The games on the 4th and 5th January 2020

Saturday 4^th January 2020 – Preston North End V Norwich City

It was Saturday; it was Christmas; it was New Year; I hadn’t been back to work; I still didn’t know what day it was; I was confused.

My brain was getting back to normality. I switched on BBC’s Football Focus to see Dan Walker live at Deepdale, Preston. It was odd to see him at the stadium, and in the changing rooms, when I knew that I’d be there soon for our first game of the FA Cup Bonanza weekend.

Blog guest regular Tim Webster and I set off on our walk – yes, that’s a walk – to Deepdale. We headed through Preston town centre and stopped off at one of their city centre Greggs (there are 4 within 5 minutes of each other) for two Vegan Steak Bakes (other bakeries are available). This was no Veganuary, we were just curious, and we munched on our fake meat as we headed towards the stadium via Moor Park.

I’d taken this route because I wanted to get a long shot of the stadium.

Our seats were round the opposite side of the ground, so we headed past the Bill Shankley Kop.

Before managing Liverpool, Bill played for Preston from 1933 to 1949 and was part of the 1938 FA Cup winning side.

The walk took longer than expected and we arrived at the stand at 14:55 and quickly bought a tea and a coffee. Tickets had cost £15 each.

The empty corridor was reminiscent of a George Romero Zombie movie, crossed with the decks of the Star Ship Enterprise.

Even the FIFA game had been abandoned due to the Zombie Apocalypse.

Everyone else had taken their seats and we sat down just as the game kicked off at 15.01.

It was 7 degrees and there was a 40% chance of rain. Our seats weren’t as high up, or on the half way line as I’d expected, but it was a decent view. I couldn’t decide if the stadium was half full or half empty.

Sunday 5^th January 2020 – Brighouse Town Women V Barnsley Women

By Sunday my ability to know the day had improved considerably and it was the last day of the Christmas break.

I had a chilled morning and set off on the drive to Brighouse at 12:25. A nice easy trip that took 1 hour 4 mins and as I arrived, blog guest Alex Smith and his two boyz Alistair and Owen were waiting outside the ground.

Alistair’s job was to make sure that I didn’t lose my umbrella.

We went through the Turnstiles (£4 for adults and children free) and headed into the packed Club house for a quick team tea and coffee before moving to the main stand.

Stadium costs so far – Men v Women

Men £94

£8 Women

Nigel Wilson was the former secretary of the Football Club.

I sat down in my reserved seat on the half-way line.

Before Kick-off, there was a one-minute silence in respect of the weekend's 'every mind matters' campaign. It was a moment to reflect on my own mental wellbeing and that of the people I know (we’d missed the previous day’s event because we’d arrived too late).

It was 14.02, 8 degrees, and game began.

Saturday

It wasn’t a good start for Preston. Within two minutes they displayed poor defending and were 0-1 down against a team from a higher division. Preston played without any width, and as a result the fans were shouting typical calls of encouragement.

Fan 1 – ‘He’s like a fekin pub player.’

Fan 2 – ‘bloody rubbish.’

Fan3 – ‘Get up you powder puff.’

Fan 4 – ‘He all fagged out.’

As Preston went 0-2 down through a keeper error an optimistic fan shouted, ‘Its game over.’

Speaking of the Keeper, he made a howler of a mistake for the third goal which prompted a fan to shout, ‘Give me your gloves, I’d do a better job.’ This was followed by ironic cheering the next couple of times that the keeper caught the ball.

Preston went dark for more than one reason and as we reached half time it was 0-3.

Sunday

This was a much more evenly matched game. Brighouse Town had the best of the opening exchanges and missed a good early chance.

However, it was difficult for me to see the Barnsley goal due to my restricted view seat.

It was also quite dangerous being so close to the pitch – every few minutes we were in danger of having a football driven into our faces, as a game of ‘Size 5 Football Chicken’ unfolded in front our us. Football’s version of Russian Roulette continued until the ball moved over to the Brighouse area and a penalty was awarded.

