It’s Christmas time and the snow is falling (ACTUALLY THAT’S A LIE, BUT IT SOUNDS NICE) but the beer is plentiful, as is the wine, there’s an abundance of chocolates waiting to be devoured, there’s presents under the tree and the holidays have begun! I took ‘Der Kleiner Schlingel’ to see Father Christmas and she’s under the strictest of instructions to ask for nine points for Marine and a never ending tin of Quality Street! She returned minus my ten pound note but clutching a small present. She excitedly informed me that Santa said ‘he’ll see what he can do regarding the two requests! (HE’LL BE A BLOODY MIRACLE WORKER IF HE CAN MAGIC THAT LOT UP)!
We decided that we’d throw all our combined weight behind Marine AFC and the hunt of nine points over the festive period, we’d go to all three games as one! ‘Strength United Is Stronger’ proclaims the Latin motto under the badge…
(ONE FOR ALL & ALL FOR ONE)!
Saturday morning and we were nervously telling ourselves that Farsley Celtic aren’t that good a side anyway, they’re from bloody Yorkshire for a start, how can they be that good? (OR AT LEAST I WAS THINKING THAT, ‘DER KLEINER SCHLINGEL’ WAS THINKING ABOUT GYMNASTICS & CHRISTMAS, AND SHELLEY WAS THINKING WHAT TO PREPARE FOR TEA)!
We made our way into the MTA Arena in quietly confident mood, purchased our chosen beverages and awaited the shrill cry of the referee’s whistle. Two hours later and just minutes after the final shrill cry of his whistle, we’re sat in the bar licking our wounds and nursing our (once again) chosen beverages!
To say we were poor would be an understatement and other than Steve Irwin, everyone in a white shirt was guilty of putting in a below par performance! To delve into an in-depth account of the manner of the defeat would be pointless, so I’ll swiftly move on!
The two-one home loss had both ‘Der Kleiner Schlingel’ and I questioning Father Christmas’s sincerity in “seeing what he could do” for our Christmas wishes! Not to worry, I told them, we’re just going to have to take six points from the next two awaydays! “Dad, they’ve not won away for ages” proclaims ‘Der Kleiner Schlingel’, (NOTHING LIKE A KICK IN THE NUTS WHEN YOU’RE DREAMING OF GLORY)! Sunday’s ritual of sitting down with a cup of tea and reading the Non-League paper after morning mass was going to be another dismal experience… (STRONG BEER & QUALITY STREET TO THE RESCUE)!
Tuesday saw us return to more mundane matters like seeing if the ‘big man’ has been, the giving and receiving of presents and the demolishing of Christmas dinners, once all that was completed, it was back to more pressing matters and the quest for that elusive awayday victory and if we could get at least six points out of the festive period, the first three of those would need to be earned in the heart of Lancashire! It was Wednesday and after another non existent lie in, we began the Boxing Day journey north to Irongate, home of Bamber Bridge FC.
I have to confess, I wasn’t confident of anything other than another defeat, if we were going to win any of the three Christmas fixtures, it wasn’t going to be this one! (OR SO I THOUGHT)! We arrived at the Irongate in the nick of time, paid our entrance fees, purchased our hot bovrils and took up our vantage point along the far side touch line. (COME ON MARINE, GO FOR GOAL)! After eleven minutes, a beautiful move down the right wing saw Niall Cummins unmarked in the box, and he rifled home for a one-nil lead! Fifteen minutes later and Michael Elstone had doubled the lead with a goal of sublime quality! Now, some will say that it was a miss hit cross, others will say he meant it. Oh, he meant it alright, (IN MY MIND HE DID ANYWAY) and I was right behind him and in a perfect line with the goal, he looked up, saw the keeper out of position and gloriously chipped him, seeing his inch perfect effort go in off the inside of the far post. Sublime! It was like watching a George Best video in real life, and oh how we celebrated it! At halftime we stood in silence, we daren’t jinx the situation with excited chit chat, and we aren’t used to being two-nil up at this point in a game, so we just stood in silence and enjoyed the moment! The second forty five minutes saw the hosts put Marine under more pressure than they had in the first forty five, but we stood up to the onslaught courageously. Danny Shaw and James Short should be singled out for special praise for both had big games!
The Marine rearguard was broken in the fifty fourth minute, but, but for a close range header late on, it didn’t really look like being breached again and as the referee called a halt to proceedings with a purposeful blow on the Acme Thunderer, few could argue that the victors didn’t fully deserve their three points! That elusive awayday victory was elusive no more, three points better off and we were upwardly mobile once again and we all looked forward to Mickleover (away) on Saturday, a real old fashioned six pointer!
