Month: March 2013
Year of the dragon
Sunday March 24th 2013, kick off 3pm at Wembley Stadium.
FA Trophy Final, Grimsby (Black/White Stripes/Black)v Wrexham (Red/White) 1-1 AET, Wrexham won 4-1 on penalties.
Attendance 35,266, admission £30 (£20 for me), programme £4, badge £3. coffee £2.10.
Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer
Pilgrim through this barren land
I am weak but Thou art mighty
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven
Feed me till I want no more (I want no more)
Feed me till I want no more.
True, I would want no more than I got today, I was a pig in muck.
I got lucky today. As a rule I do not blog about venues I’ve previously visited, with this being my eighth visit to the ‘rebuilt’ Wembley since 2007.
Having decided to buy a ticket on the day of the game rather than pay the two fifty booking fee chargeable via the FA website, I arrived at the west box office to buy a ticket in the Wrexham end of the stadium. As I approached a small queue I was approached by a guy who advised he had a spare, 20 pounds he said, hmm, 10 pound saving on the set price, for today it was 30 quid all round the stadium. He looked genuine, the ticket looked genuine, so yes I said, thank you very much.
It’s next to me he said, ok, I’ll see you inside I said.
As he walked away, I looked closer at the ticket, gate 101, row 1, eh what, row 1, by the pitch, damn blast, have I been sold a dud? Then I saw the word complimentary, my initial thought was, hang on, he didn’t have to pay for this ticket, it’s in row1 and, hmm, hang on think again, complimentary, hmm. In all my years of watching football, I’ve never known complimentary tickets to be in anything but pretty good areas of stadiums.
Entering through the gate G, my block 101, was not evident, block 102 being the closest to it. Asking a female steward manning some double doors, it seemed that I had to enter through there, which led into a quieter bar area and concourse. Approaching another steward manning more doors down into the stadium seats, I asked about row1, at the front I assume? “Yes it is he said” “but we don’t expect to be full today if you move seats it’s not a problem” Peering over his shoulder I could see the seats were located on the half way line, and slowly the penny was starting to drop, especially as I saw another entrance to the Bobby Moore bar and restaurant, my ticket wouldn’t seemingly get me in there, but I’d suddenly realised, I was in the club Wembley area, you know, that block on the half way line that always looks embarrassingly empty when you watch on TV, directly opposite the camera gantry.
Some weeks back I’d mentioned this game to a friend, not interested it looks like a JPT trophy final he said, and I couldn’t argue. Two teams with history as league clubs, recently fallen on hard times, and now playing in the top-tier of non league football. It was only ten or so years ago that Grimsby were playing my team at the second level of league football. So, I had wondered how much the teams and fans would take to this final. As an experiment, and to ease a busy end of season at Wembley which hosts the FA Cup Final, 2 Semis, 4 play off games, 1 Eng game, and the real profile game the money making Champs league final, so this game was moved from its normal May date to late March.
On a bitter cold day the teams delivered a very enjoyable spectacle, both clubs arrived with 16/17,000 fan. And with the Conference play off final now of major importance to all clubs in the top eight of the conference, having both that play off final AND the conference play off final in the same month within weeks of each other, when potentially a club could be involved in both, as York were last season, would seem nonsensical for reasons of focus and expense for the travelling fans.
The game itself became absorbing. Grimsby settled first, but before long Wrexham had started to dominate the midfield, with Keats/Harris and Thornton in particular pulling the strings. Any doubts I had about the fans not having enthusiasm for this game were dispelled as Wrexham fans on their first ever visit to Wembley giving some impressive choruses of ‘bread of heaven’ with the retort from the other end of ‘Mariners, mariners’ equally belted out into the cold Wembley air, in my padded seat on the half way line I was like a kid in sweetshop as I enjoyed the battle.
The breakthrough when it came was surprisingly from Grimsby, on seventy minutes a good move down the right, was finished by Andy Cook, after the Wrexham keeper Maxwell had initially parried his first shot.
Wrexham responded well and went close a couple of times before on 81 minutes they were awarded a penalty after Keates was tripped by Shaun Pearson in the area. Thornton stepped up to take the kick and sent McKeown the wrong way to level the scores. On balance of play this was thoroughly deserved. In fact, had it not been for McKeown, the Mariners keeper and my MOM then it’s unlikely the tie would have gone to extra time.
Wrexham again exerted more pressure in extra time, but couldn’t get that crucial second goal, Grimsby had like they had for most of the game, created a few half chances mostly from set pieces.
