Rugby Borough - Kilsby Lane

Rugby Borough FC 

Kilsby Lane

Rugby 

Warwickshire

CV21 4PN

01788 568500

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Ground Number: 1136
Wednesday 30th November 2022
Rugby Borough 0-3 Moulton
Spartan South Midlands D1

RUGBY BOROUGH FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club is one of the youngest in the non-league pyramid, having been established in 2017. The purpose of the club was to give the players that progressed through the Rugby Town Juniors side a chance to play adult football. They've been hugely successful and won the Leicestershire Senior League Division 1 in their debut season. They won the Premier Division in their second season but were denied promotion due to insufficient facilities. They then had two more seasons around the top 7 during the two pandemic-interrupted seasons. Rugby Borough won the Premier Division title for the second time last season and this time they had their ground deemed good enough for promotion. They were admitted to the Spartan South Midlands Division 1 for this season and are doing well at present.

Rugby Borough have had three seasons in the FA Vase, but have never progressed beyond the 2nd Qualifying Round. In terms of local competitions, they won the Coventry Charity Cup in 2019 & 2022, beating Coventry Alvis on both occasions. Rugby's main team is Rugby Town, they have seen some success in the past, but now sit just one level above in the United Counties Premier. The town itself has a population of just over 78,000. Famous people born in Rugby include the former England cricketer Ian Bell. Famous residents have included author Salman Rushdie, politician Neville Chamberlain, singer Billy J Kramer and TV presenter Peter Purves.

MY VISIT

Unusually this week, I'd not be doing a game on my favoured day of Tuesday. This was of course, due to the World Cup, something that for once, I've taken a minimal interest in. With the game being England v Wales, it was totally understandable that clubs wouldn't want to play. Be it players or club people wanting to watch the game or fears of the crowd being reduced, clubs were going to find things tricky. I was making the most of the week with football on all of the other days. Monday saw me go up to Penn & Tylers Green for their Allied Counties League game against Burnham. It's always good to help out my local clubs, even if it's only a few quid. Burnham won 2-1 but it was a nice six-mile round walk there and back. Tuesday night was disappointing with now game and despite a few drinks, I felt little joy at England's 3-0 win over Wales. I wondered how many leagues were regretting enforcing 12:30 kickoffs on Saturday now that the next round is 7 PM on Sunday.

The day of the game came and it was a fairly easy one at work. I left at 4.10 and had a good journey over to Colin, getting there at 4.35. It was a little slower to Anwar, not arriving until 5.15 thanks to HS2 Roadworks. It was then a real cross-country route to the game, us not touching a motorway or dual carriageway, getting to Canton Chef Chinese takeaway at 6.50. Singapore curry and chips were excellent value at £7.40 although there were too many mushrooms in it for my liking. It was a few minutes' drive to the ground with us arriving at 7.15. It was only a fiver to get in and there was a nice bench to eat our dinner at. Tony the Man City fan had come down for the game and we said a brief hello. In fact, it was quite a hoppers convention with Eddie from Wakefield, Brad from Lutterworth and Jack from Lowestoft all in attendance.

Rugby Borough were 2nd in the league, though they were some way behind runaway leaders Real Bedford. It was still a superb debut season at step 6 and they'd won eleven and lost two of their games so far. They'd had some great wins recently and had progressed in the Gladwish Challenge Trophy with a 5-1 win against Letchworth Garden City Eagles. They'd beaten Raunds Town 5-0 and won 6-0 at Wellingborough Whitworths in their latest two league games. They'd won nine games in a row and this included a 2-1 win at the leaders - their only defeat of the season. Their last defeat had come on 23rd August, ironically against today's opponents, Moulton. Their only other defeat came on the opening day as they lost 3-2 at Amersham Town. The visitors meanwhile were in 10th, having won seven, drawn one and lost seven of their games so far. Following a bright start to the season, Moulton were six games without a win. This included a 3-1 defeat at strugglers Langford. They'd last won on 1st October, 4-0 at Rushden & Higham United. Moulton were the better side for much of the first half and came close a few times. Generally, the finishing was wasteful though but just before halftime, the visitors made the breakthrough. It was a decent run and swivel before a low shot from 15 yards. Rugby's finishing was poor and around 20 minutes from time it was 2-0, a sideways pass and a finish from around the penalty spot. The hosts woke up after that and they smashed the bar. It was too little, too late and Moulton made it 3-0 on 75 minutes, a drilled shot from 20 yards. A great save in the last minute denied the hosts with the Moulton keeper tipping a header onto the bar.

 There were no updates from Moulton during the game but the goalscorers were confirmed as Joe Evans, John-Joseph McCarthy Jr & George Wingrove. The attendance was a healthy 205. It was a good advert for having football on a Wednesday night, albeit forced by the England game. We had stood next to another hopper all game and Colin had been his usual talkative self, imploring the man to get the Futbology app and telling him his life story including the foggy game at Binfield on  Monday. In fact, he might well have offered him a bed at his parents' house and to come round to his to play board games on New Year's Eve as he had done to Anwar and me on a number of occasions. We left at 9.45 and took a better route home, straight down the A5 to Milton Keynes, rather than the terrible cross-country route that had taken us there. Greatest Hits Radio was our soundtrack as ever and I guessed the 'Top Ten at Ten' year correctly - 1993, identified as I remember Four Non-Blondes ' What's Going On' hit. I dropped Anwar off at 11.10 and despite the A413 being closed, got to Colin at 11.40. I was I'm ten minutes later, but took ages to get to sleep, meaning I was a bit drowsy the next morning.

 

THE GROUND

KILSBY LANE is better than your average new setup. It's part of a huge complex of pitches for all ages which means it gets busy but there is tons of parking. The ground has two seated stands in attractive orange and yellow seats and also a nice scoreboard. It's closed off behind one goal and has a capacity of around 1,500. Food and drink are available at the ground, or a mile away are a set of takeaways, a chippy, a Chinese and Dominoes Pizza.