Game 18 A throw back to the Dark Ages

A throw back to the dark depressing days of 1970’s football violence ruined what should have been a good cup tie between Lancaster City and Halifax

Shortly after Halifax had taken a 2nd minute lead through Renshaw trouble broke out at one end of the game, with no policing the ensuing mayhem lasted for a good 10 minutes.

Both teams were taken off by the referee and didn’t return for 25 minutes when the a police presence was at the ground.

Garner added a 2nd before half time and Gregory a third near the end of the game however any enjoyment ended with the fighting.

A truly depressing day

 

Lancaster City 0 FC Halifax Town 3 Att 646

Game 17 Not a good night

 

A damp night in Lancaster saw the home side lose their unbeaten home record with a lacklustre defeat against Durham City. After a quiet start City’s twice went close with the Durham keeper being found dodgy on crosses into the box.

Durham looked good on the break with a neat passing style and plenty of pace going forward

City nearly took the lead after clearing a Durham header from the goal line, they broke with speed and Meaney’s eye of the needle pass to Swarbrick resulted in a fine save by Durham’s keeper Winter.

Slightly against the run of play Durham took the lead when a through ball was intercepted by Marshall whose attempted clearance lobbed majestically over his own keeper to give the visitors the lead. (Lancaster C 0 Durham C 1)

Slowly Lancaster started to get the upper hand before half time although didn’t really looked like scoring.

A killer 2nd goal at the start of the second half knocked the stuffing out of the home side, there were shouts for a penalty for Lancaster which wasn’t given, Dowson received the ball in what looked like an offside position advanced towards goal and buried it past the keeper to score (0-2)

City huffed and puffed for the remainder of the match, had several free kicks on the edge of the box,one bringing a good save from Winter.

Finally another free kick gave City a glimmer of hope when Duggan bundled the ball home. (1-2) But it was not to be as Durham gained a deserved victory.

 

Lancaster City 1 Durham City 2 Att 202

 

Next up Lancaster City v FC Halifax Town in the F A Cup

Web of Intrigue

Not quite finished the job

 

Morecambe FC Not much space for fans

 

Scoreboard tells the tale

 

Lancashire could have gone top of the County Championship however chasing 258 was too stiff a target.

Not be needing this again this season

Democracy at the Village Hall

Oak before Ash

Every home should have one

On the line

 

A sign of the times

Mark Clement gets his piece ready

They think it's all over it is now

End of season argument after final whistle Alex Kenyon in blue Mossley sub in orange

Salt Mines of Wincham Part 1

Lancaster City v Belper Town @ Wincham Park, Wincham, Northwich

On a breezy but dry April night, the final of the Copa del Presidente took place at Witton Albions ground in the small Cheshire village of Wincham. It's a unique village as the areas other non league football team also play in the same village, both clubs having built newish grounds in this area of Cheshire.

218 turned up for the Final with about 130 from Lancaster, an extremely noisy support as well.
A turgid first 30 minutes with the ball being launched into the stratosphere on a regular basis, City looked the better side but there was precious little in the way of goalmouth action.
12 minutes before half time City took the lead with a goal which was not in keeping with the play that had gone before. Swarbrick found himself 25 yards from goal, decided to chip the ball over the keeper, the ball seemed to be drifting over the bar when at the last moment it dipped under the bar and into the net, cue mass celebration behind the goal. (Lanc 1 Belp 0)
City visibly relaxed and started to look dangerous every time they went forward. The single goal sepearted the sides at half time, Belper had not forced Fearon into a save.
Belper started quickly in the 2nd half finally having a couple of efforts on goal, but normal service was soon resumed and it wasn't long before City doubled their lead. Henry persistence on the right led to his cross being bundled home by Swarbrick. (City 2 Belp 0)
City were in total control, Belper began to get desperate with a few X rated tackles going in. One particular tackle led to a bit of a melee between the players but the situation was quickly calmed down by the officials.
City should have had a third when the Belper keeper Barcherini made a complete horlicks of throwing a ball out of his area, his throw only went 10 yards to Swarbrick who beat the keeper to the ball but then tried to be too clever and the keeper made up for his mistake.
Within a minute that chance didn't matter the ball arrived at Swarbrick's feet in front of goal, he picked his spot and scored his and City's third. (Lanc 3 Belp 0)

It was a case of playing out time Belper duly pulled one back from the penalty spot through Froggatt just as the cup with it's blue and white ribbons was being placed at the side of the pitch. (Lanc 3 Belp 1)

The final whistle brought a mini but good natured pitch invasion, Neil Marshall was presented the cup,not by the President but by his widow, the celebrations would have gone on all night but the hosts turned the lights out.