I’d thought to myself at the time that if Wrexham lost the shootout that it would have been real shame.
I needn’t have worried, as Grimsby in front of the Wrexham end fluffed their lines.
Cieslewicz, Danny Wright, Westwood all found the net for Wrexham, but Hatton hit the post with Grimsby’s first effort and Brodie blazed over.
Joe Colbeck kept his head to open Grimsby’s account but it was too little, too late as the responsibility for Wrexham’s fourth penalty fell to 22-year-old Hunt and he converted confidently to secure the trophy for the north Wales club.
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It had been the third time within the last year that a Welsh club had visited Wembley, twice successful. As I walked away down Wembley way toward the tube, a smirk still played around my cold lips, I'd been glad to see this game, and loved the Club Wembley experience.
People power
Where – The People’s History Museum, Manchester. See > http://www.phm.org.uk/
When – Sat Mar 16th 2013. 
How much – Free, donations welcome.
I’m not much of a political animal these days. Party politics bores me, and whereas when I was a toddler and teenager the ideologies of the differing political parties were miles apart, these days I find little to distinguish them from each other. The People’s history museum is an easy fifteen minute stroll from the centre of Manchester towards the Lowry Hotel.
Ros and I are interested in history and social history, and this museum is a little cracker. If you are interested in particular about the struggles of the working man/woman over the last 200 hundred or so years, you will find this place fascinating.
On entrance, you at first see a striking large painting of what was dubbed the ‘Peterloo’ massacre of 1819, which happened just half a mile from the museum in St Peter’s field, 15 demonstrators were killed, seemingly for having just been in the way of sabre charging cavalry.
See > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre
The museum features heavily on the forming of the workers unions in all shapes and forms. How the working
man tried to empower himself for better living and working conditions, all the time fighting against political and power corruption from the ruling and land owning classes (sound familiar?).
Of course over history, this was a dangerous thing. For instance The ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’ were found guilty of trying to form an ‘illegal’ trade union to improve their rights and livelihoods. Charged and found guilty by a kangaroo court, they were transported from their Dorset homes to Australia, but then, years later after further demonstrations receiving a pardon, with most of them returning home.
This is another fine little museum worth dropping into for half hour when near Dorchester in Dorset >
http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/
The people’s history museum touches on the evils of slavery as well as covering more recent political periods and upheavals, the Spanish civil war, the poll tax riots etc. But also there is humour, heads used in the famous 1980s/90s puppet TV prog ‘Spitting Image’ feature, as well as plenty of hands on things for children to do.
Political Posters, Massive Union flags, photos, displays, and heart-rending speeches from times gone by all feature, and the displays are very well presented.
We spent sixty to ninety minutes looking round, but you could easily spend longer, it really was very good indeed and well worth a visit and does make you realise if you hadn’t already, that most of the rights we have and take for granted in the 21st century in Western Europe, were hard-earned, and in many cases caused much hardship and suffering to those who had the courage to stand up and be counted during less democratic times.
Identity crisis
Saturday March 16th 2013 at Ewen Fields, kick off 3pm.
The Conference National.
Hyde 3 (Red/Navy Blue) Dartford 0 (White/White).
Att 475, admission £14, programme £2.50.
Just occasionally a best laid plan goes wrong. I travelled north the day before with two cameras safely tucked away in my bag, on the grounds that it’s always best to have a back up.
But on the day of the game I decided not to take the back up camera, WRONG! I managed to get one photo taken outside the ground, see to your left, before my camera batterty (as my wife’s six-year-old nephew used to call it), failed on me, damn blast and all things not repeatable here!
Of course, I have since been wearing a virtual hairshirt and swatting myself regularly with the Daily Mail (well it has no other use does it?).
So the other photos you see in this blog have been half inched from the T’internet, so apologies to my blog readers (the two of you out there), and I hope not to repeat this schoolboy error in the future.
Anyway, it’s a painless fifteen minute train ride out of Manchester Piccadilly. Alighting at Godley station, from there it’s a ten minute walk down a straight a road before a left turn and the ground is tucked behind housing fifty yards after turning off and into that road.
Hyde is a suburb to the east of Manchester, famous during the 19th century as a mill town during the industrial revolution, these days now more a satellite town for those working in the city.
Sadly it is has some pretty depressing criminal connections. Serial killer Dr Harold Shipman practised there. And the infamous 60s ‘moors murderers’ Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were arrested in the town.
