Rain, rain, its always raining,
Rain, rain, I end up saying,
Rain, rain, please go away now,
Rain, rain, just leave right now,
Rain, rain, don’t know how,
I don’t care how,
To make my rainy day just go away.
Tuesday 1st January 2013 Blue Square Bet Premier k.o.:- 12.00noon
AFC Telford United 0 Wrexham 2
Danny Wright 24,
Adrian Cieslewicz 85
referee:- Wayne Barratt attendance:- 2,931
The first match of the new year was at midday on a reasonably bright, clear noon, a small hiatus amid the incessant rainfall which seems to have dropped from the heavens this Christmas! Despite being warned that this was a high profile match and that the Wrexham fans would be appearing in large, vociferous numbers, when I got there around 11.15am, I turned straight into the main car park at the ground and parked with no payment required. Equally, at the end, when I left, I was out of the ground and on my way inside five minutes! This was despite the biggest attendance of the season turning out at The New Bucks Head.
AFC Telford 0 Wrexham 2
Pie, chips and peas, Claire, was on the menu. Chicken and mushroom pie, as I remember and it was very welcome too, washed down with a cup of hot chocolate.
1st January 2013
Chris was there from Derbyshire and Giles from Norwich. He was taking in two matches today as well, but not the same two as Chris and I. I think he was intending to take in Sutton Coldfield Town on their 3G pitch in the afternoon.
Wrexham defend their goal with their own fans massed behind it!
AFC Telford were pretty woeful and Wrexham comfortably took the game with a goal in each half and Chris managed to get a photograph of himself with the home mascot!
Tuesday 1st January 2013 Evo-Stik Northern Premier League k.o.:- 3.00pm
Division 1 South
Newcastle Town 0 Market Drayton Town 1
Robert Stevenson 51
referee:- Mr C. Taylor (Wednesbury) attendance:- 80
It was a mad dash to be at the next match before kick-off, but I made it with ten minutes to spare. This really is a unique footballing experience. Newcastle Town share their stadium with a Cycling Club and the pitch is surrounded with the very steep banking of a “velodrome”. It looks rather like an elongated circular balloon which dips in the middle!
The football pitch encircled by a “velodrome”.
I did enjoy the meat and potato pie before the match, Claire. This is almost in the north where they know how to make proper pies!
Both Chris and I have over one hundred and forty matches since our last 0-0 draw, but this game threatened our records quite severely. It was an archetypal example of “this match has got 0-0 written all over it” and was not helped by Chris’ reminiscences of previous dull dour encounters involving Market Drayton Town and 0-0 draws! To be fair to him, however, he did say that he had seen a 10-1 home victory at this very ground! Just before the hour, the away team struck and the spell was broken and our records preserved! The woman sat next to me told me that her son played for Newcastle Town, but was injured at the moment. He wasn’t even there, but she was supporting his team!
1st January 2013
Newcastle Town FC
Wednesday 2nd January 2013 East Midlands Counties League k.o:- 7.45pm
Barrow Town 0 Borrowash Victoria 1
Shane Newton
referee:- Mr. Ed Pidduck attendance:- 110
Once again, our record of avoiding 0-0 draws was under severe scrutiny. These two sides could boast a record of only one league defeat between them all season. By the end of this match, however, they had one league defeat each this season. The recent heavy rain and the aptly named Riverside Stadium’s proximity to the River Soar had left the pitch in a heavy condition and a dour, uncompromising first half saw the teams trudge in 0-0 at half-time.
Chris has a soft spot for Borrowash Victoria and their eccentric manager who was still banned from the dugout for previous misdemeanours. In the second half, there was a subtle change in their approach. Instead of defending and concentrating on keeping top of the league Barrow Town at bay, they became more adventurous and actually believed that they could win the match.
Wednesday 2nd January 2013
Riverside Park, Barrow-on-Soar
And so it proved to be. Midway through the second half a decisive strike from Shane Newton(who also opened the scoring at AFC Wulfrunians in December) sealed the victory and condemned the home side to their first league defeat of the season!
