Archive for the ‘Football’ Category

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Haltwhistle Jubilee v North Shields Athletic, Saturday 30th October 2021, 2.30pm

November 6, 2021

On the way up to Glasgow the previous week Jen and I had driven past Haltwhistle and it struck me as somewhere that would be good to combine a game with a bit of a walk. It didn’t need to stay in my thoughts for long as a fixture in the eleventh tier Northern Alliance Premier League the following week soon brought us back.

We drove a couple of miles outside of town and parked up at Cawfield Quarry, close to Milecastle 42 of Hadrian’s Wall. We had set off later than intended and so only had two hours or so, but an hour walking eastwards along the wall and then another hour back again was a very pleasant pre-match activity.

Jen and I had walked the wall around ten years ago but I’ve no recollection of this particular part. I doubt that it has changed much so it’s more likely my failing memory. I’m tempted to do the walk again as a refresher, but this time in the other direction.

There had been some doubt as to whether Haltwhistle Jubilee’s fixture with North Shields Athletic would take place. There had been heavy rain the day before but the result of a mid-morning pitch inspection at their Burns Field pitch was tweeted to confirm that it was on.

It was free to get in with any revenue for Haltwhistle coming from the sale of programmes at a pound-fifty a pop. I know they sold at least twenty-nine as that was the winning number for a bottle of wine.  Even if that was the full extent of sales that’s not bad from a crowd that I counted as sixty-six people and four dogs. That crowd figure may have included some of the management teams, but I didn’t count the bloke watching from his garden that the beagle kept baying at. After a while that fella very kindly hid behind a tree to keep the noise down.

The Northern Alliance Premier is a diverse league. This setting wasn’t far off Sunday league with no stands whatsoever. In contrast Newcastle Blue Star have been attracting four-figure gates with many of their fans taking tables in hospitality. I doubt that Haltwhistle would meet the necessary ground standards for promotion to the Northern League, but I could see Blue Star moving beyond that level very easily.

Haltwhistle Jubilee were in blue with North Shields Athletic in red. The hosts opened the scoring with a well-worked goal in the first half. That increased the level of abuse from someone that I assumed was associated with Shields and who kept wandering on to the pitch. The ref didn’t have it easy as he was effectively on his own with his linesmen being co-opted from the subs for each team.

In the second half the abuse increased and one bloke was made to go and stand ten yards further along the touchline. He was also the fella that won the bottle of wine in the programme draw, but I doubt that he’d had time to drink it all by then.

Jubilee doubled their lead with a well-planted header. We had a bit of late drama when Athletic subbed their keeper for no apparent reason and he sulkily made his way along the touchline. The new goalie didn’t concede and it finished two-nil to Haltwhilstle.

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Blantyre Victoria v Rutherglen Glencairn, Saturday 23rd October 2021, 2pm

November 5, 2021

Jen and I were up in Glasgow for a Billy Bragg gig. We’d seen him two days previously at Sage in Gateshead and that was a very good show but his performance at Barrowlands was another level up. It may have been due to what he termed a ‘proper Saturday-night crowd’ or it may have been the all-standing venue, but he got great feedback and singing along on the songs that benefitted from it and silence on those ones that should be listened to without a sound. An excellent night.

In a nod to old age I bought a tea-towel at the merchandise stall. I also got myself a Billy Bragg tee-shirt to replace the one that I wore out in ’85, traipsing around Europe. This one is probably a size or so larger than that one but that’s the way it goes.

On the afternoon before the gig Jen and I stopped off at the KG Stadium at Blantyre on the outskirts of Glasgow for a game in the Premier Division of the West of Scotland Football League. It’s the sixth tier in Scotland and provides the opportunity of promotion to the Lowland League, but as a consequence of a recent restructuring a more likely drop into the seventh tier as seven teams will be going down this season.

It was seven quid in and as I’d taken longer to find somewhere to park the car than I’d intended we arrived just as visitors Rutherglen Glencairn were putting away a third minute goal. The bloke on the turnstile called me a jinx.

I had a chat with one of the home supporters and he was able to tell me that Blantyre had gone into the game second from bottom of the table. He reckoned that they had lost a few of their players to better paying clubs and revealed that the current team were on between fifty and a hundred quid a game.

This quite surprised me as the standard was pretty poor, certainly no better than Wearside League, although I’ve no idea what players at that level receive.  For anyone interested Blantyre were in blue with Rutherglen in black and white.

It got worse for Blantyre when a wild tackle reduced them to ten men after only twenty minutes and Rutherglen added a second goal before half time. We were sat in a small covered stand behind the goal and despite having lived in Scotland for a total of around ten years I could barely understand what the people around me were saying. I used to work with a bloke from the Hebrides and had to have someone translate for me. I suspect if I ever moved to Blantyre it might be the same.

