Merry Christmas part 2

Hi guys and gals. A big thanks to all those that have read and contributed to the blog, the stats tell me its just shy of 7,000 hits in 18 months, and 20% of that has been in the last 2 months, thanks in part to  the Scarborough games (and a big thanks to their fans for stopping by).

The next big meeting (Saturday) is in the balance due to the current tropical climate we are experiencing. However, I for one hope it goes ahead and it should be another excellent encounter. Fingers crossed.

The attached vid is a Christmas message from the Cincinnati Bengals players, and in hindsight we should have got some of the lads to do something similar.

Merry Christmas everyone, and peace be with you.

Merry Christmas one and all….song #4

I haven’t seen a game for over 3 weeks now and waiting to see one is like waiting for the Messiah

The snow has fallen, and if it stays with us this week, then there will be no greater fan than me eg no work. However it will mean our return local derby on Boxing Day could be in jeapordy if the snow stays. Bring it on.

So here is another footballing song from within my known repertoire – i’m already running dry lol

Todays fayre comes from Vincent Peter Jones, ex Wealdstone, Wimbledon, Leeds, Sheff Utd, Chelsea, Wimbledon (again) and QPR. He had a minor hit with Wooly Bully in 1993 and then released an album in 2002 called Respect, which provided this offering, a cover of Big Bad Leroy Brown…..

The “miss of the century?”

Harrow Borough’s Rocky Baptiste is currently on the front page of the Yahoo site with the above title. It stems from an amazing run and shot from him. The more I look at the video, the more it looks like a set up. Anyway, you decide, here it is…

A James Cordon sound-a-like is in the background shouting “Whats he done, Whats he done,   What has he done”  Any higher and only the dogs could hear him.

Bridlington Town 4 Hall Road Rangers 1

Another away game, and again against our old adverseries. I love the ground, the club house the atmosphere especially when 100+ of the 147 are Brid fans. How do they know there were 147 in the ground ? When the guy on the turnstile didnt dish out any entrance tickets and didn’t or couldn’t distinguish between the number of oldies, kids and Brid faithful coming in.

Some of our old players are still there, though no Jamie Barmwell, but they had James McGarry within their ranks. It wasn’t cold cold, but chilly enough. And the atmosphere got even icier when McGarry bundles a ball home on 5 mimutes, this after we missed a couple of decent early chances. The game gets a little scrappy after this, but we dominate posession, but the pitch doesn’t help matters. We restore parity on 15 minutes when an unlikely hero smacks the ball into the roof of the net when the ball pings around the penalty area, at first I thought it was Frank that had blasted it, but it turned out to be Carl “Gibbo” “Fleshman” Giblin. And i am pleased for Carl, because he has been such a great player for Town and nobody deserves a goal more than him.

Mssrs Thacker and Palmer receive a very warm welcome from some of the away fans, in fairness to Martin, he takes some of it with a pinch of salt and a smile. The half finishes 1-1, in reality, we should have been 3 or 4-1 up.

The second half starts well and its not long before Danny Buttle is brought into the mix and nearly caps his start with a cross come shot come “oooh just inches wide” effort. Moments later he crosses in and Alex Rhodes looks “oh so surprised” when his effort actually goes in.

Somewhere around the second half, and Ash Allanson is fouled in the box by James McGarry and another defender and we gets another penalty. Frank steps up and belts it one, over the bar !! Flip he missed one. I think the pitch played a part, as I saw the ball bobble just as Frank was about to take the kick.

11 minutes later, I think it is Wayne Wallace that drives a ball at goal from outside the box and he hits it straight at Craig Burdicks face, Craig contorts his body, and probably his face too, to steer the ball into the goal.

Moments of the game left, Wallace hits another shot from outside the box and this time Tom Fleming steers the ball into the goal. We thoroughly deserved the win, we were by far and away the best team, and Tom Fleming was by far and away my Man of the Match, though special mention to Ash Allanson who had a good game and all the other lads, we also had the best fans, the best songs, the smartest fan (Jordan), the best put downs, the best goals blah blah blah. Stoke didn’t lose either.

A quick funny from Sundays FA Cup 3rd round draw, you know, thee most important draw of the year. I was painting my little ‘uns room when the draw was being made,3rd or 4th tie and Stoke come out as the home team (Number 36 – Stoke City). I’m shouting “Number 61….Number 61″ the lads going who’s that then….(Number 61) yeeeessss I scream, “its York City”  (YORK CITY) says the man on the telly, well Jim Rosenthal does. My lads going, “how the hell did you know it was 61 ? and how the hell did you know it was York City ? Is this recorded ?” ha, I was quite pleased with myself for that shout, which was probably a 57-1 chance or so, if only i’d had a fiver on it.

