Another Away Day – Marine (10/9/19)
Another Tuesday. Another mad dash from work. Another
Trafford away trip on a School night…ANOTHER SPLENDID VICTORY!!!
One week after the brilliant 7-2 at Kendal, and three days
after the bouncing home win over Bamber Bridge, the Boys-who-play-in-White travelled
to Crosby (North Liverpool) on a quest for three more League points.
I got home with literally seconds to spare before Matthaeus
would be picking me up. He had an empty seat in his VW so I persuaded Luigi to
come with me – His Mother wasn’t in so she couldn’t exercise her veto on him
going out with his dad on a Skool-night!
First we had to go to Sniffer’s to get the flags because
he’d been the most recent in a long line of gimps who ended up with the flagbag
after the last game. Sniff wasn’t travelling because he was “busy” but we found
him in his Mancave with NFL on the TV… Wearing a San Francisco 49-ers shirt.
And a helmet. And a beer towel hanging off his belt... hmmmmmm…
We headed west on the M62 and were pleased to hear the clinking
of bottles in a Sainsbury’s bag that Burkey had brought with him – You see,
this is why he’s a Committee Man. Well organised
There’s a pub in
Crosby called “The Burkey” (Scouse spelling “Birkey”) so we decided it would be
our pre-match pint location. We got out the Scouse Phrase book and practised
during the journey so that when we got there we would not be sussed out as the
Mancs that we are. “Aye aye Soft lad, fancy a bevy?” “Calm down yer Jellyhead”
and “Arrr-eh, here come der Bizzys” were rolling off our tongues by the time we
were ordering San Miguels and Lemonade.
Very soon there was only 10 minutes to kick off, so we
supped up and went outside to take a quick photo with a TFC flag and The Burkey
pub sign. We had to be rapid so we just took the first flag that came out the
bag……. the dark blue one with “MANCHESTER” splashed across it in huge white
letters! Passing cars beeped their horns and people shouted “Piss off yer Manc
gets!” as we did our Tourist poses then legged it quickly to the stadium
(during which a gust of wind took Mattheus’s Gillet off his back and deposited
it in someone’s front garden)
ABOVE: Bu(i)rkey’s Pub
LEFT: We missed this, the teams coming out, because of
taking the above photo!
Marine’s ground is quite impressive. The pitch is really
good, and although it’s hemmed-in down the sides by back gardens, there’s a
huge stand at one end and a decent terrace at the other. We found Faulkner,
Stew, Cappy, Tom and a few others and took up residence in a long narrow
touchline stand with a roof, towards the end which Trafford were attacking.
Very early on Coops pulled off a fantastic save. Bakers Boys
then settled down and a really entertaining game ensued, in which both teams
played a part. Once we’d got our flags up we started the repertoire of Trafford
songs and found the stadium acoustics very co-operative. We were met with some
singing from our left – “Oh Manchester is full of SHITE!” A bunch of teenage
Mariners were giving it, but we ignored them and they didn’t have any more
songs after that.
LEFT: Don’t put your pints on that flag shelf…
On the pitch Trafford were playing some great stuff – Schoey
and Rossi were ace in midfield, the defence was solid, and our attackers were
so quick, skilful & direct it was a sight to behold as Dec, Grimmy, Lewis,
Joel, and Toy went at them with gusto.
At half time it was 0-0, we followed our noses through a door
propped open by a chair into… a function room that was being used for
Slimming World! The bar staff were happy to serve us so we just got on with it.
For the 2nd half we set up in the other end of
the same stand. This this would give us the perfect view of what happened in
the 90th minute, but more of that later. For now, we were stood with
some of the committee members like Griff and Foxxy, plus El Presidente and Adrian
H. Some of these dudes joined in the singing! Foxxxxy in particular proved to be
a more than capable vocalist with his warm, syrupy baritone, quite reminiscent
of Max Bygraves in fact...
Early in the second half, Lewis Salmon bagged his 5th
goal in three games to put us 1-0 ahead. Trafford continued to play some great
football, but Marine weren’t out of it. They are a good side and around the 60
minute mark they scored an equaliser which made for a nervy last third. Tom
made a few changes which saw three subs on the pitch (JJ, Palmer and Palma) and
the magical Blancs continued to swarm all over Marine, with Toyeeb Mustapha
particularly impressive. It was after another “he gives defenders twisted
blood” run from our new right winger that Foxxxxxxy informed us that Toyeeb
likes to be called “T” which led straight to the song “T Will Tear You Apart
Again” Brilliant!
Cometh the hour,
cometh the man... Cometh the 90th minute, cometh DARIUS PALMA! You
could see exactly what he was gonna do, but you could also see there was
NOTHING anyone in Marine black & gold was gonna be able to do about it. And
so, Darius took the ball on the right, mesmerised the defender in front of him
with his footwork, stepped inside and curled a magnificent shot into the far corner
to give Trafford a joyous last-minute victory. The singing went on well after
the final whistle, and even into the dressing room! One of our number said it
was better than sex...
After a few chill-out pints and crisps in the Marine
clubhouse (and Paul Faulkner telling the MFC staff he was Trafford’s kitman –
earning himself a pie!) we got up and did an Elvis – left the building. We
tried to leave the flagbag with DC for Saturday’s home game with Marske, but he
wasn’t having it!
Yeah, Marske at home this Saturday – let’s ‘ave it!!
Muggsy
(football photos courtesy of @paulmoran62)
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