Sunday 16 March 2008

Swinton Lions 8 Salford City Reds 48

And so derby day finally dawned to bright sunshine & a frost thick enough to leave even the most optimistic to have a fear of a postponement, thankfully the sunshine gave the pitch ample time to thaw out but the game would ultimately give us little to warm us up on a bitterly cold afternoon.

I arrived in Prestwich far too early to contemplate drinking (not least as there were no pubs open) so headed to a refined tea-room (the kind you could only find in a cultural hot-bed like Prestwich) for a smoked salmon & cream-cheese bagel with a mug of mocha. Possibly the most sedate opening to a day at the rugby ever as I sat there contemplating the team selection as Vivaldi & Mahler were piped through the tea-rooms.

Soon enough the sound of 12 bells from the church down the road led me to drain the remainder of my coffee & head down to the church (Inn of course) to give praise to the mighty Guinness. A pleasant afternoon was spent in arguably Prestwich's finest pub as we looked forward to thrashing our city neighbours & digested the disappointing blow that a home-sick James Jimenez had left us after an impressive opening with the club. On discovering that the jukebox contained every single top 40 hit since the 1940's we pumped £ after £ into it. The only disappointment it provided us with was when we discovered that both "Back Home" & "Ally's Tartan Army" were both 'currently unavailable'. A small compensation was finding "Head Over Heels" by Kevin Keegan.

With kick-off approaching a fleet of taxis were ordered for the journey to Whitefield & having arrived in good time we decided to join the masses of reds outside the Parkfield for one last beer before heading off to Park Lane to watch the match. Quite frankly it was more of the same, we weren't impressive but we didn't have to be, In Jimenez's absence, JT switched into the centres & had a decent game, bagging a hat-trick into the bargain. Having only led by 18-4 at half-time the 2nd half was more convincing but we still bombed some great chances to really rub Swinton's noses into it.

The main fun during the game was to be had with some of the songs aimed at Swinton with the 2 faves being "YOU'RE Salford til you die" & "Take me home, Station Rd, to the place, where I belong, a 3 bed semi, with an en-suite, take me home, Station Rd" with "Malcolm White is a rugby genius" up there too. Poor Jeff (an occasional 5-a-side team mate) got a lot of stick as well as he headed in front of us at the start of the 2nd half to take up his place at the scoreboard. "We don't want your Big Issue" & "I predict a shower" were lustily sung in his direction together with the chorus of "Tramp" by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas.

Post game we headed up to the bar in the ground for a passionate sing off with the Swinton fans who in all truth had not covered themselves in glory during the game. They were behind their team for the full 80 but reports from Salford fans stood in the vicinity talked of racist abuse aimed at JT, pathetic. The bar staff seemed a bit worried by the chanting (I suppose a rugby union ground wouldn't be used to a crowd though) & worriedly called time at the bar so we headed up to the Parkfield to pick over the bones of the game over our £3+ pints.

Taxi's were ordered to take us to the Church but on arriving we noticed that the Church was shut! We quickly ran back to the taxi asking him to take us to the Height. He said that as he'd cleared we'd have to order another, which we did. There followed a 15 minute wait in the freezing cold when lo & behold the same driver comes & picks us up! Back at the Waggon we had a few more beers before another cab to the Tavern where me, Walshy, Solly & Deano spent a period of time (I was absolutely ruined by this point so it may have been an hour or it may have been 3) before I headed home to a distinctly frosty reception (& no it wasn't the weather) having said that I wouldn't be home late at some point earlier.

Sunday 17 February 2008

Salford City Reds 40 Oldham RLFC 12

The opening competitive home game of the season can rarely have been viewed with such confidence in recent years, although Oldham have assembled a squad that looks capable of going one step further than last season (when only defeat in the grand final cost them a place alongside us in NL1), another comfortable victory seemed assured. A quick warm-up pint post-work in Eccles was followed by the short tram ride to the Tav to have a few more beers & watch the opening period of Warrington's latest quest for world-domination with their opener against Hull.

The shed was surprisingly packed as the players took the field & a fairly health contingent had made the short trip from Oldham too. From the word go we looked quite sluggish & Oldham were quick to capitalise on any errors we made & this always looked like being more of a contest than the previous week's trip to Rochdale had been. Early nerves were settled however as Mal put Paul White through a gap to go over, Andy Ballard kicked the conversion and we looked forward to another rout. Any such thoughts were quickly dispelled as Mick Nanyn went over for the visitors before adding a fine conversion and we were level again. James Jimenez restored our advantage with a fine goal from Ballard to boot. Gardner made a calamitous error then which let in Craig Littler to level things for the Roughyeds & a period of scrappy play followed before our own Littler squeezed over out wide to take us into the break 18-12 in front.

