Rushall Olympic - Dales Lane

Rushall Olympic FC

Dales Lane
Rushall
Walsall
WS4 1LJ

01922 641021

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Ground Number: 323
Saturday 28th December 2013
Rushall Olympic 3-1 Grantham Town
NPL Premier

RUSHALL OLYMPIC FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

Although football had been played in the village for at least 20 years previously, Rushall Olympic FC was established in 1893. They joined the Cannock & District League in 1895 and were runners-up in their first season. They later joined the Walsall & District League, where they were Junior Section champions in 1904. During the inter-war years, the team won several local honours. At this time, the team comprised mainly local colliery workers and played on a field behind the Miners Arms pub in Rushall and changed in the pub itself. However, sometime before the Second World War, the club disbanded, reforming in 1951.  The club joined the Walsall & District Amateur League, where the team won Division 2 in 1953 and Division 1 in 1956, after which they gained promotion to the Staffordshire County League (South), where they won Division 2 at the first attempt. They then won four Division 1 titles between 1960 and 1965. After playing on various local pitches, in 1975, the club decided to move three miles away to the Aston University Sports Ground, just off the main A34 Walsall to Birmingham road. Meanwhile, the club obtained the lease on some land in Daw End, Rushall, and the new Dales Lane ground was officially opened on 14 August 1977.

Rushall Olympic joined the West Midlands (Regional) League in 1978, starting in Division 1. Following a title win in 1980, they were promoted to the Premier Division. Fortunes were mixed here, but the club finished as high as 5th in 1989. In 1994, Rushall Olympic became founding members of the new Midland Football Alliance. They were runners-up to Stourport Swifts in 2001 before being crowned champions in 2005. The club spent six seasons in various Step 4 leagues before finishing 3rd in the NPL Division 1 South, beating Brigg Town and Grantham Town in the playoffs to seal promotion to the NPL Premier in 2011. They were transferred to the Southern Premier Central in 2018. In 2022, Rushall finished 4th but lost in the playoffs to Coalville Town. The following year, a 5th place finish saw another playoff campaign. This time, they gained their revenge on Coalville before beating Nuneaton Borough in the final. The club spent two seasons in the National League North, a high of 19th in 2024, before they were relegated at the end of last season.

Rushall Olympic's best season in the FA Cup came last season. They beat Sheffield, Anstey Namads and Peterborough Sports before losing to Football League side Accrington Stanley in the 1st Round. There was also progress to the FA Trophy 3rd Round, where they were beaten 2-1 by Gainsborough Trinity. The record FA Vase came during the 2000/01 season when they beat Sandiacre Town, St Andrews, Highfield Rangers, Bridgnorth Town and Thamesmead Town before losing 3-1 at Clitheroe in the 5th Round.  Local cup wins include seven Walsall Senior Cups and five Staffordshire Senior Cups. Rushall Olympic have had several ex-professionals play for them. Links with Wycombe Wanderers include keeper Adam Pryzbek. The former mining village of Rushall is located near Walsall and has a population of around 12,500. Limestone of high quality lies near the surface at Rushall. It was exploited by the Romans and through the Middle Ages for building and agricultural purposes. The use of limestone as a flux for smelting iron caused great expansion in mining during the Industrial Revolution. 

MY FIRST VISIT

It would be my first time seeing either team, although I had been to both grounds for pictures. When I visited Rushall for pictures in 2006, they had only just made it to step 4 of non-league, and at the time were in the Southern League D1 Central. Since then, they have transferred to the NPL and won promotion to the Premier Division. Before the game, they were in 12th place but were only 4 points of the last playoff place in 5th. They had the well-known former football league striker Dele Adebola, who had played for Notts Forest, Birmingham City, Hull City and Bristol City, amongst others. Grantham was more famous for being the birthplace of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She was well known for hating football and wasn't ever seen at the South Kesteven Stadium.  They were well established at this level and had flitted between the Southern and NPL Leagues due to their fairly central geographical position. Their most well-known player was Nathan Stanton, who played 8 years for Scunthorpe, but I remember him most for looking pretty solid playing for Rochdale against Wycombe.

