Radford FC v Droitwich Spa

FA Vase, First Round

18 October 2025

The Spa return to Cup football this Saturday 18 October when they travel to Nottingham to take on Radford in the first round proper (accept no imitation) of the Isuzu FA Vase. So strictly speaking it’s Vase football, rather than Cup football, but you know what I mean.

Our destination, Radford is located just to the west of the historic city of Nottingham. If you’re familiar with the area, it is between Lenton and Hyson Green. If you’re not familiar with the area, it is still between Lenton and Hyson Green!

HEALTH WARNING: Cigarettes now cost much more than this!

Radford was the home to two very well known household brands: Raleigh bicycles and Players cigarettes. It’s worth having a snoop round to see if any old ‘B’ Stock Grifters or Choppers have been left in skips near the old Raleigh works because they are changing hands for more than £1000 for a good one! I probably won’t go looking for any old cigarettes, although at close to £20 a packet they will soon be as valuable as on old push bike.

Another leading company which was based in Radford was Manlove, Alliott and Co. who pioneered the production of incinerators for waste disposal. Manlove subsequently relocated to somewhere called Scotland but before they left, their employees founded a football club. That club were later known as Radford Olympic presumably to commemorate Nottinghamshire hosting the 1968 games!

Wait a minute……

Anyway, after a local geography expert pointed out that Mexico City has never been a suburb of Newark* the club shortened their name to Radford FC and that’s brought us neatly back to where we started.

While this humanities stuff is all well and good, there is a football match to discuss. If you thought UhlSport Hellenic League was a bit of a mouthful, spare a thought for our hosts who play at Step 6 in the GCE Hire Fleet United Counties Football League Division One. It must take most of the first half to read out the match details. The Pheasants currently sit comfortably in mid-table with 19 points from 17 games played. They reached the first round after scoring 5 away at Southwell in the preliminary round.

Droitwich are currently in second place in the Hellenic League Premier Division behind Roman Glass due to an inferior goal difference of just one. The Saltmen benefited from a bye through the Preliminary stage as a result of reaching Round 3 last season.

Spa will be well aware that current form and divisional status means little when it comes to knockout competitions. They will need to be on top of their game if they hope to progress to round two.

For those of you travelling independently of the coach, Radford FC have kindly published the following information: