Win Friends & Influence People

Silhill  4  Continental Star  3

Midland Football League – Division Three

Admission / Programme – No / No

With holiday season now behind us, it was time to start to think about the new football season in earnest.

It’s not like I’ve not being going to football though due to having a couple of holidays, far from it, it’s just that it felt like things were a bit stop-start at times, especially when you are trying to find football in what is effectively a mountain range!

So, back in the saddle, knowing that my Saturday’s would be commencing from base camp once again, it was time to pick a destination, and given the amount of driving I’d done over the previous weeks, I wanted to keep it reasonably local.

To be truthful, in terms of what was on my list, I had a choice of one club from a list of fifteen with a home fixture (how does that happen?), so my chosen game was Silhill, a new club in the Midland League. Silhill, based in Solihull, were not a new name to me, I’d heard of them previously as a successful Birmingham Amateur FA side, and I seem to think they have been touted as a new entrant to the league in previous seasons, but whatever the conjecture, they had now arrived.

I do like Solihull, it’s one of those places where if I get the chance, I will go on the train for a game. In years gone by I’ve gone to AFC Solihull and Wake Green Amateurs on the rattler, but today, well given recent and upcoming planned escapades, I decided it was perhaps the right thing to do to travel by car!

To be fair, where Silhill play, is not a million miles from Solihull train station or the town centre, so I guess it was a good opportunity to visit some hostelries, but sometimes you have to do the right thing, don’t you??

It’s an easy enough place to find, from the M42 you head around the edges of the town centre to the West of where the train station is located, and take a ride down Sharmans Cross Road, observe all the houses you will never be able to afford, and the ground appears down a tight entrance on your left hand side.

The car park was full so I parked on a road which also had it’s fair share of properties that would test the Stamp Duty Calculator, being careful not to block any driveways or potentially offend any locals who could afford significantly better legal representation than I could obtain. At least one vehicle had to be moved after it seemed the club had been contacted by an irate neighbour!

While the entrance to the car park may be tight, once you walk past the clubhouse and dressing room building, the site which the club owns is a vast expanse of land, housing two full sized football pitches end to end. Another of the clubs sides was playing a friendly when I arrived, hence the car park being rammed, but with an arrival a good hour and a half before kick off, I was able to sit back in the clubhouse and enjoy a cheap pint as they were doing a deal!

It was while I was in the clubhouse that I witnessed first hand the incredibly friendly welcome that the club offers to visitors. Firstly the Chairman (who's name I didn't catch, sorry) introduced himself to me and updated me on the clubs recent history, the efforts to gain promotion last season, and what the implications were to the club in terms of the logistics, and off the field efforts that needed to take place. Then one of the clubs coaches came over and had a chat, and in this case I was given a club pennant as a souvenir, along with more background around the breadth of the clubs membership base.

So, with a feel good factor about the club based on my limited contact with them, what’s the story?

Well firstly the name, someone who comes from Solihull is known as a ‘Silhillian’, so that explains what that’s all about, and to be fair they’ve been around a while having been formed in 1908. The club is a real community club, with numerous teams at all levels, and over the years they’ve become renowned for being an excellent entity for both inclusion and development.

The game was excellent, I have to say, with a happy ending if you were from Silhill!

The hosts went 1-0 up, conceded an equaliser but then came back firing to take a 2-1 lead going into half time.

It all started to go wonky after the break when visiting Continental Star equalised and then went 3-2 up as they looked to have turned the tables and were starting to take advantage of mistakes at the back.

But Silhill, if anything, have resilience and cheered on by a vocal following, they found an equaliser and then grabbed another goal to make it 4-3. That was how it stayed, and the hat-trick hero for Silhill, Jon Myrie, went home with the match ball. Well, he probably didn’t as match balls aren’t cheap and non-league clubs can’t afford to give them away, but you know what I mean!

New dugouts are being built at the ground as the club completes the work required to remain in the Midland League, but where can the club go? Well they own the ground for a start, but given the neighbourhood, I would suspect limitations on planning might be an issue, but who knows?

Right now though, Silhill are on a journey, and it was clear from my experiences they were more than happy to take anyone who was inclined, on that journey with them.

Being nice goes a long way in football, and Mr Chairman, thanks for that pint!