Tamworth 0 Blyth Spartans 3
National League North
My Mum finally relented, after weeks of haranguing her, I
was finally allowed to start going to football matches on my own!
I was 14 coming on 15, and my trial run was to be getting to
Alfreton and back on a Saturday afternoon via bus. It was against Scarborough
in pre-season, and if I could successfully walk to Crich, get to Alfreton on
the Maun Bus, walk to the ground, survive for ninety minutes and get home
again, then she MIGHT let me go to a few more!
I was going to Belper regularly with my Dad, and also Derby
with my Dad’s mate Paul, but venturing out without adult interference was a
whole new ball game completely, the doors that were about to open were
unimaginable!
It was while at a Belper game I got talking to some of the
lads who watched them, they were all a few years older than me, 16 / 17 year
olds to be fair, and the conversation got onto a game they were all looking to
go to on the train, and, would I like to go with them?
You, see, we were all proper little non-league enthusiasts,
and at the time I used to run the Programme Shop at Belper, so these lads
always used to congregate around and we’d just talk about what was going on in
the local game.
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| The Lamb Ground |
The game in question was on 24th October 1987, it
was an FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round tie between Tamworth, of the West
Midlands Regional League and Wealdstone of the then Gola League. Wealdstone a
couple of years earlier were non-league double winners, the undisputable Kings
of semi-professional football, whereas a reborn Tamworth were a club that were
making people sit up and look at them.
They were on course to win the West Midlands Regional
League, but, at the same time they were getting ridiculous numbers through the
gates to watch them, crowds more often than not got into four figures. A
juggernaut was gathering pace, and the once mighty Stones were about to feel
the force.
Did I want to go? Of course I bloody did!
The plan was simple, a train to Derby, then get the train to
Tamworth, follow the crowd, watch the game, and then come home again, but there
was a slight stumbling block, Mum!
I’d got to convince her that I would be safe, be with people
who I knew and were reliable, that I knew where I was going, and, that I wouldn’t
get into any bother. I’m not quite sure how I swung it, I think my Dad may have
helped by knowing the lads in question, but I must admit to being somewhat surprised
at the approval, especially as I’d still not got to 15 yet!
All I’ll say is, thank God we didn’t have the internet and
social media back then, because if she’d seen what happened that day I don’t
think I’d have been setting foot outside of the front door unaccompanied for a
very long time.
We disembarked the train in Tamworth, all four of us, to be
greeted by a line of Policemen, we were stopped and asked who we were, and
where we had come from, only they were expecting bother and needed to be sure
we weren’t part of the problem.
Clearly we weren’t part of the problem, we just wanted to go
into town and buy some chips, as you do when you are a teenager. The town
centre was busy, lots of shoppers and football fans were around, and not
knowing where the ground was (we didn’t bother researching in those days), we
decided to follow some lads wearing red shirts, and hope they were en route to
the Lamb Ground!
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| Match Action |
They were on the way to the ground, and with an hour still
until kick off it wasn’t overly busy so we took up a space right at the back of
the terracing on the club house side of the ground. With ten minutes to kick
off we made the decision to get out of the terracing, because by now we were
pressed up against the corrugated sheeting at the back, and more spectators
were trying to cram in to find a viewing space. It was getting a bit
claustrophobic, it was getting very noisy, surges were starting to take place,
and the level of hostility was increasing by the minute.
We made our way behind the goal where it wasn’t anywhere
near as populated, and then with five minutes until kick off, a large group of
Wealdstone supporters entered the ground at the opposite end. Within seconds it
erupted, fights broke out, a lone Policewoman was doing her best but to no
avail, before eventually stewards managed to restore order and create some form
of segregation.
On the pitch, Tamworth took them to the cleaners, winning
2-0 and having a goal disallowed. They looked a fine football team, and from
memory it was a player called Carl Rathbone who did all the damage, Wealdstone
simply couldn’t handle him.
When both goals went in we had pitch invasions from three
sides of the ground. The terracing we once stood on suffered one surge too many
and the barrier at the front finished up bent and buckled under the crush. Not content
with that, it was also an opportune moment to let off some firecrackers.
Consequently, we had a linesman operating two yards inside the playing area as
opposed to down the touchline!
