Rainworth Miners Welfare 3-1 Heather st johns

Red hot action from the preliminary round of the FA cup Between NECL Rainworth MW and midland combination Heather st johns.We had seen Rainworth stuff the Pheasants of Radford in the round before and to be honest hardly broke sweat.With the opponents playing in a league below them, the odds were in Favour of the Rudy Funk express making the 1st qualifying round.



Rainworth look to have good set up from the top down.The programme is one of the best you will find at this level(And even above) you get a free teamsheet so you know who's on the pitch.The stadium is kept clean,there is plenty of covering and seating.The tea room is nice and serves well priced beer and the club shop sells a nice range of goods at reasonable prices.


Rainworth are lead by local football legend Rudy Funk.It makes a nice change to see a manager who not only looks the part,always wearing a suit and tie and looking smart but doesn't spend all game having a go at the match officials and other managers. The most wound up he got all day was with his own full back.The game certainly needs more Rudy Funks.


The Wrens took the lead in the first minute and then continued to dominate the game for the next twenty minutes and it looked as as if they would run away with the opponents.Heather st johns slowly started to get back into the match and got an equaliser when a ball was lumped into the box,Rainworths keeper made a mess of it leaving a tap in for Heather to make it 1-1. That was as good as it got for the Midlands league side as the Wrens made it 2-1 shortly after.
The second half wasn't as eventful as the first. Heather huffed and puffed but Mr Funks side were defensively at there best and added a third to all but kill the game. Heather were reduced to ten men late in the second half and the wrens could have added a couple more goals had it not been for a combination of good goalkeeping and bad/greedy finishing.

So Rudy Funks boys march on to the first preliminary round of the cup. i enjoyed my first trip to Rainworth.You will be hard pushed to find a club better ran and welcoming at this level.

display in the club house referring to Rainworths finist hour, the 1982 FA vase defeat at wembley



Admission £4
Programme £1 (with free teamsheet) very good effort 8/10
Badges £3.50
Clubhouse 6/10
Food sausage roll-£1 4/10 because they had to heat it up in the microwave(they never taste right then. Bear was £1.50 per can and tea 60p.
Ground 7/10 whoever makes Rainworth miners welfare signs must be a very rich man as there are at least 7 of them around the ground.
WAG factor 4/10

Crusaders 1-0 Coleraine

So after a fun and enjoyable day and a half in Belfast city i went to my first Irish premier league match between Crusaders and Coleraine at Seaview.



Seaview is in Northern Belfast so i got a Taxi from City hall in the centre of town. As luck would have it the driver of the cab was a "crus" fan,so i was able to get the lowdown on tonights match. Crusaders seem to be a club on the up after winning the Irish cup last season and starting strongly this term including a win at Linfield fc.(see above post,when written). After a rocky few years Coleraine look like they are much more on their feet than they were when Baz and myself watched them play Lincoln in a friendly a few years ago.(4-0 to the Imps that day)

I got to Seaview at about 6.30 so with time to kill i had a look around the ground and took a few pictures. There was a Rangers bar just down the road but i decided to go into the club house. It was quite smart but there wasnt much memorabilia from last seasons cup win. The very nice blonde haired girl served me with a great pint of Harp larger and at £2.30 it was the cheapest pint i had in Belfast. I then decided to get into the ground early to get some more pictures.

There was only one set of turnstiles open for both Home and Away fans which caught a few Coleraine fans out as they were waiting by the turnstlyes on the main road that werent open.(I count myself among them; they werent that easy to find). It was £9 to get in and another £1 if you wanted to sit in the large stand on the far side from the entrance, which i didnt. The programme was a couple of quid and badges were the standard £2.50. My taxi driver Steve had told me not to bother with the burgers as they have normally been there for weeks and are generally crap.
I liked the ground; it was quite old school and seemed a lot more like a football stadium than some of the plastic soulless places we have in the English league(Darlo, Northampton, Doncaster, Chester etc etc). It made a nice change to be back on a terrace. Both sides are open terraces with covered terracing at one side of the pitch and opposite from is the main stand that towers above the rest of the ground. I would imagine its a great view from the top of it.(2nd picture from the top)