Despite Wycombe's promising performance and 4-1 win at Northampton whilst I was watching Redditch v St Albans, normal service was resumed against Newport County on Boxing Day, and we still have not had a win at home in the league since 12th October. Once again it was a very flat performance with little invention going forward, and it was only a good performance from our back 4 that prevented them from having more chances. As it was, the winner for Newport was a really good goal - a great ball from Chapman to Flynn, who scored with a delicate chip over Matt Ingram to give the visitors a deserved if unspectacular win. It was the end of my three days off from work, and though they hadn't been the healthiest, they had been good fun. I had spent the first night chatting online all night to Barrow and Grimsby fans about football, meaning I stayed up for 41 hours until I went to bed at 9PM on Christmas Eve. Then, more than a few drinks with the family on Christmas Day with my brother and his girlfriend. Finally, on Boxing Day, a couple more pints before footy, as they were selling them at the reduced price of £2.50. The performance that followed was especially galling as we had to kick off at 12.30, with a strong suspicion that it was due to the players wanting to get off early. They had Christmas Day off, as a reward for the win at Northampton; in any case, something had been agreed before the game, which might have explained why they gave their best performance in a long time. At least I got some nice football-related stuff for Christmas - Wycombe's away shirt and autobiographies of former Wycombe player Sergio Torres and John McDermott, who played over 700 games for Grimsby Town.



On the day I woke pretty early, as my sleeping pattern was still out of kilter, what with Christmas and early starts at work merging into one another. I watched Home Alone for the first time in ages, had a bath and then checked Twitter and other sources to see if the game was in any danger of being called off. It wasn't, and so I set off just before 11, picking Anwar up at 11.25. After getting petrol, we were on our way. The first part of the journey was frustratingly slow. We got stuck behind a Tesco lorry that insisted on doing 40MPH in a 60 on a single carriageway road for 13 miles between Aylesbury and Bicester (though to be fair, I think he may be obliged to by law), and then it was slow when we got on the M40. Soon enough, though, we sped up and were in Walsall at Morrisons at 1.30. We had planned to have lunch in the cafe there. I had checked on the Morrisons site, and they assured me it had a Cafe. However, it wasn't until I had paid £1 for parking that I discovered there were two Morrisons in the town, and this one didn't have a Cafe. It was a pretty run-down store too, with those blue lights in the toilets designed to stop druggies injecting themselves. So with a quid wasted as we stayed there no more than 5 minutes, it was a tiny bit too late to make our way to the other one, and so we headed off to the ground instead, hoping to get food there. We got to the ground just before 2PM and went in and got a programme. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming, and pleased that someone had come all the way from Wycombe to see their club. I had a look in the club shop and went and got something to eat from the tea bar. Luckily, the range was good and the portions pretty decent - I had Sausage and Chips for £2.50 and that did for a meal. I also had a couple of cups of Bovril later on, made better by the fact that you could add pepper to it and make it taste even better. The game was an entertaining affair with plenty of meaty tackles flying in. I have pasted the report from the non-league paper below.



After the game, we made our way back home. My sat nav decided to try and take us back via the rip-off M6 Toll, so I had to stop and adjust it to save me flushing a fiver down the toilet. It added a bit of time to the trip, but even so, we were back in Aylesbury just after 7, and me back home at 7.30. The next day saw another day at work, plus Wycombe at home to Fleetwood, the way we are playing at the moment, I'm not sure which one will be the most enjoyable!

