26th October 2016 - Morpeth (a) TG Senior Cup -1

End of an era (again)

This was supposed to be a run-of-the mill we-got-knocked-out-of-the-cup-at-the-first-round-of-asking type of blog but events that followed the mild evening in Northumberland have over-shadowed that.
It was a packed car that set off for the big Cup game game with The Boy Mark driving myself, Mr Twitter (kicked out by his poorly wife to stop him moping around the house- get well soon Mrs Twitter) and Coventry Neil (who'd just managed to get away from dropping his cats off for their injections) into the pleasant evening.
There was the walk through the dark from the car park to the ground which will probably be immensely amusing in the middle of winter.
This was followed by the following highlights:

Morpeth dog with his own knitted scarf.

A nice dog-walking area behind the goal!

A pleasant drink in the welcoming club house:
Alas Smith and Jones anyone?
Defo for the older readers ie all of you.

Pleasant set of conifers (IMHO) - not cut down in any way!

The match itself went like this:

Chronicle!
Ooops we scored while you were selling that paper.

We were re-acquainted with Mr Chronicle Seller (formerly at Ashington: Karl Dryden) which is always a pleasure even though he never appears to appreciate our mimicking of his nonsensical calls. Kempster came up with the worst corner in history that almost went out for a throw-in on the half-way line.

Morpeth battered the Bay but amazingly going into half time we were 1-0 up thanks to Kempster's  skillful threading of the ball throw Dryden's legs. Bless him he was not amused.

Josh Nearney was flinging himself left right and centre again to keep out a Morpeth strike force that included our old favourite Paul 'don't expect me to pass' Robinson. It was also nice to see Chris 'It's my new team and I'll moan if I want to' Reid. True to form Robo shot from distance (very accurately) and Reid was dominant at the back (mostly) but moaned a lot to the ref. Happy days.

Just as we set off to beat the queue for a tasty pie, Morpeth were level. 

The second half was more one-way traffic but Whitley were looking considerably more tired and Morpeth were 3-1 heading into the closing minutes. Most of the game had been spent looking into the distance with the occasional foray nearer Karl D's goal...very occasional. 

However on 90 minutes there was delight as Callum Patton's free kick nestled into KD's left hand post. It was however too little too late and yet again we were out of the cup. 

On the way out, I was consoled by my Morpeth-supporting mate and his daughter but as I told him, the best team had won so there were no hard feelings....as if! We were miserable heading back but none of the talk centred on Chan losing his job. Okay so putting Callum Anderson up front to partner Shanksy might not have been a master stroke but what other options did we have? We were struggling. I won't mention who was moaning about missing the Bake-Off final for that.

It was a real shock when I found out that Chan had been sacked. Yes, we'd lost the last two against top three teams away from home but it had only been by one goal each time. However, before that there had been a winning run that had seen us also beat top boys Newton Aycliffe and Marske. With the smallest squad for a long time the Bay legend that is Ian Chandler had performed the equivalent of Moses parting the Red Sea. Remember what it had been like BC (Before Chan)? We'll soon remember when Mr Happy-Go-Lucky Paddy returns to the Hillheads with his new lot of Terriers. 

I wonder if the decision to part company with Chan ran a bit like this:

"We have a  business consortium wanting to invest millions in the Bay! They want us to be bigger than North and South Shields combined!"

"Oooh, that sounds nice. Bring them in!"

"Unfortunately they want to bring in their own man....someone called Allardyce."

"Ooh is he called Sam?"

"Och! That's the man!"

"We'll be sad to see Ian go."

"True, but we'll tell him and his family can always come back!"

"That'll be splendid, I'm sure He'll understand."

"Of course he will...and we did just get knocked out of another cup..."

"True, I really wanted to go to St James' Park again this year."

"Me too!" Wiping tears from their eyes as Chan walks in.

Somehow, I have a feeling it didn't. Only time will tell. 

Allardyce? Moyes? 

Who could be coming? 

Hmmmmm!
So long Chan and thanks once again for more great memories...although not quite as record breaking as the last set of memories but still worth the ride.  You can sit down now! 

Haway the Bay!