A TASTE OF STEEL
By Mick Magic
Saturday August 30th, 2008 KO: 3:00pm [FA Cup Prelim. Rnd.]
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Stewart & Lloyds |
Corinthian-Casuals |
Ah, the glorious historic competition that is the FA Cup, it always brings an air of excitement in its wake. So often, it's a venture into unknown territory, and thank God we DON'T have to make 2½ hour coach journeys through the horrendous traffic on the M25 and M1 every Saturday! Stewarts & Lloyds of Corby lies an hour from the nearest motorway, so first sight of their ground comes as something of a relief. This is not one of the turnstile-fronted grounds we're used to greeting us in the Isthmian League, but a wire-fenced works football ground, smiling folk at the front gate, complete with buckets for the cash and some rather DIY programmes on an old table. It's the kind of place that reminds you what our beautiful game is really all about.
The clubhouse is somewhat reminiscent of a cricket pavilion, complete with bar-side balcony. The announcer sits just inside the door, allowing himself a nice lengthways view of the field of play, rowed as it is with uncleared grass cuttings. He tells me something of the history and explains the considerable number of Scottish accents audible since arrival. The company is Corus Steel nowadays, but was still Stewarts & Lloyds when they originally moved down from Motherwell, the club from whom they take their wonderful maroon and orange/gold colours, making for a violently lysergic clash with our own chocolate and pink, come the time the teams lined up together for the now compulsory handshaking ceremony.
You walk back around a ramshackle metalled track to the main stand, the seating of which consists of a few weathered planks, unnervingly large holes therein, all bolted to a metal frame, yet surprisingly comfortable to boot. It affords you a good view over the quaintly charactered sheet metal dugouts, a reminder that this is steel country, and on to their rugby team's field next door, should you be so inclined. Apparently, they are very successful, as are the football team, currently topping the United Counties Premier on maximum points from four games.
Four dozen or so are scattered around the handrail, a good few enjoy the sun from the balcony, the rest hiding with us in the "grandstand." There is much probing in the early stages, neither team vaguely familiar with eachother. Stewarts & Lloyds absorb a lot of pressure from a vastly more experienced Isthmian side, even coming close a little before the half hour mark with an excellent turned header from Michael Byrne. The home side began to get more of the game, though inexperience showed when it exposed them at the other end, Matt Smith and Jason Haniff both having near-misses. Come the 36th minute, Paul Smith seemed to have saved another threat back at the Casuals' goal, but couldn't hold on to the ball, Byrne tucking it away once loose. Merely five minutes later, Paul Doherty added a second for the underdogs, just after Carlos Talbot appeared to have cleared the threat from the goal line. They looked as surprised to be two goals up as their illustrious visitors were to be two down. Taking advantage of their being caught in the proverbial headlights, Luke Edghill's drive reduced the midway deficit to one.
The second half became a classic cup tie, fiercely competitive and one that only the most courageous of gamblers would have put his shirt on either way. Only a dogged piece of defending by James Reive prevented the steelworkers adding a third in the 67th, a missed chance they may have rued when debutante Abdou Bojang equalised for the Casuals in the 75th. In spite of the game now going very much the visitors' way, parity lasted a mere four minutes, Byrne being on target once more. The Ryman leaguers looked like they were going to score for the rest of the game, but it simply wasn't to be, and no fair-minded football aficionado could deny Stewarts & Lloyds their day. Such stuff as FA Cup dreams are made on...
Entertainment: ****
Star Man: Michael Byrne (Stewarts & Lloyds)
Team
| PLAYER | GOALS | OG's | C,S/O | S |
| Paul Smith |  |
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| Carlos Talbot | |
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| Abdou Bojang |  |
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| Russell Banyard | |
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| James Rieve | |
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| Joe Funicello |  |
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| Tom Jelley | |
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| Byron Brown | |
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| Jason Hanif | |
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| Luke Edgehill | |
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| Matt Smith | |
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| SUBS | P | |||
| Deacons |  |
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| Mallatt | |
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| Richard Price | |
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| Colin Harris (GK) | |
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Attendance: |
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