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Tuesday 13th December, match passed fit for play by referee at 5pm. Evening
weather forecast - rain, rain, rain, a bit of wind and er some rain. Kick off
7.45pm, standing water on the pitch with no sign of rain easing up. Mangotsfield
desperate not to play the game, still the game kicks off. Half an hour into play
and it really is unplayable, match abandoned. |
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This raises a few questions. First - where's my £5? Second - where's my
f*ck*n' fiver? No seriously, where is my fiver? Half an hour and no refund of any kind. The
Manchester City game abandoned on the same night let in the 22000 odd supporters for free
when it came to the rescheduled game. Should the game have been played in the first place
or was it just a conspiracy to get people into the ground to spend money in the bar, after
it was called off? It worked on me. I spent more on beer than entrance fee, programme and
food; and I've still got to pay to get into the ground for the rescheduled game against
Mangotsfield, as well as a programme. |
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Couldn't the game have been delayed until the heavy rain had cleared? This is
allowed, as I've seen it done. Last season in Italy'sSerie A, the last game of the season
Juventus where playing away at Pesotto and losing 0-1, it started to rain very heavy and
the players had to go off. Juventus were desperate to abandon the game, but the ref',
Pierluigi Collina (you know the bald one that takes no sh*t) was having none of it. They
waited for 40 minutes and then continued the game. Juventus lost 0-1 and that meant Lazio
wonthe Italian Title. If it can be done for a game of that importance then I'm sure the
ref' could have waited a few more minutes. After all, at 9pm there was no wind and no rain
and apparently norefund! Cruel hand of fate why do you mock me? |
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The first game of the month... |
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...doesn't seem to agree with us and cup games. The first match in December was
away to Gresley in the League Cup. It nearly went allwrong for the team though, as somehow
we were 2-0 up at half time. The half time team talk did its job as Gresley pulled it back
to 2-2. We had to keep up the appearance, and so let it go to penalties, eventually losing
the shoot out 2-3. |
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Dean Thomas said: "The manner in which we lost the game was most disappointing as I
expected the more experienced players to guide theyounger ones when Gresley got back into
the game but this didn't happen." |
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DJ says: " The manner in which we lost the game was most convincing as I expected
the more experienced players to guide the youngerones to the bar, sorry, Gresley what?
League Cup, where? Who's round, mine! Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin." Bothered?
Erno... |
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Back to business in the League next up. Bromsgrove came to Fortress Middlefield,
well Mott and Bailey Middlefield at least! A penaltyin the first minute set us off to a 4-2
victory, with the return game to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. This game
highlighted the intense split in the ranks as Sadler ruthlessly ripped Tittertons goal from
him, in his obsession to be the club top scorer. Money has changed hands somewhere, I can
smell it. Oh, sorry no it's me, I've had onions. A wash out for the next game as
Mangotsfield got away with not having David Seal, their top scorer, available. Oh how they
moaned when they had to start the game, but they were off that pitch quicker than something
very fast when the Ref' said enough's enough! Still it was 0-0 so no harm done. |
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Away to one of our bogey sides, Sutton Coldfield Town. I hate it when we play this
team. It always seems we have to scrap and struggleto get anything out of this side, and so
it proved again. A late equaliser meant we only came away with a 2-2 draw, but still
reasonable considering some of the games we've played against them. A quick double was
achieved by beating Bromsgrove away midweek 1-0. A physical game with Bromsgrove looking to
avenge the previous week's defeat, left the game bogged down in the midfield. The result
was much more important though as we had fallen behind in the table after the Sutton game,
and how many people can remember a few years back when we would have been beaten into
submission in gameslike these. Not any more. Take the Blakenall game for instance. Blakenall
have always been a very aggressive side even more so in their Midland Alliance days. They
came to the Lane with sole intentof bullying us around the pitch and kicking us out of the
game. It worked for about 10 minutes! Going 0-1 down early on was a good kick up the arse.
