Scotland….

The build up to the massive Scotland game on Saturday was immense in the press and on the tv & radio. For Scotland to qualify for Euro 2008 they needed to beat the world champions in Scotland. And of any of the home nations, there destiny was in their own hands.

Now, I get really pissed off when I hear that the Scottish nation support all the teams that England play and cheer when England lose or concede a goal, but I feel this gets over hyped by the media, or does it ?? In the media in the build up, English fans were phoning in their droves to Talksport hoping for an Italian win, and this being countered by Scots saying that that was deplorable, and the English fans should get behind the Scots as they were more likely to get to the Euro’s, and the English fans saying, they don’t get that kind of support from the Scots when the boot is on the other foot.

Anyway by the by, me I wanted them to win, the Scots that is, as I wanted Wales, No’orn Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to succeed. The more success we have in these major tournaments, the better it would be for British and Irish sport.

90 minutes of high octane stuff (Itay winning 2-1 in injury time) meant that the majority of Scots could only hope for their arch rivals England to suffer the same fate when Russia beat Israel an hour later.

Bugger me, the boys from the Israel only turned over the Ruskies, and to top that, Macedonia only go and beat Croatia, to leave England needing only a point to go through on Wednesday night. That hand of fate eh??

I hope the Scottish nation can wipe away all their tears and sorrow and cheer on England on Wednesday night, coz if they don’t and England do qualify, their will be a tremendous amount of heartache in Scotland. The Scottish Samaritans better be geared up for a long few months ahead.

They say you reap what you sow ….

Brid 1 Guisely 4 (h)

Another miserable night at the Theatre of Wet Dreams. It was awful, and yet another where I took my hat off to those playing, because it was freezing, windy and pissing with rain. Guisley play in the division above and are doing quite well, currently third, and early doors they played to their league position. We had Clarkey back in goal, because our other keepers were either injured or not allowed out of their lunatic asylum to come and play in the piss poor conditions. I felt for Clarkey, a good keeper and excellent shot stopper, his downfall was the fact that he would stand 25-30 yards off his line and get lobbed on a regular basis – this peed everyone off (and probably Clarkey in fairness) and the management “let him go.” Without boring the pants off everyone, like I was, we went two down – which against a team thirty positions above us was always going to be a tall order to overcome. But the lads battled back, and made a great fist of it to pull one back, Tick being as commited as ever, but alas as the ball hits the back of the net – the doom and gloom really fell on us.

1) Ash Dexter is poleaxed in the scramble to get the goal and has to be stretchered off

2) His replacement, Liam Berry, lasts all of 90 seconds before elbowing their number 3 and getting a straight red, their number 3 cannot continue with what looks a fractured or broken jaw

3) 2 minutes after Liam goes, the ref is summoned over by the lino on the dugout side who tells the ref “the Brid manager is calling you a cheat for sending off their player” – Ash Berry (Liams dad) remonstrates with the official and is also sent off (not before having to be pulled off – ooeerr – by the other guys in the dugout). Turns out, that everyone on that side of the pitch, didn’t see Liam use his elbow.

4) Guisley score two more against a valiant and resolute Town to seal victory

5) For most of the second half, I was sat near the home directors box with PaulNFFC and Turnstile man, having a joke and a laugh listening to the latest mobile ringtones – everything kicks off (points 1-4 above) so i decide to wander back round to the clubhouse the long way round during the dieing embers of the game. 2 of our fans tell me, that the lino who had summoned the ref over had said to one of them “F***ing shut up you c**t” when questioned about the decision to grass our manager up – questioned or hurled abuse at, i dont know. if that was the case, then that is deplorable, I know the officials get a fair bit of stick from that side of the ground (all 30 of em, average age 68), but they have to be professional enough to take it, but the club officials have a duty to “police the fans” over there and be in a position to suppress it before it gets too out of hand.

6) The most heinous crime that can ever be committed at a match took place tonight (yes something worst than those that I have bought pints for in the past and NEVER had one, or even an offer of one in return). Someone from the crowd “assaulted” one of the officials, they had thrown a stone or piece of tarmac at said lino (points 3 & 5) and it hit him. Now I don’t know if it hurt him (not the point) but it was mentioned in the refs report and the club are in line for a massive fine and bollocking – they know the culprit, and the culprit was seen by many of the bus shelter crew committing this heinous crime, why anyone didn’t go over and sort the twat out (or report him “i was too scared, i don’t want to get involved sir….”) i’ll never know.

