Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Football Bog Blog

During my travels this season there has been a lack of uniqueness in the bog department, many ground seem to have installed those portakabin-bog-on-wheels-type lavatories.
In spite of this many clubs have made the most of these temp netties, by putting their own stamp on the bogs, making them a bit more distinctive.


Bog#14 Christie Park - Morecambe.
This bog is a perfect example of a temporary toilet, with its scaffold hand rail and wooden plank walkway. This toilet is behind the Car Wash Terrace end of the ground and looks more likely to keel over if a gang of oversized pie munchers congregated together on one side.


Bog#15 Croft Park - Blyth
Compare this with the last picture at Morecambe, this is much better, painted in Spartans green and white, with a proper hand rail and metal pathway, this bog is found at the corner of the Plessey Road End terrace, a fine example of making the most of a bog cabin.

Bog#16 Haig Avenue - Southport
These toilets in the corner of the away terrace at Haig Avenue have also been painted in the club colours, which blends this bog block in with the rest of the ground, although it’s definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint to complement the sunshine yellow crash barriers.

Bog#17 Crown Ground - Accrington Stanley
This is a rarity for The Football Bog Blog - a Ladies toilet. These bogs at the Crown Ground’s away end, have a normal brick building for the Gents, but the ladies toilets have a portkabin added beside them. It’s as if no women went to watch football at the ground and toilets were nothing but an afterthought, added due to popular demand.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

My Matchday - 205 Easter Road

Hibernian 1v0 Heart of Midlothian
Scottish Premier League
14th March 2009

Hibernian FC became Scotland’s first major club of Irish birth in August 1875, formed by the local Irish population based at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Cowgate. The club name originates from Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland, their creation led to the outset of other Irish clubs, most notably another team in green and white based in Glasgow.
Hibs originally ground shared after their formation, playing at the Meadows, a park towards the south end of the city, until moving to Leith and the first Easter Road; Hibernian Park on Bothwell Street in 1880. The club had to disband in 1891 after losing their ground to developers as well as most of their squad to Celtic, until reforming two years later just a goal-kick away from their former home.
The new Easter Road opened in February 1893, later after the club won their first championship in 1903 they almost moved to a new ground in Piershill, until finally settling at Easter Road, signing a 25 year lease in 1922, this gave way for the first major building work, which including erecting a main stand and banking elevated on the other three sides.
The East Terrace was expanded after a record gate of 65,840 for the Edinburgh derby with Hearts in 1950 and four years later Hibs became one of the first clubs to erect corner floodlight pylons in contrast to the more popular roof-mounted style lights, which stood until being replaced in 1995.
Easter Road remained largely unchanged through the following decades, apart from a steel and concrete roof build on to the North Terrace in 1960 and later bench seats added in 1982, however Hibs became the first club in Scotland to install undersoil heating in 1980.
In 1985 the capacity was reduce to under 24,000 with the reduction of the East Terrace with a basic cover added, then by the end of the decade over a £1m was spent on essential improvements including six executive boxes added to the Main Stand.
Following the Taylor Report, the deadline for all-seater stadiums in the SPL was set for August 1994, this forced the club to install temporary seating on the South Terrace, bringing the capacity down to just 13,500, however by the end of the year plans were drawn up to increase the capacity with brand new stands behind each goal.


The North Stand and South Stands are similar in stature, steep with two sections of green seats with the top tiers curving inwards at a 45 degree angle in one corner. The North Stand is know as The Famous Five Stand and has a capacity of 3,864, with the South Stand which is designated for away supporters, slightly larger at 3,962. The stands exterior has large green tubular steel ties and cross braces, this with it’s white walls shows off the clubs colours.
The West Stand was build in 2001,it has a capacity of 6,500 and replaced the old Main Stand, this has two tiers of green seats with a section of dark grey seats located centrally at the top tier. The stand has a large perspex strip at the back and similar to the stands behind the goals, the sides are perspex walls, allowing plenty of natural light into the stadium.
The East Stand is now all seated with a capacity of 4,223, made up of 20 rows of bucket seats on concrete blocks, the stand has a green roof with the TV gantry perched on the top, there are plans afoot for future redevelopment of the east side of the stadium, which will complete the rebuilt Easter Road.