Bridlington Town 1 Willerby and Westella 0

Okay okay I haven’t updated this for a teeny while, and it’s 8 days since we beat W&W in the East Riding Cup. i suppose me and a few others expected a deluge against our lower league rivals, whose numbers included a few ex Brid players like Matt Fyvie. We were playing a near full strength team, so hopes were good.

The visitors were no pushover, they did have one or two attacks, but we really did struggle to break them down. It wasn’t until the 77th minute when Frank Belt dispatched one of his infamous thunderbolt penalties into the ether that settled the game, this after Ash Allanson was brought down in the box. There isn’t a lot more that I can remember.

The weather was clear but cold, but the threat of another storm was on the horizon. Incredibly, there were 153 through the gate, especially given the status of the game we were playing, especially as we had 156 at the game on Saturday.

Bridlington Town 4 Hallam 0

Well, it was a bit like after the Lord Mayor’s show. Many years ago, I visited QPR to watch a game, and then a few weeks after that, I went to watch their reserves in action. What I found completely bizarre, was the contrast of watching a game in front of 15,000 and then watching a game in front of 600 in the same stadium, there is a very eerie silence watching a match in such a big stadium with no fans. And that is what it felt like today, well not so much the big stadium bit, but the contrast in crowd size to last weeks.

We were entertaining Hallam today, the floodlights were on from the start, whilst it promised to rain, persistantly, it never got more than a few spots. The wind was in attendance, but not the 100mph stuff that had been plying its trade this past week.

The game was a good workout, though we didn’t need to step out of second gear. Hallam were good opponents, but apart from a couple of efforts in the second half, didn’t really trouble Mark Wilberforce. Giblin and Dexter worked hard in the centre of defence, Brunton and Belt were solid in defence and  supportive to the wingers. Ash and Wayne in the middle controlled the game, Buttle and Rhodesey getting up and down the wings, and todays hat trick hero Craig Palmer up front. Phillo came off the bench to get the fourth. But my man of the match (plenty of contenders today – again !!) goes to our captain Tom Fleming, who seemed to be involved in everything. He was tackling, running, getting involved and leading by example today.

And all the while, news was coming through from the Scarborough game at Shirebrook. They were 2 up at half time and “cruising,” but within 7 minutes of the restart they were losing 3-2 and after 20 minutes they were down 4-2. Hoggy gets one back with 5 to go, but it was to no avail. The Seadog Forum was in overdrive with peoples reactions. Unfortunately Rainworth win also. The league standings are :

Bridlington P15 37pts

Scarborough P18 37pts

Rainworth P15 37pts

Armthorpe P15 35pts

And finally, my 4 year + wait for a win in the raffle has at last come to an end. A fine bottle of Merlot is sat ready to be glugged !!

A very good day indeed.

A record…..thanks

This weekend saw the most hits on the blog for over 14 months. Previous record for 1 day was 117, thanks largely to some video I’d put up Youtube.  Sunday’s attendance was 164, this I know was primarily because of Scarborough fans stopping by to read up on Saturdays Vase game. So a little Xmas ditty to show my thanks.

And now a football related funny from this weekends game Bury v Notts County, poor old Daniel Nardiello

Bridlington 5 Scarborough Athletic 2

So, the quirky hand of fate had us all playing again, just 7 days since we were last at it. During the last week, we had played and beaten Arnold Town at their place in El Presidente’s Cup and Scarborough had a (soon to be) mid-table clash with Armthorpe, where it finished 1-1, nice.

The tingle wasn’t there this week, the cloud of doom from above my head had only just cleared from last week. Another healthy crowd drinking and eating plenty, the chairmen would be pleased.

Conditions for the game were not that bad compared to what had been happening – it had been lashing it down and swirling a gale just the night before.

We started off well, it was scrappy at times, but the majority of chances went our way. Our passing and movement was good, and the lads at the back were making some exceptional last ditch tackles to keep the lively Scarborough strikers at bay. Again it was Nathan that broke the deadlock, a “disputed” effort, as the lino had flagged for an offside, but stood where I was, Nathan had come through the line, but there was a player in an offside position (i think it was Frank Belt). Fair play to the ref, who I think had a great game, he had kept up with play and seen Nathans run, and quickly consulted with the lino to tell him he was wrong with his decision.

