Funny Old Night

Lichfield City   3   Nuneaton Griff   0

Midland Football League – First Division

I’ve seen some bizarre finishes to games in my time, including an abandonment when a stand roof blew onto the pitch in high winds, but what happened at the end of the game at Lichfield City’s Brownsfield Road was a new one me, but more on that later.

I’ve been plotting a return visit to Lichfield for some time now, but for one reason or another it simply didn’t happen last season, nor the season before for that matter.

I have been a couple of times in the past though. The first time was on a Saturday back in 2008 when I was working, but using my infamous active diary management skills I managed to make kick off and indeed a pre-match pint before a Midland Combination Division Three game against Henley Forest.

It was a while before I went back again, the next time being a Walsall Senior Cup tie against higher ranked Chasetown in 2015, this time under floodlights, and this time a fully deserved victory for City against the odds.

Since that last visit they’ve laid an artificial surface, which again, was a bit strange because being a Wednesday night team, and that being the more difficult of the two midweek nights to find a game on, I was surprised I didn’t have to play the plastic card at some point in the last couple of seasons?

Maybe the weather on Wednesday’s has historically been better than on a Tuesday in recent years? I’ll let one of my retired / unemployed compatriots work that one it given the considerable time they have on their hands!

Anyway, moving forward, what have the past few seasons been like for Lichfield City, in fact, football in Lichfield, what’s the story?

From what I can glean, a team called Lichfield joined the West Midlands Regional League in 1976, playing in the lower divisions, and then in 1994 the club added the suffix ‘City’ to their name. It seemed to work because in the first season with that name they came runners up in the First Division and got promoted to the Premier Division, where they had just one season, finishing 13^th, before disappearing. I seem to think that ground wise they played on Shortbutts Park in the centre of the City, but I can’t be 100% sure of that.

Then, appearing in the Midland Combination in 1998 was a team called Lichfield Enots, they lasted three seasons, before again disappearing, possibly to a Staffordshire league.

There may have been clubs playing in more local football bearing the Lichfield name, but it wasn’t until 2008 that the name Lichfield City re-appeared again, this time in the Midland Combination, and it was to be in their debut season that I paid my first visit. They got promotion in their first season, and then after two seasons in the Second Division, they made it to the First Division.

The First Division was their home for just one season, before they were promoted to the top flight Premier Division, which of course ended up becoming the Midland League First Division when the competitions merged. Life at the higher level has not been tough for them either, they’ve never looked in danger, and indeed in 2018-19 they finished fourth.

This time around, after a positive start, they are one of the fancied teams to get promotion in what is a competitive league with the likes of Hinckley AFC, Leicester Road, Atherstone Town, Uttoxeter Town and Rocester all with ambitions of Step 5 football.

I was keen to go for the game against Nuneaton Griff because over the past couple of years I’ve struck up a friendship with Rod Grubb, an official at Griff, and having paid them a visit last season I do keep an eye on their results, and having had a good start themselves it promised to be an interesting game.

It doesn’t take long to get to the ground from Casa Hatt, straight down the A38 and then about a mile around the A5192 perimeter road from the exit is Brownsfield Road on your right. It’s a swine to get in the car park, so I just dropped the car in a pull in on the road and hoped to be well placed for a quick getaway at the end.

Ground wise, the clubhouse and changing rooms are behind the goal, while around to the left, raised up on the top of the old grass bank is an Atcost seated stand which starts almost level with the corner flag. You carry on further down this side where a similar terraced structure is placed at the opposite end, again, raised up on top of what was the grass banking.

The grass bank continues around behind the far goal and then onto the side where the dug outs and the TV Gantry is located (tonight’s game was being filmed by Brooksy TV – and given what happened at the end, it’s worth a view!).

The floodlights are excellent, and given the many times mentioned grass banking, good views of the game can be had from all parts of the ground.

Lichfield started the game superbly and simply blew a shell shocked Griff away with a three goal burst early in the first half, thanks to efforts from Brady Middleton (a former Griff player) who scored twice and Matthew Gardner. To be fair, City could have had more in a first half that they were quite brilliant in.

The second half wasn’t quite as entertaining as Griff defended deeper and looked to limit damage, whereas for City, they knew the game was won no matter what. Then, in the 87^th minute City’s Jamie Elkes went down injured, seemingly innocuously, but then after receiving some brief treatment a stretcher was called for, followed by an ambulance. Somewhat alarmingly the lad said he could not feel his legs after landing awkwardly.

Clearly a worrying time now, both sets of players left the pitch, obviously concerned for Elkes wellbeing, but, at the same time, wondering what the outcome of the game would be? It was impossible at that stage to know how long an ambulance would take, and even then, how quickly the player could be moved?

Griff, to their credit, said they were happy to concede the game, while City were asking the referee what the position was should the game need to be abandoned? Would a victory be awarded in these circumstances, you would have thought so, but it all came down to the referee speaking to the league. The referee by the way, Ryan McIlravey, handled it well I thought in quite tricky circumstances, keeping all informed as to the position.

An ambulance arrived, and by now the Griff players were changed into their tracksuits, so from where I was looking, at nearly ten to ten, the game was done, and it was down to the league to sort this one out. But, most importantly, Elkes was the primary concern, and the hope that the injury was not as bad as it first sounded. I decided to head to my car and go home.

When I got in, I had a look on Twitter and saw that the final three minutes did indeed get played, with the game finishing around 10pm, which surprised me a little given that the Griff side were changed and ready to go home, but thereafter I thought nothing of it.

The following day I checked Twitter again, primarily to look for a report of Elkes condition, which thankfully following an MRI scan was not as bad as first feared, but then I spotted the highlights package courtesy of Brooksy TV which is a YouTube channel.

I watched it with interest, and when it got to the point where Elkes was going into the ambulance, the City players were coming back onto the pitch in their kit, along with a few Griff players, dressed in tracksuits, but trying to slip shirts over the top! As the referee started the game, we probably had a handful of Griff players on the pitch, some had got shirts on, some hadn’t. I couldn’t see how many City players were on, but their looked more than Griff had, and between them they just knocked the ball to each other for the remainder of the game. It was bizarre, but I can only assume that the only way the result could be guaranteed to stand would be if the game was completed.

It does make for strange viewing, and to be honest, I can see why they did it because the danger would be that the league could have turned round and ordered a replay, irrespective of the wishes of both teams. Again, credit to Griff, they could have been awkward about it and tried to get a replay, but they made it clear that was not what they wanted.

A funny old night