Rayners Lane 3 v 4 Park View

Monday 22nd April 2019
Spartan South Midlands League Division One
Tithe Farm Sports & Social Club, Rayners Lane
Admission including Programme: £5.00
Attendance: 46

With a plastic pitch installed at the Tithe Farm Sports Club last summer, I had been keeping a visit here in reserve for a wet or wintry day. Very few of those came along this season, and after deciding I would rather visit a new ground than a revisit today, but with most options for that involving a very long journey, which I did not fancy after a hectic few days, I chose to take in this game today to round off my Easter travels.

The Tithe Farm Sports and Social Club is about a ten minute walk from Rayners Lane underground station, and it is fair to say that the ground was not looking at its best today, as it is in the middle of major redevelopment, with the result that parts of the ground felt more like a building site. Temporary fencing panels are situated at the entrance to the ground, with a fixture board poking above, but which had not been updated since the autumn, and after passing through a small car park, again tightly fenced in, visitors follow a temporary corridor past the clubhouse, and reach the ground along one length. As well as the recently installed plastic pitch, on the far side there is a long smartly and colourfully decorated stand, built of breeze blocks and a mostly wooden roof. The middle third covers a flat standing area, and both areas either side inside the stand contain two rows of seating in club colours of yellow and green, but there is no incline between rows. There is room to stand to the rear of the seating. To the right of the entrance, there is the clubhouse, to the front of which there are several wooden benches to sit in, a refreshments hatch is located towards one end of the clubhouse building, and next to the hatch the team line-ups are posted. The clubhouse looks very tired inside, but this is probably mainly due to it being only be in place for another month or so, when it will be pulled down to make way for a new multi use games area, intended to be used by the local community. Adjacent to the existing clubhouse, a much larger and very smartly designed building has been constructed, and will serve as the clubhouse after this season. Very tall trees closely line three side of the pitch, providing a natural enclosure to the ground. Clearly these are exciting times for the club, and when all of the redevelopment works have been completed, it will surely be an impressive facility and will be well worth a revisit. The 16 page programme was informative, with some interesting reading material and no advertising at all.

 

In truth, there is not much left to play for for either club this season, with just two games left to play. Rayners Lane were in eleventh place in the 20 team division, following 15 wins and six draws from their 36 league games. Park View have had a reasonable first ever season in senior football, coming into this game in 14th place, following 12 wins and six draws from their 36 league games. When the two teams met in the reverse fixture back in early September, Rayners Lane was 2-3.

 

The glorious warm, sunny conditions which have accompanied this Easter weekend continued today, and this game had an explosive beginning, with the home side taking the lead with barely two minutes on the clock. Alex de la Salle played a lovely through ball for Rob Hastings to pass the ball into the net before the keeper could get there. Rayners Lane then had a really good passage of play, passing the ball well and creating numerous chances before they did double their lead on 28 minutes. An initial shot was parried by the keeper and Ronnie Blagden drilled the ball home from a central position. A water break was then immediately called. Although Rayners Lane continued to be in the ascendancy, the visitors started to create some chances, and on 41 minutes, they pulled a goal back when Solomon Ofori ran forward from the half way line, just outpacing the covering defender before eventually poking the ball past the keeper. And a minute before the break, the visitors equalised, again a fast break saw the home defence struggling to retreat sufficiently and after the ball just evaded the keeper's grasp, Ofori tucked the ball home for his second of the game. A level scoreline looked most unlikely throughout much of the first half, but it was clear that Park View's pace on the break was causing real problems for the home side.

 And indeed, it was the visitors who had the better of the second half, and within five minutes of the restart, they took the lead. Again a very quick break forward, this time down the right, saw the defenders struggling and Ofori eventually poked the ball past the keeper to claim his hat-trick. Only a superbly timed tackle from behind as a Park View player sprinted into the penalty area denied the visitors a fourth on 59 minutes, and within a minute Rayners Lane equalised when Hastings curled the ball beautifully from the edge of the box into the top right hand corner, giving the keeper no chance. Park View looked much the likelier to grab a winner with their pacy attacks, but the game became very end to end in the closing minutes, and that was how the winner came about in added on time. Following a Rayners Lane corner, Park View broke quickly once more, and a drive down the right ended  with a low cross for Ofori to sweep the ball home. Rayners Lane couldn't threaten another equaliser in the closing couple of minutes, and they will really kick themselves for losing a game they looked in total command of during the opening half hour, but ultimately their defensive frailties against a lively and pacy attack ensured they would finish the game pointless.