Four Weddings and a Penalty Shootout

[cromwell]

I used to know a man from Motherwell called Ken in my working days in IT. He was a big Motherwell FC fan! Fir Park and all that.

Ossie you live in a beautiful part of the world, near so many interesting places.

One disapproves of teams packing their numbers with loads of south sea islanders who are most probably playing below their true level, but I suppose its the modern game.

Gosh though Os, horrible freezing weather and no hot food! You must be nails to sit outside in that, I wouldn't!

[TheOstrich]

Gosh though Os, horrible freezing weather and no hot food! You must be nails to sit outside in that, I wouldn't!

Sit, Crommers? Nowhere to sit around the Marlborough pitch ..... no, it's more a question of prowling up and down the touchline like Mourinho, to (a) follow the action and (b) keep the blood circulating!

Thankfully, the car heater is still reasonably efficient ....

[cromwell]

No seats?
Cold touchlines?
Prowling up and down?

Even more respect!

[Ally]

Crommers - I grew up just a few minutes walk from Fir Park.

I spent many hours there as my best friend Andrea's dad was the groundsman there!

My cousin Ryan's wife's dad was a player for Motherwell...Peter Millar.

[cromwell]

It's a small world Ally! Ken used to have a teddy bear on his desk with a Motherwell scarf on! I hope your friends dad got you into a few games1

[JoM]

Great report Ossie!

I remember going through Marlborough once, on the way to a concert in Southampton via Pewsey to pick up another friend. I seem to remember coming down a hill on the approach into the town. Looked a lovely place!

Kaz, it is a bit far from home for her
I don't think they live on this side of the Atlantic now, for some obscure reason
Saying that though, I remember that she played a couple of nights in a local club last year

*Edit to add with some news from the Midlands - Ossie, Ed Doolan's died.

[TheOstrich]

Oh that's a shame, Jo - an iconic part of the Birmingham broadcasting scene .... memories of the early days of BRMB with the somewhat controversial Tony Butler, and Les Ross, whom I did actually get to meet a few years back, although that was more in connection with his railway preservation activities!

[Ally]

It seems funny to think of it now Crommers but when I look back I had such a free rein at Fir Park (with being Andrea's best friend) that I had access to the changing rooms and pretty much anywhere really as I was just a young girl and didn't cause any problems.

Les Ross! BRMB! I'm being taken back 30+ years to when I lived in Yardley...

[JoM]

When Tom was a baby I used to have the radio on all day in the background and for some reason WM was all we could get a decent signal for a lot of the time so it was all Ed Doolan, Malcolm Boyden and Stuart Linnell(?), Tony Wandsworth too but the least said about him and his wife the better.

Only have to hear Les Ross speak and it takes me back to BRMB (is that still going?). He was interviewed yesterday actually.

[TheOstrich]

20/01 – The Ostriches have, this week, embarked on their first task of 2018 in the continuing saga of refurbishing the Nest. New vertical blinds and curtains have been chosen for the front bedrooms; the former Guardian White and the latter Fuchsia. Ossie’s eyes glazed over, as usual, during the viewing of the pattern books, and he should have known better than to make the mild remark of “What’s wrong with Magnolia?” as that brought forth a tirade from Mrs O, who does seem to have a certain abhorrence of that standard default colour! But at the end of the day, we’re both happy with the choices Mrs O has made , so measurements and quotation are to follow next week and hopefully we can clinch a deal within the shop’s January Sale (20% off).

We have had an awful lot of rain in these ‘ere parts during the last few days, and with games falling like flies throughout this morning, once Ossie’s Plan A, B and C matches had all been postponed after pitch inspections, and Plan D, Chard Rugby Club, had tweeted a picture of their pitch completely under standing water , the bird abandoned all remaining Plans and started desperately hunting for something definitely “on”. Poole Town were the first to come up trumps, so, with Hamworthy United Reserves on their 3G artificial surface across the harbour as a back-up, I set sail for a first visit to the so-named Black Gold Stadium. The Dolphins, who have had two successive home postponements, had carried out remedial drainage hole-drilling on a problem part of the pitch last week, and this appeared to have done the trick – just!

Poole Town FC were founded in 1890 and for many years played at the Council-owned Poole Stadium (about a mile south of their current ground). They had spent money on improving the facilities there, but in 1994 the local council evicted them, dubiously citing poor attendances as a reason for doing so. The Stadium, which has also hosted speedway racing as well as football since the 1940’s, was then altered to accommodate greyhound racing inside the speedway track, so there has been no way back for the soccer. Poole Town had to go nomadic, ground-sharing with other clubs in the area, and by 1997 had dropped right the way down to the Hampshire League Division 1. In October 2000, Poole started playing at Tatnam, basically on the school field of what is now the Oakdale Junior School. They subsequently built a permanent barrier around the pitch, put in hardstanding, floodlights, and a stand – and that is where they are today! Poole Town have had planning permission for a number of years to develop a new stadium at Canford, but nothing concrete has happened to move that project forward.

Anyway, after missing a turning off a roundabout at Upton, and an impromptu tour of a couple of trading estates , the Ostrich found the ground and parked in the adjacent school car-park, which is not in itself huge, but was pretty much empty when I arrived ridiculously early at 1:15. A path leads from the back of the car-park to the football ground, which you can also access from the main road side. Once inside the turnstiles, there’s a mish-mash of buildings and portakabins, but they do include a club shop and a (smallish) bar where a reasonably entertaining Sutton United. v Dagenham was the BT Sports offering on the widescreen. There is one spectators’ entrance leading from the buildings complex into the pitch-side enclosure, and walking past the nearside goal, there’s a basic tea hut and low-lying Atcost-style (corrugated steel) covered seating, with a covered standing area behind the far goal – there’s nothing in the way of furniture down the other touchline apart from the dug-outs. The trouble is, Poole have in recent seasons moved rapidly up the league pyramid to Step 2, whilst their stadium has remained pretty basic, really, and so at the end of last season, when promotion was a possibility, ground-grading problems reared their heads, and Poole Town would not have been granted promotion even if they’d won the league.

This current season, they are not fairing very well, and indeed they are currently in the relegation mix. Welling are mid-table. We had a scintillating first 15 minutes, after which the game went rather off the boil for the remainder of the first half. From the start, Welling’s fast front-runners were giving the home defence cause for concern, and it was no real surprise when Willard, unopposed at the far post, guided in a right-wing cross. However, Poole replied with two in three minutes; firstly a Brookes shot went through the keeper, and then an over-hit Welling corner was picked up by Baghdadi, whose quick ball upfield fell neatly into the path of the accelerating Bentley. The Poole striker took the ball 40 yards before finishing in style.

A bit of niggle developed before half-time but the referee decided not to brandish any yellows; not sure that was entirely a wise move, as there was a fair bit of dissent from both sides thereafter.

Welling equalised on 55m from the spot, a pretty cast-iron penalty after an attacker had got round his man on the bye-line and then been hauled down from behind, and then won it on 64m when Goldberg latched onto a long through ball and beat the keeper just inside the far post. Poole had their moments, subsequently, but couldn’t conjure up an equaliser. Not a bad game, at the end of the day. A noticeably friendly club, Poole; shame they’re not getting the results.

National League South (Step 2): Poole Town 2 Welling United 3
Admission: £8 (concession), raffle: £1, decent 44pp glossy programme: £2 Refreshments: £3.50 bacon burger from the kitchen hatch, £1.40 orange juice at the bar, £1.50 home-made, hand-reared pork pie being sold from a stall just inside the enclosure. Or maybe it was a hand-made, home-reared pork pie? My memory is not what it was …. attendance: 390