At half-time I got myself a Scotch pie. I should have known better really as having taken the pastry from the top the inside resembled the sort of cheap burger that I wouldn’t give to a dog. Very tasty, though.

Rutherglen added a third goal in the second half for a well-deserved victory.

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Northallerton Town v Penrith, Wednesday 20th October 2021, 7.45pm

November 2, 2021

I very nearly went to the Boro game this evening, but in the end couldn’t really get excited about another Riverside game that I knew I wouldn’t be able to distinguish from all the others that I’ve been to. Sad really, but I think I’ve moved on from caring about the result of games that I watch and once you’ve done that then there’s little reason to watch your team.

As an alternative Jen and I headed off to Northallerton’s Calvert Stadium for their ninth-tier Northern League Division One fixture with Penrith. It was six quid each in and I was soon relieved of my change in return for a programme and a 50:50 ticket.

I’d had my tea before I came out so didn’t bother with any food but saw one fella eating a roast dinner in a tray that, I think, was four quid something. Pretty good value if it was. Certainly better value than my half-time cup of tea that set me back a pound-seventy.

There were plenty of seats in the main stand and we were able to find an unobscured view of both goals. We could have sat further along at tables or, if we had known about it, in a hospitality lounge for twenty-five quid each.

Northallerton, in black and white, were fourth from bottom of the table with Penrith, in red, one place below. Penrith had the best of the first half and missed a great chance just before the break that would have put them three-one up.

One of the Penrith defenders had a bit of a childcare issue and had to spend half-time looking after his three kids. The youngest, who looked about five, wasn’t happy at all about his Dad having to go back onto the pitch at the restart and was even less impressed when his Dad was too far from the touchline to be able to return his ball that he had kicked onto the pitch after play had restarted.

Penrith got that third goal in the second-half, but a late fightback from Northallerton made it three-each at the death.

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Pontefract Collieries v FC Halifax Town, Saturday 16th October 2021, 3pm

November 1, 2021

Jen and I had spent the night before this game staying in Shipley on the outskirts of Bradford for a Boo Hewerdine gig. As usual he was very good and as he so often does was collaborating with someone else. We’ve seen him with Eddi Reader and Chris Difford in recent years and this time it was Heidi Talbot up on stage at the Live Room with him. In addition to their own stuff they covered Tom Waites’ ‘Time’ and Blondie’s ‘Sunday Girl’ which both went down very well amongst the sold-out capacity crowd of 120.

It was also a sell-out at the Beechnut Lane stadium the next day for the FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie between Pontefract Collieries and FC Halifax Town. I’d been looking to keep my FA Cup run going and as this one was pretty much on the way home it seemed an ideal choice.

I’d bought twelve quid tickets online within a few minutes of them going on sale and then watched with interest the build-up throughout the days leading up to the game.

We actually arrived at the ground two hours before kick-off. Not through excitement but because I’d planned to park up and then go for something to eat. Beechnut Lane isn’t really handy for anything though and once were in the car park the best option was probably to get in early and nab a couple of seats.

The plan worked and we ended up in the main stand next to a lady whose son had played for both teams in his younger days. Whilst it was good to have a seat and I’m fine with sitting quietly I’d have enjoyed it more if the DJ had brought enough records to only have to play each one the once. Most of his songs were from the seventies and good as a lot of them were, I didn’t really want to hear some of them three or four times over.

It was a big game for Pontefract and the first time that they had reached the final qualifying round. They play in the eighth-tier, in the same division as Stockton whilst Halifax are a former Football League club and currently third in the fifth-tier National League.

The crowd was a record and not far off fifteen hundred. It seemed as if the whole of Pontefract was there with a mix of lads on the beer, kids scoffing crisps and old blokes wondering why their regular spot on the railings was already three deep with half an hour to go to kick-off.

There was a good turnout from Halifax too, some of them in the seats near me but the majority behind the goal to my left. They also made the most of being allowed to drink at the pitchside, something that I don’t think that they can do at their level.

The size of the crowd put a strain on the tea hut but fortunately I’d got my chips and gravy not long after entering the ground.

Pontefract created some half chances, but Halifax always looked the better side and more likely to create something from nothing. Their pressure meant that the home goalie had plenty to do and he did it extremely well in a man of the match performance.

With the game in added time Pontefract had a man sent off for a second yellow. It was late enough for it not to matter though and they hung on for the goalless draw and a place in the draw for the First Round proper.

