Friendly
Saturday 5th July 2025
Kick Off 14.00 On Time!
Stourbridge 4 Dudley Town 2, attendance 586
10’ 1-0
20’ 2-0
22’ 2-1
31’ 2-2 (pen)
52’ 3-2
67’ 4-2
@ Stourbridge R.U.F.C.
Stourton Park
Bridgnorth Road
Stourton
DY7 6QZ
£8 Admission, booked in advance online (£2 saving)
£2 Programme available, didn’t bother buying.
This was a ground I’d passed numerous times over the years, but never thought I’d ever visit to see football played here. This was the first of four pre-season friendlies that Stourbridge will be hosting here and the rare venue meant there were well in excess of fifty groundhoppers here! When heading from Stourbridge to Bridgnorth, the ground is on the left hand side of the A458, just before you reach Stourton. There’s ample car parking, which was good to see was free of charge and there were plenty of stewards directing you to a space. There are four pitches here, with the game played on the main one, which is floodlit and has a large seated stand on one side and raised viewing along the other, where there’s a two storey clubhouse, that has a viewing balcony leading off the bar area. Decent hot pasties, with four varieties on offer, were served at the far end of the ground, which were priced more to cater for the rugby crowds, but were selling well despite being expensive. The playing surface is artificial and as it’s primarily for rugby, the football markings were not so easy to pick out, especially the touchlines.
Stourbridge are in the Southern League Central Premier Division (Step 3), whilst Dudley Town are in the Midland League Premier Division, two steps lower. Stourbridge were ahead after just ten minutes, finishing a through ball with an angled shot low into the far corner and they doubled their lead ten minutes later with a shot from the edge of the box. Within two minutes Dudley pulled one back, when a cross from the right was headed in from 6 yards and nine minutes later they made it 2-2, converting a penalty. Five minutes into the second half, another cross from the right was headed in at the far post to see Stourbridge go back in front and midway through the second half they added a fourth, with an angled shot under the ‘keeper.
The day got off to a bad start, when it took me a couple of minutes short of two hours to get the 37 miles to Uxbridge, where I arrived half an hour late to pick up a couple of passengers for the drive north. It was plain sailing from here though and we arrived just under an hour before kick off, enabling one very relieved passenger to grab himself the second to last programme (you could have pre ordered them via Twitter)! The return south was totally trouble free and I was back home just before 18.30, rounding off an excellent day out, with a cracking ground ticked off.
