RADFORD FC (Selhurst Street)

UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE DIVISION ONE, RADFORD 2-1 BLACKSTONES, ATTENDANCE: 90

I was originally heading to Selhurst Street prior to the Nottingham Forest vs Everton game back in December but a frozen pitch put paid to that plan, so today was the perfect opportunity to try again.

Radford is part of Nottingham and is a couple of miles north of the centre city. The football club was Founded in 1964 as Manlove & Alliots FC, who were an Engineering firm situated in Radford. After the firm transferred to Scotland in 1970/71, the club changed its name to Radford Olympic before moving to Saturday football for season 1979/80, joining the Central Alliance League. The club were one of the first amateur teams to carry a shirt sponsor, a local pub, the Pheasant Inn, hence the nickname of The Pheasants.

Radford then joined the East Midlands Regional League the following season and then moved into their own home at Selhurst Street for season 1981-82. In season 1982/83 Olympic finished Champions of Division One and moved over to the Central Midlands League. The club remained in this league until 2008 when they became founder members of the East Midlands Counties League. Now known as Radford, after dropping the Olympic in 1987, the club remained in the East Midlands Counties League until it was disbanded in 2021, when the club became members of the United Counties League.

Stamford based Blackstones were the visitors to Radford this afternoon in this United Counties League Division One encounter and the question 'who'd be a goalkeeper?' was definitely asked today!

There wasn't a lot between the teams (8th vs 7th at start of play) but the unfortunate Simon Dalton certainly helped Radford this afternoon. The Blackstones no1 misjudged a cross from Mitchell Tait (after 3 minutes) and the ball sailed into the back of the net. 

The worst was yet to come. A tame effort, from outside the box, from Josh Gardner (25) appeared to be comfortably gathered by Dalton but somehow the ball squirmed underneath his body and trickled over the line.

Inbetween the goals Radford's Conor Moore made a tremendous clearance off the line when it looked like certain goal.

To be fair to Dalton he kept his side in the game in the second half as Radford countered as Blackstones pushed forward. The visitors finally got their goal through Ed Thorpe (84) and at that point it seemed the equaliser would soon follow but Radford held on.

SHAWBURY UNITED (Shrewsbury Town Community Pitch)

MIDLAND LEAGUE DIVISION ONE, SHAWBURY UNITED 2-2 HEATHER ST JOHN'S, ATTENDANCE: 49

First and foremost, Happy New Year! All the very best to those of you taking the time and trouble to read these words.

With storm Henk wreaking havoc over the first few days of 2024, I decided to play it safe and head for a game on an artificial surface. There were plenty of matches taking place inside these ubiquitous cages and the one I opted for was the Midland League encounter between Shawbury United and Heather St John's at the Shrewsbury Town Community Hub, located at the back of the South Stand at The New Meadow.

Shawbury is a village about 10 miles north of Shrewsbury and the football club was formed in 1992. After initially playing in local Shropshire leagues, the club joined the pyramid system in 1999 when they became member of the West Midlands (Regional) League.

The club have led a nomadic existence in recent times playing home games at Wem Town, Ludlow and now Shrewsbury. There are plans in place for the club to return to Shawbury as land has been gifted to the club on a 99 year lease and the club are continuing to raise money to build a new football facility in the village.

Today was mid-table encounter but it turned out to be an entertaining game which finished all square. The visitors came from behind twice, despite having their goalkeeper Matthew White sent off for (what was presumed to be) dissent after the award of a penalty, which Eric Mensah converted for Shawbury. He continued to argue the toss after the penalty had been scored and the referee obviously must have had enough.

Kyle Jardine scored the equaliser for Heather St Johns to ensure it was all square at half time before.

Jack Howse thought he'd headed home a late winner for the homesters but in stoppage time Jardine raced through to score a second equaliser. It was a deserved leveller as it was an evenly matched encounter and Heather St John's more than matched Shawbury, despite their numerical disadvantage.