Adventures in Football #124: Brownsfield Road (Lichfield City) 

 

April 12, 2025 

 

LICHFIELD CITY vs. ROMULUS (Midland Premier Division) 

 

After being granted a surprise last minute Saturday off, I quickly scrambled to locate a ground to go to. Seeing as Mike and Liam are currently on #125 a piece, I need to work harder to catch up! Why Lichfield? Because of the cross-city line. It starts in Bromsgrove and goes through central Birmingham into Lichfield Trent Valley. It’s an hour all told and a pleasant enough journey. Everyone gets off in Birmingham regardless of direction of travel.  

I’ve never been to Lichfield. This is a first. I was not expecting it to be such a bustling little city. There are people everywhere, like a junior Birmingham. Some lovely steeples to be had too. Another reason I selected Lichfield was their opposition today; Romulus. “Big up the Romulus” – Lenny Henry. Tannoy Tom, a good friend of mine, is a Roms man. So, I asked if he was going, and he was! Huzzah! I met Tom outside the Whippet Inn (both a micropub and my favourite way to deliver a corner).  

 

After a delicious pint of porter, procured from the busy little pub, I decided to walk to the ground. Tom was in his car, so he drove, and I met him there. It was only 20 minutes away and it was the nicest day of the year, so far. So, off I trotted in the direction of the ground and promptly got lost!  

Here is a road I found myself walking down, looking confused. Luckily, the road at the end there led straight to the ground. With the picture sat there onscreen, it feels like I’m in a particularly challenging game of Geoguessr. The road is on street view, so there’s a chance I will one day be challenged with that location. I’ll probably get it wrong.  

Anyway, here we are at the ground. Dubbed the “Trade Tyre Community Stadium”. I am not calling it that. I’ve seen it called the City Ground but let’s go with the name of the road it’s on; Brownsfield Road, as that’s what it is called on Futbology.  

 

Outside the ground there are cars everywhere. The entire lane is packed with them. Some nearby roads are also packed. There’s a big turnout for today’s game, as Lichfield have won the league and are celebrating their success. Four points clear today with this one remaining fixture.  

This is Lichfield City. The record attendance here is over 1000. Today we have a whopping 729. It feels like a club worth supporting and they should already be in a higher division than this. We have astro, sadly, and goals on wheels. That’s going to hurt the score.  

As you can see it’s very busy behind the goals and this end of the crowd was popular. Presumably because a) it’s nearest the entrance and b) it’s nearest the bar. It’s also the end they’re going to do the trophy lift at.  

Tom introduces me to his friend, and Roms supporter, Justin. We consider sitting behind him in the stand only to discover the bulk of the seats are broken. Look at these fucking things! One or two might be explainable but this entire row is missing the seats. The whole point of a seat is being able to sit on it. Work to do here ahead of next season. There’s also a huge pile of rubbish behind the stand. Every non-league ground has a pile of crap, to be fair.  

I’ll be touring around and showing you some different angles at half time but for now we’re here and Roms give the champions a guard of honour. I like this tradition. It feels like good sportsmanship.  

The astroturf here is really off-putting. There are millions of those horrible little black balls around pitch side. Every bouncing ball kicks up a hundred of the little bastards. The league secretary, here to present the trophy, passes us and struggles to find a functional seat. Uh oh. He eventually sits down and we’re good to go.  

Both Tom and Justin think Roms will either “shithouse” a 1-0 win or get slapped. The early going is favourable to the former, with Lichfield already “on the beach”. This may not be a beach but the treeline around the ground is very satisfying. I do like how they’ve been planted deliberately to provide a natural barrier. Both for crowd noise, passing cars on the main road and errant clearances. 

This is a free kick to Roms on 14’. As luck would have it, the ball fortuitously clips a defender and loops into the other side of the goal. Rob Hannah the scorer. Bastard bad luck for the champions and 0-1. Roms shithousery confirmed. The rest of the half passes largely without incident, apart from my trip to the bar. I went and grabbed a pint (Neck Oil, can’t complain) and someone accidentally pays for it. The barmaid looks confused. I don’t know what to do. He tells me it’s “luck of the Irish”. I’m wearing a t-shirt that says “Ireland” across the front of it. I think I’ll wear it to more games. It always seems to bring good fortune. Free beer! Cheers, mate! Appreciate it.  

