It’s the FA Cup on Saturday, Solihull Moors of the National League will be in town for our first ever meeting at any level, in any competition.
The Moors only formed in 2007 and to be honest I know very little about them, so a chat with a Moors fan was in order and Chloe Molyneux, treasurer of The Moors Supporters Association duly obliged.
Barry – Hi, Chloe, could you tell me a little bit about the history of the club.
Chloe – The Moors were formed in 2007, this followed the amalgamation of two local clubs, Solihull Borough and Moorgreen due to financial and other reasons. Since then we haven’t looked back.
Barry – You are a National League club, how long have you been competing at that level?
Chloe – We are quite established now in the National League following promotion from the National League North in 2016, we had a couple of touch and go seasons but we are now in a position where we want to push on for promotion into the Football League.
Barry - Neil Ardley is your current manager, Latics fans will probably recall him from his time at Wimbledon as both a player and manager, are you pleased with him, is he the man to take you forward?
Chloe – He’s had a good start to the season, brought in a different style of play than what we’re used to, he’s very much into keeping possession of the ball, lot’s of passes as we move up the pitch and the players have adapted well to the new style.
I’m really impressed with the pace we’ve got down the wings, so, so far, so good from Neil Ardley.
Barry – What’s your current form like?
Chloe – Unbeaten in our last seven games, that is a pretty good run of form for any team in the National League, there is a couple of draws in there, we had one last Saturday at home against Yeovil Town, a really tense game, a couple of red cards, it was a 0-0 but anything but drab, end to end stuff.
So, unbeaten, clean sheets etc it’s a good start. Currently we are sitting proudly in 5th position, which is a playoff place as there is only one automatic spot, finishing first, then second down to seventh are in the playoffs.
A few seasons back we did finish in second place but unfortunately lost in the semi final, which was heart breaking.
Barry – How’s your cup run been so far?
Chloe – We entered the competition in the 4th Qualifying round where we met Hereford United away, we won that game with a late goal, we’re delighted to proceed through as the aim every season is to have a decent cup run and to be drawn against the Latics is just an unbelievable day out for us.
Barry – Nice to hear, do you look at us as a big club then?
Chloe – Oh, absolutely a big club. The Latics to us are a very big club, ex Premier League, not many clubs in our division can say they are having a big day out at the home of a former Premier League club.
Barry – Any players that we need to look out for, who will catch our eye?
Chloe – The club is really interested in developing talent from the academy, but at the moment the ones you need to watch out for are our number 7 Joe Sbarra, signed from Burton Albion, only 22, having an unbelievable start to the season with 7 goals in just 10 games.
We’ve also signed a player in the summer, Andy Dallas, former Cambridge United striker, for me he is amazing, he works so hard for the team, runs, runs and runs.
So those two for me are the ones to watch.
Barry – What’s your club colours?
Chloe – Yellow and blue, or maybe all yellow if there is a colour clash with your blue and white stripes.
Barry – Many making the trip north?
Chloe – The Supporters association so far have got two coaches fully booked up, we’re toying with the idea of putting another one on, it’s just working out the finances on that and as the treasurer I have to crunch the numbers, then there will be a load of independent travellers coming up too, it’s quite an easy connection from Birmingham to Wigan.
So there should be, erm, a couple of hundred at least. I know that’s not something that the Latics are probably used to seeing in the away end, but for us that is a big away following.
Barry – Attendances don’t win you games, just enjoy it and see what happens. Go on Chloe, no holding back, what’s your prediction for Saturday?
Chloe – A tough one to call, obviously we are desperate for the win and progress to round 2, I’m going to say it’s a 1-2 win for the Moors, both Sbarra and Dallas on the board, yeah that’s it two one, you’ve heard it here.
Massive thank you to Chloe and I for one am looking forward to a cracking cup tie on Saturday.
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