On probably the only sunny day in October 2015, the Boy Mark and I were accompanied by his daughter to witness a fine 3-2 win for the Bay at the Wendy House in Seaham. It seemed like a good omen when I set off from home to attend the return fixture. The previous game the boys had dismantled Dunston and, for the first time in a while, I actually had high hopes for a Bay win. Okay, so I broke with tradition and imbibed an extra cup of tea from Tommy's Tea Tavern and there was the return of Sparky Kerr to deal with but I nevertheless still had high hopes! Better than that...when the multi-coloured hair of referee Helen Byrne set the game in motion: we were attacking our favourite allotment end in the first half! Three points sorted? As if! Sucker!
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| Corner time! |
It was all quite relaxed as the Bay's Twitterer and I tried to identify the team and formation, him more than me, my eyes couldn't see so well that far. The ball bounced backwards and forwards around the midfield with relatively little to upset the calm of the sunny Spring day. Maybe that was the problem, because the first shot of real note was David Palmer's header that beat returnee Tom Flynn, in place of the departed Jennison, to his top right hand corner. Seven minutes gone and the malaise hadn't disappeared. The lads fought back with some neat play but still created nothing to really test Lurch in the Seaham goal.
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| Made sense to me.... |
Just as I texted The Boy the score in his absence; lightning struck again. No idea what the goal looked like but now the Bay were 2-0 down. This aroused a previously silent group of four Seaham fans who roared their boys on with calls for more goals and a stepping up of their efforts. They themselves set off in the direction of the bar soon after: dedication!
It was also noticeable that Lurch in the visiting goal was taking longer on his goalkicks...much to the annoyance of the Bellenders.
The Boy Mark finally arrived and I would like to say that things improved but they didn't and it was only Flynn's finger-tip save that kept out a third goal.
Into the second half and although there was effort on both sides, there was little to shout about. In fact the mood at the Bellend was becoming quite aggressive as players were shouted at for making any mistake and the referee came in for abuse for being a woman. As a coach in the female game, it is always good to see more and more females coming into the game and if some of the 'fans of football' ever took the time to watch the women's game they would see how far it has come. Bronze medal in the women's world cup obviously passed them by! As for the players...they aren't paid millions and play for the love of the game so give them a break: and cheer them on a bit more!
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| Worried Boy! |
There was, rightly, outrage and concern however when a wayward shot sent the famous bell, of Bellend fame, flying but luckily it is made of sterner stuff and survived the tumble.
There was also, justifiable anger at the increasing amount of time Lurch was taking with his goalkicks. Despite this, the ref did nothing (finally booking him in the last second of the game). In this respect, the bloke calling him a Gonk was fully justified, although Lurch / Shaun lacked the wild hair, and questioning his potty-mouth was similarly justified.
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| Springtime relaxation? |
The only other highlight of the match was Barry's argument with our visiting Maltese Falcon, Mr Hall, over whether Seaham's Liam McBride was a Gibraltar international. The jury is still out on that one but the argument that it is true because Liam told him he was...just doesn't hold water with me.
The game ended with Lurch's booking and apart from the brief appearance of Chrissy Y, whose accurate passing created a number of chances, there was little to shout about. Shame, it was such a nice day until then!
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