What a load of Cobblers!

Let’s face it, September wasn’t the kindest month to the Daggers. A string of sub-par performances had left the mood in the Daggers camp decidedly grim with one shining beacon of hope being that thrilling shootout at Orient. Words like “Conference” and “Kettering” were being muttered and grumbled around the sieve.

Our away Performances at Hereford and Rotherham while troubling did not really hit home as the start of a genuine wobble because we had 2 home games coming up. The first of which was against our old conference rivals “The Pox” of Oxford United! So after work a trip to The Bell was called for and after the couple of mandatory pints with Ant and Jerk’ we jumped on the 103 to face our fate.

Tuesday 13th September – Oxford United - Home

And let’s be honest this match didn’t go that well. The whole time it felt like we should have been getting something out of it and the chants of “we won the league at the Kassam!” were at best, bittersweet! The first half saw both teams battling to get an edge. We started a bit slowly but picked up soon and Nurse nearly headed home Femi’s cross for it to bounce the wrong side of the post. Nurse’s time on international duty at Barbados seemed to have done him some good because he had another chance but slammed it into the side netting.

Oxford’s James Constable should have put the visitors ahead when he skied Asa Hall’s cross over the bar. Looking around me most of us had our hands up; we knew we just got lucky! A mixture of luck and some superb keeping from Lewington kept us in the game for so long before the luck ran out. United’s low free kick was picked up by Hall who shot through our defence past Lewington and into the net. 1-0 to Oxford. And sadly that was the way it stayed. Despite Femi having a go at lobbing the keeper from outside the box and a few attempts from corners the Daggers lack of firepower was again our undoing and we were lucky not to go two down after Alfie Potter walked all to easily through our backline before missing his open goal in favour of the bar.

That result left a definite sour taste in most mouths and a lot of expletives. I ain’t gonna go into the whole twitter affair but to say it was symptomatic of the bad mood and infighting occurring in the Red and Blue Army. I for one was a little worried, it seemed my little family club was falling apart at the seams and negativity was threatening to tear us apart. The next fixture didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either. Rotherham had already claimed their revenge and Morecambe’s run (which saw them strutting their stuff at the top of the table) looked set to let the ghost of our Play-off glory well and truly come back to haunt us.

Saturday 17th September - Morecambe - Home

The away stand didn’t exactly look as impressive as it had on that glorious day when we finally “pulled a Merge” but that’s ok because neither the game nor the score line were really impressive either. This was a game (and I know we say/hear this a lot) that we really should have won. But The Shrimps were really up for this one and our confidence was low.


Daggers peer into the rain

Today our downfall wasn’t so much a lack of goals scored but the softness of the goals conceded and it was the second half when the first Morecambe goal finally came. The first half had been a fairly scrappy affair with the best chances coming from Morecambe. I actually missed their first goal going in, I can’t remember what I was looking at but I missed it. Watching the highlights it seems the long ball landed at Danny Carlton’s feet, beating Arber before he slotted into the far corner past Lewington. The second goal I did see and it was all too easy for the Shrimps when Lewington palmed away Laurence Wilson’s tight angle shot from the left. The ball fell to Drummond who kicked it into the right hand corner before Lewo’ could get back into position. Now I think Lewington has stepped up to be the main goalie very well but I can’t help but feel this wasn’t one of his better moments. Saying that, I’m sure he’ll learn from it and the way he buried his head in his shirt tells me; he doesn’t want to let one in like that for a long time! By now the mood in the sieve matched the pouring rain that hammered the roof above our heads. The only real lift was a superb free kick from Olly Lee which he buried in the goal. The daggers looked to have a chance to snatch a point from this match but with our next best effort cleared off the line it all felt a little bit too late. Everything that day (including our spirit) was dampened.

With both home and away form not being particularly up too much, I have to admit I wasn’t going to go to the Northampton match. Instead I was going to meet up with my musician buddies with a view to starting a new project that shall tear the London metal/punk scene a new one!

So much to Mr ‘FromTheCoach’s dismay I declined my spot in the car for that Saturday. Until Friday night, when my guitarist and long-time partner in crime messaged me to say he had caught some kind of flu/cold/bug thing and therefore we had to call the jam off. So I did the only thing I had left to do, I rang Jerk and reclaimed my seat; Northampton here I come!!

Saturday 24th September – Northampton - Away

It’s amazing; no matter the result I always enjoy an away day. So no matter what I thought the outcome of the match would be (and for the record I thought we had a good chance of winning) I jumped into the car looking forward to another day out with the Daggers. Northampton have a nice little ground, we were allocated the South stand and we had a nice little group of us. It goes to show; even when morale is low we can get ourselves to an away day to support the boys!

The first ten minutes of this game we looked really good. The next 20 minutes we looked amazingly poor and it was in that spell we conceded our first goal of the day when a Cobblers corner just couldn’t be cleared and the ball finally sat at the feet of Arron Davies who’s shot hit the underside of the bar and went in and three (until that moment silent) stands erupted with cheers. 1-0 to Northampton. From this point till half time it was quite painful viewing, or at least that’s how it sticks in my mind, I do remember Lewington making a fantastic save however!

The second half the Daggers really came out fighting and tried to make their chances count but almost inevitably the Cobblers got a second; Mark Arber’s backpass left Lewo’ under pressure to “get rid” and his clearance landed straight at a Northampton players feet. They past it around as the Daggers desperately tried to regather their shape before a cross met the sizable head of Adebayo Akinfenwa who nutted it home. Bollocks 2-0! Once again the silent stands erupted and once again grumbles of discontent swelled around me. In this game in total we managed to get 18 corners for ourselves but none of them yielded a goal (not for want of trying though! Arber nearly scored but for the bar). Our consolation goal came when Olly Lee smacked home a Johnny Nurse cross for his second goal of the season, both of which sadly couldn’t save us any points.

The Away-Day Daggers

So once again it was a lack of goals that lost us that match. As I walked out someone came up to me and said “don’t clap them!” “Pardon?” I said, not hearing properly the first time “don’t clap them, not after that!”. While entitled to his opinion this was not an opinion I shared. We didn’t just roll over and die and for most of the game we had played really well. Peter Gain had worked his arse off and nearly scored, Williams nearly scored from Lee’s free kick and that’s just the ones I can remember now. Sadly Northampton have a natural hard worker and goal scorer in Akinfenwa and (for me at least) not taking anything away from the rest of the Northampton squad, Bayo’ was the real difference maker and he tipped it for them.

So with no points to speak for we got back in the car and before I had a chance to reflect on the match just gone I crashed out on the shoulder of the missus. I woke up about half hour later with a banging headache and a blocked nose. “YAY!” I had caught my mate’s cold. Luckily my waking had coincided with Jerk’ pulling into the services, giving me the chance to go to Costa for a massive coffee! The rest of the journey home was a lot more comfortable for me and lot more noisy for my companions because a massive Latte tends to bring out the chatty housewife in me! I got home and slept through till Monday!

Chin up FMD!

There was no midweek game, so next up was a home tie against Crewe. A match many were viewing as a do or die moment.

But that’s a story for the next blog

FMD

Next – A late win at Crewe!

Acid Grapes!

