On a getting to know you basis

[medibot]

Quorn? A factory side for a fake meat company?

Poor, poor Rocester...

[ojiveojive]

Probably beating Birmingham City 4-2 aet in the semi final of the Birmingham Senior Cup 2004, having lost the previous season's final to them 2-0.

They had Jamie Clapham, Aliou Cisse, Darren Carter and a couple of other 1st team squadders, Andrew Barrowman and Carl Mottram, in their side.

Chances were few and far between during the opening period and Birmingham seemed to have the edge as The Moors defence struggled to deal with the pace of Motteram. He fired Birminham's first chance of the game straight at Adam Rachel on 18 minutes and shortly after won a corner from which Marcos Painter headed wide.

Birmingham were dominating the possession but Moors took a shock lead on 28 minutes when Neil Davis capitalised on some sloppy defending by intercepting a weak cross-field ball just outside the box and firing home a sweet 25-yard effort.

Three minutes later Moors doubled their lead after a throw-out by keeper Colin Doyle put Birmingham in trouble. Phil Trainer intercepted and sent Faulds down the wing. His cross found Davis whose shot seemed to be flying well wide before Chad Sheppard stuck out a boot to direct the ball into his own net.

Moors nearly had a third on 41 minutes, Daire Doyle weaved his way through the Birmingham defence and after colliding with keeper Colin Doyle, the ball rolled towards the line but the keeper scrambled back to smother it.

Two minutes into first half stoppage time Birmingham grabbed a lifeline with almost the last kick of the half. Moors failed to clear a near post corner, Davion Hamilton fired a shot goal-wards and Cisse deflected the ball past Rachel.

Neil Davis had two chances to restore Moors two-goal advantage early on in a scrappy second half. His first chance was snuffed out as he hesitated inside the Birmingham area and minutes later he latched on to a Doyle cross but hammered the ball just past the right upright.

The home side were made to pay for their missed chances when Kilkenny curled the ball into the top left corner from the right side of the box to level the scores on 68 minutes.

There were strong appeals for a penalty when Richard Robinson sent Barrowman tumbling in the box after he raced clear on goal, but the referee was unconvinced.

Things were now getting tense, Motteram fired another effort just wide in the closing stages for Birmingham and Moors' Faulds saw his shot deflected over as the game headed towards extra-time.

Having lost a two goal lead, to be truthful most Moors fans thought that Birmingham's superior fitness would tell in extra time but we hung on in hope.

Birminham's Barrowman had the two best goal-scoring chances of the first period of extra-time from Davion Hamilton left wing crosses, both headers that failed to hit the target.

The Moors piled on the pressure in the second period of added time and after Birmingham survived two goalmouth scrambles, Moors endeavours eventually paid dividends with six minutes remaining. A low corner from Jamie Petty was flicked on by brother Ben and Faulds instinctively volleyed the ball into the roof of the net from 6-yards out. Yeeeeesssssss!

The tie was settled three minutes later. From another corner the ball eventually found its way to Jamie Petty who sent a low shot crashing off the far post but Dowdall followed up to poke the ball home.

They were all heroes, Peter Faulds ran left back Jamie Clapham ragged, Jae Martin roamed freely on the other side, Guy Sanders dominated defence, Phil Trainer bossed midfield, keeper Adam Rachel was superb but was injured a week later in a collision with our own right back Richard Robinson in the 2-1 defeat in the first leg of the Doc Martens Cup final against Crawley and didn't play again that season.

We went on to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 at Molyneux in the final.

[DJhinckley]

medibot said:

Quorn?

possibly the most hated side in Leicestershire, don't know of any local side that has a good word for them...

[Giggy of Telford]

The strange thing about Rocester is that in the MFA 2 season back they went up as champions; even beating Willenhall who were also promoted. Next season in the Unibond and Willenhall finish in a playoff position while Rocester hadn't won since the match that secured them as champions. Now they're back where they started and have only won the one game.

To be fair though since then they have lost loads of players (we got striker Darren Alexander who has now played for us up front, in midfield, defence and on 3 occasions in goal, once keeping a clean sheet.) this will have made things a lot harder for them I guess.

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

I lost a lot of sympathy for Rocester a couple of years ago when Stafford went accross for a pre-season "friendly". Rangers were playing a practice football match, while Rocester appeared to be playing some kind of all-in-wrestling/thai boxing hybid game with a football thrown in as an afterthought......

[Giggy of Telford]

If I remember correctly when we bet them 5-3 away they didn't have a goalkeeper available as both were already suspended, supposedly a midfielder in goal for 90 minutes which made the game easier. They then had a keeper back for the home visit which we won 2-0.