You're Supposed To Be At Home

Hinckley United – 1

Colwyn Bay – 3

So ever since that defeat to Chester Colwyn Bay have been on a bit of a downturn. The early season optimism was replaced with a run of defeats that saw us slump down the table. Even a victory against Warrington Town & taking the first points off Conference North new boys Brackley Town did little to lighten the mood, largely due to a disciplinary crisis. Nevertheless, two impressive performances in the FA Cup (that ultimately saw us eliminated) and a win against Hinckley United at home saw us unbeaten in the league in 2 games, the second best run of the season. A rearranged fixture vs Hinckley away at the Greene King Stadium could see us on our best league run since January.

In truth, although we had 14 available players for Hinckley, the Knitters were in a lot worse situation. With 3 solitary points and rooted to the foot of the Conference North, the new board of Hinckley United have actually come in and actually promised to sort out the finances rather than the team on the pitch. Even more surprisingly, the fans have accepted this, even if the reprieved team from Leicestershire last year seem odds on for the drop. It is admirable but understandable – I think most fans given the choice would rather watch an unsuccessful club than no club at all.

We left for Hinckley at the obscenely early time of 8:45 from Colwyn Bay, heading towards Leicestershire. Making a stop in Keele along the way (which was teaming with Reading and Blackburn Rovers fans), we made good time, and arrived at The Greene King Stadium.

The stadium in Hinckley is your typical new build stadium, located on the outskirts of the town. One thing that did strike me about Hinckley was how pretty the town was driving through it. Nevertheless, after bribing the driver to drop us in town, we headed to the local weatherspoons for a few drinks. At £1.69 a pint for ale, it’s probably one of the cheapest pints I’ve had on an away day. Which is great. Also the locals were incredibly friendly, with Hinckley United fans introducing us once they realised that we “weren’t Villa fans”. After putting the world to rights, and as the most sensible member of the Bay away crew, we organised taxis to take us to the ground.

The ground on the inside was nice, with surprisingly low advertising hoardings, a nice club shop and okay food (the chips were nice!), though the music played over the tannoys was painful, like listening to R2D2 tripping on some psychedelic drugs or something. The tannoy’s didn’t like it, and ended up breaking half way through the warm up.

The game kicked off and Colwyn Bay threatened early on, keen to avoid going two goals down like they did in the fixture last week. They got their deserved breakthrough after 10 minutes when Matty Berkeley crossed the ball into the box, for Sean Williams to bury into the corner. Hinckley attempted to get a foothold into the game, but found themselves 2-0 down after 25 minutes when Cameron Darkwah, on the run from the right wing, set Rob Hopley free into the box, who rounded the keeper to coolly finish in the bottom corner. Colwyn Bay had a 2-0 lead and looked comfortable.

However Hinckley got a lucky break, after a freekick (which seemed a little soft, the referee wasn’t the best), shot against the wall, the ball looped over to Aaron Wint who buried the ball to give Hinckley a lifeline. A further boost to the home team was handed to them just on the stroke of half time, when Tom Smyth pulled up with a foot injury. The change was cancelled out when Hinckley’s centre back went off after a clash of heads with his own player, and the game was 2-1 to the Seagulls at half time.

Hinckley however seemed like the more likely to score, and after the half time break, another free kick saw the post rattled, and Colwyn Bay dropped deeper and deeper into their own half, Hinckley didn’t create many chances, and a break saw Sean Williams (who was my man of the match) square the ball to Johnathan Breeze, who scored his first goal for the club with 3 minutes to go. Despite a late rally by the home side, Colwyn Bay finished the game as 3-1 victors, lifting them further from the drop zone.

Overall, I enjoyed my trip to Hinckley, it’s a shame that the club is currently in a period of transition, and are likely to struggle this season. Colwyn Bay are now on a 2 game win streak, and are beginning to show a bit of form that characterised their early season.

Please Note: Due to the schoolboy error of me forgetting my camera, the pictures were taken on my mobile phone, so won’t be as good as normal, or as extensive. Sorry!