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Maldon and Tiptree v Felixstowe and Walton, Saturday 9th October 2021, 3pm.

October 31, 2021

For the last couple of years I’ve been doing some college stuff in Chelmsford. It means that I go down there for the weekend every two months or so for what they call ‘workshops’. I’ve always kept an eye out for the Chelmsford fixtures but generally we don’t finish until it’s too late in the day for me to get to see them.

For this trip Jen and I were staying in Maldon, which is about half an hour away from Chelmsford. It’s a town famous for salt and that fella out of The Streets of San Francisco, the one who isn’t knocking off Zeta Jones. To the best of my knowledge anyway. We’d picked Maldon because Brooks Williams had a gig there on the Friday night. He’s someone who I was aware of from his State of the Union work with Boo Hewerdine but I’d never heard or seen solo before. He was really good.

Next day the college session finished early and I was back in Maldon for around quarter past four. That meant that as I reached their Wallace Binder ground there was still around half an hour left in their FA Trophy Second Qualifying clash with Felixstowe and Walton.

Had I arrived earlier it would have been a tenner to get in but by this stage the turnstiles were long deserted. I had a chat with a fella on the railing as I went in and he filled me in on what I’d missed. The away team, Felixstowe and Walton were in red and white and one up. Maldon were the team in the Barca-like strip and they should have had a goal of their own courtesy of a first minute shot that bounced down off the cross-bar and, according to the fella, went over the line. Both sides were in the eighth tier Isthmian League North.

The attendance was announced at two-hundred and seventy-two but presumably that didn’t include latecomers like me. Most were congregated along the railing in the top corner but there was a covered seating stand along one side, another opposite and one more behind a goal.

Felixstowe had brought a few with them and there was a friendly atmosphere from a crowd united in their derision of the ref. Normally I’d side with the official but in this instance he really was poor. There were fouls where the body language of the defender clearly indicated guilt, but he didn’t pick up on it.

With not long to go Maldon nabbed an equalizer when a shot hit the post and bounced in off the away keeper. Felixstowe could have nicked it in the dying seconds when it looked like they had won a pen but the ref took the easy way out and pretended to have seen nothing amiss. There was no extra-time and the tie went straight to a penalty shoot-out.

Most of the crowd made their way down to the action end for the penalties which looked as if they might go on well into the evening before a Maldon miss sent Felixstowe into the next round with a 7-6 victory.

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York City v Whitby Town, Saturday 2nd October 2021, 3pm

October 29, 2021

I was keen to keep up my run of seeing a game in every round to date of the FA Cup and so Jen and I took the train from Thornaby to York for the Third Qualifying Round tie between York and Whitby. The train was so packed that it was difficult to get through the doors. There were holidaymakers with suitcases heading off to Manchester Airport, other groups were dressed up with plans to spend the day in York drinking and a large proportion of the rest of the train was filled with Boro fans on their way to the game with Hull City.

Once in York it started to rain and so we nipped into the nearest pub for some lunch.

The food and drink was ok, but the pub highlight was that they had an excavated Roman baths in the cellar. An old fella told us all about it, notably that there was a whole more that remained covered up. I don’t know about you but if it was my pub I’d be down there digging every night until I had either recovered every sword, shield and rubber duck or else caused York town centre to disappear into a sink hole.

With kick-off approaching we braved the rain and took a bus to the Community Stadium. It took about half an hour which is longer than the timetable suggested but there seemed to be plenty of buses. I’d bought our twelve quid tickets online and the bar codes on my phone weren’t recognized at the turnstiles. A friendly steward used his own code and let us in anyway.

The reason our tickets hadn’t worked was that we’d tried to use them at the wrong entrance. Our seats were just right of centre in the main stand and so we should have gone in at the next entrance further along. We reached our seats by stepping over taped barriers that looked as if they were intended to block off the central area for subs and team officials. Nobody seemed bothered though, it was all very relaxed.

The Community Stadium is freshly opened for this season and looked appropriate for the needs of a sixth tier club like York. It holds 8,500 in four separate covered stands. The capacity wasn’t tested for this game though with the stand opposite being empty whilst Whitby had brought around three hundred fans with them who were in the stand behind the goal to my right.

York were in red, with Whitby in a white kit with blue trim that included two vertical thin stripes down one side of their shirt like the red and blue ones in Escape to Victory. I noticed that the ex-Newcastle player Steve Watson was managing the home side. I don’t know if my memory is playing tricks on me but I’m pretty sure that I was at that game against the Boro where he did the somersault throw-in, although it’s just as likely that even if I was there I’ll have gone for a piss and missed it with my memories actually being taken from You Tube.

