BIRSTALL UNITED (Meadow Lane)

FA VASE 2nd QUALIFYING ROUND, BIRSTALL UNITED 2-2 MALVERN TOWN (AET) ATTENDANCE: 120

Once the dust had settled on the draw for the 2nd Qualifying round of the FA Vase, I was looking for something within a couple of hours of home. I was immediately drawn to the tie between Birstall United and Malvern Town, because cards on the table, and I am ever so sorry, but I had never heard of Birstall United!

I sought out the most basic of facts that the club a based in Leicestershire, a few miles north of the city centre and play their home games at Meadow Lane (no, not that Meadow Lane). So I decided to point the car in the direction of Leicester for my latest instalment on the road to Wembley!

The club was founded in 1961 by a group of youngsters. They chose their name 'United' after picking the best players from the teams run by Birstall British Legion and Birstall Social Club.
The club initially played Sunday league football in the Leicester & District League but by the end of the decade they switched to Saturday football, eventually joining Division Two of the Leicestershire Senior League in 1976.

The club play at Meadow Lane, which is adjacent to Watermead Park, a series of old gravel pits that have been turned into lakes. Only two sides of the ground are open. There is a seated stand alongside the pitch and a covered terrace behind the goal. There are also signs of building work as the club continue to develop the ground. There is a clubhouse, which was doing a roaring trade today with Leicester City being the early Sky TV game.

After plenty of near misses, Birstall United were crowned Leicester Senior League champions in 2016 (I wonder if their odds were 5000/1 at the start of the season?) and therefore promoted to the East Midlands Counties League.

Attention today turned to the FA Vase where Birstall were facing another step 6 side, Malvern Town of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division. Birstall were looking to reach the first round proper for the first time since 2007. Their best run in Vase came in 1997/98 when the club reached the 4th round before losing to Spalding United.

Birstall drew first blood in this tie when a defensive miscommunication between goalkeeper and defender resulted in Jamie Smith (4) heading the ball into his own net.

Malvern played the more controlled football in the opening half and it was no surprise when Nathan Hughes (18) brought them level with a bullet header.

The game was much even in the second half but it was Malvern who created the better opportunities. They hit the post and had a goal disallowed for a supposed foul on the goalkeeper. Malvern eventually nudged themselves in front in the 75th minutes when Dave Reynolds blasted home from just inside the box.

However the lead though only lasted a matter of seconds as straight from the kick off the ball went out wide and the resulting cross was headed home by Lewis Dodd to bring Birstall level.

With the tie level at 90 minutes, and with the agreement of both clubs, an extra 30 minutes was played but ,despite the game becoming more stretched as the players became weary, no winning goal could be found. The teams will replay at Malvern on Wednesday night.

HAUGHMOND FC (Shrewsbury Sports Village)

WEST MIDLANDS REGIONAL LEAGUE PREMIER, HAUGHMOND 1-1 BILSTON TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 35 (h/c)

As the festive season approaches, football begins to take a back seat as other commitments take priority. Fortunately today I was able to combine both today! A Christmas get together in Shrewsbury was arranged allowing me to have a drink with friends and also slither off to a football match at 3pm. Win, Win!

Unfortunately the bad weather meant a late arrival in Shrewsbury as the train timetable was in chaos. We arrived in time though to have a quick pre-match slurp in some of the town's drinking establishments namely the Vaults, the Three Fishes and the Nags Head.

The afternoons football entertainment was provided by Haughmond FC and Bilston Town as they took on each other in a West Midlands Regional League Premier Division game. The club kindly tweeted earlier in the day that the game was definitely going ahead after the bad weather over the previous few days. 

Haughmond play at Shrewsbury Sports Village, which is a couple of miles out of town. A taxi was on hand to take us from the pub to the ground. As the name suggests the ground is part of a sporting complex, which doesn't make it sound too glamorous. Indeed, after hearing tales from other hoppers of "football in a cage" I approached with some trepidation as images of me standing outside of a pitch watching through a wire fence.

However it was nothing like that, well once you had paid your £3 to gain entrance to the cage. There was a seated stand, which luckily today did offer some protection from the strong winds.

If you were one of these 'tightwads' who objected to paying the entrance fee (as some people did) then there is a large terrace outside the cage where you can watch for free (as well as sitting inside the club itself). The views though are no different to watching football in the 1970's/80's you could argue.


The club were members of the Shropshire County League as recently as 2011, when the won promotion to the WMRL. They reached the Premier Division in 2014, having finished runners up behind AFC Bridgnorth.



The game finished all square as both teams did their best in the windy conditions.

Match details are sketchy as I lost my programme and notes (I am certain there is no correlation between this and the ales consumed) but Bilston did take the lead inside 10 minutes. They seemed content to sit back on the lead and surrender the possession to Haughmond, who in truth did little with it.


The second half was more of the same but defending a 1-0 lead is always a risky strategy as the opposition will always get at least one chance. With 15 minutes remaining Haughmond finally broke through to earn themselves a point. The maybe could have snatched all three, but on balance a fair result.


The booked taxi to take us back into town failed to materialise but luckily as we began the long walk back a bus, which happened to be running late in the traffic, pulled up to ensure we could round off the day in the excellent Salopian, whilst watching Bournemouth pull off a shock win at Stamford Bridge.

AFC WULFRUNIANS (Castlecroft Stadium)

FA VASE THIRD ROUND, AFC WULFRUNIANS 2-3 BORROWASH VICTORIA (AET), ATTENDANCE: 120 (h/c).

FA Vase day today and I have to confess this game was not my original choice. I had to seek an alternative when Walsall Wood v Wigan Robin Park bit the dust, but by the end of afternoon I was so glad I headed out to Wolverhampton.

The Wulfs were founded in 2005 and play their games at the rather smart Castlecroft Stadium. This ground has an interesting history as it was built in the 1950's as a training ground for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Castlecroft then changed hands to the Rugby Football Union, who signed a long term lease on the ground in 1991. It was used as a training base and centre of excellence for young rugby players. The match programme states that all but 5 of England's 2003 world cup winning squad at one time or another played at Castlecroft. When the RFU decided to move all it's rugby development to Twickenham, AFC Wulfrunians took over the lease.

AFC Wulfrunians, of the West Midlands Regional League, were taking on Borrowash Victoria, of the East Midlands Counties League, both leagues being at Step 6 of the non-league pyramid. Both teams are having excellent seasons and both are challenging near the top of their respective divisions.

The game was a thrilling encounter which swung one way then the other, but ultimately it was the visitors from Derbyshire who ran out winners. After dominating the opening period, Callum Thompson gave the Vics the lead after 11 minutes. Mike Robertson (27) equalised for the homesters as they finished the half on top.



 Callum Thompson (Blue Shirt, 8) opens the scoring for Borrowash



In a carbon copy of the first half, The Vics dominated the opening of the second half and re-took the lead

through Shane Newton after 51 minutes. The visitors created enough chances to put the game to bed but they let the Wulfs back in and Robertson bagged his second after 73 minutes to equalise once more.

The Wulfs were now on top again and they could have wrapped the game up in normal time but at the end of 90 minutes it was all square.

In the first period of extra time Callum Thompson (94) got his second of the game but this time the Vics held their hosts at bay to seal their place in the next round.

Absolutely top draw entertainment, re-affirming my belief the FA Vase is the best cup competition around