Our near but rarely encountered neighbours Bromsgrove Sporting visit our city for the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round on September 17th A pleasing draw for both clubs considering some of the alternatives we might have pulled out. Banbury anyone? Or Brackley twice in a few days.
Travel costs will happily be low for what is a rare competitive meeting between the two clubs. I just about remember a FA Trophy game in 1972. I certainly don’t remember a previous FA Cup encounter in 1949/50. Recent meetings have mainly involved U18 teams.
Partly supporter owned Sporting have two familiar names in their squad, namely midfielder George Forsyth and defender Mike “Mr Angry” McGrath. Do play nicely Mike..
Other names to watch out for are the strikers Dan Sweeney (scored 7 goals in first 6 games) and the much-travelled Michael Taylor who was an absolute pest for Stratford when they played Hereford in our Step 3 days. Taylor is 34 now with 4 moves in the last two years so maybe less of an influence now.
The Worcestershire side seem to be more stable this term after a very rocky 20-21 season when they were nearly relegated to Step 4. With 19 arrivals and 20 departures, stability and securing points was a big struggle. Jamie Molyneux scored a few before moving on again while Toby Raison had an extended learning spell there. Its early days of course but under their 4th manager in 4 years, Sporting are currently mid-table though did lose two of their first three away League games.
Simon Wright