some of coleraine's travelling army


It was a reasonable following that Coleraine had brought down with them; they tended to gather behind the far goal and half the stand on the side of the pitch (the other half being for the crus fans where i watched the first half. The atmosphere was non existent in the first half as the ref and his assistants did everything they could to spoil the game. Crusaders tried to get the ball down and play where as Coleraine seemed to favour the long ball game. The pitch wasnt the best and seemed to have more sand on it than blackpool beach.
I got talking to a couple of guys who were fans of Glentoran fc so like myself werent too bothered about the result. It's always good to get an insight into other leagues. Glentoran play tonight so hopefully they will get the result they want. It was interesting to get their views on how the game is run over there; it does seem that the Northern Irish FA dont help the clubs as much in ground development as the English FA do here (unless you are Linfield that is). Glentoran v Linfield is the big game in Ulster and a game I would love to do one day. I was going to see Linfield when I go over next but it looks like the Glens may have my vote now. Thanks for the company lads, sorry i didnt get your names.

We wandered over to the other side of the ground for the second half. Crusaders continued to push for a goal. Both keepers seemed to be a bit crap and were doing their best to make sure it didnt end goalless. Crusaders got the only goal of the game in the 73rd min and thats how it finished. This win took the home side up to second in the table. I got back to the hotel and watched the highlights of the crowd trouble between west ham and millwall.
All in all i thoroughly enjoyed the game and it has wet my appetite to watch more football in northern ireland in the new year sometime.


Admission £9
Programme £2 very nice looking but not alot to read,not worth £2 4/10
Club house 7/10 would be 5 but the blond barmaid was very nice
Ground 7/10 proper football ground, rough and ready
food,didnt have any
Match quality 7/10 should have been more goals,for both sides.

just a quick video for the glens

Lincoln City 0-2 Burton Albion

The below image sums up my opinion on Lincolns performance today at home to Burton Albion. there is little more to say i am afraid.



it is amazing how we can go from a good performance at Bradford on tuesday night to this crock of shit .As they say, Its a funny old game. If i had to pick a man of the match i would give it to Cian Hughton. At least the weather was good,Although the chip butty after the match was dreadfull.

A few results from the week.

just a few scores from the week just gone and a few games to look for this weekend



League 2

Bradford City 0-2 Lincoln city

FA cup extra preliminary round replay

Holbeach united 1-2 Shirebrook town (town at home to Boston town in the next round)

Europea league playoff 1st leg

Slavia prague 3-0 Crvena Zvezda
NK Maribor 0-2 AC Sparta Prague
Werder Breman 6-3 FK Aktobe
Dymano bucharest 0-2 sloven liberic

Weekend Match's

Lincoln city v Burton Albion
Pittsburgh Steelers v Washington Redskins (NFL Pre season game)
Victoria zizkov v Caslav
Ballymena utd v Crusaders
Shirebrook town v Pickering

Bradford City 0-2 Lincoln City

Over the years there have been many great away night games the Retford Imps have been to.The away leg in the playoffs at Scunthorpe united,in 2003,Southend in 99 last seasons trip to Gillingham etc etc.And whilst Tuesdays game might not quite have been as good as those it was pretty close.
its been a while since we went to Bradford city.It was a Carling cup first round 1st leg. we were in what is now league one.we were still on a high from promotion from the previous seasons promotion and Boyzone were top of the chart with no matter what it.
The ground is quite impressive for league two. Bradford spent a couple of seasons in the premiership at the start of the decade and the ground and the developments are a sign of this.The view is spot on and the facilities excellent.(i didnt take my camera so you will have to take my word for it) although at £20 a ticket to watch league two football,they should be
Theres no nice way of putting this but Bradford is a dump.anybody who has ever been to the place will testify.

