In King Lear, Kent refers to Oswald as a "base football player" (Act 1 Scene 4), likening him to a lowlife. In The Comedy of Errors, Dromio asks Adriana, "Am I so round with you as you with me, that like a football you do spurn me thus?," wondering why she's metaphorically kicking him around like a football in what was then a "deadly game". The MOB game was a dangerous affair played between neighbouring villages/towns, and not at all beautiful. The ball may well have been a "pig's bladder" blown up!! I have to say I did spot this quote at the performance of "Comedy of the Errors" at the Alhambra, Bradford, Theatre recently! Just a little midweek treat for me!
So on to modern football......The Beautiful Game.
SO!!! Stratford Town FC v Shrewsbury Town FC, it doesn't come more Shakespearian than that (see title). Stratford Town FC are nicknamed "The Bards". No explanation needed. It's an FA Cup meeting which at the moment sees "The Shrews" leading 1-4 after 70 mins. Stage curtains for the Bards almost certainly....1-5 as the curtain comes down.
This is the weekend of the FA Cup 1st Round with Non-League clubs sometimes drawn to play against "fully fledged" Football League clubs. St Albans City play Forest Green, Banbury Utd v Barrow, Dagenham and Redbridge v Salford City, Cheltenham v Gillingham; there are more interesting and beautiful ties...
Stratford Town plays in the Southern League Premier Central, located in the "middle of the country". Shrewsbury is not a million miles away and play in Football League One. They have waded their way through the FA Cup qualifying and earlier rounds beating Carlton Town 1-3 away, Nuneaton Borough 4-0 home, Long Eaton Utd 3-2 home and Boston Utd 3-2 home.
The club was formed in 1941 as Stratford Rangers changing their name in 1949. After playing in various local leagues they joined the Worcestershire Combination, later renamed the Midland Combination in 1954. In 1975 they took the unusual step of joining the Hellenic League which does not normally include teams from Warwickshire. After two unsuccessful seasons they rejoined the Midland Combination once again, where they remained until becoming founder members of the Midland Football Alliance in 1994. The club entered financial difficulty in 1998 and were reformed to become Stratford Town F.C. 1998. On 20 April 2013 they sealed the Midland Alliance title and promotion to the Southern Football League for the first time in the club's history, where they initially played in Division One South & West.
After two seasons in the Division One South & West, Stratford Town earned promotion to the Premier Division via the play-offs in May 2015. They successfully retained their status the following season.
Stratford reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time in 2021-22, beating Boston United in a fourth preliminary round replay.
Shrewsbury Town (hopefully you get the link to the Bard; it is a club base in the county of Shropshire. The team competes in League One, the third tier of EFL. The club plays its home games at New Meadow having moved from the famous Gay Meadow, in 2007. They have won the Shropshire Senior Cup a record 67 times and are the only club from the county to ever play in the Football League. But there is not much opposition to be honest!
A short-lived Shrewsbury Town (sometimes simply reported as "Shrewsbury") football club, which in the 1877-78 football season won both the Birmingham and Shropshire Senior Cups. It disbanded late in 1879.
Re-founded in 1886, the club were inaugural members of the Shropshire & District League in 1890 and eventually were admitted into the Football League in 1950 and won promotion out of the Fourth Division at the end of the 1958–59 season. They were promoted again in 1974–75 after being relegated the previous year, and went on to win the Third Division title in 1978–79. They returned to the fourth tier following relegations in 1989 and 1992, where they won another league title in 1993–94. The club lost in the 1996 Football League Trophy and dropped into non-League football after suffering relegations in 1997 and 2003.
Shrewsbury immediately regained their Football League status after winning the 2004 Conference PLay Off. They subsequently lost League Two play-off finals in 2007 and 2009, before they won automatic promotion in 2011-12 and again in 2014-15 after relegation in the previous season. They finished as runners-up in the 2018 English Football League Trophy and 2018 Football League Play Off Final.
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