And so to the 2021/22 season and July 31st, with a Staffordshire derby at the Hillsfield Stadium in the North West Counties Football League Division One South between Rocester FC and Eccleshall FC.
It’s a very long history that the Romans possess, encompassing a protective fort on the site of a village where Queen Cartimandua was forced to flee. The football club dates back all the way to December 16 1876, when the Lyon brothers took over Rocester Mill, where they played multiple friendlies against neighbouring sides. They had various successes in local competitions until the outbreak of World War II led to the club being disbanded.
After they were reformed in 1946 Rocester started to climb the Staffordshire Leagues, playing 27 consecutive seasons in the Staffordshire County League (North) up to 1984 before ascending to the Staffordshire Senior League, including a period in the 1970s where three Blood brothers played for the side - Alf, George and Steve.
Rocester FC entered the FA Vase for the first time in the 1986-87 season and reached the last sixteen, knocking out holders Halesowen Town in the process in front of their record crowd of 1,026. They moved from their original and by now rather run-down ground to a new home at Hillsfield, in 1987 and this is where they adopted their nickname the ‘Romans’ as the ground was built on an old Roman fort; the ground was renamed from Riversfield to Hillsfield in memory of previous chairman, Don Hill.
The Romans switched to the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One, which they won at the first attempt. The new ground was further developed with the addition of floodlights and a stand to enable the club to take its place in the Premier Division.
In 1994,
following several successful seasons, Rocester became founder members of the
new Midland Football Alliance. After a second-place finish in their first
season in the new league, they went one better in 1998–99, winning the league
title and claiming promotion to the Southern League Midland Division.
Life became
harder at this level, however, and after two consecutive last-place finishes
the Romans were relegated back to the Alliance in 2002. Rocester soon recovered
and were champions at the first attempt in 2003–04. However, due to the
re-organisation of the non-league pyramid, The Romans were placed in the
Northern Premier League Division One, enduring a disastrous season,
picking up only 6 points from 42 games to finish rock-bottom.
The following
season back in the Alliance saw the team continue their terrible run, their
first win not coming until January, finally ending a run of 67 league matches
without a win. After finishing bottom of the Midland Alliance the club only
avoided a second successive relegation due to league restructuring.
However,
within two years Rocester were back among the leading clubs in the Midland
Alliance, finishing 12th in 2007 and 5th in 2008. The Romans recorded a 3–0 win
over Kidsgrove in April 2008 to win the Staffordshire Senior Cup for
the first time.
Moved to the
new Midland League, following the amalgamation of the Midland Alliance and the
Midland Combination, in 2014 the Amber and Blacks were relegated in 2018, and
moved laterally from the Midland Football League Division One to the NWCFL
Division One South in this close season.
Eccleshall
Town FC was established in 1908 but the most successful local team of that era
was Eccleshall Comrades, set up in 1918. The Comrades' most famous player was
the FA Cup Final scorer and winner (for Wolves), and England amateur and full
international, The Reverend KRG Hunt. The club also featured in a curious
incident when Stone Christ Church were defeated 5-0. The game ended 10 minutes
early when first one ball burst, then another and there were no more
available.....
Both clubs became defunct and
the current club was reformed in 1971 as Eccleshall Town Old Boys, the team
made up of locals and staff from Eccleshall Secondary School, where they played
their home games.
The Eagles joined the
Staffordshire County League (North) in 1979, moved to Pershall Park in 1982 and
ascended to the Staffordshire Senior League in 1984. As Eccleshall FC
championships were won in 1990 and then consecutively in 2001/02 and 2002/03.
With work complete on the stadium the club moved up to the North West Counties
Football League in 2003, but several seasons of inconsistency followed before
two dreadful campaigns.
2015/16's 16th place finish
owed much to the ineptitude of the two clubs below them - Atherton Laburnum
Rovers and Whitchurch Alport. The following season the Eagles finished 21st
with 18 points from 42 matches and conceded 145 goals. Relegation was only
avoided because of an injury time equaliser in the 3-3 draw away at bottom, and
relegated, club Ashton Town, who finished one point below Eccy, and the fact
that only one club met the league's promotion criteria.
