My mood and my head were in a
much better place than on my last game report.
Time is a great healer and I was feeling much more optimistic and happy
about life. My blog guest Frazer
Sanderson had offered to drive and he arrived at my house at 11:50am. It was
another 200 mile round trip and my Sat Nav system had estimated it would take
2hrs and 7mins to arrive at Borough Park.
We set off with plenty of time and the drive was relaxed and chatty. Neither of us had eaten lunch so we decided
to stop off at Tebay services on the M6 – it was approximately half way and
although this sounds sad, it is my favourite service station in England. It is an independent services with a farm
shop and a duck pond and much more interesting than the average ‘Burger King’
and ‘Simply Foods’ stop off. I ate a
pork, stilton with apple and ginger chutney pie and bought some excellent
sausages for Sunday’s breakfast and a Beef, black pudding and caramelised mushroom
pie for Sunday’s lunch. We continued our journey up north, which consisted of
an excellent winding A66 and some fantastic views of mountains and autumn
coloured trees.
On arrival into Workington we had
to cross the river twice and as we crossed the 2nd bridge the whole
of Borough Park was on view. It cost £12 each to enter the ground and it was unusual
to find only one turnstile and only one small entrance.
The back of the turnstiles for the only entrance to the ground.
The entrance to the ground through a small opening, from here we walked across the stadium and
into the bar.
Frazer bought a pint of Strongbow
and a bitter for me and it cost £5.50 in total. The only place left to sit was
on a tiny little stage in the centre of the bar and I imagined the number of
quality ‘artists’ that had played on that stage over the years. It reminded me of my teenage years as I
collected glasses at ‘Chorley Labour Club’ on a Saturday night. I could almost
hear the songs and the bingo caller as I sat and drank my pint of bitter.
This looked like an old unused exit to the stadium.
This looked like an old entrance to the stadium.
We moved around to the seated
area of the ground and took our seats.
We sat down, it was 12 degrees
and a little windy and as the game kicked off I felt very close to the pitch and
the players – it seemed a small pitch and our view was obscured slightly by the cantilever pillar of the
stand.
It was an even game at first as both sides had early chances. Stourbridge capitalised with a goal after 10 minutes from a corner. They seemed in control for parts of the half and things looked worst for Workington when they had a man sent off after 35 minutes of play. Stourbridge had a very passionate and vocal fan that would often stand and shout huge amounts of criticism to the team.
It was an even game at first as both sides had early chances. Stourbridge capitalised with a goal after 10 minutes from a corner. They seemed in control for parts of the half and things looked worst for Workington when they had a man sent off after 35 minutes of play. Stourbridge had a very passionate and vocal fan that would often stand and shout huge amounts of criticism to the team.
It is interesting to watch these
games as a neutral observer. The referee
had a huge amount of abuse hurled his way after every single decision. A free kick awarded to Workington was a good decision
according to the Workington fans but an awful terrible ‘blind-man’s’ decision
to the Stourbridge fans and vice versa. Every
time any player went to ground he was a 'cheat' and one fan would repeatedly
shout when they got back up ‘I see you’ve recovered from your broken leg.’ It
is fantastic to hear as a neutral how passionate the fans at all levels of
football can be – the away Stourbridge fans behind Workington AFC’s goal were
the loudest and most passionate as they intermittently sang for their team.
At half time we moved to Reds
Pantry and I bought 2 £1 teas (standard order) 1 chips (£1) and 1 chips and
gravy (£1.80). We got back to our seats
as the 2nd half kicked off. Then it started to rain. The rain got
heavier and the wind got windier. The 2nd
half was similar to the 1st. Stourbridge
didn’t really dominate but Stourbridge deserved to win as they created more
chances. The Workington AFC fans behind
Stourbridge’s goal became more vocal with the odd song and the Stourbridge fans
behind the opposite goal continued to sing intermittently and I admired their persistence
of staying together as the weather deteriorated.
We set off home and I was back by
18:50. The weather was terrible for the whole journey back, very windy and
rainy until we pulled up outside my house and the rain miraculously stopped – things
were looking up. Later that night I received
a tweet from Richard Clark @glassboy66 that simply said ‘The adventure
continues.’ For Stourbridge fans it does but I will be saying goodbye to
Borough Park for 2013/14.
The draw for the next round is
Sunday 27th October (later today). Let’s see where the adventure
takes us.
Attendance: 519
Excellent Geeky Stats time:-
RIP
Stadiums and teams from the Giant Killing Adventure – 27th 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
|
Curzon Ashton
|
Tameside Stadium
|
Workington AFC
|
Borough Park
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure number of fans – 27th October 2013
Team
|
Stadium
|
Round
|
Fans
|
Stourbridge FC
|
War Memorial Athletic Ground
|
3rd Qualifying
|
633
|
Workington AFC
|
Borough Park
|
4th Qualifying
|
519
|
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 – 27th October
2013
Team
|
Prize
money/Round
|
Total
Winnings
|
Stourbridge FC
|
£7500 3rd Qualifying
Round
£12500 4th
Qualifying Round
|
£20000
|
Curzon Ashton
|
£1925 Preliminary Round
£3000 1St Qualifying
Round
£4500 2nd Qualifying
Round
|
£9925
|
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).
3rd Qualifying Round £300,000 was paid out (40
winners).
4th Qualifying Round £400,000 was paid out
(32 winners).
The Giant
Killing Adventure Program Price league table (cheapest first) – 27th
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
|
Stourbridge
FC 12th October
|
£2.00
|
Workington
AFC 26th October
|
£2.50
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure Goal Scorers – 27th October 2013
Matt
Warburton 3 (Curzon Ashton)
Chris
McDonagh 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Simon
Lakeland 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Adam Gilchrist
2 (Ashton Athletic)
Jamie
Oliver 2 (Stourbridge FC)
Luke
Benbow 2 (Stourbridge FC)
Ryan Rowe 1 (Stourbridge FC)
Will
Richards 1 (Stourbridge FC)
Phil
McLuckie 1 (Workington AFC)
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 – 27th October 2013
Team
|
Won
|
Drawn
|
Goals
For
|
Goals
Against
|
GD
|
Points
|
Curzon Ashton
|
3
|
1
|
10
|
6
|
4
|
10
|
Stourbridge FC
|
2
|
0
|
6
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
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
|
Workington AFC
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
-2
|
0
|
So
far the Giant Killing Adventure has reported on 720 minutes of football, £108 on
the turnstiles, 2156 fans, 25 goals, 4 pints of bitter (£9.90), 1 pint of
Guinness (£3.10), 1 pint of cider (£3), 3 70p cups of tea, 10 £1 cups of tea, 1 £1.10 cup of tea (large),
2 70p cans of coke, 2 £1.20 chips, 1 £1 chips, 1 £1.80 chips and gravy, 2 £1.60
pies, 2 £1.50 pies, 1 pork, stilton with apple and ginger chutney pie, 1 ham and pease pudding stottie, 2 £16.50 Lobsters, 4
2-4-1 cocktails, 1 City Break, 1 Sandy picnic battle, 4 website promises
(Marine, Curzon, Stourbridge and Workington), various Twitter retweets (too
many to keep track of from clubs, fans and supporter's clubs), 2
lower-league-victories, 1 relationship breakdown and the journey has travelled 562
miles from the FA Cup’s current home in Wigan.
The draw
for the 1st Round Proper is Sunday 27th October at 13:45 (today). Let’s see where The Giant
Killing Adventure takes us.
Don’t
forget our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure
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