We have had two tough away games since the Pickering encounter, Thackley and Selby.
The Thackley game was very similar to the Pickering game, poor first half (by all accounts worst than the Pickering one) 2 goals down, and we finish like the proverbial steam train to make it 2-2 – Hoggy getting them both. Hoggy had got lost in Leeds looking for the ground, and had to be rescued by the Chairman, he arrived late and therefore had to start on the bench. Thackley who were thumped by Boro 5-0 the week before, had virtually half a team back from injury the day we show up, but notwithstanding we have to sort our 1st halves out ASAP.
Selby, who are near the foot of the table, have been massively improving since we demolished them a couple of months back, have not had the rub of the green. They took the lead, and we came back to lead 2-1, until Selby hit a late equaliser.
Amazingly, although we haven’t played great, we are still top of the league. In all likelihood we won’t be there by the end of the day, as we have the Vase to contend with.
So, Round 2 of the FA Vase, there is lots of expectation amongst our more mature fans that we should do the business in this cup, given we appeared in 2 Vase cup finals in 1990 and 1993 (we won the 93 game). Although its round 2, only 64 teams are left, Round 1 had teams in similar divisions playing each other, Round 2 opened it to more regional pairings – we are drawn against a Northern Premier Division 1 team, Gillford Park from Carlisle. Here is a brief synopsis on them, taken from their website;
“The club has risen rapidly through the football ranks, since starting life in Northern Alliance division 2 in 2005. Formed by Mike Linden, Geoff Andrews & Stephen Skinner, the club finished 2nd in their inaugural season, and were promoted as champions of division 1 at the end of 2006/7.
The first season in the Northern Alliance premier division brought a creditable 3rd place position, and the 2008/9 season saw Gillford finish 2nd and clinch promotion to the Northern League, becoming the first Carlisle-based side to feature at this level. “
They appear to be doing well in their league this year, currently lying 5th in their league, after finishing 11th in their inaugral year.
Carlisle is a bloody long way from where we are, a good 4 hours in the car, nearer 5 on a coach – really exhausting, do that and then having to play a game against an established top side at step 5 is going to be difficult.
After 30 seconds they had a corner and a tremendous save from Wilbur kept them out. 20 seconds later and Ash had a header cleared off the line with the keeper beaten. Flipping ‘eck, it was going to be a pulsating game, however, our strength really started to show soon after, we had them on the rack for virtually the whole of the half, chance after chance. On 20 mins, Josh took down a great through ball about 45 yards out, drove into the box and hit a tremendous ball across the keeper and in off the far post. Their keeper, who seemed a top bloke, made some excellent saves in the first half, probably shading the MOM, though Ash Allanson, Hoggy, Josh, Captain Marvellous and Benno were all contenders – collectively they were excellent. However, their keeper was lucky to stay on the pitch after felling Hoggy who went clear through in the area, he got a yellow, probably because he was a smallest of fractions later than Hoggy. Hoggy took the pen, well, judge for yourself just how poor it was
HOGGY !!!!
2nd half started in similar style, but Gillford managed to wake up and make more of a contest of it. The tackles were getting nigglier and a couple of our lads were struggling to contain themsleves. The ref was letting people get away with quite a lot, but our Captain in the end had dug a big hole for himself and eventually got a second yellow for his efforts. He was playing yet another blinder, he went at around the 65-70 minute mark, it means that he will miss another game, we cant afford to keep losng him, he is so unreplaceable. The opposition sensed an opportunity at this point and pinned us back for about 15 mins, but our back line held on well. Palms and Aziz were immense, the full backs were great as well, (Billy Logan is getting better and better with every game). Mitch did make a change bringing off Hoggy with 10 to go and bringing on Darren Clough, who 2 minutes later made a fantastic move near the half way line, and was held and assaulted by their defender, a melee ensued and the defender was rightly shown a red card, coz Cloughie was clearly clean through with no cover. The game fizzled out in the last few minutes, we fully deserved the win, however, a “new” team had played their part in a great cup tie. A lot of the players were exceptional today, Wilbur, Fleming, Ash, Benno, Josh, the boys at the back, but for me, my MOM was Hoggy, Hoggy was brilliant throughout today, well except for that penalty !! He chased every ball and every lost cause – good lad.
