Pint of Football: 22/08/20 Review: Shifnal Town vs Coalville Town

Shifnal Town 0-0 Coalville Town (Pre-Season) Acoustafoam Stadium

With pre-season officially being welcomed back to football fans in some degree, yesterday was always going to be a good one for non-league clubs as they could finally throw open their gates to massively overdue income and I for one was very excited to be back out and about supporting them. This match had an added bonus for me because it featured a side that I had seen and enjoyed before in the form of Leicestershire's Coalville Town. I saw them during my first season of groundhopping over at Owen Street in 2016 as they completely annihilated Basford United in a Playoff Semi-Final, so the thought of seeing how the now Southern League Premier Central Division side were doing in 2020 was as exciting a reason as any to make my first ever trip to the Acoustafoam Stadium, home of West Midlands Regional League side Shifnal Town.

Freshly painted, it's the Acoustafoam Stadium

Knowing that there would be a mixture of COVID-19 related ristrictions in play, plus a regional hunger to get to a live game, I made my way over from Stafford allowing plenty of time to get into the 2pm match just outside of Telford. This would be my fourth visit to a ground in and around the Shropshire town having visited Wellington Amateurs vs Eccleshall just over a year ago, before popping over to New Bucks Head a few weeks later for a cracking game between Telford United and Gloucester City and at the start of this month in my rebellious phase of going to games when apparently we shouldn't have been, I checked out the picturesque Shawbirch Road for a friendly between Allscott Heath and Stafford Town. For me, Telford is one of the best towns around when it comes to football grounds and having moved to Stafford last year I have been very fortunate to check out a great variety of non-league nicety, but my fourth trip may well have been the best yet.

Opening thoughts... splendid!

When I posted the above picture on Social Media yesterday afternoon, there were a lot of groundhoppers and other former visitors of the old Phoenix Park making comment about how much the ground has seemingly changed over the past couple of years and the two biggest changes are the "Legends Bar" which overlooks the pitch, and of course the mass paint job that has seen the ground turn from red and white to blue and yellow. Foolishly, I had assumed that this change was a re-branding exercise for the club as they perhaps changed their club colours, but when kick-off came around I was proven wrong as the home side still do play in their original colours. Perhaps it is a sponsorship thing?

Either way, it is a thing of beauty

The main stand is across from the bar and dugout zone and stands magnificently in its new coat. The stand is concrete with a metal roof and as I would soon find out as the rain swooped over Shropshire, it is a great place to sit and watch the game from the halfway point. I decided to take in the first-half from here and so I plonked myself down just in time for the pre-match minute's silence ready for what was bound to be a good challenge for Shifnal. The Ravens, who had made the just over one hundred mile round-trip from Leicestershire, began as pre-match favourites for most and the feeling amongst the fans would be that their Shifnal side were in for a tough test. Before the season was closed prematurely, Coalville Town sat 8th in the Southern League Central Division and with the games in hand they had over some they were well in the hunt for promotion to the National League North, fighting alongside fellow Midlands sides Tamworth, Bromsgrove Sporting, Rushall Olympic, Stourbridge, Banbury United AND Nuneaton Borough. Some 'Pint of Football' favourites there for sure and many clubs on that list that I've had the honour of visiting over the past five years.

Impressive, but what about the hosts?  

The game's home side were not going to be pushovers though and although they are two divisions below their opponents, Shifnal Town were actually one of the sides who were arguably hard done by at the postponement stage of last season given that they were six points ahead of the chasing pack in the West Midlands Regional League having played less games than closest rivals Bewdley Town and Dudley Town. Hopefully this new season will be the chance for Shifnal to escape the league that they have lingered in since 2016. For today thought it was all about fitness and building up the match sharpness in time for the new season and I made my usual pre-match prediction in which I'd wrongly gone with a 2-3 victory for Coalville.

Proof that people aren't going nuts. It DID used to be red!

Before the match could begin properly I was involved in one of my typically unfortunately humorous interchanges as an old Telford fan shouted a conversation starter out to me which was overheard by the linesman that he was talking about. "Look at that, he's older than me!" was the line shouted at me from across the stand, but before I had chance to respond the lino looked up at us and quickly put his claim to bed. We found out that at 58 and 60 respectively, the men running the line were in fact younger than the 66-year old beer swiller who spent half the game saying "Coalville? I thought they were playing Coleshill" to different people as they entered the stand. Bless him. In other bizarre scenes, I spotted two tight gits watching the game from their bedroom windows behind the ground. I know that we were in a supposed recession, but three quid entry is hardly bank breaking for a game of footy, is it?

All I can say is that this lot must be loaded if they travelled and paid to come in

On the pitch, the first-half was very entertaining and although it was a goalless one there were plenty of chances to observe. Coalville had the majority of the chances, but Shifnal had the more clear-cut ones and none were more memorable than the home side's big number 5 popping up with a poachers goal from a set-piece that was deemed to be offside by the lino. From where I was, which was right in line with the action, it was miles onside and when the cameraman looked back through his pictures he appeared to pull the man with the flag to the side to show him the proof. His response was "there's no video refs here" and rightly so. I didn't moan, because I really dislike VAR, it has totally put me off watching live games at a higher level and ultimately I'd rather see slow old lino's get it wrong than wait fifteen minutes for a verdict. Sorry, Shifnal.

Half-time, aka pint-time

As mentioned at the start of the write-up, there's a new bar in town and with "Legends" calling me in, I decided it would only be rude not to pop up the steps to sample the very modern and stylish bar that is not often associated with non-league football grounds. Although it is a wee bit snug and therefore not the easiest place to socially distance in, I managed to find myself a table for one in the long and narrow wooden interior designed clubhouse. Much like the rest of the ground, it is very swanky and had it continued to rain I may well have considered viewing the second 45 from there. As it was though, the sun was back out and so I made my way across the heights of the grass mound surrounding the pitch in search of a bench to perch on as the two sides began the action again. The key thing to note was that Football League scoring sensation and former Northern Ireland International forward Billy Kee had entered the field of play and having read a lot about his personal woes of late it was sincerely great to see him out there playing.

From the "Legends Bar" to watching the FL legend in the flesh

Sadly I didn't get to see Billy boy notch a goal in the second-half, but that didn't stop it from being yet another good end-to-end bout between two very good sides. It would be harsh to say that the highlight of the game was seeing a guy get his fresh pint knocked over by the ball moments after the second-half began, but ultimately that was the closest the crowd would come to the satisfaction that only goals can bring. On another day I think a more hungry Coalville side would have won this outing, but equally if the lino hadn't given that Shifnal offside in the first-half then we may well have seen a home victory- so a draw was absolutely the correct result on the day. Certainly not a bore draw and the ground itself was definitely worth the entry fee alone. Keep up the good work Shifnal- and I hope you get that car park sorted in time for my next visit.