It was not great to watch, particularly for Wayne who had staked £110 on Salford to beat the 30 point handicap, it certainly wasn't looking promising. In truth, we played a bit better 2nd half & took advantage as Oldham's momentous effort took its inevitable toll on the part-timers' energy levels. Turner & Gardner both crossed while Stuart Littler completed a fine hat-trick. Ballard kicked well throughout & looked assured in his first start at senior level but Jimenez was rightly named as man of the match.

Post game we ventured into the Variety Centre re-opened for fans on Fridays & witnessed a room full of kids & a huge queue at the bar. The wait to be served was made all the more unbearable when news filtered through that the Guinness was off, instead I was stuck with Tuborg! Deano made various scathing comments about people hanging round the players & bothering them so it was a great surprise that as Jimenez walked past our table with his man of the match award, Deano leapt up to shake his hand & try to engage him in mindless conversation. He followed this up by bothering Jewitt (who recognised him from his attempted pitch invasion at Perpignan), Myler & Borgese pestering them to go for a beer with him one night, unbelievable.

Having had enough we left having had a cheery g'day from big Phil Leuluai on the way out. The man was rapidly reaching heroic status, it amused us no end to see that Said Tamghart (the Oldham player notab;e for not wearing socks during a game) was in front of us as we left the club & slipped down the stairs, missed the added friction that a pair of socks can give you there didn't you Said.

De-camping to a very quiet Tavern for last orders to pick over the bones of the night, me & Solly nipped outside only for an oncoming car to race towards us flashing its headlights & beeping it's horn. Only as it went by us did we notice that the driver who was frantically waving goodbye to us was big Phil himself. Top man, I think Solly may want to marry him before too long! Bring on derby day next week.

Sunday 10 February 2008

Rochdale Hornets 12 Salford City Reds 54

Ah, the magic of the Northern Rail Cup. Our run to (hopefully) glory at Blackpool in July saw us start with a run-out to face Bobbie Goulding's Hornets side who hope to recover from last-season's disastrous campaign which culminated in an emphatic relegation to NL2. In the build-up to the fixture, most Salford fans seemed to be looking forward to this one; a comfortable victory seemed assured & Rochdale's usually a decent day out so I expected a few hundred or so to make the journey, I'd seriously underestimated.

The 1st sign that we were taking a few with us was when I got to Victoria station for the 11:14 train. Even before I'd got to the window the lady said "Return to Rochdale?", I answered yes & asked if there'd been a few come through already? She rolled her eyes & nodded her head; a good sign.

Getting on the train I sat with Solly, Walshy, Deano & Martin and the short journey to Rochdale was filled with slanderous comments about Sniffer Paul's monumental drug habit from Deano. Rochdale station is a bit of a walk from the town centre itself and the plan was to break the journey up at a Holts' pub on the way before heading down the hill to the Wetherspoons for 4 British Isles breakfasts, hopefully served up by a blonde bastard, from the future. However, contrary to the opening times on the door, the pub was shut and we decided to head down to 'Spoons despite Ray's encouaging shouts of 5 minutes lads when he'd managed to collar the landlord through the window.

The walk to the pub was given a humourous slant as we passed the offices of Cullen Financial Planning (corporate slogan "Invest millions for a very mediocre return"), sadly Walshy's new camera let him down & we were unable to record the premises for posterity. The good humour was needed as we arrived at the pub to be greeted by a sign saying they weren't opening until 12pm today. On a cold day we decided to head to the nearest open premises (a Ladbrokes), a plan which was rudely interrupted by the arrival of the retard branch of our support into the same Turf Accountants. Suddenly, the cold seemed a better option. The time waiting was filled in by Deano telling us all that he was having a quiet season this year, a quite shocking revelation really.

With the late opening times meaning breakfast was a non-starter, we had a bit of a nibble on the quiz machines before ordering food (my Goan vegetable curry was excellent) and with me & Solly having drunk up we jumped in Kate & Bobby's car for the short trip to Spotland. Having walked past at least 4 banks on the way to the car, Bobby suddenly remembered that he needed cash meaning we had to join the queue of cars into Asda for Bobby to use the cash machine. This meant that, by the time we arrived in the Church to meet Paul, all the rest of the lads had managed to finish their pints, get taxis & arrive in the pub before us!

A couple of pints later we made the short walk to the turnstiles & the Salford following was certainly looking healthy. Paul & I bought food as soon as we got in the ground & this turned out to be an inspired idea as the food ran out before half-time. Apparently they were only told to expect 200 Salford fans, what they got was around 1,200; very encouraging, especially on such a bitterly cold day.

The players took to a pitch that was surrounded by snow but which looked in surprisingly good nick considering the recent weather & the fact that football had been played on it 24 hours earlier. We started brightly enough and Paul White went over to open the scoring early on, Wilshere was to have trouble kicking in the strong wind & his conversion attempt was nowhere near. Shortly afterwards Gardner intercepted but looked supsicioulsy short on pace as he was hauled down near the line. It didn't take long however before Sibbit went in at the left corner to extend our lead to 8 points.

