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 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.

Brid 4 Shirebrook 0 (a) & Brid 4 Lincoln Moorland 0 (h)

I have had time to digest yesterdays great offering. I wish I could have got to Shirebrook, unfortunately, it just wasn’t going to happen, I’d had to take my good lady (well my wife if truth be known) and my little ‘un to the food market in Hull. During our late lunch, I sent a text to PaulNFFC asking for an update on the score – he sent one back saying we were 2-0 down and down to 9 men. Bollocks ! I sent him one back saying I’m glad I didn’t go, then he called me to say he was only joking and that we were 2-0 up, they were down to 10, but we weren’t playing too well. And then he kindly told me that Palms had got 2 more and it finished 4 zip.

I was quite happy listening and watching the old ding dong going on at the Brittania, where Stoke were having a right old ding dong with Aston Villa, eventually big Mamady Sidibe getting an injury time winner – I was so pleased for him, coz he’s such a top bloke. Apparently the Villa fans were moaning about the size of the Stoke team,”it’s like playing a basketball team ffs, and you had even bigger players on the bench (such as Mama – 6’7″) – so the London 2012 GB basketball team should be managed by Mr Pulis……

Bank Holiday Monday brought Lincoln Moorland to the theatre of wet dreams, and for a while, were a tough nut to crack, mind you, our expectations are such that after 10 minutes, some sections of the Town faithful were giving Craig Palmer a hard time coz he hadn’t scored yet – and he took it with the amusement it was dished out in. Moorland were like the others that we’ve seen so far this year; they struggled to make an impact, resorted to some fairly bad tackling, but lost out to a good footballing side. As is the problem I’ve come across when videoing the game, we create so many opportunities, I run out of battery (should be rectified for next time) – I missed three good goals, but I also missed a couple of sitters – Liam Cattermole’s would be worthy of some decent bribe if I had caught it.

Songs chosen : McFadden & Whitehead’s Aint no Stopping us now (cooommmeeee ooonnnn), Chumbawumba’s tubthumping (no matter what they do to the lads, they keep getting back up), Warren’s cow cry and The Strawbs – Part of the union, (because I feel we have a great “union” within the team).

Any requests for tracks will be noted and I will try and accomodate.

Raffle : 0/5

Games seen : 10

Goals seen : 25 home 20 away 1 other

Out of /10 : 8 another cracking effort from all the guys, gotta worry about the tackling from the opposition and the very weak ref. And a special mention to Warren, who was very downbeat when he got told off. I told him not to get pissed off by it, he had managed to wind the opposition up, so much so that they moaned about him, plus he had great banter with the bus shelter – keep it up Warren !!