County visit Tamworth today in a 3pm kick off, and ahead of the match County Tweet-meister Gareth Evans has put-together five factoids on our opponents for you.TAKE FIVE…
1. Oh joy – a Bank Holiday, and we’re on the road!
You’re still reeling, I guess, from our trip up the M6 towards Fylde two August Bank Holiday
Mondays ago – when the traffic delays held up not only County’s team-bus but also the Referee, who ordered the kick-off to be put back 30 minutes. (At least we ended up winning, mind!)
Hopefully, schlepping along the same motorway in a southerly direction to Staffordshire will be a kinder experience, as we visit the ‘Lambs’ of Tamworth at… erm, ‘The Lamb’.
2. Hints there of a young ovine link – but wasn’t The Lamb originally used for pig farming?!
That was indeed the site’s first recorded purpose, in the early 19th Century. But any connections with animal husbandry were purely coincidental when it came to naming the ground, which took its title from ‘The Lamb Inn’ that once stood at the entrance to what is now the club’s car-park.
Pubs, in fact, played more of a direct role than agricultural processes in Tamworth’s footballing her-itage. The current club has played at The Lamb since 1934, although, for a season after its for-mation the previous year, home was a ground on the other side of the River Tame – and behind the also-now-demolished ‘Jolly Sailor Hotel’. For good measure, both playing fields, with relevant brew-ery backing, had earlier hosted other teams from the town – with Kettlebrook Oakfield and Tam-worth Castle having plied their respective trades at The Lamb and Jolly Sailor.
3. Lambs? Sailors? All sounds a bit of a rum do, if you ask me. Arf.
Actually, The Lamb Inn itself had an active supporting function in the early days – providing chang-ing facilities for the players, who, once kitted up, ran out of the pub and directly on to the pitch. To-day’s ground – officially known, for sponsorship purposes, as the (deep breath…) EST Electrical Services Stadium at The Lamb – still has changing rooms that are separate to The Lamb’s infra-structure – albeit of the portable type, and obtained from Salisbury City.
Another fellow non-league club from back in the day – namely, Scarborough – donated the
floodlights which, for the most part, still stand at The Lamb. They were put up in 1969, during a pur-ple patch that saw Tamworth win three West Midlands League Championships, as well as local Senior Cups on several occasions, before moving up to the Southern League (for 1972/73). The Lambs are also the second FA Vase winners that County will face this season, courtesy of
Tamworth’s victory, following a replay, over Sudbury Town in 1989 – some 24 years before
Spennymoor Town lifted that trophy.
4. We’ve seen a fair bit of them in recent years. Anyone played for both clubs?
Yes, the Lambs have… well, rubbed shoulders with us for all but one of the seasons since our
relegation from the Football League. And one of their current number, midfielder Aman Verma (at County in 2013), may well turn out against the Hatters on the 3G surface this holiday weekend.
Going slightly further back in time, last term’s top-goalscoring Hatter, Danny Lloyd (2016/17), as well as another midfielder, Richie Baker (2014/15) both had prior spells at The Lamb. Striker Nick Chadwick (2011/12) went there at a later stage in his career, while Tom Eckersley (2012), who played a couple of games in County’s defence whilst on loan, appeared briefly for the Lambs in their 2013 pre-season. And right-back Javan Vidal (2013) came back to haunt us two years later by scoring at Edgeley Park with – would you credit it – his only-ever goal in a Tamworth shirt!
5. What if the traffic all gets too much?
Just grit your teeth and press on – if only to experience the perverse joy of negotiating Tamworth’s very own ‘magic’ roundabout. ‘The Egg’, which adjoins roads leading to both The Lamb and – if win-ter sports are more your bag – the indoor ‘SnowDome’ ski-slope (with real snow), will, with its in-built mini-roundabouts, literally leave you not knowing whether you are coming or going!