It was a mad day, mad scenes and as a young lad, it was a
bit scary at first, but what an adrenaline buzz we got out of it, it was all we
talked about for weeks afterwards. Tamworth went on to play away at Colchester
United in the First Round, trouble ensued and I recall a Tamworth fan who I
subsequently met while at University tell me that some served prison sentences
as a result.
I seem to recall getting home without too many problems, and
as far as Mum was concerned, all was good in the World and I’d passed my test.
There was to be a sting in the tail, but more on that later…
Tamworth Football Club have had a very eventful playing
history. A mid-table Southern League First Division club in the seventies, they
were moved to the Northern Premier League in 1979 for a four year period that
can only really be described as an unmitigated disaster! They finished bottom
twice, third bottom once and fourth bottom once, so they moved back to the
Southern League, only to finish bottom then as well. Relegation to the West
Midlands Regional League was clearly some form of respite.
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| Not A Place To Stand When It's Sub-Zero |
Three local businessman came along with a plan to restore
the fortunes of the football club, and in a four year spell in the league they
finished 7th, 9th, 5th and finally Champions.
Crowds were up massively and the clubs profile had never been higher. The
Southern League beckoned, as did Wembley in the Final of the FA Vase, but
somewhat surprisingly it took them a further nine seasons to gain another promotion,
when many may have expected it an awful lot sooner than that?
The Southern League Premier was finally reached in 1997, but
this time round their spell in this particular division didn’t last as long. By
2002 they had finished runners up, and then they were Champions a year later.
Add in an FA Trophy Final for good measure, a couple of FA Cup Third Round
appearances and finally Tamworth had reached the top table of non-league football
and had arguably fulfilled the huge potential they had displayed almost twenty
years earlier.
Non-league football was a different game now, and the
Conference National was a struggle, a best place finish of 15th was
all they could muster in four seasons before relegation to the Conference North
followed. Two years later and they were back up again, lasting five seasons
this time with a best placing of 16th, but after relegation a second
time, they now find themselves sat below half way in the North again.
I love a trip to the Lamb, clearly it evokes fond memories,
but what I like most of all is that it’s a proper old non-league ground, and
with the terraces so close to the pitch, the atmosphere is always a good one.
Yes, it’s still hostile, I remember reading some interviews with Conference Manager’s
a few years ago, and almost all of them said the most hostile away ground was Tamworth,
with the irate crowd standing behind the dugouts giving them hell.
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| The Away End |
With an unkind weather forecast and an artificial pitch now
installed at the Lamb, tonight’s game was a no-brainer. Long serving Andy
Morrell had been relieved of his duties at the weekend following a defeat at Alfreton, and with
visiting Blyth in the play-off mix it promised to be a good game.
I was right, the score line of 3-0 to the Spartans doesn’t
tell the full story. Robbie Dale scored a hat-trick for the visitors, the first
from a header that the goalkeeper let squirm past him, the second from a really
well placed free kick and the final goal in injury time when Tamworth were caught
with men up field.
Tamworth hit the woodwork on four occasions, and the Blyth defence
at times had to get bodies in the way desperately as the Lambs threw everything
at them. Yes, Blyth played some excellent and incisive football, but Tamworth
played with a tempo and a purpose, and indeed in the first half missed two
excellent chances to score. On another day, it could well have been another
outcome, but after a period in freefall, with performances like this, it
shouldn’t be too long before the tide starts to turn in their favour.
On a very cold night, it had been great entertainment, and I
don’t care what anyone says, you rarely see a bad game on an artificial pitch.
In fact given the winter we’ve had, surely the penny will drop soon with the
powers that be that this is the way forward?
Anyway, that Wealdstone game, the plot thickened.
Towards the end of that season I was at a Belper game with
my Dad and the referee was Martin Mountain. We were all having a drink at the
end of the game when Martin turned round to my Dad and said…
“Did I ever tell you about that Cup game I had to referee at
Tamworth?”
The tale of chaos was suddenly told, and part way through my
Dad turned to me and said.
“Didn’t you go to that game?”
I nodded, but the story continued, it appeared the linesman
was still receiving counselling….
In the car on the way back home, Dad turned to me.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Mum.”
Good job really, I was already in the planning stages of
asking about Forest v Derby and a trip in the away end with my mates!
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| The Notorious Popular Side |
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