As we neared half time, it felt like I was living some kind of Groundhog Day, oh god we’re 1 up and Boro are getting back into the game, but thankfully Craig Burdick puts my mind at ease with a fine goal.

Second half and Scarborough do try and get back into the game, with a fine goal from Ryan Blott, shit it is happening all over again. However, this goal is only the start of an 8 minute period of goal action. Frank Belt scores another “belter” from outside the box in open play two minutes later. I have read on the Seadog forum that the keeper was at fault for letting this one go through him, in fairness, Frank hit it with such force that the keeper was shaping to save it, but it took a slight deflection on its way through, the keeper had little time to react.

Jordan of the Mafia, jumped onto the pitch to celebrate with Craig Burdick, and was promptly rugby tackled by a very very keen steward and frog marched out of the ground. If, a big if, the steward had done that to me, I would have been frog marched out of the ground by the rozzers, coz I would have chinned the steward for the way he handled the situation. 1) there was no need to man handle Jordan like that 2) whilst I don’t condone what Jordan did, some perspective of what the game meant to everyone should be observed, just someone showing a little passion. A good ticking off would have sufficed. 3) there are NO SIGNS saying to stay off the pitch 4) the stewards were probably pissed off at the singing and the fact we were whipping their arses on the pitch.

A massive four minutes later and the majority of the 1002 fans in the ground are cheering as Craig Hogg reduces the deficit again. But undeterred by this, we go up the other end, and Ash Allanson delivers a bullet corner that is met on the nearpost by Wayne Wallace with a thunder header. Wayne had an excellent game today and topped it off with an identically worked goal 10 minutes from time.

We did have a few other chances, but their keeper made some smart saves to keep our lads at bay. All in all a great day, great display by the lads, because they all played out of their skin, the back four were immense, the midfield made great runs with some slick passing and Palms up front, whilst he didnt get much of a sniff in front of goal, he did hold the play up and chase down their defenders and keeper.

The cloud of doom has been replaced by a sparkling ray of sunshine.

BionicBarmby has put highlights of the first half online, so credit to him for this footage, thanks.

Footballing song #3 – England

To celebrate todays joyous occasion, a small prayer from the year 2000. Fat Les and The Pet Shop boys cheering England on with an updated version of a timeless classic.

Bridlington Town 1 Scarborough Athletic 2

Ok, it’s 6 days after the game, and I can only just gather the inspiration to jot down my thoughts and views from last Saturdays first game.

The tenant v landlord game has always sparked a highly charged atmosphere, irrespective of how good the football or the teams are. Saturdays encounter was no different. Many Brid supporters had been very excited relishing the thought of this fixture, yeah I had a tingle too, but mine didn’t really materialise until I got to the ground at 2. There were probably 150 in the ground at this point, wow.

We warmed up in our normal fashion, SAFC turned up in ones and twos and had a reasonable workout, and all the while the turnstiles were kept very busy. Our angelic choir boys were in full sing, with numbers swelled for the game. Kick off comes, and the ground is busier than that of the FC United game nearly 2 years to the day, as it turns out there were 1082 in the ground – an NCEL record.

3 o’clock comes and the whole ground is buzzing, that sort of “first game of the season” “non-league team drawn against United at Old Trafford” kind of a tingle. The early signs were good and we have the majority of play and posession. Nathan breaks the deadlock on about 6 minutes, I cheer, but there isn’t that many around me doing the same, GULP. But thankfully, everyone around me is there for the game, like me. And on that point, the spirit amongst the two sets of fans was brilliant.

Talking of brilliant, the SAFC keeper made some excellent saves in the game, and we do waste a few more of our own in the first half. However, we do go into the break 1 up. There were a couple of talkie points in the first half, but this is not the forum to discuss them – coz I can’t be bothered.

Second half and someone has sprinkled some magic dust on the “visitors” and some “play like a mongue” dust on the home team – thats a bit harsh, in fairness we just weren’t allowed to play, and when we did, the keeper was exceptional form or we just lost our composure in front of goal. They scored a well taken goal from a free kick, and not so long later, the most dubious of handballs was given and they were given a penalty. The ball was driven at goal and hit a hand down by the defenders side, 750+ people shout for a penalty and the man in the middle gives it. Its duly dispatched.

We lose 2-1, and then the next day Stoke lose to Hull in exactly the same fashion. It was such a choker, and it really pissed me off if truth be known. Hence the motivation to only now write up some old drivel.

Hot Shots Part Deux tomorrow, lets hope its not a comedy like its film namesake.