Durham City v Ryton - Pre Season Friendly

Plastic pitch - Real food!

Saturday 25th July, Pre Season Friendly.
Arnott Stadium, Belmont, Durham.

Durham City (1) 1 (Nathan Bonar 27)
Ryton (0) 0

Admission £5. Free teamsheet.
Chips & Gravy £1.50 very tasty ;-)

The Arnott Stadium is Durham City's fifth ever home ground, it stands in the Belmont Industrial Estate just off Junction 62 of the A1.
There is only one stand, but it houses 300 seats and 6oo terracing spaces so it is quite adequate for the size of crowds the 'Citizens' attract.
City are in the same division as both Retford United and Worksop Town this coming season, so what can my north Notts friends (and adversaries) expect from their respective treks 'oop north' in 2009-10?
Well if today and previous visits are anything to go by ... rain.
Maybe I've just been unlucky whenever I've been around Belmont, but however sunny and promising it's looked, it always managed to rain at some point.
Durham are a hard working and robust side, firm but fair and whilst not afraid to put a foot in they keep it within the rules.

It took nearly half an hour for Durham to put the ball into the visitors net when Nathan Bonar thumped the ball home from the edge of the box. He'd made a statement of intent a few minutes before when a similar effort skimmed narrowly over the bar.

The visitors keeper was the busiest player on the pitch by far.
According to the teamsheet, the Northern League Division 1 side Ryton had two goalkeepers, both called Tony Davison, which could prove quite useful as the season unfolds, because the one they actually played with today likes going on walkabout outside his box, which makes his goal a bit vulnerable to long range efforts sailing over his head - fortunately for this Tony Davison, the three times he left his goal exposed in this manner, Durham's shooting was narrowly off target, or else the scoreline might have provided a more accurate indication on how the balance of play unfolded over the afternoon.
Maybe the other Tony Davison could guard the goal line while his name sake has a wander off? Maybe it was just a mistake on the teamsheet?
I prefer the former option and thus didn't bother to enquire as to the actual facts of the matter, realising I'd need something ... anything ... to pad out my blog match report.
At least I haven't resorted to posting pictures of the aeroplanes that passed over at regular intervals from the nearby Sunderland Air Show.

Note the wheels on these portable goals.

Stewart Morris and Kevin Dixon of Durham, were operating to good effect on the right flank and attacking midfield axis as a combative and creative pairing.
So if any left sided Retford and Worksop players hear either "Win it Stewy" or "Close him down Dicko", then they should prepare themselves in readiness for an imminent robust (but perfectly legal) challenge. Morris in particular was delivering quality crosses for Durham's forwards all afternoon and it beggared belief that several gilt edged chances went awry as Davison continued to make the most of his charmed existence.

I'm a big fan of both music and football, but I firmly believe the two should never meet. Footballers should not make records.
And music should not be played to 'enhance' any football match.
Snatches of music seranading the scoring of a goal are hideous, unnecessary distractions and as such should be vehemently discouraged.
However if matchday announcers must indulge their disc jockey fantasies during the game, then the James Brown classic 'I Feel Good' that greeted Bonar's goal is probably one of the least gruesome celebratory anthems I've been exposed to of late.
It was certainly an improvement on what sounded like one of those Pickwick's Records in house session bands cover the hits of the 1970's LP's (with some scantily clad, usually quite unattractive nearing middle-aged woman on the cover) that used to retail for about 79p in Woolies, being played over the tannoy before the game ... or it could have been The Beautiful South, it's very hard to tell the difference.



And no Grandma ... they never sounded anything like the original artists, so don't think you got away with fobbing me off with this nonsense, OKAY!

Click on teamsheet for larger image

On arrival at the ground I'd been surprised to see the groundsman mowing the plastic pitch, it transpires that it is actually a mix of organic and synthetic materials - when he got to the awkward bit around the posts he just wheeled the goal out of his way for a couple of minutes - blimey isn't technology fascinating stuff!?
Well ... isn't it!?