After a bitch of a journey up to Bradford we got parked up and walked round to the away section and payed our 20 quid to get in.
For the first 10 mins or so the Imps took the game to Bradford.to say there were 11,000 Bradford City fans there they were very quite.For some reason there fans think that they have a god given right to walk this league.when in reality they had a couple of good seasons and that was that.They get big crowds because they are based in a large city and they did a special offer on season tickets to try and keep there fickle fan base happy.it would be interesting to see how many would go to the games if they were put back up to normal prices.
Bradford came more into the game as it went on and the Imps were on the back foot for the last 20 minutes or so. Bradford got a penalty after about 30 mins or so.Rob Burch pulled of a great save and it seemed to knock the stuffing out of Bradford City although i was thankful to get in at half time at 0-0.
Ten minutes into the second half lincoln were awarded a penalty kick of our own. I am always nervous when we get spot kicks.In truth i have never felt confidant in any city penalty taker since Paul Mayo was taking them for us.The fact that three players were arguing over who was going to take it made me even more nervous.Rene Howe won out and rammed the kick home to give the Imps the lead.

Within 60 seconds the Imps were two up as Chris Fagen scored a great individual goal to sent the away fans mental and the home fans silent.Bradford had plenty of chances but just didn't get the rub of the green.on another day they would have got at least a goal but not today.The Imps back four were strong and saw out the game to record our first away win of the 2009/10 season.

On the way back the night was complete when we popped into on of the many local entnhic takeaway shops and had a most wonderful kebab!it was both tasty and huge and coked fresh! a large lamb donner came in at four quid and was a total bargin the menu and phone number is below, if you are ever in Bradford check it out!!



Admission- £20
Programme £2.50
Badge N/A
Food- baz gave the pies a 7/10 noting that the pastry was hard and not puffy, felice said the burgers were crap 4/10
Imps performance 7/10
Man of the match- Rob Burch

Radford 0-3 Rainworth Miners Welfare

Pheasants get plucked in the cup


Well here we go the FA cup starts here. Radford of the EMCL were entering the competition for the first time in there 45 year history. they were up against NECL side Rainworth miners welfare (two divisions above them).
Radford do have a very good set up of off the pitch. The club house is quite nice, the ground has a fair bit of covering and seating (for this level anyway).They seem to have a good supporter's club which looks well run. The club shop sells a wide range of old programmes and badges.The food is some of the best you will find in non-league football and is served by two very nice looking young ladies. the only problem seems to be that on the pitch at the moment they aren't very good.


Happier times for the pheasants

Having got whacked 6-0 in midweek at Gressley A cup game against a side two leagues higher probobly wasn't the fixture Radford would have picked to get back on track.Rainworth stared much the better of the two sides and went 1-0 up after about 10 mins.I managed to miss the goal as i was taking my plate back to the food hut. Rudi Funks side continued to dominate with Radford only finding there feet in the game after half an hour or so. Rainworth went 2-0 up shortly before half time,again i missed the goal because i was getting the beers in at the clubhouse just my luck!


I got a call at half time saying that the Imps were 0-0 at Accrington but playing shite and that it was pissing it down with rain and the away fans were on the open terrace.luckily we had bright sunshine in Nottingham and there was cover should it be needed(thankfully it wasn't)
The second half was pretty uneventful. Rainworh added a third with a good indervidual effort(i even saw this goal!!) and it stayed 3-0.Rudi,s Rainworth go marching on,the Pheasants well and truly plucked.

I got the tram back into the center of Nottingham and met gav for a couple of pints in the Bell pub in Nottingham. the city was full of Nottingham Forest fans looking gutted after there 0-1 home defeat to West Brom.Lincoln had lost 1-0 and continued to play poorly,not to worry though only two games gone and Grimsby are bottom of the league already.It looks like Notts county will take some stopping this year though.
I can thoroughly recommend a visit to Radford and i would think i will come back at some point this season. the food is great, we had a homemade burger served on a long bread cob all for £1.50 half the price of Lincolns yet 100% better.The Carling larger in the clubhouse was very nice,Although the programme is mostly in black and white (apart from the picture of a pheasant) it is a very good read. i found the information about Geldling town fc very interesting as this is another ground in Notts i would like to visit at some point this season.
All in all the club looks like it is set to go up through the leagues,if only they could play a little better!



