Away Day - Stalybridge Celtic 21.10.23

Last week, I tried and failed to persuade a non-Trafford FC going friend to come with me to Bootle, share some beers and watch the (not so at the moment) mighty Trafford. Despite the fact he's been going through a rough patch recently, he declined - I think he thought watching us would make him worse!

This week, and a different mate brought out a different outcome. My mate 'John' lives in Hyde, so I knew it wouldn't be too far distance wise for him to get there. He too was going through a rough patch at the moment and needed cheering up. Surprisingly, the idea of watching Trafford didn't put him off.

I'd pre-arranged a lift from Sniffer, with the aim of getting to the ground at 2pm, so 'John' would meet me there at 2pm. Now 'John' is never on time so I knew I'd be lucky to see him before KO. 2.30pm and no sign. I check my phone and a message from 'John': "I'm on my second bus - be there in 10 mins... I'm a bus w*nker!"

Whilst waiting, Matheus Braun flirted a little with me, telling me I looked ten years younger! I took the compliment but reminded Matt I was a married man. 10 mins or so later, my mate turns up - we sink a beer before KO and buy another pint each and make our way behind the goal for the first half.

'John' was impressed with our support and our catalogue of No.1 songs. The first half mainly consisted of me reminiscing about my Uni days with 'John' and watching Trafford defend resolutely. The half came and went pretty quickly. We dived into the bar for a half time beverage - supped a pint and again, went to buy another one for the second half. As a result, we missed the first five minutes - but no big deal.

'John' was now getting into the Trafford spirit; full on joining in with the songs, shouting at the ref and referring to Trafford as 'WE'. He was getting the bug for it. Trafford were much better in the second half also, especially the last 15 minutes where Trafford were the team on top and searching for a winner. A blatant penalty appeal was waved away by the referee to the dismay of Trafford's no.1 fan, 'John' and the rest of our supporters.

Apparently. his arm is in a natural position.

As time was ticking on, I was accepting that we weren't going to get the winner we were chasing. But then, Trafford's sub, Matt Lusakueno, did the full back with a beautiful bit of skill, got the ball to the by-line, and crossed it for Servuts to hit the ball towards goal, it may have flicked off the wonderful Mikey Burkes knee hair but it didn't matter - the ball was in the back of the net. Bedlam! I hugged 'John' and gave out a huge cheer! "The flags up - he's disallowed the goal", someone shouted out! Gutted. Now. as Lusakueno reached the by-line with the ball, I saw that it was close to going out, but you could definitely see that it DEFENITELY did NOT go out! 

The assistant ref confirmed after the game that this was definitely out of play!

We were outraged*! Our first win of the season would have to wait. The full-time whistle went and our fans rang out, "We love you Trafford", as the players and staff came over to applaud our efforts and we applauded theirs.

Back to the bar, and a couple more pints were supped before my mate 'John' had to leave to catch his two buses back to Hyde. I'm glad he came and hopefully he'll be back to cheer on the Trafford. Then the players came in. I approached a couple, told them to keep their heads up and that a point against a tough team away from home wasn't a bad result. They looked at me funnily. Sizing me up, "How drunk is he?" "Is he taking the Michael?" Then once they could sense I was being genuine, they informed me that we had lost the game 1-0!

I didn't believe it! I grabbed Leeky knights and asked him if this was the case. He confirmed it was. What!? 

It turned out, during the five minutes of the second half I missed due to being at the bar, Stalybridge had scored!!! I felt so surreal. I thought we'd scored a winner in the last minute and now I've got to deal with the fact we lost. 

Yet. I was still proud. Proud of our club, the way we played and the support we gave and will continue to give. We might have come away with nothing in terms of points, but I guarantee those will come. Keep the faith, boys.

I messaged my mate 'John' later that night and he replied saying he enjoyed it and finally arrived home after his tour of Tameside.

On one of our old Uni WhatsApp groups, someone asked how the game went a couple of days after. This was 'John's' reply:

I didn't have the heart to tell him we lost, he wasn't feeling great before hand and the 'result' seemed to leave him on the up - buzzing that Trafford got a point. Who am I to ruin that? Hahaha. 

My Trafford MOTM: Number 15, Matt Lusakueno - only came on as a sub but changed the game for us.

*I know the Stalybridge fans were also upset with one or two decisions by the ref, but that doesn't help too much when you're towards the bottom of the table and you need those decisions. But yeah, I accept the officials were poor all round.