The FA Cup. Part 13.

Saturday, 04^th January 2014

Third Round Proper

Kidderminster Harriers v Peterborough United

Aggborough

Kidderminster

DY10 1NB

K.O. 3.00pm

Half time 0-0

Final score 0-0

Attendance 3,858 (away 875)

Miles travelled approximately 295

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Peace and Love to you all.

So nothing to do today… except go and watch FA Cup Rd3 on a STEAM TRAIN! For all the people that don’t know Kidderminster Harriers backs onto Kidderminster train station which is where the Severn Valley Railway operates from. It runs down the Severn valley to Bridgnorth and back.

The plot was to get to Kidderminster nice and early and then take the steam train to Bridgnorth and back. OK! It’s a bit of a cheat, but… you get the idea…

The only problem with my bright idea was, well there were two, the first was Network Rail decided that the best time to do engineering work on my local branch line was to do it on the Saturday of the 3^rd Round of the Cup, closing down the line for the whole weekend. Why can’t they do it at night when nobody is using it? This meant that for me to reach Kidderminster in time I’d have to get up at 4am, drive to Hertford, then train to Kings Cross, Euston, New Street, Moor Street, and Kidderminster. .. *SIGH*

The second problem was that because December and January fails in winter the UK has had some rain, so there are issues with localised floods so the trains might not be running, can you image, rain in winter… whatever next, snow, God forbid we should have five flakes of snow to stop the whole UK rail network from running, still it could be worse, it could be summer and the sun would have warped the lines in the heat... maybe Global Warming is a good thing, we can have summer in winter and winter in summer and maybe the trains will run.

BASTARDS! Really, what is wrong with these people? How do they end up in charge? Its 100 years this year since the start of WWI and it’s 70+ since the start of WWII all of that sacrifice for what…

ANYWAY… rant over, I fuel the car, check the oil, tyres, washer bottle, survival kit and provisions in the boot and I’m ready to go. Network Rail if you’re reading this, that’s how you do it.

I got to Kidderminster at 12 noon only to find the Peterborough Team Coach already parked up outside the ground. I parked up and made my way over. “Noggin”, shouted one of the stewards as I walked across the car park, “What’s going on here?” I asked, “They’re a little bit early aren’t they?” I continued. I was then told the strangest tale of the day, which was that Peterborough had stayed in Birmingham overnight, the coach was here because they had just dropped the kit off, the coach was then going back to Birmingham to pick up the team before coming back to Kidderminster for an ETA of 1.30pm. Network Rail if you’re reading this, please ignore the above paragraph.

While all this was going on the place was swarming with Peterborough United stewards. Maybe 50 plus? The idea was to have the away end stewarded by Peterborough stewards. Um…

My now usual walk around the ground taking photos. Eventually I bumped into Chris Knight who had been up since 5am working on the pitch. The day before Kidderminster had put out a request for any locals willing to help to arrive at 9am with a fork (I’m not sure if that was to work on the pitch or to dig the casserole from the cup).

Chris invited me into the ground to have a look at the pitch, we stood looking at the pitch while the stewards were been shown around the ground and given their individual tasks for the day. The pitch looked in fantastic condition. As I’ve mentioned before, Kidderminster ground share with Worcester City, so it’s taken a lot of hard work to get the games on, not just today’s games either. As we chatted Chris told me in great detail about the amount of time and effort that the ground staff had put into getting today’s game on. I stood there listening while secretly smiling inside my head and thinking of that game at St Margaretsbury all those months ago.

Back outside the ground and the atmosphere had really started to build. The expected 1,000 Peterborough fans had started to arrive in force. The Peterborough Team Coach had returned with the team. I picked my ticket up from the ticket office. Leon arrived with a new assistant, not as pretty as the first one and not female either…

Barry Fry was outside the ground, doing what Barry Fry does best and that’s to act like the World’s Greatest Uncle. I bet he’s a great bloke to go down the pub with, “Christmas with Barry Fry”, now there’s a TV show waiting to be made.

So, back to the game. Once both teams had won their 2^nd Round games, both teams had had a dip in form. Peterborough had lost 3 drawn 1 won 2 while Kidderminster had lost 4 drawn 0 won 1. So, let’s be honest, it wasn’t looking good. This had 0-0 written all over it and a boring 0-0 at that.

I’d got a ticket for the main stand which would mean that I have done all four sides at Aggborough. I made my way into the ground. Got my bearing and made my way to the back row just to the right of the press.

There were only three non-league teams left in this year’s FA Cup, the press could smell blood and they were out in force.

The atmosphere continued to build. The fans started to find their voices. The teams finished their warm up. Last minutes touches were made to the pitch. Cameramen waited at the entrance from the tunnel like lions waiting in The Coliseum.

Eventually the teams came out. Cameras clicked. Fans erupted. That stupid token handshake nonsense continues to get in the way. The toss is lost and the teams change ends. Why do teams do that? YES! I know why they do it, but why do they do it? Surely they have to realise that it just pisses the fans off. I stood there watching while secretly smiling inside my head and thinking of that game at Hemel Hempstead all those months ago.

