1-Leg On The Cup

Step 20… Macclesfield Town v Cardiff City (FACup #9)

Posted on January 10, 2013 by T1Leg

We’re back! Happy new year to one and all, well apart from Mario Balotelli that is! We were all set for the shortest of trips to the home of the champions for our first game of the New Year until the news broke that Balotelli had been involved in some sort of training ground bust up with City boss Roberto Mancini in the build up to the game. Photo’s & rumours hit the media and social networks big time and any chance we had of being guests at the Etihad went out of the window as the 3^rd round cup tie with Watford immediately sold out! Why Always Us??? lol lol

Fortunately we had a backup plan well we had a couple to be honest, but the first on the list was Macclesfield Town’s potential ‘Giant Killing’ game with Championship table-toppers Cardiff City which will probably more likely be a Cardiff goal-fest but at least we had a 3^rd round tie we could go to keeping our FA 34 on track.

£4.35 day return to Macc. And as the train pulled out of Piccadilly station on our 20 mile journey we could see the Etihad in the distance which is only a 20 minute walk from the Rhino’s front door! And I can still honestly say i have seen more concerts at the Etihad than football matches which is mad considering the amount of football games i go to.

The train tickets clearly stated ‘any Virgin service’ so when the guard came along checking everybody’s tickets he was quick to point out that we were on a Cross Country train! “you needed to catch a red train, this is a purple one” he told me handing my ticket back to me. i was torn between excuses, should i explain to him about being colour blind (which is a difficult thing to explain) or should i just point at the Rhino sat across the aisle and blame him for putting us on the wrong train? I went for the latter

The big fella then opted for the ‘keep him talking until we get to Macc. In 5 minutes’ solution but there was no need as the guard was sympathetic towards us asking if the last minute platform alteration back in Piccadilly had added to our confusion? “yeah… YEAH, that’s it… it’s the platform change!!” with that the train pulled in at Macc. Station and me & the big fella got off rapid before we were charged again!

It’s only about a mile from the station to Moss Rose so we arrived at the ground in plenty of time. Tickets were available at £14 for standing or you could buy seats for £18 each so we went for seats for our first game back after the break.

As the big fella went to the ticket window i was approached by one of the Hi-Vis brigade who wanted to know if we were home or away fans? I told him we were neutrals and wanted seats close to the halfway line if possible, i then noticed the price list had a reduced price for ‘concessions’ “is there any price reductions for disabled?” i asked as the Rhino returned with tickets in hand, “coz i’ve got a leg missing” the bloke looked me up & down and then amazingly said “no, that’s not enough!”

I set of laughing as the shock of only having one leg missing isn’t disabled enough and the big fella stepped in on my behalf “wow that’s a bit harsh mate, i’ll take him home and chop all his other limbs off & bring him back next week in a carrier bag! Will that help?” we set off walking round to the far side of the ground and the same Hi-Vis stopped us again “if you’ve bought seats for the halfway line you need to go through this door, it’s all standing on the far side” the Rhino checked the tickets and told the guy there is a rather large seating block on the far side as he had just been looking at the plan of the ground with the girl in the ticket office? A puzzled looking Hi-Vis then said “well yeah, there is seating round there but…” the big fella didn’t let him finish… “look mate, you’ve obviously just borrowed that coat off someone & don’t really work here, there’s a lot of police down that end so if i was you i would stay away from them because they have them cameras that recognise trouble makers” lol lol CLASS!

We got to the far side of the ground just as the Cardiff team coach arrived, i felt this was just the opportunity i needed to do my impression of a teenage girl at a 1D concert and was ready to jump & scream at the sight of the star players and thrust my programme & pen at them for an autograph, but as i watched each face step down from the coach i didn’t recognise any of them! Where was Bellamy, Helguson or Whittingham? I did spot gaffer Malky Mackay but he’s hardly the knicker-wetting superstar i was expecting.

We went inside and took our seats in the huge seating block behind the dugouts. The travelling supporters were to our right in the open air stand and the place was filling up nicely. Macc were 4/1 for any win with the bookies today & i was toying with the idea of having a cheeky fiver on them linked to a few home bankers to bump the price up but i just couldn’t bring myself to do it in the end thinking Mackay must have done his homework & put out a good enough team to see off his non league opposition today.

We’re off! A great crowd of 3,100+ were all in fine voice as Mr. Madley blew for Cardiff to get us underway and within 2 minutes they had the ball in the back of Lance Cronin’s net! A high ball into the area seen Etien Velikonja head the ball down for Nat Jarvis to finish off but the liner was already flagging for offside and i now convinced myself that i had saved a fiver with the bookies

The home side settled after the early scare and were more than holding their own against a City team who were 7 points clear at the top of the Championship and just the odd 81 places above them in the pyramid! Charlie Henry’s powerful drive was on target but straight at City keeper Joe Lewis on 20 minutes and Keiran Murtagh put his first time effort just wide from range moments later, maybe i should of backed them after all? They were the better team as the half hour came up.

The Silkmen were dominating the midfield but not really creating chances, too many times the home side looked to play the ball over the top which was quickly dealt with by the City back four who were all easily six-footers. City were playing their part by hitting on the break as well as playing through the middle with some great passing but again no real threat in the final 3^rd

The home support sensed an upset was on the cards and vocally did their best to be the 12^th man as well as turning the game into an international match now & again with England songs as well. The game needed a goal and it almost came on 35 minutes, Pablo Mills sent his free kick from the halfway line towards the area, Nat Brown flicked it on and Charlie Henry but he scuffed his shot from 6 yards out into the side netting.

The visitors turned up the heat as the first 45 came to an end with a couple of chances in quick succession. Declan John powered his way down the left then cut inside the sliding defence to shoot from just inside the area, Cornin was equal to it and got down quickly to push it round his near post & away to safety. The resulting corner was whipped in and Ben Nugent’s header was on target but once again Cronin was on his toes diving to his right to gather the ball.

Macc players & fans alike were screaming for a penalty in stoppage time when Sam Wedgbury went to ground as he charged into the City area with the ball at his feet, the Ref saw nothing wrong with the challenge but was booed off the pitch moments later when he brought the first half to an end by the home faithful who felt he had given them nothing all day! HT. 0-0.

Rhino – i make my way to the corner flag bar for today’s half time offerings which is just near the corner flag surprise-surprise. Inside there is only room for 150 people and this is sorted out before kickoff, basically if you go in the bar before the game and tell the staff you intend to come back at half time you are issued with a ticket & it’s first come, first served until 150 are given out. Fortunately i got this information from a real Hi-Vis chap who got a ticket for me earlier. Ya see, not just thrown together this shit ya know lol.

I ordered a Beef pie from the choice of 3 on offer as i’ve not had one before and I was a little disappointed if i’m honest, the pastry was hard & had way too much gelatine all over it, the meat didn’t really taste like beef & was dry. Overall, I got the impression this wasn’t the first time this particular specimen had been up for sale and i didn’t finish it all. The Bovril was made with granules but the cup seemed smaller than the many others i have bought over the years. A very poor 4.8 from me.

Mel B. – First of all Happy New Year to everyone foolish enough to read this drivel from me & my BAPS! secondly, what a poor show from Macclesfield a very disappointing opening to the new year! No wonder the lad selling them didn’t want his picture taken but i got a sneaky one of him just for you x

£2.20 for a pie & £1.70 for Bovril isn’t such a bad price but it doesn’t matter how much you sell for so long as your products are right. Beef pies are tricky to keep warm without going dry and maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to remove them completely and go with something a bit more traditional or even exotic and get in touch with Dean at Real Thai Pies! 4.6 from me giving a total of only 9.4 and the Pundit quote (Gary Neville on Liverpool FC) is.. used to be so much better years ago!

The game restarted with more of the same end-to-end action, Amari Morgan-Smith’s effort was deflected just over the bar by Nugent to deny Macc from taking the lead in the opening 5 minutes and at the other end Cardiff looked like taking the lead when Velikonja seemed certain to score only for a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Mills.

The opening goal came in the 57^th minute, Velikonja burst down the left flank into the opposition half and some slick passing through midfield resulted in a ball being played into Declan John, he just managed to keep the ball in play on the by-line then squared it across the goal to Nat Jarvis who somehow managed to squeeze it in under Lance Cronin. 0-1.

The goal meant the away fans voices could now be heard and I have to say going a goal behind didn’t deter the home fans at all, if anything it made them get behind their team even more! Could do with a few like that down the road at Stockport County

On the pitch Macc were wobbling a little and if it wasn’t for a fantastic one-handed save from Cronin to deny Stephen McPhail’s thunderbolt from the edge of the area i think the home side would of collapsed if they would of conceded another as we reached the hour mark.

Macc dragged themselves back into the game and were looking for the equaliser. They forced a corner but all other chances were coming from distance. The class of Cardiff was slowly starting to appear and the chances were too. A powerful shot from Filip Kiss cannoned off Nat Brown and landed at the feet of Declan John but his effort safely found its way into the arms of Cronin.

With just over 10 minutes left there was a moment of madness for Lance Cronin. As he came for the ball near the right touchline, Velikonja dispossessed him. and his snapshot went inches wide of the far post. This was the cue for the home side to go for it!. First came an effort from top scorer Matthew Barnes-Homer, though his shot found the side netting. They then had a number of runs into the area but the Cardiff defence were dogged.

Macc then had a big penalty shout turned down when Craig Braham-Barrett dribbled through the City defence and went to ground. Not for the first time in the game the Ref signalled play on. The home side continued to throw men forward with the minutes ticking away. The ball was worked down the right flank and Jack Mackreth played a superb cross towards the back post over the keeper and landed at the feet of Matthew Barnes Homer who placed the ball safely home! 1-1.

A huge party had now erupted around Moss Rose and everyone was on their feet dancing & singing songs that invited the visiting supporters to use the red dragon from the Welsh flag as some sort of suppository!

Macclesfield did not seem happy with the prospects of a replay and once again continued to push forward. With just 5 minutes left on the clock they were awarded a free kick in the Cardiff half. Pablo Mills played a lofted ball into the area, and as the ball came over the Ref blew his whistle & pointed to the spot! He had spotted a handball by Nat Jarvis and awarded Macc a penalty!

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!! No sign of nerves from Barnes-Homer as he smashed in his & Macclesfield’s second of the day sending (almost) everyone inside the ground into ecstasy & Macc into the 4^th round draw! I didn’t get to see what happened in the closing minutes or in 5 minutes time added on because of the sheer pandemonium that me & the big fella were witnessing but Macc held on for a massive & famous victory. I’m sure the Cardiff faithful will play it down saying they only put their second or even third best team out on the day but that just goes to show you should never take the FA Cup lightly and days like these are what it’s all about. Well done Silkmen, well done indeed! FT 2-1.

We left the ground in search of a bus to take us back to the station so we could get a quick pint before the train at 6.40, as we waited at the bus stop all the street vendors passed us with empty trolleys having sold out of everything and i wanted a half-&-half scarf as a souvenir of the day. The Rhino took a photo of his ticket propped up against a pint when we got to the pub and asked me if that would do instead? lol i’ll just pin the actual ticket up on my desk at home thanks

While we was in the pub next to the train station and just as Man United had taken the lead at West Ham, a small group of Watford fans walked in! How mad is that? even more weird was that a scouse bloke went over to talk to them as he was writing some sort of FA Cup book and asked them about the game at the Etihad, it’s just crazy! These FA writers & bloggers get everywhere! He caught the same train back to Manchester with us & we told him all about our FA Cup journey from last season and i’m not sure if it inspired him or put him off lol still waiting for his email so it’s probably the latter

Back in Piccadilly for 7ish and only waited about 10 minutes for a bus to the Sweaty Spaniard and the beer was on the bar for about 7.45… Job Done! although it will be a bit later next week as we’re hoping the pitch at Gateshead will finally drain the water that’s on it and their Trophy game with Barrow can go ahead!

A massive well done once again to Macclesfield for today’s result keeping the non league flag flying in the best competition in the world and i’m sure the £67,500 prize for today’s win will come in very handy but if you need any help spending it just give us a call

Until then Blog Buds……….

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £4.35 Train + £1.80 Bus = £6.15

Admission each – £18

Mileage covered – 40.8

Total Travel Cost – £112.45

Total Admission – £102.00

Total Mileage – 1,209.4

Total Goals Seen – 82

Posted in FA Cup | Tagged Amari Morgan-Smith, Barrow AFC, Ben Nugent, Cardiff City, Charlie Henry, Craig Braham-Barrett, Declan John, Etien Velikonja, Etihad Stadium, FA Cup, Filip Kiss, Gateshead FC, Jack Mackreth, Joe Lewis, Keiran Murtagh, Lance Cronin, Macclesfield Town, Malky Mackay, Man United, Mario Balotelli, Matthew Barnes-Homer, Moss Rose, Nat Brown, Nat Jarvis, Pablo Mills, Roberto Mancini, Sam Wedgbury, Silkmen, Stephen McPhail, Stockport County, Watford FC, West Ham United | Comments Off

Step 19… Stockport County v Southport FC (FATrophy #6)

Posted on December 24, 2012 by T1Leg

( apologies for the lateness of this post, major website problems )

Our last game of 2012 and by the Saturday morning we still wasn’t sure where we were going, we had planned a trip to Matlock Town for their game against Luton Town for step 19 of our mad idea for this season but after spending all week worrying if the pitch at Causeway Lane would be spared by the plummeting temperatures, we ended up not sure if the game would be on or not due to the amount of rain it had on it!

The Matlock pitch was to be inspected at 9.30 Saturday morning and that was cutting it too close for us to spend £30 on train tickets for a ‘maybe on’ game so we opted for our fall-back plan of a quick bus ride to Stockport for County’s game with Southport FC.

With plenty of time to kill we decided that after today’s game we would hold the 1 Leg On The Cup Christmas party or ‘works do’ back at the Sweaty Spaniard so we set about shopping for decorations and other various items of ‘tat’ from the many £1 shops Stockport has to offer.

I noticed a young lady giving out self-help flyers along with free cup cakes to anyone who would listen to her 2 minute pitch & take a flyer, just what our party needed…. FREE CAKE! Wearing a £1 disguise i approached her and i didn’t even have to listen to her waffle! She just looked a bit scared of me and said “you definitely need help! Take a flyer & help yourself to a cake” job done! this Christmas shopping lark is easy!

With the cake secured we went in search of more party goodies, there was a kitchen sink plunger or plughole un-blocker on display outside PoundLand so while still in disguise i picked it up and went inside to the cashier… “hi there, can you tell me a little more about this plunger & is there any discount as it’s a display model?” for some unknown reason i was asked to leave!

Back in the bus station we jumped on the first bus that was heading Edgeley Park way and added up our shopping spree. We had spent £7 in total on various items to make our party run smoothly & a further £2 on a dozen mince pies from Greggs that we would hand out to people back at the Sweaty because after all… it’s Christmas

We arrived at the ground around 2.15 and if i’m honest we didn’t really want to come here today, we came here to watch a game last season and thought that County were a bit up themselves suffering from massive club syndrome when in reality they’re just another non league outfit and after paying the whopping £16 admission you are detained in the Cheadle End, no moving about the place as non league fans like to do as the other 3 sides are out of bounds with plenty of the Hi-Vis brigade on hand to enforce this. I wondered if the Southport fans were more upset about this issue as they were kept penned in at the other end which is open-air and it was raining!

Still there’s lots of room in the all-seated Cheadle End with only a sprinkling of fans scattered around and even though there’s a block, row & seat number on the £16 ticket you can just sit where you like i suppose?

Unbelievably, a bloke and his son came walking up the stairs and the chap had hold of both tickets in his hand, he got to where me & the big fella were sat and i just knew what was coming next. He checked his tickets, looked at the floor markings, checked his tickets again then turned to the Rhino saying “you’re in our seats mate” I couldn’t contain my laughter as we both looked around at the army of empty blue seats!

The big fella turned back to the bloke and said “there’s about 10,000 empty seats and you want to sit in the one i’m in?” the bloke just held his ticket out in front of the big fella with his finger pointing to the information that proved him right! it really was unbelievable & as we moved seats i asked him if he had been coming here for years & sat there every week? I wasn’t in anyway surprised when he answered ‘NO’ lol lol

3pm and we’re off! The County fans at the back of the Cheadle end were barely through the first verse of their ‘United & City are shite’ song when Karl Ledsham came bursting through for Southport and smashed his shot past Ian Ormson in the County nets from the edge of the area to put the visitors a goal up inside the first minute! 0-1.

“if only we would have stayed in our lucky seats!” the big fella shouted loud enough for the father & son team to hear although he didn’t really have to shout to be honest now that Ledsham’s goal had silenced the home support.

I had seen in the programme that these 2 sides had played here at Edgeley only a couple of weeks before in the league and it had turned out to be a 7 goal thriller with Southport pinching the 3-4 win in the last minute so after today’s opener coming inside the first minute i was expecting another goal-fest!

