Hitting A Stour Note

Two photographs taken 5 years apart:

2019, moments after Tom Knowles’s thunderous winner at Stourbridge. Last we saw of Tom, he was disappearing under a pile of team mates, never to be seen again. Thanks for the, er, memory.  

2024. Same ground, same opponents, same division.  Very different direction of travel!

Instead of several hundred behind the goal bellowing out our victory songs, a glum few watch in near silence.  Whilst, just out of shot, being mocked by a bunch of potty mouthed ten year olds.  

It wasn’t that we were bad at Stourbridge. They barely threatened apart from the two times they found the net, whilst with a bit more belief in the penalty box we might have had three or four.

Certainly 1000% better than the shitshow at St Ives, which was so limp and disinterested it would surely have aroused police investigation if anyone had actually bothered to bet on the result. 

But the overwhelming feeling was that, like five years ago, this was a pivotal game for our chances and this time it didn’t go so well.  

It seems that we may have been kidding ourselves that the main problem was Leese’s  management style. Increasingly it’s clear that – yes that was certainly a contributory factor – but the plain fact is this squad is too lightweight and inexperienced for this division.  A lot of that is on him too, but not all.

Without Stohrer’s industry in midfield or someone other than Ty capable of scoring, right now it looks an uphill task to avoid another, unthinkable, drop back to a level where we will be closer to park pitch than the Football League.

Whenever a season starts to really unravel the cry goes out for a fan’s forum.  Well, fair play, this week we’ve got one.  However, from information already made available, it feels like optimism may not be high on the agenda. 

Well done to the vocal minority who have been relentlessly harping on about how uselessly run the club has been and predicting village football, starting from when it seemed a distant possibility.

As they show absolutely no sign of shutting up, indeed seem to revel in every setback, they may get to gloat about how right they were.