WHEN BARWELL WENT TO WILLAND ROVERS, FEBRUARY 2010...

Having been asked whether I might like to cover the FA Vase game on Saturday between Willand Rovers and Hamworthy United, I recalled my only previous visit to Willand when Barwell were the guests for an FA Vase tie in February 2010...

And yes, Russell Jee was playing for Rovers...

I wrote an article, a poem and a match report about my afternoon in Willand...

The article, the poem and extracts from the match report appear below and I hope a few memories might be jogged...

Cheers... 

Pete Ray, 'The Mowdog'...

THE ARTICLE:

Willand-On-The-Mud…

I backed my car onto a muddy verge outside the Silver Street ground and even by 1.40pm there was much activity inside the rather exposed stadium. A thin line of trees barely offered any privacy from the road, a free view perhaps and a Reliant Robin three-wheeler sat obscurely inside the entrance gates. Placing bags on a couple of seats in the grandstand was like getting towels down quickly on loungers around a hotel’s swimming pool but already there, chobbling his lunch was a regular Barwell supporter, Murray Dworkin, whose woolly hat displayed a collage of football clubs’ badges. I had actually passed his car on the M5 motorway, just before junction 27, his exit, for I was travelling on to junction 28, in order to meet my daughter for lunch at the ‘Weary Traveller’ in Cullompton. She had travelled wearily up from Tavistock to watch Willand play Barwell. It’s what we do…

Another Barwell acquaintance told me painfully that the guy he sat with at the Coalville away game had suffered a desperate decline in health and life expectancy was minimal. I was suitably shocked and Barwell FC gave my emotional acquaintance a card and a shirt to pass on to the ailing supporter. Football became less important, suddenly…

Lucy and I strolled to the toilets at 2.45pm, which were indicated by an angled sign on the inside of a sloping edge of the grandstand’s roof. As we negotiated the narrow concrete path towards the clubhouse, Willand’s players were warming up by dodging around vertical poles placed upon the grass directly next to us… We were so nearly tempted to join in, as players and spectators vied for space. Cramped, or what? A chap sat on a white plastic chair at a white plastic picnic table on the same rectangular grass verge, adding more incredulity to the scene…

Nick Green led his Barwell team out in his own inimitable fashion, legs already muddy, shorts brown along the thighs, before the officials examined Adam Cunnington’s equipment.

In soft, sanded, grassy mud, the game became a physical battle of attrition between the Giants of the Culm Valley and the Scrappers from Barwell. Cunnington was unwilling to collect more mud on his kit and so was dismissed before overtime began, following an innocuous shove into the back of an opponent, but although Willand enjoyed that advantage for half an hour or so, Nick Green’s sheer unwillingness to be defeated earned the flustered goalie Castle, the tanned model Jamie Towers and their muddied team-mates a creditable draw. The replay was won by Barwell, en route to a semi-final appearance which they lost unluckily to Whitley Bay over two legs.

In the clubhouse before the match, a sound from my past reached my ears. When I was an unpaid volunteer, doing reports for Plymouth’s website, my son Jamie would hide his face and cover his ears when Argyle’s fans began their embarrassing chant of ‘Green Army…’ And there it was, chanted in 2010 by Barwell’s beer swilling supporters… Eventually the chant became more famous as part of a TV advert and thus I was pleased that Jamie was a long way off at White Hart Lane, watching his beloved Villa bore him to tears. 

It’s what HE does…

THE POEM:

Silver Street Mud Flats…

Slithering, loose, mustard mud

Squirmed the tread

Of tyres, 

Reversing uneasily towards a wall

In Willand, parking in anticipation

Of Barwell’s head to head…

Shimmering, soft cinnamon slime

Sucked the tread

Of studs, 

Turning wearily towards the ball

In the Vase, baulking in desperation

Of elimination’s mental dread…

Splattering, caked, umber sludge

Slowed the tread

Of defenders, 

Tiring hesitatingly towards the pall

In parity, aching in exasperation

Of attrition. And hearts bled…

PeteRay

February 2010 

Willand’s car-parking facilities, meagre, led to street-verge parking for me, players’ studs were dragged into the mire and sapped the part-timers’ energy… 

Trench warfare.

THE SHORTENED REPORT:

Green’s Army Unsuited To Trench Warfare In Devon Mud

Willand Rovers 2 Barwell 2 (aet)

Att: 368

‘Despite looking the more capable of two teams which battled in heavy mud on a lifeless, sanded Silver Street surface, the hosts’ size and pedantry nearly slugged Barwell out of the FA Vase in Willand. Only the crossbar and a shocking rebound miss by a replacement, albeit maybe offside, prevented Willand from beating the Canaries, for whom Cunnington had been dismissed just before the end of 90 minutes. Extra-time was probably a waste of time in truth, for both outfits looked leg-weary and very little bar hefty clearances, tackles, wayward passes and nervousness showed up in the overtime period. Barwell led twice but allowed two equalisers with some sloppy midfield covering contributing to the first, hesitant and poor defending costing the second. Neither ‘keeper was particularly overworked in two hours of football but apart from the powerful Willand defence, Cunnington’s sheer involvement and Hadland’s selfless effort, Nick Green deserved not to lose, for he dragged his team to a replay.

The opening goal, on 20 minutes, ended a period of slight ascendancy by the visitors, when Cunnington, near the right post, fell under Croft’s challenge. The two players slapped onto the mud and the official awarded a penalty, which the otherwise redundant Charley shot past Cann’s left hand, although the ‘keeper nearly clawed it away.

As the half expired, with Barwell’s midfielders all running back in a line, Cliff-Brown chased a long ball in the 41^st minute and slipped a pass between Hier and Wykes for Ansell, 12 yards out, right of the area. Castle hesitated then raced forward, allowing Ansell to measure his cross-shot low into the left corner of goal. 

Hawes soon replaced RUSSELL JEE for Willand….

Barwell’s second goal arrived in the 75th minute, for Wykes’ corner saw Cunnington challenge aerially, Towers fed off the rebound in a melee and smashed a close-range shot off a defender, maybe the woodwork too and into goal.

Stamp replaced Norrish, who had done a good job probing in midfield for his team and the substitution changed the game for soon, on 78 minutes, Willand were handed an equaliser by inept Barwell defending. Stamp, in a totally harmless position on the right, simply centred from deep towards the edge of the Barwell penalty-box and then slow-motion crept in as defenders watched as the ball drifted further and further towards the left, finally finding Steele, alone, 12 yards out and he made no mistake, planting a right-footer beyond Castle and into the far corner of the net.

The occasion had been ruined by a poor pitch, plus a resolute home defence and although Barwell possessed the more able players, few did themselves justice on the day. Maybe the importance of the match and the rewards at stake affected the performance but to be fair, mistakes led to the two home goals. Lacking was an offensive force for the Canaries, for much of Cunnington’s good work was at distance and McDonald was rarely fed, yet when he was, Willand hurried to the tackle. Green rose above it all though, despite the irritation caused in the Barwell defence by the languid and difficult Cliff-Brown, leaving the two teams to battle out a replay at Kirkby Road one week hence…’