The players seemed to lift a gear and the fact theref' was letting bad tackles go seemed to
spur them more. An absolutely superb goal from Andy Lucas gave us back the lead. He dribbled
the ball past at least 4 players and then took it around thekeeper before leaving it nestled
in the bottom corner. After a sloppy equaliser for Blakenall, two strikes in as many minutes
gave us a half time 4-2 advantage. Unfortunately the ref' ruined whatlooked like being a
good second half. It seemed FIFA's new directive to allow retaliation and boxing on the
field of play had been put into practise by the referee, who by now had lost control of the
game. A late goal to round it off gave us a 5-2 win, and put us on top of the league for
the first time since our very first ever game against Bilston (Thank you for the reminder
Mr Titterton!). Set it up nicely for the Boxing day derby... |
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Oh bugger, you'll all know by now that it didn't exactly go to plan. We lost 2-3. |
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Still, only one league defeat during the month and second in the table at the turn
of the year, there's not many who could complainabout that, except maybe a few dinosaurs
from the shed. |
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Do they mean us? They probably do. |
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Hinckley Times, 21st December edition: "Danny George is set to return against
Blakenall after recovering from a buttock injury." |
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What? Even if you had hurt your arse you wouldn't tell anybody. I'd lie, Rabies or
Herpes but not "sorry boss I can't play today I'vegot Sphinctitus." Anyway he's better now
so it's alright, but Danny a word of advice, next time you're drinking at the Sketchley Grange
and Arnar Gunnlauggson offers to buy you one, just walk away! |
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World of Football...er Stuff |
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In the 2nd round of the FA Trophy, Blyth Spartans beat Stafford Rangers 3-0. Puts our
defeat into perspective a bit. Enough said, though too late for Tommy Gallagher. |
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Pagets' new management team seem to got off to a good start, beating Gloucester 3-0.
It took them off the bottom of the table, to bereplaced by Cinderford. Good, Paget are a
long established club in the Midlands having only recently moved to their new Castle Vale
ground. I think it would be a shame to see them go down. Cinderfordhowever, I couldn't care
less. Gloucestershire, it might as well be another planet. |
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The Rolleston Charity Cup is a worthwhile trophy, that only the elite are capable of
winning! |
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Referees will wear sponsorship logos on their shirts in the Premiership next season.
FIFA plan to allow home associations to seeksponsors for their officials. A backer is being
sought for England at the moment. Dolland & Aitchison anybody? |
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Kick-off delayed, balloons on pitch! I kid you not. Blackpool's attempt to rival the
Premiership big boys took an almighty turn for the worse in front of the Sky TV cameras for
their FA Cup game against Yeovil. Having proudly released a huge net full of orange balloons
to herald the arrival of the team, in an ironic portrayal of Blackpool's performances this
season, not one balloon got off the ground! It would seem that some cheeky back room YTS lad
is still running around with the highest pitch voice since Aled Jones, as none of the
balloons were filled with Helium. Even a blast of Steve McMahons 'hot air' team talk would
have faired better but still the highlight of the day was watching 'LIVE' on TV, 3 Blackpool
stewards trying to stamp on every balloon leaving what ended up looking like a trail of
orange condoms all over the pitch. |
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While we are on about the FA Cup, some good results for non-league teams: |
| Chester 3 Oxford 2 |
| Lincoln 0 Dagenham & Redbridge 1 |
| Morecambe 2 Cambridge 1 |
| Blackpool 0 Yeovil 1 |
| Southport 1 Kingstonian 2 |
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Though you've got to feel sorry for Lincoln as they were playing against 22 men, the
team of Dagenham and the team of Redbridge. How did that escape FA bureaucracy! Some rewards
as well as both Dagenham & Redbridge travel to Charlton and Morecambe entertain Ipswich.
Somebody remind them to use Helium! |
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Further down the football Pyramid - 2 football teams finally reached a result in
their cup-tie, after scoring a record 51 goals! The sides Freethorpe and Foulsham drew 2-2
in their Norfolk Premier Cup match. The replay was drawn 3-3, and then 4-4 after extra time.
The teams were still level after the first five penalties of the shoot out, having scored 4
each. The tie went to 'sudden death' and after a couple of misses; it finally ended when a
Foulsham player missed to leave the score 20-19. The 44 penalties taken equals the world
record for a professional match. |
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Coming next month: the home derby against Bedworth, the return game with Redditch,
we owe them one, and the away leg at Gloucester, wellies, bathers and full scuba gear for
that one please. If raining, or snowing, website abandoned with no refund...apparently. |
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