17th January20015: Bishop Auckland (a)

Not having had the joy of attending the 4-1 defeat at Consett in the snow, I was feeling optimism for today's clash with Bishop Aukland. Firstly they were in a similar position to ourselves in the league and secondly it was to be Paddy Atkinson's first home game in charge...with extra excited fans heading to the ground expectantly gearing themselves up for the Paddy-powered revolution.
Least that was in mine and The Boy Mark's minds as we proudly displayed our season tickets at the turnstile. The reality was slightly different as the 256 crowd demonstrated that, once again, Whitley's residents failed to share our excitement.
We did feel optimistic as we walked past the figure who we thought was Paddy leading a pre-match training session before explaining some tactical point to young Alex Kempster. He finished it off with the call that they had a few minutes to themselves to get themselves into the right frame of mind....sounded like sensible advice to us.

Pre-match warm-up and advice for Alex

It was nice to see the return of Craig Smith in the centre of defence but The Boy Mark was disappointed by the lack of a fancy team positioning sheet on the club Facebook and Twitter sites: only a photocopy of the team sheet was not good enough for him!
We had a new face in goal, apparently in from Benfield to give young Dan a rest (according to Doug in the club shop when I bought a new pen because I had forgotten to leave the match pen in my coat pocket. Using a club pen at the match had to have a positive effect, surely. Unfortunately the only concerning thing was that new boy Sean Korsbo was only third choice keeper...maybe Paddy knew something the rest of Benfield didn't.....?
At first it looked like the rest of Benfield knew something that rest of Benfield knew and Paddy didn't as the hapless Sean threw the ball into the path of a Bishops player. He managed to recover and the danger was passed however he was left totally exposed in the seventh minute as Bishops took the lead, a visiting forward bearing down on goal and slotting perfectly past Sean. It was at this point that our friend PT joined us, having earned enough brownie points from looking after his young family to enjoy an afternoon out with the lads. He certainly was pleased he made the effort!
After that Bishops picked up the pace and the Whitley defence were struggling to cope. Unfortunately as I looked down to make some notes with my shiny new pen something happened. None of our group of five had been paying enough attention to notice but the next thing we knew there was a big gaggle of players squaring up to each other. As a result, returnee Craig Smith's afternoon was over. An early bath or shower his destination.

At least it was sunny!

 Despite that, Whitley spent the half on the attack, knocking at the visiting door. However no matter how much they knocked there was no coming in. Watling had a few words with one of the visiting defenders who pushed him and I did hope that in Premiership tradition there would be a sending off to even things up but there was only a yellow.

Tragedy!

At half time there was need for some warming refreshment. Tragically, our favourite little hut which supplied our half time tipples was shut...we would have to brave the temptation of the chip and burger van...not good for three growing not-so-young lads!

Don't breath in those chippy smells PT!

Whitley started strongly in the second half, having replaced the angry Watling with McMullen, but just over five minutes into the half, Bishops doubled their lead . Although the effervescent Robbie Birdie worked hard there was to be no luck and a few minutes later the third goal zipped into the home net and I am sad to say Whitley's interest in the game seemed to evaporate. A further goal for Bishops rubbed Bay noses in it. Our group blamed the fact that we had been asked to swap ends at the start of the match so that the Bellend Choir, still without their bell, had to move to the allotment end of the ground in the second half: never a good omen.

Not a happy boy!

It had been a painful day of football for me. My daughter's team that I coach had lost a thriller 3-2, Whitley had lost in less thrilling circumstances and as I returned home to watch the second half of the game featuring my French favourites RC Lens which they eventually they lost 2-0 to Lyon. This had provided PT with his favourite moment of the afternoon when I celebrated what I thought had been a Lens goal but my understanding of the French radio commentary had let me down as I failed to hear that a Lens player had scored a goal, but it had been an own goal. Newcastle losing 2-1 to Southampton failed to register as the family preferred to watch BBC's the Musketeers. 

The boy Mark and I had discussed whether we would still get a season ticket next year and the answer was still a confident yes. If only for the banter amongst good company. Wasn't that what watching non league football should be about?

Today football sucked but things could only get better....couldn't they?