Bromsgrove Sporting - Proper Football 'On The Road'
- danslawson
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
The destination for our latest 'On The Road' club visit was a trip to Worcestershire and the home of step 3 side Bromsgrove Sporting who play at The Victoria Ground for their Southern League Premier Division Central match against Halesowen Town.
Bromsgrove Sporting are a relatively new club having only been formed in 2009 after the demise of the Town's former club Bromsgrove Rovers.
The stadium has a capacity of 3,500 with a large covered terrace at one end and a big open terrace at the other with a seated covered stand behind the dugouts with a raised terrace area on either side.
First impressions... this is a bit of us! 👌🏽
On arrival, we were welcomed by Anita who took us under her wing straight away and went above and beyond in making our day so special and introduced us to the many people we interviewed to find out what Bromsgrove Sporting is all about.
The timing of our visit couldn't have worked out any better as it coincided with the news that a new consortium consisting of five local businessmen had acquired a controlling shareholding in Bromsgrove Sporting FC, marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the club and its supporters!
Elliot Nash who is a director at the club and part of the new consortium kindly gave up his time to tell us about the exciting plans for the future.
We also had a chance to speak to the chairman Rod Brown who told us how important this new investment will be for the club and the expertise and the different skill-sets the new consortium will bring, not only to give some stability but also to move the club forward.
So, onto the football side of things, today's match was a huge one for Bromsgrove and the first of four "cup finals" in The Rouslers' fight for survival in the league as the season draws to a close.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Bromsgrove manager Tim Flowers who kindly gave us a few words ahead of the kick-off.
Kick off
The first half was pretty much one-way traffic with Halesowen showing why they are in the play-off positions and pushing for promotion and they found themselves 2-0 up within 15 minutes with two quick goals with the second coming from the league's top goal scorer Jason Cowley who hit his 31st goal of the campaign!
Half time
Bromsgrove Sporting 0-2 Halesowen Town
It was time to grab (another 😄) beer from one of two very nice bars alongside the pitch which had an excellent selection of beverages and also sample the food from the Hangry Moose kiosk in the ground, we have to say the food on offer was top drawer! And it was good to know it was a local business that was working alongside the club, the street food style burgers and loaded fries went down a treat and they also served up some delicious-looking pies accompanied by chips and gravy!
Before the second half kicked off we took the opportunity to interview one of the many volunteers working on the day called Richard Holliday who told us about his role at the club and about a fantastic fundraiser he is doing by walking to the away grounds in the same league.
Here's the link to Richard's fundraiser.
Full time
Bromsgrove Sporting 0-2 Halesowen Town
The second 45 saw the home team get on the front foot but they just couldn't get that all important first goal, Sporting had their chances to get back into the game but the woodwork and an unbelievable save from the impressive Halesowen keeper put a stop to that, it was a fair scoreline in the end but the Rouslers should take some confidence from their second half performance going into the last 3 games of the season.
A big shout out to theYeltz supporters who travelled in big numbers with around 700 in attendance of what was a fantastic season's best crowd of 1,641 at the Victoria Ground!
After the match we spoke to a lovely Bromsgrove Sporting fan Jonathon Badger who follows the club home and away and he gave us his thoughts on the match and a bit of history about the club.
We caught up with Bromsgrove striker Luke Benbow after the match as well to get his thoughts on the game.
A top fella who was more than happy to spare his time with us, yet another reason to love non-league football. 👌🏽
For our final interview of the day, we spoke to a wonderful character called Marc who epitomised everything non-league football is all about, not only is he a die-hard Bromsgrove Sporting supporter and volunteer, but he is also the life and soul of the club with Bromsgrove running through his veins! An absolute pleasure to meet him.
Here's the league table after todays results, it's fair to say the fight for survival is now between 3 sides, next up for Bromsgrove Sporting is St Ives away in what is your classic 6 pointer!
Summary of the day
Greg's thoughts.
It was a fantastic afternoon down at Bromsgrove, a huge shout out to Anita who was absolutely first class, she spent plenty of time with us, nothing was too much for her and she is a credit not only to Bromsgrove Sporting but to non-league football as a whole.
Bromsgrove is a lovely club, with a superb set-up and, despite their precarious league position, it seems to have a real feel-good atmosphere about it. Bromsgrove needs local fans as much as the local fans need Bromsgrove, so get down and get behind what is a cracking club. We want to wish them every success under the new ownership and we look forward to our next visit.
Dan's summary.
Completely concur with everything that Greg has said, Anita was amazing to us on what was a big game for the club and a very busy day, her friendly welcome was mirrored by all the volunteers, bar staff and the many supporters we spoke to throughout, it was great to chat with all the guys behind the consortium as well, they all came across as genuine people who have the club at heart.
We finished the day off in a pub in the town centre to have a quick beer to reflect on our visit before setting off home and we was joined by a player from the Bromsgrove ladies team called Abi, she was super friendly and welcoming and told us about the women's team and the female pathway for young girls at the club, this just summed up our whole experience on what was a fantastic day out at brilliant non-league community football club!
You can watch the highlights of the game here, courtesy of Rouslers TV.
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