Chester FC – 2

Colwyn Bay FC – 1

Football Conference North – 25th August 2012

With all due respect for the rest of the Blue Square Bet North leagues, there was one game that was looked out for before all others. The trip to Chester away was the one game that most Colwyn Bay fans looked forward to. Not least because the game was between two local teams straddling the North Wales/England border, but for the early years of The Seals seemed to be intertwined with The Seagulls, Neil Young and his management team, days after winning promotion for Colwyn Bay to the Northern Premier League, left to take the helm at the phoenix club. Players soon followed out the door as well, although many of them returned after various stints, and the business of the first ever Chester game was against Colwyn Bay (that was – admittedly – marred in trouble), meant that the first competitive game against Chester FC could be a tasty one.

Although after 3 years the bitter rivalry sweetened a bit, largely due to a great working relationship that was established between Neil Young and Dave Challinor (then Colwyn Bay manager), meaning that there were often closed door friendlies between the clubs. The fans did their bit as well, donating collectively about £200 to the Raise the Roof campaign, and I wrote for the excellent Blue and White Fanzine, a lot of the issues became water under the bridge, and many of the fans were looking forward to the first game between the two sides.

Considering that for me it was one of the more “local” games, I set off to Chester ridiculously early. I think I left my front door at about 10am, which is only an hour after I left my house to go to Bishop’s Stortford. I headed to the station and jumped on a ridiculously busy train to Chester (the train’s destination was North Wales, so full of holiday traffic). After a while though, the train began filling up with Chester fans, outnumbering my one Bay shirt to the tune of about 15 to 1. I arrived at Chester, met a friend, and headed into town.

It was only midday, so I took my friend to one of my favourite bars in the city – The Temple. Whilst still amazing, the semi-boozy night the night before meant I was struggling a bit, and probably didn’t enjoy the curry as much as I usually do. Still, after food, we headed to the Exacta.

The last time I was at the Exacta Stadium (then the Deva) was a few days before the previous club, Chester City, closed their doors for the last time. On that day, I had helped support a friend in joining a protest against the owner (and all round nasty dude) Stephen Vaughan. There couldn’t have been more than 10 people there, as Vaughan had orchestrated a scheme to cancel the protest until the next day, where he could manipulate the protest to his own needs. After a while, we left and went to the pub. Not such today, with the car park full of happy faces, we headed into the club shop and then into the club house (which required a donation of £1 to get into). It was spacious with plenty of people there, and two big screens showing the football. We were – at the beginning – the only Bay fans in the club house, yet soon after more entered and we managed to commandeer a table. It was a friendly rivalry, yet still I wanted 3 points – to continue our 100% start to the season.

We arrived into the away end for the match. Whilst there was segregation, it was fairly lax, and I could’ve walked to the home end if need be. Nevertheless, I took my seat for the encounter. One thing that surprised me was how quiet the game was, with Seagull fans making seemingly more noise, beyond the odd “City” chant every now and again.

The first thing the home fans had to sing about was a rocket of a volley from Nathan Jarman that rattled the crossbar with Sanna well beaten. Most of the play was in the middle third, with Chester resigned to long chances and Bay looking to get their forward line of Danny Lloyd, Allan Collins and Kevin Holdsgrove into the game. Jarman did get Chester the lead on 26 minutes, finishing off a clever through ball that saw him celebrate in front of the Bay fans. Sod. The lead however was to last all of 3 minutes with Kevin Holdsgrove muscling his way through the Chester defence to equalise.

After the half time interval, Danny Lloyd had the chance to put Colwyn Bay ahead when he was one-on-one with the keeper, only to fire a shot straight at the keeper. Chester made Bay pay for that mistake with Ben Mills looping a ball, seemingly impossibly over Chris Sanna to hit the side netting and in. No matter what Colwyn Bay tried, including hitting the bar from a Lee Davey free kick, Chester held onto the win.

A concern for the Bay was Chris Sanna going off injured right at the death due to a clash of heads. The Bay shotstopper spent the night in hospital with concussion, though was released early Sunday morning.

