Match Information:
- Stourbridge 4-2 Dudley Town
- When: Saturday 5th July 2025
- Kick-off: 2pm
- Where: Stourbridge Rugby Club, Stourton Park, Bridgnorth Road, Stourton, Stourbridge, West Midlands DY7 6QZ
- Competition: Pre-season friendly
- Attendance: 586
Pre-season friendlies often give me the chance to visit venues that don’t normally host football matches.
This is certainly the case at Stourbridge who arranged a series of fixtures at the local rugby stadium due to safety fears at their traditional War Memorial Athletic Ground in Amblecote which is shared with cricket.
It relates to some steep crumbling banking stretching downwards behind the stands.
A statement from Stourbridge FC read: "We have been working closely with structural engineers regarding the deterioration of the banks that surround the War Memorial.
"It has been made abundantly clear that a number of our stands and floodlights are too close to the edge of the banks and should be taken down. Both the cricket and football club, Dudley Council and the FA consultants are working closely to identify potential solutions.
"There is no doubt that whatever option is progressed, it is going to be extremely costly and we are considering all possible funding streams, including our fan base and the community… but this will be a stressful period for the football club and will take some time to deliver."
Anyway, I duly set off on my 250 mile round trip. Stourbridge itself is renowned for glass making in a town housing 63,000 residents.
Incidentally, my initial visit to the War Memorial Athletic Ground had been on New Year Bank Holiday Monday afternoon 3rd January 1983.
I saw Stourbridge draw 0-0 against Dartford (attendance 237) in the Southern League Premier Division before heading off to an evening game at Kidderminster Harriers.
Ground Description
The stand-out feature is an elevated grandstand of 400 tip-up seats across six rows on one side of the pitch.
There is a two-tier clubhouse opposite complete with first floor viewing balcony. Uncovered seating lies in front of this.
Both ends offer grass banking looking out on to the Rugby365 artificial grass pitch which was installed in 2017.
Plenty of car parking provision exists although congestion at the exit meant it took me more than half an hour to get out on to the main road afterwards.
Programme Details
I contacted Stourbridge in advance to let them know there would be huge interest among Non-League’s travelling fraternity in watching the first ever football match at the rugby stadium.
So I agreed to promote it on my Twitter X feed as a designated groundhopper fixture with a printed programme. Consequently, the programmes sold out just under an hour before kick-off.
Entitled ‘GLASSBOYS REVIEW’ to reflect the club’s nickname, it was priced at £2 and consisted of 16 pages.
The contents incorporated columns by the home chairman Andy Pountney and manager Darryl Knights, a ‘History In The Making’ feature pertaining to the inaugural football match at Stourton Park, season tickets/membership/loyalty card packages, squad news, player stats, focus on opponents Dudley Town, a 2025/25 season preview and confirmation of Stourbridge’s pre-season friendly dates.
Nice tag lines at the bottom of each page declared: “ONE HEART, ONE WAY – STOUR AY WE.” In addition, a blank teamsheet was inserted into the programme so those interested could write down the names of participating players.
Overall, a superb effort by publishers JJ Sports Promotions. Their managing director Terry Brumpton is a lifelong Non-League supporter holding admirable views on protecting the long-term future of printed programmes.
The Match
Stourbridge finished ninth in the Southern League Premier Division Central last season. Meanwhile Dudley Town from six miles away were a couple of tiers below achieving seventh place in the Midland League Premier Division.
Therefore anyone possessing expert football betting knowledge would definitely have fancied a home win. Accordingly, the Glassboys raced into a 2-0 lead through Shaw (9 minutes) and Campbell (21 mins).
But those sports betting enthusiasts were baffled when Muckley (22 mins) and Crook, penalty (32 mins) netted for Dudley Town to make it 2-2.
After the break though, Stourbridge introduced multiple substitutes to take control via Freemantle (52 mins) and Bood (67mins).
The People
Stourbridge vice chairman Andy Bullingham was very helpful in reserving programmes for the arriving groundhoppers who had previously registered an interest on Twitter X.
I also spotted the excellent work of the club’s media manager Bek Howell organising all the matchday publicity.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Tony Incenzo*
