Cambridge United 1 v Mansfield Town 5 - Blue Square Premier

Tuesday 28th December 2010 - at the R Costings Abbey Stadium
Blue Square Premier
Cambridge United (0) 1
(Wilmott 66)
Mansfield Town (2) 5
(Murray 33, Smith 37, Duffy 73, Coulson OG 90, Mitchley 90+3)
Admission £14, Programme £3, Attendance 2505 (281 away fans)
Hmm, every single game I had pencilled in to watch on the 26th and 27th was postponed, but this one more than made up for all of those.
Football ... it's worth the wait sometimes :-)

The ticket said £16, but the notice on the gate said £14 ...
the latter price applied.

Welcome Duncan Russell, who was recently installed in the Stags managerial hot seat, until the end of the season at least, following a short spell in control in a caretaker capacity.
A few more results and performances like this and the Stags fans who've questioned the wisdom of his appointment might have to revise their estimation of this guy. Only time will tell.
Both teams had opportunities to take the lead before Adam Murray thumped Mansfield ahead from the edge of the box with a powerful and unstoppable shot on 33 minutes.
And with the home side still knocked out of their stride, Adam Smith surged forward and scored what must already be a contender for the best goal I've seen all season just four minutes later to put the Stags in control.
Don't just take my word for it, go to the Mansfield Town website and check out the footage that has been posted there. Sublime technique, worthy of winning any game but there was more to come after the break.
Wilmott pulled a goal back for Cambridge on 66 minutes, which under David Holdsworth (the Mansfield boss who recently moved on by 'mutual consent') would've signalled an ultra cautious defend at all costs formation being implemented and an open invitation for United to get back into the game being issued.
But Duncan Russell decided the best form of defence is to attack and the two goal cushion was soon restored.
Rob Duffy tapped home the simplest of chances when Louis Briscoe back heeled the ball into his path in the box with the home defence in disarray.
Briscoe was a thorn in Cambridge's side all afternoon and put in a great shift from start to finish.
Danny Mitchley had a say in both the late goals that capped off this fine attacking performance.
John Coulson had just been announced as the sponsors man of the match over the tannoy when he failed to get out of the way of a Mitchley cross and could only look on despairingly as he put the ball into his own net.
Then deep into stoppage time, Mitchley found himself in yards of space in the box ... the resultant action would make a great coaching DVD 'how not to man mark opposition players in dangerous positions' ... and he made no mistake.
Prior to this afternoon, Cambridge had lost only one game out of eleven, against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup ... on paper this was never going to be an easy game for Mansfield.
So credit where it's due, they arrived with a game plan of taking the game to their hosts, stuck to it and both teams got exactly what they deserved from this highly entertaining contest.
Thanks very much to Philip for driving today, I was seriously unwell over Xmas and wouldn't have fancied making this journey behind the wheel.

The ale and bacon cobs in the Cambridge United Supporters Club bar were up to their usual high standard - I unselfishly sampled their fare solely for the purpose of reporting back to you all.

Xmas Day 2010

Woo hoo!
Xmas day.
I'm in the grip of three different illnesses and ailments at present, none of which is especially minor or painless, but it is the season to be jolly n' all that, so I won't bore you all with any of the gory details because nobody will give a chuff anyway.
Don't come to me looking for sympathy when you're ill though - what goes around, comes around ... YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!
I was hoping to get wrapped up, make myself a hot flask of Lemsip* and honey and get out for some medicinal fresh air over the next few days, but I don't foresee many football watching opportunities on the near horizon because of the winter freeze ... so what's a man to do?

I guess I could watch the Father Ted DVD box set I got has a gift earlier today, I know it's very amusing and highly entertaining, just like it was last year and the one before that.
Hmm, getting the same present 3 years in a row is unfortunate. I'm not sure quite what to call it when the same person bought me it twice though ... I won't say who he was, but don't get me a Father Ted DVD box set for Father's Day next year as well Sam, I already have several and you've spent more than enough money already.
Or, at a push, I could bathe in this stuff that says 'LYNX FOR MEN' on the box, but having had a quick sniff at the contents of the bottles, I'd probably better not, just in case there are any female walruses within a 10 mile radius who are in season.
I'll try 'owt once but I'm too lethargic and fatigued through illness to do bestiality any justice ... just as well I'm having to sleep on my own at the moment to prevent the spread of germs then, isn't it my love!?

All the Sunday 26th December games I was hopeful would be going ahead at Mansfield, Gainsborough, Darlington, York and Hallam are off ... and I suspect my planned 'Boxing Day Double' on the 27th of Maltby Main v. Dinnington Town at noon, followed by a.n.other game that is an hours drive from Muglet Lane (I have a quite extensive 'short' list prepared) is probably already a non starter.
Bloody weather!

But just on the off chance, 27th December games with a 3pm kick off include:
Hucknall Town v Worksop Town - Evo Stik Premier
Retford United v Chasetown - Evo Stik Premier
Goole AFC v Brigg Town - Evo Stik South
Staveley MW v Handsworth - NCEL
Worsborough Bridge Athletic v Leeds Carnegie - NCEL

Back up plan 1pm kick offs include
Armthorpe Welfare v Parkgate - NCEL
Rossington Main v Brodsworth Welfare - NCEL
Teversal v Shirebrook Town - NCEL

There are a plethora of further options and alternatives besides these that I haven't posted at this juncture, which will no doubt all have the word POSTPONED posted alongside them in block capitals on various league websites by Monday lunchtime.

On the 28th, I'm hoping Newmarket Road in Cambridge has been getting plenty of winter sun ... and that with a bit of luck my annual Cambridge United v Mansfield Town traditional outing will be getting the go ahead.
But mustering even a sand sized grain of optimism for an impending return to football action and a cessation of this horrible bloody weather seems like a fairly futile exercise to me.
Bah humbug!

