22nd July 2017 - New Mills

Whitley Bay FC‏ team v New Mills

Starting XI : Flynn, Glen-Ravenhill, A.Trialist, Wilkinson, Anderson, Charmey, C.Patton, Potter, Kempster, K.Patton, A.Trialist

SUBS : Hall, Haley, A.Trialist, Summers, Cunningham

It is always nice to see the Trialist family well represented at pre-season, despite the fact that none of them ever make it into the regular season team. I have a feeling that Mr and Mrs Trialist have one of the big houses on the sea front opposite the Links. Their house must be filled with a never-ending production line of average but not startling young footballers who once a year dream of making it onto the Mighty Bay team only to see their dream crushed as swiftly as it has blossomed.

I bet Mr and Mrs must have been feeling confident that one of Arnold, Anthony and Arthur Trialist would make the grade as two were in the starting line up while the younger sibling, Arthur was amongst the subs.
Walking around to the Allotment End, there was sadness and delight at seeing the newly named 'Tommy's Tea Hut'. Mrs Twitter had taken over the running but she scurried away, refusing to be in the photo, so it was left to James, who had been passing, to steal the glory. Tommy himself has not been well recently and though thankfully he is out of hospital, it is unlikely we will see behind the counter to serve us our cola bottles and hot chocolate or on a Saturday morning marshalling at the Bay's parkrun. I'm sure everyone would wish him a full recovery. This sign, IMHO, is a fitting recognition of the years of voluntary work he has put in. A heartfelt congratulations to Mrs Twitter who has certainly worked her socks off, both pairs, since taking over. Great job Julie!

The Boy Charlie's final game
before returning to Mexico.
Adios amigo.
Neil's first because of work.

Having been up to Newcastle to witness the cacophony of colour that is the Newcastle Pride festival, I was running late again. Mrs Bay-Blogger (hyphenated cos we is posh) dropped me at Hillheads on her way home; just in time to hear that i had once again missed the first goal of the game. This time it was Callum Patton doing the honours. The crowd was small, as was to be expected for a pre-season against a team that had been awarded the title "Worst team in England"

Manager Gary Brown said: "It gets the worst weather you can imagine. And it means we look forward to our away games because we just cannot get consistency. The people around us are fantastic, but the climate doesn’t help us. We have lots of games called off, a lot of pitch inspections. We often go weeks without a game because our pitch is so soggy. Local firm MANFLU has since stepped in to help the side with a sponsorship deal offering players supplies of their energy products.        

Source: Cavendish Press

The way that the Bay were setting about the task at hand against a team at a comparable level to themselves showed either that the visitors hadn't learnt from previous mistakes or the lads were brilliant. The lads were indeed playing some great stuff and fully deserved to be ahead. Just after half time, Mr and Mrs Trialist must have been beaming proudly as their little Arnold(or was it Anthony?) saw his cracking header superbly saved. Little Patton however was on hand to score. How proud the Patton family then must have been with their investment.

The scoring was rounded off by Thibault and the scoreline in no way flattered the Bay. They had played the best football, controlling the game in every area. Maybe A Trialist could return!

Next stop: Newcastle United U23s.