The game got off to a lively start with Hearts having the better of the early exchanges, however it was Hibs who had the first serious effort on goal, Riordan cut inside from the left flank before unleashing a right foot shot from over 30 yards out, smacking back off the corner of the crossbar.
Hibs took the lead in the 17th minute, a fine cross field pass from Rosa, found O’Brien with lots of space on the right wing, his cross was met by Fletcher, with what I would describe as a “shampoo effort” coming off head and shoulder, before looping over Balogh into the net.
As we approached half time Hibs had a golden chance to double their lead, a fine through ball found Fletcher with only the goalkeeper to beat, both players raced towards the loose ball with the striker winning the race only to be cynically fouled by the keeper, which resulted in a red card for Balogh. The extra man advantage lasted only a matter of minutes, a reckless tackle on Nade by Bamba in stoppage time meant we went into the break with 10-a-side.
The second half was finally balanced and the result could have gone either way. Hibs had chances to double their lead with efforts from Hogg and a gold gilded chance for Fletcher, who was clean through with only the goalkeeper to beat, however he didn’t produce a Torres type finish, instead it was an Ameobi like effort, as sub McDonald produced a fine save to keep Hearts in the game.
Hearts went all out for an equaliser in the closing stages, Nade almost did the trick but saw his header come back off the crossbar, apart from that effort the Hibs defence held firm, with Szamotulski not troubled and Rob Jones commanding at the back.
The final whistle was greeted with celebration and relieve, as the green and white side of Edinburgh celebrated victory and reclaimed local bragging rights, the hostilities are due to get back under way at Tynecastle at the end of the season, but first Hibs have to hang on to their top six position before the end of season split


I arrived in Edinburgh at 1130, arranging to watch the game with 100FGC squad#81 Jamie McQueen. The game was a 12.30k.o. so we headed straight to the stadium, taking a look around the perimeter of the ground and savouring the pre-match atmosphere.
The match was a typical derby, full of incident and passion and I enjoyed the occasion. We had seats in the East Stand, seats that weren’t used for your backside but for your feet, as everyone stood up on their seat to sing throughout the game. I found myself amongst a cauldron of hate, as you would imagine Hibs aren’t too fussed on Hearts, and just like any other derby match, the Hibees fans made their feelings known towards their bitter rivals. Amongst all the animosity, the only bit of love I witnessed in the East Stand was in the interior roof, where two pigeons were celebrating the mating season taking part in a bit of the old ‘in-out-in-out!’ before flying off across the field and out of the stadium.
After all these years I’m pleased to have finally visited ‘The Leith San Siro’ it seems that whenever I’m in the Scottish capital, Hibs are always playing away from home. Last season I made an attempt to finally complete my ‘tick’ only to find that their SPL clash with Gretna postponed on arrival at the ground, which meant having to spend the afternoon in many of the city’s pubs. (every cloud and that!)
After that disappointment I vowed not to return to Easter Road unless I could do an Edinburgh double, pairing Hibs with an East of Scotland League match. There was three viable options to choose from, Tynecastle FC and Leith Athletic were both at home, but I decided on one of the Kings Cup 2nd Round ties, so after the Edinburgh Derby, Jamie and I legged it to his car and drove over to the west end of town to Saughton Enclosure, the home of Lothian Thistle.


Matchday Stats
Hibs 1(Fletcher 14) Hearts 0
Att. 15091
Admission £27.50
Programme £2.50



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My Matchday - 206 Saughton Enclosure