But as I strolled toward the football ground on a fine spring day, it felt just like any other quiet respectable suburban town.
Many locals, some I’m sure not intending to watch Hyde later, were glued to the big TV screen in the car park clubhouse watching Man City play at Everton (they lost 2-0). I noted real ale was not available and quickly left the scene, but just hovering long enough for a short conversation with the club shop man.
Ewen fields is my kind of ground, it has plenty of covered terracing, an adequate number of seats, and that lived in homely feel that many of the new builds don’t posses. It did remind me so much of Blyth Spartans ‘Croft Park’ ground which has a similar layout. 
What is less easy to like is the branding of the stadium and club since Man City moved in a few years ago. City’s academy teams now play their games at Ewen Fields. As a consequence, they asked that the United be dropped. Yes we all know that they are City’s bitter rivals, but how petty is this? Worse still, all the seats were changed to sky blue, the club badge became sky blue, and for a while, apparently the club dropped their traditional red shirts for a blue variety, and the stands are littered with ‘Etihad’ as well as the City badge prominant on front and back of stand.
Seemingly the change from red to blue was a step too far, many fans were up in arms about this, and they soon dropped that in favour of reverting back to red shirts and navy blue shorts. However, during this re-branding process the club lost local United fans, many who haven’t returned.
Now clearly Hyde with a regular fan base of five hundred or so are punching above their weight, playing their first, and it seems succesful season of conference national football, and I’m sure the income from City, suggested to be about 6k a month is very valuable, but I question whether it is worth sacrificing ones history and identity? Although I can also see that Hyde’s board must have been very compromised with City’s bullying tactics, money in one hand and hammer in the other, a tricky decision.
Going into this game, Dartford, also new to the Conf national in 12-13 but having been promoted from the Conf South, rather than the Northern variety Hyde had come from, were sitting very nicely in mid table, couldn’t go up, couldn’t go down. Hyde had been on an amazing run of form before christmas but that form had dipped. However, a 2-1 win at Luton in midweek had lifted them out of the gloom, and with the addition of the excellent Jamie Milligan on loan from Fleetwood, still looked a very good bet to avoid relegation. From my neutral eye this looked to be about whether the Dartford boys had the attitude to match Hyde.
Before kick off, I managed to get a practice ball full on in the chops, thankfully as I was turning from dropping my pie foil in a litter bin, the ball hit me just below the nose, having bounced on the terracing first, a bit of a shock, but no harm done, half-inch higher and I may have had some broken glasses to add to my camera dilemma! And no thanks to the player/s who couldn’t even be bothered to attempt a shout of ‘fore’ grrrrrr.
The game went exactly as I thought it may do, the experienced Milligan got a grip in midfield for Hyde, and although Dartford has much, if not more possession, they did little with it, and there wasn’t much threat to the Hyde goal, their lone striker Erskine looked slow of foot as well as mind. Hyde took the lead on twenty-six minutes after a neat half volley from Hogan. Then a lovely team move finished with Hogan crossing for Blinkhorn to sweep the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net to put Hyde 2-0 up in the 68th minute, a really lovely goal that even saw me applauding enthusiastically.
Dartford plodded away, but didn’t give their small band of loyal travelling fans (9am coach from Kent apparently) much to cheer, and after eight three minutes Hogan was the provider again with a pin-point cross to set up Louis Almond, 3-0 was how it finished, and although the club looks a little confused with its image of the pitch, today on it, they played with purpose and unity, and I suspect that loan signing of Milligan will turn out to be catalyst for them finishing in a comfortable position away from the relegation zone.
Camera required!
Saturday March 2nd 2013, kick off 14:30 at Ynys Park.
Welsh League Division One.
Ton Pentre (Red/Red) 2-2 Pontadarwe Town (Black White Stripes/Black).
Admission £5 with programme included, hot dog and coffee £2.10.
Attendance -67 (headcount).
Overnight we’d enjoyed the hospitality of the Gwaelod Inn in Gwaelod-y-Garth (see my post ‘Well not so hot’), and it was just a couple of miles from there to Castell Coch, an original 13th Century castle, left to ruin, but then re-built to a medieval design in the 19th century. A bit of a folly really, but with its impressive location, looking down over the valley and with its sturdy walls, it’s a nice place to visit if you have an hour or so to kill.
