Train (Sheffield-Todmorden) = £15
Entry = £6
Programme = £2
Tea = £1
Water = £1-69
Total = £25-69
I can't believe it's now less than a week since watching South Melbourne FC! We are slowly getting back into the routine after our honeymoon 'Down Under', and today's game at Bacup represented my first competitive fixture in the UK this season. Bacup is in Lancashire, but I decided to travel via Leeds and Todmorden, which is about 5-6 miles away. After some careful scrutinising of OS maps, I identified a route across Todmorden Moor, which provided a scenic and stunning backdrop to a late summer walk. Having crossed the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary, I arrived at the ground at 2.45, and parted with £6 for entry and £2 for a programme. The ground was very sparsely populated, and seemed to be crumbling around the edges, with some sections fenced off. Nonetheless, there was a rather impressive stone wall around the perimeter, which showed the ground to be rough and robust in equal measure.
In their 'zebra' kit, Bacup made an immediate impact on 7 minutes, with Wager smashing into the top corner to make it 1-0. This was after the Northwich manager had been screaming 'pick up that number 5', which just shows the importance of listening to the bench. They were the better team, but Northwich somehow equalised when Milo Edwards - who resembled the Brazilian Socrates - wriggled free on the right of the box, and leathered the ball into the top corner. As the game wore on, crunching tackles started flying in and raucous battle began developing in midfield. First the Northwich number 8 was booked for a late challenge in his own half, and in an incident at the other end, the away attackers squared up to the goalkeeper. Bacup were still marginally the better team, and came close again when an unnumbered player on the right had a fine shot tipped away. Bizarrely Northwich then nearly took the lead when a cross from their right-back took a wicked dip, and came a couple of inches away from dropping inside the post.
The second half was packed full of incidents and goals. Kevin Trippier made it 2-1 to the home side after a speedy move from the right, before Barlow's far post header made it 3-1. There was then an angry exchange of words between the Northwich 6 and the home side's 9, who each clearly felt aggrieved about something. When the referee pulled them to one side, they acted like a couple of drama queens, angrily pointing at the other. The incident ended with the Northwich player head-butting his opponent - stupidly in front of the ref! - and getting a red card in the process. The game was halted for about 5 minutes while tempers flared and verbals unpleasantries were exchanged. There was actually a decent game in progress here, and O'Connor's low cross was turned in by Ben Boyne to make it 4-1. Northwich did salvage a further consolation, when a bullet header from 5 found the top corner, but it was too little too late. As I made my way out of the ground and up onto the track over the moor, I could hear more angry voices on the pitch below. Clearly some people had come to today's game determined to start a fight. I didn't have time to watch the ensuing handbags, and the voices became more distant as I made the climb up and over into Yorkshire.
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