I was wrong! A very dull opening 20 minutes with lots of ‘kick & chase’ football. County had more of the possession while the visitors had the better of the chances even though there wasn’t that many & they were mainly from outside the box. The rest of the half wasn’t much better, Southport were dogged in defence and looking to hit on the break and County couldn’t find a way through which frustrated their ‘fans’ who were now booing every wayward pass or mistake from a blue shirt. I’ve never liked fans that do this to their own players but i suppose if you have to pay £16 to watch them play you might get a bit miffed if they don’t actually ‘play’ lol HT. 0-1.

Rhino – A Wright’s meat & potato is today’s weapon of choice and apart from it being very expensive at £2.80 it was surprisingly rather good, i say surprisingly as Wright’s pies are supposed to be one of the best out there but sometimes when you’re expecting greatness you end up with disappointment as it lacks in performance, depending on the mood i suppose. As you can see in the photo, Daniel – modelling today’s pie, is showing the fluffy, flaky puff-pastry on the top of the pie even though this has no place on any savoury snack as one bite into this sends the surrounding flakes shedding all over the eater.

The Bovril was well presented in its fully advertised paper cup and served at a good temperature & flavour but at £2 a cup this makes today’s half time treat an expensive experience but then again, that’s Stockport for you! 7.8 from me with points off for extortion.

Mel B. – Jack was more than happy to show us the goodies in his Victor Hot Cupboard and why wouldn’t he? Jack looked just as scrumptious to me as Daniel did modelling the pie! I asked the boys if they wanted to come back to mine after work for a spit roast? but they told me they get discount on the food left over at the end of the day so they we’re fine?!? Something lost in translation there me thinks.

Good but expensive food seems to be the order of the day at Stockport but i would like to ask everyone who might be thinking of going to Edgeley Park in the near future to keep an eye out for my Jack & Danny who will be there somewhere & happy to help. 7.6 from me giving a total of 15.4 and the Pundit quote (Niall Quinn on Rooney & RVP) is.. A fantastic partnership that’s very easy on the eye!

The second half kicked off and surely it had to get better, County changed their shape and brought Craig Hobson on for Danny Whitehead but it was Southport that started the half better forcing a couple of corners in the opening 5 minutes.

County did start to put the pressure on as the home team were now kicking towards the goal we were sat behind and the introduction of Hobson looked a good one as he seemed to be involved in most of their attacking play. A clever one-two with Sean Newton should of brought the sides level but for a fine save from Southport keeper Tony McMillan.

County then brought Tom Collins off the bench to join in the search for the equalizer, some great skill from the latest Sub forced a corner but once again McMillan was in top form this time blocking a blistering volley from Matt Mainwaring then got quickly back on his feet to save the follow up shot from Hobson.

As the half grew older, Southport were being forced deeper & deeper but it looked as if their 5 at the back would hold on to the slender lead and take them through. The very brilliant Conner Jennings had other ideas though and in the last minute the ex Stalybridge & England C team player had the Cheadle End finally cheering for once as he headed home an excellent cross from Newton to level things up. FT 1-1.

All-in-all a poor game but i suppose the draw was about right in the end. Stockport were the better team in the 2^nd half mixing things up and pushed hard towards the end for the goal. it was good to see Conner Jennings in action once again and it’s no wonder Stockport are eager to extend his loan deal from Scunthorpe to keep him at Edgeley a while longer, the guy is brilliant

With our final game of the year now done & dusted we headed back to the Sweaty for a 2012 review & Christmas party! One more try for discount the plunger on the way back to the bus station but Mr. Khann just wasn’t in the festive spirit and was adamant on the £1 price so i bought a Santa hat complete with beard that hadn’t been shop soiled off him instead

Back in Droylsden’s No. 1 Tapas Bar… The Sweaty Spaniard we got busy arranging the decorations and set out the mince pies in a 4-4-2 formation (obviously) A quick re-cap on the story so far this year as we drank the first of many beers on the evening.

19 games so far; 8 in the Cup, 5 in the Vase and now 6 in the Trophy. We’ve covered 1,168.6 miles to see 79 goals and spent £200.30p each on travel & admission. So on average we spend just over £10.50 on each game & travel 61 ½ mile to see 4 goals! So how’s your season stacking up watching your team home & away?

Before too long the party was in full swing! The damsels of Droylsden had turned up to join in all the festivities although the Rhino was a bit baffled and asked me “which one???” when i told him to pin the tail on the donkey!

We purposely didn’t get any mistletoe for obvious reasons and the only real mistake we made was during a game of spin the bottle when one of the party girls concentrated a little too hard on the empty Lambrini bottle and a few of us ended up covered in something not very seasonal at all! Other than that it all went well really

I’ll update our fixture list as soon as i find out where we’re off to next, until then blog buds i’ll try and figure out this self-hosting blogging & just how these websites actually work!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Posted in FA Trophy | Tagged Causeway Lane, Conner Jennings, Danny Whitehead, Edgeley Park, FA Trophy, Ian Ormson, Karl Ledsham, Luton Town, Matlock Town, Matt Mainwaring, Sean Newton, Tony McMillan | Comments Off

Step 18… Barnoldswick Town v AFC Emley (FAVase #5)

Posted on December 13, 2012 by T1Leg

Well it’s that time of year again, no i don’t mean when everyone starts panicking about what to buy for that Uncle they don’t really like or setting their FaceBook status to ‘I’m A Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins’! I mean that time of year when football games are cancelled after 10 o’clock pitch inspections on the day they’re due to kick off at 3pm or sometimes even later giving us poor travelling fans even less time to come up with a back up plan!

We had done all we could for the build up to this game, the big fella’s job was to constantly refresh the Barnoldswick weather forecast on his browser, i had set up the 2 day return tickets for £13.10 on my Red Spotted Hanky app (it’s not my favourite app) so all i had to do was hit the ‘buy now’ button on arrival at Victoria station and we had been in touch with a bloke called Peter Naylor who writes in the programme at Barnoldswick who said he would ring me with any information regarding the game being called off as soon as he found out.

So Saturday morning we’re at Victoria for 11.40am and after Peter had rang to say there was just one small area of the pitch that was a bit suspect we decided to gamble! We bought the train tickets and went and stood on platform 5 to wait for the ‘on time’ 12 o’clock to Clitheroe, like i’ve said before “it’s not just thrown together this shit ya’ know ”

We’re on the train for 1 hour 20 minutes and it’s Greggs on the go all the way to Clitheroe! On the way we stay in touch with fellow blogger, Matthew. Probably better known as @mophead_88 in the non league world, the Swansea City-mad Welshman who teaches English in Salford had also decided to take the gamble on today’s game being on and was on the bus to Burnley for his connection to Barnoldswick. Matt had set off before us and i have to say his tweets were not looking good! Using words like ice, frost, snow and white fields the further he went into the Lancashire hills but i hadn’t had any other phone calls off Peter so it was still fingers crossed!

Ground-hoppers note-> A little bus station / interchange is right outside Clitheroe station and it’s £5.20 for a return ticket to Barnoldswick. The journey planner advised us to go to Colne station then; 10 min walk – 20 min bus ride – 15 min walk. Going the Clitheroe way means about £3 cheaper train ticket then; 1 min walk – 30 min bus ride – 4 min walk.

We only had to wait about 20 minutes for the bus and i thought the £5.20 ticket was a bit steep but then again Barnoldswick is 13 mile away and we were told by one of the locals at the bus stop that the service is very reliable and clean. In fact the only problem we had was the driver had no idea where our stop was! Even though i was showing him on a map on my phone he was still clueless. Fortunately the bloke behind us in the queue was a driver who was taking over and he knew exactly where we were off to

Even though we were on the bus for about half an hour it only stopped about 3 times on the route, once we had left Clitheroe it whizzed its way through all country roads quicker than i would probably drive my car lol we were right out in the sticks today

Obviously we got off the bus and went the wrong way! Either that or we got off the bus too soon but we ended up walking down the main street that had nothing but houses and one phone box on it until we came across a signpost pointing the way to the ground, so our 4 minute walk had just turned into a 15 minute walk anyway!

We finally arrived at the ‘Silent Night Stadium’ at about 2.15. Named after the famous bed company the place was also right next door to some sort of water or sewer works but with no sign of ice or frost to be seen and both teams were warming up on the pitch it was safe to assume our gamble had paid off and our Game 18 was on!

Peter had organised a couple of tickets for us for today so after a quick chat with the guys on the gate we headed for the clubhouse in search of a radiator. Just outside the clubhouse door was a big net, it looked like one of those used by butterfly catchers but it had a telescopic handle and it had me a little confused for a while.

Inside the place was nice & warm with fans from both clubs buzzing about, the bar was in the far corner so i went to get a couple of pints while the big fella, who had spotted the kitchen counter on the other side of the room went to make reservations for half time pies!

We met Peter at the bar and he gave us a couple of programmes and told us we were on page 3! Yeah i know where else would you put a couple of tits other than page 3!? I had to ask Peter what the big net i had messed about with on the way in was for? It looked to me like it was for fishing stray footballs out of a river or pond. “yeah that’s right” he told me “if the ball ends up next door we have to get it back somehow”

The teams were out and shaking hands with each other so it was time for us to brave the elements once more. We took up position right next to the corner flag in the ‘Sewer End’ suddenly, all became clear about that big butterfly net! Let’s hope they give the ball a wash before it goes back in play for someone to head it!

3pm and Mr. Kirk gets this tricky fixture for us underway and it was more of a relief than anything that today’s game was actually on. The temperature is set to plummet over the next couple of weeks so if it hadn’t been played today the chances of a midweek rearranged fixture before Christmas were pretty slim.

The first 20 minutes or so was all one way traffic, the yellow shirted men pressed forward time after time putting the claret & blue team under constant pressure. We were a little confused by this as a home win was odds on for today. Barnoldswick are in the top half of the North West Counties Prem league while AFC Emley are a division below them in the football pyramid, was there an upset on the cards? It certainly looked like it.

“alright boyo’s” I looked round to see the mad Welshman had done his lap of the pitch and come to join us at the Sewer end. “hiya Matt, all Yellows this game… upset on the cards maybe” my fellow blogger agreed with me then started to work one or two things out, “hang on a minute, this corner flag is blue & yellow and so is the flag with The Sewer End written on it and it’s got the Barnoldswick badge on it!”

I pulled the team sheet from my pocket and sure enough there it was in black & white, home team in yellow & blue! So both the Rhino and Matt had presumed that because Burnley is close to Barnoldswick the team playing today in a claret & blue, Burnley look-a-like kit were the home side and had done for the first half hour of the game! lol lol what a pair of numpties not me you understand… i’m colour blind, have been all my life so… HA!

The first 15 minutes of the game was all one way traffic and going to form the home side were completely dominant and all the action was at the far end of the pitch. Full backs Jack Overson & Liam Blades both had plenty of room to run into for Town as Emley played a narrow but packed midfield. Shots from No. 11 Ashley Alderson & No. 8 Neil Chapman went close for the home side but player manager Stweart Airdrie went closest as his effort hit the side netting on 15 minutes as Town looked for the opener.

Emley looked to have the game plan of many an underdog by soaking up pressure then trying to hit on the break usually with a ball over the top for No. 9 Ashley Flynn to try and latch onto. As we approached the half hour and while some members of the crowd were working out which team were which, Luke Herriott was picking the ball out of the back of his goal but Town’s Lewis Jordan was ruled offside and we stayed at 0-0.

Just after the half hour we make it 47 games in a row without a nil-nil as we get our first of the day and it’s Emley who take the lead! it has to be said that it was against the run of play but this is cup football… anything can happen.

The visitors No. 10 Anthony Haigh crossed the ball from the left and No. 9 Ashley Flynn was just off the pace but went sliding in to stab the ball home through the legs of Town keeper Alex Woodcock. 0-1. It seemed to knock the wind out of the home side for the rest of the half with their only real effort coming in the last minute when Airdrie’s volley went just over the angle but the visitors had come with a plan and they were sticking to it, and it was working! HT. 0-1.

Rhino – As we walked into the clubhouse before kickoff i overheard the kitchen girls saying they were a bit low on stock for today’s game because nobody knew if it would be on or not for certain. Always the professional i acted quickly and asked Barney if she would hold 2 pies back for us for half time to avoid any disappointment and she said she would, bless her.

Looking at the tray of pies before they went into the oven at first glance i thought they were Holland’s meat pies but Barney explained that they were homemade Steak & Ale pies made by yet another secret supplier! A high score from me for today’s offerings, a steak-packed pie with very nice ale flavoured gravy and for just £2 it comes with peas and served up in proper crockery for the full experience. Spot on! 8.9 from me because i’m still not sure about the Bovril.

Mel B. – ooh i do like homemade pies! Well done to Barney and the girls at the silent night and i have also been told that they make a rather special pie to rival the mighty Goole AFC! And who knows? We might have even had a new front runner if the weather hadn’t put a doubt on everything this week.

I myself have an issue with the beef tea, it says Bovril at £1.20 on the price list but i can’t be sure if they’re sneaking oxo on the punters as it’s kept out of sight when you’re in the queue but at least you get served in a proper mug which is nice. A good score of 8.5 from me gives an impressive 17.4 overall total and the Pundit quote (Andy Gray on Matt Le Tiss) is.. Every club has its star or main attraction!

We were a bit reluctant to leave our warm, cosy surroundings and head back outside as it was now raining with that horrible misty rain that soaks you through! Emley had kicked off as we made our way back to our seats but we had to stop and watch Town No. 9 Mark Threlfall as he won the ball back from the restart and headed this way.

With less than a minute on the clock Threlfall had beaten 3 Emley players before cutting inside to shoot low and hard from the edge of the area giving Herriott no chance in the Emley nets and he levelled the scores before the visitors had time to blink. 1-1.

The following 20 minutes seen us watching some good old-fashioned cup football with both teams going for it. Emley responded well to conceding by immediately going on the attack when Flynn ran at the defence to set up Steven Kenworthy who shot just wide of the post. Back down the other end Alderson’s cross was initially dropped by Herriott but the Emley keeper was brave as he smothered the ball with Neil Chapman bearing down on him!

It was all getting messy in the Sewer end as Town pushed for another goal, Jordan should of done better from close range and Billy Priestley forced the best save of the game when Herriott just about got his fingertips to his perfectly place header from yet another fine cross from Airdrie.

Emley stuck to the game plan and full backs Liam Schofield & Anthony Leech always had room in front of them to run into with the ball before finding Flynn on the break. We passed the hour mark with both teams introducing fresh legs in an attempt to take the lead and with 74 on the clock we notched up our 3^rd goal of the day.

A poor clearance from Woodcock in the Town goal presented the ball to Kenworthy who slotted the ball through the gap perfectly for Flynn to run on to and beat Woodcock on his near post, best goal of the day. 1-2.

The 2 front men combined again minutes later with Flynn this time the supplier for Kenworthy but this time a brilliant one-handed save from Woodcock kept his side in the game as Town were now committing more men forward & leaving holes at the back. Emley added another in the 80^th minute when Flynn set up substitute Doran Jordan with the easiest of tap-ins to give the visitors a 2 goal cushion and when Town Sub Aaron Hollindrake somehow side-footed over an empty net from 3 yards in the last knockings, Emley knew they were through. FT. 1-3.

I’ve never seen anyone celebrate a 3^rd round win in any competition the way Emley gaffer Daz Hepworth was. Jumping around, screaming & shouting and that’s being nice about it! Ashley Flynn must of woke up the next morning covered in bruises with the amount of back slapping his manager & teammates inflicted on him! I’m sure the Emley chairman will be pretty chuffed as well with the £1,500 from the FA for today’s win

We had about an hour to kill before our 5.52 bus back to the station so we went back to the clubhouse for a couple of beers with Matt. we were hoping to get a couple of photos with the Emley team but by the time we left we could still hear them singing songs about going to Wembley as we passed their changing room We said goodbye to Peter and he pointed us in the right direction to get to the bus stop which did only take about 3 or 4 minutes to get to this time. Matt left us at the stop and set off up the main street to catch his bus back to Burnley and i’m sure he will have his blog done by now on his site Lost Boyos

The 280 bus arrived right on time and once again we were speeding through the country lanes back to Clitheroe but this time in total darkness which seemed to make the journey quicker somehow. We got to the station to find the 20 minute wait on the platform had turned into 45 minutes as the dreaded ‘train is delayed’ announcement came over the speaker.

On the platform was a guy called Ian who we asked if there was a pub nearby we could go to rather than wait on the cold platform in the rain, he pointed the way saying there was a pub just up the street so we asked if he wanted to come for a pint with us? “not me lads, i’m in rehab & i’m 8 months sober!” what a top bloke though, i give him my phone number as we left for the pub and he said he would ring if the train made up any ground, which it did and he did! Cheers Ian

The train ride must have been awful for Ian, everyone on the train seemed to be bladdered! Lots of different groups of people all heading for Manchester on various work & office outings that come around once a year under the heading ‘Christmas Do’ what a nightmare!