Overall, the game wasn’t quite as exciting as the build up provided (largely due to the poor officiating taking a sting out of the game), but  the crowd was large (1000 more than when I saw the old Chester City play Mansfield Town) and friendly. After the game we spent it in the clubhouse, enjoying talking to the barstaff and volunteers. A credit to their club.

All in all, a good day out, bar the result.

Airbus UK Broughton – 1

Colwyn Bay – 6

Preseason Friendly – 11^th August 2012

So my amazing week of sport finished with a preseason friendly against Airbus UK.

After taking in the Olympic Park on Wednesday and Eton Dorney on Thursday, the Saturday saw me head down the coast from Colwyn Bay to the small village of Broughton to see Colwyn Bay’s last away pre-season friendly.

Airbus UK have become a stable side in the Welsh Premier League, after winning the Cymru Alliance in 2004, and have had a pretty good preseason including a victory over new Conference North boys – Chester FC.

Luke Denson had a cracking game for the visitors.

I left for Airbus in a car pool (yes! Odd for me!) quite late on, and arrived at the ground about a quarter of an hour before kickoff. Nevertheless, in that time I took in the ground (a small ground located on the edge of Airbus UK’s Broughton factory, hence the name), bought a burger and a badge from the club shop. It is – to coin a phrase associated with us Welsh – tidy. The pitch was immaculate and the game kicked off.

Colwyn Bay started brightly against a tricky team, and took the lead after 10 minutes when Rob Hopley linked up well with Luke Denson down the left wing, and a ball across the box eventually found its way to Paul Ennis who rifled into the top corner. Hopley – who was dangerous all day – nearly doubled Bay’s advantage when he – linking up well with Holdsgrove – fired in a shot that hit the crossbar with the keeper well beaten.

Airbus never really threatened, and really had an extra man on the pitch with the referee seemingly give the home side a lot more of the 50/50 decisions. One such incident was after Paul Ennis pulled up off the ball with a twisted knee, the game was allowed to continue by the referee. It was a friendly game for goodness sake!

Ennis eventually, after lengthy treatment, continued for a bit, and set up Colwyn Bay’s second from a left sided corner, that Hopley allegedly headed in, though it looked more like an own goal from my vantage point. That was the last action from Paul Ennis, who was substituted on the stroke of half time, with the score 2-0 to the visitors.

Colwyn Bay created chance after chance after chance.

The half time raffle followed, with a fantastic gesture from the Wingmakers – all proceeds going to Danny Meadowcroft’s charity. Our captain Danny Meadowcroft’s daughter suffers from Short Bowel Syndrome and is running the Great North Run for “Short Bowel Survivors and Friends” and “Ronald McDonald House Charities”. You can donate if you want here.

The second half began and the game was effectively over ten minutes later when Kevin Holdsgrove scored a 6 minute hat trick, all three from fast break, and all three with confident finishing. Holdsgrove linked up well, and was immediately taken off following his hat-trick, to be replaced by Allan Collins. Collins got the sixth after beating the keeper to the ball on 65 minutes. Michael Thomas then got the ball in the net but it was ruled offside, Hopley hit the bar again, and Airbus UK got a late consolation, a penalty, to make sure that Colwyn Bay’s run of not keeping a clean sheet extends for one more game.

Nevertheless, it was a great day in the office for Colwyn Bay. After a wobble after the Rhyl game that lasted until the Caersws game, we’ve picked it up again. Holdsgrove and Hopley seem to be full of goals for this season. I’m excited for the season, bring on the Blue Square North!

Runcorn Linnets – 1

Colwyn Bay FC – 0

Preseason Friendly – 24^th July 2012

To coin a phrase from a certain Jamaican Alcoholic Beverage – the M56 on the 24^th August was “total gridlock”.

Something happened. I’m not sure what happened, many people weren’t sure, but all was known that although the majority of the players for Colwyn Bay had arrived in Runcorn, the majority of the Runcorn players, the ref, the linesman and the Colwyn Bay kit were still stuck somewhere along the North Wales Coast along with a fair few fans. Kick off was due to be at 7:30pm. It was 7:22am at the time of writing.

