Thursday 12th April 2012 ko 6.15pm

Stratford Alliance Nursing Home Cup Quarter-Final

WASHFORD LIONS 2 (Milbourne 39 Jovanovic 62)

ALVESTON 0

Att 13 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

The red sun was going down, way over the town of Redditch, famous for once being responsible for 90% of the world’s production of sewing needles. With the Halfords factory, dirty in the background, the three of us actually had a choice of games to watch. On the pitch nearer to the car park Redditch Reserves were taking on Kenilworth Town in another Stratford Alliance Cup competition. The choice of what to see proved to be an easy one when Lee carried on walking beyond Redditch’s pitch, and discovered a railed off pitch with dugouts.

It turned out that with that 100 metre walk we’d actually changed grounds, from Washford Lane to Washford Park, and stumbled upon Washford Lions’ OLD ground. They’re now using the 3G pitch at Studley FC just a short walk away, but that ground is only available on a Saturday, clearly 5-a-side takes precedence! So back home it was, and the issues with the venue became obvious very quickly. For one thing the pitch is rather bumpy, and the rail and dugouts have gaps, where presumably items have been stolen. The biggest issue though, is the sheer distance from the changing rooms, a good 300 metres, so no toilet facilities, and many parked their cars on the Studley road at the far side of the pitch and arrived already changed.

Washford have just won Division 2, so saw this fixture as a means getting an early test of the standard of play they’d encounter next season, as Alveston are still in the running to win the league. The trouble is, I’m not sure they got the test they thought they were getting. When I got the line-ups, Alveston admitted to fielding 3 youth team players, and writing this with the benefit of having their line-up for their league fixture on 23rd March vs Cubbington to hand, well there are 9 changes from that squad! Just forward Paul Nicholls and goalkeeper Alex Gretton played in both fixtures.

That may be why the game didn’t exactly catch fire, as Washford confident in their championship season always looked unlikely to lose. They had more ideas, and when Rory Milbourne gave them lead they looked utterly in control. Marc Jovanovic sealed the win mid-way into the second half it confirmed a straightforward victory.

We walked back to the car, passing the other game. That was still going with Kenilworth leading 4-2; it sounded a decent game, but I’ve no regrets for picking this game.