Lothian Thistle 4v1 Eyemouth United
Kings Cup Round 2
14th March 2009

Lothian Thistle are based in the west end of Edinburgh, about a mile away from Hearts’ Tynecastle and within view of Murrayfield Stadium.
The club this year celebrate its 40th birthday, originally formed by the employees of Lloyds Finance, playing in the lower reaches of the Lothian Amateur League.
In 1970 the team’s gaffer and club founder Tom Allison left the company but wasn’t allowed to carry on his role at the football club. He reforming the club, taking the players from the Lloyd & Scottish team and amalgamating with Wardie FC to become Lothian Thistle FC.
Over those forty years the club have made great progress, through the 1980’s they had huge success winning honours in league and cup almost every season including the East of Scotland Amateur Cup in 1987. More trophies were added the following decade in the Caledonian League until the club were successful in their application to the East of Scotland League in 1995.
In 1996-97 Thistle gained promotion winning the Division One title, and doing the double, winning the East of Scotland ‘Image Printer’ Qualifying Cup. Recent years has seen the club maintain there position in the EoS Premier League, with success in the Alex Jack Cup, a trophy they’ve won four times over the last eight years.
In 1999 the club left there previous home at Campbell Park in Colinton, moving to the Saughton Enclosure. The ground is enclosed with a running track and perimeter fence, with ten bean pole floodlights around the grass banking. The changing rooms are set back behind the far goal, which have been upgraded to SFA standards, meaning the ground can host Scottish Cup ties, the complex also has nearby all weather 5-a-side pitches.
The game I attended was a 2nd Round Kings Cup tie against Eyemouth, a trophy Lothian Thistle won once before in 2004. The conditions were bright sunshine but with a strong wind, which played a crucial part in the games outcome.
Lothian had the wind advantage in the first half but fell behind to a goal from Crawford on 27 minutes, a good left wing cross set up an easy finish for the number nine, who was a wee bit over the top with his celebration, with one of the half dozen Eyemouth fans running towards him to give him a kiss and a cuddle.
That lead lasted only eight minutes, the equaliser arrived when Eyemouth’s keeper pulled off a tremendous point blank save, knocking a close range effort on to the cross bar, but Lothian(well named) was on hand to net the rebound. That goal arrived on 35 minutes and by half time it was 4-1, with Thistle using the wind advantage, scoring with each attack as Eyemouth seemed to be locked inside their own half.
Goals from Black with the aid of a deflection, Lothian netted his second, on hand after the keeper parried the initial shot, then the best goal of the lot, a pot shot from McAleavy which flew into the far corner, meant the home side had booked their place in the next round of the Kings Cup by half time.
There was no goals added to the tally in the second half, Eyemouth failed to make the wind advantage count, while the home side defended well and had chances to increase their lead on the break, so overall an enjoyable game and personally a good fixture choice.



After leaving Easter Road at almost 2.30pm we overcame many obstacles to finally arrive at the Saughton Enclosure by 2.50pm, thankfully the players were kind enough to not bother making a start on the goal scoring until we arrived, the game had kicked off five minutes late, so we actually only missed the first fifteen minutes.
Admission money was taking but an old fellow at the gate, who struggled to understand a word I said, you would think the Geordie accent would be easy to comprehend from our Scottish neighbours, the fact being that Scotsman are basically Geordies anyway, but with their brains knocked out!
After the game we headed back to the city centre, Jamie parked his car back home, then we headed to the Guilford Arms for a couple of pints (Stewards 80 shilling and Edinburgh no.3) which was choccablock with egg chasing fans watching the Rugby Union international between Scotland and Ireland, which kicked off at 5pm.
I boarded the 1730 back to Newcastle, content on a successful trip, visiting two new grounds at both SPL and Non-League level, a good mixture of seeing football at opposite ends of the scale, an excellent day out in the Scottish capital, mission accomplished - my Edinburgh double complete.



Matchday Stats
Lothian Thistle 4(Lothian 35,40 Black 38 McAleavy 43) Eyemouth 1(Crawford 35)
Att. 18 (HC)
Admission £4 Programme:none

Sunday, March 8, 2009

My Matchday - 204 Haig Avenue

Southport 2v3 Gateshead
Conference North
7th March 2009
Southport is historically a part of Lancashire, a seaside town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside. The resort is located on the coast of the Irish Sea and possesses the second longest pleasure pier in Britain, as well as the picturesque shopping area on Lord Street, which was once the home of Napoleon III of France.
Originally a rugby club, football was formed in 1881 as Southport Central, originally playing at the Sussex Sports Ground for three years before moving to Scarisbrick End Road. In 1889 they became founder members of the Lancashire League, winning the title in 1902-03. The following season they joined the newly formed Lancashire Combination, winning it’s Second Division, before again becoming founder members of another new league - the Central League in 1911.
The club had a brief name change, becoming Southport Vulcan in 1918, one of the first known clubs to have a sponsored name after being bought by the Vulcan Motor Company.
Southport played in the Football League from the formation of Division Three North in 1921 until narrowly losing out to Wigan Athletic when applying for re-election in 1978. During their Football League years the club were placed in Division Four in 1958-59, twice winning promotion to Division Three, peaking at 8th position in 1968-69. Their second relegation came in 1973-74, then within four years their League career which spanned over fifty seasons was over, it was third time unlucky in the re-election stakes, after finishing 23rd three seasons running.
The Sandgrounders swapped places with Wigan, dropping into the Northern Premier League, which they won in 1992-93. Ten seasons in the Conference ended with relegation back to the NPL, but the following year the reconstruction of the pyramid placed them in the Conference North, becoming the very first league champions in 2004-05.
Last season Southport found themselves back in the Conference North, relegated after only two seasons in the Conference, missing out on an instant return after losing in the play offs to Stalybridge Celtic on penalties. This season they’re currently in the play-off positions, battling for the title with Tamworth, AFC Telford and of course current leaders Gateshead.