0-1 to Barnsley and that’s the way it stayed until half-time.

Saturday

Because both Tim and I are greedy, we went back into the Day of Dead Mall for meat and potato pies and Bovril. However, this time it was crowded and there wasn’t a zombie in site. We had to queue for our piping hot pies – very tasty, but it took a while to purchase and eat – the teams had come back onto the pitch and PNE had scored before we returned.

It was 1-3 and I predicted that the team that scored the next 3 goals were likely to win this one.

Preston appeared to have a lot more energy.

It looks like I took the above photograph in front of a painting, but I can assure you that it is a live action shot. The Preston fans were getting louder behind the Norwich goal; Preston started to move the ball and create chances and we had a game on our hands, until…

The Preston keeper added to his hat-trick of errors and brought a Norwich player down in the box; Penalty; 1-4.

It looked like a lost cause, but Preston kept coming – they created a wonderful second goal and missed a few good chances in the last 10 minutes as the game ended 2-4.

Norwich go through; it’s the end of the adventure for Preston.

7616 fans attended the game and it’s the GKA’s largest attendance so far. Preston’s capacity is 23,404. In the first half, the ground was defiantly 67% empty, but the in the second half the ground became 33% full.

Highest Number of Fans

PNE	7616 (3^rd Round Proper)
Notts County	5,729 (4^th Qualifying Round)
Blackpool FC	5,371 (1^st Round Proper)
Oldham Athletic FC	2,858 (2^nd Round Proper)
Belper Town FC	528 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Brighouse Town Women	321 (3^rd Round Proper)
Rushall Olympic	259 (1^st Qualifying Round)
Rushall Olympic	249 (2^nd Qualifying Round)
Sheffield FC	184 (Preliminary Round)
Avro FC	150 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
Liverpool Feds LFC	109 (1^st Round Proper)
Stockport County Women	75 (3^rd Qualifying Round)
Chorley FC Women	61 (2^nd Round Proper)
Sunderland West End Ladies	54 (1^st Qualifying Round)
Curzon Ashton Ladies	44 (Preliminary Round)
Mossley Hill Ladies	24 (2^nd Qualifying Round)

Attendances – Men V Women

Men 22,695

688 Women

Route Men’s

Avro Fc 3	4 Litherland Remyca
Sheffield FC 2	1 Litherland Remyca
Rushall Olympic 3	1 Sheffield FC
Rushall Olympic 2	0 Gainsborough Trinity
Belper Town FC 2	0 Rushall Olympic
Notts County 2	1 Belper Town
Blackpool FC 4	0 Morecombe FC
Oldham Athletic 0	1 Burton Albion FC
PNE 2	4 Norwich City

A 67%-win rate for the home team.

Norwich won £135,000 in Prize money.

Prize Money – Men V Women

Men £271,390

Women £11,085

Sunday

Just as half time fell upon us, I was treated to a hot dog surprise from Alex. The sausage was cut in half, and we got both halves in a smaller bun – full of mustard and ketchup, this was a messy, slippery, but tasty treat.

Alistair and I headed to the club house to use the equally as messy and slippery toilets.

Various danger electricity signs were scattered around the stadium…

We took the customary GKA corner flag photo.

Through a hole in the dugouts we took this excellent ‘peeping Tom’ shot of the subs.

And noticed where the teams were getting all their vigour from (other energy drinks are available).

The second half of this highly entertaining game started, and Brighouse piled on the pressure; there was a tremendous amount of injury time and the final 15 minutes were tense – this was women’s football, so surely there would be an equaliser. Surely, we’d be heading into extra time and probably penalties. However, this wasn’t to be, and the game ended 0-1 to Barnsley.

It had been a great atmosphere and I don’t think I’d heard a single swear-word, either on or off the pitch, all day.

According to Twitter, there were 321 people at the game (plus I counted one dog).

Even though the GKA is neutral, I felt a twinge of sadness about losing Brighouse Town from our adventure, it had been their fourth match and I’d grown a little affection towards them. Good luck to them for the rest of the season.

