Competition: Midland Football league Division 2

Date: 14 January 2023

Result: Cadbury Athletic 2 – 2 Sutton United (Birmingham)

Tickets: £5 (adult)

Attendance: 100 (rough head count)

Game/ Experience Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

The Game: Cadbury Athletic was a fun little add on to my Birmingham trip, which was mainly to see Villa, but what a spot it is. I was lucky enough to catch a top of the table game, which saw Cadbury (second) play league leaders Sutton United (the Birmingham side, not the much higher placed South London one) in what is a Midlands division in the seventh tier of English non-league football.

I learnt before the game that Cadbury actually would have been promoted last year had they been allowed to build floodlights, a requirement for the next tier up, having won the previous season’s title. If you look at the ground, I suppose its obvious why generic floodlights somewhere like this might not appeal, so that could be an expensive add on.

Sutton United twice led in this game, despite Cadbury having marginally the better of it overall in my view. The first was a penalty, before a classic non-league moment saw a one-on-one for Cadbury’s striker saved by the goalkeeper, but bounce back off the striker’s face and go in. Sutton led again through a really impressive long-distance volley, and Cadbury equalised at the death, in a game that they probably needed to win to stay in the title race. Another classic non-league moment fell in the middle, when the referee gave and then withdrew a red card (presumably a mistaken identity on a second yellow, I’m not sure).

The game was really scrappy to start with but as it went on I was more and more impressed with the quality, well worth watching.