Saturday 1st October 2011

Midland Combination U21 League East/North

AUSTREY RANGERS 0

RUGBY TOWN JUNIORS 3 (Thomas 12 Linford 63 Gordon 76)

Att 16 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Coffee 80p

Finger of Fudge 20p (!)

Austrey lies at the northernmost point of Warwickshire, just off the A42. A look on Google Earth shows Austrey Field to little more than, well, a field, but when I arrived it was a hive of activity. If you want to tick off Austrey you have no option but to watch age based football, there is no adult team, although I suspect this vibrant club will soon make that move as the eldest players get too old for youth football. With a clubhouse, and part railed pitch the infrastructure is already in place the such a move.

Other than my game there were U12 and U18 games going on, which gave Dutch (Utrecht) referee Erick van Vlet a problem-swearing. Its one thing between adults, but when there’s small children, another thing entirely. He warned the teams again and again, but finally lost his patience. Out came the card, and the response?

“I wasn’t f*cking swearing ref!”

Other than that this was a game that Rugby could and should have won far more easily. They blamed a bumpy pitch, I blamed complacency, and it would have beem interesting to see what would have happened if Austrey had scored. Sadly that never looked like happening. I expect Rugby to win this league, but I also expect Austrey to be making waves in bigger leagues. Remember where you saw it first!