I told him about my blog posting from the Graham Street Prims game which was linked tofrom the Kirby Muxloe website. I promised to send a link to this report as well.
Over the tannoy a Rod Stewart CD was playing and by the time I’d finished my walk around the pitch, the Scot was still blasting out his greatest hits. Later I was reminded of this when Rod appeared on Strictly Come Dancing! The tannoy was also put to good use before kick-off to announced the line-ups – a teamsheet had been prominently displayed on the side of the paybox so full marks to Kirby for making the info so readily available.
The visitors included Nicky Campbell in their starting line-up – not the 5 Live breakfast presenter but a nippy striker who briefly played for Stafford Rangers at the start of the 2004/05 season.
Kirby Muxloe had made a solid start to their first-ever season in the Aspire Midland Alliance. They occupied 9th position in 22-team division with 21 points from 15 games, on a good run of three straight league victories including last Saturday’s 6-4 win at Alvechurch where Jamie Mason bagged four goals.
Visitors Tipton Town (26 points from 13 games) went into the game riding high towards the top of the table in third position, some 15 points behind runaway leaders Barwell with two games in hand. They were unbeaten away from home and conceded just two goals in six away league games.
I opted to stand down the left-hand side, midway between the dugouts and the near corner in the half defended by the home side in the first half. Tipton (wearing black and white striped shirts with white sleeves and a white back, black shorts and red socks) got the game underway attacking from left to right in relation to my vantage point.
The first notable chance didn’t come until the 8th minute. Jamie Mason drove the ball across the face of the Tipton goal and Stuart Verrall couldn’t get on the end at the far post.
“Kirby Muxloe, good start, keep the temp,” commented Adam Wilcox in goal for the home side and this was echoed with another “good start Kirby” from the technical area.
At this point I was trying to work out which Kirby player was being referred to as ‘cheeky’. In the distance, traffic flashed past on the M1 around 300 yards away on the other side of the cricket field.
Kirby were awarded a penalty in the 16th minute for a trip by Richard Huckfield on Mason. Danny Taylor stepped up to the spot but fired against the left-hand post, having sent Wes Cox the wrong way.
Huckfield must have been relieved and almost gave his side the lead, glancing a header just wide of the left-hand post from Nicky Pugh’s free-kick into the area.
Mason intercepted a weak back-pass and saw his resulting shot blocked by Steve Palmer at the expense of a corner.
In the 22nd minute, Kirby keeper Wilcox was booked, presumably for handling just outside his area, an offence spotted by an assistant who was some 60 yards from the incident.
Tipton enjoyed a good 10-minute spell of pressure around the half-hour mark as the home side were kept on the back foot. Kirkby couldn’t keep the ball out of their own half and, in the 35th minute, from the last of five corners in this period, Chris Morris saw a low shot blocked in front of goal by defender Richard Darlison.
In the 42nd minute, Morris cut into the area from the left and keeper Wilcox gathered up the ball. However, Morris kept going, felled Joshua Pitsillides and picked up a booking.
I’d finally worked out who ‘cheeky’ was – Kirby’s no. 5 Craig Pietrzyk.
Along with most of the crowd, I waited for the players to enter the changing rooms before joining the refreshments queue just inside the social club. ‘Pie and peas’ was a popular choice and proved too tempting for me as well, except that I ignored the pie as it was of the meat variety and just had the peas, as well as a tea.
Back outside, the ground was almost deserted and it was getting decidedly chillier – even with hot tea and peas inside me! The crowd emerged from the warmth of the social club, out came Kirby’s Stuart Verrall on his own, followed by the Tipton team, followed by the match officials and swiftly followed by the remaining Kirby players.
With the lights switched on during the interval, Kirby made a change for the second half with Mark Schulz replacing Taylor.
Tipton took the lead in the 49th minute. Huckfield got forward from the back and fired a rising 20-yard shot into the top-left corner via the outstretched hands of Wilcox who did his best to keep the ball out.
Wilcox was forced into action to turn round a long-range free-kick curled towards goal by Pugh.
I eventually opted to watch the game from the stand side, again in the half attacked by Tipton. Their red numbers were less distinct than the prominent white numbers on the back of the home side who were now attacking the social club goal furthest away from me.
After the hour mark, Kirby upped their game in a bid to grab an equaliser and Pietrzyk fired an angled shot across the face of goal. But they survived a scare when Morris fired just over the bar.
In the 72nd minute, Tipton replaced striker Morris with Nathan Jones in a straight swap up front. A minute later, Hardeep Phull came for Kirby in place of Karl Wilson.
Both sides made a further change at the same time in the 80th minute – Kirby brought on Rob Pitman for Verrall while Tipton replaced Ashley Wells with Chris Rabone.
Just 10 minutes plus stoppage time remained for Kirby to bag an equaliser and they were urged to “work hard”.
Tipton made a third change in the 84th minute with Liam Bood replacing ex-Stafford man Nicky Campbell. An enquiry from a home player to the near assistant established there were “seven plus whatever he puts on”.
Eventually Kirby levelled things up with an 87th-minute equaliser to keep their short unbeaten league run going. Mason powered home a close-range header direct from a free-kick delivered from the right bye-line outside the area. Tipton skipper Palmer was booked before the restart, presumably for something he had said out of turn.
Tipton appealed for a penalty in stoppage time when Rabone went down but the referee said declined the request.
I was pleased to have visited Kirby Muxloe FC and rounded things off at this really welcoming club by purchasing a smart lapel badge from behind the bar before setting off home.
Kirby Muxloe (yellow with yellow and blue sleeves / blue / blue): 1. Adam Wilcox, 2. Karl Wilson, 3. Richard Darlison, 4. Jamie Mason (capt), 5. Craig Pietrzyk, 6. Bryn Statham, 7. Gary Moult, 8. Danny Taylor, 9. Stuart Verrall, 10. Joshua Pitsillides, 11. James Mee. Subs: 12. Hardeep Phull (for Wilson, 73), 14. Mark Schulz (for Taylor, ht), 15. Rob Pitman (for Verrall, 80), 16. Matt Welbourne, GK. Jordan Wait.
Tipton Town (black and white stripes with white sleeves / black / red): 1. Wes Cox, 2. Eric Bowen, 3. Steve Palmer (capt), 4. Danny Bragoli, 5. Dan Parker, 6. Richard Huckfield, 7. Ryan Mosedale, 8. Ashley Wells, 9. Chris Morris, 10. Nicky Campbell, 11. Nicky Pugh. Subs: 12. Ross Brown, 14. Nathan Jones (for Morris, 72), 15. Liam Bood (for Campbell, 84), 16. Chris Rabone (for Wells, 80). GK. Matt Osbourne.
Referee: R Pettipher.
Assistants: P Riley and N McKenize.
Goals:
0-1 Richard Huckfield (49)
1-1 Jamie Mason (87)