A much improved season
thereafter saw a below midtable finish and safety, and a bit more pride in
their boast of 'We Play For The Badge & The Oat Cakes - We Are Eccy !!!'
The 2019/20 campaign was dominated by the suicide of 21 year old player Jake
Standbridge, an 11-3 home defeat in the league to Wythenshawe Town and an 11-2
away loss in the Cup to Carlisle City the week after a 5-1 away win at New
Mills, but lower table stability has subsequently ensued - as much as stability
can be expected in this pandemic....
A grey,
breezy Saturday afternoon and an early dart due to prior knowledge of a
motorway accident, exacerbated by a 'stranded vehicle' - the joys of a Smart
Motorway !! Then beyond Avec Cookers to the M6 and bridge graffiti -
first Jenga (Knutsford) then a 'welcome' return of THE PIES one side, SMOKE
PIES the other (Holmes Chapel). This is followed by an array of roadside
advertising - Are You Pregnant (I sincerely hope not !!), Hot Car Leasing, Top
Secret Furniture and then a shipping container devoted to Allah....
Numberplates today are E6YPT and KEM1X, as I leave the motorway for the A500 then the A50, Dresden (Stoke not East Germany !), The Pepper Mill and Catchem Corner. Bypassing Draycott in the Moors, Deadman's Green and Upper Nobut, the massive JCB complex on my near side as I turn left at JCB International House (also McDonalds Uttoxeter) to the village of Rocester - one street and that's it, a Spar and the Red Lion the only obvious attractions...
Mill Street leads to Hillsfield, next to an imposing mill built in the 1780s by Richard Arkwright, and operative until 1985, with the stone sign of 'The Tutbury Mill Co Ltd' still in place. Fitting that with Rocester being the headquarters of JCB, the mill has been converted into the JCB Academy, next to the ground.
A large car park - for the benefit of the Academy rather than the football club !! - and a small adjoining astroturf pitch, before I pay my £6 admission fee in the corner. This leads to beer trestle tables on the banking side, Roman's Bar and then the three section Gilbert Egerton Stand, the seats having come from Fellows Park at Walsall FC.
Railings at both ends, the top one with a warm up area, the other two sides surrounded by trees and a bus shelter stand opposite, seemingly supported by scaffolding - apparently the old disabled stand at Fellows Park... Not one of the 109 crowd dares to stand underneath, not even when the drizzle arrives late in the second half... Instead an Eccleshall 'Stanno' banner is attached and there are glorious views of the Staffordshire countryside from my vantage point.
Rocester's adventure into the North West Counties is delayed slightly whilst dog mess is removed from the near touchline (a first !!), but at 3.02 we are underway - the Romans in amber and black, and only able to name 4 substitutes, the Eagles in all blue.
Tempers boil
over within five minutes, three early bookings and some questionable
officiating 'Have a word with yourself, liner', before just after the quarter
hour marauding Romans' wingback Derry Creighton seizes on a woefully short back
header and is pulled down by Eagles' keeper Zak Noble. Alex Cimino comfortably
sends Noble the wrong way from the penalty spot and Rocester lead 1-0.
For the large part of the rest of the half the Eagles soar, Louis Downs and Jack Dundas firing wide but the best chance falls on half time to Luke Lewis who flashes across goal. For the Romans Creighton sets up Cimino but his effort is blocked.
The second period sees Eccleshall once more in the ascendency, Lewis amazingly missing an open goal, scuffing woefully into Charlie Wood's hands. Then on 63 a wonderful Rocester passing move involving Creighton, Jordan Dodd and Elisio Francisco delivers the ball to a free Cimino who finishes composedly for 2-0.
Cue extended Eagles pressure which finally results in an improvised chip from Dundas with a quarter of an hour to go, the ball flicking the inside of the far post before going in. As a result Eccleshall exert ever greater dominance and Lewis comes up with a hat trick of misses, heading wide whilst unmarked.
But the Romans cling on, surviving sub Jack Stevens' red card in the dying seconds, for a 2-1 victory, finishing at two minute to five.
