Clitheroe (18-10-2014)

Clitheroe 3 - 2 Droylsden (FA Trophy Preliminary Round), Saturday 18th October 2014

Bus (Stockport-Manchester) = £3-10
Train (Manchester-Clitheroe) = £10-90
Entrance = £7
Programme = £1-50
Tea = £1
Total = £23-50

A running theme in my ground-hopping for 2014-15 is travel delays and hold-ups. Today's visit to another corner of East Lancashire brought more fret on the way to a ground on my 'difficult' list (both in terms of time and distance). The train from Sheffield-Stockport was no bother, except a 10-minute delay. I could still make the train from Victoria to Clitheroe, so was sure that once we got past Stockport I should be ok. Lo and behold, the train sat outside Stockport for 5-10 minutes, before pulling in, followed by an announcement that the train would be delayed by about an hour. In these situations, its impossible to know what to do. Staying on the train would add more time, whereas if I got off I could pretty much guarantee that any delays would be suddenly resolved!

I opted to take control of the situation, and headed out of the station onto the main road, hopping onto the 192 Stagecoach bus into Manchester. It was packed and due to the train delays, there were large queues of confused travellers congregating round the bus stops. On top of that, the City-Tottenham game was a 12.45 kick-off so the bus was full of fans desperate to reach the ground in time. It felt like the slowest bus in history, and I wasn't sure that I would make it to the city centre in time for the 13.06 from Victoria. To top it all, I'm sure I saw the train I had been on fly past on a bridge we went under! We made it to the centre at about 12.45, and I half power-walked/half sprinted to Victoria. Thankfully, I now have a mental map of Piccadilly-Victoria so was able to navigate this without too many problems.

Onto the 13.06, and to my relief there were no more delays as we trundled through a string of Lancashire towns on the way to Blackburn. Clitheroe is North of Blackburn, on the boundary of the Forest of Bowden, and is the end of the line, so (like Colne) this felt like the back end of nowhere. Arriving in Clitheroe at 2.20pm, I had time to explore the town. This proved to be the most interesting town I've visited this season, with a bustling market, a castle, and rows of independent/local shops nestled in cobbled streets. This is well worth a visit, even if you are not an avid non-league hopper! Today's game at Shawbridge was an FA Trophy preliminary vs Droylsden. The ground was another Lancashire gem, with a few covered sections mixed up with some truck containers, which doubled up as the tea-hut and hospitality bar! I took up my place in the main stand, and sipped some tea as the players warmed up.

The game was chaotic and unpredictable, though from a neutral's perspective, the quality was somewhat lacking. For the opening spell, the away side looked stronger and more determined, with 8 whacking wide on 10 minutes. Despite their early threat, it was Clitheroe who took the lead on 13 minutes when 10 slotted in a side-foot volley after some probing work down the wings. Gonzalez made it 2-0 on 22 minutes when he slotted in from close-range, and suddenly it looked like this could be a rout today. This didn't materialise, and the rest of the half had the team's evenly matched. Droylsden's right back launched a superb box-to-box run which he couldn't quite convert into a clear-cut chance, whilst a mix-up between him and the away keeper at the other end nearly resulted in Clitheroe's third. Clitheroe's 11 hit a swinging shot wide, whilst Droylsden's 10 had a left-footed effort deflected past the post.

2-0 up at half-time, and Clitheroe looked like they should be heading for the next round. The second-half started as equally balanced as the first had been, and the game was on when Fernando Moke was brought in the area, and 10 converted the resulting penalty. Droylsden now looked fired up and up for a fight. Stephen Hall went through and had his effort well-saved by the keeper's legs. At the other end, David Lynch scuffed wide after some excellent one-touch football. Moke threatened again at the home end, with his drilled shot saved, while Clitheroe's Gonzalez was tackled by the keeper when clean through. The game had suddenly opened up. Droylsden then equalised when number 10 was brought, and again calmly slotted in to make it 2-2. The home crowd were perhaps understandably frustrated by the award of both penalties, and the volume definitely went up a notch as the game went into the closing stages. The away side looked like they had grabbed a replay, until David Lynch slotted in a cross from the right-wing in what must have been the dying seconds of the game. The home crowd and players were jubilant, and all the refereeing decisions were forgotten as they celebrated a win which looked like it had evaded them. This was a mad game of football, and had been an excellent afternoon's entertainment. The long trek back to Sheffield on public transport was well worth it to see this lovely Lancashire town, and an open game of football against great surroundings.