VISIT 2: RUSHALL 15-2 SILHILL (MIDLAND U21 - 6/9/25)

This game had been a potential double for some time, what with it being available as a morning kickoff in the Midland U21 League. This was an excellent league that had been condensed into a single division of 21 teams, meaning that more regular opportunities would be available. In this case, it was disenchantment with Wycombe and Eccleshall being at home that sealed it. We arrived in Walsall just after 9.20 and it was just as much of an architectural monstrosity as I remembered when I visited the town for the Wetherspoons. That said, a very good back street pub and the fact that it got dark had me leave there with a good feeling.It was also irritating to have several sets of traffic lights halting our progress. We were there at 9.40 and I was concerned to see a load of cars leaving. However, it was nothing to be concerned about as it was just parents taking their kids away from a previous session on the well-used pitch. It was £4 entry, fair and decent value. Rushall Olympic were 7th in the league, having only played two games. They'd won them both, last time out winning 3-1 at Stafford Rangers. Conversely, Silhill had lost all three, conceding eleven goals. An improvement of sorts was seen in the last game, restricting Stourport Swifts to a 1-0 win. I was glad to be there, the Midland U21 League really is an asset to hoppers.

The game went the way of the formbook with Rushall going ahead after six minutes, a delicate chip over the keeper. Silhill had a brief period on the break, but it was 2-0 on 12 minutes when the ball was cleared to the edge of the area and rifled into the bottom right-hand corner. There was a quickfire double just after the half hour. Firstl,y a low finish from just inside the area and then an excellent 25-yarder that flew in the top corner. Silhill pulled one back on 34 minutes, a touch of luck as they chased down a passback to the keeper. Five minutes into the second half, it was 5-1, a firm low shot from around the penalty spot. Another quickfire double made it 7-1, ensuring that it'd be another miserable morning for Silhill. For them, the lack of winning balls in midfield had placed immense pressure on their defence, although they did have the occasional good spell. A low shot from outside the area made it 8-1 on the hour. On the break, Silhill pulled another goal back, a curler from just inside the area on 63 minutes. It was 9-2 on 72 minutes when a goalkeeper's spill was followed up from inside the area. The tenth came a minute later, deflected past the beleaguered keeper, who conceded an eleventh a minute later. Number twelve was in off the angle of post and bar, and number thirteen was a low free kick from the edge of the area. Fourteen was a close-range finish, and you had to feel sorry for the demoralised Silhill players. Fifteen was deflected home from a low cross. I heard rumours about a sixteenth as we were walking unsighted behind the stand, but as of the evening, I was unable to confirm.

THE GROUND - 2013

DALES LANE certainly shows signs of originating from a lower league, but I quite liked the ground. The only original stand is a mixture of seating and standing along one side and is painted in the club colours. It has bench seating and covered standing. There have been 3 new stands put up at one end of the ground. Firstly on either side of the pitch at the top end of the ground, there are 2 covered seating stands, each holding around 150. Then there is a small covered area behind the goal, while the rest is open. It didn't look that big to me, but even I was surprised looking on Wikipedia that the official figure quoted is 1400 capacity in total, as it looked bigger than that.

As has been mentioned before, the tea bar is excellent, so it's not so much of a pain that there is not a huge amount, food-wise, around the ground. The club shop was excellent too, with a wide range of old programmes, though I didn't pick up anything. With no pens and pennants being a fiver, I decided to put away my money as I have hardly any wall space left. The bar was your standard clubhouse drinks-wise wise and like a lot of club bars now, it had the live Premier League football on. And a special mention for the programme too. It was quite well known in non-league circles for being a nice thick one, and at £2 provided great value. It was full of stats and other info. In the age of the internet, programmes have transformed into glossy affairs with little substance, but this one has plenty to read, and it's nicer to look at it that way than sitting down at a computer screen to browse information. 

GROUND UPDATE 2025

Huge improvements had been implemented upon my second visit. A 3G pitch had reinvigorated the ground, and it had been given a smartening up. Bars and an executive area had been added. Most impressive was a new stand and terrace behind the goal, which would probably add over a thousand to the capacity. This friendly club now has a ground fit for the National League in my opinion.