Saturday 10th September - Rotherham United - Away


So, we find ourselves facing Rotherham again - the first time since
the fantastic memory of defeating them 3-2 at Wembley in the Play Off
Final.  All ghosts have been put to bed since then, both sides having
lost a number of players (in fact I believe only two starters for the
hosts played in the game, a very big turnaround!)

My weekend was to prove eventful, but i wont bore you all with the
extra trivia - nobody wants to hear about me listening to news reports
of 9/11 on my drive home in terrible wind, after all!  What happens on
away days, stays on away days (unless we choose!!)

Anyhow, the day started with my usual plodding along, getting nowhere.
Seeing as i used to live up there, I figured I knew how long it'd
take me to get there, and what with my habit of being late for
arriving places (yet seldom missing a kick off!) this was a bad
combination, especially adding the roadworks, and a dodgy car into the
equation.

At the end of last season, I got rid of the old faithful Rover [and don't I fucking know it! - FMD], and replaced it with another BMW Driving Machine.  I did not know that by
Driving Machine, they meant massive oil leaks, and vents that blow
smoke into the car when they feel like it.  But, these things are sent
to try us, and when the smoke started feeding its way into my lungs
somewhere near Huntingdon on the A14, I decided to pull up and
investigate (I say investigate, I mean I ate a sandwich before
continuing my trip).



The rest of the trip went better than expected, I think the wind must
have been behind me, because i arrived a full hour before kick off,
had a reasonably lengthy discussion with Brian Woodall's father, and
sat in the pub for a while (I elected to drive past my hotel for the
night because I am a fool).

Then came 14:50, and I made my way into the ground.

Now, I've never been up to The Donald Duck Arena to see a game, and
what I had heard was that it was a poor venue with a bad pitch, but
honestly, awful atmosphere aside, the rest of it wasn't too bad!  The
view, though lengthy, was good - far better than The Withdean last
year,  and the pitch looked in decent shape.

However, upon kick off I stopped caring.  Having visited Hereford on
our previous away match, I was hoping for something more entertaining
from us, but unfortunately that isn't what we got.  Within 8 minutes
we'd gone a goal down.  I have to say, Rotherham, though not
appearing to need to get out of first gear, look a good bet for
promotion this season, we on the other hand look like we will
struggle.  I hate saying it, and I am more than willing to be wrong,
but it appears so.

Scott Doe forced in an equaliser on 21 minutes and it seemed we may
have a game on our hands, but come the 29th and 38th minutes, the game
was already done and dusted,  The foot was off the gas as far as
Rotherham were concerned, and it was game over.  We did pick up in the
second half with the introduction of Jon Nurse and Mark Arber (great
to have him back!), but Rotherhams effective game ensured that again,
the travellers were to go home unhappy.



Overall I did enjoy my Don Valley experience, its always nice to see a
new ground, especially one where you wouldn't expect to find football,
and the second half was made all the more delightful by the artistic
skills of Gina Bowd and the unfortunately unsuccessful attempt by
Mitchell Bowd to scale the hill behind the goal whilst the game was
being played.

I don't wish to dwell on the actual game too much (we did hit the bar
though through Oliver Lee, i believe), i never do when we lose.

Sour grapes?  Fucking acid my friends, acid grapes!

JerkFromTheCoach

Next - FMD sums up September and looks to a fresh start in October

Why did it mean so much to us?

Firstly I would like to make an apology. Sorry this report is so late (I know you’re all used to it by now) but I have recently started a new job and am finding less time to write than before. And if I’m honest the spare time I have found has been spent asleep because it is taking me a while to adjust to my new routine!

So, The Johnstones Paint Trophy.

That name doesn’t tend to get the most awe inspiring reaction out of people. Quite often all you will get is a little groan and a mumbled something about it being “tinpot”. But the thing is I love all cup competitions, all of them! As many of our readers know I have a particular soft spot for the Essex Senior Cup and I have to admit I have a similar feeling for the JPT.  While it is not always the most glamorous competition and can throw up a fixture that no one of either side of the crowd segregation care about (MK Dons away anyone?) sometimes the good folks at Soccer AM pull a classic out of the bag. Last season for example; an away tie against Charlton which produced a narrow 1-0 loss, a great atmosphere and was a nice appetiser for the league match where we battled for a well-earned point at the Valley.  Also the biggest reason to get behind the JPT is; it’s a competition we have a chance of winning and to win it you have to go to Wembley! And with “big” clubs like Sheffield Wednesday bailing out in favour of the league the odds are better for another day out at Wembley for the Daggers.

So this year I was very happy to see we had been picked to face Leyton Orient away. Yes I know ANOTHER away fixture in a cup! But to be fair Leyton away is nearly as easy to get to as Daggers at home (for the more local Daggers anyway, myself included). Our preseason friendly against the O’s had been at best a non-event and at worst a reminder that were it not for one point we would have been sharing a division this season.  But a chance to dump them out of a cup certainly whetted my appetite for a little revenge for last year’s FA Cup defeat.

Wednesday 7th August – Leyton Orient - Away – Johnstones Paint Trophy

My alarm rudely awoke me from my party induced slumber and I found myself glued to my guitarist/best friends leather couch.  Sadly I would not be able to just chill out all day till it was time for football.

My aforementioned new job actually started off as a voluntary position that I had put myself forward for after doing a 2 day course with the company. My plan was to make myself as useful as possible in the two days a week I was working there that I would be missed on the remaining three. And it was obviously working as I had been begged to come in for a couple of hours that morning to help with the rush. I had said this was fine as long as they realised I was not going home the night before and would therefore be a little worse for wear. 

So I dragged myself into work (in a clean shirt lovingly dropped off for my by the missus) and completed some Action Plans for our customers. With my promise to my potential employers completed I returned to my friend’s house with some nice fresh Gregg’s baked goods and played some Xbox and chatted for a couple of hours.  MrsMetalDagger was finishing work at 5 so at about 3pm I went home, showered and changed into my Daggers shirt and waited for the clock to reach half 4.  My mother in law then gave me a lift to MrsMD’s work and we made for Rainham station.

At the station we bumped into Lee Wilson and his friend and we chatted as we waited for the train. Neither of us were particularly optimistic of a result that night as it has to be said we’re not exactly having a prolific time in front of goal. We alighted the train at Barking to change onto the Gospel Oak line, leaving Lee and Friend to go a different route via Stratford.  I decided to give this route a try this time as I had gone via Mile end before and wanted to compare the two. It turned out that Lee should have come with us as the train we had shared was not stopping at West Ham and him and his buddy found themselves on route to Fenchurch Street (DOH!).

We got off at Leyton Midland and walked down to the Coach and Horses. I think this route takes a little longer than the other but with Lee and co getting lost along the way we had no real comparison. We ducked into the mini Tesco for a sarnie then into the Horses for a pre-match drink. Our little crew which today consisted of Mikins and Gemma (Jerk was working overtime) would be meeting us in the ground so with our drinks drunk we walked the short distance to Brisbane Road.


the Daggers start to fill the North Stand

Today the Red & Blue army (in green) had been allocated the North Stand, which I have to say is a nice little stand about half the height of the Marcus James. And while it might not have the old school feel of the East stand, the view was unrestricted and it was nice to be close to the pitch and next to the home crowd, who were today in the odd looking west stand.  As I made for a spot with the noisy mob I gather with I noticed we had brought a fair few. It was nice to know that no matter the competition a chance to stuff the O’s was something many Daggers will flock to. At first glance it seemed we had nearly as many fans as the home crowd did (and it couldn’t have been far off).