At least the bus back to Droylsden was ok! A much more happier bus than last week anyway there was even some Christmas songs being sung upstairs by a bunch of youths who looked more like they would be vandalising the bus if anything! I left the bus full of Christmas cheer thinking all was well in the world until we got to the corner of Market Street to find a bloke in his 20’s being sick in a bin while his mate, who was covered in blood, needed the support of a lamppost to wait for him!

It was close to 9.30 as we walked into the Sweaty Spaniard to bring an end to another day out and with the Vase now down to the last 32 for the next round in January we look at a few results from the day to see where we may be off to next. Newport Isle of White won, wonder if they’ll get a home draw?

FA Trophy 2^nd round is next for us and it’s also our last game for 2012. We’re looking at Matlock Town v Luton Town but this time we have a backup plan! Stockport County are also playing at home against Southport so if the weather gods frown on Matlock but leave Stockport alone we may just have to switch at the list minute until then Blog Buds…

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £6.55 Train + £5.20 Bus = £11.75

Admission each – Free

Mileage covered – 86.6

Total Travel Cost – £106.30

Total Admission – £78.00

Total Mileage – 1,148.0

Total Goals Seen – 77

Posted in FA Vase | Tagged Aaron Hollindrake, AFC Emley, Alex Woodcock, Anthony Haigh, Ashley Alderson, Ashley Flynn, Barnoldswick Town, Daz Hepworth, Doran Jordan, FA Trophy, FA Vase, Greggs, Jack Overson, Lewis Jordan, Liam Blades, Luke Herriott, Luton Town, Mark Threlfall, Matlock Town, Neil Chapman, Silent Night Stadium, Southport FC, Stockport County, Stweart Airdrie, Wembley | Comments Off

Step 17… Accrington Stanley v Oxford United (FACup #8)

Posted on December 5, 2012 by T1Leg

Well we’ve reached the half way point of our 34 game adventure and with a choice of FA Cup 2^nd round fixtures to pick from once the TV people had moved a few games to the Sunday & Monday, we went for a Northern team whose name conjures up images of flat caps, woodbines, whippets and a couple of scouse kids drinking milk in the 1980’s! Yes you’ve guessed it….. Accrington Stanley! And i know you have just said “who are they” in a scouse accent in your head

After making our choice on what game to go to earlier in the week, the next choice was what to get from Greggs in Manchester for the train ride to Accrington. The Rhino decided to try out his ‘Lancashire’ accent on the Greggs staff that he had been practicing all week “’ow do, ya’ll reet?” which translated means ‘Hello, are you all right?’ after that, even i couldn’t understand what the big fella was talking about let alone the poor mare behind the counter! He just kept changing words so that they began with a ‘TH’ or making a ‘tut’ noise before pronouncing them lol so i left him to it and went outside.

He must of made himself understood at some point as we were now on our way to Victoria station for the 12 o’clock train to Blackburn with coffee & sausage rolls in hand only £5.90 each for a day return to Accrington or should i say ‘th’ac-rin-tin’ oh bollox to it! i’ll stick with the Terry Christian accent god gave me

Our train was put back to 12.04 then 12.12! this was going to be tricky as we only had a 16 minute wait at Blackburn for the connecting train so if it gets delayed any more we knackered. Not only that our favourite ground-hopping blogger; Gibbo was joining the train at Bolton and coming to today’s game with us. Just in case you’re not familiar with the young Bolton Wanderer’s ramblings, he writes an excellent blog of his own covering all the 92 league grounds as well as a lot of non league stuff that’s well worth a read from the little pie chomping Jedi – Gibbo’s 92

The train didn’t make up any of its lost time but more importantly it didn’t lose anymore! Gibbo was there waiting at Bolton and we had about 3 minutes to spare at Blackburn for our connection which was just enough time for the young fella to have his photo took in his Bolton shirt in Blackburn! Fortunately for him there wasn’t any Rovers fans at the station as they were playing Burnley the next day in what the locals were billing as.. t’classico

Only a short walk from the station to the ground but the hills were the steepest we’ve come across to date! Whilst me & Gibbo were marching on at full pace the Rhino was lagging behind by a few yards and was having some serious Green Cross Code issues as every time we looked back to see where he was, he was involved in some sort of game of ‘chicken’ with various motorists as he tried to cross the road lol lol

We eventually arrived at the Crown Ground and went in the pub just outside called ‘The Crown’ funnily enough. The place was packed with fans from both Accrington & Oxford United with everybody watching the West Ham v Chelsea game, you couldn’t help but watch the game as the place had more TV’s than Currys! And one or two of them was as old as me!

After a quick pint we move on to the ground to pick up our tickets that the very kind people at Accrington had left at reception for us on the way we spotted the Accy mascot in the car park so not wanting to miss getting my photo taken with him, we went over. Gibbo was a little unsure as to what sort of animal the costume-clad chap was supposed to be, so asked “are you a dog?”

My first thoughts were what a wonderful chat-up line this would be in a dimly lit pub or club! It would save you a potential fortune on Rum & Coke’s and a late night kebab if you was to find out at the start of an evening rather than at the end, so i commended the boy on his choice of words

Once inside the ground i realised how close this game had been to being called off, the covers that had protected the pitch from the frost had been pulled over to the sides and were covered with broken ice! With today’s game being an all League 2 affair it hadn’t dawned on me that i may need a back-up plan but luckily for us we were good to go

Just before kickoff i nipped off for a quick fag (yeah i know! I’m giving up in the New Year!) and i returned to find the Rhino sat alone. “Where’s Gibbo?” the big fella then went on to tell me i get a bit ‘mumsie’ when Gibbo comes to a game with us! “You’re a bit like a women when she sees a new born baby, you get sort of.. well… Broody!” i told him it’s not my fault i’ve been a one parent family for most of my life and that my little lad has all grown up now. “well next time he comes with us you can tie a helium balloon to his belt loop so you can keep an eye on him and bring some Calpol & Gripe water with you in case he gets poorly!” only wanted to know where he was, wish i had never asked now! lol

3 o’clock and game 17 gets underway! Stanley are in a red & white kit and kickoff the first half playing from left to right. There was a bit of confusion right from the start as most of the Stanley faithful sat with us had no idea who their goal keeper was or had ever seen him before? The regular shot stopper had been injured and the emergency loan signing Paul Rachubka met his new team mates only 2 hours before taking his place between the posts! Love this game me

First pop at goal came from the visitors in the opening couple of minutes when James Constable’s effort was easily saved by the debutant keeper, welcome to Accrington Paul, wonder if anyone told him Oxford won the league fixture between these 2 teams 5-0 back in September!

A pretty lively opening 10 minutes with the home side probably edging it after No. 23 Padraig Amond had U’s keeper Ryan Clarke well beaten only to see his chipped effort headed off the line and No.33 Rommy Boco hit the woodwork. But it wasn’t all one way traffic.

United front men were also looking good, Peter Leven had his shot blocked by skipper Luke Joyce and Stanley’s No. 6 Dean Winnard was quickest to react to clear the ball from a United corner as Jon-Paul Pittman was about to pull the trigger. But Pittman wasn’t to be denied just a couple of minutes later, the visiting No. 11 had pace to spare as he turned defender Aristote Nsiala inside out with some neat ball control before cutting into the box to open the scoring from close range 0-1.

Going a goal down just made Stanley step up the pressure, a couple of well taken Luke Joyce corners were scrambled away by the U’s defence and both Amond & Boco went close from range. Joyce was playing further up field than the team sheet suggested he should have been but it was his ball out to Boco that brought the home side back on terms.

Boco whipped the ball in for James Beattie, yes that James Beattie you had probably forgotten about the ex Southampton & Everton man couldn’t take his chance but the ball fell nicely for No. 7 Craig Lindfield who knocked in the easiest of chances on 25 minutes. 1-1.

For the next 20 minutes we was watching some good old fashioned cup football, Pittman was looking increasingly dangerous for the visitors along with Peter Leven & James Constable, and it has to be said that Stanley defenders Nisala & Winnard were struggling to contain them at the back. Nothing wrong with Stanley’s offensive game; Boco, Amond & Beattie all had half-chances but United’s Michael Raynes was usually on hand to snuff out any real threat on goal. on the stroke of half time Pittman had to be stretchered off with one of his arms pointing the wrong way after a fairly innocuous looking challenge but i had to laugh as the stretcher crew came running onto the field to the sound of the fans chanting “nee-nor, nee-nor, nee-nor, nee-nor” Mr. Woolmer blew his whistle just after the delay and the game was nicely balanced at the break. HT. 1-1.

Rhino – With the temperature dropping almost by the minute i was looking forward to a cup of the Beefy stuff more than anything else at half time, Gibbo had offered to go to the tuck shop at half time for me but i was devastated by his news when he returned.

He told me that next to the word ‘Bovril’ on the price list was ‘N/A’ meaning they didn’t have any… Gutted! Not only that he came back eating a pie and hadn’t got one for me! this was a double blow for me and he made it even worse by telling me the pie he was eating was “very nice!”

But things then got a whole lot better for me as i spotted a vision of what i can only describe as ‘SHEER BEAUTY!’ from nowhere appeared a goddess with a hot box strapped to her chest that was full of pies and she was wandering around the fans knocking them out for £2 a go!

I’ve noticed over the years that people tend to go for good looks, personality or a combination of the 2 when it comes to the opposite sex but you can keep all the nonsense! I’m in LOVE! A girl who walks about with a shed load of hot pies over her shoulder is definitely the girl for me and even though the hills on the short walk from the station had made my doggy knee flare up, i rushed over to her, dropped down on one knee (the good one) and popped the question…………. “can i have a Meat & Potato please?” and she said YES! half a point off for not having Bovril so it’s a 9.5 from me.

Mel B. – Well it looks like i’m not number one on the Rhino’s Christmas card list anymore! And there was me thinking we might pick up where we left off at last year’s office xmas party with those rather embarrassing prints from the photocopier! I wonder if Gibbo’s 92 would consider coming in for me & my BAPS in the January transfer window?

Still, getting back to a more constructive pie review for the pie fans out there. Clayton Park supply the Crown Ground with the half time treats and with a choice of meat & potato only from the Bimbo with a Bag it was a bit difficult to award anything more than a 5. As you would expect from the well known supplier but there seemed to be a little more onion than usual in this one. A further 1.1 points for the extra tray & folk brings my total to a more realistic 6.1 and the Pundit quote (Lawro on Jamie Redknapp) is.. it’s not all about looking good, it’s about being good!

The second half gets underway and its getting pretty cold now so i’ve brought my cozy hat as well as my Shepshed scarf! Not only that, i’ve got thermals on that feel a bit like women’s tights “how do you know what tights feel like then?” the big fella asked me, the answer was simple, i used to drive a battered old black cab years ago and used to wear them then in a bid to stay warm but knowing he wouldn’t believe me i just told him i dabble in the world of cross-dressing every other Monday

Only a couple of minutes into the 2^nd period the stretcher crew were out again to the sounds of the fans imitating an ambulance siren when United’s Andy Whing went down after over-stretching to get the ball. United had also made a tactical change during the break so when Adam Chapman came on for the injured Whing that was all 3 subs used by the visitors on 48 minutes.

With both teams still playing end-to-end stuff it was only the weather that was spoiling a really good game. both keepers were being tested, Clarke turned an excellent Boco effort round the post while Rachubka was looking like he had kept goal for the home side for years saving shots from Constable & Sean Rigg comfortably. Lee Molyneux came on for Stanley just after the hour as the home team went in search of a winner.

Boco is again denied by Clarke who easily gathered his long range effort but it was Rachubka at the other end who pulled off the save of the game as he got fingertips on a thunderous Sean Rigg shot that looked destined for the top corner.

Only 10 minutes to go and the game was perfectly balanced, it had ‘Draw’ written all over it but the way both sides had attacked on the break you just thought in the back of your mind someone could just knick it. Step forward, step up, take a bow.. whichever you want to use… James Beattie!

The ball was cleared by the United defence only to fall to the feet of Beattie who was about 25 yards out, the ex England striker rolled back the years with a fantastic effort off the outside of his boot that had all the right ingredients to take it past Clarke. Power, swerve & dip sent the ball clipping the inside of the upright on its way into the net for a mouth-watering goal that should wrap this game up.

In true cup football fashion the visitors wouldn’t lie down and take Beattie’s wonder goal as the knockout punch but stepped up the pace and went all out offensive looking for their second of the day! all good stuff for us

85 on the clock, Alfie Potter goes on a magical (ooh bad one that) run through the middle then plays Constable in with a wizard (ooh worse!) of a pass. The United No. 9 carried on into the area with the ball at his feet then picked out a spot in the bottom corner to beat the very impressive Rachubka. 2-2.

Mr. Woolmer added 4 minutes to the game and both sides now looked to protect their own goal rather than attacking the other, any defensive slip-up at this stage would surely prove fatal. Liam Davis committed a foul just outside the area and Stanley sub. Lee Molyneux stepped up to try and pinch the win for the home side.

BOOM! One of the best left footed strikes i’ve seen for a while had the home support off their seats in the 92^nd minute! 3-2. The perfectly hit strike had left no time for United to respond and surely put Stanley in the hat for Sunday’s live 3^rd round draw as there was only seconds left on the clock. BOOM! In the 94^th minute Peter Leven crossed the ball from the left for the outstanding Michael Raynes to get his head on and level the score once again in front of the travelling support, who went a bit mental at this point lol 3-3.

That really was that this time. Mr. Woolmer kept his whistle between his lips and brought the game to an end with the same breath he had restarted it with and this six goal thriller was over. I suppose a fair result in the end as both sides had played well and if the replay is only half as good as this one it will be another great game. FT. 3-3.

We didn’t hang around after the game, it was freezing! We had just over an hour to get to the station for our train but it was fortunately downhill for the most part we stopped off at a different pub on the way back called The Oaklea for a quick pint & to kill a bit of time, rather be inside somewhere than waiting on a cold station platform.

Blending in well with the locals thanks to Gibbo’s new £40 Accrington shirt it was time to talk about Man of the Match. Debutant keeper Paul Rachubka & skipper Luke Joyce were definite contenders for Stanley while Pittman probably would have been a contender for Oxford if he hadn’t been injured but in the end we went for Oxford’s No. 4 Michael Raynes. Defended well throughout the game including a couple of goal-line clearances and of course he headed the late-late equaliser.

The train back was only a couple of minutes late so we didn’t have any drama’s with the connection at Blackburn plus Gibbo now had a Stanley shirt on over the top of his Wanderers top so no need for the Rhino to be on bodyguard duty either!

On the train from Blackburn to Manchester we come across 2 guys who had been at today’s game that live and work in Bolton, nothing strange about that but they were both Oxford fans! Which did seem a bit weird lol. we parted company with Gibbo at Bolton and the big fella immediately ripped into me again… “have you told him to one-bell you when he gets home so you know he’s safe & sound?” there’s just no need for it! lol

We got to Piccadilly gardens to get the bus to the Sweaty Spaniard to find that there hadn’t been a bus for over an hour! The 216 service is supposed to be every 10 minutes so you can imagine the amount of people who had gathered at the bus stop to wait for it, this was going to be tricky!

Normally i take a photo of us on the bus to Droylsden that’s usually quite a happy little snap of us but the amount of carnage i caused when the bus finally arrived meant i was in everybody’s bad books on the bus so i thought the best thing for me to do was just sit quietly while the big fella tried to calm everyone down then make a break for the exit when we got to Droylsden! HA! It worked

Once we were safely in the SS we celebrated the fact we were half way through the FA 34 now that game 17 had been successfully completed. Gawwd knows what the big fella was drinking by the end of the night be he looked happy enough although i think that was more to do with today’s pie seller than anything else!

The second half of the 34 is obviously going to be a lot tougher for us with no local teams left in the Vase and only Stockport left in the Trophy that’s close to us. The weather will also play its part as well with games at non league grounds being called off due to frost at this time of year. So with that in mind we’ve opted for Barnoldswick Town v AFC Emley in the Vase 3^rd round for our next game, reason being i can steal my son’s car for the night if the game is cancelled and rearranged to a midweek fixture! It’s only 43 mile away and he’s got a really quick BMW so easy-peesy lol until then Blog Buds……

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £5.90 Train

Admission each – Free

Mileage covered – 57.0

Total Travel Cost – £94.55

Total Admission – £78.00

Total Mileage – 1,061.4

Total Goals Seen – 73

Posted in FA Cup | Tagged Accrington Stanley, Adam Chapman, AFC Emley, Alfie Potter, Andy Whing, Aristote Nsiala, Barnoldswick Town, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea FC, Craig Lindfield, Dean Winnard, Everton FC, FA Cup, Greggs, James Beattie, James Constable, Jamie Redknapp, Jon-Paul Pittman, Lee Molyneux, Luke Joyce, Michael Raynes, Oxford United, Padraig Amond, Paul Rachubka, Peter Leven, Rommy Boco, Ryan Clarke, Sean Rigg, Southampton FC, Terry Christian, The Crown Ground, West Ham United | Comments Off

Step 16… FC Halifax Town v Altrincham FC (FATrophy #5)

Posted on November 28, 2012 by T1Leg

Back on the Trophy Trail for step 16, probably my favourite of the 3 competitions we’re doing this season, and we’re taking the short train journey to Halifax as they take on Altrincham in todays 1^st round proper tie. £5,000 is up for grabs for the winners from the FA’s healthy back pocket so let’s get it done without a replay & more importantly let’s make this game No. 45 since this blog began, without seeing a Nil-Nil..!