I’ve been part of cancelled games before, the Woodley Sports vs Chester game was cancelled due to floodlight failure, and it actually turned out to be the best thing that happened – we spent the night in the clubhouse, and the replay was such a dull insipid affair that it’s one of the few games I have written about but yet to put live on this blog, due to me spending second half in said clubhouse.

Matty Berkeley, one of the new faces on show for Colwyn Bay.

This time however, there is no friends to spend time with, and also no clubhouse with which to enjoy drinks. In truth, I was bored, and done something that I have never done before when writing this blog – started writing a blog post before the game began.

7:30pm came and went. Kick off was rescheduled to 8:00pm. Still no kit. Still no beer. Still bored.

However, floodgates opened 5 minutes later when the kit and a few friendly faces arrived. We still had one calamity which could materialise – with the game kicking off at the latest at 8pm, we still had no recognised keeper.

Eventually a compromised was reached – we borrowed Runcorn’s reserve keeper, to give him a full game. Apparently it wasn’t the first time this happened – the game he played against Clitheroe the week before he played a blinder.

Along with old faces, such as Rob Hopley, who is part of the furniture at the Bernabay.

Not you could tell come kick off. After one minute, the Runcorn Linnets left winger crossed to the near post, that was flicked on and scored with a diving header by Paul Bowes.

The Runcorn team was full of Evostik Colwyn Bay ex-players, in particular Billy Webb (who played under current Chester gaffer Neil Young), and Lewis Callaghan, who had two successful spells at the club.

In truth the keeper had a bit of a shakey start, and really couldn’t do anything about the goal, but soon Colwyn Bay came back into it, with Paul Ennis and Danny Lloyd looking dangerous down the wings, Rob Hopley hit the bar, and Matty Berkeley coming close a couple of times, but the keeper wasn’t too threatened, and it was 1-0 at half time.

Colwyn Bay had chances, but nothing too clear-cut.

Unfortunately, that is where we’ll have to leave this post, as in my infinite wisdom I booked a cheaper earlier fare back from Runcorn East train station, rather than a more expensive later fare. I’d hope to see the first half and much of the second, instead I got the grand total of 35 minutes. Some trialists play longer than that! Furthermore, I really didn’t fancy being on Runcorn East train station late into the night, it’s such a terrifying place.

Anyway, from what I heard the second half wasn’t much better. Lee Davey was ejected from the field of play for a bad tackle, and Runcorn missed a penalty in the dying seconds to put the game beyond doubt. Not the best game, but my excuses were already lined up.

Blame the M56.

Gainsborough Trinity – 2

Colwyn Bay – 0

Football Conference North – 31^st March 2012

What….you didn’t believe Sunday’s post, did you?

A football blogger, in one of his other pursuits (the church) wrote recently “It has been proven recently that when man has nothing else for comfort, they get comfort from God.”. I am not the most religious person in the world, so can’t really get comfort from God. However I do get comfort from omens, omens that were most needed on the trip to Gainsborough.

In truth, Colwyn Bay have been frustratingly dismal recently. After an amazing January and a February that started promising but petered out, March has been abysmal, needing the Bay faithful nervously looking over their shoulders at the dreaded “R” word. At the time of writing, upgrading the ground for the Conference North level of football is looking promising, however the team isn’t quite yet mathematically safe. Barring a massive collapse and the substantial cushion beneath us deflating, we should be okay. However, one the former is occurring, and the latter, well, let’s just say we don’t want to rely on the latter.

However, we haven’t played badly. Solihull should’ve been a point bar an amazing strike (more of which in a later blog) and Corby was a frustrating 1-0 loss. Unfortunately, it’s the time of the year where moral defeats count for nothing, and you crave 91^st minute goals off the arse of the opposition centreback.

All in all, a trip to Gainsborough Trinity, who were pushing the playoffs, wasn’t exactly the most welcome. As such, I began looking for omens.

Gainsborough had picked up points liberally and were pushing the playoffs. The team, an ex league side, were dangerous opponents. Opponents vanquished at the reverse fixture early on in the season at the Bernabay.

That’s Omen 1.