Anyway the chairman and officials have to sort that one out on several levels.

Shit night of football really, shit conditions with a happy ending. They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but it does feel good to be sarcastic on a regular basis.

Brid 2 Ossett Albion 3 (h) & Brid 1 Sculcoates Amateurs 0 (a)

2 cup games in a few days proved a bit of a let down after the FC Utd match. The first against Ossett was in the Presidents cup last Tuesday in front of a meager 77 (and i still didnt win in the bloody raffle), it was raining and a miserable night, compounded by a loss that in the end was quite hard to swallow. We went 2 down with some poor play & defending, but did come out in the second half all guns a blazing to pull it back to 2-2, and continued to dominate a team much higher up the league than we are, only for them to counter on 85 minutes and slot one past the keeper to win the tie. Bugger.

Then on Saturday a convenient trip to Hull to watch the boys against a local side who play 3 rungs down the pyramid from us, trouble was, I didnt know where the hell it was (i roughly did) and what time it started. Drops the missus of at the new St Stephen shopping precinct at 2pm, only for it to dawn on me that Scullys probably didnt have any floodlights or owt and that it was probably a 2pm kick off, bugger. After driving through another sports club, 2 cemetries and 2,000 Hull City fans, me and the lad eventually found it. A park with a clubhouse ! Then i had to suffer the “Oh so you finally decided to turn up did ya!” I’d have probably only just had more chance of finding a virgin over 14 in that area of Hull than finding a park with a clubhouse in it. Game was scruffy, we should have cruised past them (in theory), but it never works like that. They were no mugs, and by all accounts should have been 4 up before i got there, in the second half a bit of quality from Luke Smith set up the goal for the new lad up front to tap in. It was the sort of atmosphere that you’d experience on a Sunday morning semi final game – official crowd 53, which consisted of 30 people from Brid, 6 dog walkers, 6 dogs, 3 of their management, 3 of their substitutes, 2 linesmen, a ref and 2 people having sex on one of the upper floors of the houses at the back.

Another cup game tonight, against the mighty Guisley. This got me thinking, we will have played Unibond League Cup, Unibond presidents cup, FA Cup, FA Trophy and East Riding Senior Cup – if we do ok in all of them then we could potentially play 50-60+ games in the season (and thats only achieving 2nd round in each). Weather news, 3 hrs to kick off, is like me – MISERABLE

Brid 0 – FC United of Manchester 3

This was the biggest day in the recent history of Brid. FC United were borne out of the fans dislike of the Glazers buy out of their team – Man Utd, so they went it all alone. Average home gates of 2200 and an away following that most league clubs would be proud of. Some of the banter and work for getting ready for this fixture started months ago – i’d made contact on the FC Utd forum and passed on details of hotels etc back in September, and even then, there was a massive head count of people really looking to a day / weekend at the seaside.

What does it mean for teams like ours ? Well for clubs like Brid, it means survival, as awful as that sounds, but its a fact of life, having a crowd in excess of 1,000 means the same as 9 average home games, 9 times the amount of beer and food consumed.

All in all, it turned out to be one of the best days at football that i had had in many years. The football became secondary to listening to the singing from the FC faithful, drinking beer and chatting to them. Mid way through the second half, I realised I hadnt watched any footy for about 15 minutes (glad i didnt coz we conceded during this period). Many of the FC fans told me that, yes they’d been to FA Cup finals, European cup finals, massive derby games, but at the end of the day, it was days / games like those at Brid that brought home the true value of football in this country – having a beer, cheering the team on, in a friendly, jovial environment.

I nipped into the bar before the game, and it was packed (12 o’clock), with FC fans getting ready to watch the Arse v the Mancs on Sky. After the game, it was heaving, but plenty of singing, even some locals singing the Leeds “Marching on together” theme to gee up the atmosphere, but it only spurred on the visitors to be louder.

The aftermath on the Brid forum was a tad lackluster to say the least, the FC forum was full of praise of the locals, hosts, hoteliers and fans for a great day / weekend away.

A big thanks to the Brid chairman and committee for organizing a great day out, the local & visiting fans for mixing so well – it was truly a brilliant day out. Perhaps we’ll twin with FC and have a pre-season game over here one weekend in July !!!