Saturday arrived and we started it with a hearty breakfast in the local deli and with supplies running low, a trip to the wine store to stock up on a certain South African Shiraz before we headed south down the M6 and A50 to Derby, or to be more precise, Mickleover! We’d visited the village on numerous occasions due to having a close friend who happens to live there & who follows the fortunes of the local team, Mickleover Sports. En route we called in at Uttoxeter services to wild cries from the back seat of “LOOK DAD, THERES MARINE”!!! Upon closer inspection as we parked up, there they were, our black and white bedecked heroes, this was surely a sign, an omen, it was written in the stars… (MARINE AFC WERE GOING TO WIN)!
We arrived at our friends house in good time, had a pot of tea and once refreshed, we moved the few hundred yards up the road in search of football and something stronger than tea, to the Don Amott Arena (IT’S ANYTHING BUT AN ARENA)! All the usual faces were there, the Crosender Way lads and the Forza Marine crew were out in full force accompanied by the many who had hitched a lift down on the team coach. This was an healthy turnout and expectations were high, we’d turned a corner!
The game started at a torpid pace and didn’t really get any livelier as the afternoon wore on. A certain Archie Gemmill walked past us, a player who played the game at a walking pace some forty years previously, but would have quite easily kept pace with his modern day counterparts, even at the age of seventy one! Marine had the lions share of possession but to be honest, never looked like scoring! The humdrum was broken just the once, on thirteen minutes the big Mickleover centre forward Nathan Jarman scored against the run of play. Mickleover won a corner, and just as my mate Hyden jokingly said “WE’RE DEADLY FROM CORNERS” a well worked move involving player-manager John McGrath saw the ball nestling in the corner of Paddy Wharton’s net before he’d even decided to dive, Jarman won’t score an easier goal all season!
Marine continued to enjoy the better of the midfield battle but failed to create a single effort of any kind for the entire half! We retreated to the comfort of the club house just as Mickleover threatened to put the game to bed, but stout defending saw off the threat! With the second pint of Ruddles part consumed, we chewed over the first half proceedings. The common consensus was that, the corner we’d turned at Bamber Bridge, was in fact, a dead end! I had to agree, I’d just witnessed the worst forty five minutes of football I’d seen in many a year and it wouldn’t surprise me if both of these sides were to be relegated come May!
We once again plucked up courage to brave what was being served up in front of us and took our places in the stands. The second half was almost a mirror image of the first forty five, Marine continued to see the lions share of the ball but a lack of application, common sense and ability to break down the Mickleover defence would see the scoreboard untroubled for the remainder of the afternoon. On the one occasion that the defence was breached, Marine substitute Danny Mitchley, somehow, blasted high and wide with only the keeper to beat from inside the box, it was harder to miss than it was to score! (THAT EFFORT ALONE SUMMED UP OUR AFTERNOON)! The final ten minutes produced two gilt edged chances for the Mariners, but firstly, Craig Carney and then Michael Elstone saw their efforts come to nothing on a bitterly disappointing afternoon in Derbyshire. I shook hands with Hyden and complimented him on his sides well fought win (I WAS LYING OF COURSE AND HE KNEW IT, FOR HE’D ALSO JUST WITNESSED THE TURGID NINETY MINUTES OF SOMETHING THAT VAGUELY RESEMBLED FOOTBALL)! As we crossed the car park, we bumped into the Crosender Way boys, they’d seen enough of the proceedings some minutes before and I didn’t envy them on their long journey back to Liverpool by train! Speaking of long journeys by train, a special mention must go out to Jon Caple, a Marine fan who travels from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales and had already taken an abundance of trains, buses and a taxi just to get to Mickleover, the same amount in reverse would see him arriving home sometime around midnight. I felt that he deserved a better outcome for his efforts!
We returned home with little to cheer about, ‘Der Kleiner Schlingel’s’ request to Father Christmas for nine points and a never ending tin of Quality Street had well and truly fallen on deaf ears. I poured myself a strong one and dreamed of New Year’s Day, the visit of Lancaster City, and planned Saturday’s trip to North Ferriby. Life goes on and the quest for football with soul has never been stronger!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE, BE GOOD TO ONE ANOTHER & MAY 2019 BE GOOD TO YOU!
FORZA MARINE
THIS SPORTING LIFE 