ALVECHURCH (Lye Meadow)

MIDLAND FOOTBALL ALLIANCE, ALVECHURCH 3-2 BOLDMERE St MICHAELS, ATTENDANCE: 67

A bonus Thursday night game (though I was lucky to make kick off due to three separate accidents on the M6) as the backlog of fixtures caused by the terrible winter weather is attempted to be cleared.

Both sides had already played on Tuesday evening and such was the quick turn around of games there was no time to wash the kits, so both sides wore their away strips for this game!

Alvechurch was a name I was familiar with as a kid, due to my Panini sticker books. This was because Alan Smith of Leicester, Arsenal and England fame was a former player, hence the name cropped up in his fact file underneath the sticker. Reading the programme tonight I also found out that David Kelly and Sean O'Driscoll (both capped by the Republic of Ireland) are also former players.

2013 sees the 100th Anniversary of the first records of a football team in the village of Alvechurch, though the lineage of the current club actually began in 1929. That club folded mid-season in 1993 and the club was re-formed the following season as Alvechurch Villa before reverting back to Alvechurch in 1996.

The clubs glory years were in the 1960's and 1970's with plenty of championship successes. The club also had their best run in the FA Cup in 1971/72, reaching the third round proper, losing 3-0 to Aldershot. However, it was in the 4th qualifying round of that season that the club entered the record books. Their tie with Oxford City went to five replays before The Church won out and is the longest FA Cup tie in history.

The bucolic Lye Meadow, on the outskirts of the village, has been the home of Alvechurch since 1957. Tonight the spectators present were treated to a superb game.

Alvechurch completely dominated the first half of the game and went in two goals up at the interval, a brace from Jamie Spencer (20 & 24) in the space of four minutes. Boldmere were in complete disarray and were fortunate to be only two down.

Whatever The Mikes manager said at half time did the trick as an effort from Andrew Lewis (47) and a free-kick from Michael Woolman (61) brought the visitors level.

The game became more open and could have swung either way. The game seemed to be ending in a what would have been a quite fair point apiece, but in the last seconds of stoppage Jazz Luckie rose to head home a dramatic winner for Alvechurch.