York were two-up at half-time courtesy of a couple of scrambled goals. I stood in line for a pie and some coffees which I was able to get in time for the restart despite the queue.

Ex-Boro striker Brad Fewster was up front for Whitby but was in the pocket of the York centre-half and was hooked early enough in the second half that I was still eating my pie. Not much of note happened after that other than a Whitby sub half-heartedly flicking his boots up for a stud check in a way that a dog flicks up dirt behind him after taking a crap.

It ended up two nil to York and the victory took them into the draw for the Fourth and final Qualifying Round.

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South Shields U18 v Stockton Town U18, Friday 1st October 2021, 7.30pm

October 13, 2021

After my visit to North Shields four days earlier for an FA Youth Cup tie, it fell to South Shields to provide my Friday evening entertainment in the same competition. As an added bonus, Stockton Town provided the opposition and as my parents have been shelling out a tenner a month for years to support ‘the young lads football’ in the Stockton Town monthly draw I was keen to see if their money had been well-spent.

Mariners Park, or the 1st Cloud Arena as it is now known, is situated in an industrial estate. If there was any club parking it was full by the time I arrived and so I dumped the car a couple of hundred yards away. It was three quid admission which is a pound cheaper than neighbours North Shields. Immediately as I went in I saw the new stand that is being constructed along the length of one of the sides of the pitch. It’s an impressive show of ambition from a club in the seventh tier of English football and that only six years ago were in the tenth tier Second Division of the Northern League. The ambition was supported by around three-hundred and fifty fans turning out. That’s an impressive attendance at this level in adult football, never mind under eighteens.

The new stand will give South Shields decent facilities on all four sides of the ground. There’s covered standing behind both goals and a combined standing and seating covered stand along the other side of the pitch. I chose to sit and although there were stanchions holding up the roof I got a good view of both goalmouths.

South Shields were wearing a Burnley style kit with Stockton in their regular yellow and blue. The hosts looked the better side early on, keeping possession well and playing mainly in Stockton’s half. They made their dominance count and by half time were two up. I thought the Stockton keeper was a bit jittery but to be fair, he wasn’t at fault for either of the goals and he made a couple of good saves to keep his side in it.

At half-time I got myself pie and chips and a coke in a pint beaker that you paid a pound for and could either return to get your pound back or keep. I’m a sucker for things like this. I’ve a cupboard full of plastic beakers from the last couple of World Cups and a commemorative South Shields version has now joined them.

Stockton got back into the game with a great strike that was just too high for a keeper a fraction off his line. They then levelled before South Shields regained the lead. The big talking point, or whinging point, came when Stockton made it three each. The goal came from a penalty awarded after the striker was fouled but chose not to go to ground and instead tried and failed to round the keeper. The ref called play back and awarded the pen. Brilliant. Or ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’ according to the home fans nearby. Why should a player have to go down to ‘win’ a pen?

Shields weren’t to be denied though and hit back with a fourth and winning goal.

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North Shields U18 v Morpeth Town U18, Monday 27th September 2021, 7pm

October 7, 2021

I’ve no recollection of ever having been to the Tynemouth area, other than to the Wet and Wild swimming centre when my kids were small. When looking for the Daren Persson Stadium online I noticed a beach and a castle nearby so Jen and I set early to have a pre-match wander around.

We parked up near the Aquarium and went down onto the beach. Despite the cold there were a few people around. Most of those who ventured into the water were in wetsuits but a few teenagers were braving it in shorts. We had the dog with us, as did a few other people, and it was only when we were leaving the sand that we noticed a sign prohibiting dogs until the first of October. I doubt the enforcement officers will read this, so we’ve probably got away with it.

At one end of the beach is Tynemouth Priory and Castle. It was shut by the time we arrived so we could only view it from outside. I keep meaning to rejoin English Heritage and when I get around to it we’ll probably pay a return visit, perhaps tied in with a game at nearby Cullercoats.

The game that we were attending was in the FA Youth Cup between North Shields U18 and Morpeth Town U18. We paid four quid to get in which struck me as high for a kids match, but I don’t suppose you get much for that these days. I looked at going to the cinema the other day and tickets were fifteen quid. That was just for regular seats. Add in a similar amount for drinks and snacks and a trip to the pictures makes four quid for football seem like a bargain.

We took seats in the covered seated stand. It was only later that I noticed that we were sat in the area reserved for visiting officials. As with the beach, I’m not one to deliberately flout the rules, but I find I’m getting less and less observant these days.

North Shields were in yellow and green with Morpeth in light and dark blue. There was an early goal from North Shields and a prompt equalizer from the visitors but after that North Shields took control and rattled in goals at a steady rate.

