Falling in love with Non-League football

It's Saturday afternoon, 2.55pm.

We've all felt it; that nervous air of anticipation as you clutch your cup of tea, soup or bovril waiting for your home team to step out onto the green turf to do battle for the vital 3 points.

Except today when you look a round there is no huge screen or multi-terraced football stand with 30,000 cheering and jeering.

About 150-200 are huddled into a tiny stand and in thick black country tones, the chant is: "C'mon Bilston."

This is Queen Street stadium - the home of recently promoted semi-professional side Bilston Town (2007) FC.

     

Bilston Town FC at night - pic: Bilston Town Twitter

Battling it out in the West Midlands Regional Premier against in form side Peagsus Juniors may not sound glorious but the competition is fierce from the first kick.

Going 4 - nil down in around 35 minutes is a tough blow for the home side who struggle to deal with the superior pace and quick passing of Pegasus.

However the Steel Men of Bilston (the historic name given the team to reflect the town's industrial heritage)
are unbowed and their persistence is reward with a penalty.

The goalkeeper jogs up the pitch and confidently dispatches the penalty, smashing it high into the back of the net.

Bilston ride their luck in the second half with the Pegasus centre forward proving too hot to handle with near misses from a set piece effort rattling the woodwork and volley just wide of the post a little earlier.

But the Steel Men, having made 3 changes showed renewed vigour in attack and with some nice passing in midfield, in the 81st minute substitute James Machin is through on goal, guiding the past the hapless keeper, into the far left corner.

As the full time whistle blows for a 4-2 defeat for the home team, Steel Men Chairmen Graham Hodson admits to me that the goals "put a shine" on a game where they were well beaten.

Walking around the stand, checking out the bar and the little kiosk selling home made rolls and cuppa soups for the fans, a real community atmosphere was apparent.

Paying a fiver to get in and a solitary pound for a programme, the fans are treated to afternoon of good quality football and all around inexpensive entertainment.

This is a far cry from the Premiership where tickets break most families bank's and half time refreshments are out of the question.

And if avid football fans are determined to keep their season tickets going for all the trimmings at half time, they are having to cut back in other areas of their family life.

With the recent exorbitant record transfer fee spending in the British Premier League, non-league and lower league football offers a return to the old fashioned days of the beautiful game, days we imagined we'd lost to the billion dollar game.