(Shaun's best bits of the year aka - The New Years Honours list
* Best Match Attended*
Chopwell 5v4 High Howden SC - Bluefin Group Amateur Cup Rd 1 - 21st September
The village known as “Little Moscow” was the setting for the most entertaining match of the year. The game was an amateur cup tie between Chopwell and High Howden witnessed by just under 30 spectators and those of us in attendance enjoyed a thrilling cup tie. link
*Goal of the Year*
Carl Magnay for Gateshead against Chester on the 24th September
There was no debating which goal was the best of 2013. As soon as this strike rattled the back of the net I knew I had not only had seen the best goal of the calendar year, but probably one of the best ever at the International Stadium.
*Favourite Previous Uncharted Senior Ground*
Estadi Municipal de Reus - CF Reus Deportiu on the 14th August
Not much competition in this category, as most of my ground visits this year have been Non-League venues, however I came across this little gem while on holiday on the Costa Dorada. CF Reus play in the equivalent on the Spanish 3rd Division and I was pleasantly surprised to find such a cracking little stadium.link
*Best Previous Uncharted Non-League Ground*
Frickley Athletic - Westfield Lane
Finally made it to Westfield Lane which is a ground I had heard so much about - both good and bad, but after my visit I declared it a non-league classic. link
*Best My Matchday*
Welsh Alliance Hop - Day 3 - Sunday 25th August
I’ve had some terrific match days this year, but having the pleasure of my breadknife for company on our wedding anniversary weekend made this the top choice. Plus lets not forget the warm welcome of the three clubs involved which made it such a great day. link
*Best Pre-Match Bevvy*
The Rat Race - Hartlepool
The Rat Race in Hartlepool was my regular haunt while Gateshead were playing home matches at Victoria Ground. I liked the pub so much that I’ve returned to watch Hartlepool United this season so I could revisit this cracking wee boozer.
*Silver 'Spoons Award*
David McBeth Moir - Musselburgh
Plenty of Wetherspoon pubs over the last 12 months, especially liking this one in Musselburgh which I visited at the end of last season after attending a game at Bonnyrigg Rose with James Little. link
*Scabby-eye of the Year*
Chicken curry pie at Prestonfield
After visiting Kilmarnock in July, it was a knocking bet their steak pie was this years champion, but once I savoured the chicken curry pie at Linlithgow Rose the competition for this year best savoury snack was officially over.
Football in Chester in the club’s current or former guise has invariably eluded me, missing out on visiting the Deva Stadium or their former home at Sealand Road. It wasn’t until the last August Bank Holiday that I finally spent some time by the banks of the River Dee, staying over for our wedding anniversary as me and the breadknife attended day three of the annual Welsh Hop. Chester was founded as "castrum" with the name Deva Victrix in the year 79 by the Roman Legio II Adiutrix during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, later becoming one of the main army bases and a major settlement in the Roman province of Britannia. When the Roman Empire fell 300 years later, Romano-British established a number of small kingdoms in its place, the town becoming part of the Kingdom of Powys. Chester was granted city status in 1541 and remains one of the most picturesque settings in the UK with a number of medieval buildings and fine examples of Victorian architecture with the likes of Chester Town Hall and the Grosvenor Museum. Another landmark is the Grade I listed city walls, which are the most complete in Britain, surrounding the bounds of the medieval city for almost 2 miles.
The original club was founded as an amalgamation of Chester Rovers and Old King's Scholars F.C. in 1885, initially playing home matches at Faulkner Street. The club moved to Sealand Road in 1906 before joining the Football League in 1931 and later adding the City suffix in 1983. City were served a winding-up order by HM Revenue & Customs in January 2010 and also failed to fulfil their fixtures during the 2009–10 Conference season. The club were expelled from the league in February 2010 with all that season's results expunged, before being formally wound up the following month. Chester FC were formed from the ashes in May 2010 by the clubs supporters. The new club were placed in the Northern Premier League Division One North for the 2010-11 season, where they won the first of three consecutive league championships, clinching the Northern Premier League and Conference North titles to return to the Conference this season.
Chester moved into the Deva Stadium before the 1992-93 season. The move was announced in March 1990 when the club was taken over by new owners, who notified the sale of Sealand Road for redevelopment as a supermarket and plans for a new stadium at Bumpers Lane.The ground closed at the end of the 1989-90 season and the club spent the next two seasons ground sharing with Cheshire neighbours Macclesfield Town. Despite playing 40 miles away in front of small crowds at Moss Rose, City survived the drop from Division Three, so they moved into their new home as a Football League club. The site on Bumpers Lane was part of an industrial estate which lead to a council tip by the banks of the River Dee. Construction of the new stadium began in January 1992 and on completion seven months later, became the first English football stadium to fulfil the safety recommendations set out from the Taylor Report. The ground falls over the Welsh border with the car park and the offices at the main entrance in England. The Deva was officially opened on the 24th August 1992 by Morys Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare and hosted its first match the next day when Chester City lost 2-1 to Stockport County in a League Cup tie.The first match at the stadium for the phoenix club was a 3-0 victory over Aberystwyth Town on the 24th July 2010. The stadium has a capacity of 5,300, the only change made since its construction being the conversation of the south away terrace to seats, which cut the capacity from the initial 6,012. There is still terracing behind the north goal, renamed in December 2006 after former manager Harry McNally. The main stand is on the east side which has a single tier of blue seats split into eight blocks, similar to the west stand, of which both stands have a capacity of approximately 2,100. There are narrow floodlight masts in each corner which makes the ground a bit easier to spot amongst the busy industrial area and retail shopping park.