I left my house and headed to Picadilly Station. I just missed my first train, a trip via Doncaster to Gainsborough, instead I had to get a train via Sheffield 40 minutes later. To pass the time, I headed into the amusement arcade at the station and off the princely sum of one English pound, I won £70 out of the fruit machine. If I ever “jack a fruitie” (to use insider terms for winning Jackpot on a Fruit Machine) on a Saturday, Colwyn Bay win (I refer you to Stalybridge Celtic).

Colwyn Bay struggled to defend corners.

That’s Omen 2.

I jumped on the train and got myself sat down next to some Oldham lads. The guys were off to watch OIdham play Notts County, and were in a similar situation to us – 10 points off the drop, mid table, with a handful of games to go. “You’ll be fine!”, they said with the kind of confidence you can say when you haven’t spent £70,000 and worked your hands to the bone building a ground to meet Conference North standards. I informed them that I had been to Oldham before, to watch the preseason friendly via Blackpool. I didn’t mention the fact my camera got confiscated.

Halfway through the journey, one of them spoke to another guy on the train, who perked up when I mentioned Stocksbridge Park Steels. The fans were Chorley fans, of which we shared stories about useless players we shared, and generally had a chat on how the season was going. They were ironically the same fans I chatted to on the way to Eastwood Town about 3 months ago. A game that we won.

That’s Omen 3.

After rushing to the final train, I arrived in Gainsborough, where I met up with the Bay contingency in a pub called the Elm Cottage. It was nice enough, the building was lovely, but there was an uneasy “non mathematically safe” air to the game today. An air that wasn’t going to change, we thought, at final whistle. Nevertheless, we shared some stories with the locals, including one who was scarily into architecture, who said that Gainsborough Trinity’s ground was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the country.

After a couple of pints we headed into the game. The ground was your typical Conference North ground, with plenty to it yet a little haphazard. I headed to the corner of the ground to the club shop (which was a portable building), before heading to get some food.

The food is worth a paragraph on its own. Although I’ve tasted better pies and better chips, they were easily the nicest whole plate of food I’ve had at a football ground. The pies were a work of art, large chunky steak pieces, perfectly cooked with just a little too much gravy, in a solid crust. The chips were proper thick cut potato chips, that were amazingly cooked. Comments on the curry sauce and the peas echoed this. Gainsborough Trinity may not have a lot, but their food is exemplary.

Allan Collins chased down every ball for Colwyn Bay

The kick off came (Gainsborough’s walk on music is “The Eye of the Tiger”), and although Colwyn Bay attacked early, Gainsborough took the lead after 5 minutes. Connor Roberts, who pulled off an amazing safe to keep the game level seconds before, pulled off a great stop to keep the game level from the resulting corner. However the ball was headed in by Luke Waterfall at the far post, and Gainsborough took the lead. Although Colwyn Bay pressed for an equaliser but never really threatened, and on 35 minutes, the seagulls conceded a free kick on the edge of the penalty box.  Luke Holden hit the bar with the shot, and the ball wasn’t cleared. Andrew Boyce scored a headed tap in to put the home side 2-0 up.

Half time came, and we experienced Gainsborough’s club house. It was nice enough, but it had the air of a clubhouse that would exist should there be an apocalypse, with large, school dinner tables in rows. Nevertheless, the beer was excellent, with a couple of great local brews. One of which, Titanic, I have been enjoying in Manchester recently.

The second half was a bit dull in truth. Colwyn Bay didn’t look like wanting to win, and Gainsborough seemed happy to rest on their laurels. Matty Hughes, who was rushed back for the game, was injured (which isn’t good for our run in), and Frank Sinclair got more than his fair share of light-hearted taunting because he is, well, Frank Sinclair, but beyond an amazing chance right at the death for Gainsborough to make it 3-0, there was nothing in the second half. Final score, Gainsborough 2-0 Colwyn Bay.

Results kind of went our way, but we could’ve used a win. With me, sat in a train as I write this, drinking extortionately Spitfire Ale bought from Sheffield train station, I realise something.

Omen’s are for losers.