England (09-10-2014)

England 5 – 0 San Marino (Euro 2016 Qualifier), 9th October 2014

Match ticket: £37-50
Megabus (Manchester-London & London-Sheffield): £13-50
Train ticket single (Marylebone-Wembley Stadium): £5
Tea: £2
Programme: £6
Pies, pasties and other provisions: £4-27
Total: £68-27

My strange and sometimes unexplainable love of the England national team continues to draw me back to Wembley, even for low-key matches against opposition like San Marino. I’d been there 2 years ago (almost to the day), when England had thrashed them 5-0 in a World Cup qualifier, and wanted to get to this one, as it would be the last realistic Autumn fixture I could do. That, coupled with the fact that this was our first home qualifier, made this an attractive proposition despite the quality of the opposition. Unfortunately, I’d been disorganised with this, so ended up with a slightly more expensive ticket than usual. On a positive note, I kept my costs down with cheap bus travel down from Manchester and then back up to Sheffield. I’m pretty pleased that I kept the costs of the day below £70, and now think there is a lot to be said for having a budget for these bigger games.

I arrived at the stadium 15 minutes before kick-off, and paid £2 for a cuppa, before finding my seat in the lower tier. As it happened, almost all of Level 5 in the upper tier had been closed off, bar a cluster of supporters directly behind me taking up maybe a quarter to 20% of the tier. There were admittedly smatterings of empty seats in my section, and it said a lot that many people were able to sit where they liked without causing too many problems. The tone for this game had already been set by a lot of whinging in the press about the pointlessness of walkover games against weaker teams. The main topic of conversation behind me was whether England would get 6 as one chap had placed a bet on this. I can’t recall many similar occasions when it is almost a certainty for us to get so many.

England were set out in a slightly different formation to usual. The retirement of Gerrard has left a massive gulf in the midfield, so Hodgson is exploring different options with who should sit in front of the defence (at the base of the diamond). In this case, we had Milner playing this role, with Wilshere and Henderson pushing forward either side of him, and Sterling through the middle behind the front two. The defence had a new look to it, with Gibbs at left-back and Callum Chambers on the other flank. As expected we bossed possession, but met with some stubborn resistance from San Marino, who did well to keep the score at 0-0 for 24 minutes. Then, as in the Peru game in May, Jagielka ran late into the box to score a header, amidst claims of fouls by the San Marinese (?!) players. The floodgates had opened, and Rooney, Welbeck , Sterling were all looking lively in and around the penalty area. It was then no surprise when a second arrived on 43 minutes, when Rooney coolly converted a penalty awarded for a foul. 42 goals for him, and 2-0 to England.

The atmosphere had been reasonable in the first half, but it really flattened out in the second half. England were barely out of second gear, and looked comfortable in control of this, confirmed when Welbeck converted a poachers’ strike on 49 minutes. Thanks to the substitutions, England at one point in the second half had no fewer than 5 Arsenal players on the pitch – Gibbs, Chambers, Wilshere, Welbeck and Oxlade-Chamberlain. Chambers admittedly looked nervous, perhaps understandable on his England debut. We grew slightly wasteful as the game moved on, but I knew that the away side would run out of any remaining energy as we approached the last 20. Sure enough, Townsend made it 4-0 with a rasping drive from outside the box, before Rooney’s chipped cross was turned into the net by an away defender. I had thought this was number 43 for Rooney, but clearly this will have to wait. It was a pity that the atmosphere petered out so much as this wore on, with hoardes of people walking out on 80 minutes, even earlier. I can’t fathom leaving a big game before the final whistle – the only time I do it is when I’m hurrying for a late train to get back. The running joke on the radio the next day was that Joe Hart – described as an ‘interested spectator’ – was man of the match, which probably summed up the game quite neatly. Still, this was three points, a welcome clean sheet and a confidence boost to one or two less well-deployed players. As I had a bus to catch at 1am, I opted to walk from Wembley to Victoria, making it there in plenty of time. I finally arrived through the door at 6.30am on Friday morning – it was definitely well worth it.