CML Bonanza part four

Glapwell 0-2 Parkhouse

And so onto the final leg of this festival of football. On the way to Glapwell we had Radio 5 on as the sad story about Francis Muamba broke. When you hear about a story like this it really does put Lincoln's defeat at Bath into context. Again the directions between the grounds were first class and easy to understand and follow. Del's phone had pretty much ran out of power after an afternoon spent checking the Lincoln and Italian Rugby scores. On the way to Glapwell we pulled in for some petrol and as luck would have it he was able to pick up one of those phone chargers that plugs into the Cigarette lighter thingy in the car. Although this appeared to be simple enough to set up and use, Felice seemed to struggle with it. Firstly it was a battle to get it out of its packaging and then secondly it didn't seem to want to charge up. Either the connection was dodgy or the charger was a just a cheap piece of shit that didn't work. It did eventually work but only after we wedged something against it to make sure it charged up.

Glapwell Football club have stumbled across hard times in the past few years. A few years ago they were playing in the Evo Stick leagues but have had a couple of relegations due to off the field problems. You could see by looking at the ground that it was fit for hosting football of a much higher level that the CML. On the field things aren't much better, with the team sitting 2nd bottom of the CML North division on 14 points, with only the hapless DFS Welbeck Welfare (who are yet to register a point this season) below them. Visitors Parkhouse, (who we visited on last years hop) sat in 7th place having collected 41 points from 23 matches this season.

The ground was the best on the hop. The clubhouse, club shop, and snap hut were all at the end of the ground that you entered. The club shop had a number of "Bargain" offers on; such as old Unibond league scarfs on sale for £1, and lucky dip bags of programmes, also £1. I picked Lee up one of the afore mentioned bundles as i knew he would appreciate it. I have no idea what was in it. It could have contained a range of rare pre war FA Cup finals, or maybe some old European cup finals. However it my just have been an assortment of Glapwell programmes from the previous 5 seasons or so. Which do you think it was readers ;-)
Having not eaten on the hop i grabbed a Jacket potato with cheese on, that was very nice and came in at the bargain price of £2.

This was the worst game of the home sides. Parkhouse looked a well organised side and as soon as they took the lead you couldn't really see Glapwell getting back into it. Glapwell huffed and puffed but struggled to get a real shot on target.

Looking back on the four games we saw, i must say that i was impressed with the overall quality of the football. All the teams looked to attack and embraced the larger than normal crowds instead of freezing on the big stage. I also felt that all the officials had good games and looked to let the play flow whenever they could. All the clubs coped well with the day and i dont think anybody can really have any complaints.

Take a bow chaps. A big thanks also goes to Rob Hornby who puts in a hell of a lot of work getting these events on.