Match Preview

On Tuesday evening we meet Tividale Football Club from Oldbury for the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup.

Tividale F.C. was formed in 1954 as the senior branch of Tividale Hall Youth Club FC and originally played in the Handsworth and District League, before moving on to the Warwickshire & West Midlands Alliance. Tividale moved to their current ground in Packwood Road in 1974, renaming it The Beeches. This name was chosen to honour a British Waterways official who had granted the site's lease to the club. The new ground was situated in a newly developed residential street on the Tividale Hall Estate on land which had previously been inaccessible to motor vehicles and which had required the demolition of four houses in order to open up the land for development.

In 1991 a new rule was introduced by the West Midlands League that all Premier Division clubs must have floodlights. As Tividale could not afford to erect lights at The Beeches, they had no option but to step down to Division One. Floodlights were eventually erected two years later. More recent development work has seen the building of a 200-seater stand, new changing rooms, a boardroom, and the refurbishment of the Social Club. In spring 2014 the club achieved the ground grading that allowed them to play in the Northern Premier League Division One South. The stadium holds 2800 supporters and their nickname is The Dale. They play in a home kit of yellow and blue shirt, blue shorts and yellow socks and an away kit of red shirt, shorts and socks.

Last season we met Tividale in the Walsall Senior Cup and won 3-0, so a repeat of that score line would be great this evening. Sutton have been playing well in recent weeks and will be expecting to get into the next round of this cup. Tividale have been struggling this season and recently lost at the weekend to local rivals Romulus 3-0 so they will be looking to get back into winning ways.

Here’s to an entertaining and successful game.

COME ON YOU ROYALS.