CML Bonanza Part 2

Basford United 4-1 Notts Police

We joined the hop on the second game of the day. A Nottingham derby match between high flying Basford United and Notts police. Again it meant a trip round the Nottingham ring road and again we got lost en-route but we still only managed to miss the first five minutes. The advantage of arriving early is that you are in prime position for an early get away at the end of the game. As we entered we were told that the Police had taken an early lead. All the normal stalls were there and had added more stock from the previous night. One was doing bundles of programmes for a quid. It would have brought a tear to Lee's eye such was the amount of stock on offer. Felice was a tad hungry so he dashed off to check out the food hut and seemed quite happy with his meat and potato pie and peas for the bargin price of £2.

The excitement was too much for some

The rather boring fellow was carrying on from where he let off the other night and was boring another group of fans out of their minds. The only real shock in the game was that it took the hosts until the 40th minute to get the equaliser. A large factor in the Police being level in the break was down to their number 4. A stout fellow in the Baz kind of build but possessing skill in abundance. Not only was he cool on the ball and had top notch passing but he organised the defence and got them going. He was the team's captain and you can see why. Justin Clarke take a bow son.

Notts skipper Justin Clarke

At half time we had a walk round the ground and checked out the clubhouse in the hope that the bar was open. Alas it wasn't but we did get the pleasure of overhearing the team talks. Although his side had had the lion's share of the play and chances the Basford manager wasn't best pleased with his sides efforts and was reading his side the riot act. The main problem he had was that certain players weren't staying in position and failing to keep their shape. He told the players. "We are f**king playing four-four f**king two! f**king got it boys yeah?"

They certainly did get it as they totally bossed the second half and ran out comfortable 4-1 winners. Basford's ground is pretty good with covered stands on both sides of the pitch and hard standing all the way round. Reading the programme it is clear that the club is looking to progress up the football pyramid. On this showing they look the deal on the pitch. At the end  of the game the Basford keeper was "giving it large" to a couple of the Police players. Now given that quite a few players are serving police officers it was probably not the wisest of moves, but then again football players aren't normally known for their intelligence levels. Lets just hope the keeper is never a tad drunk on his next night out in the city of Nottingham and that the Police players aren't on duty that night.

Sometimes on these hops the players freeze infront of the large crowd and you get a poor game, however the first two we saw on the this year's hop had been good open games. We got in the car at about 2.50pm and were soon on our way to game number three with BBC Radio Lincolnshire's commentary of the Imps away game at Bath on the radio...