WOLVERHAMPTON CASUALS (10/12/2005)

Wolverhampton Casuals v. Wellington - West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division - Res: 0-2 Att: 31 A£3 incl. programme.

I made the trip up to Wolverhampton on 10/12/05 for the match between Wolverhampton Casuals and Wellington. I travelled to Birmingham by train and then caught another train on to Wolverhampton. The bus station is just 3 minutes walk from the railway station where I caught the hourly 876 bus from stand P which leaves at 45 mins past each hour to Coven Heath journey time about 12 minutes - return fare £2.70. After the game the hourly bus leaves at 23 mins past each hour. When the bus leaves the city centre, it goes along the busy A449 Stafford Road. Alight just past the M54 motorway which runs over it and you will see the ground on your right. Walk back and turn left down Brinsford Lane and the club are based about 100 yards down on the left hand side.

As you enter, there is a board with the club name on, and a pay box where admission was £3 including a good 24 page programme with card cover and a liberal sprinkling of colour throughout containing match details, welcome,! tables, results, line-ups, team photo in colour, player profile, club history etc. All in all a good effort. The pitch is fully railed off and there are 4 floodlight pylons along each side. Dug outs are along the far side but all the facilities are on the right as you enter. In the corner is the small but cosy clubhouse and a nice touch is the name of the club in their colours of green and white on the front. Cars can park behind the goal or you can drive behind the clubhouse. Next to the bar is a separate tearoom serving hot and cold drinks and food etc. And on the halfway line next to this is a small stand with several rows of bench seating. I suppose this would hold around 150 people.

The struggling home club who were 3rd bottom at the start of play, were never really in it in the 1st half and it was no real surprise when mid-table Wellington went 2-0 up. An extraordinary incident happened after just 15 minutes of the game at about 3pm when I was standing behin! d the goal taking a few photos with my digital camera when suddenly the referee ran half the length of the field, looked at me, then ran to his linesman, came back to me and told me not to take any more photos - then ran over to the dugouts where I saw him talking to officials there, and pointing quite profusely in my direction. He then ran all the way back to me and said that the flash on my camera was putting off the players, even though it was still only 3pm and quite a bit of daylight evident. My camera automatically flashes if there is insufficient daylight but I thought this a bit of an over-the-top reaction and something that has never happened to me before in over 35 years of watching football. Quite bizarre. Even the Wellington goalkeeper laughed with me after the referee ran back to resume play, saying how ridiculous it all was!! There were no further goals in the 2nd half in a more evenly contested affair, and the club, despite obviously struggling with poor results and crowds, came over as very friendly - offering me additional programmes free of charge and insisting I go into the boardroom at half time for free tea in china cups.

Pity the referee was not as friendly towards me and my camera!!!

Steve King