Admission £4
Programme £1-very good 8/10
Food 9/10- it will be tough to find a better burger than this.
Badge £3
Match quality 6/10 a little one sided
WAG factor. 5/10 nothing special

Last weeks sporting round up

On Tuesday night the Imps managed to bomb out of the Carling cup at home to championship side Barnsley at Sincil Bank (or as the pratt in the sky sports news studio called it once Sincil park) .We didn't go to the game as we cup match's are included in the season tickets and we are saving up for next weeks away match at Bradford City.Sky had a reporter at the game and whenever they crossed over to Lincoln the theme seemed to be Barnsley were on the attack with Lincoln being tough to break down and well organised.Rob Burch seemed to be the star of the game and the message boards seemed to be quite positive after the game. After we went one-nil down i flicked over to the next channel to watch Hala read me the International news at the I-DESK.for some reason Lincolns result didn't make the international sports news bit! sort it Hala!!

Hala




as pre season finished over here the NFL teams are just starting theirs.SIX times and current champions the Pittsburgh Steelers won there first warm up match 20-10 against last years beaten finalists the Arizona Cardinals. it was level at 3-3 going into the third quarter then the steelers outscored them 17-7 in the 4th.
I am really looking foward to the NFL season although we don't lock horns with The Giants,Cowboys or New England this year. (At least i wont lose a tenner to Gav this year)

Today the Imps travel to one of the biggest dumps in English football heading to Accrington Stanley.I am off to Nottingham to watch the start of the FA cup Radford fc play there first ever game in the compertition at home to Rainworth miners welfare.For these to sides to reach the first round proper(When the Imps enter) two preliminary rounds must be won then four qualifying rounds must be negotiated.at each round teams enter dependent on there league ie the top flight of non-league football enter at the last qualifying round( Mansfield,Oxford etc) Gainsbrough Trinity come in at qualifying round two, Retford United start at round one,Lincoln united start in the 2nd extra preliminary round and Shirebrook Town start right at the start. The premiership and Championship teams enter at round three proper in January.

Radford fc are nicknamed the "pheasants" hence the pic!!
hope everybody get the results they want this weekend(unless there are any accrington Stanley fans reading this tripe.oh nearly forgot. the two most predictable leagues in Europe kick off this weekend. The Premier league and the SPL.

Harworth Colliery Institute v Carlton Town XI

There was a fair bit of football on the TV last night,Scotland had a huge world cup qualifier in Norway. England were playing Holland in a friendly in Amsterdam however we made the short trip to Nottinghamshires most northerly footballing frontier to watch Harworth CI of the central Midlands league do battle with the Unibond south,s Carlton Town.



First stop was a visit to the club house. By this time Scotland were already 2-0 down in Oslo.There were a few people in the bar watching the game on the TV in the corner.Before the game Scotland had looked good for the playoffs. how come they always hit self destruct when it looks like they may get anywhere? (Norway were without a win before the game) they are still in there fighting for a playoff place though.
The club house was nice enough.we got two pints for under a fiver which is always a good sign. there is a nice little display in the club in honour of Harworths best known sporting star,former world cyclists champion Tom Simpson. One of the best Cyclists Great Britain has ever produced

There were a few early signs that this game was low profile. There was no Admission charge for a start and each side had to provide one of the subs to act as a linesman.
The kick off was also a little early,Although with Carlton having a longish journey back to the outskirts of Nottingham afterwards in was understandable.

The ground may be in need of a bit of TLC but for me it does the job.There is covered viewing on three of the sides and hard standing on the sides as well.you can also take your drinks out when you watch the match (or at least we could last night) which always makes the game more enjoyable in the summer.The trough in the toilets could do with a clean out though before the season starts.

As you would expect with the number of divisions between the sides Carlton controlled the game and looked the better side for most of the game.going 2-0 up in the first half.it was a nice change for the two coaching teams to be more concentrated on the game as appose to shouting at the ref.
We retreated to the club house at half time for a pint. England were 2-0 down after about half an hour in Holland.but it was only a friendly so who cares?
The second half was much the same,Carlton added a third before Harwoth pulled on back with about 10 mins to go.for some reason the ref booked a Carlton player and in a separate incident sent of a Harwoth player.I didn't think it was to bad,The Carlton bench didn't seem to bothered. I always think that refs should just ask players to leave the field of play,or tell the manager to sub a player in friendly matches. especially at this level of football.
England came back in the 2nd half to get a 2-2 draw.


