WE MEET AGAIN - TAMWORTH

[Alan Beckett]

WE MEET AGAIN – TAMWORTH

Despite the two towns being less than 10 miles apart, as the crow flies, the football teams have never met before in a competitive game. There is a possibility that Coleshill may have played against Tamworth Castle FC, the senior team in the town before Tamworth were established, as they played in local leagues until they folded in 1933, but over the last 80 years the two sides have managed to avoid each other. With Tamworth in the Conference and Coleshill in the Alliance this sounds quite understandable but this wasn’t always the case. Tamworth were in the Birmingham Combination to start with and switched to the Birmingham League, now known as the West Midlands League, in the 50’s. This is at the same level as the Midland Combination where Coleshill played for nearly 40 years. Tamworth moved up to the Southern League in 1972 and have never looked back so the only way the two would meet would be in a cup competition, which has never happened, until now!

COLESHILL’S GREATEST WIN IN THE BSC

In December 1988 Coleshill Town were drawn against Birmingham City in the Birmingham Senior Cup. A real bonus to bring a professional side to Pack Meadow. The game was played on Saturday 10th December and City, who were in the old Division 2, (now Championship) had a home game against Crystal Palace the same day, (lost 1-0) so a reserve team would have come to Town.

The Sunday Mercury Wrote:
Coleshill Town earned a replay after giving a fighting display against a Birmingham City side which included five players with Football League experience. Coleshill almost took the lead after 7mins. Paul Mulholland took advantage of a through ball from Tony Gormley and his chip from the edge of the penalty area rebounded off the bar into the experienced hands of veteran keeper Tony Godden. Defences dominated for the remainder of the half but Birmingham nearly scored within a minute of the re-start when Andy Williams sent Dean Feer clear but his angled shot flew wide from 15 yards. With a replay looming Coleshill almost scored the winner in the 86th minute when Mulholland was fouled but Frank Hickman blasted the free kick inches over the bar from 20yards.
The replay was at St Andrews on Wednesday 21st December.

Birmingham Evening Mail Wrote:
BRUM IN SHOCK KO
Birmingham City’s misery continued when they were ousted from the Birmingham Senior Cup by middle of the table Midland Combination side Coleshill Town at St Andrews. The match last night was decided on penalties after the game ended 1-1. Coleshill won 3-2. Birmingham trailed to a Tate goal in the first half but Colin Robinson equalised to take the game into extra time.
“Tate” was in fact John Taylor, his nickname being Tate. At this time Taylor was the only Coleshill player ever to score against a professional side. John isn’t in the best of health at the moment and I would like to take this opportunity to wish him all the best.
Coleshill were then drawn away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the next round and on Saturday 7th January. Town travelled to Molineux to be met by a near full strength team and a crowd of over 2000. In a goalless 60 minutes Steve Bull and Andy Mutch failed to find the net but by full time, the Wolves had put three into the Coleshill net.