Saturday 4th May 1991
May 4, 2020 10:07:34 GMT
Post by markhardy on May 4, 2020 10:07:34 GMT
Atherstone United 1-2 Farnborough Town
Beazer Homes League Premier Division
Saturday May 4th 1991
Sheepy Road; Att 619
I have written about this one because this was indeed the greatest day, I had watching Farnborough Town. I know we had the days out at West Ham (twice) and a trip to Arsenal in the FA Cup, but nothing surpasses this.
I will take you back to December, we travelled to Eton Park, the old home of Burton Albion and lost 2-0 and were languishing down in 10th place, having come down from the Vauxhall Conference just seven months earlier. From that point we only dropped points in 6 games, just one away defeat at Dover and won the other 19, taking 60 points from a possible 75.
Our closest rivals that season were Gloucester City and they visited us in April and the score ended level at 1-1, as it did at Meadow Park back in August. Gloucester had a game in hand and as the final week came, that game in hand was at home to VS Rugby on the Tuesday night. At the start of play Gloucester were 3 points behind with a better goal difference than Farnborough’s. Our Manager and Club Secretary made the trip and it finished level at 2-2, which left it in the balance and all Farnborough had to do was better the result of Gloucester the following Saturday.
The morning of the game and I ran the supporters coaches in those days and we took three coach load of fans, plus many who drove to the game as well. Gloucester had a short trip up the M5 to Bromsgrove Rovers, the Championship Shield, that is huge, was situated at a hotel in Birmingham, so it could go either way.
On to the game, Atherstone took the lead against Farnborough in the 14th minute and that was how it stayed until half time. It was goalless at the Victoria Ground. The second half became more and more tense as nothing changed in either game. As we approached the final five minutes, Paul Coombs headed Farnborough level, nothing had changed as a goal for Gloucester would allow them to leapfrog Farnborough and take the title.
Two minutes later and Jamie Horton was through on goal, his shot saved by the Atherstone keeper, the ball rebounded out to Colin Fielder, who could hit a ball a long way, many of the Boro fans started moving up the grass bank to retrieve the ball. He hit it first time and it nestled in the bottom corner. Pandemonium followed as the Farnborough fans went wild, including the inevitable pitch invasion.
As it calmed down the Farnborough Secretary got a call on the club mobile (size of a small suitcase), it was the Gloucester secretary screaming down the phone “We’ve scored, we’ve scored”, to which our secretary replied quite calmly, “oh good, we’ve just scored twice”. I think the phone went silent from that point. Injury time was played out and Farnborough had won the league with three minutes to spare. We then had to wait for the shield to travel to Atherstone from its base in Birmingham. It couldn’t even guess which way to go was the closeness of the final result.
One thing to mention is that, and this maybe a vicious rumour, but somebody at Bromsgrove had announce that Atherstone had got a late equaliser. It was soon quashed.
Beazer Homes League Premier Division
Saturday May 4th 1991
Sheepy Road; Att 619
I have written about this one because this was indeed the greatest day, I had watching Farnborough Town. I know we had the days out at West Ham (twice) and a trip to Arsenal in the FA Cup, but nothing surpasses this.
I will take you back to December, we travelled to Eton Park, the old home of Burton Albion and lost 2-0 and were languishing down in 10th place, having come down from the Vauxhall Conference just seven months earlier. From that point we only dropped points in 6 games, just one away defeat at Dover and won the other 19, taking 60 points from a possible 75.
Our closest rivals that season were Gloucester City and they visited us in April and the score ended level at 1-1, as it did at Meadow Park back in August. Gloucester had a game in hand and as the final week came, that game in hand was at home to VS Rugby on the Tuesday night. At the start of play Gloucester were 3 points behind with a better goal difference than Farnborough’s. Our Manager and Club Secretary made the trip and it finished level at 2-2, which left it in the balance and all Farnborough had to do was better the result of Gloucester the following Saturday.
The morning of the game and I ran the supporters coaches in those days and we took three coach load of fans, plus many who drove to the game as well. Gloucester had a short trip up the M5 to Bromsgrove Rovers, the Championship Shield, that is huge, was situated at a hotel in Birmingham, so it could go either way.
On to the game, Atherstone took the lead against Farnborough in the 14th minute and that was how it stayed until half time. It was goalless at the Victoria Ground. The second half became more and more tense as nothing changed in either game. As we approached the final five minutes, Paul Coombs headed Farnborough level, nothing had changed as a goal for Gloucester would allow them to leapfrog Farnborough and take the title.
Two minutes later and Jamie Horton was through on goal, his shot saved by the Atherstone keeper, the ball rebounded out to Colin Fielder, who could hit a ball a long way, many of the Boro fans started moving up the grass bank to retrieve the ball. He hit it first time and it nestled in the bottom corner. Pandemonium followed as the Farnborough fans went wild, including the inevitable pitch invasion.
As it calmed down the Farnborough Secretary got a call on the club mobile (size of a small suitcase), it was the Gloucester secretary screaming down the phone “We’ve scored, we’ve scored”, to which our secretary replied quite calmly, “oh good, we’ve just scored twice”. I think the phone went silent from that point. Injury time was played out and Farnborough had won the league with three minutes to spare. We then had to wait for the shield to travel to Atherstone from its base in Birmingham. It couldn’t even guess which way to go was the closeness of the final result.
One thing to mention is that, and this maybe a vicious rumour, but somebody at Bromsgrove had announce that Atherstone had got a late equaliser. It was soon quashed.