Well done to Barnsley and they won £1250 in prize money for their victory.

Prize Money Leaders

Norwich City	£135,000 (3^rd Round Proper)
Burton Albion FC	£54,000 (2^nd Round Proper)
Blackpool FC	£36,000 (1^st Round Proper)
Notts County FC	£18,750 (4^th Qualifying Round)
Belper Town FC	£11,250 (3^rd Qualifying Round)
Rushall Olympic	£11,250 (1^st & 2^nd Qualifying Rounds)
Sheffield FC	£2890 (Preliminary Round)
Brighouse Town Women	£2350 (2^nd Round Proper +1^st Round Proper +3^rd Qualifying Round)
Litherland Remyca	£2250 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
Barnsley Women	£1250 (3^rd Round Proper)
Mossley Hill Ladies	£1,035 (1^st Qualifying Round+ Preliminary Round + Extra Preliminary Round)
Stockport County Ladies	£450 (2^nd Qualifying Round)

Penalties and Cards – Men v Women

Penalties - Men 2	3 Women
Yellow Cards – Men 29	4 Women
Red Cards – 1	0 Women

Route Women’s

Mossley Hill Ladies	Burnley Belvedere Ladies (No show)
Curzon Ashton Ladies 2	2 Mossley Hill Ladies (2-4 Pens)
Sunderland West End Ladies 4	4 Mossley Hill Ladies (4-5 Pens)
Mossley Hill Ladies 1	3 Stockport County LFC
Stockport County LFC 2	2 Brighouse Town Ladies (2-4 Pens)
Liverpool Feds 0	4 Brighouse Town Ladies
Chorley FC Women 1	2 Brighouse Town Ladies (ET)
Brighouse Town Women 0	1 Barnsley Women

80% away victory rate (which is really 100% because the opening Mossley Hill game wasn’t even played).

RIP Team and Stadium

Avro FC	Vestacare Stadium
Burnley Belvedere Ladies	Belvedere & Calder Vale Sports Club
Litherland Remyca	Litherland Sports Park
Curzon Ashton Ladies	Failsworth Sports Campus
Sheffield FC	Home of Football Stadium
Gainsborough Trinity FC	The Northolme
Sunderland West End Ladies	Herrington Recreational Park
Rushall Olympic	Dales Lane
Mossley Hill Ladies	Field of Hope Stadium
Belper Town	Christchurch Meadows
Stockport County LFC	Stockport Sports Village
Liverpool Feds LFC	Jericho Lane Sports Hub
Oldham Athletic FC	Boundary Park
Chorley FC Women	Victory Park
PNE	Deepdale
Brighouse Town Women	The Yorkshire Payments Stadium

Next up for the winners in the FA Cup

Norwich City drew Burnley away.

Barnsley women drew Tottenham Women away.

1977

After their 2^nd Round victory against Mansfield Town there had been interest in some of the Matlock players from Football League clubs. However, none of these players were interested in being signed because they could earn more working and playing part time – how times have changed financially for the players.

On this day (8th January) in 1977 Matlock Town travelled to Carlise United for their 3^rd Round Tie. Money was a lot tighter in those days as can be seen by the 12p programme cost (75p modern equivalent).

This was a strange tie as Matlock were struggling to cover the costs of traveling 380 miles and a hotel stay. Carlisle were struggling to fill the ground, because Matlock wasn’t a big enough draw for the home fans to travel from the remote villages surrounding the area.

Carlisle where a second Division Side and the gulf in League differences showed during this encounter. It was described as a 5-1 rout of the part-timers.

Carlisle’s reward was a tough away tie against Liverpool in the 4^th Round – a trip to Anfield.

Route 1977

Hinckley Athletic 0	1 Tividale
Oldbury United 0	4 Tividale
Tividale 0	3 Telford United
Hednesford Town 0	0 Telford United
Telford United 3	0 Hednesford Town
Telford United 2	5 Matlock Town
Matlock Town 2	0 Wigan Athletic
Mansfield Town 2	5 Matlock Town
Carlisle United 5	1 Matlock Town