The game kicked off and instantly our mob was in good voice. No, better than good voice. We were making ALL the noise and within 5 minutes I realised I was having the most fun I’d had so far in this short season.  It seemed the noise we were making was really spurring on the team; they really seemed to want the win. The home crowd were nearly silent apart from a small crowd of about 20 in the corner of the West stand nearest to us and I say "good for them!" I really did feel for them as they tried to whip up an atmosphere amongst a crowd of people sitting on their hands.  I was having so much fun singing and chanting at the home crowd I nearly forgot there was a football match happening but I was shaken back into the game when Peter Gain hit the post with a lovely strike from the edge of the “D”.


Orient slowly file into the West Stand


The unused East Stand

Despite the atmosphere we created Orient were far from just rolling over and letting us stroll away with a win. Their league campaign was off to a poor start and I think this game was not only a nice change of pace but also a chance to gain some confidence by getting a win over their smaller neighbours.  Say what you want about the O’s, they do try and get the ball down and play some passing football and it was a nice example of this that nearly rewarded them with a goal were it not for David Mooney’s shot taking a deflection before being tipped around the post for a corner by our Gooner for hire keeper James Shea. Everyone’s favourite Orient player (read; sarcasm) Dean Cox fired in a cross for Jonathan Tehoue only for him to head it neatly into Shea’s arms.

Orients keeper Lee Butcher started to show the first signs of being a little suspect between the sticks when he couldn’t hold onto Ollie Lee’s shot from outside the box and must have been grateful when it was hooked away by one of his defenders.  He must have also been grateful when Damien Scannell’s shot caught him on his heels only to zip past the far post! With the pangs of hunger setting in (after all I had only eaten a sandwich all day) I made for the food bar below the stand just before half time to try and beat the rush. I didn’t have to wait long to get me and the Missus a hotdog each before returning to my seats in time for the half time whistle. So far I have to say I was having a brilliant time and was really looking forward to the second half. I couldn’t help but feel we deserved the win for our support alone!



The second half began and the banter picked up exactly where it had left off. Both teams were well up for it and there was a feeling in the air that pride was on the line. I thought that Orient were going to open the scoring when Mooney’s flick across the box was parried by Shea into the path of Jimmy Smith who would have been dead on to shoot and score if it wasn’t for an excellent bit of defending by Femi who got his body in-between the Orient midfielder and the ball before spinning round and clearing his lines. Defending like that deserved a payoff at the other end and we got it. Scannell ran down the wing to the edge of the box his first cross was blocked but fell straight back to his feet and he whipped it in again with his left foot, the ball hit the back of Sam Williams head, rolled down his back and flew into the net off of his arse!  And the travelling Daggers including myself went ballistic! And after the screaming and cheering died down we found ourselves doing the Poznan! Yep that’s right we were celebrating a goal in the first round of the JTP like it was the FA Cup final! And what of it? It felt good! 64 minutes Orient 0 , Daggers 1!

It was very nearly 2 when Billy Bingham (who impresses me more and more each time I see him) dribbled through the O’s midfield and fired from about 25 yards out only for Butcher to spill his save over the top of himself but luckily for him it rolled out for a corner.  Then Orient caught the break they so desperately needed;  Porter chased after the long ball and ran it to the goal line then crossed it low past Shea and into the path of Mooney who’s hard work all game was finally rewarded with an easy tap in from 5 yards. 88 minutes in, it was now 1-1 and all of a sudden the West Stand woke up and the 20 hardcore fans around their drum were finally joined by their Orient brethren. 



A part of me really resented this sudden bolt of enthusiasm, it wasn’t as if Orient had been playing badly but it had taken a goal for 90% of their support to actually give a toss. If we were to lose this game on penalties (and a shoot-out was looking a dead cert with only 2 minutes plus injury left) I would have felt pretty crappy to have them rub our faces in another cup loss in a game that only 3 minutes ago they started to walk out from!

The final whistle blew and it was time for the inevitable penalty shootout. Now I know this has been a long report so far and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me till this point but I want to tell you a quick story.  As a child I loved the penalty shootout, for me it was the height of adrenaline in football and this feeling was at its peak during Euro 96. When England beat Spain on penalties in the quarter finals it was the greatest football rush ever and I was convinced that with Seaman in goal there wasn’t a shootout we couldn’t win. So when we faced Germany in the Semi’s there was this part of me that really wanted it to go the distance to penalties as I was convinced it would secure us a place in the final. Well as we all know I was wrong, very wrong! And it hammered home a very healthy respect and fear of the shootout that I hold to this day.



So needless to say I was very nervous about this shootout, but I could feel that childhood adrenaline building. What was to follow was the longest shootout I have witness both live and I’m pretty sure on the telly too! It went thus;

Phil Walsh - Scores,
Charlie Daniels – Scores.  1-1

Richard Rose – Scores,
Dean Cox (to a chorus of boos and a “W*nker W*nker!” chant) – Scores. 2-2

Ollie Lee – Scores,
Ben Chorley – Scores. 3-3

Damien Scannell – Scores,
David Mooney – Scores. 4-4

Now it was sudden death!

Sam Williams – (even though I thought he’d put it over!) Scores,
Leon McSweeney – Scores. 5-5

Scotty Doe – Scores (and gives the Orient fans a nice “Shhhhhh!”),
Marc Laird – Scores. 6-6

Dom Greene (making his returning debut as a Dagger) – Scores,
Terrell Forbes – Scores. 7-7

Peter Gain – Scores,
Jimmy Smith – Scores.8-8

Billy Bingham – Scores,
Lee Butcher (their goalie) – Scores. 9-9

Femi (our crowd let out an audible “gulp!” #FemiFacts) – Scores,
George Porter – Scores. 10-10

James Shea (I’ll admit to being nervous before this one) – Scores,
Moses Odubajo – Scores. 11-11

Phil Walsh (with an absolute belter) – Scores,
Charlie Daniels – Scores. 12-12

Richard Rose - Scores,
Dean Cox (in spite of more taunting) – Scores. 13-13

Ollie Lee – Scores,
Ben Chorley – Saved by Shea!!! 14-13

And after 15 minutes of penalties the Daggers had done it, we had dumped Orient out of the cup. The players celebrated on the pitch as me and a horde of my fellow daggers ran down from the stands to the edge of the pitch to rub the home supporters face in the dirt and celebrate our win with another Poznan! We exchanged high-fives with the players and gave them a round of applause before doing a Conga back down the tunnel.  I met back up with my little group and us and the rest of the travelling Daggers marched en-masse to Leyton station singing all the way. Then the smaller groups split off in their separate ways and the mob I was in on the District line sang all the way home! What a thoroughly enjoyable night! Oh and I forgot to mention;  the weekend before this match the draw for the second round had declared that the winner of this match would get a home tie against Southend! Bring it on!

