Damson in distress

Solihull (A) - National League - 15th September 2026

The Toll Road to Reality

A jaunt out to Worthing via the capital on Saturday greeted me with a difficult decision. Am I to venture into the Midlands, following our Jekyll and Hyde display at the weekend?

Well aye, hence why you're reading this. With all other Beans operatives occupied, the bottom of the barrel has been scraped as you're greeted with my good self at the helm. I can assure you there'll be no poetry or novels here, but a man who's covered over 1,000 miles in the last few days watching this lot.

We set off with the attitude of this being a 'must-win'. We've been decent in games, leading in our last four. Decent performances can only get us so far; we were away to face a Solihull side that was winless, and we needed the springboard from our last four games to read eight out of twelve points collected.

The departure of Ben Whitfield raised some questions on Monday. I thought it was quite aptly captured by a fellow Beans reporter: "the idea of Ben Whitfield was often better than Ben Whitfield". I liked Whitfield, but we'd not seen the best of him for some time.

Shuffling the Deck

As we approached the toll, the team news broke. Back to the three at the back and box midfield that had reaped fruit at Sutton. Lane retained his place following his brace at the weekend. No grumbles—we'd battled hard at the weekend but lost a bit of shape in the second half. Would this make us more steady and protect against the central runs that tore us apart last week? Time would tell.

I entered the ground with the stark reality of what we'd come back to as a club. Solihull. 300 home fans. Thrown in the corner. Not welcome in the bar.

Great...

Seeing Red

We kicked off and started. I'd love to pretend the first 20 minutes was an electric affair, but the only note was a Smith yellow card for what was effectively a "leave it on him" challenge. There were some questions about Winterbottom's kicking; this match reporter would argue some of the passes back to him would see him in Ward 7.

An inability from Williams to release the ball saw him clatter through his man. A poor yellow to give away, picking up four bookings to start the season. It was noted to me on Saturday that this team was due a red card with the way we play. More on that later...

A collection of corners saw Lane with a chance on the half-turn, which the Moors keeper met well. A long ball over the defence saw what appeared to be a foul on MJ Williams waved on. I'm one to stick up for players when a referee lets them down, but Williams's subsequent decision to pull his man back while on a card is indefensible. The referee brandished his card, and we went down to ten. Great. A nervous start was met with an absolute mountain to climb. The bench reacted, with Digie replacing Walker.

We trudged through to half-time with the score at 0–0. A half of very little quality. Going down to ten left us up shit creek without a paddle, and the lack of optimism was shared in the away end.

The Breakthrough

On we went, and we reacted well to the challenge of playing with a man light. Ward and Lane seemed to be getting joy, with us carving out opportunities. Lane was showing his quality at stretching the backline.

Both of the above were then brought off. This reporter was confused by this decision, as we seemed to be getting a foothold in the game.

Not even 60 seconds later, Solihull broke down the left. The ball was pulled back to Scott High, who smashed it past the helpless Winterbottom. Brilliant. We'd battled hard and had an even bigger challenge ahead of us; part of me wanted to just call the game there. Having the heart to watch it through for another 20 minutes wasn't in me. However, out of pure commitment to our reading audience, I trudged on.

A Battling Finish

Again, we reacted well. Cameron found space down the right, with his cut-back being placed just wide of the post by Reid. Optimism grew; we could see this side was willing to battle through to the end, and it was sensed there could be a goal in this for us.

Oakley carried on marauding down the right. I'm not one for stats, but I'd love to see how much ground that lad covered in the match. The ball found Harper in the box, whose effort was blocked brilliantly by the Moors man.

Four minutes added on. Our last roll of the dice. Oakley found a chance, which he fired past the post. That was it...

Home Truths

Full-time came. I'd like to caveat that the ten men worked their bollocks off for those 60 minutes; the effort was there, but the quality was found wanting. Let down by their captain's decision-making (we've heard this one before).

The players came over. With a message of "we have to stick together", this reporter and others relayed a clear message in amicable discussion: "We've been patient so far, but it's only going to get worse unless we change fast."

Footnote

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