Admission -free
Programme/team sheet N/A
Clubhouse 6/10
Food-none
WAG factor 5/10 only saw one.

other results
friendly results

Holland 2-2 England
Northern Ireland 1-1 Israel
Czech Rep 3-1 Belgium

World cup Qualifier's
Norway 4-Scotland 0
Mexico 2-1 USA

The next few weeks and european round up

Over the next month or so the mighty Imps have a few long distance trips which i more than likely wont be going to.This gives me a great opportunity to kill three birds with one stone 1) i get to see some early preliminary and qualifying rounds of the FA cup.2) i can cross some more Nottinghamshire grounds off my list. and thirdly i get to see more than the normal one game in the FA cup due to Lincolns crap record in the competition.A first round replay is a good cup run for Lincoln these days.

these games i have found are

15-8-09 FA Cup extra preliminary round
Radford v Rainworth Miners Welfare (Accrington stanley v City)

29th-8-09 FA cup preliminary round
Carlton Town v Bottesford town/New Mills or Lincoln utd v Deeping Rangers ( Dagenham&Redbridge v City)

12-9-09 FA cup first qualifying round
Retford United v Lincoln united/Deeping Rangers ( AFC Bournemouth v City)


Meanwhile in Prague


tyn church Prague



The Ceczh Republic will be without representation in this seasons UFEA Champions league after both of Pragues "big two" were knocked out in disappointing circumstances.
Sparta blew a 3-1 first leg lead from the home game in Prague to lose the away game in Greece 3-0 to Panathinaikos. Slavia Prague were the victims of an upset losing on away goals to Moldovas FC Sheriff after a 1-1 draw in Prague.Both teams now go into the third qulifying round of the Europa league with Slavia up against Crvena Zvezda (Red star Belgrade) and Sparta take on Slovenia's MK Maribor. Sparta will the happier of the two with the draw.Although i don't follow either side,my Colours being tied to the Zizkov Mast, it was a little disappointing to see both sides eliminated from the Champions League at least there fans can go to one of Pragues many great cheap bars and drink great tasting beer served by the hottest bar maids in Europe to drown there sorrows.


Viktoria Zizkov started the campaign in the 2nd division of Ceczh football after relegation with a defeat but won there 1st game of the season on Sunday 1-0 at home against Vitkovice. at one point i would love to return to Prague to watch Zizkov play a match and have more Ceczh beer of course!

Lincoln City 1- 0 Barnet

Well after the arsing about with all the pre-season friendlies the 1st game of the season was finally here.Lincoln city started there league two (division 4) campain against Barnet fc who hail from north London. The Imps traditionally don't start two well, the last time we won on the opening day was back in 2004-05 when we won at 1-0 at Shrewsbury and you have to go back to the 99-00 season for the last home win on the first day of the season,a 2-0 win over Rotherham United.
I always prefer to be away on the first day of the season because if you get a bad result at home first up you have the pressure of going away with no points where as if you lose the first game away you know you have your fans behind you at home in game two. Also if you win one the road first up the excitement builds up for the home game the next week. that's my theory anyway.



Last season we gained our fist win of the season at home to Barnet in the fifth round of games(another crap start to the season)Barnet returned the favour by winning the return game at Underhill 3-2. both sides finished in midtable so both saw this match as a good chance to get of to a winning start.Before the match there was a minutes applause for Sir Bobby Robson which was very well supported by the crowd of 3,773.Before the match we had popped into the Center spot bar behind the south park end of the stadium.I thought that charging £3 for a Pint of fosters in a crappy plastic glass,the type that even the with the smallest amount of pressure applied spills everywhere was a bit steep.Although the profits go to the club so i suppose i should,nt moan. plus with the weather being very nice we took our drinks outside for a spot of "bird watching" the sun brings them out you know.the one in the entrance to the executive boxes Which had a rather fine plumage was noted.