The car parking at Barrow Town just gets worse and I was lucky to find a spot inside the club park. Outside, it was a lottery of soft verges and swamp, where just getting to and from your vehicle could severely test one’s podiatric dexterity!
Saturday 5th January 2012 FA Cup with Budweiser k.o.:- 3.00pm
Third Round
Middlesbrough 4 Hastings United 1
Merouane Zemmama 21, 67 Bradley Goldberg 68
Andy Halliday 47
Ishmael Miller 84
referee:- Graham Salisbury attendance:- 12,579 (1,068 away fans)
The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, TS3 6RS
This was a really good day out at the only FA Cup third round tie that I really fancied going to see. For once, I had already been to all the grounds where a third round tie was being played, so there were no new grounds to hunt down. It was the lure of the lowest placed team left in the cup playing away at the big boys (and just maybe, the fact that I hadn’t seen a home goal in any of my three matches this year).
The Middlesbrough Suspension Bridge with the clock tower in front as seen from The Riverside Stadium.
Chris drove us all up from Derbyshire but my luck was out with the sudoku and for once I didn’t finish any of them! By the time we got there and parked the car conveniently close to the ground without paying, I was pretty ravenous, Claire!
Are these the gates they brought to the new stadium from Ayresome Park?
The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough (not Barrow-on-Soar) stands in the middle of an abandoned wasteland with the suspension bridge dominating the landscape and a Victorian clock-tower the only remaining building pointing its face to the ground in silent splendour. We descended on the mobile food dispenser very much in the fashion of the Assyrian descending “like a wolf on the fold”. I had a chicken burger with chips and gravy and we ate on the hoof as a meagre crowd made its way into the stadium.
1,068 Hastings United supporters were squeezed into a small section behind one goal!
The scoreline was pretty predictable. The game was brightened up by the antics of the home striker who rejoiced in the soubriquet of Ishmael Miller (on loan from Nottingham Forest, the local faithful informed me, and destined, I should think for a quick return). Ishmael rampaged around the pitch like an out of control panzer, had a sixteenth minute penalty saved, but redeemed himself five minutes from time with a sweet strike for the final goal.
Chris didn’t manage to get himself into a picture with the home mascot!
The away support, squeezed behind one goal in a two thirds empty ground, did their best to get behind their team and were rewarded just after the hour when Bradley Goldberg struck from outside the penalty area and one could predict from his display that higher echelons of soccer may soon be beckoning.
Sunday 6th January 2013 FA Carlsberg Vase k.o.:- 3.00pm
3rd Round
Walsall Wood 4 Wigan Robin Park 1
Lewis Taylor Boyce 38 Joseph Hull 63
Jamie Hawkins (pen) 58
Tom Evans 61, Ahmet Bilgimer 78
referee:- James Thornhill attendance:- 176
This match was transferred to Sutton Coldfield Town’s Coles Lane ground because of the recent rain which had rendered the Walsall Wood pitch unplayable. Coles Lane has a 3G playing surface which has to be seen to be believed! The only way that you can tell that it is not really grass is the small eruptions of dust which follow each bounce of the ball.
The main stand at Coles Lane, home of Sutton Coldfield Town.
There was a good crowd for the match, certainly more than either Sutton Coldfield Town or Romulus, who both play their Northern Premier Division 1 South league games there, are ever likely to get and amongst them were not a few regular “hoppers”! Walsall Wood normally attract 40/50 spectators to home games, but today there were maybe three or four times that number at the match.
The view from the main stand at Coles Lane, Sutton Coldfield.
Midway through the second half, there was a stoppage. No-one seemed to know what was going on and there was no announcement over the loudspeaker system. When I went to enquire, it seems that the referee had suffered a hamstring problem and was unable to continue. A qualified referee from the crowd came forth and took a linesman’s place and after a twenty minute stoppage, play continued!
Walsall Wood 4
Wigan Robin Park 1
Walsall Wood were good value for their emphatic win. Scorers and attendance will appear when I can get hold of them!
Let’s hope the new year brings some respite from the rain!
