Brid 1 Radcliffe Borough 0 (a)

What is seeming becoming a regular feature of the first team, they yet again go away in the league and win 1 zip (albeit to the team at the bottom of the league and without any win to their name – seems we started a popular thing last year and many teams like Radcliffe, are trying to emulate our feat this year).

Me, I sauntered off to the Theatre of Wet Dreams to watch the pre-pubescent Scarboro play. They were playing a team from Leeds, Yorkshire Amateurs – whose biggest claim to fame must be selling the Elland Road ground to Leeds for £250 (and for a fiver they could buy it back!!). I understood from Manincrowd that the team had suffered troubles towards the end of last season and were playing with a very young team, one of their starting centre forwards was 16, and didn’t do too badly. But in reality, Scarboro should have walked this game by a much bigger margin than the 3-0 scoreline. IMHO it should have been 7 or 8 nil at the very least, but some of the Boro players seemed to be somewhere else.

Yet again there were over 400 at the game, and it wasn’t until the second half when the home fans got behind the team (and behind the goal, and from the bar with beer in their hands) and it was great to hear a massive cheer when Boro scored – a “roar” even.

Which leads me on nicely to this weekend coming up, it is the game that each and every fan has been looking forward to for ages, the visit of FC United of Manchester – hoping for at least 1400+ away fans with about 100 home fans (the roar if FCU score would be unprecedented in my time at Brid) and it seems the away fans are certainly looking forward to their day / weekend at the sea-side.

Unfortunately, I’m not here for the game – and im pissed off about it, but “other duties” take precedent. bah humbug

Brid 1 – Ossett Albion 1 (a)

Last night was supposed to be about quality, watching two decent teams plying their wares in a hostile cauldron, thats right, I was at home looking forward to the Champions League game with Liverpool at Besiktas. I’d done enough driving this week already and couldn’t be bothered to do another 100+ mile round trip. In the end though, the lad watched his beloved Pool get turned over by the Turks, me and missus zin watched the second series of Heroes that i’d “acquired” (12 episodes ahead of the current UK showing).

All the while though, I was wondering how the real “heroes” were doing. Turns out, that for the second game in a row, the referees performance left a bit to be desired (unless you were an Ossett fan). We had a lad sent off after 3 minutes for lashing out after a coming together, rightly deserved said one commentator. The same observer said that we played really really well, but the ref was dishing out cards like a WSOP dealer. We took the lead just before half time with the ever impressive Neil Towler bagging it. Poor old Neil was to meet his fate with the grim reaper in black during the second half, when he received two bookings in a short space of time for “being busy up front.” So for a period of the second half we had 9 peeps on the field, and it was no surprise that OA equalised late on.

I sometimes wonder if the officials ever look at their decisions and reflect what it must be like for the players and fans alike to understand the rationale behind some of it. Players put huge amounts of effort into every game and fans plenty of money (thats how it all ticks along isn’t it ?) but the officials ? I do wonder sometimes, and this is not being malicious or personal to them. It isn’t the easiest of jobs or the most pleasant, they are on a hiding to nothing sometimes, but some of the officials (at this and NCEL level) could do with bringing their sense of humour onto the pitch with them, than leaving it in the dressing room before the game.

some other blogs that i found out there which talk about refs :

Prem fans’ view of refs on leftback.info

South Africa 2010 referees blog

An American one on soccer 

I hate the word soccer – I will vent in the not too distant

Brid 0 Retford & the man in the middle 2

As is always the case, after a run of good results, I mosey on over to the stadium with all the expectations of a virgin groom on his wedding night, “gonna do it at last”. I missed the kick off, coz I decided to jump in the bath half way through the Liverpool Everton game and watch it there, and then fell asleep, and was rudely awaken by Phil “grandad” Neville getting sent off and handing the game to Liverpool.

Dressed for a cold day, I soon realised that wearing a fleece was going to be a small mistake, as it was quite warm in the sun At the ground, you can get blinded by the lowness of the sun, on the bus shelter side of the ground, this won’t be an issue soon, it’ll be pitch black by 4.

It doesn’t take long for Retford to demonstrate their Unibond South dominance (currently top of the tree) with their quick, short passing and swift movements. However, our boys seemed to soak up the pressure well and restrict the visitors to a handful of chances. We did have two bookings during the first part of the first half – Joe Brown NUMBER 9 (for a minor scrap with their centre half) and Pete Naylor NUMBER 5 (for a slightly late challenge with studs showing – very harsh). The game changed about 5 minutes before the end of the half when our joint manager won an innocuous header, when their player went down in a heap and the ref calling our lad over. He looked a this number (NUMBER 4) showed him the yellow card and then the red card like it was his second caution, when the player highlighted the error, the ref supposedly said “well you’re off anyway, it was an elbow” and showed him a straight red – what the f*** ? You can’t change the decision from a yellow to a red like that, surely ? It’s bad enough Sepp Blatter wanting to make things up as he goes along, but not the bloody refs too.