In 1905 Southport moved from Scarisbrick New Road, taking with them the grandstand which had originally been purchased from the Southport Flower Show, and re-erecting it at there new home at Ash Lane. In 1921 the stand was extended to a 2,000 capacity, with a wooden covered terrace also added at the opposite side, the same year the ground took its name from Earl Haig, now officially known as Haig Avenue.
The small wooden cover was replaced after two years, but lasted only five years after suffering extensive damage due to a gale, work continued with stands added at the Scarisbrick Road End, Blowick End, and more shelter added which eventually gave cover to 12,000 customers. In 1932 Haig Avenue hosted that seasons eventual cup winners, the mighty Newcastle United, which saw a record crowd of 20,010 for an FA Cup Fourth Round Replay.
In 1966 the original stand was burned down, the day after a Boxing Day clash with Wrexham in 1966, replaced 2 years later by the current Grandstand. The terraces were closed in the 1970’s and replaced when the clubs fortunes turned around in the 1990’s. New terracing was added to the Popular Side and the Blowick End, with a new covered terrace at the Scarisbrick Road End, later further extension work took the ground to its current capacity of just over 6,000.
The Grandstand is a cantilever structure, with a capacity of 1,184 light blue flip seats, there’s stairway access and toilets situated at the side of the stand, flagged by two thin floodlight pylons with extra lights on the roof of the stand.
The Jack Carr Stand has a very smart appearance, named in honour of the club’s former president, it sits parallel with the 18 yard box, its yellow frame has the stands name along the roof’s frontage.
The other two sides are uncovered terracing, the Blowich End is the away section, the Popular Side has four floodlight pylons which were installed in 1961, both sections have yellow and black crash barriers which make an otherwise boring section of terracing more pleasing on the eye.
When it comes to seeing your team win football matches, winning games can fall into different categories, you could enjoy; good hidings, routine wins, scrappy wins, jammy wins and best of all - famous victories. Today’s game doesn’t fall into any of those categories, it’s one of those “ Can’t believe we’ve won because I thought we were dead and buried” type games, as that was my post match reaction after a pulsating ninety minutes.
The opening half was quite tense with not many clear cut chances, Gateshead keeping it tight, playing a 4-5-1 system, packing the midfield and stifling any threat from the home side, that was until the 38th minute, when Michael Powell who appeared to be offside, had the easy task of tapping in from 6yds out, with the Gateshead defence making the mistake of not playing to the referee’s whistle.
The introduction of Graeme Armstrong at the start of the second half saw Gateshead revert to their usual 4-4-2, it was his superb cross which set up Lee Novak at the far post to nod home the equaliser on 66 minutes.
Southport regained the lead on 72 minutes, when a long throw in was headed clear falling to Steve Daly on the edge of the box, his sweeping first time shot beating Provett at his right hand post.
As we approached the final quarter of an hour, I felt Southport had taking the three points, they were looking stronger and nothing seemed to be coming off for The Tynesiders, but then with ten minutes remaining the turning point of the game. Armstrong was brought down on what looked like the edge of the box, however the referee disagreed, pointing to the spot, much to the annoyance to the Southport players with Davis booked for the foul and Lee for protesting about the decision.
Novak made no mistake with the penalty(see picture) and with the bit between their teeth the Heed went all out for a winner, which arrived with four minutes left on the clock. A defensive mistake from Lee let in Wayne Phillips, who let the ball bounce in front of him before unleashing a ferocious volley which gave the keeper no chance. My reaction to the goal was…well …I just went totally potty! I cannot recollect the last time I greeted a goal with such delight and uncontrollable fervour.
As I‘ve mentioned, I thought we were down and out, but we somehow managed to wrestle a victory from the jaws of defeat! The final whistle was greeted with jubilant celebration on the Blowich End Terrace, a fantastic win and a truly great day for the Heed Army!
When the scheduled matches in the Conference North were published in the summer, Southport(away) was one of the first fixture I looked for, being a ground I wanted to ‘tick’ and town I’ve never visited. Little did I know, or expect, that by the time this match came around, it would turn out to be such a crucial game at the top of the table, a preverbal ‘six-pointer’ as football clichés go.
Like quite a few of the Heed Army, I had planned to visit Southport for the weekend, taking the rest of the Smudger’s with me, however finances dictated otherwise, instead I travelled by “executive” Mini- bus, departing from the Civic Centre at 9.30am.
An accident earlier that morning on the A1, meant a large section of the motorway was closed. putting an extra hour onto our journey, meaning a later than expected arrival time of 1.30pm. We then headed straight to Lord Street, which was a good mile away, a twenty minute walk from the ground. We found the rest of the lads in the Willow Grove pub, where we made up for lost time, supping four swift pints before jumping a very cheap taxi back to Haig Avenue at 2.30pm.
I arrived at the ground and called into the club shop, then the Grandstand Bar, being at the right place at the right time, handed an unwanted fresh pint of John Smiths, which I gratefully accepted from Dave Curtis.
We arranged a departure time of 5.30pm, so after the game we returned to the bar, where there was real ale on offer - Southport Grandstand Gold - which wasn’t a bad pint. I also called back into the club shop to seek out 100FGC squad #42 Rob Urwin. I found Rob’s breadknife Julia in the shop and she managed to locate her hubby, who looked totally gutted with the result, admittedly conceding the title to Gateshead and confessing that Southport’s title credentials are almost gone.
Special thanks to Rob for giving myself and the website a mention in his ‘From the Editor’ section of the match programme, as well as asking me for a contribution, with my article appearing in the ‘A View From The Other Side’ section of the magazine, I even autographed a copy on the way home!
This win kept Gateshead at the top of the pack, extending the lead over Southport to 12 points although The Sandgrounders still have five games in hand. I’ve mentioned how winning games can be categorised, on reflection I think this match can be tagged into the ‘famous victories’ envelope, because if Gateshead do go on and win the title this season, this excellent result will be looked upon as the definitive day of the season.



