FOLLOWING THE SALTMEN

Ludlow Town 1 – 1 Droitwich Spa

Hellenic League Division One

25 January 2025

If you have got one of those mobile phones with multiple clock features, try starting the stopwatch function and just sit there doing nothing else until the display reaches 12 minutes. Feels like a long time, doesn’t it? Then try and imagine what type of game would attract such an amount of stoppage time at the end of the game. You might expect it to have been a dirty game with bookings and dismissals galore, or that one of the players had to be stretchered off. But we had none of those things at Ludlow today. No lightning strikes or spillages of hazardous chemicals. Not even a streaker! So why in the wide world of sports did the referee add twelve minutes on to the end of the ninety?

Twelve!

I say this because by the time Ludlow snatched an equaliser, a little after 4.55pm, we should have been half way down our post-match pints in the clubhouse, discussing a slightly underwhelming but welcome three points away from home. There is absolutely no conceivable way there can have been stoppages totalling more than five minutes at most.

In the end we had to discuss a slightly underwhelming score draw and only one point from our trip to Shropshire. But things had looked much brighter in the first half in which Spa were utterly dominant. Ludlow’s game plan was simple but relatively simple. Park the Bus with a 5 man backline and then hit Spa on the counter.

The Saltmen made all the running and must have had at least 65% of the possession. Unfortunately, they were unable to convert the possession into goals. There were a number of near misses. James Lemon came close on a couple of occasions and a Charlie Tilley header was brilliantly clawed out of the top corner by Zach Venables in the Town goal who seems to enjoy playing against the Spa.

The second half started as the first half ended. But all the huffing and puffing came to nothing. Mr Venables made a right nuisance of himself in foiling the few real opportunities created by the visiting Droitwich side.

Town had clearly done their homework. Their tactics of sitting back and soaking up the pressure with their five man back line were enough to blunt Spa’s attacking edge. Frustration was starting to set in so with 66 minutes on the clock Andy Crowther decided it was time to shake things up. In a double substitution Kyonn Evan’s and Ben Tilbury were introduced at the expense of Josh Hurdman and Nathan Binner. The replacements quickly found themselves in the middle of the action but further chances came and went.

Time marched on and it started to look like it would not be Spa’s day. Then, after 76 minutes Charlie Tilley collected the ball on the right side of the Town box. His acutely angled surge towards goal was ended by a last ditch tackle which floored the Spa man. The referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty and, with regular penalty taker Nathan Binner having been replaced, Perry Moss stepped up and neatly dispatched the spot kick and the Saltmen led 1-0.

The goal changed the pattern of the game dramatically. Town changed tack and threw men forward looking for what had previously looked a rather unlikely equaliser.

Spa dealt with the threat relatively comfortably and, as we entered stoppage time, it looked like they would hold out for an important away win.

However, we were blissfully unaware that someone had inserted a Duracell battery into the referee. He just went on and on. Either that or he was confused by the hours of daylight getting longer. Whatever the reason, with ten minutes stoppage time already having passed, the inevitable happened and the Droitwich defence was finally breached following a bit of a goalmouth scramble. The Spa protests of offside went unheeded and it was “even Stevens” again.

The referee was happy that there was still time left to play and another two minutes passed before the final whistle sounded at 5.00 pm.

The players are now enjoying a ten day gap between fixtures after a hectic January. But there can be little doubt that the run in to the end of the season is going to become increasingly difficult. Our opponents are becoming increasingly familiar with the way the team plays and are coming up with ways to counter the attacking style which has led to scoring over 100 goals already. FTS understands that top scoring Alex Dugmore may be unavailable for quite a while, which compounds the difficult task ahead. The rest of the season is going to be very interesting. There will be highs and the inevitable lows too. The travelling support was amazing again, comfortabl the home side’s supporters again. The boys are going to need all the support we can give in the run in so let’s help them out.

See you next time!

Special thanks to Ian Stevens.

Cheers

Steve