Post by another_ruined_saturday on Apr 15, 2014 23:38:07 GMT
i'm struggling to think of something good enough too. in the meantime, i give you:
alfreton town
a bit boringly on topic, but there you go.
i've seen county at comfortably over a hundred grounds, maybe a hundred and twenty. i can probably count on the fingers of one hand however the times i've bothered to go and watch us at the home of a non-league club in a pre-season friendly. halifax a couple of times; i've seen two friendlies at the moss rose before macc got into the league; a slightly more esoteric nostell miners welfare.
*edit* just noticed that if i add the above and alfreton below together, i've apparently got six fingers on one hand...
and alfreton. i don't generally bother with the local ones peppering our pre-seasons - not living in or particularly near stockport, they seem like too much of a stretch to watch a scratch squad of the four players we've actually retained, our new signings from myerscough college and half a dozen trialists. in the summer of 2005 though, i went to alfreton. couldn't find it. came off the motorway in the hinterland between chesterfield and derby and turned the wrong way, spending half an hour trying to find the landmarks my brother (who i was meeting at the game) had told me about. unlikely, as i was in somercotes rather than alfreton. after no little consternation, i got there in the end.
a proper old, rickety non-league ground on a summer evening...ahhhh...one down at half time, and we went and stood by the dugouts for the second half having experienced one of our first non-league clubhouses (now a bi-weekly event). chris turner and his assistant colin west were muttering disparaging comments about chris williams, our number one shaved ginger winger. they were absolutely right - he'd do something exciting in the build up, but then fail with the final ball. a proto-moke if you will. and then michael malcolm came on, and looked as though he might have an exciting future in the game. maybe at werder bremen, or somewhere like that. our new hero pretty much won us the game on his own, and it reminded me why going to friendlies can be a good thing - you get an early glimpse of next season's talent, and that early glimpse is almost always proven right. mansour assoumani looked good even before the start of the season proper after all, and kristian dennis looked like marco van basten about eight months ago.
not a bad evening, and i distinctly remember thinking that i kind of liked the rustic charms of alfreton, but that we would never play them again unless they had a decent little cup run. under seven years later and i stood with the incredulous county support as alfreton savaged us, as league equals, in as one-sided a first half as i've ever seen. sorry fudge, but that's why i have a problem with euan holden. their players flitted down the county left all half, around and through holden like he was incorporeal. i've half blotted it out, but i think it was 4-0 at half time; and definitely 6-1 at the final whistle. for a side we'd never play, we didn't half make them look good.
and on a year. an unusually spirited performance saw us come from behind to lead 3-2, and although alfreton missed a glorious late chance with a header right in front of us, we held on to win. we were staying up, surely. that was a close one, but was the toughest looking fixture until the final day at kidderminster. i came out of there elated, which in itself shows how far county have fallen. and then we capitulated at home to braintree the following saturday and suddenly found ourselves needing snookers.
alfreton town. a name that brings home to me more than any other what county means in 2014, and what it didn't in 2005. come on - this was a club that we'd smashed courtesy of michael malcolm, for crying out loud. alfreton town. they sit eighth in the skrill conference, a division and a heady thirty-one places above county as of the current tables. stockport county. alfreton town. 2005. 2014. a litany of mistakes in between.
alfreton town
a bit boringly on topic, but there you go.
i've seen county at comfortably over a hundred grounds, maybe a hundred and twenty. i can probably count on the fingers of one hand however the times i've bothered to go and watch us at the home of a non-league club in a pre-season friendly. halifax a couple of times; i've seen two friendlies at the moss rose before macc got into the league; a slightly more esoteric nostell miners welfare.
*edit* just noticed that if i add the above and alfreton below together, i've apparently got six fingers on one hand...
and alfreton. i don't generally bother with the local ones peppering our pre-seasons - not living in or particularly near stockport, they seem like too much of a stretch to watch a scratch squad of the four players we've actually retained, our new signings from myerscough college and half a dozen trialists. in the summer of 2005 though, i went to alfreton. couldn't find it. came off the motorway in the hinterland between chesterfield and derby and turned the wrong way, spending half an hour trying to find the landmarks my brother (who i was meeting at the game) had told me about. unlikely, as i was in somercotes rather than alfreton. after no little consternation, i got there in the end.
a proper old, rickety non-league ground on a summer evening...ahhhh...one down at half time, and we went and stood by the dugouts for the second half having experienced one of our first non-league clubhouses (now a bi-weekly event). chris turner and his assistant colin west were muttering disparaging comments about chris williams, our number one shaved ginger winger. they were absolutely right - he'd do something exciting in the build up, but then fail with the final ball. a proto-moke if you will. and then michael malcolm came on, and looked as though he might have an exciting future in the game. maybe at werder bremen, or somewhere like that. our new hero pretty much won us the game on his own, and it reminded me why going to friendlies can be a good thing - you get an early glimpse of next season's talent, and that early glimpse is almost always proven right. mansour assoumani looked good even before the start of the season proper after all, and kristian dennis looked like marco van basten about eight months ago.
not a bad evening, and i distinctly remember thinking that i kind of liked the rustic charms of alfreton, but that we would never play them again unless they had a decent little cup run. under seven years later and i stood with the incredulous county support as alfreton savaged us, as league equals, in as one-sided a first half as i've ever seen. sorry fudge, but that's why i have a problem with euan holden. their players flitted down the county left all half, around and through holden like he was incorporeal. i've half blotted it out, but i think it was 4-0 at half time; and definitely 6-1 at the final whistle. for a side we'd never play, we didn't half make them look good.
and on a year. an unusually spirited performance saw us come from behind to lead 3-2, and although alfreton missed a glorious late chance with a header right in front of us, we held on to win. we were staying up, surely. that was a close one, but was the toughest looking fixture until the final day at kidderminster. i came out of there elated, which in itself shows how far county have fallen. and then we capitulated at home to braintree the following saturday and suddenly found ourselves needing snookers.
alfreton town. a name that brings home to me more than any other what county means in 2014, and what it didn't in 2005. come on - this was a club that we'd smashed courtesy of michael malcolm, for crying out loud. alfreton town. they sit eighth in the skrill conference, a division and a heady thirty-one places above county as of the current tables. stockport county. alfreton town. 2005. 2014. a litany of mistakes in between.