Chester went into this match with a solidary home win this season plus six draws and four defeats from their opening 11 fixtures, so I expected Gateshead to come away with the three points, but knowing the Heed like I do, the Cestrians were more than likely to double their home win tally. This prediction looked a strong possibility when Chester took a 10th minute lead when a John Rooney free-kick from the left found Ross Killock to head home unchallenged from six-yards. The hosts worked hard to maintain their advantage while the Heed played the usual good possession football but without the killer end product. Gateshead made positive changes to try and save the game and should have equalise on 52 minutes when a Liam Hatch effort was headed off the line. Just as it was beginning to look like it was going to be one of those days the Heed got the breakthrough on 68 minutes. A ball over the top from Hatch found James Marwood free on the right, who raced through on goal and produced a good finish inside Danby’s far post. Both teams pushed for a winner but in the end a draw was a fair result, although the management and supporters of both clubs won’t be satisfied with a share of the spoils.
My main ground bagging pursuit this season is to do the four Conference grounds needed to complete the top 5 leagues and the 116 clubs. The first of those four was the “short trip” to Chester, which is 180 miles, but not too far when compared with Welling, Barnet and Salisbury. My quest was nearly a non-starter as I struggled to seek transport to Cheshire until finding a car seat courtesy of former Heed kitman Tommy Doleman, who arranged to picked me up at 10.15. Apart from heavy traffic on the M6 the journey went smoothly so we pulled up in the stadium car-park just before 2pm. The first thing that struck me on arrival was the horrible stench in the air. I don’t know where it stemmed from but the aroma was certainly lingering only on the Welsh side of the border. I had time for a pint in The Blues Bar which is situated behind the main stand, but had to cough up a quid for for the pleasure. I said to the lady on the door that if I’ve got to pay to get in then I hoped the beer was cheap, she boasted “It’s £2.70 for lager and £2.60 for bitter” as if this was the response I was hoping for. Many thanks to Tommy for the lift and fellow passengers Geoff and Mark for being good company, plus it was good to meet up with 100FgC Squad#64 Richard Panter who travelled across from Leicester to watch the match with me. Overall a decent day out when my only regret was not buying one of the club’s raffle tickets where the first prize wasn’t a bottle of plonk, or a tray of frozen meat products, or not even a Chester home jersey, in fact if you had a 100 goes you’d never guess. The lucky winning ticket won a haircut! I don’t know who the fortunate winner is but I do hope it wasn’t someone with a shining baldy nappa!
Yesterday I went across to Hillheads to watch Dunston play Whitley Bay in the FA Vase. The match was switched to a 3.30pm kick off to allow everyone to see Newcastle United's historical(41 years of hurt) win at Old Trafford which was live on Sky Sports. The later start time alerted me to a potential double with a match kicking off two hours earlier just around the corner in Cullercoats. I've added my report and pictures of Links Avenue to my latest Around the Alliance blog post which you can read HERE.
You know what grinds my gears and really boils my urine? Its people posting links on social media sites about severe weather warnings of snow over the forthcoming winter months. Snow in winter - imagine that!..whatever next? Gifts at christmas….Valentines cards in February...daffodils in spring? Anyways the reason for this wee rant is before we head into hibernation and the south of England comes to a grinding halt, I just needed the apocalyptic snowfall to hold off until December so I could have one last trip to Scotland in 2013.
Over the last few years, this weekend in the calendar has been a regular trip north of the border, so before my mid-season train travel break, I was again off to Edinburgh before heading 20 miles west to the Royal Burgh of Linlithgow in West Lothian. The town is famous for its loch and Linlithgow Palace, the home of the Stuart kings. After a disastrous fire in 1424 destroyed most of the town, the present palace was build by James I of Scotland and became the birthplace of James V and Mary Queen of Scots. In January 1746 troops of the duke of Cumberland's army marched out of the palace leaving fires burning which soon caught hold of the building and burnt it out, and ever since the palace has remained unroofed and uninhabited. Another tourist attraction next to the Palace is St. Michael's Church, one of the largest burgh churches in Scotland The 15th century building is named after Linlithgow’s patron saint; the town motto is "St Michael is kind to strangers".
