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More about the Moors

Solihull is one of the most prosperous and sought after boroughs in England, although it also contains areas of social deprivation.

More than a decade and a half since Moor Green merged with their fierce West Midlands rivals Solihull Borough, most of those affected have put the acrimony behind them.

Those who set aside historic rivalries to back the merger are now long-standing Solihull Moors supporters and looking forward to a scarcely believable two trips to Wembley in six days, with tomorrow’s huge play-off final against Bromley, based in south-east London, followed next Saturday by the final of the FA Trophy, non-League football’s showpiece knockout competition, against Gateshead.

From its controversial birth in 2007, a merger that followed two seasons of Moor Green playing home games at Borough’s ground, Solihull Moors has become one of non-League’s success stories.

Promotion to the National League in 2016 was followed by a switch from the semi-professional roots of Moor Green and Solihull Borough to full-time players, while attendances have grown from an average of around 250 in the first post-merger season to routinely more than 1,000 home fans at their Damson Park ground.

And the arrival in 2018 of Darryl Eales, the former Oxford United chairman, as Moors’ new owner gave the club added impetus.

Having made his fortune in private equity, Eales briefly attempted to buy Birmingham from disgraced owner Carson Yeung in 2012. The talks ended quickly, with Eales unable to untangle the mess his boyhood club were in.

Irrespective of tomorrow’s result, they have come a long way from the early post-merger days when their main sources of income included renting spaces in their car park to long-distance lorry drivers for overnight stays and opening the clubhouse as a breakfast venue for night workers at the sprawling Jaguar Land Rover car plant that still surrounds their stadium.

That location — sandwiched between the two sections of JLR with a bridge connecting the site traversing part of Moors’ land — is one of the reasons Eales is eyeing sites for a new stadium, with the aim of moving within five years.    Depending on the flight path, planes landing at Birmingham Airport fly low overhead.

Yet, regardless of Sunday’s result, the off-field mission will continue: to make Solihull Moors more than a popular second club for fans of the giants that surround them, including Birmingham City, Coventry City and Aston Villa.

 

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