In conclusion of this essay of a report I would like to mention a thread I saw on the Orient forum, it was questioning why we celebrated the win so much. And one of the O’s on there wrote; “Because they really, honest-to-god hate us and think we have an actual rivalry. Clowns.” 
To me this stinks of “it isn’t a rivalry because we don’t care if they beat us” well that is bollocks. Local bragging rights are the very foundation of a football rivalry (or one of at least) every time I pass an Orient fan in the street we both know what happened that night and we both know that for now the bragging rights sit with us. And that my bitter Orient friends is why we celebrate so much when we beat you. Because we love our team!

I went to bed that night a very happy and tired man with zero voice left.  And the next morning I was woken by my manager offering me a fully paid job at the firm I had been volunteering with! All in all I had an amazing 24 hours!!



We love you Dagenham, we do! Oh Dagenham we love you!

FMD

Next – Have we ever won at Rotherham?

Herefeeeeughhhhhhh

Knowing i'd be missing the midweek game away in the Far East (at the
Matchstick Stadium, Leyton) for a game in the Dulux Super Cup I
figured that i'd best sort out my football fix with a trip to glorious
Hereford, a place known for its cattle more than its football.

Saturday 3rd September - Hereford United - Away

....and looking at Edgar Street its easy to see why.  I practically
had to grease myself up to fit through the turnstiles, and when i did
was presented with the worlds slowest tea bar, and toilets which were
nothing more than a groove keyed from the floor tiles, and a badly
placed sink.  In addition, they stunk.  Welcome to Medieval Hereford.
The Mappa Mundi wouldn't have looked out of place framed on the wall
in front of aforementioned floor groove.



Our stand was a true beauty to behold.  The Arthur Scargill Stand
(Cargill...) was slimmer than some of our supporters (myself included)
and is made up of a lower tier of terracing, and an upper of 5 rows of
seating.  The lower tier view is obstructed....i say obstructed, its
obstructed in much the same way a coffin obstructs ones view of a
corpse.  There may as well have been a wall built an inch in front of
our faces it was that bad.  In fact, the only decent-ish view was to
be gained from an area which they had painted yellow markings onto the
floor of, and of which it was a crime to stand in.  I dont know why
common sense cant be applied when a club that takes such small numbers
away from home are playing.  Anyone left in the ground long enough to
die in an emergency when the rush outside consists of a queue of 13
people and a hot dog, in reality, deserves to die.  So, we had to
stand behind the pillars to try and view the game.



During the pre-game warm up and indeed after the whistle, it could be
noted that there was absolutely no atmosphere whatsoever.  The home
fans are appalling, I dont think i even heard them until around 20
mins from the end.  Still....rather Edgar Street than a soulless
flatpack like Shrewsbury Town - as when the supporters did bother, you
could hear them.


I really didn't get to see much first half, and it was largely
uneventful nevertheless (what i could see anyway).  The only point of
note was a penalty shout for us, which seemed to see the linesman call
for a spot kick, only for it to be refused by the referee and see us
given a throw in.  Not quite sure what went on there, but, shocking
officiating - as usual.  The sides went in 0-0, and for the second
half we decided that we'd sneak upstairs into the seats to actually
watch the game.

...I wish we hadn't have bothered.  I wont pretend we looked useful in
any way, and in my opinion the bright point came with the introduction
of Jake Reed.  This game had all the feeling of two sides who come the
end of the season will be struggling at the wrong end of the table,
looking through their anus's at the bottom two places.  Why do we come
out so negative away?  After 60 minutes or so, i spent much of the
game staring into the distance at Hereford Cathedral.



On the other hand, when looking at the teams, it can be noted that we
were missing the likes of Elito and Arber, who will be influential to
how we finish come the end of the season.  No sign of Dominic Greene
either - for reasons I am not aware of.   Jon Nurse was away on
International duty.

So roll on 85 minutes, when a weak Hereford goal made the score 1-0,
thus giving them their first league win of the season, and ensuring
our record of conceding late goals lives on.  It's frustrating,
because we could have so easily had something from this game -
Hereford were bloody awful.  I wouldnt be surprised to see them go
down this season.





JerkFromTheCoach

Next - A Game no one cares about, apparently!

Oh, Did the football season start?

Soooooo we're back

First a quick rundown of where your favourite hairy buggers have been. Well Jerk' has been doing a butt-load of overtime in a bid to become the richest man in Becontree and I have been doing a voluntary work placement in the hope that my 6 year absence from getting up at a ridiculous time of the morning to go to a job I hate can finally end, YAY!  Other than that I have been running round like a crazy bastard trying to get my band together.

But don’t despair I still found time to go to some football (even if I haven’t found the time to write about it) first things first, the friendlies. In the interest of not giving our readers "World of Warcraft" levels of eyestrain I shall present my cliff notes versions of the ones I attended.
Saturday 23rd July - Orient - Home (friendly)
Pretty Boring but informative. Nice to see the new players and it was amusing to see how seriously the travelling "O's" took the fixture "bless!” 0-0

Tuesday 26th July - Wet Spam - Home (friendly)

Actually quite fun. The Daggers looked lively and if it wasn't for Robert Green clawing out Jake Reeds shot we could have walked out with a Draw (we should have shot for Greens feet!). 0-1 to the Hammers.

Saturday 30th July - Stevenage - Home (Friendly)

Was nice to see the fringe players run about especially injuries mounting. Overall, it was a pretty standard friendly.  1-2 to the Visitors.

Monday 1st August - Thurrock - Away (Friendly)

Probably my favourite pre-season game. Me the missus and a couple of fellow Daggers parked in between the dugouts listening to Wayne Burnett shout at everything in sight, simply awesome. Got to see Lee Goodwin being a manager and a lot of the trailists and fringe players looked pretty good. Ian Gayle (yes that one!!) Dwight Gayle, Osborn and Louis Dennis all impressed in our 5-0 win.
Oh Paul Terry didn’t try to shag my woman! Thumbs up all round then!



With Pre-season over all eyes turned to the opening trip to Macclesfield.

The night before I had requested an early wakeup call at about half 6 but at half 7 I was still glued with sleepy-time sweat to my pillow. Peeling myself from the bed I pulled on my brand new Daggers shirt, went through what I shall tactfully call "the morning routine!" and left for Vicky Road. We were greeted by the sight of about 100 or more early rising Daggers (hehehe that is officially my new term for "morning glory", BAD FMD!!! get your mind above yer navel!)

Saturday 6th August - Macclesfield Town - Away

Pleasantries where exchanged between people that hadn’t seen each other for 2 months and then we boarded the coach. The coach for today was a proper swish one and many of us spent a good 10 minutes playing around with the various features of the posh seats. "oooooh it goes sideways!!" the coach trundled up the motorway northbound and we watched "Paul" on the little flip down coach telly's The chatter on the coach reflected the optimism and nervousness a new season brings, I had a long chat with a relatively new Dagger who after last season is a self-proclaimed "life long convert". Good on ya mate!

Now the thing is, I can’t eat in the mornings. I have to have been awake a good couple of hours before my stomach even realises it exists, so I left without having any breakfast. The upshot of this was a very grumbling stomach about an hour into the journey! So you could imagine my relief when we finally pulled into the M6 toll road services. Sadly they were the worst services to buy food at! I wanted some hot food and I fancied a coffee (you know the kind, one of the ones that is really hard to say and remain viewed as a heterosexual, "Caramel Latté please!")