“On It” the text read from 4 stops back, meaning the big fella was aboard the 217 bus coming my way. We arrive in Manchester just after 11.30 and it’s only a 2 minute walk to Victoria station so we’ve got plenty of time to catch the 11.48 to Halifax.

Only £6.85 each for a day return plus Halifax have told me that one ticket will be left on the gate for me and we’ll have to split the £10 for the other keeping today’s cost pretty cheap for our first visit to The Shay. We met a Blackburn Rovers fan on the train who took the photo for us and told us he was on his way to Ewood to watch the game there, he also told us he had put £20 on QPR to win at Old Trafford and Willy Hills had matched it so he had £40 at 18/1 for any win! I must admit our thoughts were with him later in the afternoon especially when the news filtered through that Jamie Mackie had put Rangers 1-0 up!

We arrive in Halifax about 12.40 and the Rhino’s first thoughts are.. “more hills here than Buxton & New Mills put together!” fair point, it was a bit up & downy still we set off into the town in search of food as we had missed out on our usual Greggs pre journey ritual.

It wasn’t long before we came across the famous blue & white sign and according to a couple of tweets on the day, Halifax has 2 Greggs shops! Unfortunately for us we found the one that had sold out of sausage rolls so we had to settle for a coffee only breakfast even though the very helpful girl was pushing some sort of turkey & cranberry lattice thing at me that was on special offer.

Looking at the map, the sat-nav appeared to be sending us in the totally wrong direction even though we had it set to the ‘walking’ mode and we were using the postcode taken from Halifax’s website that states ‘use this for sat-navs’

We were sure we had passed the floodlights of the ground as the train was pulling into the station and it just didn’t look right so we decided to go old school and ask directions from someone who ‘looked local’ i’m still not sure how someone can look local but the Rhino enlisted the help of a young chap waiting outside a shop for his girlfriend who pointed the way saying “you can’t miss it” HA! Famous last words so i went into a newsagents to double check and when i asked the guy if i was going the right way for The Shay, he told me “no idea, never heard of it but then again, i’m not from around here!” Great!

As luck would have it the young fella was right, after walking for about 15 minutes through the town centre in a fairly straight line we come to a ‘T’ junction and the choice was to turn right up a very steep hill or left and go down it! we went left good choice for once and we arrived at the ground just after 2 o’clock.

Not much happening outside the ground but then again we were there pretty early, we had arranged to meet a guy called Alan who writes for the programme & the website for an interview about doing the 34 so after splitting the £10 ticket we went to the bar inside the Shay to meet him, what a nice chap, bought us a beer too!

3 o’clock was soon upon us and it was time to get step 16 underway. Halifax in their blue shirts & socks with white shorts were attacking the goal to our right but it was Altrincham in their red & white stripe shirts who got us going at the sound of Mr. Millers whistle.

The floodlights were on right from the start on a cold, rain-threatening afternoon at The Shay but both teams play in the Blue Square North so they should be used to shite weather and with Halifax 6 places above Alty it came as no surprise when it was the home side who had the first shy on goal after just 2 minutes when No. 9 Dale Johnson tried his luck from 30 yards but it turned out to be one of those ‘the corner flag was in more danger’ efforts as the centre forward’s shot went woefully wide.

With only 5 minutes on the clock we went yet another game avoiding a nil-nil when Alty took the lead. I can’t really say if it was with or against the run of play because we hadn’t really had any but it was against the form book as bookies had this game down as a home banker.

A poor defensive clearance presented the ball to Nicky Clee out on the right, he carried the ball to the edge of the area and fired the ball at goal. Matt Glennon between the sticks made a good save to block the shot only to see the ball fall to the feet of No. 10 Damian Reeves! Obvious what was to happen next lol. the unmarked Alty Hit man had the easiest of tap-ins to take his goal tally for the season to an amazing 21 in league & cup! 0-1.

The visitors pressed again with Reeves this time the provider, a great run down the left from the Alty wonder kid sending in a good ball across the area that the Halifax defence had to deal with before No. 9 James Lawrie connected with it. Altrincham were leaving themselves a bit vulnerable at the back playing such an open game and front men Lee Gregory & Gareth Seddon both had chances to pull the home side level.

With 20 minutes gone we were enjoying a really good, open game with Halifax beginning to have more of the play & creating the better of the chances although Clee was leaving Town’s left back Phill Bolland for dead every time the visitors came forward down the right and it was obvious Bolland was struggling with some sort of injury.

Forced into an early change Bolland comes off for Ryan Toulson to make his return to the team with cheers of “should have been on from the start” coming from the East stand we were sat in. A very chilly Rhino seemed concerned for the substituted defender as he asked “does he have to sit on the bench with an ice pack on his foot in this cold?” lol ‘how thoughtful’ i thought as we both started betting each other how long it would be before his toes turned blue!

Halifax were now beginning to dominate the game and every time they had the ball it ended with either a shot on goal or a corner, Alty keeper Stuart Coburn made a couple of easy saves but when he was beaten, the ball was just off target or hacked away by the defence but you still felt it was only a matter of time before Halifax made the breakthrough.

The temperature off the pitch was dropping but not on it, three yellow cards were dished out in quick succession as both sides continued to play open & attacking football. tackles were flying in from all over in this ‘end to end’ encounter and the only thing missing was goals but on the half hour we got our second of the day.

Gregory carried the ball down the flank before cutting inside to shoot from the corner of the area across Coburn, the keeper made a good effort to stop the shot but there was just too much on it and the ball nestled into the far corner to level the scores. 1-1. It was no more than they deserved and they continued to press forward looking for another before half time.

As the first half came to an end i can only really talk about one man, Gareth Seddon! 43 minutes on the clock and Jason St. Juste swings the ball in from a corner met by skipper Danny Lowe, his header was parried by Coburn for Seddon to stab home to give Halifax the lead 2-1.

45 on the clock and another corner for the home side, Gregory climbed highest to nod down for his strike partner and Seddon made no mistake from close range for his second of the day with Alty screaming for an offside flag that never came. 3-1.

45+1 From the restart, Alty midfielder Jake Moult lost possession in the heavily sanded area of the pitch close to the half way line, the ball ended up with Seddon who went charging up field in search of his hat trick, he struck hard & on target and even though Coburn got a glove on it the ball still had enough power to get through to the top corner… BOOM! 3 goals in 3 minutes 17 seconds must be a record in the FA Trophy surely? Even if it isn’t, it was definitely an ‘i was there moment’ for me and the big fella as the Ref brought the half to an end moments later. HT. 4-1.

Rhino – Half time pie review? Well no, not just yet. 1 Leg had been posting in the Halifax forum all week and had been told to steer clear of the food in the East stand, which was where we were! We had also been given the same information by a few of the staff here at the Shay but they didn’t want to be named for obvious reasons, so it would be foolish to ignore all this advice and i’ll be reviewing a rather special pie later on

We did get a Bovril each from the canteen at £2 a cup and while we were indoors getting warm & enjoying the beefy goodness, 1 Leg noticed the club mascot walking passed and insisted on a photo! He’s become obsessed with having his picture taken with these furry creatures even though they don’t want to half the time lol 1 Leg’s the one on the left!

The second have started with the rain that had been threatening all day now lashing down. A slight delay to the restart as there was no sign of the Alty keeper who was probably still feeling a bit shell-shocked after Seddon’s lightning hat trick at the end of the first half.

Coburn finally appeared so we could get started and if he wasn’t already feeling as miserable as the weather he soon would be! The first attack of the half seen Lee Gregory through on goal with the ball at his feet only to be pulled back by Alty’s Danny Hall. Mr. Miller deemed the defender was the ‘last man’ and had denied Gregory a goal scoring chance with the foul and Hall’s card was red.

There’s no doubt the red card changed the game, Alty had to reshuffle their defence to keep a back 4 meaning they were now limited in attacking options. A few breakaway chances were soon snuffed out by Halifax who know came forward at will keeping the visitors under constant pressure.

With just 51 on the clock Halifax registered another when one of their ex players, Dale Johnson slid into the box to bundle the ball over the line after a cross from the left. 5-1. It looked like a route maybe on the cards and i said as much to the Rhino, “no, not yet” the big fella told me “5-1 is officially known as a spanking”

Just a couple of minutes later Nicky Clee chalked off Johnson’s goal with a superb effort of his own. A free kick from about 35 yards out was placed with pin-point accuracy into the top right hand corner of Glennon’s net from the left footer for the best goal of the day. 5-2.

Halifax continued to dominate the game and it was nice to see the introduction of ex Droylsden favourite Dan Gardener come on the pitch for the home side. Lots of ‘oohs & arhhs’ from the Halifax support as chance after chance went begging until Alty finally waved the white flag swapping Reeves & Clee for Ryan Brooke and Paddy Lacey to shut up shop and close the game out as it stood. FT 5-2.

A quick dash to the Three Pigeons just up the road from the ground as we’ve got time for a couple of pints of real ale before our train back. The barman in the pub suggested our choice of beer as we try and decide on a man of the match. On any other day, Jason St. Juste would have been the only choice, the left back not only defended well but was involved in nearly every attack from the home side, and there was far too many to count!

But how can you take it away from Gareth Seddon? Scoring a hat trick is a great achievement in any game but to do it in less than 4 minutes is quite incredible! To be fair he could have had a lot more if it wasn’t for Stuart Coburn’s heroics in the Alty goal who despite letting 5 in, saved an awful lot more. I Really hope Seddon’s triple is a record in the Trophy but just in case it isn’t, he can be safe in the knowledge that he’s our MOM! Praise indeed!

Back in Manchester just in time to get to Piccadilly gardens and more importantly, a pie stall! After being told by lots of people to avoid the food at the Shay, unless you have access to the burger van behind the goal, which we didn’t. We headed for a Thai Pie stall I had been told about and i thought the big fella could do a report from here rather than no report at all because they’re supposed to be Thai-rrific!

Rhino – well this is different but i must admit after reviewing over 40 pies during this blog it’s about time i came across something a bit unusual. Dean & Becky are a man and wife team who have combined various authentic Thai ingredients with a 30 year old family pie recipe to come up with The Real Thai-Pie Company and all i can say is…. FANTASTIC!

After much deliberation i went for the meat & potato that had an unusual name that i couldn’t pronounce but it was lovely! You can always spot the quality of a homemade pie and this was indeed, quality! Generous portions of meat inside a thick, short crust pastry housing with various spices giving different flavours with almost every bite and real potato pieces instead of that mush you get in other pies complimented this fist-full perfectly.

Such a shame this bad boy wasn’t purchased at the match meaning it can’t be given a score on the pie-ometer page because it would be up there with the best of them. even the little pastry elephant on top played its part as 1 Leg convinced the twins on their 13^th birthday the following day that the pie was made from real elephants lol so if you’re in Manchester over the weekend go and check out Dean’s stall in Piccadilly Gardens or order from him on line he’s only in Bolton, check his FaceBook page for more details here

Last leg of the journey that always makes us happy is the 216 bus to Droylsden and home! by home i of course mean the Sweaty Spaniard, the very best Tapas bar in Droylsden (you would think i would be on free beer by now the amount of plugging i do for this place!)

A fairly uneventful trip after last week’s heroics when the big fella had to rescue a young girl stuck in a toilet on the train so i thought i would see if he would offer me the same kind of assistance when i told him the toggle on my coat was stuck down the back of my seat and i was stuck! After a quick look at me & my coat he just wandered off down the bus muttering something to himself and just left me there! Charming!

We arrived at the SS for about half 7 and spent the next couple of hours checking the results from today and trying to narrow down where we would be going on the next leg of the Trophy on the 15^th Dec. When the draw is made on Monday. This will also our last game of the year before our Christmas break and our ‘works Christmas doo’

A trip to Barnoldswick on the 8^th in the Vase is also planned but before that the next step on the 34 is this Saturday’s FA Cup 2^nd round! Our 8^th game in the Cup this season and now the TV people have decided which games to swap from a Saturday 3 o’clock kickoff we get to pick from what’s left, so where are we going? Accrington Stanley! And why not, Oxford United will be at the Crown Ground playing for the right to be in the hat with the big boys on Sunday and when i first suggested going to watch Accy to the big fella you can just imagine how the conversation went (with a little scouse accent thrown in) “Accrington Stanley, who are they?”……. “Exactly!”

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £6.85 Train

Admission each – £5 (split the one £10 ticket)

Mileage covered – 71.4

Total Travel Cost – £88.65

Total Admission – £78.00

Total Mileage – 1,004.4

Total Goals Seen – 67

Posted in FA Trophy | Tagged Accrington Stanley, Altrincham FC, Blackburn Rovers, Bovril, Damian Reeves, Dan Gardener, Ewood Park, FC Halifax Town, Gareth Seddon, Greggs, Jake Moult, Jamie Mackie, Jason St. Juste, Lee Gregory, Matt Glennon, Nicky Clee, Paddy Lacey, Phill Bolland, QPR, Ryan Brooke, Ryan Toulson, Stuart Coburn, The Crown Ground, The Shay | Comments Off

Step 15… Shepshed Dynamo v Rocester FC (FAVase #4)

Posted on November 21, 2012 by T1Leg

We were always going to make this 90 mile trip to Leicestershire to watch Shepshed it was just a matter of when to go and with only 5 games left for us between now & Christmas we thought we would use our £30 worth of ‘Red Spotted Hanky’ vouchers we’ve saved up (and have to be used before 31/12/12) on today’s FA Vase 2^nd round tie with Rocester FC. Why were we always going to make this trip? Because they play at Butthole Lane! Yes i know it’s a schoolboys dream but like i’ve said before, we’re old enough to know better but too young to care! And it’s not like anyone takes this nonsense seriously anyway

The week leading up to the game had gone well. I had joined the Shepshed forum and got a bit of feedback from a couple of members about the place especially the post telling me that Happy Hour in the clubhouse was 1 till 2 with beer at just £2 a pint! (that will please the big fella) and i had sent an email to the club informing them we were coming and got a great reply from Mick, the press officer telling me 2 tickets would be left on the gate for us plus a mention in the match day programme! Spot On

I felt the need to Facebook this info as Mick’s email ended with the quote “Looking forward to meeting you on Saturday Tony, you will love it up the Butthole!” (see it’s not just me!) Tracey O’Brien immediately commented on the FB status and a rather odd public conversation broke out, i’ll leave it to you to enlarge the photo and have a look i’ve never met Tracey but she’s the girl on the left in the ‘bus chase’ photo from Step 13 and she has tracked the Rhino down to confirm she was indeed being ‘groped’ at the time of the photo and because of this the big fella has to sign some sort of register once a week for the next 12 months! How’s about that then!

10am and we’re at the bus stop with plenty of time to get into Piccadilly for the 10.43 train to Sheffield. My girlfriend has jumped in on the act as her FB status reads “Tony has just left telling me – i’m off to take the Rhino up the Butthole, see you later” yeah thanks Hun, that had various texts & pm’s lighting our phones up! Even more concerning was the big fella give it a ‘like’ !!!

All was going well, we arrived at the station at 10.30 but when we got to platform 13 we found the Liverpool to Norwich service (calling at Sheffield) was delayed by 30 minutes and we only had a 15 minute connection window at Sheffield for the train to Loughborough! There was a local service leaving for Sheffield at 10.45 but it calls at all stations and without knowing what time it was due in at Sheffield we got on it.

As the train departed i finally got the Rail App to work on my phone only to discover we were due in at 12.04 meaning we would still miss our connection by 12 minutes! The knock-on effect of this delay means we would be walking into the clubhouse at Shepshed at about 2.20 instead of 1.20 and so miss Happy Hour (that won’t please the big fella) but all this was nothing compared to the drama that was about to unfold!

As the train stopped at New Mills all the passengers were now alerted by the sounds of someone banging on the toilet door from inside and the faint feminine cry of “help! Let me out… i’m stuck” could be heard coming from within the tiny compartment. The train guard, a young blonde girl in her 20’s seemed to be panicking somewhat coming out with the usual “keep calm, help is on its way” rubbish and when the ‘help’ did arrive it was the driver with a little screwdriver!

After 5 minutes or so of the driver picking at the broken lock and scratching his head & his arse a lot while the guard was telling everyone else on the train to stay calm for some reason i felt i had to act and do something to help this fair maiden in distress! So i jumped from my seat, slapped my hand on the Rhino’s shoulder and announced “what we need is a big lad who can smash the door down and set her free!”

