Away days - Glossop North End

I left work with a dilemma: Do I go home first, quickly grab some tea and then leave for Glossop or head off into Manchester, do a little bit of Christmas shopping and grab a bite to eat then head off to Glossop. ? I went for the latter. However, by the time I was ready to set off to Glossop, I'd only managed to buy myself 2 jumpers and have a pint of lager and no food... not very productive!

Anyway, I arrived in Glossop after stopping at every random station possible! The ground was only a 10 minute walk from the station and I tried to head for the big tower (as instructed), although this proved difficult in the pitch black conditions.

The ground itself is pretty decent. Lovely little club house and the pitch not too bad (a little slanted).
A quick pint downed and it was out for the first half. A fairly even and entertaining half that saw Trafford go in 1 up at half time.

The second half saw Glossop play above their league status and they had most of attacking play but they missed many chances/Kieran made some brilliant saves (depending on how you want to look at it!). It was a very scrappy half with lots off niggly fouls, Glossops number 5 particularly liked hugging anyone in Yellow!

Some cracking banter with the linesman and one or two Glossop locals and before we knew it, the full time whistle had gone. Trafford held on for a 1-0 win and into the semi-finals.

A lift home from taxi Tim and Mel and finally I grabbed some tea... peanutbutter on toast!

Non-league football - you can't beat it!

RATINGS

Game - 7
Value for Money - 8
Ground - 7
Beer - 6 (Carling not great!)
Referee - 8 (Linesman - 2 haha)
Man of the Match - Kieran O'hara

Andy Glinka

Ground Grading Volunteers

Next week, Shawe View will be ground graded!
Therefore, the club have asked for any volunteers to come down to the club this Sunday (1st December) from 11am to help out with various tasks.
As always it will be greatly appreciated.

Whilst I'm posting, a couple of reminders. 1) Supporters meeting is on Thursday December 5th, Nags Head at 8pm. Sandwiches and killer pool after, and 2) Christmas Curry is on December 14th. Deposits of £5 asap if you wish to attend. We currently have around 40 names down so should be a cracking evening!

Cheers

AG

Next Meeting

Hi! Just a post to inform everyone that the next supporters meeting is on Thursday 5th December, 8pm at the Nags Head.
Lots to discuss including player of the month for November.

Killer pool and sandwiches after!

Hope to see you all there.

Andy Glinka

Away Days - Stamford

Stamford - That Bloody Ref...

Another early start as I set off at 9.15am to board the coach that left on time at 9.45. Sempie mentioned a cold was developing so I decided not to sit next to him, maybe that was his plan! Matty Brown was the last one on board and he grabbed a seat next to me.

Two hours, overhearing Sempie sing to himself and an in depth discussion about parenthood later, we arrived at a lovely pub somewhere in North Lincolnshire for breakfast. I must say, Foxy does a great job at finding these places as the food and beer served was cracking. The breakfast was demolished in my usual animalistic way, to Matt Browns amazement and there was a chat about possible design ideas for future Trafford FC away kits – Dave Browns pink with spots on was a firm favourite! It was upon leaving here I realised that this was going to be another away day where I would do well to remember any of it!

Half an hour or so later, we arrived in Stamford. A 10 minute walk into the town centre with Cappy’s tours and we were soon sampling some more lovely ciders in another lovely pub. Cappy was in his element, although I put a slight dampener on his day by whooping him at pool!

The walk back to the ground saw us stop off at a hotel bar, where half a cider and a shot of rum sent Sempie back some £8!! As lovely as Stamford was, it was equally expensive!

I don’t normally do any info about the club but it was interesting to find out that Stamford’s nickname is The Daniels – named after Britains fattest ever man, who came from those parts. Brilliant. If I get fat, I wonder if Trafford could adopt a nickname in my honour!?

Anyway, Stamford is a club in a similar situation to ourselves in the league (we’d both be near the top if you switched the table upside down!), so if ever there was a 6 pointer, this was it! The few of us that had made the journey all felt positive and had a good feeling about the outcome…

… Inside the ground we were less confident about the type of game we’d see as the pitch itself was poor (and that’s being kind). The grounds man had obviously taken a sabbatical – either that or the lawn mower had stopped working! The game kicked of and the Trafford faithful had been joined by singing superstar, Foxy. 3 minutes in and we were one-up, captain for the day, Shelton Payne getting the goal. The game was then very scrappy, an equaliser and another Shelton goal saw us go in at half time 2-1 to the good. Other highlights were seeing Martyn Andrews (suspended for the game) getting involved and shouting encouragement from the side of the pitch. A definite future manager if ever I saw one!

The second half was very scrappy, a proper non-league game with Stamford doing most of the pressing but Trafford defending as a team and looking comfortable… until the 90^th minute when Stamford were given an early xmas present from the ref/linesman in the form of a penalty when a) Kieran got the ball and b) their player was offside anyway!

