Four games, two victories, two defeats, a red card & two debutant goals.
February:
Played 4; Won 2, Drew 0, Lost 2; For 5, Against 3, GD +2; Points 6 Position: 14th
Solihull Moors 3-0 Sutton United
In short: Debutants on the scoresheet as Moors make a mockery of Sutton’s FA Cup exploits
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Flanagan; Murombedzi, Nortey, Maye, Carline (Mwanyongo); Charles-Cook (Sammons); White (Afolayan)
Goalscorers: Charles-Cook (Murombedzi), Charles-Cook, Afolayan (Charles-Cook)
Debutants: Regan Charles-Cook, Oladapo Afolayan
Woking 2-1 Solihull Moors
In short: Frantic, end-to-end fixture won by relegation strugglers Woking
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Flanagan; Murombedzi (White), Nortey (Byrne), Maye (Afolayan), Carline; Charles-Cook; Sterling-James
Goalscorers: Charles-Cook
Debutants: N/A
Bromley 0-1 Solihull Moors
In short: Harry White scores early as Moors hold out despite Udoh sending off
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Flanagan; Murombedzi, Maye, Byrne, Carline (Udoh); Charles-Cook (Afolayan); White
Goalscorers: White (Carline)
Debutants: Daniel Udoh
Solihull Moors 0-1 Wrexham
In short: Referee shocker results in penalty winner and Byrne seeing red
Starting XI: Baxter; Green, Daly, Kettle, Flanagan; Murombedzi, Nortey (Maye), Byrne, Carline; Charles-Cook (Sterling-James); White (Afolayan)
Goalscorers: N/A
Debutants: N/A
Goalscorers:
12 – Akwasi Asante
11 – Harry White
7 – Omari Sterling-James
6 – Andy Brown
5 – Jamey Osborne
3 – Regan Charles-Cook
2 – Ryan Beswick, Jack Byrne, Liam Daly
1 – Oladapo Afolayan, George Carline, Joel Dielna, Jordan Fagbola, Joel Kettle, Shepherd Murombedzi, Luke Rodgers
Assists:
4 – Connor Franklin, Omari Sterling-James, Shepherd Murombedzi
3 – Jack Byrne, Darryl Knights,
2 – Akwasi Asante, Ryan Beswick, Liam Daly, Jordan Gough, Jamey Osborne
1 – Andy Brown, George Carline, Regan Charles-Cook, Joel Dielna, Harry White, Eddie Jones
Sutton United were the team to beat. The team the nation were routing for. They were in the fifth round of the FA Cup. They had Wayne Shaw.
They turned up to the Automated Technology Group Stadium hoping to gain momentum ahead of their bout with North London giants Arsenal. Their following was increasing by the minute. Everybody wanted a part of Sutton United.
I took my position at this game and couldn’t quite believe what I was watching. Sutton were poor. Half of them looked overweight from the sidelines and a youthful, exciting Solihull Moors team had them chasing shadows.
This was the new Solihull Moors in action, the one built by Liam McDonald over a procession of months and he had his final pieces of the jigsaw with the loan addition of Regan Charles-Cook and Oladapo Afolayan. Not even Omari Sterling-James made the squad for this one.
Charles-Cook made an immediate impact as he drove through the Sutton midfield and played a one-two with Simeon Maye. The first effort was snuffed out but Murombedzi returned it to Charles-Cook who tapped in from a couple of yards out.
Sutton had a chance to get back into the game, Joel Kettle completely missing the ball and taking out Louis Johns in the area. Jamie Collins may have scored against Leeds United but he could not beat Nathan Baxter.
They were made to pay. Charles-Cook and Murombedzi were on the charge once more and when the latter shot from a tight angle, the Charlton loanee was quick off the mark to smash home the rebound. As the old fella stood to my right would advise ‘it’s all downhill from here son’.
Moors’ new number 34 was having a ball and he broke the offside trap to latch on to a punt forward into the channel, finding fellow newboy Oladapo Afolayan waiting on the penalty spot to put the ball into an empty net.
Solihull Moors 3-0 Sutton United. How did Leeds lose to that mob?
The good feeling didn’t quite last thanks to Woking. What ultimately kept the Moors up was our record against fellow part-time clubs – defeat at Woking was a rarity.
The post-match highlights would contain ten minutes worth of footage as if to prove the liveliness of an end-to-end fixture between a Woking side desperate for points and a Moors side knowing a couple of wins would secure safety.
Highlight number one was Terell Thomas’ opener from close range. Moors fought back impressively, Shepherd Murombedzi twice going close before another Woking header was cleared off the line. Murombedzi tried his luck once more, Daly saw a deflected effort loop just over the bar and a crazy goalmouth scramble somehow resulted in a Woking goal kick.
Charles-Cook was the man to get the equaliser, Sterling-James’ low drive forcing a save from Michael Poke only for the Charlton man to be on hand to spank home from close range. Three goals in two matches from a combined 8 yards!
Woking would get their winner but the end-to-end action would continue, Charles-Cook firing wide, Gozie Ugwu hit the bar, White’s low drive was superbly stopped before Michael Poke pulled off arguably the save of the season when he denied Sterling-James’ effort from 20 yards, even getting up to save from White’s strike from a tight angle. Somehow we came away pointless.
Bromley were next and a different animal to the winless and pointless outfit we played in the first month of the campaign. Bromley were proving to be a model of stability, sat comfortably in mid-table and looking at a top-half finish in their second season at this level. The Londoners had also won 6 of their previous 7 ties at home.
So naturally we would take the lead and win the game, Carline cutting the ball back from Harry White who squared up his man, feinted one way then curled the ball into the far corner using his marker a decoy. Quality.
Daniel Udoh made his debut in this one having joined from Crewe Alexandra and made an instant impact – he was sent off for a second bookable offence after being adjudged to dive. He had been on the field for eight minutes.
There was more transfer news with Nathan Vaughan, who had struggled with injuries and found himself playing third fiddle to Nathan Baxter and Danny Lewis, departing for Worcester via Bromsgrove Sporting. Meanwhile Luke Rodgers left for Stourbridge via Redditch United, Charlie Morris joined Redditch Untied on loan and Pearson Mwanyongo joined Barwell on a similar deal. The squad had well and truly taken shape.
The month ended in very annoying fashion. Wrexham were the visitors to the ATG and within a few minutes a penalty was given for handball despite Kristian Green doing his best to move his arm out of the way. Harsh, very harsh. Anthony Barry scored the resulting spot-kick.
From then on, the Moors were chasing the game. The problem was that Wrexham were wily and the referee fell for their every move. They fell down, free-kick given. It was something that was winding the Moors up more and more throughout the game and the tackles got firmer. A case of ‘you’re going to go down so I might as well give you something to go down about’.
The referee was killing the game as a competition and boiling point was reached in the second half. After some tussling and tugging in the box, Jack Byrne reacted flinging an elbow in the direction of a Wrexham player. Somebody else got involved so he grabbed his shirt and threw him to the floor. There was no question about it, Jack Byrne was being sent off. However, the referee had let himself in for it. Officials have difficult jobs, Steve Rushton had made his 10x more difficult falling hook, line and sinker for the Welsh side’s every move.
With the Torquay United game postponed the month had ended on a sour note.