The two main food outlets were a typical service station hotplate convention and a burger bar called "The Burger Co". Burger sounded good to me so I opted for a "Bacon-Double cheeseburger" meal and the missus had a chicken Burger. My burger tasted like they had emptied the grease-traps into a bun and added ketchup, the 4 onion rings tasted like greasy cardboard. I was not impressed; you know one of those microwavable "rustlers" burgers? Yeah, it tasted about 10x worse than that. A bargain at £7 eh!!



After my disappointing meal I decided I couldn’t be bothered to join the mammoth queue for Costa, so instead I grumbled my way back to the coach and fell asleep. We rolled into Macclesfield and after a little confusion we parked outside Moss Rose. We bought our tickets then made for the Alfred McAlpine Stand which contains "Kieths Bar"  Named for the late Kieth Alexander who died just before the last time we faced the Silkmen. Was a nice new looking (if a little cramped) bar and I sank a much needed lager.


 Looking out of the bars window I could see both teams warming up and took in the ground. The first thing I noticed was the nearest stand to us the "Star Lane" end was an odd little stand, the front half was seating but the back half was Terraced, I’ve always had a soft spot for little quirks like that.



With kick-off approaching I picked up a programme and found a space in the tiny portion of the Alfred McAlpine Stand that was our allocation for today. An MC came out (no not the rapping kind ya silly kiddies!) and informed us that today was a family day and tried (unsuccessfully) to whip up the Silkmen....Silk..Women?  Silkpersons!! yeah that's it. Tried to whip the Silkpeople into a frenzy. A smattering of polite unimpressed applause was his reward, but when he acknowledged the travelling Daggers we made more noise than the other 3 and 3/4 stands combined! Yay us!

Overall I have to say this felt to me like a shaky game, what felt like a new team was trying to find its collective feet and work as a unit, and The Silkmen took advantage of this with Waide Fairhurst coming close twice early on, but The daggers had their own chances with new boy Howell and fan favourite Johnny Nurse both having a go. With Robbo gone (oh yeah forgot to mention that!) Chris Lewington was our man between the sticks and did very well to keep out a Nat Brown header from close range. Elito nearly came close after a nice bit of headed back and forth between him and (our new number 7) Sam Williams. But all in all not a half to write home about but certainly not the worse I have seen.



The deadlock was finally broken at 60 minutes (quick side note; my golden goals ticket had "59" for fuck sake!). The Daggers had looked better in the 2nd half so far so we were glad to see Gavin Tomlin's free kick guided home by Arber... no Elito.... no Arber...errrrrrrr... hmmmm it's been given to Elito, fair enough! Either way we went nuts and celebrated our first goal of the season.

Lewington made game winning saves when he parried away Tomlinson’s volley and blocked an Emile Sinclair shot, but sadly his last contribution was a very controversial sending off for handling the ball outside of the box, which no one in the away end saw. We went absolutely fucking mental and the last 10 minutes of the game were an exercise in referee hatred. Bile flowed onto the pitch until the final whistle calmed us down. It now looks like there may have been a handball from the follow-up shot making the red card justified. But I stand by our outburst of contempt, we are here to support the boys and we didn’t think it was handball at the time and we made the appropriate noise.

I mean even the Macc's players were trying to tell the ref it was a header.
All in all I think we were a good crowd, in good voice and 3 points was a welcome start to the season. It wasn’t until the last few minutes of the match that the prophecy of rain was finally fulfilled. We walked through the rain to the coach and settled in for the (damp) journey home.




The Tuesday after The Daggers lost 5-0 to Bournemouth in our annual first round exit from the league cup. I myself didn't go and could only listen up to the third goal before an amazing wave of apathy washed over me (you know the kind, the kind that means you can decide not to care about your team receiving a battering) so I turned off the commentary and had a cry in the corner. I mean a beer.

Next on the horizon was our first home game against Football League newcomers AFC Wimbledon. I don't need to outline the Dons rise to league status here as every site/paper/sports show has already well covered it. Nethertheless here they were and they needed their first league win.

Saturday 13th August - AFC Wimbledon - Home
Saturday morning saw a welcome return to my home game routine. I sat myself on the couch and watched Soccer AM with a cuppa. I rang around my little posse and confirmed that our lot would indeed be making for The Bell, spot on!

TV off and home shirt on, we made for the pub (via Tesco’s for a sarnie). It was great to have that match day feeling back.  I love the way that nearly all the locals will wish us luck when they see us in the red and blue. I can’t be the only one to notice this.



After a couple of pints kick off was approaching, so we jumped on the 103 and rolled on to Vicky road. Due to a couple of people dithering whilst trying to get on the bus we arrived about a minute after kickoff and before we had got through the turnstiles I could hear the Wombles in full voice. After wedging myself into my favoured spot in the sieve I took in the game.

The first half hour I thought we looked really good, we were getting the ball down and passing it about and we certainly looked in more control than we had at Macclesfield. Wimbledon hardly got a shot in and the Daggers came close so many times. Williams, Nurse and Lee all had chances that never became goals. Towards the end of the half the Dons woke up a little and this little rash of enthusiasm lead to a throw near our box. As the long throw came in Scott Doe controlled it with his arm in the box and conceded a penalty, which was deftly converted by Luke Moore.



At this point I decided to go for a burger and I watched the rest of the half from the back of the sieve with a mouth full of bacon cheese burger. I have to say I wasn't too concerned with the score at this point. We had controlled the game for the most had looked very threatening at times and I honestly thought we would get at least a point from the match.

But the second half was a different affair all together. We gave it a go don’t get me wrong, but when our defence let Rashid Yussuff take a superb strike from outside the box to make it 2-0 it was safe to say the writing was on the wall. The daggers heads dropped, our fans heads dropped and anyone to do with AFC Wimbledon were having a ball and it showed. I think as fans we were a little disappointing, not much song was in the air and I think the was an air of entitlement to the three points that were on offer than day. Sadly this is football no one is entitled to anything!





Despite 5 minutes of us getting corners and Phil Walsh coming so close, the Wombles walked out with three points and a song in their heart. We filed out in silence with no points and a big doom cloud above our heads. There was no clapping after the final whistle and a few boos could be heard. The players walk around to clap the crowd was decidedly short and subdued and only a few stayed to clap them back. Daggers had made history once again, this time for being the first league club to lose to AFC Wimbledon.



In the Bell afterwards the mood was a little grey and when I got home and flipped on my laptop the forum was ablaze with criticism, counter-criticism and mudslinging. But amongst it all I think we know this will be hard season. League 2 this time round is a much harder league but on the good side last year we beat two of the biggest sides in this league (Bristol, Swindon,)

And a top half finish is on the cards, honest!

I really hope we beat Swindon, I really do! But we need to get behind the team and make some noise!




Chin up Daggers!!
(That goes for you lot too)

FMD
Next – Swindon, and Dicannio returns to East London.

The Big Weekend

"call it half eleven man", "no problem dude" "poxy call of duty lol" this was the text conversation between myself and Jerk as i waited for him to get his hairy arse in the seat of his car to drive me and the missus to the land of cheese and cider. "Im now running even later due to no hot water...  ...wont be too late mate, just sorting my stuff out" "lol yeah yeah, enjoy your xbox time" at just before midday the bearded one pulled up outside our house and we loaded up the car with the supplies for a weekend for a weekend in the west country.

