Midland League

Division 3

Saturday 17th December 2022

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.04

Solihull Sporting 1 Leamington Hibernian 2 (abandoned 83 mins, player injury), attendance 19

16’ 0-1

34’ 0-2

61’ 1-2

@ Tudor Grange Academy Kingshurst, 3G Pitch

Cooks Lane

Chelmsley Wood

B37 6NU

No Admission

Programme free, 4 pages.

The freezing conditions covering most of the country meant finding a game on grass was going to be a challenge today, so when I was offered a lift to this game, my choice of match was sorted. The club had tweeted the fixture yesterday, but never replied to a number of tweets today as to whether the game would definitely go ahead. In the end it wasn’t until we were at Warwick Services on the M40 that a phone call was returned and indeed the game was going ahead as planned. Phew! If the game had been scheduled for the adjacent grass pitch here it would have had no chance of taking place. It was rutted and like walking on concrete. Once again the artificial option paid dividends.

The match was 7th versus 11th (out of 13) in the league table. Leamington were the better side, especially in the first half. They opened the scoring after sixteen minutes, when a long ball was played down the right, and having cut inside, the striker beat the ‘keeper with a shot at the near post, which should really have been saved. He had no chance when the visitor’s doubled their lead on 34 minutes though, beaten by a cracking 25 yarder.

Solihull did come back into it. They had one disallowed for offside late in the first half, before a deflected shot off the inside of the post saw them pull it back to 1-2 just after the hour mark. Unfortunately, with seven minutes left, the home ‘keeper collided with one of his own defenders when trying to clear a through ball, which resulted in the latter sustaining a head injury. He remained on the floor and was unable to be moved. An ambulance was called, but there was little chance of one being able to respond, at least within a reasonable time, so the Referee was left with no option but to abandon the match.