This resulted in operation ‘Rhino Rescue’ as the big fella calmly walked up the train, pointed at the drivers little screwdriver telling him “that’s pathetic” then elbowed the little glass panel to release the emergency axe and set to work hacking away at the door! lol BRILLIANT! Even i didn’t expect this from him. The driver stepped back and shrugged his shoulders and the guard, thinking i was videoing the Rhino at work, started shouting at me… “put that camera away, i’m sure the young lady trapped is embarrassed enough without you filming it!” i wasn’t really sure what she meant considering the girl was still trapped so obviously out of sight, so i simply replied “behave yourself, i’ll get £250 off Jeremy Beadle for this!”

About 15 minutes later the poor girl emerged from the toilet to a hearty cheer from everyone on the train, like that wasn’t going to happen Droylsden’s newest superhero handed the axe back to the guard for some stupid reason as she was now using it as a pointer as she chastised me yet again! (bit scary) But i wouldn’t be at all surprised if Northern Rail send the big fella a bill for the mangled door lock even though we would of probably still been there if he hadn’t of done it!

We finally arrived at Sheffield at 12.25 so we were still in good time for the 12.47 to Loughborough which was one of those nice inter-city trains as opposed to the last one which was more of a cattle truck! No dramas on this service and we arrived on time-ish at 1.45 to connect with the Shepshed Sprinter bus right outside the station.

£2.30 for a single ticket on the bus, can’t buy a return because the last bus back is 5.25pm and because today is a Vase game there may be 30 minutes extra time if it’s a draw at the end of 90 meaning we would miss it and have to catch a different bus from another provider or a taxi back to the station.

The bus left on time as you would expect considering the station is its starting point, at 1.53 and arrived just after 2.15 at The Crown pub on the Bull Ring to complete our eventful peasant-powered journey! We checked with the driver for walking directions to the ground but before he could answer one of the passengers piped up.. “that’s where i’m off to, c’mon i’ll show you the way” the old boy wasn’t too nimble on his feet as we chatted to him slowly walking towards the ground, which suited us fine! But as we approached Butthole Lane he did come out with a little gem of a statement when he said “normally i would point out some places of interest here in Shepshed, but…. well there isn’t any” lol lol TOP MAN!

So after walking out of my front door at 9.45 this morning, we arrive at the ground just after 2.30! only an hour late to be fair and not too bad on the purse, £24.75 day return with the railcard less £15 worth of vouchers plus a £2.30 bus ride meant we had spent £12.05 each on travel so far.

Dynamo press office, Mick Voce met us at the gate and welcomed us as his guests for the day, “welcome to The Dovecote guys, hope you had a good trip?” fortunately he had been keeping an eye on the tweets i had been sending throughout the day so that saved me a lot of time answering his question lol

Once inside the Butthole Dovecote, we bought a programme and a couple of golden goal tickets even though i’ve never, ever won one of these things! before moving on to the club shop for a Shepshed scarf as I’ve now decided to collect the odd scarf from here & there on my travels.

From there we’re in the clubhouse for the first of the day! The steward had been told of our delayed journey and said we could have the 2 pints at Happy Hour prices which was very nice of him however this was not needed as a chap called Nick Blackburn insisted on buying them for us! Nick and a few other avid Dynamo fans collect money for the ‘Help the Heroes’ campaign by going to all of Shepshed’s games both home & away in shorts! Bit cold for that if you ask me but it’s for a great cause and if you’ve not spent all your money on children in need have a quick look at Nick’s page and maybe chuck a few bob over? Shorts for Heroes

ooh quick rant – Why do we need Children in Need to raise £30 million to pay for what should be being provided by the government (which apparently can’t afford them) when the same government can afford to throw away £100 million on PCC elections we neither needed nor wanted? – rant over

We took our place for kick off right on the half way line right in the middle of the 2 dugouts, it was just on the other side of the players tunnel which put us in with the away fans which wasn’t a problem, we just normally side with the home team on match day but we planned to get in with the ‘shorts for heroes’ crowd for the second half because they seemed like our sort of people…. MAD!

3 o’clock came around and Mr. Oldham gets step 15 off & running! Dynamo in their home colours of a toon-army style black & white kit are only playing their second Vase game of the season after safely dispatching Blidworth Welfare 2-0 in the last round which was also their entry level into the competition. Rocester or The Romans are playing in an all blue kit and have had to play in all 3 of the previous rounds but have blown away Sporting Khalsa 2-1, Castle Vale JKS 4-0 and Bewdley Town 4-0 to be here today.

A rather physical encounter from both sides in the opening 15 on a heavy, rain-soaked pitch with one or two eyebrow raising tackles flying in that had both dugouts on their feet and on the ref’s back. The game wasn’t going to form with the Romans looking the better of the 2 sides but without causing any real threat up front.

Dynamo were hitting back on the break and with pace, left back Ricky Aietan was linking up well with Kieran Bradshaw down the left feeding new signing Alex Troke who had a couple of efforts early on go just wide & over. Rob Mulonga was also having success down the right for the home side and i thought the opening goal was coming from him but he just couldn’t connect from a Aietan cross.

Aietan was involved in the action again with a rather crunching tackle on Romans No.7 Mensah Kinch. I don’t think the pitch helped as the winger was sent crashing to the ground but it did enrage the visitors’ dugout & mainly gaffer Dave Langston who voiced his anger towards his opposite number shouting.. “Do you teach them that? Really, is that what you coach?” which i have to say i thought was brilliant lol lol

The visitors bench now firmly believing the Ref was a ‘Dynamo in Disguise’ were more than a little critical of any decisions he made against them but unfortunately i try to keep this blog as clean as i can making it impossible for me to type them out! But there was nothing either the Romans bench or defence could do as we approached the half hour for the first goal of the day.

A free kick from about 30 yards out was sent in by Sam Wood that found skipper Rob McCormick on the far post, McCormick headed it back towards the penalty spot and No. 9 Liam Fitzpatrick kept his cool to pick his spot through the crowded area and slotted the ball home for 1-0. Just one minute later Dynamo nearly doubled their lead when the luckless Troke blasted his shot against the crossbar to the relief of Romans keeper Richard Froggatt who was well beaten.

A rather scrappy last 10 minutes with lots of needless, annoying tackles from both teams that had more action coming from the benches than on the pitch. A bit of ‘handbags’ right at the end of the half seen Fitzpatrick’s name taken by Mr. Oldham but as he blew to end the first 45 Langston was laying in wait for him! I only caught a little of his rant as they left the pitch but to ask a referee “Don’t you think you should be doing better?” and “you do know all the rules of the game yeah?” is pure class! I like this guy…. A LOT! HT. 1-0.

Rhino – i’ve gone for the steak & kidney option today, because it was the only option as it goes but i’ve tarnished it with chips & gravy for an extra £1.70 bringing the total to £3. I was just going to get the pie on its own but the staff at the Dynamo Diner, who i’m tempted to call Burt & Ernie but i won’t, talked me into going for the full meal.

The pie tasted a lot like a Wright’s offering but i could be wrong. A nice flaky pastry top but a somewhat weaker or thinner pastry used for the sides & bottom meaning this is NOT a pie that can be eaten by hand unless you want a sleeve full of gravy of course! Good size pieces of steak & kidney are held within and no evidence of that annoying gristle stuff that gets stuck between your teeth for hours after either, well done. Bovril made with the excellent granules is on offer for a mere 80p a cup for extra points from me as i score today’s half time treat at 8.4 out of 10.

Mel B. – well what a refreshing change to find a couple of men at the helm in the Dynamo Diner! As much as i think a woman’s touch in the kitchen is a good thing i’m pretty sure Ernie & Burt cope just fine without that feminine touch. A quick look at today’s price list doesn’t show different types of pies on offer and with the Rhino only having the one option i’m a little concerned that’s all you have? If so then there’s room for improvement there.

A nice, clean looking little set up the guys have going on there at the Diner but gentlemen please… HATS! You don’t have to go with them silly hair nets or the full-on chefs special but i think one of those butchers’ trilbies at a jaunty angle would look great! Added points for the Bovril from me also in my score of 7.3 and the Pundit quote (Jon Champion on Suarez) is.. When you only have one to choose from, then that’s the one you choose!

We’re back for the second half and although we had promised the Shepshed Ultras we would watch the rest of the game with them, we decided to stay where we were as we felt sure there was more banter to come from both benches

Both sides appeared to have had a ‘pep talk’ during the interval as chances were now being created at both ends in the first 10 of the half. Troke should of done better when he was 1-on-1 with the keeper but his tame shot was easily gathered up by Froggatt to keep the Romans just one adrift. At the other end, Edwin Asante-Ahenkorah shrugged off a couple of defenders to shoot just wide and Ryan Grocott must of thought he had levelled the scores when his perfectly hit free kick was heading for the top corner only for Scott Low to produce one of the best saves i’ve seen on tour this season!

Rocester finally got back on level terms 15 minutes in from another set play. A free kick floated into the Dynamo box wasn’t dealt with properly and the loose ball fell to the feet of No. 2 Joe Rogers who spotted a gap in the crowd to side-foot home. 1-1.

Just 2 minutes later the Langston bench were on their feet again as Carl Allen won the ball in midfield and played a quick pass to Asante-Ahenkorah. A-A ran with the ball down the left before sending a low cross into the Dynamo 6 yard box and Chris Sterling was right on the money (ooh sorry) to smash the ball home! 1-2.

It was ‘heads down’ i’m afraid to say for the home side from now on, totally deflated by the 2 quick goals from Rocester who in contrast were growing in confidence as you might expect. Mensah Kinch who had impressed all day for the visitors once again found himself upside down after a late tackle and when Mr. Oldham decided to take no action following this common assault Langston once again sprang to his feet… “Oi… GINGER! You GOTTA’ be kidding me!!!” lol lol i love this guy!

The Romans played out the rest of the second half with a packed but well organized midfield, pass & move was the order of the day and it worked well limiting Dynamo to only a few half chances for the remainder. As the clock ticked past 90 Sterling was brought down in the area by Scott Low and the keeper was lucky to be shown just a yellow by Mr. Oldham as everyone in the ground was expecting a red. I quickly glanced over to see Dave Langston’s reaction to the yellow but he just stood hands on hips, shaking his head lol i bet he would have reacted differently if there was 20 minutes left instead of 2!

Sterling took the spot kick himself and notched up his second for the day and sent Rocester into Monday’s 3^rd round draw with the £1,200 cheque from the FA on its in the post. A ‘touching moment’ as i get a photo with Dave Langston as the teams leave the pitch, if ever Rocester play Droylsden it would be worth the admission price just to see this guy and Dave Pace on the touchline never mind the football lol! FT. 1-3.

In the past we’ve found that when the home side get beat the fans tend to wander off and can’t be bothered with a couple of Manc’s on a jolly up but that wasn’t the case at Shepshed. The home fans tipped their hats to the better side on the day (even though they wasn’t happy about it) and congratulated them on their win. Spirits were still high in the clubhouse even after losing and the Shorts for Heroes lads told me it’s free admission for the next home game so people will have extra money to throw into the collection buckets! What a great gesture from the club, well done Dynamo

After 20 minutes in the club it was time for us to ‘stick or twist’ should we stay for a few more beers and get a £15-ish taxi back to the station or be cheapskates & go for the last bus? The latter of course! We’re Manc’s lol lol.

After a 5 minute walk & a 5 minute wait the 5.25 turned up bang on time! “right let’s see what the journey home has in store for us” i tell the big fella as we part with another £2.30 to board the bus. During the journey our thoughts turn to our ‘man of the match’ for today’s game, we both decided on Liam Fitzpatrick for the home side but for the Romans & outright winner we went for Mensah Kinch. Played well, quite skilful, got kicked off the park more often than not but the thing that swung it was the Dynamo fan who shouted out at him during the game “Hey Mensah, No.7, is that your shirt number or your I.Q.?” yeah, bet he’s never heard that one before mate.

Easy up to now, bus arrived at 5.55 and the 6.04 to Nottingham was only a couple of minutes late and it was one of them speedy quick trains from St. Pancras with comfy seats instead of one of them cattle truck jobs. We arrive at Nottingham at 6.30 and the 6.45 to Liverpool calling at Sheffield & Manchester is on time! Wait a minute; didn’t Notts Forrest play Sheff Wednesday today?

Platform 6 at Nottingham had an army of the hi-vis brigade as well as more police than i’ve seen in one place since the Manchester riots! Wednesday had been beaten 1-0 at the City Ground less than 2 hours ago and the station was rammed with blue & white owls all wanting the same train as us! The big fella blamed me for this minor inconvenience and said something about me and the brains i was born with when it comes to travel plans but i didn’t quite catch what he said

To be fair the Wednesday fans were great! Even though the train was packed with most of the standing room taken up as well, they were in fine voice all the way to Sheffield including the classic song that all clubs have their own version of that starts… “we hate Nott-ing-ham Forr-est, we hate _ _ _ too” if nothing else it was entertaining but i think the young Wednesday fan who looked about 10 summed it up when he turned to his dad and said “this is great! Imagine what it would be like if we were good & win?” lol the things kids say eh?

Into Piccadilly for 8.35 and another 5 minute walk to the bus station for the last leg of our 180 mile round trip to Shepshed. The 216 Sweaty Spaniard Special set off with us on it just before 9pm and one of us is very happy about it

We finally walk through the door of Droylsden’s No. 1 Tapas bar The Sweaty Spaniard at about 9.20! a bit of a monster day out and the Rhino immediately sets up a bar tab and posts 3 pints in rapid succession in the time it took me to get through my first!

I spent the next hour or so trying to convince the big fella that Northern Rail had looked at their CCTV and got the web address off the back of his coat and had now sent an email asking for an address they could send the bill to for the damage to the door he had caused. The battery on the big fella’s phone had long since died so he had no way of checking it himself until his stupid Brother turned up with a charger!

So that’s it, I took the Rhino up the Butthole and we both loved it! we went to Shepshed as Dynamos for the day and came away with a real soft spot for the Romans as well. There’s some video footage of today’s game that’s free to watch on Dynamo’s website plus i would also like to apologise to all Rocester fans for spelling Rocester with an ‘H’ in all the tweets i sent on the day – my bad, it’s a Manc thing

Down to the last 32 in the Vase now with only Winsford United & Wigan Robin Park left in it from all our local teams and we’ve seen both of them already so it looks like we’ll be munching up some more miles again on Dec. 8^th

Next up is the 1^st round proper in the Trophy and a relatively short journey over to FC Halifax and a look at the Shaymen as they take on Altrincham for our 16^th game of the season. Until then Blog Buds…….

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £14.35 Bus & Train

Admission each – Nil

Mileage covered – 183.8

Total Travel Cost – £81.80

Total Admission – £73.00

Total Mileage – 933.0

Posted in FA Vase | Tagged Alex Troke, Altrincham FC, Bewdley Town, Blidworth Welfare, Bovril, Butthole Lane, Carl Allen, Castle Vale JKS, Chris Sterling, City Ground, Dave Langston, Edwin Asante-Ahenkorah, FA Vase, FC Halifax, Jeremy Beadle, Jon Champion, Kieran Bradshaw, Liam Fitzpatrick, Mensah Kinch, Nottingham Forrest, Richard Froggatt, Ricky Aietan, Rob McCormick, Rob Mulonga, Rocester FC, Ryan Grocott, Sam Wood, Scott Low, Shaymen, Sheffield Wednesday, Shepshed Dynamo, Sporting Khalsa, Suarez, The Dovecote, Wigan Robin Park, Winsford United | Comments Off

Step 14… Droylsden FC v Rushall Olympic FC (FATrophy #4)

Posted on November 13, 2012 by T1Leg

Well you can’t really get much closer to home than today’s game as we go back on the Trophy Trail with the Mighty Bloods at home to Rushall Olympic FC from the Evo-Stik Prem. Although Droylsden are second bottom & struggling in the Blue Square North, they are still odds on with the bookies for a win today. But this is cup football and of course anything can happen so i’ll watch the game with my ‘neutral’ hat on and see what unfolds….. C’MON YOU BLOODS! LET’S ‘AV IT!!!

Normally my blogs start with the journey or travel plans for wherever we’re off to, can’t really do that today as nothing happened on the 5 minute walk from my front door to the home of the Bloods, The Butchers Arms! So i’ll start today’s adventure the night before, if that makes any sense?

We somehow managed to blag our way into the Manchester sports awards at Old Trafford cricket ground where there was lots of gold on show with a sprinkling of Olympic medal winners showing off their bling at the posh doo. Etienne Stott, who is one half of the C-2 slalom canoe winning team was first in line for a photo with me, who is one half of the infamous 1LOTC pie eating team

The Rhino had his eyes on a much sweeter pot of gold in the form of the very pretty Welsh taekwondo gold medallist, Jade Jones! The big fella looked very nervous putting his arm around the young beauty when posing for the photo but who wouldn’t!? If the big fella’s hand was to slip a couple of inches she would see it as a ‘grope’ and probably smash his face in! Lol

With all the guests of the evening now taking their seats for the awards, we move on to the real reason we were there. BBC radio Manchester are broadcasting their Friday night sports show from the cricket ground and they’re obviously struggling for guests for the non league hour between 7 & 8 because we’re on! We shamelessly plug our web address while chatting football but also make sure that BBC non league guru, Ian ‘Burkey’ Burke (also of 26nil.com fame) accompanies us to Droylsden as a guest pie reviewer and for some expert analysis on the game!