On to the game.New signing Rene Howe was on the bench so we had Chris Fagen and Paul O'Conner as our new look strike force.two new full backs in Joe Heath and Cian Houghton. In middfield Richard butcher and Jamie Clarke made in 6 out of 11 new players in our line up from the 2008-09 season.
With so many new faces it was going to take time to gel. Barnet saw much more of the ball in the first half although they weren't exactly raining shot after shot at Rob Burchs goal,we were chasing shadows for long periods in the first half and were glad to get to half time at 0-0. City needed some serious G-Force!!!


No crime fighting Guinea pigs were brought on at half time however city did start to get a foothold in the game. Half way through the first half the beast of Budapest hit the post with a header the reacted quickest to ram home the lose ball to give the imps the lead!.After that Goal city seemed alot more settled and The fight seemed to drain out of Barnet and city closed the game out quite comfortably even surviving the 5 minutes of added time without any alarms.

For me there was alot of good points to come out of the game.Yes we were shaky in the first half but as i have said before it will take time for the side to settle. the Defence looks solid and upfront Paul O'Conner had a good game winning flick ons and holding the ball up.Rene Howe looked good and with a bit more match fitness could be a real handful in this division.I must also give credit to Stefan Oakes who got stuck in made his tackles in midfield and played some good passes. after a under par season last time round (although i thought some of the stick he got was way over the top) he looks like he can show us what a good player he can be when used the right way.


Programme-£2.50- quite a good effort with a fair bit to read, hope it stays this good throughout the season.
Beer £3 -average
Food- Cheeseburger in the ground, better than the last one i had there 6/10(Felice said hot dog was crap)
Imps performance 6.5/10
My man of the match- Stefan Oakes.

There is still work to do and there tougher challenges ahead than Barnet.Notts county slamming five past Bradford was a sign of this (we visit Bradford on Tuesday week). but we will get better.we wernt great today but still won. and its great to get the first win to get that monkey off your back.

fact of the day from Baz at one point there were 16 black players on the Field of play ( this is by no means a bad thing just an observation)
i will be trying to find a pointless random fact every imps game lets hope the rest are up to if not better than this first one!

Calverton Miners welfare v Chesterfield XI

Shock horror the weather was decent on Wednesday night!! and what better way to spend the night that watching Calverton miners welfare v Chesterfield? hmmm don't answer that one! (Night in with Sophie ellis bextor anybody?)
Calverton play there football in the CMFL and at one point looked good for Promotion until it all went tits up.

I have now come to the conclusion that when somebody says " its a piece of piss to find, you carnt miss it" it inevitable isn't and you will.After a short trip round the village we ended up in the car park of the local working mans club and when asking if we were in the right place to see Calverton v Chesterfireld the lady replied " what at darts?" hmm not quite. we got dircetions to the ground and arrived shortly after maybe later we could take to the oche?
although it was advertised as a 7.30 ko, the board outside said 7.45 it actualy kicked off at 7.08 pm so bang went the pre match drink. As you can see from the below pictures the ground could be one of Nottinghamshires more scenic,although i don't thing i would Fancy watching a midd-week game here in January. there is a some shelter behind one of the goals with trees behind the other end and open on both sides.

This is one of those games when all the best bits happened on the first half. Calverton took the lead with a great own goal form Chesterfeild. Chesterfield then scored a well worked goal to draw level at which point the Calverton right back decided to throw a temper tantrum complete with swearing and all to which the ref quite rightly told him in no uncertain terms to shut it or he would be sent off. next up a spectator got a ball full in the face from about a yard out and was knocked out cold, he came round after a few minutes and seemed ok.



At half time we made a quick exit to the club house where we somehow got a metal badge, a pint of Carling and a bottle of lucazade for a total of £4.50 even though the price list says badges are £3,still i am not complaining it serves them right for kicking off early thats what i say! while in the club house got a copy of Nottinghamshires free sports paper, Ballsmania.(see below)you cant get it in Retford and Calverton is as northenly as i have managed to get a copy. It has reports on games from all over Nottinghamshire and lots of Adverts for strip bars and the likes in Nottighamshire as well as the famous Notts babe feature on page three. A paper for gentleman i think.


