On Friday I drove to Yorkshire
and stayed at original blog guest Bev Rogerson’s house in Shepley – no big fat
curry was eaten but I did play my first ever game of Ludo (we know how to have
fun). On match day morning I drove 7
miles to swing by Thurlestone and pick up blog guest Tim Webster. We ate a ham
sandwich each, a bag of crisps, an apple, a Satsuma and a jam tart. Doncaster was 40 minutes from his house but
still, the first thing that Tim wanted to do once we reached Keepmoat Stadium
was buy some food. I told you on his first
appearance in our blog that he likes to eat, unfortunately I think he’s got a
problem. It’s not love Tim, it’s food...
The
atmosphere at Keepmoat seemed strange. It was an excellent Stadium with great
facilities. We went into the club shop and I saw a Doncaster Rovers
onsie and a Doncaster Rovers garden gnome. We spoke to the lady who sold the programs
(they cost £2) and asked about the gnomes – apparently one fan had made a single
request so they started selling them. I
asked why the place was called Keepmoat and she replied ‘It’s just the name of
our sponsors,’ then later she added, ‘but there was a moat around here once.’
So I was a little confused about the stadium's name origin.
The
atmosphere was strange at keepmoat because it felt too calm. We walked around
the outside and there were no groups of fans, and no singing or cheering of
chanting. It felt like a Saturday stroll
to the shops. We must have had tickets for the
family stand. Inside we saw a table tennis table and table football.
It was here
that we went to buy food. We spend £7
each on a meal deal – Steak Pie, chips and a tea. Neither of us were actually
hungry but we stuffed the food in...
... and went to take our seats with the
reassurance that the pies were baked that day and contained only healthy stuff.
Our
seats were almost on the half way line and the ground seemed empty - it had a capacity of just less than 16,000
and under 4000 fans had turned up for this FA Cup tie. Both of these teams were struggling in their respective
divisions as Stevenage were bottom of League One and Doncaster were 3rd
from bottom in the Championship. In fact Doncaster hadn’t won a game since
beating QPR in the league on 30th November. Their fans seemed
frustrated from the start as it did not take long for them to start booing
their team. Stevenage were the better team in the first half but it wasn’t a very
good or interesting half of football. It was the worst half of football that
has been witnessed by the Giant Killing Adventure and the whole game had
nil-nil written all over it.
In
contrast the 2nd half was excellent and highly entertaining. Once Stevenage scored they seemed to dominate
and Doncaster seemed lacklustre, short of effort and seemed to only have one
good player, Mark Duffy on the wing – his only problem was that he needed to be
playing more central so that he could have more of an influence. Stevenage scored again and the game seemed
lost to Doncaster and the fans booed some more. The Stevenage fans started to sing and make
noise and ‘You only sing when you’re winning’ popped into my mind.
Forrester’s
goal for Doncaster was an excellent strike and the game ended up being close at
1-2 with less than 20 minutes to play.
Doncaster piled on some pressure and the game was tight until Stevenage’s
3rd went in on the 90th minute.
This
sparked more booing and a mass exodus by the Doncaster fans – they left too
soon though because Doncaster managed to get another goal and their keeper made
an excellent challenge (some would call fowl) on the half way line as Stevenage
caught them on the break. 8 minutes of time was added and the final 20
minutes of the game was an excellent spectacle to watch.
Attendance 3899. Tickets £10
each.
I will be saying goodbye to Doncaster
Rovers and Keepmoat stadium for 2013/14.
Now I have to see what happens
with Stevenage and Everton. I have
emailed both of these clubs to tell them about our blog and we will see if I
get any help or support from them. As
yet, I have had no replies from either.
