It was match day and I had a lot
of driving to do. Well, not that much in
comparison to long distance lorry drivers, but long enough for me and my icke
car. I had to swing by Yorkshire again
to pick up blog guest Tim Webster. My
phone, which was also my Sat Nav and my camera and live blogging device (it
pretty much did everything) had died and it was in the shop being repaired. I
have to wait three weeks for it to be fixed and they have cheekily given me an
old Samsung flip phone as a loaner – it’s rubbish, it does nothing which means
I had to make this trip the old fashion way! I had to plan a route and actually
take notice of where I was going (normally I’d just watch the Sat Nav). As I
drove down the M60 I noticed how close I was to Curzon Ashton’s ground (a
previous blog favourite for 5 games).
The
first part of the journey was 65 miles, and 1hr 30 mins because I had to go
over thems big blooming hills called the Penines. I arrived at blog guest Tim Webster’s house
and of course we did two things; had a brew and a ham sandwich – then we set
off towards the M1 and the A1. We had to
use these old fashioned things called maps and A-Zs printed on this stuff
called paper - the older generation of
readers will remember these things, but the youth will probably find it all
quite quaint – according to calculations it was a further 147 miles and would
take roughly 2hrs 45 minutes. The
weather was sunny and the roads were clear.
Tim had heard about an American diner on the A1, so as we razzed down he
kept his eyes peeled like a hawk. We
went past a diner early on and thought we’d missed our opportunity. However, Tim wasn’t disappointed as an hour
or so later that American sign appeared and we pulled over...
However,
I have never eaten at a more appropriately named restaurant. It’s called the OK Diner and it was exactly
that... OK.
As
we were about to leave the heavens opened.
There was thunder, lightning and sleet. It was as if we had entered the
diner in midsummer and left the place at the beginning of the new ice age. This was the story for the next hour or so –
I couldn’t really see where I was going as the A1 was full of cars, puddles,
heavy rain and spray.
We
arrived into Stevenage at approximately 16:30 and I headed to the same car park
as last time. I wasn’t allowed to Park there as it was full, so I had to move
further down the road and pay a gentleman £5 to park on a school that was also
almost full. We crossed the road and headed to the Lamex Stadium. I’ve been calling it that, but it seems that
the Stevenage fans call it Broadhall Way and they don’t even call themselves
Stevenage, they call themselves Boro or the Boro.
Tim
and I entered a very full stadium at 16:50 and went straight to the food.
I
wasn’t hungry but felt the urge to grab a £3 Bacon roll (very tasty and good
value) and a £1 tea. The tea refused to
cool down in its Styrofoam cup and so I had to throw half of it away.
The pitch behind bars
Behind the home supporters gaol
The customary corner flag shot
We were on the
terraces on the West Stand (sorry Boro fans, I meant East Stand) and it seemed absolutely packed. Tim and I walked almost the full length of
the pitch to the Everton fans and stewards told us it was too full for anybody
else. More fans were following us and then we noticed that some just ducked
under the bars and made their way through the terraces. Tim saw a spot that seemed fairly clear and
we followed suit. After making our way
through the crowd we found ourselves in an area with plenty of room and set up
camp. I had to borrow Tim’s smart phone to take photos and make blog postings
and the game began.
Boro had a
good early chance that was ruined by the fact that Everton scored approximately
1 minute and 30 seconds later. Everton
were a much classier side as Boro seemed to keep pumping long balls to the
front man and in midfield they were outnumbered. Then Bryan Oviedo
appeared to fall on the floor in a challenge that seemed weak from our view
point. 5 minutes later he was stretchered
off and the game continued. Everton struck again in the 32nd minute
and it all looked bad for Stevenage.
At half time I received a text from a previous blog
guest Mr Tops (he came to the Lancaster V Curzon Ashton game last October) to
tell me that Oviedo had broken his leg.
A very pretty Stevenage fan next to me showed me this break on her i-phone
– it looked bad.
The second half for the most part was like the
first. Everton were a classier side and
deserved to win (although all their goals were a bit messy). Standing in the cold for 2 hours was
beginning to take its toll on my body and at one point I felt like my kidneys were
going to pack-in. The Stevenage fans
were quiet for most of the game. They
have a drumming section of fans and at one point it was like being at a tribal
dance as the fans were quiet but the drums settled to a slow rhythmic beat. At
3 nil the fans stayed but as soon as Everton’s 4th went in on the 84th
minute a large amount started to leave (did they think they had had a chance at
3 nil with 6 minutes to go?). The game ended.
The team did a lap of the pitch and I needed to get into my car and put the heating
on – I literally caught my death of cold, I was chilled to my bones and I had a
2hr 45min drive to look forward to.
Programs cost £3.
Attendance: 6913.
A noticed a flaw in the A1 - it’s
not very well lit. Vision is highly underrated when driving... I will be saying
goodbye to The Lamex Stadium for 2013/14.
Excellent Geeky Stats time:-
RIP
Stadiums and teams from the Giant Killing Adventure – 27th 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
|
Stevenage
|
The Lamex Stadium
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure number of fans – 27th January 2014
Team
|
Stadium
|
Round
|
Fans
|
Stevenage FC
|
Lamex Stadium
|
4rd Round Proper
|
6913
|
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 – 27th January 2014
Team
|
Prize
money/Round
|
Total
Winnings
|
Stevenage FC
|
£27000 2nd Round
Proper
£67,500 3rd Round
Proper
|
£94,500
|
Everton FC
|
£90,000 4th Round
Proper
|
£90,000
|
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).
4th
Round Proper £1,440,000 was paid out (16 winners).
Total
Prize money so far equals £6,853,500
The Giant
Killing Adventure Program Price league table (cheapest first) – 27th 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 25th December
|
£3.00
|
The Giant
Killing Adventure Goal Scorers – 27th January 2014
Matt
Warburton 3 (Curzon Ashton)
Ryan Rowe 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Luke
Benbow 3 (Stourbridge FC)
Steven
Naismith 2 (Everton 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)
John
Heitinga 1 (Everton FC)
Magaye
Gueye 1 (Everton 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 – 27th 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
|
6
|
1
|
6
|
Ashton Athletic
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
-3
|
4
|
Everton FC
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
4
|
3
|
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 1080 minutes of football, £238 on
the turnstiles, 16,731 fans, 43 goals, 4 pints of bitter (£9.90), 1 pint of
Guinness (£3.10), 1 pint of cider (£3), 3 70p cups of tea, 15 £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, 1 £3
Bacon roll, 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 1165
miles from the FA Cup’s current home in Wigan.
Join me again
to find out about Swansea City and to see if they or Everton FC have mentioned
my blog or given me information about tickets to the 5th Round Proper – it’s
gonna be harder to get tickets now that the big boys have joined in our fun. But we’ve been doing this for 11 Rounds and 6
months so they should let us play...
Don’t
forget our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure
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