Obviously i’m first to arrive at the clock in Droylsden centre on match day but Burkey is on route and the big fella has text me to tell me he is a couple of minutes away and i should go and get the obligatory Greggs sausage rolls! I decided not to go shopping but to do one of my better ‘catalogue poses’ for a photo of me with the Sweaty Spaniard away in the distance!

With 20 minutes to spare all 3 of us are in the ground and take our seats in the main stand. After a quick glance at the team sheet it makes me realise that doing this blog has made me so far out of touch with the current Bloods line up and expecting the game to be a walk in the park for the Bloods i didn’t do any research at all on Rushall. Fortunately i have a non league expert with me today so i hand him the team sheet and give him a couple of minutes to read through it before asking, “so Burkey, what can you tell me about today’s teams?” he folded the piece of paper carefully, handed it back, took a deep breath and said “nowt really 1 Leg” lol lol BRILLIANT! Expert Analysis there!

Just before kick off The Butchers, like all football games over the weekend paid their respects by remembering those who have lost their lives for us and the 2 minutes was observed perfectly by all inside the ground before Mr. Meredith blew his whistle to get us underway.

Not sure who won the toss but the teams surprisingly changed ends before kickoff meaning the Bloods were kicking towards Droylsden centre or what shall now be known as the ‘Sweaty End’ honouring the famous Droylsden tapas bar, but more importantly this meant the setting sun was now in the face of Bloods keeper, Dale Latham. This problem has proved fatal with keepers in the past at The Butchers!

The Bloods quickly settled and started to control the game straight from the whistle. Burkey was trying to work out what formation the Bloods were playing, he was unsure if No. 2 Jimmy Derbyshire was a right back in a 4-4-2 or part of a 3-5-3 set up? It was confusing as the little fella was flying up & down the right side lol.

Rushall didn’t look too far out of it though and were winning early aerial battles mainly due to the man-mountain centre half Lucan Spittle. Up front they had the very quick No. 10 Hakeem Islam and No. 9 Dave Walker. The visitors No. 11 Andre Landell was beginning to get on my nerves with a succession of little fouls on Derbyshire & Lee Rick that seemed to be going unnoticed by the man in the middle, what happened to the totting up process? I counted 4 in the first 10 minutes!

The first real chance of the game fell to the Bloods from a Derbyshire corner; he curled the ball over everyone in the box to find Ashley Palmer unmarked at the back post and i bet he’s still wondering himself how he missed the easiest of easy tap-ins!

Not long after i thought for one horrible moment Rushall were going to take the lead! Walker & Islam linked up well on the break and Walker’s pass to Jordan Fitzpatrick had the midfielder bearing down on goal with just Latham to beat. The Bloods keeper had not been called upon up to this point but i feared the worse, Fitzpatrick’s effort had Latham beat but not the upright as the ball shaved the post on its way to safety to keep us at 0-0.

Coming up to the half hour we had one of those controversial moments when Bloods favourite, Carlos Logan found himself in the box with the ball at his feet. Without a clear sight at goal he unselfishly squared the ball for the incoming Lee Rick who’s thunderous effort smashed against the bar, bounced onto the goal line (without crossing it apparently) and away to safety

As the first half came to an end it was the visitors who seemed to be on top, Burkey was still struggling to work out what formation the bloods were playing as left back, Rob Sissons was also venturing further up field leaving the Ginger Guru totally clueless as he told me “they’ve definitely got 2 at the back, but i’m not sure after that!” lol i’m so glad he came! His imput will prove vital today! I was pleased we ended the half with a clean sheet because Latham had looked a bit dodgy in goal for the Bloods and hopefully would do better in the second without the sun in his eyes. HT. 0-0.

Rhino – A little help for me to review the pie here at the Butchers today, not that i need it as i’m quite professional at it and it’s only a Holland’s meat & potato anyway! not much you can say about them really, we’ve all had them and each one is the same as the last one you had.

It came out of the oven piping hot and i mean hot! I had to leave it a good 10 minutes in the cold air to cool enough to eat it and this didn’t help in any way my personal pet hate of Holland’s pies – the soggy bottom. No Bovril on offer here today either but i’m told this is only temporary and vending machine portions are usually on sale. A poor 5.0 from me on the day, i was expecting better from my home club.

Burkey – Thrust in at the deep end as i’m a special guest! I’m not really that happy about it as i was lead to believe that Mel B. & her BAPS would be on show today and i have been disappointingly let down. I’ve never done this before so bear with me… it cost £1.50, it was a Holland’s meat & potato, it had traces of meat, lots of potato-like filling and it was all mixed together in a hot, wall paper like substance!

How’s that!? feeling sure that pie review will be my last for 1LOTC that only leaves me to score it and give some sort of Alan Hansen quote but before i do, did you know the phrase ‘Bear with me’ comes from asking someone to help you carry a coffin at a funeral? As in ‘help me out, be a pall-bearer with me’ just thought you should know my score is 7.2 i like Holland’s pies and my pundit quote is Barry Davies on Torvill & Dean.. Oh and how we, the public love them!

I’m back in the stand for the second half and it looks like the Bloods have had one of those special pep talks from Chairman / Manager Dave Pace! Anyone not familiar with the Bloods gaffer should take 30 seconds to listen to him in this interview with him on a local radio station lol top man!

Download:

The second half gets underway and the big fella is not happy with Burkey for not taking the pie report seriously and immediately informs Mel B of his mistake. On the pitch the Bloods have started the better of the two, Logan forces a fine save from Chris Gemmell and James Ellison shot just wide from the edge of the area after some good passing in midfield. Surley the Bloods would get one in the bag soon? It just can’t be them who break our run of 41 games without a nil-nil.

On the hour my expert pundit finally comes up with a bit of useful info! Well sort of. Hakeem Islam’s number is held aloft as Rushall swap the front man for No. 12 Ahmed Obeng. “OOH! Did he say Obeng?” Burkey shouts up as he’s still picking bits of pie out of his beard from half time, “he collapsed on the pitch about a month ago, the club were really worried but i’ve not heard anything since. I’m glad he’s ok” it makes life so much easier for me to do a match report with a non league expert alongside me! Especially when the said expert is now convinced the Bloods are playing a 2-7-1 formation

Although i’m pleased the substitute is back to full fitness i could of done with him waiting another week or so before he put his boots on again as 10 minutes after he come on, the inevitable happened. Obeng played the perfect ball to find Landell who smashed the ball towards goal, Latham made a great save but the ball fell to Obeng who had carried on his run into the box and he slotted the ball into the ungraded net for the opener, the whole team then ran over to the away dugout to celebrate which on any other day i would of found great, but not today

Not long after the goal things went from bad to worse for the Bloods as Jimmy Derbyshire was shown a straight red for a 2 footed tackle on Josh Craddock! It didn’t look that bad and to be fair Craddock didn’t really milk it but the Bloods were really up against it now and Derbyshire had been one of our better players on the day.

The Bloods were now struggling with the loss of Derbyshire and of course it had the complete reverse effect on Rushall, with their tails well up Obeng came again, Droylsden really were only playing 2 at the back and the super Sub carried the ball unchallenged into the box and made no mistake from 10 yards doubling his own & Rushalls tally for the day 0-2.

The splattering of Rushall fans that were in the crowd of 211 had already started to party with 10 minutes to go and i couldn’t really blame them. I just couldn’t see how the Bloods were going to get back into this until the lifeline thrown our way in the last 5 minutes. Steve Hallis was brought down in the box by Jonathan Haynes and with everyone in the ground expecting quite a lot of extra time to be added on, there was even more pressure on Carlos Logan as he stepped up to take the kick, once Hallis had finally hobbled out of the way of course lol

[jwplayer config="1 Leg On The Cup Player" mediaid="2193"]

5 minutes were added on and the Bloods gave it all they had, which wasn’t much to be honest. Rushall played the ball around and kept possession well as the clock ticked away. Mr. Meredith finally put me out of my misery and sent Rushall into Monday’s draw with the £4,000 from the FA’s purse for today’s win safe & sound in their back pocket. FT. 1-2.

Ahmed Obeng was being championed off the pitch and did a pretty good Usain Bolt impression as he left which made me chuckle and on any other day i would have really been made up for the lad. But what now for the not-so-mighty Bloods? Out of both the FA Cup & Trophy at the first hurdle and in serious trouble at the bottom of the Blue Square North! I fear the worse for my little hometown team but i hope they turn it around soon and get back to winning ways.

AS it’s still early and we don’t have to travel that far to get back to the Sweaty we go into the clubhouse at the Butchers for a couple and to see if we can get a chat with Pacey about the team. Burkey and the big fella are wrestling over a mobile phone because Burkey’s phone has died and he wants to check his bets, the Rhino later told me he was just being a bit eager to get his vote in for Rylan whatever that means?

The Rushall team & their fans were in the club and as you would expect, rather happy with the day’s events and already talking about who they would like to get in the next round. I wish them good luck and hope they get a decent run in the Trophy as my thoughts turn to Loughborough and our next step on the 34 when we’re off to see Shepshed Dynamo in the Vase.

With no sign of Pacey or the team in the clubhouse, he must have kept them in the dressing room for a little chat! so we make our way to the Sweaty to drown our sorrows, hmmm been there before with the Bloods lol. No more local games now as Monday’s draw will send us somewhere new on the 24^th and there’s the small matter of a quick 180+ mile round trip to Butthole Lane this Saturday

I’ll end this blog with a shout out to our good pal ‘Chilli’. The mad, crazy Bank of Scotland worker with a rather strange habit of photographing himself outside various RBS branches has decided to up his game and visit 40 different RBS branches in 80 hours for children in need. He’s created a facebook page (or more than likely his better half has, she’s the brains of the outfit) plotting his progress and it would be great if you guys would give him a ‘thumbs up’ like on his page. Good Luck Chilli we couldn’t let you visit Droylsden without getting your mug in the blog!

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – Nil

Admission each – £10

Mileage covered – 0.0

Total Travel Cost – £67.45

Total Admission – £73.00

Total Mileage – 749.2

Posted in FA Trophy | Tagged Ahmed Obeng, Andre Landell, Barry Davies, Carlos Logan, Chris Gemmell, Dale Latham, Dave Walker, Droylsden FC, Etienne Stott, FA Trophy, Hakeem Islam, Jade Jones, James Ellison, Jimmy Derbyshire, Jonathan Haynes, Jordan Fitzpatrick, Josh Craddock, Lee Rick, Lucan Spittle, Rushall Olympic FC, Steve Hallis, Timothy Baillie, Torvill & Dean, Usain Bolt | 1 Comment

Step 13… Preston North End v Yeovil Town (FACup #7)

Posted on November 7, 2012 by T1Leg

After watching all non league encounters so far this season we’ve decided to make the step up to an all league 1 fixture for our 13^th game as the FA Cup reaches the 1^st round proper stage. Preston North End & Yeovil Town are 9^th & 10^th respectively in the middle of league 1 and both have 22 points from their league campaigns so far, so a nice even contest beckons but we’ll lend our support towards the home side given their rich history in the Cup and who could forget their 26-0 defeat of Hyde FC back in October 1887? A record that stands proudly in the FA history books as the biggest ever score line in an FA Cup match!

I’m in position at the bus stop and i can see the 218 in the distance heading towards me but i’ve not received the usual ‘on it’ text from the Rhino? I ring the big fella as the bus is approaching me to find he’s still at his bus stop & has missed it! He tells me to get on the 218 and he’ll catch me up further down its route and the chase was on!

The big fella was now on a different bus heading for Piccadilly Gardens in the centre of Manchester as my 218 winds its way around the houses on its way to Victoria Station but will cross paths with the Rhino’s bus twice. I’m pressing the button to make sure we stop at every bus stop on the way in an attempt to slow it down but if only my driver would have stopped instead of running a red light on the edge of town the Rhino would of been saved a 10 minute quick march across the city!

I’m stood at the ticket barrier of the train station at 11.17 a very out of breath Rhino finally arrives! I’m still a little unsure as to why he was out of breath, he told me it was because he had been walking quickly but by the look on the face of the girl on the left in the photo i’m not so sure? He had been explaining his dilemma to these 2 bus passengers during the chase but still had time to stop for the quick snap in Piccadilly and where’s his right hand!?!?

We’ve still got a couple of staircases to negotiate to catch the 11.22 to Preston but fortunately i’ve picked the tickets up during the week which was a good job as the que for the machines was massive.

If it was any other day missing the train wouldn’t have been a problem, we would of simply just caught the next one but today we were meeting a guy called Des who is launching a new non league magazine in December and wanted to interview us about what we do for the new mag. He’s also going to Preston today for the book he’s writing where he’s trying to visit all 92 league clubs and watch a game in one season and after speaking to him in the week we had arranged to meet on the same train so we could do the interview while on the journey to Deepdale.

I send Des a text telling him we’re on the train as we take our seats and he replied with “i’ve just missed it! I’ll get the next & catch you up later” lol is there only ME who can get up, get ready and be on time when plans are made? To be honest, it was probably a good thing that Des missed the train as the world & his wife seemed to have picked this little 2 coach service for their trip to Blackpool and by the time we got to Bolton it was like a cattle truck with not much standing room left! Des’ voice recorder would of just been full of the sounds of ear piercing, screaming children.

We finally arrived at Preston about 12.15 and couldn’t wait to get off as more people were shoe-horning themselves onto the Schindler Special. We walked up past the taxi rank and turned right heading into town looking for coffee & food

I had joined & posted on the Preston forum in the build up to this game just to let them know who we are and what we’re doing this season, we had only just set off walking down the high street when a chap approached us saying “you’re Tony, i recognise your photo from the blog” i only know him by his forum name of ‘Tark’ but he was a top bloke and told us where the nearest Greggs was as well as directions to a pub we should stop at called the Angel on our way to Deepdale.

2 sausage rolls for 99p from the Preston Greggs! The cheapest on tour yet so we’re off to a good start & apart from them being hotter than volcano larva the best yet. We waited here for Des who wasn’t too far behind by now and we played a little game of ‘i hope this isn’t him’ as various weirdo’s came walking towards us along the street.

Fortunately for us Des seemed quite normal so we headed off to the Angel for a pint & a chat. Man U v Arsenal was being shown on various flat screens in the pub and RVP had already scored by the time we got there, the place was pretty busy but we found a corner to sit down and went through our FA Cup run from last season with Des. Hopefully his new non league magazine ‘Seven Steps’ will be on sale at grounds all over the land in December and the good thing about it (apart from us being in it of course!) is the profits from sales will go to the club where you buy it from. A fantastic idea!

The Rhino then turned tables on Des and asked him about the book he’s writing on doing the 92 all in one season, “so that’s a pretty big ask to do a game at all 92, how many have you done so far?” a rather sheepish looking Des told the big fella that today’s visit to Deepdale would be his 12^th game of his challenge. “12..!?!??.. is that it? you better pull your finger out & put some effort in if you want to succeed!”

Tark had also made his way to the Angel while we were with Des and offered to be our guide to the stadium when we were ready to go. I asked him a few things about the team & who i should look out for on the pitch as we walked as well as asking him if he knew anything about the 26-0. I was rather surprised when he told me that Preston’s centre forward from that record breaking score line only scored ONE goal! Wonder if that’s right?

Tark left us to stop off for a pint in a pub called The Army & Navy because the beer is cheap (i’ll remember that for later) he left us with.. “turn left at that cross roads, keep walking & you’ll fall over it” and he was right about 5 minutes walk down Sir Tom Finney Way and we were at Deepdale.

I had received an email from Preston in the week telling me there would be 2 tickets waiting for us at the office on our arrival and also a nice surprise for the Rhino at half time i had not told the big fella about his duties of going onto the pitch at half time to draw the winning tickets for their lottery or the interview we was going to do over the PA with a chap called Adam, all i told him was to do his pie report before the game instead of half time

Rhino – with 1 Leg telling me i have to do a pre match pie review rather than at half time i ask a few of the Preston massive in the que what is the best or most popular from today’s selection. ‘A Butter Pie’ seemed to be the most common answer so after a quick look up at the price list i noticed there’s a meal deal on offer at Deepdale for any pie & hot drink for £4.50. not too bad but non-negotiable after all my charm & charisma fell on deaf ears with the tuck shop staff when trying to get at least 50p off the price! So with a butter pie & a large Bovril in hand i’m off to find a quiet corner to get stuck in and wonder what half time will bring??

I’ve got to say i wasn’t that happy with the Butter Pie although it does exactly what it says on the tin so i shouldn’t of expected anything else really, it reminded me of a Pukka Meat & Potato but without the meat obviously.