Matchday stats
Southport 2(Powell 38, Daly 72) Gateshead 3(Novak 66,81pen Phillips 86)
Att. 1301
Admission £11
Programme £2.50
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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My Matchday - 203 Throstle Nest

Farsley Celtic 0v1 Gateshead
Conference North
3rd March 2009
Farsley Celtic play at Throstle Nest, near the market town of Pudsey in West Yorkshire, situated between two major cities - Leeds and Bradford, and is part of the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds.
The club was founded in 1908, playing in local leagues within the Leeds area. They originally played on the Rec at Red Lane, the ground had no changing rooms so the players using the Bay Horse pub in the village before walking to the ground.
After the Second World War the club played at Calveley Lane, then in 1948 purchased land on the site of a former council tip, playing their first game at Throstle Nest against Frickley Colliery on August 28, Celtic recording a 3-1 win.
They joined the Yorkshire League the following year, winning the Division Two title in only their second season. The Villagers won the first of their Yorkshire League Division One titles in 1959-60, but were unable to gain promotion due to ground criteria, a fate which was repeated after another championship season in 1968-69.
The Villagers have twice reached the FA Cup 1st Round, the first occasion was in 1974, when a crowd of 11,000 witnessed a 2-0 defeat to Tranmere Rovers at Elland Road, the funds from that cup run were invested in ground improvements, including the building of new dressing rooms.
In 1982 the club became founder members of the Northern Counties East League, finishing third followed by the Division One North title the following season, gaining promotion to it’s Premier League, until shifting over to the newly formed Northern Premier League - Division One in 1987-88.
The club have made rapid progress over recent years, in 2003-04 they won promotion to the Unibond Premier, then won the play-offs in their second season, beating North Ferriby United 2-1 (aet) in the 2006 final.
In 2006-07 back-to-back promotions was achieved, again via the play-off route, beating Hinckley 4-3 in the Conference North final, they also reached the FA Cup 1st Round for a second time, holding MK Dons to a goalless draw at the Throstle Nest, before getting knocked out in the replay 2-0.
Last season The Villagers took their place at the highest level of the non-League pyramid in what was their centenary season, unfortunately the club struggled to maintain their place in the Conference National, finishing third bottom, relegated along with Stafford Rangers and Droylsden.
The Throstle Nest is found within a private housing estate, a ten minute walk from Town Street, which is the main road that runs through the village. On arrival your greeted by a steward in the car park, who is very helpful but determined to get you into the clubhouse and not go back to the village. Once you’ve entered the turnstiles all the amenities are all found together to your immediate right. The clubhouse is quite spacious, split into two separate rooms. There’s a couple of portakabins used for club offices, a souvenir shop and toilet block, with a separate tea bar and also a barbeque area at the clubhouse entrance.
The main stand has six rows of blue wooden flip seats, with the changing rooms in a separate block beside it, in between a section of terracing. The Shed End is a covered terrace with a section of blue plastic flips seats with FC picked out in white (what about the other FC?) directly behind the goal, added to bring the overall seating capacity to 400. The rest of the ground is open with a section of raised terracing at the far side next to the dugouts, there’s also large nets to stop the ball going out of the ground, but somehow the ball always seemed to squeeze through the small gap and over the boundary fence.

