Vedett Extra Blond

Acorn Albion  1 Melbourne Dynamo Reserves  7

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I’ve seen football in the grounds of a brickworks (Kirton), a farm (Red Lion) and a chocolate factory (Cadbury Athletic), but never in the grounds of a brewery!

That all changed when I went on a very wet day to the home of beer, Burton on Trent, of course, where the likes of Bass and Marston’s started life, and in more recent years where the likes of Punch and Greene King have also set up bases.

Burton on Trent isn’t what it used to be though, beer has changed, the major breweries have been acquired by the even more major breweries and kind of shunned by the beer brigade as a result of. Beer, right now, is all about the micro pub and the micro brewery, of which Burton has it’s fair share.

I pretend to know what I’m talking about, however I don’t to be honest, I’m a lager drinker, and Burton is where Carling is made, so as far as I’m concerned you can shove your Pedigree and your Bass, and you can take your front rooms that serve chocolate laden brake fluid in jam jars, and insert them into your mash kettles. 

Lager is uncomplicated, life was meant to be simple so stop over complicating it by trying to gentrify it and creating a pretention that it’s better than it is, please!

So, that’s all my real ale drinking mates well and truly pissed off now, so now they’ve gone, lets talk about the football…..

Acorn Albion appeared in the Staffordshire County Senior League a few years ago now, and in fact were featured in the very first game of this blog. It was an away fixture at Cannock United and I bemoaned the absolute tool of a referee that completely spoiled the encounter.

Anyway, the football club appear to be linked to the Acorn Inn, that is based in a village called Rough Hayes, which is to the West of Burton on the main road that leads to Needwood and Abbots Bromley. 

Initially they played on the outer pitches at St Georges Park, but for this season they’ve moved to the Midlands Regional Alliance and with it relocated to the Marstons Sports & Social Club on Shobnall Road, which is only a mile and a half from the pub.

I was a bit torn where to go today, I had a couple of options, but not really fancying a long drive on a day when the monsoons hit, I plumped upon Acorn’s first game at the venue, against Melbourne Dynamo Reserves.

I did have a few niggling doubts on the way down that the persistent torrential rain may cause a problem, as other games had been postponed already, but on arrival I saw two sets of players heading in the general direction of the dressing rooms so all looked good.

First port of call was the clubhouse, and I was one of only three customers, although I soon reduced that to one when I pitched up on the next table to the couple with a pint of lager, they looked suitably offended and left!

The club sits right at the side of the huge Marstons Brewery, while the sports pitches cover a large expanse to the West side of it. The football pitch is right at the far end of the complex, beyond the bowling club, and has something of an enclosed feel about it.

Surrounded by trees on two sides, the side nearest the brewery backs onto the storage yard for the kegs, and it was Dan Bishop of the MRA who told me that back in the day before the fences went up, many a happy time was spent retrieving footballs from amongst the maelstrom of brewery ephemera!

Anyway, Kegs of the day turned out to be Vedett Extra Blond, which for the educated, is a pretty potent Belgian Lager served at 5.2 abv, and that made me very happy!

What about the game? Well, if I’m honest it was a good afternoon for the visitors and reigning champions of the First Division, who came away with a comfortable 7-1 victory.

Joe Shadbolt got a hat-trick while Harry Foxon got a brace, with Toby Foxon and Dom Hurst also finding the net. The reply from Acorn came courtesy of Nathan Deacon.

Acorn put up a decent fight but Melbourne looked like a side with confidence and experience of having been successful together for a period. They will do well again.

But today was about Acorn, and of course the chance to watch football in a brewery, I could quite possibly get used to that concept, as long as it’s fizzy and yellow!