All in all, a draw was fair but it was so frustrating to concede in that manner. Straight to the bar and whether it was drowning my sorrows or celebrating a hard-fought point, the outcome equated to lots of alcohol! This would also equate to lots of my usual waffling. I think, and I say think because I can’t really remember, that Goodie and Minnie got the short straw of my repeated ramblings on the way home. The two beers in my pocket and two ciders on my seat meant the waffling was going to last all the way home.

Back in Manchester and a visit to the Nags head was clearly called for. More beer meant more waffling. This time (I think) Tom Schofield was on the end of my wise words haha!

All in all, I had another cracking day out. This game is why I love Trafford/non-league football. A 9.45 start, visiting places I’ve never been, plenty of beers with plenty of good folk, chatting (sh*t) to players/management (although they probably don’t enjoy this as much as me haha) and boring the wife with it all the next day!

Three away games on the trot undefeated now and another long away game out of the way. The future is bright.

Ratings

Ground – 4 (decent little clubhouse but the pitch was very poor)

Fans – 9 (people I spoke to were ace)

Beer – 5 No cider on tap!!!

Game – 5 very scrappy

Referee – 1 (would have been 8 or 9 but for THAT decision!)

MOTM – Shelton Payne (captain and 2 goals)

Andy Glinka

New Committee Members

As you may or may not know, Lynda, aka 'The Tea Lady' sadly resigned from her position on the TFCSC committee last week, due to some unfortunate abuse from some 'supporters' becoming too much for her. Lynda still remains a TFCSC member and continues to back and support us 100%.

As a result, we have now taken on two extra committee members in Jonny Escott and George Stephenson, welcome them on board guys!

New TFCSC committee members Jonny Escott and George Stephenson

MotM v Ashton United

With all the thunder and lightening before kick-off, some wondered if yesterdays game would actually go ahead. Good job it did as despite a nervy opening 30 minutes, where Trafford went 1-0 down and looked a bit slow, the end result and performance was just what we needed.

Nia looked somewhere near his best with a strong performance at the back and pushed the eventual winner all the way. But with two goals and an assist, Ritchie's MOTM went to Shelton Payne. a cracking performance and as we all know, on his day, there is non better!

The other main highlight was seeing Ritchie land on his arse as he fell up the mound in the slippery conditions... much to all our amusement!

Well done Shelton and see you all in Stamford on Saturday for ANOTHER massive game!

#TraffordFamily

Player of the Month - October

At yesterdays supporters meeting, it was decided by the vast majority that the player of the month award for October went to Kieran O'Hara.

Kieran, on loan from Manchester United and only 17 years old has shown maturity beyond his years and had an excellent month in goal, keeping 3 clean sheets (2 of which came against the the top two teams in the league at the time!).

Well done to Kieran and all the Trafford lads!

TFCSC's Dave Hornby with Player of the Month for October, Kieran O'Hara

Away Days - Whitby

Apologies to all our avid readers on the lack of an ‘away days’ for the Gresley game this was due to Holidays and illness, and we are grateful for the tweets and messages from people who missed it .

Anyway Whitby away, (a short version as I have a life and other things to do). With the usual start or rather usual late start, off we went on a rather uneventful journey except for the roller coaster that is the twisting roads in the pitch black that lead down to the lovely town of Whitby. We arrived about an hour before kick-off and while Cappy’s tours headed for Whitby’s bright lights, I joined Mr Browns boys beano and went for a stroll to a local inn. We were joined there by the ‘honeymooners’ Lynn and Chris who were staying in Whitby on a short break, that’s the way to watch an away game!!

Whitby history………… Dracula wuz ere and the Abbey is in ruins.

On getting back to a rather nice little ground ( please see other reports for the boring bits about it) Two teams played some good football and drew one all, nearly a good three points after goal by Rory but they equalised soon after.

Usually at matches our lovely physio is sight to behold, but tonight was….. well ….shall we say not as good, it was just a sight (everyone from TFCSC looks forward to seeing you back soon Robyn xx)

Full time, a couple of beers and a sleep home by 1.15

Great night!

Ratings

Game 7 very good

Ground 7 great place

Food 3 £4.60 for pie chips and gravy REFEREE

Fans 8 lovely people

VFM 7 £9 admission not the dreaded tenner

MOM Kieran O'Hara - some fabulous saves

Sempie

Player of the Month

Don't forget, you can vote for your Trafford FC player of the month for October at our next meeting.

The games this covers are:
Skelmersdale, Grantham, Corby, Fylde, Wakefield, Buxton and Chorley.

If you are unable to make next meeting (this Sat, 1pm at clubhouse) but would still like to vote, then you can do so by email, text or DM me via Twitter.

Cheers all