It didn’t take long for the visitors to make their numerical advantage count, when ex-pro Adrian Littlejohn came on and virtually scored with his first touch. Not to be deterred, our lads showed some massive courage to try and get back into the game, and it wasn’t long before we were awarded a dubious penalty, brilliant 1-1 – ah shite, last week Smithy spanks them in, today he places it, straight towards the end of the goalies arms. And then the goalie makes another inspired save to keep us out from a well worked move. Before too long their numbers get the better of us and we’re 2 down.

After the penalty miss, I’d had enough to be fair, as I’d resigned myself to that fact it wasn’t to be our day. Then Sheff Wed scored two late goals to beat Stoke at Stoke 4-2 – wtf ?? I seriously hope the England lads come up with the goods tonight (and they’re doing well early on, oh no SA penalty in front of posts, but Wilko responds quickly)

Brid 4 Brigg 2 (aet)

Another midweek home game, another mid week cup game. Our recent success in the lesser cup games has meant a good steady flow of football at the Lane Rental Stadium of Dreams (wet dreams more like). For the first time in my recent memory, we really dominated the majority of a game, but the usual problem of not finishing the game off.  I was really pleased for Dean Lackie who scored an absolute belter of a goal, Dean is a workhorse who gets up and down the pitch all game who’s touch and distribution just let him down from time to time. Another fine performance from Neil Towler up front, who worked tirelessly all game and really made life difficult for their defenders and topped it off with two excellent goals. And the game was wrapped with a goal from Phil Harrison in extra time.

I enjoyed the game, watching it from the sidelines with Bridborn, Paulnffc, a Brid exile and a the “pointer” (as seen in pic below)

it was very entertaining.

I think the gods seem to be looking over the Theatre of Wet Dreams, as we are playing well, getting the rub of the green and giving all 106 of us something to smile about. Lets see if we can transform this form into the league on Saturday against the bottom team.

A promise…..

I promised a few people at yesterdays game, a link to one of the funniest footy blogs I have come across – the blog relates to a fan of AFC Wimbledon, whose recent history reads like a story from a channel 4 soap opera – someone decides to move the “original” club to Milton Keynes and change its name, the fans set up a club at the bottom of the pyramid and have worked their way up to Ryman Premier.

A quote from yesterdays write up after their teams continued goal drought “Certainly the Royal Mail management were considering offering their postmen our kit, because let’s face it that would have stopped them striking.” and on the same theme “Minus points: Brothel. Barn door. Banjo. Cow’s arse. Can’t think of any other figures of speech, but you get my point.“ 

Heres his link : SW19 Army

Brid 3 Curzon Ashton 3 (h)

My new motto seems to have a definite ring to it, “one nil down again.” And yes it happened again today.

However, the result didn’t give any reflection on the game against the league leaders, so herewith a convoluted effort (timings are an inaccurate guess by yours truly):

2 minutes they score – a waltz down the middle and a lob of our keeper

4 minutes – one of their players booked for raising hands on a Brid player (pushing him in the face)

5 minutes – they hit the post

8 minutes – they hit the bar

17 minutes – we get a penalty and score

26 minutes – we get another penalty and score

35 minutes – they get a penalty and score

38 minutes – they get another penalty and score again (Brid player booked for having a go at the linesman for the decision)

45 minutes – half time

60 minutes – Brid go 8-3 down to Scarborough in the egg chasing game

75 minutes – Ash Dexter scores a cracking goal

83 minutes – our left back (Luke Smith) who got booked for shouting at a linesman, shouts at the other linesman as he is being kicked and elbowed all over the place by the blue no 12 and earns another yellow for his troubles.

84 minutes – they hit the bar again

85 minutes – Brid manager gets sent from the bench for telling the linesman that he was born out of wedlock

85 minutes – bus shelter becomes a highly charges arena, much like the static electricity given off by your hair when you rub a balloon on it

90 minutes – full time

It was a very niggly game, and there were no better exponents of this than by their players 4 /6 /12 and 15.

They have a goalie who can barely walk and kick a ball, and we rarely put him under pressure today – not good.

As you can see, it was a good game, and the team have to be proud they got a great result against the divisions top team, who apparently spend more on bog roll than we do on our wages (£4.5m on a new stadium, Rhodri Giggs on about £200/week).