King F*ck "the Daggers Duck" our official away day mascot!

The journey up was pretty uneventful, but nether less filled with with all the classic witty and bollocks filled conversations that typify our road trips. The roads weren't to busy and the sun was bright in the sky, sunglasses were the order of the day. We stopped off briefly for some grub in the form of fried chicken at South Mimms services and stopped off for a game of Rambo and Guitar Hero further up the road. Today the main Musics for the road were some Burzum, some Dethklok and whatever my ipod shuffled up. The night before i had stayed up putting all my music back on the little silver box as it had recently crashed and corrupted all data. well it seems all this had been in vain as my little box of Steve Jobbs excrement was well and truely on the fucking blink! skipping songs half way through and refusing to play others.

We arrived in Weston-super-mare around five-ish and parked up in the Tesco car park. Jerk was spending the weekend with friends there but our journey still had one more leg. MrsMetal's cousin, Andy picked us up to take us to our destination in the small medieval city of Wells (the town they shot "Hot Fuzz" in) after an hour or so journey on the winding country roads we arrived. After some catching up Andy and his Dad took me out to participate in the local sport of skittles.

Todays skittles match was an away tie for Andy's team (top of the table) "Mendip Casuals" so we travelled to Shepton Mallet Town AFC to face (bottom of the table) "Cider Lads". For anyone who has never seen skittles it it like bowling without holes in the balls, gutters at the sides and everyone gets drunk, in short, it's pretty fekkin awesome. tonight I was an extra, thus was allowed to play but my score would not count towards the actual match. it was great watching everyone play with they're own individual styles and quirks and the atmosphere was friendly but competitive. When it was my turn to step up, a mumble went up as everyone wondered who this long haired Londoner in an ice hockey jersey was. in my first shot I took out most of the pins and after my three throws had scored a respectable 8, from then on every time i stepped up i was treated to shouts of  "Come on Barking!!" (good to know if i ever join the team i have my nick-name already!) sadly the Casuals lost in a close fought game, but I set my self a personal record of 38, 2 points shy of (Andy's brother) Phil's personal record.


"Barking" King of Skittles!!!

after the game we sat down for cheese, bread and preserves to soak up the vast amounts of alcohol. When the locals found out I was a Dagger the first thing they all asked about was local boy Luke Wilkinson, i explained that what i had seen of him was pretty good, but at the moment he was on loan to boreham wood. we then left for home, where more beer was consumed and i embarressed myself by playing a dance game on Kinect then sang "My Own Summer" by the Deftones on Rock band. all in all a good night, but tomorrow was a very important game!

Saturday March 5th 2011 - Bristol Rovers - Away

I woke up at 7:30 with a very dry mouth and a banging headache, the lake of lager i had drunk the night before had taken its toll. I downed the rest of the ribena i had taken to bed the night before. In need of more liquid i made for the bathroom, where I sat on the toilet drinking glasses of water and willing my headache to go away. Back in bed i opened up my laptop and perused the forums and facebook untill everyone started to wake up. I went downstairs in search of a paracetamol to kill this forsaken headache, Phil and Andy's mum Kathy presented me with a much needed cup of tea and a huge breakfast which was most definitely needed. With breakfast done we left for Bristol, our group consisted of; Me, the missus, Phil (rovers) and Andy (city) and thier dad Gary (also Rovers).

We caught the bus from Wells bus station into Bristol, ipaid £7 for an "all day rambler" and a nice relaxing hour long journey through fields and villages later we pulled into Bristol bus station. A short walk to another bus station and then a nother short bus and we alighted close to the Memorial stadium. We ducked into The Royal Oak for a pint, then found out that all the daggers were heading to The Wellington just up the road. So we downed our pints and headed up the hill to meet our fellow Daggers. At the pub i introduced my adopted familys to eachother and we drank. Phil and Gary then said they're goodbyes as they wanted to get into the ground, Andy stayed with us because as a city fan he decided to join us in the away end and be a dagger for the day. With drinks finished we made for the Mem'.


Me & "Dagger for a Day" Andy

I picked up a programme and we walked round the back of the Uplands stand to the far end of the open air terrace that is designated as the away end. The ground itself is definitely not a souless bowl, it's a bit of a melting pot of designs and looks a bit more like a rugby stadium (which it is) than a football stadium. In front of us was the DAS stand which bore a resembelence to Orients main stand.the terrace we were standing on stretched in front of the uplands stand, those of us who didnt want to stand where seated in one of the temporary stands next to the portaloos at one end of the pitch along with some Brizzle fans oppasite them was the Blackthorn stand, which is where Phil and Gary would be.

the match itself was definatly not pretty, both sides knew how important it was and there was a nervous tension in the air. News came through that Phil Ifil would be in for Abu Ogogo who had taken a knock in training, this was not welcome news as Ifil had become a bit of a target for criticism in his last stint at right back. More unwelcome news was that the daggers would be lining up 4-5-1 and those who had been at the Walsall game saw this as a bad omen. within the first 15 the worries of the travelling Daggers were nearly justified when a shot deflected off of Will Hoskins and nearly looped in only to land on the roof of the net, this was followed shortly by a cross which found the head of Danny Coles who nodded towards goal but an outstretched Tony Roberts fingertipped the ball out into the path of Rene Howe who kicked his chance straight back at Robbo but he couldnt hold onto it and it bobbled about in the box, Hoskins swiped at it only for it to hit the bar and bounce back to the head of Coles who nodded it straight into the welcome arms of our 'keeper. Everyone in the away end breathed a sigh of relief and i'm still not sure how they didnt score. Down at the other end Danny Green whipped in a cross which Solomon Taiwo got his head onto only for it to fly just over, gameon!

Damien McCrory went down with a knee injury with 10 minutes of the first half left and i must admit that having both of our current second choice fullbacks on made me a little nervous, especially considering Rovers where playing top scorer Hoskins as a right winger. It wasnt till right at the end of the first half that the deadlock was finally broken; Nurse put a good through ball into the path of Romain Vincelot who was tripped by (brother of our right back) Jerel Ifil, with Romain being the last man there was only one outcome and after a brief session of "handbags" (which included Gain getting all riled up and his shirt ripped) the red card was shown. Despite Danny Green placing the ball on the spot, the play was brought back to edge of the box for a free kick. Greeny stepped up and smashed the ball into the top corner (with a slight deflection off the wall) 1-0 to the daggers! We cheered and danced, including a nice little jig with me and Jerk. The wistle went for half time and with a man advantage you felt we had to come out of this winners.

So far it had been a nervous game and before the sending off and subsequent goal i couldnt honestly describe myself as confident. At times it seemed the 5 man midfield was causing a traffic jam, but the 1-0 lead was not to be sniffed at! As for the crowd, we had been in good spirits and sung for most of the game even if the open air terrace meant all our noise was somewhat dissapated into the cold bristol air. Being told we could only use the drum in moderation was quite funny though, i guess us using it for every chant and song must not be overdoing it becuase we recieved no complaints. There had been some top banter with the players warming up infront of us with rendisions of "he's got carrots on his feet" being met with applause from the pitch and special mention has to go to Phil Walsh for giving us a song as requested. After a quick trip to the toilet (conveniently situated right behind us) and a very tasty pasty (which i found out are only available in the away end) i was back in place ready for the second half.

