Away Days - Frickley

4pm and it’s all aboard Tony’s coach for our trip to Frickley, a scattering of committee, even fewer players but with the manager and Sempie on board I was sure we could get a result. Off we set only to spend 45 minutes crawling through road works just to get to Chill Factor. Memories of New Mills traffic jams came flooding back and we did ok there. Traffic cleared and away we went through the rain to pick up the rest of our lads freezing at Junction 19. The rest of the journey passed quickly eating Tin Tin’s sweets and saw us reach the home of The Blues by before 6.30 where we were met by the club stalwarts pointing us in the general direction of the bar.   I settled down with my usual can of coke while Sempie went to reacquaint himself with a ground he had previously visited with Wigan in their non-league days. Not a lot had changed apart from the slag heap had gone and was now a country park. One chap remembered the game so a bit of reminiscing over the cider passed the time away.  Unfortunately a trip to the club shop could not provide a Frickley badge, our first failure of the season, however we were given a mobile number to call to order one.  

Match time was approaching and the call for food was getting stronger. Off we went to the other side of the ground to Big Fellas snack bar, the pie rating was poor, a generous amount of mushy peas was only to camouflage a pie burnt to within an inch of its life  but the cheeseburger was ok.  More importantly the people were friendly and chatting to several fans showed the true worth of the club. These were football people who loved the club even if things didn’t always go well. Tales of finger biting last day of season, winning your game but still depending on other results to maintain your place in the league were told on the bitterly cold concrete of Frickley. We told our tales of playoff penalty shoot outs and the pure joy of winning through.

Our few travelling fans huddled together; George and Cappy raised the flag, and off our team set. First half was a good end to end game of football. Brilliant goal by Lewis Lacey had us jumping for joy, before an equaliser quickly brought us down to earth. Half time we sampled soup and Bovril to try and beat the chill, both failed miserably. Never mind the lads are back out again. It was all going ok until the 68th minute when their captain scored what turned out to be the winner.  The final whistle was greeted with great joy to Frickley fans, and a never mind we go again Saturday attitude from us.

Back to the club house, sharing a drink with the thoughtful manager, waiting for our lads to demolished well-earned  pie & chips. Tony was waiting with the bus revved up and ready to go. It was a very quiet trip! The only eventful thing on the way home was a bizarre sighting of the Simpsons on a garden patio. That’s Yorkshire folk for you.  

Ratings

Game:         8/10   

Ground:      5/10   dated but big renovation plans in offing

Program:      ?       to mean to buy

Food:             4/10    Barbara & Kath have no competition from here

Fans:              5/10    lovely elders but youngsters foul mouths let   them down

Value for money:    8/10   £9 admission it better than usual £10 at this level

Referee:                   8/10   Didn’t notice him so he did ok

My Man of the Match: surprise surprise it’s not Gallers (he didn’t share his sweets) but Rory Fallon again.

By

Lynda, The Tea Lady