It was a gorgeous Bank Holiday Monday as I headed down the M6 for a tasty game at Butlin Road. Rugby Town and Biggleswade Town were competing for the right to be playing Southern League Premier football next season.
Rugby Town have had an interesting history to say the least. I hope I've got it right! The actual name Rugby Town was not the original name of the current incarnation. The club began as Valley Sports before becoming Valley Sports Rugby in 1971.
VS Rugby moved to Butlin Road in 1973 when they ground shared with the original Rugby Town, but Rugby Town folded before the year was out, after spending 15 years in the Southern League.
VS Rugby became the main tenants and, after winning the FA Vase in 1983, reached the Southern League before being liquidated in the mid 1990's. Supporters rescued the club and they became known as Rugby United before everything came full circle, so to speak, when they changed their name to Rugby Town.
After being pipped to the title by Burnham, today was a chance for the club to return to the Southern Premier. Standing in their way were Biggleswade Town, who finished 11 points behind Rugby in the table but who had taken 4 points off them over their two league encounters.
There was a bumper crowd at Butlin Road today, treble their previous best crowd of the season, and a tight close game was expected. That is how it proved to be.
Rugby started brightest but Biggleswade worked their way into the game and overall there was nothing between the sides in the opening 45 minutes. Lewis McBride crashed a shot against the crossbar for Rugby and the Biggleswade attack forced Valley 'keeper David Bevan into meaningful action.
The deadlock was finally broken after 51 minutes when David Kolodynski broke clear and lifted the ball over Michael McEntegart to give the homesters the lead.
Rugby were starting to look the more dominant team but six minutes later Biggleswade were awarded a controversial penalty. A Biggleswade player went down in the box under a challenge from a defender, but from where I was stood the contact looked minimal. The linesman put the flag across his chest and, despite the protests, the penalty was given. Lee Allison kept his cool amongst the furore and stepped up to convert (pictured below).
The equaliser seemed to momentarily knock the stuffing out of Rugby and Biggleswade had chances to go in front, one effort from Craig Daniel being cleared off the line.
As the game wore on though it became more stretched and both teams were looking vulnerable to the counter attack and unfortunately for the majority of the crowd, it was Rugby who succumbed.
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| Paul Barnes celebrates his 2nd goal |
Just two minutes later, as Rugby pushed forward in desperate search of an equaliser, they got caught again and another cross once again found it way to Barnes at the back post who poked the ball home to seal a famous win for Biggleswade and with it promotion to Step 3, for the first time in their history.
Disappointment for The Valley, joy for The Waders but for me, an exceedingly enjoyable day in the sunshine at a rather splendid ground.
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| The Biggleswade players celebrate at the final whistle |
An enjoyable read , well done. I was actually driving to this game and for some reason decided to drive the 50 miles further south to the Hemel/Gosport play off final, which was exciting.
ReplyDeleteIt sounded as if you had a decent day at a decent ground, shame one cant be in two places at once !