Belper Town 1 Lancaster City 3 Att 218

Lancaster City cruised to victory at Ossett Albion’s Dimple Wells ground, on a chilly Yorkshire afternoon the team from the Red Rose county simply outclassed and overwhelmed their hapless Yorkshire opponents.

City took the lead after 2 minutes when Johnson’s lob hit the bar, the ball fell to Rushden who centered from close range to Jonson who bundled the ball home. (Alb 0 city1)

It was all one way as City powered down the slope to pile on the pressure, a Kenyon free kick was well saved and other efforts went narrowly wide before Duggan bravely headed home from close range. (Alb 0 City 2)

On the stroke of half time Swarbrick brushed off some feeble defending to make it three. (Alb 0 City 3)

Albion offered absolutely nothing, so Rogerson who was making his debut in the City goal had a very easy first half.

Ossett made 3 changes at half time within 2 minutes they were four down, a Wilson free kick from fully 45 yards was completely misread by the Albion keeper who could only palm the ball into his own net. (Alb 0 City 4)

Albion were then reduced to 10 men when one of the substitutes limped off injured, down to 10 and being hammered. Interest started to wain as it became little more than a training game. City should have scored more but offside, decent goalkeeping and wayward shooting kept the score to four.

It was a relief to all and sundry when the referee brought an end to the game. Easy for Lancaster.

Ossett Albion 0 Lancaster City 4 Att131

The Yorkshire Pyramid

Early morning photo

Occaisional daily photo

This one worked without any wind

Chorley 2 Lancaster 1

Chorley v Lancaster City @ Victory Park, Chorley

After Saturday’s victory over Cammell Laird, Lancaster manager Tony Hesketh said there would be 800,000 attending this game he was slightly wrong by about 799,500.

591 people gave the Champions league a miss to watch this Lacashire derby, compaired to Saturday’s dross this was a far better match.

City were woeful for the first 20 minutes or so as Chorley playing an Allardyce type of game(Hoof Ball) put City under intense pressure, going close with a spectacular over head kick, they eventually took the lead after 14 minutes when Cunliffe received the ball from a throw in and virtually ran unchallenged through the City defence to score easily. (Chorley 1 City 0)

It looked like it was going to a cricket score as another effort whistled by the post and City’s keeper saved well from another goal bound effort.

Then City took charge playing the ball on the floor and giving the promotion chasing home side chasing shadows. Young midfielder Alex Meaney began to take charge and began running the game.

Rushden had City’s first chance and with only the keeper to beat managed to blaze the ball over the bar, Meaney also had a great chance when a weaving run took to within sight of goal but his shot was tame and easily saved.

Half time arrived and the view from the visiting fans was that they still had a chance of getting something from the game.

City were immedialtely on the front foot and from a corner were presented with a gift, the Chorley keeper dropped the ball and with the goal gaping the ball fell to Rushden, the goal was still gaping after the shot from about 6 yards he hit the underside of the stand behind the goal.

Minutes later a superb pass from Meaney found Swarbrick whose scuffed shot was easily saved. Then when all seemed lost a poor Chorley clearence fell to Meaney’s left foot his first time volley flew into the net. (Chorley 1 City 1)

A further chance albeit harder was spurned by Kenworthy.

Chorley then got back into the game stung by the equaliser and penned City back, just as I thought City would hold out a scrambled goal 10 minutes from time gave them the lead and subsequently the points. Vermiglio got the goal. (Chorley 2 City 1)

City almost scrambled a deserved point but an effort from Kenyon was pushed past the post by the keeper.