Excellent
Geeky Stats time:-
RIP
Stadiums and teams from the Giant Killing Adventure – 11th January
2014
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
|
Biggleswade Town FC
|
The Carlsberg Stadium
|
Stourbridge FC
|
The War Memorial Ground
|
Doncaster Rovers
|
Keepmoat Stadium
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure number of fans – 11th January 2014
Team
|
Stadium
|
Round
|
Fans
|
Doncaster Rovers
|
Keepmoat Stadium
|
3rd Round Proper
|
3899
|
Stevenage FC
|
Lamex Stadium
|
2nd Round Proper
|
2160
|
Stourbridge FC
|
War Memorial Athletic Ground
|
1st Round Proper
|
1603
|
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 – 11th January 2014
Team
|
Prize
money/Round
|
Total
Winnings
|
Stevenage FC
|
£27000 2nd Round
Proper
£67,500 3rd Round
Proper
|
£94,500
|
Stourbridge FC
|
£7500 3rd Qualifying
Round
£12500 4th
Qualifying Round
£18000 1st Round
Proper
|
£38000
|
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).
4thQualifying
Round £400,000 was paid out (32 winners).
1st Round
Proper £720,000 was paid out (40 winners).
2nd
Round Proper £540,000 was paid out (20 winners).
3rd
Round Proper £2,160,000 was paid out (32 winners).
Total
Prize money so far equals £5,413,500
The Giant
Killing Adventure Program Price league table (cheapest first) – 11th January
2014
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
|
Doncaster
Rovers 4th January
|
£2.00
|
Workington
AFC 26th October
|
£2.50
|
Stourbridge
FC 9th November
|
£2.50
|
Stevenage
FC 7th December
|
£3.00
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure Goal Scorers – 11th January 2014
Matt
Warburton 3 (Curzon Ashton)
Ryan Rowe 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Luke
Benbow 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Chris
McDonagh 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Simon
Lakeland 2 (Curzon Ashton)
Adam
Gilchrist 2 (Ashton Athletic)
Jamie
Oliver 2 (Stourbridge FC)
Will
Richards 2 (Stourbridge FC)
Francois
Zoko 2 (Stevenage FC)
Peter
Hartley 1 (Stevenage FC)
Darius
Charles 1 (Stevenage FC)
Harry
Forrester 1 (Doncaster Rovers)
Liam
Wakefield 1 (Doncaster Rovers)
Lucas
Atkins 1 (Stevenage FC)
Luke
Freeman 1 (Stevenage FC)
Filipe
Morais 1 (Stevenage 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)
Evan Key 1 (Biggleswade Town FC)
Neil Marshall 1 OG (Lancaster City FC)
The Giant
Killing Adventure League table – 11th January 2014
Team
|
Won
|
Drawn
|
Goals
For
|
Goals
Against
|
GD
|
Points
|
Curzon Ashton
|
3
|
1
|
10
|
6
|
4
|
10
|
Stourbridge FC
|
3
|
0
|
10
|
6
|
4
|
9
|
Stevenage FC
|
2
|
0
|
7
|
2
|
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
|
Doncaster Rovers
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
-1
|
0
|
Marine FC
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
4
|
-2
|
0
|
Workington AFC
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
-2
|
0
|
Biggleswade Town FC
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
-3
|
0
|
So
far the Giant Killing Adventure has reported on 990 minutes of football, £188 on
the turnstiles, 9818 fans, 39 goals, 4 pints of bitter (£9.90), 1 pint of
Guinness (£3.10), 1 pint of cider (£3), 3 70p cups of tea, 14 £1 cups of tea, 2 £7 meal deals, 1 £1.10
cup of tea (large), 2 £1.50 mochas, 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, 3 £1.50 handmade Balti eggs, 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, 1 Zoe food mountain, 5 website promises (Marine, Curzon, Stourbridge,
Workington and Biggleswade), various Twitter retweets (too many to keep track
of from clubs, fans and supporters clubs), 3
lower-league-victories, 1 relationship breakdown and the journey has travelled 1032
miles from the FA Cup’s current home in Wigan.
Join me
again to find out about Everton FC and to see if they or Stevenage FC have
mentioned my blog or given me information about tickets for the 4rd
Round Proper – it’s gonna be harder to get tickets now that big boys Everton
have joined in our fun.
Don’t
forget our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure
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