View from the Cemetery

Cracking game last week, or at least a good battle. Whickham had a few old RCA boys on show, notably Clayton Davis, who served us well for a good few seasons. Clayton's more of a golfer these days mind, but he did OK. Made me think we rarely seem to play anybody nowadays without coming up against some former inmates of Sunderland LGV Park. Seaham had half a team. Unlikely to be the case against Carlisle City of course, it would have to be a very good offer indeed to get lads from the North East over to Cumbria on a regular basis. It has happened though, or even further afield when Gretna were in their heyday. A regular minibus I seem to remember. It never ends well.

It feels to me that football at our level has yet to really get going under full steam after the Christmas and New Year break, the loss of our trip to Benfield the other night being an example. Hopefully today will see a full programme of games and the same in weeks ahead. Nothing worse than a disjointed season of stops and starts. Its not good for maintaining form for anybody.

Anyway, good to see Carlisle City making the trip over today, it was a real good game over at their place back in August, Carlisle were well on top in the first half but a couple of changes turned things round for us as we dominated the second, finally notching with not long to go but then needed a cracking save from Keaton at the death to keep us the point.

Back at last, and no doubt glad of it. I am. Hopefully that ten days or so of real bad weather in December is the worst we are going to get all winter and we can get on with getting some games played. Although our little derby trip down to Seaham didn't work out as anybody planned. Good effort to get the lights back on when they failed just before kick off, and 90% succesful. But 90% wasn’t quite good enough. The Seaham keeper down the far end had just about disappeared from the stand, apart from his lovely white gloves, looked like that old French mime artist, Marcel Marceau. Sacre bleu!

Not great form in the last few games we played, but not that bad either in my view. Very good against Ashington, and pretty good against Heaton Stannington, in a game we probably deserved something from. Red Star was a tight contest as far as it went, and we might well have won. Or lost. Anyway plenty of games to play and we need to get on some kind of a run to get more points on the board and push a bit up the table. But a lot of clubs will be saying the same. If the weather holds off might be a real good last few months of the season.

At the same time the hunt for extra hands, and also money to help run the club will continue full speed ahead. All ideas gratefully considered!

Well now, this was getting quite serious! A continuing run of defeats, some unlucky, some not, some against very good sides and some not, but even so. And Ashington, favourites to win the Ebac Northern League Division One this season are next up on Saturday at Sunderland LGV Park. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, off field troubles as well. Serious, so I am told, but maybe not quite as disastrous as some may say, or indeed believe. Let us see how things develop in the next few weeks, both on and off the field before we jump to conclusions.

We are not the first club to lose a few in a row, and we are not the first to have worries over people and money. Indeed there may be a silver lining if you consider that many of the North East clubs now flying up the football ladder are clubs that have had severe troubles not so very long ago. Spennymoor, South Shields and Hebburn would certainly fit into that category, and good luck to them with the success they are now and recently having. Maybe we will look at this in a few years time and see a turning point. Maybe.

Anyway, I am assured that behind the scenes work goes on apace to put things right, although at the same time I am sure all and any offers of help will be gratefully received.

And so the slump goes on, as do the red cards. Bit of a contrast in the last couple of games though according to some good judges of my acquaintance.

Against Northallerton the lads started very brightly, despite being very short again, due to suspensions, injuries and domestic and work issues. Nonetheless it looked good from the start, with the lads playing the ball around, retaining possession and making chances, and taking the lead after ten minutes. The game levelled up a bit, the visitors equalised, but all still looked set fair, until a dismissal for preventing a goal scoring opportunity, which most people thought more than a little harsh. After that it was mostly downhill. Northallerton largely took charge and although we rallied a few times, they eventually ran out worthy winners.

It's not about officials and we know there is a major lack of them, but still we do seem to be on the wrong end of things of late. Hopefully our luck will change, although it didn’t really down at Guisborough. Very short handed again, an heroic effort by Dan Madden filling the gap at the back, and a solid hard working performance that certainly deserved something from the game, until a wicked deflection gave them the winner. Tough, tough to take.

Every team needs to learn from hard times, surely we will.