After our stay in Ravenglass for Krankenhaus, Jen and I moved on to Barnoldswick for some more music. This time it was Soho Dukes at the Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre. It’s a great little venue, with just sixty seats, most of them having been reclaimed from an old cinema.
We’ve been a few times and on one of those occasions we saw a couple of the Soho Dukes moonlighting in a Mott the Hoople tribute band with Zak Starkey. It was enough to encourage me to look up their original material, and I liked what I heard enough to return for a rare headline show.
They were very good and it was easy to see the Hunter/Mott influence on the band. They were joined for one song by Spike and Harry of the Quireboys which went down well.
I was hoping that the gig would coincide with a Barnoldswick Town fixture, but they were away. From the options available I picked a Salford City game due to a combination of it being just a forty-five minute drive and a lunchtime kick-off. Just as importantly, they are a League Two club and I really need to put some effort into ticking off the ninety-two. It’s a little embarrassing that with getting on for seven hundred grounds under my belt, I’ve still twenty-nine of the ninety-two to visit.
I bought a ticket online for twenty-three quid and set off early enough to bag some on-street parking just a few minutes’ walk from the AIG Stadium.
I tried two entrances that weren’t mine, before eventually finding the correct turnstile. I’d chosen a seat at the back of the six rows in the stand that ran the length of the dugout side of the pitch. I could have sat opposite, or behind the goal to my left. The visiting Port Vale fans filled the terrace behind the goal to my right.
I was given a team sheet as I came in and noticed two players with Boro connections. Macauley Langstaff was starting up front for Salford. He’s a bit of a late developer who was released as a kid from the Boro Academy but made his way into the EFL via stints at the likes of Boro Rangers and Stockton Town. He was busy but didn’t really shine.
Port Vale had Onel Hernandez on the bench for them. He had played the first half of the season for us in 2021, the time when Warnock started the campaign but was replaced by Wilder. He came on in the second half but did nothing of note that I can recall.
Port Vale had been relegated last year and were not finding the fourth tier any easier than the third. They began the game at the bottom of the table with Salford just above the relegation spots. Despite their team’s lack of form, the away fans really got behind their team. They were scathing towards the home fans and gave Salford part-owner Gary Neville some stick.
At half-time I got a steak pie and chips, which were ok. I’d earlier watched a fella a few rows in front of me avoid the queues by producing a packet of ham from his coat pocket and snacking on that.
I watched the second half from the standing area at the other end. An old bloke nearby moved next to me and talked my ears off. Sometimes I’m just too polite for my own good.
Neither side had looked capable of scoring until the Port Vale keeper let a daisy cutter free kick slip through his hands and into the net for the only goal of the game. I expect both teams to struggle this season on today’s showing.
Trail of the Lion King 