Off we go on our half time ground tour. There’s a lot of natural terracing, formed from grassy knolls. It means there are plenty of vantage points, although not much cover from the elements. There are four stands that are covered but that wouldn’t be sufficient for the 729 in attendance today if it were to piss down with rain.  

Here’s the stand behind the away goal. It’s nice to go to a ground where they mow the lawn. A lot of grounds at a higher level are untidier than this. Apart from the pile of crap behind the stand and the broken seats, it’s a tidy ground.  

I go past the ‘goal storage area’ another contemptible modern aspect of non-league. I realise they use these things to do kids training sessions, but it would be nice if they were a bit hidden away. As you can see, the grassy knoll provides ample area to watch the game from a slightly elevated position. If I was on my own, I reckon I would have gone over here in the second half. 

Behind the dugouts we also have the camera gantry. No one was stood here because of the restricted views. A half decent coat of paint on the dugouts though and generally the upkeep of the ground was decent. I would like to see a bluer colour scheme as those are the club colours. It seems they’ve gone with green for the rails and buildings.  

“Big up the Romulus” – Lenny Henry. 

This is the final stand. The largest seating area in the ground. Clearly a popular spot, it was full when I got there. Behind this stand are the toilets and just to my left here is an outdoor bar, which basically sells cans poured into plastic cups. There is potential here to do more, especially if they start pulling in these numbers regularly.  

My half time tour concludes with spotting the lino on his way out of the official’s room. Caged, like the beast he is. I make my way back around to Tom’s vantage point and the second half kicks off. Clearly Lichfield have been given a bit of a bollocking at half time and start the second half ‘in the mood’.  

About ten minutes later they’re level. Captain Dan Lomas heads in a throw from former Roms man Callum Rudd. 1-1. It’s been all Lichfield since the turn and they’re in the mood to win this.  

I should do more sports photography as this ends up in the Roms net. Leighton McMenemy bearing down on a corner. 2-1. 67’ played. Apparently, the lino is a Villa fan as the crowd keep giving him updates. “Lino, 2-0 Villa”. He flashes a thumbs up sign. Lichfield should really add more goals and have multiple chances to do so, including a one on one. It feels like a third goal is coming but then the game just ends.  

 

FULL TIME: LICHFIELD 2 ROMULUS 1  

 

The match over, we get a scuffle with the balloon arch, which takes so long I bail on seeing the actual trophy presentation. If you’ve seen one trophy lift, you’ve seen them all (unless it’s your team, I guess). A few pints in lovely Lichfield and I’m on the cross city back home. Having had a nice afternoon at the football.  

 

 

Let’s give Lichfield some scores, shall we? 

 

ATMOSPHERE: 

One to work on for the locals. Considering the 700+ in attendance it was quiet. There are some young hooligans getting ready to chant their little hearts out and a noisy area in the corner but not much happening. ** 

 

COST: 

£7 to get in and considering the standard of the ground, that’s good. I feel like the ground is a higher level than the club. **** 

 

QUALITY: 

It wasn’t the best game of football I’ve seen. Let’s just leave it at that. ** 

 

EASE OF ACCESS: 

Lichfield City station isn’t far away. Trent Valley is under a mile. So, you’ve got options on public transport. Oddly enough, this is easier for me to do on a weeknight than Leicester. ***½  

 

MISC: 

They’ve got a good set up here. With potential to expand on it. There’s space around the pitch to make improvements. Both in terms of capacity and comfort. Plus, the possibility of better food and drink areas. There’s space to play with. I can’t go too high on the rating because the goals are on wheels, but we’ll give it ***½  

 

OVERALL: 15 

A very creditable score for Lichfield. It puts them on a par with Newport and Hull for this season.  

 

I’ve nicked a photo off the @lichfieldcityfc Twitter account to show you the celebrations. Fair play to Lichfield, off to bigger and better things as a club. It feels like it’s going places and could be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Telford, Kettering and Bromsgrove in a few seasons. We shall see.