There must come a point when any rational person can justifiably question my sanity in regards to the lengths I’ll go to watch football. Never mind the grassroots game; I’ve been involving myself with the subterranean ecosystem of local football of late. Saturday 11th February 2012 may well prove to be my personal tipping point, as I voluntarily took in High Howdon Social Club v West Jesmond in Division 1 of the Tyneside Amateur League, watching the game on 4G astroturf at Burnside High School through two sets of fences from the adjoining cycle path at the very edge of Wallsend. To explain, the Tyneside Amateur League is one of 3 feeder leagues below the Northern Alliance Division 2; the other leagues being the Corinthian League and the North Northumberland League. Division 1 is a Step 14 league and Division 2 is a Step 15 league; it is a long way from the Premier.....
It had been a strange week for football; the cold snap that had caused a white-out the weekend before of all non-league football on the Saturday meant, after fruitless cycle journeys to North Shields Athletic v Wallsend Boys Club and Willington Quay Saints v Heddon, left me with no option but to watch Stoke v the mackems through the computer. It was football, but not as we know it; certainly it’s the only game I’ve ever seen involving a towel substitution, occasioned by Delap’s insistence on dry linen to help his gauche chucking.
While Newcastle’s victory over Villa on the Sunday had put me in a great mood (see last week’s blog), the chaotic events surrounding Redknapp’s acquittal, with the attendant nonsense on line from those who fail to grasp the concept of trial by jury as an essential cornerstone of the British judicial system, that saw him installed as the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Capello 8 hours before Capello quit, left me struggling to keep up with the pace of unfolding events. By tea time Capello, a surly and unapologetic xenophobe, had departed an England job he ought to have been relieved of after the 2010 World Cup disaster (I say that as an Ireland fan who’d support a Taleban XI against England). It is hard not to be cynical and assume that Capello had planned this exit strategy to avoid his CV including another major tournament disaster at Euro 2012. That said, he probably does think John Terry has been badly treated, but in terms of who takes England to a shabby exit in the group stages, that is almost coincidental. Obviously the press want Redknapp, so if he gets the gig, they’re happy, Harry’s happy and Capello, with a large pay-off, is happy too. The only problem is Stuart Pearce, with his self-confessed sin of racially abusing Paul Ince in 94 back in the public eye, is the current caretaker. That bodes well for attacking football doesn’t it?
Mind, the Capello and Redknapp pantomime did have the effect of deflecting attention from the conduct of the mackems on the train to Burragh for their cup replay, smashing up a carriage, putting a window through and assaulting 2 Network Rail workers. You reap what you sow; when Quinn indulged the idiots who ran amok in Bristol airport a few years back, with free taxis home and a carte blanche to act the chap in public, he set a dangerous, predictably populist precedent. It’s Martin O’Neill I feel sorry for; a decent, principled man, he may not have known what he was letting himself in for when taking over at that club.
Anyway, aside from the national team’s privations and regional rampaging, there was also the latest outpouring from Suarez and Dalglish. Regardless of Sunday’s apology, in which Suarez doesn’t show anything resembling contrition for his actions towards Evra, Liverpool have plumbed even further depths by not suspending and transfer listing Suarez. I don’t think I’m the only person who felt a rush of pride and elation seeing Evra milking the applause at Old Trafford at full time. Fair play to him; I just wish he’d tried to shake Suarez’s hand at full time!
Obviously, the Old Trafford events were taking place as I cycled to Burnside. Having had my over 40s game called off on Friday night, the Percy Main trip to Murton on Saturday morning and nearly all other games by lunch time, the only hopes I had for live football were North Shields Town v Lindisfarne Athletic in the Tyneside Amateur League Shield at Heaton Terrace, or the High Howdon game. My preference was for North Shields Town as they are run by a former student of mine, but Tony tweeted me at 1 to say the referee had called the game off, leaving only the High Howdon v West Jesmond fixture.
Any sensible person may well have opted for the mackems v Arsenal via the net or in the pub as part of a 3 game bender with Spurs versus Newcastle later on, or even a watching brief via RTE as the Irish football season began with the opening round of the 2012 Setanta Cup first leg games (Bray 2 Glentoran 4 and Distillery 0 Derry 4 incidentally), but there’ll be plenty more of that later on when I get in to my stride with the Airtricity League starting on March 2nd. Consequently, it had to be High Howdon against West Jesmond, especially after the Tyneside Amateur League press officer had tweeted me an invite.
I wrapped up warm and cycled down there, arriving at 2.55, just as a training game between Morpeth Town and Blyth Spartans, which ended up as either 1-7 or 0-9 depending on who you asked, had finished. The assembled crowd for the main events, not including substitutes and club officials was 16, though several dog walkers, cyclists, shoppers and so on came wandering past, including at one point Mick Tait, the former Hartlepool legend and most recently Blyth Spartans manager, who had been at Gateshead versus bath City, when it was called off 20 minutes before kick-off. However, I mainly spent my time in the company of Paul Mosley, a local referee and the aforementioned Tyneside Amateur League Press Officer. What a sound young gentleman he is as well!!
As regards the game, well second placed West Jesmond looked 3 inches taller and 5 years older on average than High Howdon and simply destroyed the opposition. They needed a good win, as their rivals at the top Walker Central Reserves had won the only other game to take place that day, 7-1 against Grainger Park Boys Club at Newburn Leisure Centre, though such a score line was positively modest compared to what we saw. Here’s how I called it on Twitter -:
- No score yet, but Jesmond on top
- As I say that West Jesmond go 1-0 up with a delightful finish
- 1-1. West Jesmond keeper embarrassed at his near post
- High Howdon 1 West Jesmond 2. Great strike from 25 yards
- Pelanty! West Jesmond lead 3-1
- Horrific defending. West Jesmond 4-1 up
- 1-5. Looking forward to the match report in Whitley Grauniad by @posley88
- 1-6. Horrible own goal
- 1-7. Jesus! I would have saved that one. In fact my nana would & she's been dead since 87
- 2-7. Even worse keeping
- 2-8 with 15 to go
- 2-9 now. Make that 2-10
- 2-11
- Full time High Howdon 2 West Jesmond 11. I'm frozen
It was 1-4 at half time and became a total rout as time more on. Mind the West Jesmond keeper made two appalling ricks to concede the goals Howdon scored. The game ended at 16.48, requiring me to bomb it down to the Coast on the bike to watch the Spurs v Newcastle game in the Stuffed Dog in Tynemouth; I was only partially successful as it was 3-0 by the time I turned up, but at least I did show up, unlike NUFC’s defence and midfield. Still, fair play to Pardew; he certainly managed to rule himself out of the England reckoning with this display!
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