I text a few mates at half time and my summing up of the first half was; cold, damp, windy and goalless. The opening half producing very little excitement with neither keeper tested as the conditions and heavy pitch limited the chance of any decent football. The second half started with Gateshead going all guns blazing, Farsley keeper Aspden making several great saves, especially the one that denied Jones from close range. The Celtic defence finally caved in after nine minutes, although the goal had a touch of fortune about it, right-back Baxter’s effort from 20 yards took a slight deflection spinning the ball out of the reach of Aspden into the top right hand corner of the net. Gateshead had chances to extent their lead, while Farsley improved, looking more dangerous as the game progressed, however this was a typical grinded out result, that a team at the top of any league produce, not playing great but doing enough to win the game - job done!

This was my second visit to the Throstle Nest this season, the originally scheduled fixture on December 6th was a late victim of the weather, ridiculously postponed at 2pm due to frost. This was without doubt my worst Saturday of this season, our mode of transport can only be described as a prison bus, which seemed to struggle to go over 45mph, which turned a short 90 odd mile trip into a nightmare journey.
After finally arriving in Farsley the driver took a wrong turning before approaching the village, finding ourselves in a steep residential street which was bumper to bumper with parked cars. The bus somehow got stuck, unable to move forward or reverse, meaning some of the lads had to get off the bus and adjust wing mirrors and knock on doors to get cars moved.
The highlight of the day was the 45 minutes or so we spent visiting three of the pubs in the village, particularly ‘The New Inn’ which served a gorgeous cask conditioned pint of John Smith’s. It was here when Captain Carter rang me at 2.20pm, with the news the match was off and we were heading home at 3 o’clock. We headed back up the A1, naturally pissed off and to make matters worse our short journey home took nearly three and a half hours, I don’t know how, but it did!
This time it wasn’t a prison bus but a mini-bus, ten of us left from the Civic Centre just after 4pm, with a more realistic journey time of just over two hours. On arrival I again revisited ‘The New Inn’ meeting up with some of the rest of the Heed Army, before heading to the ground’s clubhouse.
The backing from the Heed Army spurred the team on in the second half, we had a good sing-song, with “pogo if you love the Heed” keeping us warm on a freezing night. The night was made perfect with the news that Tamworth and Southport had drawn 1-1, the ideal result for Gateshead at the top of the Conference North.
I cadged a lift off General Gaddess back home, with Captain Carter and Private Clifton (aka Capt. Morgan, coz he likes his rum) and we analysed the remaining games this season and what may lie in store in the promotion race. After my matchday at Burscough I commented on Gateshead being top, with the consensus being we’ll just enjoy it because it may not last, but since then we’ve remained at number one in the Blue Square North chart.
There are ten games remaining, ten cup finals left, the first of those cup finals being maybe the biggest game of all this Saturday, where myself and a large Heed Army contingent will be at Haig Avenue, Southport, in what should be a cracking game and occasion, I for one, can’t wait.


Matchday stats
Celtic 0 Heed 1(Baxter 54)
Att. 198
Admission £10
Programme £2


Ground no.203 Throstle Nest - Matchday Web album(16 pictures including 6 from original scheduled date)
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