A buttery, creamy mash/sliced potato filling with a hint of onion thrown in and that’s it! Definitely not for me but looking round there’s plenty of locals tucking into them so they can’t be all bad? Other pies are on offer at Deepdale so if we ever find our way down this neck of the woods again i’ll be opting for one with a bit of cow in it somewhere! The Bovril was top notch as ever but unfortunately i can only give a score of 5.6 on the day.

Mel B.- Well i think the Rhino is being a bit harsh on Preston here. i for one welcome this different vegetarian option to others that are out there on match day, even though they may not be friendly on the figure more clubs should take note and maybe place an order or 2 with suppliers, Clayton Park. A very impressive Victor Hot Cupboard keeping the pies at the correct temperature that looks like an early HC20MS if i’m not mistaken, and i’m hoping these are used in all of the stadiums many outlets.

A nice healthy portion of pre-packed Bovril in branded cups always ticks my box and is a must as the weather is now getting colder as winter football’s upon us. A 6.8 from me giving a grand total of an unflattering 12.4 and the Pundit quote (Jim Beglin on David N’Gog) is.. A Very Second, 2^nd Best here tonight.

Our seats are in the ‘Sir Tom Finney Stand’ and i’ve told the big fella to get close to the half way line as i go off in search of a team sheet for today’s line up. No luck with a team sheet so i’ll have to rely on fans in the crowd to help me out with player names for my match report but i had more luck spotting the big fella on my return as the teams were out and about to kick off.

It had been quite a while since we had watched 2 football league sides do battle on the pitch, and the opening exchanges was a refreshing eye opener as we adjusted to the discipline and professionalism shown by Preston & Yeovil.

Preston had allocated for 200 travelling fans and although they only brought closer to 150 they were on their feet just 7 minutes in when Yeovil striker on loan from Carlisle picked up on a loose ball and let fly from 25 yards which went just over the Preston cross bar. Yeovil gaffer Gary Johnson had to make a few changes to his team for today’s game with 3 of his regular loan players out after being refused availability from their parent clubs & Byron Wilson had failed a late fitness test that morning.

Preston had player trouble of their own to deal with inside the first 10 minutes when Shane Cansdell-Sherriff had to be substituted with what looked like a pulled hamstring or as the Rhino described it “looks like he’s done his hammy”

After a couple of shots from range our first real chance came on 15 minutes when Preston were awarded the first corner of the game, Yeovil defended it well then broke at a frightening pace with Gavin Williams down the right who then played the perfect pass for Paddy Madden who brought a fine save from Steve Simonsen in the Preston goal. end-to-end stuff already! Love cup football me

Madden was through on goal again not long after but took his shot early from the edge of the box and sent it just wide of the upright as Simonsen was closing him down. Gavin Williams & Keanu Marsh-Brown we also impressing for Yeovil as we entered the last 10 mins of the half.

GOAL! on 38 minutes there’s one in the onion bag for the home side. A fantastic through ball from Jack King split the Yeovil defence wide open & Joel Byrom had timed his run to perfection to run onto the perfectly weighted pass. He drove into the box with the struggling defender in his wake & picked out the bottom corner of the goal giving the keeper no chance. 1-0.

Moments later Preston doubled their lead with a great counter-attacking move. Left back Scott Laird won the ball in his own area then played the easy pass to goal scorer Byrom, he then found Stewart Beavon in the centre circle with his back to goal. Beavon’s swivel & pass all-in-one move was superb to find Nicky Wroe who played the perfect ball for the very impressive substitute David Amoo. Amoo carried the ball into the box, rounded the keeper then fired home for 2-0. Yeovil looked certain to score at the end of time added on but after at least 3 point blank attempts were either blocked or saved in one of the maddest goal mouth scrambles i’ve ever seen, Mr. Haines blew his whistle to end the first 45 with the visitors still on a blank. HT 2-0.

“Right come on follow me” i tell the big fella as i head for the half way line. The email i had received off the club during the week telling me about the tickets also said that they wanted us to do the half time lottery draw on the pitch then have a quick interview with us about our FA 34 journey. I was feeling certain that with a crowd of over 4000 at Deepdale they would burst into song at the sight of us on their sacred turf with a rendition of the fine old Max Bygraves classic.. ‘Who Ate All The Pies’ but alas, no

I did my absolute best to put the Rhino off while he was being interviewed pulling some of my better schoolboy faces at him and throwing the odd swear word his way but he remained solid, apart from when the lottery guy asked him to try and pick a blue ticket out of the tub full of white & blue tickets without looking!

There’s obviously no ‘non league dogs’ to be seen at the game today but there was a big Duck! Always up for a photo with a club mascot the Deepdale Duck duly obliged and told me that he had been ‘un-masked’ that morning in the newspaper! And not just any newspaper it was the Times!

I just had time to get a refill of Bovril before the teams were out for the second half. On my way back to my seat i met Colin the stewards mate who very kindly offered to write out a team sheet for me… what a top man! I record each match on a voice recorder using shirt numbers and without a team sheet i’m knackered, Colin wrote one down for me and only missed a few of the Yeovil players out! True fan!

We’re off again! Preston looked relaxed & comfortable from the whistle, with their 2 goal cushion intact they looked quite happy to soak up a little pressure in the middle then wait for the visitors to commit players forward before hitting them with some great counter attacking with one & two touch football from Beavon and King as well as quick wing play with Monakana on the right and Amoo on the left, well i say left, he was popping up all over the place as the half grew older but wherever he was he was effective.

The game changed just before and after the hour, Yeovil subbed Marsh-Brown off, which came as a bit of a surprise to me as he seemed one of their better players on the day, but they were also down to 10 men minutes later when Ed Upson got his marching orders after a nasty looking foul on Byrom. Colin come to tell me that Upson had been sent off the last time the 2 teams had met as well, he just must have something against Preston!

As the temperature dropped so did the Yeovil heads, they were coming up short on ideas and not much in the creative department, almost as if they would of been happy to hear the whistle now. Preston with their man advantage were in full control and with just less than 20 to go increased their lead once more from a set piece.

Scott Laird fired in a left footer from the corner flag and centre back Chris Robertson made no mistake with his header from 6 yards and the home side were safely in the hat for the second round draw on Sunday. Simonsen was not going to give up his clean sheet without a fight either as Yeovil did have a couple efforts saved by the keeper late on. Preston were good value for their win and although Monakana, King, Beavon & Laird all caught the eye, i would have to say David Amoo was Man of the Match not sure why he wasn’t in the starting 11 or if today was a one-off good game for him as this is the first time i’ve seen Preston but if he plays half as good as he did today for the rest of the season, then he’s more than good enough for league 1. FT 3-0.

The obligatory hand shaking is taking place on the pitch as well as off it as me and the big fella say goodbye to Colin and a few people we’ve been chatting to here at Deepdale. We’ve had a good day and seen some good football and i’m sure by now both teams websites have a more in-depth match report posted if you want to know more about today’s action because let’s face it.. ITV’s FA Cup highlights programme was bobbins!

We re-trace our steps in the chilly night air back towards town in search of the cheap pub Tark had stopped off at earlier. Des had gone straight for the train after the match to meet up with friends on a night out in Manchester so with no more interviews or ticket drawing left to do we were now ‘officially’ on the beer!

Tark was right about the beer in the Army & Navy, only £2.10 a pint Result! The place was pretty full with a lot of people who seemed to have been on the beer all day lol, not exactly a twilight zone sort of experience but i thought it best not to get the camera out as we stood at the bar. Man City were about to kick off on the TV so we had a couple before moving on.

Only a few yards down the road we arrive at the Fleece, slightly better than the last pub & still cheap at £2.20 a pint. The only problem i had was one of those awkward moments when i made eye contact with an old boy who was bladdered and holding onto the bar for dear life! “you alright mate?” i felt obliged to ask, he let go of the bar with one hand thrusting it towards me wanting to shake hands with me, gravity took over because of this action & he went crashing to the floor! His mate came rushing over to assist and explained to the frowning barman “it’s ok don’t worry, he’s got money!” oooh Classy lol

Quickly moving on from the Fleece we were heading back to the Angel but the with the night getting colder we decided to get a few cans from the off licence and try and catch the 6.47 train to Piccadilly that hasn’t come from Blackpool so shouldn’t be full of screaming kids!

We’re on the platform with 5 minutes to spare as we bid farewell to Preston. Not that much room on the train so we had to share a table with a couple of old girls on their way to the airport, one reading a book called ‘dealing with depression’ the other a book called ‘depressed or possessed’ “i’ll tell you girls about depression” the big fella barked at them “you should try being a Droylsden fan!” The 2 had managed to munch their way through a full box of Mr. Kippling’s luxury mincers on their journey which of course prompted me & the big fella to sing the Max Bygraves song to them! didn’t go down that well if i’m honest, tuff audience depressed people

We walk through the doors of the Sweaty Spaniard about 8.30 and our Preston day out was over, back in Droylsden where funnily enough my next blog will come from! Yes the mighty Bloods have been drawn at home in Saturday’s FA Trophy 3^rd round qualifying game against… who cares! Some Olympic team from the midlands or summat??? I will bring you a totally unbiased match report as usual as Droylsden go marching along the Trophy Trail! So until then Bloods, Blog Buds……

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £7.05 Train Tickets

Admission each – FREE

Mileage covered – 95.6

Total Travel Cost – £67.45

Total Admission – £63.00

Total Mileage – 749.2

Posted in FA Cup | Tagged Arsenal, Clayton Park, David Amoo, David N’Gog, Deepdale, Deepdale Duck, Edward Upson, FA Cup, Gary Johnson, Gavin Williams, Greggs, Jack King, Jeffery Monakana, Jim Beglin, Joel Byrom, Keanu Marsh-Brown, Man City, Man United, Max Bygraves, Mr. Kippling’s, Nicky Wroe, Paddy Madden, Preston North End, Schindler, Scott Laird, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, Sir Tom Finney, Steve Simonsen, Stewart Beavon, Victor Hot Cupboard, Yeovil Town | Comments Off

Step 12… Buxton FC v North Ferriby United FC (FATrophy #3)

Posted on October 31, 2012 by 1leg

Well unless Droylsden get a home game in Monday’s Trophy draw, this is last of the ‘close-ish to home’ games for us today as we make the relatively short trip to the spa town of Buxton in Derbyshire for their FA Trophy 3^rd round qualifying game with Evo-Stik Prem. League leaders, North Ferriby United. The 2 teams have already met once this season in a league game back in August at Ferriby’s Grange Lane ground and Buxton snatched a point with Grant Black’s 30 yard screamer in the 96^th minute even though the Ref had only added 4 minutes on! so the stage is set all we have to do now is get there!

I was in position at the bus stop at 11.10 when the Rhino texts me the words ‘on it’ he’s a man of few words the big fella but i’ve received this text before and it means he’s on the bus heading my way and we’ll be in Manchester for about 11.30 for the 11.52 train to Buxton. £6.10 each for a day return! Bargain!

On the train the big fella puts me on the spot and asks me about any interesting facts regarding today’s 2 teams and after burning the inside of my mouth on a scalding hot Greggs sausage roll i told him i didn’t know anything about Ferriby but Buxton is the highest football ground in the country! He didn’t look that impressed if i’m honest.

Only an hour on the train and we arrive in Buxton for about 1 o’clock. Outside the station is a steep hill with a speed camera to catch any budding Lewis Hamilton’s that may fancy their chances and the Rhino spends 5 minutes hoping someone will roar past and his picture will be on the evidence when the fine is sent out in the post!

The hill outside the station isn’t the only one in Buxton as it goes, no wonder this place gets cut off from the rest of the world at the first sign of snow, the place is full of them! Buxton play at Silverlands and that would normally take a couple of blokes about 10 or 15 minutes to walk to but in our case – 45 minutes! But at least we did it without the aid of any ropes, grappling hooks or the assistance of the mountain rescue services

Different kind of blog for this game, firstly i’ve changed software and gone self hosting so hopefully your reading this as normal and i’ve not crashed the site & deleted everything! I’m not what you would call ‘savvy’ when it comes to tech stuff in fact i’ve only just found out that the text abbreviation ‘WTF’ does NOT mean ‘why the face?’

Also we’re here today as ‘Special Guests’ of the match day sponsors! After doing at bit of pre-match forum & twitter groundwork for today’s game a guy called Gilly & a few others told me they were sponsoring today’s game and would we like to come along as their guests and have a few drinks and a bit of lunch at half time in the sponsors lounge? We even got a mention in the programme! Top man

Rhino – An early pie review today as we’ve been invited for lunch at half time so while 1 Leg is off making a nuisance of himself somewhere i hit the canteen to see what’s on offer here at Silverlands.

I’ve gone for the meat & potato from today’s selection and notice straight away it’s from the local supermarket chain, Morrisons. They’re not a bad pie maker when it comes to mass producers of pastry pleasantries and this was no exception. The only problems i had was there was no Bovril and the young girl serving me was very young. I would guess she was only about 14 so i decided not to take any photos of someone so young i just wish i hadn’t made ‘that’ comment when counting out the correct £1.70 to pay her because i’m sure the last thing a young girl wants to hear off a bloke more than twice her age is “how’s about that then”

Quickly moving away from the canteen to eat my pie and i can report it was as standard as they come from the reputable supplier, almost collapsed on the 4^th bite but i managed to recover with a quick double bite avoiding a sleeve full of filling.

I’ll score this at an even 7 today as i didn’t have any real complaints other than the lack of Bovril and photos of the serving area although i did bump into Jane who’s the grub-hut gaffer here at Buxton on her way back from getting more stock and she very kindly posed for a photo with me which as you can see i was more than happy about.

Mel B. – Well done Johnny on a tricky pie report given the circumstances at Buxton and speaking as a young mum, it’s nice to see child labour alive & well at the place Not really that much i can add without more information but i do like the ‘Brasserie’ horning it gives the place that quality look about it and more clubs should follow your example.

No Bovril is always a sore point with me but as always, easily rectified and explained in the email i’ve sent to Jane, i’ve also asked her to smooth things over with the young girl who served you after your poor choice of words so don’t worry about it ‘Jane’ll fix it for youuuuuuuu’ Best i can offer is a 6.5 for my score giving Buxton a respectable 13.5 total and the Pundit quote (Mark Lawrenson on Man. City) is.. Back to the standard set up everyone knows

I’ve spotted a bloke with a dog but i stopped to have a chat with someone else and now i can’t find him or the dog! They will have to wait because the teams are out and about to kick off and get game No. 12 of ours underway, the Bucks are in all blue today with the visitors wearing an all yellow kit making things easy even for a colour blind fool like me

Referee Anthony Moore from Stockport gets us going as i set off around the ground for a few photos as today’s match report will be a little different to my normal rubbish but more on that later. The first 10 minutes or so had both teams trying to settle on the hard pitch that had just about survived the cold weather from the night before and big thanks to the ground staff here at Silverlands for making it possible for today’s game to go ahead. Buxton had survived an early goal mouth scramble in the opening few minutes but other than that it was fairly even.

Making my way round to the other side of the ground i come across Sam Shepherd. Sam is a fellow blogger i had met on twitter earlier in the week and he writes about Ferriby on his own site, follow him on twitter @ferribyshep and read his blog about today’s game (here)

We’re about 15 minutes in and Bucks forward, Lee Morris saw his overhead effort go just wide and 5 minutes later Jack Muldoon’s header was deflected out for a corner for the visitors in what was turning out to be a very scrappy first half on the firm, bobbling pitch. And this was to be the story for the remainder of the half, scuffed chances & goal mouth scrambles with nether side dominating or dictating the game. HT. 0-0.

A spot of lunch at half time? Don’t mind if we do we kindly accept the offer of a few beers and pie & chips from today’s sponsors and while i was in the sponsors lounge i had a chat with Teacher Rob who has to be Buxton’s No. 1 fan. Born in Buxton sometime before decimalisation Robert first went to watch the Bucks on the 15^th March 1971 and even though he now lives in that London SW6 he still travels to watch them home & away as often as he can! In fact he has seen the Bucks play at over 90 different grounds over the years covering 1000’s of miles in his car to do so! Well done that man

Obviously today’s sponsors are in the lounge and i was expecting a few blokes from a local firm throwing a few quid in the pot for a bit of advertising or similar, but i was really surprised to find out it was 3 guys who are just Buxton fans and put money into the club now & again over the course of a season to be match day sponsors, what a fantastic idea and food for thought for all fans of small non league clubs, why not get together and actually support the team you support a couple of times a year? Hats off & thanks very much to Psyzo, Simmer & Gilly for the hospitality today and apologies for the hole left by the Rhino in your fridge where all the Carling once stood!

Back to the action as the teams are out for the 2^nd half in a game that had 0-0 written all over it! the pitch seemed to getting most of the blame for poor attacking football from both sets of fans but to be fair i’ve seen a lot worse; we’ve been to Guiseley in the past! Mr. Moore was also under the cosh from the home support as the locals seemed to think the man in the middle was siding with the visitors on most of the decisions he was making & hindering the Bucks chances. Imagine that, a ref bias towards the away team? Wouldn’t happen in the EPL………………………… or would it?