Brid v Quorn (parts 1 & 2)

I think the club motto needs to change. It currently reads “onwards and upwards” personally, i think it should be changed to read “one nil down again.” For the umpteenth time, we go one down early to mid way through the first half – we did it tonight to some sloppy defending and apparently did it at Quorn on Saturday. We tend to put ourselves under a huge amount of pressure by conceding early and then trying to get back into the game. I wasn’t at Saturdays game (of course not, judging by my England thread!), but apparently it mirrored what happened tonight – poorish 1st half, opponents take lead, we fight back and by rights should have won the game in normal time, mind you, the conditions and the officials were as bad as each other in the first half. As this was an FA Trophy game, tonight went to extra time and penalties if need be.

However, 2 pieces of magic in either half of extra time sealed the win for us and a place in the next round.

For me, it must be the first time in 5+ months or so, that I witnessed a competitive home win. HOORAY !

It’s great to meet fellow fans, especially those who have been involved with local and non-league football all their lives. I met up with Uncle G, the only other reader of the blog (thank you !), who commits a lot more time to the Brid Town cause than the majority of us. Top man.

Apparently we’re home on Saturday to Curzon Ashton, but we’ve already played them at home a few weeks back…as can be seen below.

Saturday 15 September

UniBond League First Division North

15:00

118

Bridlington Town

0

vs.

Curzon Ashton

3

Norton 15 Norton 36 Giggs 64

Hope it doesn’t finish the same way.

England 12 Australia 10 – egg chasers

You bloody beauties !! That makes up for not seeing any footy today.

Brid 1 – Newcastle Bluestar 2 (a)

 So the superstition mumbo jumbo proved to be just that. Apparently the conditions in Newcastle were more conducive to bog snorkeling than football. There is a report of the game on the Bluestar site, which I thought I’d post here (in a special all inclusive link).

Newcastle Blue Star Vs Bridlington

Blue Star went into the game with six out of the normal starting eleven injured, but they began brightly with Phil Bell heading only narrowly wide. Then on five minutes Ben Pringle scored a rather awkward goal which saw his shot hit a defender & trickle past the keeper.

Much of the game that ensued was a scrappy affair with both teams making some bad mistakes, although it must be said that the conditions were awful as the rain poured down throughout the game at Kingston park making the surface slippery & the ball hard to handle.

Defensive errors were made by both teams, one such occasion resulted in Star keeper Ryan Smith who was on his debut getting down to save well at his near post. This was then followed by a effort from Towler which ended up very wide.
At the other end Lee Novak picked up a poor Bridlington clearence & hit a superb volley but unfortuneatly Michael Price saved.

Star set up many fine chances mainly via McLeod and Pringle but they just couldn’t captialise – even managing to hit the woodwork on no less than three occasions!

Then came the eighty nineth minute bringing with it heartache to the home fans when Towler headed in the equaliser from close range – not another last minute goal conceeded?

But a dramatic conclusion occurred when just one minute later Bell drove a magnificent shot straight into the top corner for a 2-1 victory! Joy erupted from the home fans, Blue Star are still unbeaten at home but  must improve their away results.

---

 Sounds like the lads did well and weren’t overawed by the opposition. Not sure if many (if any) fans got to the game, as Newcastle is a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours from Brid, bloody long way for mid week game, especially when there is work tomorrow. I take my hat off to anyone that went, it peed down, 3 hours each way traveling and we lost.

One day the lads might just get a good rub of the green, of course skill plays a big part in the course of a game, but luck is another crucial element. For us, well….we don’t get very much, injuries, refereeing decisions, fixture timings (ie midweek away in Newcastle)…but hope is on the horizon.

Saturday they are away in a cup at Quorn FC- not the tasteless cardboardy vegetarian substitute for meat, but the place where it was “formed” (boom boom) – somewhere near Loughborough – another 2 hour plus trip. Quorn are in the Unibond South and are placed a little higher than us in our league.

Me ? I’m currently watching Man U v Wigan and may venture over to Queensgate later for Scarborough’s game. who knows.

Brid 1 – Wakefield 0 (a)

Whilst i was at home on Saturday, it seems our team decided to come out and play, and were by all accounts, extremely worthy winners – our joint manager missed a pen too !! Bloody typical – they did it when they were away, when I wasn’t there and played really well to boot. There is a tidy write up on the game on the Wakefield FC blog (impartial as always are these things, apparently), but there were only 85 peeps to see this encounter.

So I thought i’d try and repeat the process, as I type this, the 1st team are playing away at Newcastle Blue Star.

It got me thinking about “superstitions,” its something you always hear people go on about ” we won a game after a 20 game losing streak, so i’m wearing my lucky pants again” or “I always put my left shin pad on 1st” etc etc In my opinion, all that mumbo jumbo nonsense is not worth a jot, of course, unless we win again tonight !!!