Linlithgow Rose formed in 1889 and are one of the most successful junior clubs in the East Region of Scotland. The club have won the prestigious Scottish Junior Cup four times in 1965, 2002, 2007 and 2010 and also finished runners-up in 1974, 2003 and against last season, losing the final 1-0 to Auchinleck Talbot at Livingston. Linlithgow’s originally played at Captains Park, winning their first trophy in the Forth League in 1902, followed by more honours in the County Cup and St Michaels Cup while playing at this ground. Just before the First World War they moved to Upper Mains Park, winning the Lumley Cup in 1914. The reformation of the Junior set up in 1924-25 placed Rose in the West Lothian Junior League and the club comfortably won the championship in their debut season. Another move a few hundred yards down the road to Lower Main Park in 1930, coincided with the clubs leanest spell with no honours won throughout that decade. After the Second World War the club looked for a new ground, eventually purchasing land adjacent to the Glue Works in 1947 which they named Preston Park. The ground was renamed Prestonfield two years later and it’s been their home ever since with the ground’s record attendance of 3,626, recorded for a game against Petershill in the late '60s. Rose were Edinburgh League winners in four consecutive years from 1965 and were dominant in the East Region League, lifting their first of nine Division One championships in 1974-75. Linlithgow Rose are the current East Super League champions, winning the title for a third time following success in 2004 and 2007. They are also the holders of the Fife & Lothians Cup which was won for the fifteenth time. Their excessive trophy haul also includes 14 East of Scotland Cup’s, 10 East League Cup wins, a dozen successes in the St Michael’s Cup and lifting the Brown Cup on eight occasions.
Prestonfield is probably the best Scottish Junior ground I’ve visited so far.The ground is dominated by the eye catching Davy Roy Stand, which sits proudly on the half way line. The stand has elevated seating with staircase access at the sides, with standing room, dugouts, club offices and changing facilities underneath. There’s a seating capacity of 301 made up of maroon and white flip seats under a cantilever roof. There are two turnstile entrances, one in the car park next to the Linlithgow Rose Social Club and the other at the top end of the ground.In between the two entrances are ten steps of terracing which runs full length with a covered centre paddock. The refreshment bar is at the back of the terrace and serves a great selection of savouries, including the delightful curry pie which is now a serious contender for this years ‘Scabby-eye of the Year’ award. There’s grass banking at the top goal and behind the nearside goal is five steps of terracing which continues around towards the main stand.The current maximum capacity is 3,500.
The 3rd round of the Scottish Junior Cup paired the Rosey Posey with the 2012 winners Shotts Bonn Accord. The hosts went into the game as favourites to progress but it was The Bonny who won for the first time at Prestonfield since 1962. There was a good crowd for the game including a decent away support and amongst the home fans was one man who has to be the loudest bloke in my 40 years of attending football matches.This Rose supporter constantly shouted instructions throughout the game, every kick, every tackle, every decision, he made Neil Warnock sound like a shy little schoolboy. He even got a mentioned by one of the Rose players in the new club magazine ‘The Gallant’ and it comes as no surprise that he is nicknamed “Coach” Shotts were the better side in a tight first half and should have took an early lead when a Chris Walker header struck the crossbar.However they gained the advantage five minutes before half time, when McKenna robbed the defender and found Andy Cross who was left unmarked and finished well with just the goalkeeper to beat. Rose worked hard to draw level but the Shotts defence held firm and added to their lead just minutes after a Smith effort hit the crossbar which denied Rose an equaliser. A long ball found McKenna who stayed onside, before finding McStay who played the ball out to Cross who fired in his second goal with a left foot shot. With time running out substitute Gordon Herd halved the deficit, firing home after a goalmouth scramble but the chance of a replay was never likely as Shotts seen out the final ten minutes and deservedly booked their place in the fourth round of the Junior Cup.
I arrived in Linlithgow just before noon after catching the first available connection from Edinburgh. As I was still feeling slightly rough from being on the lash the previous night, I took a stroll down the High Street, along the loch and up to the palace. Once the cobwebs had blown off I still had enough time for a couple of pints before the 1.45pm kick off, calling at the GBG listed Platform 3 and The Four Marys. I really enjoyed my afternoon in Linlithgow. It’s a smashing little town, steeped in history with some cracking pubs, plus of course it has a traditional football club with a ground to be proud of. After the game I had a couple of hours to kill in Edinburgh before catching the 1830 back to Newcastle, so I thumbed through some records in Vinyl Villains and watched the first half of the Toon match in the pub. This is my last train trip of the year and I was pleased to get to tick off Linlithgow Rose before the savage winter arrives. According to the media scaremongers we’ll all be suffering cabin fever and having to make the daytime dilemma between eating or heating, but if I’m honest I couldn’t care less, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, just as long as it f**ks off in time for my next matchday train journey on the 8th February.
Matchday Stats
LRFC 1(Herd 80) SBAFC 2(Cross 39,65)
att.TBC (apx.600)
Admission £5
Programme:none - but first issue of new monthly club magazine 'The Gallant' produced £2
