The Clanging Chimes Of Doom

Coleshill Town  1  Halesowen Town  1

Southern Football League – Division One Central

I’m not a fan of the festive period, not one little bit.

In fact, if it wasn't for the fact it offers such a plethora of football options, I genuinely think I’d look to go away somewhere remote and return home around New Years Eve time, such is my dislike of the ‘clanging chimes of doom’.

Boxing Day is the first moment of respite from the awfulness, this year I’ve had to wait five days between matches, with the last game I went to being at Burton Albion on the 21^st of December. So when St Stephens Day (to give it it’s proper name) finally came around, I could get in my car safe in the knowledge that the Radio had finally ceased playing those awful Christmas songs.

I toyed with a few options, a couple of Football League and National League game looked tempting, but with the overnight weather being a bit on the wet side and a few clubs showing signs of apprehension about pitch conditions, I chose to play it very safe.

Coleshill Town’s plastic pitch was as safe as it was going to get, and with high flying Halesowen Town in town with their large army of noisy fans in tow, it looked as go a bet as any for some footballing action.

I first went to Coleshill in 2004, it was a midweek game against Coventry Sphinx, which almost didn’t take place due to an issue with one of the floodlights. I didn’t go again until a couple of days before Christmas in 2015 when I took our old and sadly departed mate Paul to watch them play Quorn.

Life has been pretty good to Coleshill in recent seasons, they’ve obviously had a plastic pitch put down, they’ve also reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase, only to lose to a very good South Shields, while in the league they’ve earned promotion from the Midland Football League to Step 4.

That promotion finally came in 2018 when they finished runners-up of the aforementioned Midland League for the second year on the bounce, and in their first campaign in the Southern League, last season, they finished a very creditable ninth position.

Prior to the recent successes, they were a Midland Combination side from 1972, right through to winning the top flight in 2008 and eventually with it gaining promotion to the Midland Alliance, which of course merged with the Combination to create what is now the Midland League.

Coleshill is a dead easy place to get to, sitting right alongside the M42, just to the North of Birmingham Airport. It takes about an hour from home to get to it, and the first thing that strikes you as you enter the town is how nice a place it looks to live in, and to socialise in, with it’s large choice of pubs.

The ground sits a decent way out of the town to the South side, out in the sticks somewhat along Packington Lane. As long as you arrive early enough the car park is big enough to cater for most crowds, but otherwise, you can park on the road outside.

Since it’s had the artificial surface down, the club have erected a small but tall stand behind the dugouts on the West side of the ground, while opposite the old cover has had some new seats put in it, while from memory based  on my first visit, it does look like it’s been extended further down the touchline.

It’s open flat standing behind both goals whereas a modest sized clubhouse sits in the corner of the ground, while new dressing rooms have been built / dropped in at pitch side to the North of the old stand. It’s a tidy facility and it’s well used, with Chelmsley Town of the Midland League also using the ground.

A seasons best crowd of 411 were in attendance, and I would have estimated a good two thirds of them were Yeltz supporters. The game started well for the visitors and they took a seventh minute lead through Montel Gibson, and to be fair, by the time it got to half time, they should have been out of sight, but somehow failed to find the target despite the lions share of possession.

The second half followed a similar pattern largely, but chance after chance continued to go begging, mainly due to the Yeltz’s inability to get efforts on target, so on a rare breakaway when Coleshill were awarded a clear penalty for a foul, you did wonder whether Halesowen were going to be made to pay.

Liam Molesworth put his 78^th minute spot kick away, and once again Halesowen camped in the hosts half of the field, but again, it was the same old story of missed chances. On another day, Yeltz would have won the game handsomely, but football is a bit like that, and I’m sure Coleshill manager Cameron Stuart will have been delighted with the point in the final analysis.

Football’s back, Christmas is over, normal service will soon be resuming. It started to rain as I drove home, if anything is a sign of normal service resuming, then the wet stuff is as good as any.

Happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it's our last.....