Shifnal Town 3 - 0 Cradley Town
The FA Vase First Round Qualifying
Saturday 24 August 2024

After early showers we enjoyed another beautiful English summer’s day in Shropshire. We used to play Shifnal Town regularly in the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division and the Midland Football Alliance and we would each give as good as we got. We were both relegated from the Midland Football Alliance at the end of the 2009-10 season back to Step Six football in the WMRL.

Shifnal struggled for the next nine seasons, even dropping down to Step Seven football at one stage, before really pulling their socks up in the two Covid truncated seasons to earn promotion to the MFL Premier Division where they have done well for the past three seasons. Thus, we knew we had quite a job on our hands in this FA Vase tie.

It was good to travel up the ‘rabbit run’ again and see some familiar faces once more and to see the improvements they’ve made to their well-appointed Acoustafoam Stadium.

We put out a slightly different line-up on the day with Jack Ricketts (from Studley) and Tyler Donaldson (from Lye Town) making their debuts for us in central defence. Also Declan Bibb was wearing the captain’s armband due to it being his 100th appearance for us. I’ve checked the records and it was indeed his 100th game for us since making his debut in a 2-1 win against Shawbury United on a dark night in Ludlow. Someone’s been keeping count! Congratulations to Declan who has been an absolutely fantastic player for us.

Sadly the Hammers never looked like accomplishing a giant-killer achievement on this day. We looked ok at first with Jack Till threatening the home goal with an overhead kick, Tyler Donaldson dispossessing an attacker with a good interception, and Jack Ricketts flattening Kev Montiero from behind in our penalty area and getting away with it but Shifnal scored and it was a downhill struggle after that.

I think I was suffering from an attention deficit disorder on the day because I failed to see Shifnal’s first goal, third goal and Cradley’s best chance missed. However, my biro caught my wife’s best cream suede handbag leaving a nasty three-inch-long blue mark. Stain removal attempts have left the nap looking not too good!

Shifnal went 1-0 up after 16 minutes when Joe Cuff received the ball from a throw-in, turned his marker at the near post and fired in with his left foot. I didn’t see it being distracted by my phone going off and having the raffle-ticket lady standing in front of me. She was disappointed at not having seen the goal too. PS my wife failed to get a photo of this goal despite having none of the excuses I have, but she may have been looking closely at her handbag.

On 23 minutes Declan Bibb headed over a thunderous overhead kick effort but on 31 minutes Joe Cuff received an excellent ball from the right wing and feigned to shoot a couple of times before stroking the ball into our net to give Shifnal a 2-0 lead.

On 31 minutes Joe Cuff (11) cleverly drew our keeper Reece Francis before tapping the ball into our net to make it 2-0 to Shifnal.

As half-time approached the home centre half Brad Maslen-Jones took centre stage firstly getting booked for a bad tackle on Jack Till and then whistling a shot just over the angle of our goal.

Second half

We were still in the Legends’ Bar finishing off our tea and sandwiches when the second-half began but we were told that our Traevay Wright had a good chance to score for us but uncharacteristically put his shot over the bar. Traevay’s family were there in numbers with mom, girlfriend, brother and uncles being there in the stand. They didn’t let our underwhelming performance get them down and when a bunch of youngsters started chanting for Shifnal, they were out-chanted by the Wright family. All in good fun which is as it should be. We heard the Shifnal youngsters saying they were going to the Wolves-Chelsea game the next day. Haha that will teach ‘em.

Our keeper Reece Francis made some great saves throughout the second period to keep us in the game and it was good to see our forward Jordan Crump come on to have a good game after a lengthy injury lay-off.

Jack Till produced some blistering runs down his left-wing, sometimes getting along the byline too to give the home defence something to think about.

On 83 minutes though Lewis Jarman set up Joe Cuff for his hat-trick and he fired in to give Shifnal a 3-0 lead.

On 83 minutes Joe Cuff (11), assisted by Lewis Jarman (15), scores again to make it 3-0 to Shifnal.

The referee sensibly blew up after just one minute of time added on. Shifnal’s win earned them £550 FA prize money and a trip to Atherstone Town in the next round. They have already won £2569 due to beating Belper Town and Sutton Coldfield Town in the FA Cup this season so they are cashing in at the moment.

Cradley earned £160 compensation for losing the FA Vase game which sadly was the sixth time in a row that we have been knocked out of the competition in the first round. We’ve had some pretty tough draws in that time losing to Wolves Sporting, Ellesmere Rangers, Hinckley LR, Brocton, Coventry United and now Shifnal Town.

We did beat Shifnal Town 3-0 in the FA Cup in 2012 though so now they’ve avenged that defeat.

Cradley Town Goal-scorers so far this season: Brad Ward 5, Traevay Wright 3, Jack Till 2, Tom Cole 1, Umaru Saho 1.

Cradley: Reece Francis , Declan Bibb ©, Dan Meredith, Dan Harvey, Jack Ricketts, Tyler Donaldson, Jack Till, Joe Fitzpatrick, Traevay Wright, Jared Daniels (Lemareyal Lapsley-Smith 78), Umaru Saho (Jordan Crump 58).Subs not used: Darren Whitley, Brad Ward, Ryan Pratt.

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