Chorley 2 Lancaster City 1 Att 591

Leafy Salford

About 3 seasons ago Lancaster played Salford at Lancaster and lost 5-1 all Salford’s goals were scored by Steve Foster. He played against City today and again found the net, more of that later.

City put in a performance in the first half as bad as I’ve seen them play for a long time. Strangely though they started as the better side but that didn’t last for long as Salford under the player managership of Rhodri Giggs(Ryan’s less talented brother) began to pass the ball around.

The home side took the lead after 21 minutes when some dozy defending let in Giggs whose shot was saved by Fearon however the ball ran to Foster who didn’t miss. (Salf 1 City 0)

City were playing against a chilly wind which didn’t help their cause however their play was poor, the 2nd Salford goal came from the penalty spot when a woeful backpass from Henry left keeper Fearon in deep trouble with two Salford players closing him down. He lost the ball and brought down Foster, clear penalty although some Lancaster fans thought otherwise.

Foster sent Fearon the wrong way (Salf 2 Lanc 0) Within 5 minutes City were back in the game with a quality goal not in keeping with the dross they had played through the first half. Swarbrick dummied the defender, spun round and fired in a shot which was pushed out by the keeper only to Hall who slotted home from close range. (Salf 2 City 1)

That was the half time score, in the 2nd half there was only one team in it and that was City, with the wind at their backs they actually passed the ball around instead of the hoof ball they had played in tthe first half. Salford started to time waste and things got a bit niggly on the pitch not help by very average match officials. A free kick from Wilson wa pushed out by the keeper and a couple of efforts went narrowly wide. Marshall also had a header cleared from the line.

5 minutes of injury time were announced when a clash of heads stopped play, the Salford keeper squirted water in the face of City midfielder Wilson during the stoppage thought it was funny, wasn’t laughing 5 minutes later when following a bout of head tennis in the 6 yards box Rushden headed home a deserved equaliser. Hope the keeper saw the funny side of that.

Salford City 2 Lancaster City 2 Att 117

A non thriller at the Crilly

Leigh Genesis v Lancaster City @Crilly Park Atherton



71 hardy souls turned up to watch this epic encounter, when the match should have been played Leigh had just lost their previous home game 8-0 however in the meantime better players had been brought in therefore this would not be a walkover for City.

A less than enthralling first half, lots of running around with very little to show for it. With a desperately small crowd the words of the players were clearly heard, totally surprised to hear that most footballers actually swear. Stunned and shocked by it.

Neither keeper had a shot to save and for those anoraks there were 2 trains on the line behind the bottom goal. The one thing you should no about Crilly Park is that it makes the ski jump at Innsbruck look like a flat surface.

City kicked down the hill in the first half and possibly shaded the first half but as neither side did anything of note you could possibly say neither side shaded it.

Ambled into the clubhouse for abit of warmth and noticed that Jamie Redknapp had failed to find his razor again, too busy taking free holidays with Tompson’s.

2nd half began with the tempreture plummiting toward zero, happily the game was better, Hall hitting the bar for Lancaster and Priestley the loud and wide keeper for Leigh twice saving well.

Leigh had a spell of pressure and a shot from 30 yards was superbly tipped over the bar by Fearon the City keeper. Leigh also had a shot cleared from the line but that was as close as we got to a goal, City finished the game the stronger but could not break down the resolute home defence.

During the 2nd half there was the sight of a car being driven down the railway line towards Wigan, British Rail obviously have gone on an economy drive
The referee brought an end to proceedings into the cold Atherton night the 71 went.

Leigh Genesis 0 Lancaster City 0 Att 71

Urchins

Daylight is starting to get longer and the skateborders are returning amazing how all their rubbish tends to end up in my garden, I'll have the last laugh though, believe me I will

Blank Saturday

Leigh v Lancaster bites the dust, tele day then

Saturday

A foggy morning on the Fylde coast suspect the weather will put the boot into my sporting day.
Good news is cars fixed bought a new microwave(will I manage to keep it clean though)
Watching an Italian dicing cheese on Saturday morning kitchen, life doesn't get more exciting than this

Everything comes in 3's

Cars kanckered, microwave bust and my CD player doesn't work. Can it get any worse