At half-time I went into the club house for a cup of tea. There wasn’t any food although I could see a stack of pre-cut buns through the kitchen doorway. At least at the pictures I could have had an over-priced and under-cooked Westlers.

There was something on the wall telling me that Malcolm MacDonald was the North Shields President. I didn’t see him around, although he may very well have been stood nearby for all I tend to notice.

The second half was more of the same with the Morpeth defence failing to pick people up and being punished for it. Their number four looked a decent player who tried to make things happen but in the absence of support from his team mates he would invariably hang on to the ball for longer than he should have and end up conceding possession.

The game finished six-one and so North Shields progressed to the next round.

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Darlington Railway Athletic v Wolviston, Wednesday 22nd September 2021, 7pm

October 6, 2021

I’ve worked in Darlo a couple of time, firstly for Press at their Haughton Road offices thirty-odd years ago. For some reason, I’d got Haughton Road confused with the Brinkburn Road location of Darlington Railway Athletic’s ground and so spent a good twenty minutes driving up and down the road where I used to work wondering why I couldn’t find a ground that I’d never previously seen there anyway.

Fortunately, Jen was with me and she took a more sensible approach of using the sat nav on her phone and we successfully spotted the Brinkburn Road floodlights with time to spare.

You go in through the entrance to the social club so if anyone did fancy watching for free then it shouldn’t have been too difficult to evade paying simply by telling them that you were there for a pint and to watch Man United versus West Ham on the telly. There were no programmes or team sheets but the bloke on the door offered to track me down if he could get hold of a team sheet for me. I’m not really that bothered. I don’t keep them, but I do like to have a quick check to see if any of the players are known to me.

Jen and I started off in the covered stand behind a goal. It was a terrible view though and we quickly moved to a better vantage point leaning on a railing along the side of the pitch. Darlington went one up very early on but I missed all bar it hitting the net as I’d been trying to get a decent photo of a spaniel that was sleeping next to the dug-outs. From what I did see it looked to be a spectacular goal.

Both benches were very shouty with Wolviston in particular appealing for everything. We moved a bit further round to spare my eardrums from the needless racket. Wolviston were clearly on top in the first half and a well-worked headed goal doubled their lead.

At half-time we wandered into the clubhouse for a cup of tea. Despite the Man United game being on the telly everyone’s attention was on a cat that had strayed indoors. It hid under tables and resisted any attempt to shepherd it towards an open door. With the players returning to the field, it was still giving staff the runaround and so we left them to it.

Wolviston just about clinched the points with their third goal early in the second half, although Darlington did pull one back before a fourth Wolviston goal finally settled matters. The standard was decent for an eleventh tier Wearside League game, as was the attendance of one hundred and four people, three dogs and one cat.

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Spennymoor Town v AFC Fylde, Tuesday 21st September 2021, 7.45pm

October 5, 2021

Whilst I’d missed the opportunity at the weekend to get to an FA Cup game, the replays allowed me to keep up my streak of seeing a game in every round so far. This was a Second Qualifying Round replay, which is four rounds into the competition and was a consequence of Spennymoor’s one-all draw away at AFC Fylde three days earlier.

It was a tenner to get in and whilst I saw some people with programmes I didn’t see anyone selling them. Jen and I were there early enough to nab seats in the main stand which offered covered seating and a central viewpoint from the side. We could have sat behind the goal to our right or stood opposite or behind the goal to our left.

There was a decent bar that I wandered into whilst looking for something to eat and a couple of food kiosks where at one of which I was able to pick up pie and chips for my tea.

I noticed that former Boro Youth Cup winner Jason Kennedy was on the bench for Spennymoor. I watched him in the warm-up and whilst his hair has now gravitated to being around his chin, it’s good to see one of that team still playing. He didn’t get much of an opportunity at senior level with the Boro, although I’ve a vague memory of him coming close to scoring with a shot from distance against someone, but he carved out a good career for himself between then and now.

The standard was good with both sides playing a fast-passing game. The home side had a first half penalty appeal turned down that looked about fifty-fifty to me. There was a second shout from Spennymoor for a spot-kick moments later that I’d say was sixty-forty. That, perhaps combined with the one that wasn’t given, was enough to persuade the ref and Spennymoor converted it for a one-nil lead.

A lot of the home fans who had been sitting in the stand to our right switched ends at half-time to be closer to the Spennymoor attacks. That’s one of the perks at this level. The Brewery Field attendance was announced as being 1094 with 54 from Fylde.

Fylde applied pressure in the second half and forced a good save from the home keeper but Spennymoor held on for the win and a place in the Third Qualifying round.

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