The breakthrough finally came on the hour when No.8 Michael Towey was left unmarked in the box to take the lead for the Bucks with a looping header over Ferriby keeper Adam Nicklin 1-0. And yet again we’ve avoided a nil-nil. More scrappy play for the next 15 or so and the Bucks bring on substitute & underpants model (so i was told) – Kieran Lugsden and Deakin pulled off a tremendous point blank save from Liam King to keep the Bucks noses in front.

About 20 left on the clock when Ferriby level the game, Chris Bolder rose above the crowd to head home Ben Hunter’s cross to make it 1-1 and hopefully give us a last 10 minutes of good old fashioned cup football as neither team wanted a draw from today’s game.

Step up Kieran Lugsden! The super-sub had the goal at his mercy on 83 minutes after a terrible defensive blunder and Mr. Underpants made no mistake smashing the ball home from close range. 2-1. Not long after the announcement for man of the match came over the PA; “Today’s man of the match, awarded by our match day sponsors goes to Ian Deakin” at this point everyone leaning on the wall outside the sponsors lounge turned to look at the big fella sat in the doorway who felt obliged to shout “don’t look at me… i didn’t give it!!”

The game came to an end after 3 minutes added on and the Bucks went into Monday’s hat for the next round on Nov. 10^th FT. 2-1. And the reason for my very limited match report is because of a chap called Paul Curran. Paul used to play for the Bucks back in the 70’s and now hosts a free on line TV channel for all the games and has put together a nice 20 minute package of today’s action here (BFCTV) with a bit of help from Alex McKenna no doubt well worth a watch or even subscribing to…. IT’S FREE!

Back in the lounge and i’m pleased to see the big fella hasn’t drunk all the beer although there was still time for this to happen! Gilly & the boys decide to go into town to catch the Man City game on ESPN and said “nice to meet you guys, hope you’ve had a good day, all the best to you on your cup run and just drop the latch on your way out!” as they left leaving us alone with a fridge full of beer! We left a business card in the fridge like the Milk Tray guy used to in the adverts years ago but instead of leaving a box of chocolates we unfortunately just left a hole in the stock! Sorry.

We had a great day out in Buxton and if you’ve never been then you should go! Friendliest people we’ve met on tour so far this season and we wish them luck & hope they do well in the Trophy this season unless they come up against the mighty Bloods of course

We took the long way home getting off the train at Stockport and a bus from there to avoid the crowds coming out of the Etihad meaning we didn’t get to Droylsden’s No.1 Tapas bar, The Sweaty Spaniard until about 9 o’clock, Scottish sisters and owners of the Sweaty, Aileen & Geraldine keep telling us the place is called something entirely different but i can’t pronounce it let alone spell it! i’ve never had the food there but i’m told it’s very nice & if you’re in town you should try it (there… i’ve plugged it lol free pint?)

So as i’ve already said, hopefully everyone has logged on to this site as normal and there’s not only me that can see this lol. I’ve swapped over to self hosting because WordPress started to put their own advertising on my blogs because; quote – “your site generates a lot of traffic & advertising helps us pay for the free space we allocate to you” yeah well stuff that! i’ll pay for my own space from now on thank you! Also the Rhino has taken charge of the 1LOTC facebook page (well someone had to) and will now be adding photo albums from each of our games starting with Buxton found (here) g’waaannn, give us a ‘like’

Next up we’re off to Preston, this time last year we followed non league Nantwich Town to Football League 1 side the MK Dons in the FA Cup 1^st round so we thought we would do similar this year for Yeovil Town’s league 1 encounter with North End, a goal-fest? An upset? Only time will tell until then my blog buds x

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – £6.10

Admission each – FREE

Mileage covered – 50.0

Total Travel Cost – £60.40

Total Admission – £63.00

Total Mileage – 653.6

Posted in FA Trophy | Tagged Adam Nicklin, Anthony Moore, Ben Hunter, BFCTV, Buxton FC, Chris Bolder, FA Trophy, Grant Black, Jack Muldoon, Kieran Lugsden, Lee Morris, Michael Towey, MK Dons, Nantwich Town, North Ferriby United, Paul Curran, Preston North End, Silverlands, Sweaty Spaniard, Yeovil Town | Comments Off

Step 11… Hyde FC v Harrogate Town FC (FACup #6)

Posted on October 25, 2012 by 1leg

Quite simply today is a MASSIVE day for all non league clubs who have made it this far in the FA Cup. Not only is there a £12,500 purse for all the winners of today’s games but they’re in the hat for the first round proper draw with the money-spinning league 1 & 2 clubs! What more incentive could today’s teams need?

We’ve stayed local once again for our step 11 as Harrogate Town make the trip over from Yorkshire to play Hyde FC at Ewen Fields in today’s 4^th round qualifier of the cup. Don’t really know much about Harrogate apart from we once bought the most stupid camper van from there to tour Germany in for the 2006 World Cup! As for the football team, they’re currently mid table in the Blue Square North with 4 league wins under their belt so far from this season.

Hyde on the other hand are sitting rock bottom of the Blue Square Prem with only a couple of league wins to date but after coming from 0-1 down against Tamworth to win 2-1 last week the Tigers tails must be up and feeling confident taking on lower league opposition especially at home.

A cheap day all round for us today with free bus travel on the 2 buses it takes to get to Hyde from Droylsden plus Hyde FC secretary Andy McAnulty has very kindly put our names on the guest list for today’s game as well! Thanks very much Mr. Mac

“So what’s Hyde famous for?” the big fella asks me as we stood in the middle of the market square chomping away on sausage rolls, “i’m told the Rubber Glove was invented in Hyde” was the only answer i could give even though i hadn’t confirmed this information it was just something that someone had once told me, “or that bloke who used to work over there, i suppose he put Hyde on the map as well” i said nodding towards the building once frequented by the infamous Dr. Harold Shipman!

We made the short, 10 minute walk from the town centre to Ewen Fields and went straight to the club house for a beer & watch a bit of the Spurs v Chelsea game on their big screen. It was 2-1 to Spurs but by the time i had bought a programme & been to the bar it was 2-3 to Chelsea! Wish i had Juan Mata in my fantasy team now!

Exiting the club house through a different door and we’re inside the ground heading for the press box to find Luke & Burkey from 26nil.com to find out what it takes to be a professional radio broadcaster! Something me & the big fella have thought about doing through Winamp while we’re out & about on match days on the way i met the Hyde mascot so i had to get my photo with him ‘Tony (and) the Tiger’ Grrrrreat!

Referee Simon Bennett gets us underway with Hyde attacking the goal to our left wearing red shirts and navy blue shorts & socks. They’re also wearing shirts with their names printed on the back now they’re in the Blue Square Prem making it a little easier for shite match reporters like me

Harrogate, in their yellow & black kit had just numbers on their backs meaning i had to have a copy of today’s team sheet handy or rely on the professional radio presenters behind me, HA! I’ll get a team sheet! Not much happened in the opening 5 minutes as both teams looked to settle, Ryan Crowther cut inside for Hyde but his weak effort was easily dealt with by Craig McGillivray in the visitors goal but did prompt a rather odd shout from the home terrace….. “c’mon Crowther, i hit the wife harder than that!”

With just 8 minutes gone we avoid our ‘No-Nil-Nils’ once again as Hyde’s main hit man, Scott Spencer makes a great run into the box, Adam Griffin found him perfectly with a defence splitting pass. A late, lunging tackle from Harrogate skipper, Alan White had Spencer falling to the ground and the radio professionals behind me jumping up & down demanding a penalty! Mr. Bennett duly obliged and pointed towards the spot calming Luke and the ginger cookie monster down.

I was fully expecting Spencer to step up and take the spot kick himself but after missing one earlier in the season, Phil Jevons is now first choice until he misses one that is, then it will be back with Spencer lol. Jevons made no mistake sending McGillivray the wrong way and i managed to get it on video (here) 1-0.

Hyde began to dominate the game after the opening goal but didn’t really have that clinical edge to kill off the tie in front of goal. Hyde’s best chance coming from a Spencer free kick from just outside the area that went that far over the bar it cleared the stand and ended up in the car park of the swimming baths next door!

At the other end the visitors had chances of their own, mainly coming from long balls played over the midfield. Dan Forrest & Paul Beesley both shot wide from range and Luke Dean’s crisp volley was only inches over the bar. As the half came to an end Chib Chilaka went in one on one with Dave Carnell in the Hyde goal, everyone in the ground was expecting the equalizer but Chilaka smashed the ball against the Hyde keeper and the score stayed the same. HT. 1-0.

Rhino – Off to the tuck shop i go leaving 1 Leg to destroy all chances of 26Nil broadcasting a decent show, but i’m somewhat hesitant about buying a pie from here today as i’ve been told the chap selling them is an undertaker by trade! Not sure if i would fancy a pie from an undertaker if i’m honest but i’m also told there’s a 50/50 chance he will be on car park duty if he’s not in the canteen so off i went regardless.

Result! A very nice young lady behind the counter who looked nothing like an undertaker asks me for my order, i take a few long, hard sniffs at her and with no evidence of embalming fluid to be found i order a Steak & Kidney and a Bovril.

Peter’s Pies are on offer here at Ewen Fields at £2 a pop which isn’t too bad i suppose as it is a pretty good half time snack when all said & done. i returned to my seat to tuck in and opted for the upside down, one handed method of eating as Peter’s top crust serves well holding up the rest of the body in this position. Tasty with definite pieces of steak & kidney within surrounded by a nice, rich, thick gravy that didn’t run through my fingers even on my 4^th bite

The downside was there wasn’t any Bovril, plenty of other hot beverages to be had including hot Vimto and packet soups so why there is a lack of the beefy goodness god only knows? Winter is coming ya know. Solid & reliable slightly overpriced pie with no Bovril scores 6.9 from me.

Mel B. – Nice to see Peter’s goods being kept well and at the right temperature, too hot and the contents dry up, too cold and the gravy sets like the lard in a chip pan so Kudos there Hyde. Why is the pie warmer tucked away at the back of the canteen? As my dear ole mum used to say to me just before i went out on a Friday night “get the goods up front & out there on show! Let people see what they’re paying for!” which is pretty sound advice on various levels, especially pie selling.

The lack of Bovril is always a thorn in my side, it’s obvious you shop at some sort of cash & carry for your other catering items so would it kill you to buy a tin of Bovril granules? Slight room for improvement at Hyde but i’ve seen a lot worse. 6.5 from me giving a total of 13.4 and the Pundit quote (Martin Tyler on John Terry) is.. Always reliable & Always dependable.

Back to the action as Harrogate get us going again for the second half. The visitors must of had one of those special team talks during the break from gaffer Simon Weaver as they had upped their game right from the whistle. Hyde on the other hand seemed to just be content with sitting back and trying to hit Harrogate on the break, a dangerous game to play when you’re only 1-0 up.

Adam Bolder was pulling all the strings in the middle for the visitors, picking out team mates at will with some excellent passing and the home side just seemed to let him do it? Chances fell for Dean & Chilaka as well as Alan White who was up from the back looking for goal whenever he could and Hyde were letting him.

It seemed only a matter of time before the visitors would be back on terms as they piled the pressure on, Hyde had no answerers and they couldn’t seem to string 3 passes together without giving the ball away! it was like they were just waiting for the full time whistle and they were 5 or 6-0 up, which of course they wasn’t.

Spencer was now feeding off long balls pumped up to him from the Hyde defence and the way the game was going you could quite easily be forgiven if you thought the 2 teams league positions were reversed. Hyde’s midfield had gone missing and when they did show up it was to foul someone or get booked for decent, Hyde boss Scott McNiven seemed to be going along with this areal-only threat also as he swapped Jevons for the very tall Matty Blinkhorn to assist Spencer up top.

Harrogate pressed on through the half but although they were well on top and by far the better team it looked as if it just wasn’t going to be their day. Shots were flying in from all over the place from the visitors but they were all either off target or scrambled clear by a nervous looking Hyde defence.

More changes were made from both sides and with just 2 minutes left on the clock we got our 2^nd goal of the day Sub, Dan Clayton collected the ball and headed for goal, his deflected effort went out for a corner that was whipped in by Dan Forrest. Another Harrogate sub, Jonny Allen got his head to the ball to send it downwards towards goal, the 3^rd and final Sub, Leon Osborne was on hand to flick it over the line in one of those ‘was it / wasn’t it over’ moments. The liner on the far side was in no doubt and signalled for a goal immediately 1-1.

With no time left to respond the home side were left shell-shocked as the visitors now played a little keep ball content with doing it all over again on Tuesday night back at Wetherby Road. A relived & very happy looking visitors dug out erupted at full time after the inspired substitutions from Weaver had seen all 3 lend a hand in the equalising goal. FT 1-1. (‘Up For The Cup’ another fellow ground hopper was at the game today and blogged his own views of today’s game here)

The big fella headed for the clubhouse and i turned to my favourite radio presenters with my best did my best topical impression “now then, now then… how’s about that then” it didn’t really go down that well as both Luke & Burkey looked distraught and gutted with only a draw from today’s game. i left the guys to interview a very disappointed looking Scott McNiven and went to find the big fella.

I went to the clubhouse but there was no sign of my beer monster chum! I got myself a beer and a good seat for the Norwich v Arsenal game about to come on the big screen when a young lad came in and flopped into his chair at the next table. His dad asked him what was the matter with him and the little lad said there was a big guy outside booting a football at all the kids! this didn’t sound good and sure enough when i went outside to check, there he was with jumpers for goal posts!

With the make shift pitch covered with fresh blood & milk teeth, i rescued what was left of the young players by taking the big fella back indoors for a beer or 2 where the Rhino explained that he had been taunted into the game by the youngsters so he played in a ‘Vinne Jones’ style so they made him go in nets

Burkey turned up after half an hour or so and we whisked him off to Droylsden’s No. 1 tapas bar the Sweaty Spaniard. The landlady was a bit reluctant to serve him at first because he looked like the homeless guy outside Greggs in Manchester town centre but after we had vouched for him the rest of the night went well… well at least i think it did? It got a bit fuzzy for me and that was nothing to do with Burkeys beard!

Back on the Trophy trail next week as we head off to Buxton for a glass of mineral water and their game against North Ferriby United. Until next time Blog Buds……

Today’s Stats….

Travel Cost each – FREE

Admission each – FREE

Mileage covered – 11.0

Total Travel Cost – £54.30

Total Admission – £63.00

Total Mileage – 603.6

Posted in FA Cup | Tagged 2006 World Cup, Andy McAnulty, Arsenal, Blue Square North, Blue Square Prem, Buxton FC, Chelsea, Chib Chilaka, Craig McGillivray, Dan Clayton, Dan Forrest, Dave Carnell, Dr Harold Shipman, Ewen Fields, FA Cup, Harrogate Town FC, Hyde FC, John Terry, Jonny Allen, Juan Mata, Leon Osborne, Luke Dean, Martin Tyler, Matty Blinkhorn, North Ferriby United, Norwich City, Paul Beesley, Peter's Pies, Phil Jevons, Ryan Crowther, Scott McNiven, Scott Spencer, Simon Bennett, Simon Weaver, Spurs, Vinnie Jones, Wetherby Road | Comments Off

Travel Cost each – £4.35 Train + £1.80 Bus = £6.15

Admission each – £18

Mileage covered – 40.8

Total Travel Cost – £112.45

Total Admission – £102.00

Total Mileage – 1,209.4

Total Goals Seen – 82

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Travel Cost each – £6.55 Train + £5.20 Bus = £11.75

Admission each – Free

Mileage covered – 86.6

Total Travel Cost – £106.30

Total Admission – £78.00

Total Mileage – 1,148.0

Total Goals Seen – 77

Travel Cost each – £5.90 Train

Admission each – Free

Mileage covered – 57.0

Total Travel Cost – £94.55

Total Admission – £78.00

Total Mileage – 1,061.4

Total Goals Seen – 73

Travel Cost each – £6.85 Train

Admission each – £5 (split the one £10 ticket)

Mileage covered – 71.4

Total Travel Cost – £88.65

Total Admission – £78.00

Total Mileage – 1,004.4

Total Goals Seen – 67

Travel Cost each – £14.35 Bus & Train

Admission each – Nil

Mileage covered – 183.8

Total Travel Cost – £81.80

Total Admission – £73.00

Total Mileage – 933.0

Travel Cost each – Nil

Admission each – £10

Mileage covered – 0.0

Total Travel Cost – £67.45

Total Admission – £73.00

Total Mileage – 749.2

Travel Cost each – £7.05 Train Tickets

Admission each – FREE

Mileage covered – 95.6

Total Travel Cost – £67.45

Total Admission – £63.00

Total Mileage – 749.2

Travel Cost each – £6.10

Admission each – FREE

Mileage covered – 50.0

Total Travel Cost – £60.40

Total Admission – £63.00

Total Mileage – 653.6

Travel Cost each – FREE

Admission each – FREE

Mileage covered – 11.0

Total Travel Cost – £54.30

Total Admission – £63.00

Total Mileage – 603.6

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