Chesterfield made it 1-2 in the second half.as the game drifted to its conclusion with the only action being when Calverton hit the bar from a free kick late on the the follow up hit the post.

I must give the ref a mentioned.very much in "the good old boy" mould of ref he controlled the game superbly from start to finish. talking with the players the whole time and controlling the game in a firm but friendly manor.He had a NSL Badge on his shirt (Nottinghamshire senior league) which is the lowest level of Saturday football in Notts.He should be in a much higher standard of football.It will be tough for a ref to better his performance this season.

Admission- £2
Programme/teamsheet -none issued
Badge £1.50 (price list said £3 though)
Clubhouse 7/10
match quality 5/10
food/drink N/A
WAG factor 0/10 dint spot any

Arnold Town v Maccelsfield Town XI

Monday night say us take the short trip to the Eagle valley stadium to watch NECL side Arnold Town to take on a Maccelsfield Town XI (which was in fact the Maccelsfield Town youth team)

Arnold is about 20-30 minutes from Retford although they actually play in Oxton. I saw them play twice last season.A league cup tie against Pickering town in which they got beat 3-0 and played pretty poorly.The things that stick out from that night was that the new stadium didn't live up to all its hype,the pitch was dreadful and there was a ball boy who ran up and down the side of the pitch behind the barrier shouting abuse at the match officials and generally acting like a total tool all night, in fact he went on to win the "knob of the season"award on this very blog
Because of all this i was very pleased when Retford united smashed them 4-0 in the Nottinghamshire senior cup semi final 4-0 at Retford.



Arnolds ground is quite like Retfords in that it is quite new looking, not much seating or covering and the clubhouse is by far the most impressive feature about it.We strolled in there about 30 minutes before kickoff and got two pints for under a fiver.Arnold do a good programme and tonight was no different, teamsheets were also available to anybody who wanted one(unlike alot of clubs who don't issue programmes for friendlies and only give teamsheets for the select few). Badges were also available,both Arnold town and other clubs.All in all a decent well run clubhouse and if all clubs were this organised life would be easier for us sad bastards who collect Badges,programmes and all this junk

The game was actually quite good. Maccelsfield had sent there youth team but were more than a match for Arnold on the night.There were a few Imp connections tonight with the Biggest being Imps legend and now Maccelsfield Manger Keith Alexander being in the crowd and Arnold town have former Imps striker Martin Carruthers (signed by Keith) in there line up. I Always felt Carruthers never got a decent chance at Lincoln and always remember that way he destroyed us whilst playing for Peterbrough in the 1997/98 season and scoring against us for southend at southend in the 99-00 season in what was one of the games of the season that season.

Arnold went 1-0 up(Carruthers!),Macc got it back to 1-1 shortly before half time. Keith came out with the great comment of "All he has done is scored!"?? Macc took the lead just after half time only for Carruthers to level it at 2-2 . missed maccs third goal as i was getting the teas in. Arnold made it 3-3 when The Macc keeper fumbled a shot that trickled over the line to for the last goal of the game.

Final score 3-3

all in all a decent game and all watch by local football legend and the man with the best name in Nottinghamshire football Rudi funk.My travel companion has followed his carear for years alas i dont know much about him but he has managed many local clubs in the Notts area.

Admission £5
Programme £1.20
Badge £3
food/drink, heard the chips were crap,the tea gets a 7/10
clubhouse 8/10
Game quality 8/10
WAG Factor -not much, one in the MILF category in the clubhouse 5/10

G-FORCE!!!!!!!

