After a Facebook message from Nick, I was invited to go watch Sutton Coldfield vs Brocton, a cup game between two local non-league teams – Brocton are from Stafford, whilst Sutton Coldfield are, as the name suggests, based in Sutton Coldfield. Something of a surprise to me as I’d intended on a quiet night in, but it turned out to be anything but that. Nick is the scout at Carlton Town and was preparing his brief of Sutton Coldfield for their visit to the Bill on 25th January, so it wasn’t just a completely random night out for him, but it was – to an extent – for me.
Anyway, I left the house and caught the train to Birmingham New Street. The train was pretty full so I decided to stand for the first part of the journey. However, I was massively irritated by the dysfunctional toilet door and the tap that wouldn’t stop running in the toilet. Anyhow, as I arrived in Stafford and met up with Nick, we were able to get seats. Talking about nothing much in particular, the journey to Birmingham New Street wasn’t that eventful. We then missed the first train (not the last time we’d miss a train or a bus) to Sutton Coldfield but, luckily, the trains to Sutton Coldfield were pretty frequent.
On arrival in Sutton Coldfield, the rain was nothing short of torrential – it was lucky that Sutton have a 3G pitch as this game would have fallen foul to the weather otherwise. On arrival at Coles Lane, we paid the very reasonable £7 entry fee and entered the stand, which had a very good view compared to the usual ground-level views in the Northern Premier League, making it easier for Nick to get his scout report on Sutton done.
As the teams came out of the tunnel, the PA system squeaked over the teams but even the person with the best hearing would have had quite a lot of trouble in hearing what was being mumbled. However, the game kicked off with Sutton Coldfield kicking from left-to-right in the first half. Both teams were set up in a 4-4-2 system and in the opening exchanges, you could tell that Brocton were a side two leagues lower than their opponents. Happy to sit back and soak up the Sutton pressure, they reduced the home side to long-shots and they rarely genuinely tested the Brocton goalkeeper. Even when Sutton did get a set-piece opportunity, it was dealt with comfortably by a strong Brocton defence.
Then, just before half-time, Brocton took the lead. A free-kick was drifted into the box, and, although the Sutton ‘keeper did well with the initial header, he was unable to prevent Brocton’s Paul McMahon heading in the rebound. 1-0 Brocton.
Brocton could have had a second before half time, but were denied, somewhat confusingly, by the referee’s whistle. The referee took about two minutes to berate a Sutton player for a poor challenge, but blew his whistle for half time just as the ball was whipped in, despite Sutton’s keeper being forced into a fantastic save by the header from the delivery that came across.
At half time, me and Nick went to the canteen to get a half-time burger. £2.50 for a cheeseburger was decent enough, although the quality left a lot to be desired as it filled a hole, but did little else else.
The second half continued much in the same vain as the first half had left off, with Sutton Coldfield unable to carve open Brocton while Brocton were more than happy to sit on their 1-0 lead. In a drastic switch, Sutton made all three substitutions at once in a desperate attempt to change the game and, in the dying moments, they got their somewhat undeserved reward. Sutton were awarded with a free-kick on the edge of the Brocton box, and the cross somehow made it through the crowd of bodies to level the game. A kick in the teeth for Brocton, who would later go on to lose 4-3 on penalties.
Unfortunately, Nick and I were unable to catch the penalties as we had trains to catch, where this night gets much more interesting. Firstly, we got the train from Sutton Coldfield to Rugeley Trent Valley, without any problems. However, we were unaware that the train that we needed to Stafford was about to leave. We missed it, by about 20 seconds. Bugger. We then got back on the train that was heading to New Street in the hope of getting back to Birmingham in time for the Stoke train. Realising that we would be late for the last train of the night, we got off in Sutton Coldfield.
After talking to two very helpful employees at the station, we decided that a bus to Hendesford and then a taxi to Stafford would be the best option. There was absolutely no way I was going to get back to Stoke-on-Trent unless I paid a ridiculous amount for a taxi. As we were getting cash for the bus to Hendesford, it turned up. Having asked someone waiting at the stop about the bus to Hendesford, we expected them to make the driver wait up, especially given that it was the last bus of the night. However, our luck was out. Running behind said bus for a second did nothing, other than heighten our frustration. We were contemplating a night on the streets of Sutton Coldfield until we could get the first train home tomorrow. However, after about half an hour of waiting around, we decided to bite the bullet and get a cab home. The driver initially told us it would be £40, but after a call to his boss (probably bullshitting), he had to raise the price to £50. There goes quite a large proportion of my student loan.
On arrival back at Nick’s house, I realised that I was in for an uncomfortable night on the sofa. Excellent. I couldn’t really get to sleep and, having not been introduced to his housemates, they were rather surprised/scared to see me in his living room! I couldn’t really get to sleep, and there wasn’t really much chance of doing so when Nick’s housemate, Tom, turned up after a night out. He very generously made me a ham sandwich, which was actually very needed as I’d had nothing since that burger at the game. I eventually drifted to sleep, and was woken up at about 10 in the morning, having a shower and then finally catching the train back to Stoke-on-Trent. What a night.
Under The Floodlights 