From there it was a short drive to Caerphilly, Ros had yet to visit and photograph Caerphilly Castle. Although I’d driven through Caerphilly a number of times over the years on the way to somewhere else, I’d never visited either. But my prime objective was to snap the statue of famous Welsh comedian/magician Tommy Cooper, born in the town in 1921 (died 1984). Unveiled in 2008, and sculpted by James Done. I wasn’t 100% convinced about the likeness, and it didn’t impress as much of those of Morecambe/Wise and Laurel/Hardy, works of Graham Ibbeson. But with the backdrop of the castle Tommy certainly had been given a great location!
From Caerphilly I took a wonderful drive up through the heart of the Rhondda Valley, or Valleys, as technically there are two of them, Fawr (Large) and Fach (small). The small towns and villages that hug these valleys were built up to support the long gone coal mining industry. The sun shone on this spring like day, and the valleys looked most impressive as I passed the pretty ground of AFC Porth FC on the way, and cursed myself for not coming to these parts more often for my football fix. Perhaps I was being seduced by the sun, a grey dark day in November would clearly not be so appealing. 
I’d read reports of other ground hoppers visits to Ynys Park and had heard nothing but good things. Upon entry into the ground I could see why, set in the town, yet like most towns in the valleys, the rolling hills drop down either side of the ground. It was definitely a ‘wow’ factor, and reminded me a little of the wonderful ground of Porthmadog near Snowdonia.
My camera was so active in the first half, I saw little of the game, this was definitely a ground to do during daylight. I toured the ground, chatted to a Mancuian hopper who’d also been at Taffs Well the night before, and clicked away, even missing the second Pontardwe goal whilst chatting to a local. This is in essence what happened;
2 – From a Ton corner Pontardawe score an own goal (Craig Davis)
6 – Pontardawe equalise with a stunning goal (Chris Allen)
26 – Pontardawe take a deserved lead putting the ball into the net off the left post (Chris Allen)
82 – Wearn scores a beautiful equaliser (Jamie Wearn)
Thanks to the TP website for that! I stood behind the goal for the 2nd half, and watched as the away keeper and my MOM James Harris made some great saves to keep his team in the game, until the late goal by Wearn, lobbing the keeper from just inside the box.
If you haven’t done so already, put this ground high at the top of your wish list.
Well not so hot
Friday March 1st 2013, KO 19:30, Welsh League Division One at Rhiw Dda’r.
Taffs Well (Yellow/Yellow) 0-1 AFC Porth (White/White), admission £6, programme £1.
Attendance 87 (headcount)
Situated just to the North of Cardiff, close to the M4, Taffs Well and neighbouring Gwaelod-y-Garth, are separated by the River Taff. Taffs Well is derived from the fact that the village is the site of a natural hot spring ‘Taff’s Well Thermal Spring’ (of 18.9 degrees C, 66 degrees F) that has been used since Roman times. Taffs Well is Wales’ only natural thermal spa.
We stayed overnight in Gwaelod-y-Garth at the excellent Gwaelod Inn, home of the newly established Violet cottage brewery, a very small micro brewery situated 50 yards up the lane from the pub. We found the food here upon returning from the game wonderful, add a well stocked bar and friendly locals and with a view across the valley where the floodlights of Rhiw Dda’r were visible, then you have a great location to start a short stay in this part of South Wales. I drove to the game, but apparently you can walk it in ten minutes (take a torch).
Taffs Wells went into this game top of the league, with previous league leaders Porth being mid table. The race for the title was becoming a close run thing, with as many as eight clubs having a realistic chance of winning it. Although no doubt, most, if not all will not meet strict Welsh Prem league financial and ground criteria should they wish to progress up, currently it looks a possibility that only run away leaders Rhyl from the North Wales based Cymru alliance league will definitely make the step back up.
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I’d timed my visit to Rhiw Dda’r well (pardon the pun), as only this pre-season they’d installed an attractive stand, with a good elevated view, that had much improved what would have been previously a very basic venue.
The traffic rattled by on the main A road running by the ground as the two teams went about their business. The game turned into a bit of a stalemate, defences on top, neither side gaining control and clear-cut chances at a premium.
During half time I fell into conversation with another hopper, from Bristol, whilst admiring the ground photos from the 1950s pinned to the clubhouse wall. We sat together for the second half, as we both starting to think we might see a nil all draw. However, mid way through a big gap suddenly appeared in the Well backline, a ball was played into that gap, and Tom McCarthy finished easily passed the keeper, 0-1. How it stayed, perhaps a surprise defeat, but also an indication of how tight the top half of this league is.
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