Wednesday 19 January 2011

Midweek matches

After what seems like an eternity due to night shifts/bad weather/Christmas/Not being arsed, i managed to take in a couple of non league matches this week. First up a short trip just over the Lincolnshire border for a second trip of the season to Gainsborough Trinity.

Gainsbrough Trinity 1-2 Nuneaton Town


Tonight's opponents for the Blues were promotion chasing Nuneaton Town. Nuneaton have proved to be a right pain in the arse when they came to Lincoln in the first round of the FA Cup earlier in the season and played with 10 men behind the ball for the entire match. Quite why they were afraid to attack a crappy defence like the Imps was beyond me. A 90th min goal saw the Imps home that day. On my previous trip to Gainsborough they were quite frankly, awful and got tanked 0-5 at home by AFC Telford. An away win was my thought before we set off. And so it was.

Over the past three seasons i must have seen Trinity about 12 times or so and i can only count one decent performance from them in that time. There are however, quite a few positives about taking in a match here.
1) Its a decent enough ground.
2) The bar is quite smart and reasonably priced.
3) The chips are some of the best i have come across in a football ground.
4) You can be back in Retford for 10 pm after a match.
5) There's always goals.

Number six would have been the fact that you always get a teamsheet, alas we couldn't find any last night. The programme i am afraid to report, continues to disappoint. Having only marginally more interesting articles to read than a week's worth of the Tory loving trash that is the Daily Mail
Nuneaton knew that a win would take them to the top of the table. They had brought a respectable number of supporters with them and they were rewarded with a two goal lead at half time. The second goal was particularly well worked. The closest Trinity came was when an inswinging corner hit the top of the bar.
The blues did get back into it in the second half when they got one back with a neat half volley, but although they had a fair amount of the ball they failed to create many chances. Nuneaton should have wrapped it up in injury time when a cross from the right was played along the six yard box, but managed to elude the oncoming forwards. Brian Little has had the best part of two seasons at Trinity now but i must be honest and say i can't see much/any progress at all. They wont go down but they will be nowhere near the playoff places either. A crowd of just over 420 with a good number of travelling fans is also a cause of concern. Alfreton are still odds on favourites to win this league but having seen them twice, Nuneaton could well be the side to beat in the playoffs.

Wednesday

Didn't go to any games. But some good news from Adam's sports world; Inter continued their revival, after Rafa Benetiz sacked himself, by recording their 4th win on the spin under new boss Leonardo with a 3-2 win over Catania. Inter are now back in the Champion's League places and still have a game in hand over the shower of shite that sits at the top of Seria A, and we still have to play them. Game on as they say.
The Nottingham Panthers gained a very good 3-3 draw away to the Cardiff Devils in the Challenge cup. Not only did this mean we won the group, but the Sheffield Steelers got knocked out at the same time.
Panthers now line up against the Newcastle vipers in the semi final. Tickets for the 2nd leg in Nottingham have been secured and i will be taking in the game in the company of BBC radio Leicestershire's Gavin Brown. Belfast or Cardiff await the winners in the final.
The only downside was that "Mind of an Imp" favourate Jelena Jankovic crashed out of the Australian open tennis championship.


Thursday
Game off. Bah. At least we got a scenic view of Worksop and Sheffield at night.

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