Our blog is going from strength to
strength as we have reached over 4000 page views. I tweeted about the night’s game between
Lancaster City FC and Curzon Ashton and within minutes I was retweeted by
Lancaster City FC and one of their fans – great stuff guys and thanks for the
help.
Tonight’s reply was to decide who
would travel to Stourbridge FC on the 12th October in the 3rd
Qualifying Round of the 2013/14 FA Cup – a lot was at stake. I was going to
travel by train but my blog guest Lee Topping, or Mr Tops as I affectionately know
him, offered to drive; it was an offer I couldn’t resist, so thank you Mr Tops. He
picked me up exactly at 6.30pm (as he’d said) and we set off onto a busy
motorway. The slow lane seemed overly crammed with truck drivers and we
listened to Jamie Cullum’s jazz on the radio before arriving at 7.15pm – half
an hour to spare and check out the Giant Axe Stadium.
It was the second cheapest turnstile
of our Giant Killing Adventure and we paid the £7.00 entrance fee. The floodlights made the stadium impressive.
All focus was on the pitch and the players and away from the dark sky. We
walked past a wooden shack which had the sign ‘Directors Only’ and above that
was a stair case to a bar.
The bar had a small capacity of
about 20 people and the game could be viewed from it on a cold evening. Directly in front of the Directors shack were the dug outs and each side had two extra chairs for the managers and assistants
to sit during games.
We moved round to the seated area of
the stadium and bought the Giant Killing Adventure's cheapest tea, 70p. This was
followed by the Giant Killing Adventures cheapest Program, £1.50. The ground had another bar called Dolly’s bar
and food was sold at Dolly’s diner.
We sat at the back of the stand and
awaited kick off. The temperature was 17 degrees with intermittent cloud but
the wind levels were starting to pick up as we peered above the players tunnel.
The game started 4 minutes late and
the first half was similar to the match at Curzon last Saturday 28th
September. Curzon were passing the ball
well to feet but not having many chances and both teams were difficult to break
down. Curzon got a break on the 45th
minute through a Lancaster City own goal. At half time it was 0-1.
We moved to Dolly’s diner and bought
two 70p teas and two £1.50 pies (10 cheaper than Curzon). The pies were
good but steaming hot. If this tie was a battle of which team makes the best
pies it would also have gone to a reply, and possibly extra time and penalties.
Curzon scored early in the 2nd
half and a few of their fans started to make some noise. Lancaster City’s fans
were far less vocal than they were at Tameside as their singing was sporadic.
The wind started to pick up and game
seemed over with fifteen minutes to go – then Lancaster City FC came alive.
Within five minutes they had three excellent chances and should have scored –
one was a great scissors kicked right at the Curzon keeper. The minutes ticked
away and it seemed as if Lancaster had left it too late, but the final minutes
were exciting and tense. Lancaster struck the back of the net; Curzon had a man
sent off for stamping and Lancaster pilled on the pressure as Curzon were
pinned back.
This thoroughly exciting finale
ended with the game 1-2 and Curzon Ashton walked away with an away victory.
Attendance: 249.
I will be saying goodbye to Giant
Axe Stadium for 2013/14.
It is excellent
Geeky Stats time:-
RIP
Stadiums and teams from the Giant Killing Adventure – 03rd October
2013
RIP
Team
|
RIP
Stadium
|
St Helens Town
|
Brocstedes Park
|
Ashton Athletic
|
Brocstedes Park
|
Marine FC
|
Arriva Stadium
|
Lancaster City FC
|
Giant Axe Stadium
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure number of fans – 03rd October 2013
Team
|
Stadium
|
Round
|
Fans
|
Curzon Ashton
|
Tameside Stadium
|
2nd Qualifying
|
302
|
Lancaster City FC
|
Giant Axe
|
2nd Qualifying
|
249
|
Marine FC
|
Arriva Stadium
|
1st Qualifying
|
223
|
Curzon Ashton
|
Tameside Stadium
|
Preliminary
|
101
|
St Helens Town
|
Brocstedes Park
|
Extra Preliminary
|
71
|
Ashton Athletic
|
Brocstedes Park
|
Extra Preliminary
|
58
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure League table for FA prize money – 03rd October
2013
Team
|
Prize
money/Round
|
Total
Winnings
|
Curzon Ashton
|
£1925 Preliminary Round
£3000 1St Qualifying
Round
£4500 2nd Qualifying
Round
|
£9425
|
Ashton Athletic
|
£1500 Extra Preliminary Round
|
£1500
|
Extra
Preliminary Round £277,500 was paid in prize money (185 winners).
Preliminary
Round £308,000 was paid out (160 winners).
1st Qualifying Round £348,000 was paid out (116 winners).
2nd Qualifying Round £360,000 was paid out (80 winners).
The Giant
Killing Adventure Program Price league table (cheapest first) – 03rd
October 2013
Team
|
Program
Cost
|
Lancaster City FC 01st
October
|
£1.50
|
Curzon Ashton 31st August,
28th September
|
£1.60
|
St Helens Town 17th August
|
£2.00
|
Marine
FC 14th September
|
£2.00
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure Goal Scorers – 03rd October 2013
Matt
Warburton 3 (Curzon Ashton)
Chris
McDonagh 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Simon
Lakeland 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Adam
Gilchrist 2
(Ashton Athletic)
Chris
Rowney 1
(Curzon Ashton)
Ryan
Brooke
1 (Curzon Ashton)
Will
Jones 1 (Marine FC)
Sam
Barnes 1 (Marine FC)
Neil
Weaver 1 (St Helens Town)
Greg
Harrison 1 (St
Helens Town)
Nathan
Ward 1
(Ashton Athletic)
Mark Jackson 1
(Lancaster City FC)
Neil Marshall 1 OG
(Lancaster City FC)
The Giant
Killing Adventure League table – 03rd October 2013
Team
|
Won
|
Drawn
|
Goals
For
|
Goals
Against
|
GD
|
Points
|
Curzon Ashton
|
3
|
1
|
10
|
3
|
7
|
10
|
Ashton Athletic
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
-3
|
4
|
St Helens Town
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
-1
|
1
|
Lancaster City FC
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
-1
|
1
|
Marine FC
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
4
|
-2
|
0
|
So
far the Giant Killing Adventure has reported on 540 minutes of football, £74 on
the turnstiles, 1004 fans, 18 goals, 3 pints of bitter (£7.40), 1 pint of
Guinness (£3.10),3 70p cups of tea, 7 £1
cups of tea, 1 £1.10 cup of tea (large), 2 70p cans of coke, 2 £1.20 chips, 2
£1.60 pies, 2 £1.50 pies, 1 ham and pease pudding stottie, 2 £16.50 Lobsters, 4
2-4-1 cocktails, 1 City Break, 1 Sandy picnic battle, 2 website promises
(Marine and Curzon), 3 Twitter retweets (Lancaster), 1
lower-league-victory and the journey has travelled 200 miles from the FA Cup’s
current home in Wigan.
Curzon
Ashton has an away tie with Stourbridge FC in the 3rd Qualifying
Round of the 2013/14 FA Cup. Join me again to learn more about the next
round and more about Stourbridge FC.
The match is currently due to be played on Saturday 12th 2013...
Don’t
forget our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure
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