The keepers didn’t shake hands as they passed on the half way line, never seen that before. The fans booed the keepers as they went into goal mouths, I’ve never seen that either. Did I miss a meeting?

The game kicks off with both teams kicking the wrong way and within 90 seconds Kidderminster hit the bar. I just stood there shaking my head, had Peterborough learnt nothing from Hemel v Sutton?

Well this is exactly what the press had wanted and everyone in Red and white had dreamt of. Peterborough were pinned into their own half. Chance after chance after chance and they all went begging. This was looking good, apart from the fact that at some point the inevitable would happen and Peterborough would get out of their half and have at least one shot on goal.

Eventually, the inevitable did happen, Peterborough did get out of their own half and they did have a shot on goal, the only problem was someone had moved the goal to exactly where it was before the game started, the ball however went straight over the bar and as I write air traffic control are still tracking it.

This was an interesting twist to the game, Kidderminster two divisions below Peterborough were having the better of the game but couldn’t score while Peterborough once they’d got out of their half also couldn’t score and that’s pretty much how the first 45 minutes passed.

The first half flew by. Had Kidderminster blown it? Personally I thought they had. You simply cannot miss that many chances and get away with it. Eventually fitness would take its toll. Eventually chances would be taken, if not by Kidderminster then by Peterborough.

During half time I saw Chris Knight who’d got changed and was doing his corporate hospitality bit by serving the press boys and girls with hot drinks. Non-league football and the whole hearted attitude of the people continue to leave me humbled and long may it continue.

The second half kicked off with both teams still kicking the wrong way and yes you guessed it. Peterborough promptly pinned Kidderminster in their own half. The second half was a carbon copy of the first. Slowly and surely the Kidderminster keeper (Danny Lewis) started to stand out like a sore thumb. This really wasn’t looking good for Kidderminster.

Once in while Kidderminster broke out of their half and went to explore the land that lay beyond the half way line. The advance party soon retreated back into their own half. Further attempts were made on the Peterborough goal only to be met with a combination of poor finishing or good defending.

Kidderminster made a few changes and the game opened up. Danny Lewis continued to stand out making save after save from what was at times a rampant Peterborough.

Then it happened, 86 minutes and another free kick just outside the Kidderminster box. What happened next I’m still trying to get my head around. Did the ball hit the bar twice or three times? Did it go over the line? It all happened so quickly that all me and my camera saw was a blur of yellow as the keeper flew to his right like one of those bright South American birds.

The direct free kick beat the keeper to his right and the ball hit the bar and bounced out and down into the box where it was met by one hell of a scramble. Peterborough then had another go at scoring, two players tried to head the ball over the line while Kidderminster managed to clear it onto the bar again (I think) only to find the ball falling to the feet of a Peterborough player who slammed his shot into the pitch meaning it was going to bounce into the roof of the net until Kidderminster managed to get a head to it were it hit the bar again (I think) the ball then bounced down into the box where a Peterborough player tried to hook it in only to have it roll out for a goal kick. Well, I think that’s what happened.

While all of that was happening, obviously the Peterborough fans thought they had won it, obviously they were wrong. While all of that was happening, obviously the Kidderminster fans thought they had lost, obviously they were wrong. What made it kick off was the fact that Peterborough fans lost face and they weren’t happy about it. Around half a dozen Peterborough fans gestured at the Kidderminster fans in the corner and made a half heart attempt at hand bags at dawn. I’ve seen more violent scenes down my local hairdressers…

A few minutes later and the Ref bought the game to an end. 

Just for the record Danny Lewis was give Man of The Match.

It wasn’t until about 5 minutes after the game that I realised that it meant I had another replay. At least this time it’s a week on Tuesday and not in four days time.

After the game I stayed behind taking photos of the ground as it emptied. The stewards did their sweep of the ground. The press boys and girls continued to work. The grounds men came out and worked their magic. The teams warmed down.

Now I don’t know if someone somewhere made an executive decision to let me stay inside the ground, or if the stewards just let me get on with it, or if everyone just presumed I was with the press, but I didn’t stagger out of Aggborough until close to 5.45pm. I just went where I wanted to go when I wanted to do it.

Chris stepped up from out of nowhere, he’d changed back into his grounds man clothes and all I could think of was the shop keeper and Mr Benn. I thanked him again for earlier in the day.

Eventually I made my way up to the Aggborough Suite where I finally found the Chairman Mark Serrall. It’s taken three games to track him down and I’m glad it happened that way around. I just trust my hand at him, introduced myself and explained who I was and what I was trying to do. I then proceeded to tell him how his staff had looked after me over the last three games. He seemed genuinely puzzled by me and what I was saying but he listened and seemed happy to hear positive things said about his staff. At that very moment up walks (the lovely) Helen Macdonald, “Happy New Year”, she said as she held my hand, “Thank you, for everything that you have done for me”, I stumbled.

So, this is it, or is it? Is this really going to be my last FA Cup game at Kidderminster? I took one last look at the empty ground.

Roll on the Cup draw.

Noggin xx

P.S. This is not a trick photo, it's a real 50p and that really is a spoon standing upright in the soup, sorry "casserole in a cup"...