There was a very rare trip for me to the pictures on Friday night to see the film of the year,never mind Harry Potter and the whatever, Transformers II,OR Anything else.. ladIes and gentlemen i give you G-force a great film and unlike the other two i have mentioned it WILL become true in the not to distant future!!


one thing i need to ask about the cinema is this. you used to go and get your ticket then you if wanted to be ripped off for popcorn and stuff you went to the popcorn stall. now it seems you have to get your ticket form the popcorn stall so if like myself you have no wish to buy the junk food you still have to wait while people get theirs before you get your ticket,then the staff behind the counter look gone out at you when you dont want to purchase any over priced food! bring back the old times that's what i say!!!
i wont spoil the film so go and see it boys and girls.i did like the fact that the local animal rescue center had a stall outside the screen room with advice about caring for Guinea pigs and stuff and a couple of pigs there to show people what really guineas are like.
I am off now to continue agents snoopy and charlies training. snoop,s nunchucks are coming on in leaps and bounds and charlies a dab hand with a bow staff. both speak better English that 95% of Yorkshire and there IQ,S are off the scale.

i have seen the future and the future is GUINEA!!!

AFC Goole 0- 4 Lincoln City

Its only been a month since our first pre season game away in sunny, warm Celle in Germany.What a difference a month makes as we found ourselves in the depressing,wet and dank surroundings of Goole.


Its only a short trip up to Goole, i am not sure if its classed as East Yorkshire or Humberside, its still a pretty bleak place,as are the two counties of Humberside and the whole of Yorkshire if i am honest.Nothing like Nottinghamshire. The ground however is more than up to the standard needed for Unibond league football,in fact i would say its one of the better grounds in the league of which i have seen.its one of the few grounds to have a running track around the pitch this in its self gives the ground quite a large feeling to it.The lady in the club shop told us the running track hasn't been used in years which explains why it is a little run down.The club shop had a wide range of old programmes for sale from many league and non-league clubs as far a Field as Plymouth,(although no programmes were issued for today's game) scott went through 90% of them and Alas there were no Yeovil ones,there were a couple of Imps ones although i already had them.
We ventured to the food hut although i didn't have anything(i had already eaten) my two travel companions reviewed the food for me (see below). The club bar was the next stop,it was OK i suppose the normal non-league fair really with a few trophy's and pennants that looked like they had been there from the midd 80,s all over the wall. £2.40 wasn't to bad for a pint,i will certainly pay more for one over the course of the season i would imagine.

In the first half Lincoln lined up with our strongest line up and as it stands the line up that should start the seasons opener against Barnet next week.Lincoln totality dominated the first 45.Stefan Oakes went past a couple of Goole defenders then shot from the edge of the box after about ten minutes to give the Imps the lead. Paul O'Conner added a second as i had my back to the game as i went to get the teas in(sodds law!)The third was added shortly after as the "Beast of Budapest" Janos Kovacs(pictured above) scored with an unstoppable volley.Lincoln added a fourth from the penalty spot when Chris Fagen fired home after Richard Butcher was held in the box at a corner. City kept pressing in the first half and could have had a couple more as Goole hardly got out of there own half.


At the break City made 7 or 8 changes. most surprisingly giving assistant Boss Iffy Onuora a run out upfront.Last season i saw Goole get smashed 5-0 at Retford United. on that occasion they acted like a bunch of dirty bastards when it stared going against them and the same happened here,shirt pulling anckle taps elbows etc etc with there number 4 and 10 the worse of a bad lot(i do have the teamsheet but this blog isn't here to name and shame people) I fully understand football is a contact sport and passions run high but when i side is 0-4 down there surly has to be a bit of sense shown. Danny hone was asked by the ref to take ten mins off the pitch for a bad challenge (and it was) and that was about the only action of the second half, apart form went Goole had a goal disallowed for offside much to the disscust of the 10 or so Goole fans in the ground and the three ball boys. a bit of handbags at the end from the aforementioned number ten at the final whistle but to me it was just the frustration of being outclassed from start to finished.overall i thought the ref handled it quite well although if Goole behave like this it may well be hard for them to atrack decent opponents in the future for pre season match's
All in all not a bad ground, the people working at the ground were friendly enough, City did what they had to do and i got another badge for the collection
Roll on next week Barnet at home in the first league game!!

Admission £5
Programme N/A got a free team sheet in the bar
Badge £3 quite smart
Food-Felice rated the burgers highly both on presentation and on taste.Scott backed this up . think they were about £1.50. the tea i had was nice but the cup was quite small so a 6/10 from me
Club house 7/10 £2.40 a pint was quite good i thought.
WAG factor only say one that i thought could be a WAG 6/10