The second half i have to say Rovers really stepped up their game and didnt let our man advantage scupper them. The Gas-Heads in the stand next to us had a chance to celebrate for about 1/10 of a second when Howe put a low cross to an offside Hoskins who netted but the linesman made the right call and no goal was given. And if once wanst enough it happened again, Hoskins danced past our defence and put a through ball into the box but Howe started his run prematurely and despite finding the net, was offside and for the second time The Gas found themselves scoring a non-goal. The Daggers switched things around and Darren Currie came off for former Bristol City man Bas Savage, straight away we started singing for Savage because we knew what would be coming from the home fans and sure enough for about 5 minutes all they did was sing their anti-Savage song (somehting about the way the Bristolians say "wankerrrrr" tickles me!). Bas nearly shut them up when Gains low ball deflected off of (the possibly fouled again) Vincelot and Savage got onto the loose ball and fired for goal. Sadly the Pirates on-loan keeper Conrad Logan got over well to save it. Danny Coles day ended prematurely when he went off injured for Rovers after tripping over Bas and injuring himself ,he had to be stretchered off.

We finally got the second goal to see us safe from a corner, Danny Green whacked it into the box and it was (who else but) Romain Vincelot who headed in into the goal. The home end started to clear and the walkway above and to the right of us was filled with Gas-Heads who wanted out! some clapped us others gave us the finger, we didnt care the points where pretty much ours and even someone remarking "remember Tranmere" couldn't fill me with any doubt. The final whistle went and we cheered the boys and the much needed 3 points they had earned. We clapped the lads and sang every player song we had, then spent about ten minutes trying to get Bas to moonwalk but he wouldnt, his moonwalks are saved for goals! So hurry up score Bas, we want another moonwalk! 

We then conga'd out of the ground a line of happy Daggers, I had to escape the Conga for fear of getting Conga'd onto the coach and getting a premature trip back to London. Everyone else got back on the coach but Me, MrsMetal', Jerk and (Daggers for the Day) Andy and (Jerks Friend) Fred went to meet Gary and Phil before heading to the bus stop. Whilst waiting for the bus i saw a Rovers fan scowling at me from the top deck, I smiled at him and he stuck 2 fingers up at me, "that's right" i thought "2-0!" and we threw some hand gestures back his way (not that i condone such behaviour!). We boarded a bus and stopped off for a pint in the city centre before going our seperate ways; us back to Wells, Jerk and Fred back to Weston, with nothing to look at but very very very dark fields i crashed out on the bus back to Wells.

Another very good day!

I woke up the next morining without the hangover of the morning before, but alot later. after tea and toast i was taken on a tour of Wells where i eagerly sought out and was showed all of the main locations from "Hot Fuzz" and acted like a complete tourist. I was offically christened as a citizen of Wells when i tripped and put my foot straight into the running water channels that line either side of all the roads. The cathederal is very nice, and I bought 2 little Catapults and a gargoyles head keyring fromt he gift shop. After a pasty it was time to go back and pick up our bags then onto Weston to meet Jerk for the trip home (with a drive through Cheddar Gorge as per my request).


Me standing next to where Tim Messenger got "splatted"


  Jerk was a little worse for ware after what sounded like the second heavy night on the trott for him. So we slowly drove home with a few stops at services for food an coffee. Once again many pounds where pumped into fruit machines and games of chance and all prizes will be coveted as prizes of a great trip until the day they break or are lost. We got back home at about midnight and i had a giant cup of tea before retiring to bed and falling asleep watching "Aqua Teen Hunger Force"   

A third very good day.

Come on you Daggers!!! oh,  and remember...

FxMxD

Next - Colchester, let's see if it can finish with all player conscious.

A Bland Affair

Tuesday 15th February 2011 - Walsall - Away

As a club, I really have little against Walsall.  Their fans have always seemed down to earth and realistic about their clubs position. I don’t have much positive to say about The Banks’ Stadium however. In a modern age where there is no need for supporting columns restricting view in newly built stands/stadiums, why was the cheaper option taken?  What could be a decent little stadium is hampered by a poor view at times.  Altogether, quite frustrating.  Nevertheless a very decent and welcoming clubhouse exists at the stadium, numerous local beers on sale (such as the Hannibal Nectar) with hot and cold snacks available too.

The trip began with a morning taking photographs of various squirrels bottoms (I kid you not) and looking into a lake that had been drained. No away game is ever normal – why should this be any different? After our group of three had met up, we set off nice and early in the hope we’d arrive in Walsall to experience some of the ultra interesting things it has to offer, such as Morrisons and Comet – neither of which we bothered with in the end…I cant help but feel we missed out somehow.



The drive up was thankfully largely traffic free, which makes a nice change from the usual M6 nightmare.  This meant that after attacking Guitar Hero at Toddington, and Paul touting for business on toilet doors, we arrived so early that the car park behind the away stand hadn’t even been opened.  Being the experienced driver, Don decided to drive into it anyway – a wise move in the end owing to how busy it became afterward.



Walsall.  The coldest zone in the least popular of the Teletubbie themed football hotbeds, Poland.  Also known as Birmingham.  Walsall has never been an area ive associated with the word ‘interesting’. After a brief look online for interesting facts about Walsall, I found nothing.  Literally…other than the fact they have a giant sign next to the M6 – the worlds busiest road. Wow. It seems to have a slightly melancholic edge to it, not just around the stadium but in general. The sky was grey, and a strange wet residue was falling from it onto our heads.  This was solid evidence we had gone some distance North. I was well out of my comfort zone at this thought.  Its bad enough knowing that the North of England exists, let alone having to actually go there.  At some stage peoples voices change n dey awl tawlk loyk deeees. It can be frightening at first, but you soon get used to it. Something was said to me about a ticket for the car park whilst I was having a cigarette outside the clubhouse, but im not sure what it was as I couldn’t understand the fellow and wasn’t listening anyway.

Just prior to kick off, news had reached us that our Spartan-like away following was deemed so insubstantial we were to be relocated to the corner of the Walsall Bite Size Stand rather than housed in the Dains Stand usually offered to visitors.  The latter is located opposite what is easily the most impressive stand of the four, complete with (I’m told) a decent bar in the middle level – which may explain why we didn’t see that many home supporters in the clubhouse we were in.



I have to admit, I didn’t sample any of the food on offer at the ground.  The usual seemed to be on offer though, pies, burgers, chocolate bars – and the standard vegetarian option was available from the taps.  Its always nice to see clubs doing their best for
vegetablists.

The game was a bland affair.  A disappointing Daggers performance and another late goal saw that we left Walsall with no points.  The rain had made playing conditions a bit treacherous, and it looked at time as though there was a chance that if the rain didn’t ease the game
could have been in danger.  Walsall deserved their win, it has to be said.  It appeared we came out too negatively, as if we were looking for the draw, and the good run we had had prior to kick off was put right to the back of our minds in the 81st minute when Grigg scored
the winning goal.  Walsall had threatened all match, despite my obvious bias there is no way I could hand on heart sit here writing this report and say that the game should have ended any other way.  As far as the result seemed to effect the standings at the bottom of the table Walsall continued to make decent progress in their attempts at avoiding the drop and things still appeared glum for The Daggers.



not actually written by our Paul BTW

Still, onward and upward!