Happy Xmas - be grateful it's all nearly over :-)

* It isn't real Lemsip, it's Morrisons own brand hot lemon drink, have you seen the price of the proper stuff!?
http://www.lemsip.co.uk/lemsip-and-lovefilm.php

Armthorpe Welfare 3 v. Brighouse Town 2 - NCEL Premier Division

Saturday 11th December 2010
NCEL Premier Division
Armthorpe Welfare (1) 3
Leo Fortune-West 10, Craig Wilkinson 76, Craig Morley 84
Brighouse Town (0) 2
Nathan Cartman 69, 90

Admission £5, Programme £1, Attendance 56

My original destination was meant to be Tynecastle Park, Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, where I missed out a traditional annual celebration today (very reluctantly) and a 5-0 home win for Hearts, to take in the FA Trophy tie between Worksop Town and Mansfield Town, a game that fell foul to the elements once I'd already missed the date to buy train tickets a semi reasonable price for the journey over the border and I'd already loaned my season ticket out to a scrounger I know in Tranent.
The Tigers v Stags clash, which was scheduled to be played at at Ilkeston, was to be played out against a backdrop of intrigue and skulduggery that the most spiteful of script writers would've struggled to compete with ... alas the snowmen decreed that the two Nottinghamshire teams would have to try to 'get it on' again in Derbyshire this coming Tuesday, at a time when I'll be up to my neck in work commitments and unable to get to the New Manor Ground.

Another weekend without football was not an option, so having sacrificed plan A and 7 inches of frozen snow having thwarted my plan B, it was time to find an alternative.

Good old Armthorpe!
When the rest of the clubs in the (semi) locality are too nesh to play football and too delicate to clear all the white stuff from their pitches, you can always depend on the 'Wellie' not to let you down ... it's a bloody shame that only 56 paying spectators bothered to make the effort to show up under the circumstances though.
I guess they were all too busy doing whatever it is people do in shopping malls on a Saturday afternoons in December, while the great and good attend football matches. Please spare me the excuses about Xmas shopping, that's what the internet was invented for ... besides perving and writing blogs about football that nobody ever reads.

The stay-aways have only got themselves to blame for missing a cracking game of football that could've gone either way right up until the final whistle. And I have witnesses from Retford, Mansfield, Scotter, Worsborough Bridge, and Pontefract who can vouch for that too.
After a couple of scoops in a nearby pub that one of our entourage told me was called 'The Two Jolly Smackheads' (I will have to get clarification on that point at a later date, I don't recollect seeing the pub's name above the door when we went in), we entered the surprisingly snow free Church Street ground.
Curiously the entire landscape had changed from white to green just north of Bawtry, as we moved away from the equatorial axis.
My passenger had met me on the main road out of Retford because the residential area he lives in was impassable to motor vehicles ... by all accounts they are filming an 'Ice Road Truckers' winter special edition about delivering a consignment of novelty Xmas dog chews to Alpha Pet Supplies in Hallcroft.

Leo Fortune-West (yes that one) opened the scoring on 10 minutes getting on the end of a corner to net his second goal of the season for Armthorpe.
He still has the touch, vision, positional awareness, nous, instincts and height to stand head and shoulders above any other player in this league, but it would be fair to say that he also knows when to put in an extra burst of energy and when to keep a bit back to save his legs.
He knows best and that isn't meant to be a slight on the guy.
It was apparent that neither team had turned up today wanting anything less than all three points and the game ebbed and flowed one way then the other with both keepers being kept busy throughout.
Current form suggested fourth in the table Brighouse ought to have been favourites to beat their hosts, who have recorded only one win in their previous thirteen games, but Armthorpe were having none of it and hung onto their slender lead as the teams went in at half time.
The special offer of a mince pie with a big mug of coffee for a quid at half time was one I couldn't resist and despite my friend warning me the pies tasted like leftover Kangaroo testicles from that TV programme 'I'm a b-list celebrity you've never heard of, leave me in the jungle to die' (or similar), I tucked in anyway.
Hmm, that's one way to rip a filling out of my tooth I s'pose!

The all out attack policy continued in the second half, Henry Sibenge (as always) looked impressive coming forward for Armthorpe, even though they've moved from his position on the wing to left back this season and Craig Wilkinson was getting into some good positions up front for the home side too.
But it was Brighouse who scored next, when Nathan Cartman twisted and fired home an equaliser despite facing away from the goal on 69 minutes.
Seven minutes later, Fortune-West, utilising one of his energy pockets to full effect, headed the ball on to Craig Wilkinson who had got himself 'into a good position up front' and couldn't fail to score from such a gilt edged chance ... and he didn't.
Following a goalmouth scramble in the visitors box, Craig Morley got the final touch to put Armthorpe 3-1 ahead with six minutes to go.
In the final minute of normal time Armthorpe's goalkeeper Jamie Green was guilty of ball watching as he allowed a harmless looking cross from the left to roll past him and into the path of the incoming Nathan Cartman who tapped in the simplest of chances for his and Brighouse's second goal. Of course Jamie Green, never one to feel shy about dishing out the vocals, loudly berated everyone else on the pitch for failing to clear the ball that he himself could (and should) have whacked unceremoniously into the nearby Netto car park.
It was all hands to the pumps for the remaining added on time as the visitors pushed for an equaliser, but Armthorpe were resilient and held on for a very well contested win that moves them up into mid table.
High entertaining stuff and a great effort by everybody involved with Armthorpe Welfare for getting the game on when so many other clubs in a 30 mile radius failed to deal with the recent, not unexpected, crap weather.