JerkFromTheCoach


Next - A spirited encounter with Huddersfield

A Game of 2 Halves, In a Ground with 3 Sides

I just couldn't sleep, I don't know why. I often have trouble sleeping but when you are planning on travelling to the other end of the country some sleep is preferable. The hours just melted away through the night until the sun started to poke mockingly through the curtains. Well that was that no sleep tonight. No matter, tea is my savoir!
I jumped into the shower and got myself ready for the long journey ahead. My stomach wasn’t up to food really but I managed to get 2 slices of bun loaf down me followed by more tea. Jerk Pulled up outside, the journey was on! Oldham here we come!!

Saturday 5th Match – Oldham Athletic - Away

I jumped in the back of the car said hello to Jerk' and Don, I took our scarves and trapped them in the back windows so our colours could fly behind us as we burned up the country. It was a grey cloudy day and you knew going north the weather wasn’t going to improve. The music for this journey would include Japanese black metal band "Si", an interesting band to say the least! We made our first service stop for some grub, where I indulged in a KFC big daddy burger, named after the classic wrestler of the same name (maybe). Also KFC gravy is the best side order ever! Fact! DO NOT DOUBT ME!!!



Back on the road the next stop en route to Oldham was the scenic winding road of the Snakes Pass and a couple of hours later we were there and even on a wet misty like this it was very nice and a reminder  that not all England is grey concrete. By now the rain had started to piss down and rumours that the game might get called off and as we got deeper down the pass phone reception became nonexistent. We stopped off at a river to take in the view for a while before continuing up the pass. Half Way up was a little pub called The Snakes Pass Inn which we pulled into for a quick pint (not for the driver obviously). It was a lovely little pub and the locals didn’t seem too put off by the rag tag mob now occupying the window table with the nice view. back in the car it was time to navigate past Manchester and onto Oldham and the satnav was telling us that despite our diversions we would make Boundary Park in good time and with phone signal restored it seemed that our game would be one of the only in the area that would still be on.


me - taking in the country air

the view from the pub car park

We pulled into the car park and found a space. From the outside Boundary Park looked every one of the 100 or so years old it was, it was safe to say it had seen better days with its missing north stand. I would have quite liked to have seen it in better days. We walked up a grassy hill and round the back of the Rochdale Road stand to the away entrance.



The typical hole in the wall was serving the  normal array of pies and burgers as well as some bottles of beer I helped myself to a couple of lagers and we stood around contemplating the match ahead. Despite the brilliant result against Brentford earlier in the week no one in our group could be described as "confident of points" and with this being the second match in Danny Greens suspension we knew this would be tough. Thirst Quenched we made for our seats, we had been given the last block on the left hand side of the Rochdale Road stand. To our right was an empty block of seats then a small wall and trench on the other side of this was a section of home fans and this section seemed to be filling with kids! As far as the eye could see all there was were pre-pubescent loud mouths. And with zero sarcasm I knew; this was gonna be fun!!


it's grim up north

The wet conditions didn’t make for the most beautiful game of football and from the off it was clear this was going to be a three way battle between both teams and the elements. A lot of the game was spent bogged (almost literally) in midfield. The hosts had the first real chance on goal when Filipe Morais couldn't quite nod Aiden White's cross home instead it bounced just wide and a little later from the other wing Oumare Tounkara's cross was headed just over by Chris Taylor. At the other end of the field the Daggers continued to battle and only some great goalkeeping from Ben Amos stopped John Nurse from scoring a volley from a Billy Bingham corner. As the half time whistle went it felt like a game we could just nick but at the same time a goal at the wrong end could send us back south with nowt! As expected being so close to the home crowd had meant banter had been full on throughout and after being asked "who the fucking hell" we were and us telling them about all the  different leagues they'd managed to fuck up it was safe to say things were quite boisterous. The low average age in the block next to us had brought out the poet in many of us as classics such as "sit down, or go to bed with no tea!" were flung with glee across the stand.


don't they have homework to do?

After another lager and a chilli chicken pie (not the best, to be fair) I was back at my seat and ready for the second half. Early on Johnny Nurse nearly gave us something to cheer about when he ran on to the ball in the box only to slam it into the side netting. Then it happened, Chris Taylor got the ball down the left wing as the Dagger's defence backed away, he put the ball into the path of Dale Stephens who struck the ball. As soon as it left his feet you knew there was no way Robbo was going to save it, this thought was punctuated by a rippling net and a thousand pre-pubescent kids screaming in delight and then gloating at us. Weather we stood there stoically like defiant monoliths against the northern tirade or fell to our knees with our heads in our hands and sobbed, I can’t quite remember!  One thing I do remember was a rousing rendition of "only scored one goal, only scored one goooooal, how shit must you be, you've only scored one goal!". Then I think we reminded them of all the leagues they had been relegated from, gracious in defeat as always! 



It was looking like a long journey home and would have been worse if not for a fine save to keep out shots from both Taylor and Morais. The ball went out for a throw halfway inside the Oldham half; Nurse took the long throw quickly into the box, the ball bounced in front of Romain Vincelot who deftly nodded it past Amos and into the net for an equaliser, 1-1!! Our little crowd exploded as the home crowd descended into silence. We were on for a point now; we just had to hold on. Despite it feeling very tense neither side came awfully close to a goal, but Peter Gain managed to get himself sent off after going in high on one of the Oldham players. Then something really weird happened, the ball went out for a throw on our far left, inside the Oldham half. When I suddenly realise there were now two balls on the pitch, one of which was being taken by an Oldham layer towards our goal. Realising the confusion the Daggers defence got back and managed to put it out for a corner which was played in, knocked into the air, caught by Robbo then spilt, before Roberts pounced on it to make it safe. Needless to say anyone in the away section would have been very upset to concede a goal there as it didn’t seem to be just us caught out by the extra ball!


the gap where the Broadway Stand used to be

Finally the whistle blew and The Daggers had secured another point against another former Premiership team. It was a point that more than justified the long journey. We gave the lads a round of applause as all the kids that had been taunting us filed out in begrudging silence. We said farewell to the Daggers who would be getting the coach home and made our way back to the car. It took a while for all of the cars to squeeze out of the car park but we got out eventually and started on the long journey home. As the long dark roads rolled beneath us my earlier lack of sleep started to catch up with me and the thermoses of coffee became my savoir, even so every so often I would nod off only to be woken by my own snoring.



 Further south it was decided we should stop for some dinner and my gurgling stomach most definitely agreed, after a brief discussion we decided it was time to sample the delights of the OK Diner. So the next half hour was spent peering into the darkness trying to find one on the southbound side of the motorway, A cheer went up in the car as we spotted the neon lights in the distance. We pulled into the car park and entered the palace of hot food; it was a nice chain diner with all the American regalia you could hope for strewn across the walls. I ordered an obscenely huge hotdog with chilli, cheese and onions on, with curly fries and a chocolate and peanut butter milkshake. All were superb and I couldn’t clean the plate for fear of exploding! Fully fed we hit the road for the rest of an uneventful journey and when I finally stepped through my door my bed was all I wanted and it didn’t take long for me to completely zonk out.


droooooool!

Another awesome day out, following the daggers!!

FxMxD

Next - I watched us play Yeovil and Jerk ran a relay race from bed to bathroom!