Rochdale caused us problems though & it was no great surprise when ex-Red Svabic scooted over & added the extras to cut our lead to just 2. We were always asking questions with the ball though particularly with Alker's quick scoots from dummy half & with one such he put Myler away under the sticks. Further tries from Fitzy & Alker himself gave us a comfortable 6-24 half-time score. Half-time was made far more bearable by GT's hip-flask which he probably needed more than most after Mike had smashed a lump of snow/ice on his head as he returned from the loo.

The 2nd half was always likely to be a bit more emphatic as our fitness would tell & it proved to be just about. Stapleton & Leuluai came to the fore with some big drives as we ran in further tries from Jimenez, Wilshere, Stapleton & a 2nd for Fitzpatrick stretching the lead to 6-48. Dale didn't lie down though & scored a fine try which was finished by Ainscough & drew warm applause from the travelling fans before Svabic added the extras. We had the last say though with Borgese going in to bring up the 50.

So back to the Church where we had a few pints & watched the end of Villa-Fulham before a long & very cold walk back to the town centre. When we returned to Spoons it was obvious that Deano's quiet season had gone very quickly pear-shaped. He was leathered & as usual he took to having a go at Mal about his shoes, the amount of time a pint lasts him, well, everything really. A sweepstake quickly took place on what time his cock would emerge.

From there we headed up the hill to the Last Orders wher a pint of Guinness & a pint of bitter set me back the princely sum of £3.20 while Deano took photos of everyone & everything proudly declaring of every one "That's a keeper, look at that, that's a keeper". By 9pm a few had headed home while Paul & Deano had headed off to some foam party in town. We headed to the Holts' gaff up the road.

Usually by this time, that place was rammed with karaoke in full swing. Instead it was silent with some old-timer in a WKD hat & this party of 3 (the woman of whom sprung into life when I put some tunes on & she proceeded to dance dunkenly around the pub to New Order & The Smiths). Ray & his crew arrived soon after & we received the shocking news that Frankie Birchall had been made redundant from his paper-round. Quickly the chorus of Panic was turned from "Hang the DJ" to "Where's the papers" and some extended chant awhich included lyrics that namechecked most if not all the UK dailies but which sadly no-one to this day is able to recall!

A very poor turn-out on the last train home and after putting Paul on the last train to Leeds we were left with me, Solly, Walshy & Ray on the last train to Manchester. The train journey flew by with anecdotes from Ray about his Wii bowling demonstration at ours last years "I don't miss spares do I Chris?", taking son Lee to a German(IIRC) brass-house for his 16th & finishing off with his arrest on the way back from Villa Park earlier this season for a dodgy train pass. The tale of him having to walk through Manchester after the police had finished with his PC, with the computer in a bag with evidence splashed across it was priceless. From there a taxi took us to the Crescent 1st to drop off Ray (although he'd just moved & was having trouble remembering where he exactly lived), then to the Height to drop off Solly & Walshy before heading to Winton to drop me off to a warm bed & a blissfull (but very snory apparently) sleep.

Pre-Season

Oh dear, if anyone was reading my Salford Tripping blog & has spent the last 6 months desperately wondering whether our season ended in disaster or triumph, well the former won through sadly. The truth is that the inevitable relegation duly arrived & was confirmed as I sat in front of this PC, listening to Radio Humberside's commentary of Hull KR's rout of their neighbours. At half-time in that game I got a text off Walshy to tell me that Shaun McRae was "trudging through Salford precinct", it seemed apt. I text back with the score & later discovered that Walshy darted out of Argos to find our coaching supremo & give him the news. He never found him.

Relegation at least gave us the opportunity to lose some deadwood & bad eggs that had collected in our camp & it surprised few that Luke Robinson was the 1st to jump ship as he posed happily for the cameras in a Huddersfield shirt while telling the assembled press that he would probably still have left if we'd stayed up (no doubt due to another clause in his contract). No surprise either when Andy Coley jumped ship to Wigan a few days later either, and both Coley & Robinson were roundly abused in various songs aired at the following games (though neither would wear the shirt again after relegation was confirmed).

Others followed post-season; amazingly both Finnigan and Haggerty will start Super League XIII with Bradford & Harlequins respectively. David Hodgson followed Robinson to Huddersfield (though unlike his team-mate with our best wishes). It was therefore ironic that Hodgson should suffer a serious pre-season injury when most Salford fans had their Robinson voodoo-dolls out. Then as Castleford were confirmed as our replacements Korkidas, Dorn & amazingly Edmonsson were handed Super League lifelines, though it would surprise few that Edmonsson would retire through injury before the season even commenced. Aaron, Aaron Moule & the mighty Buddha would retire & return to Australia.

The real story pre-season though was of the players who were willing to stay & play for the Reds. Malcolm Alker, Karl Fitzpatrick & Stuart Littler all turned down Super League offers to quickly re-enforce their desire to stay & help us back up. Others would sign up too; John Wilshere was easily our player of the nightmare season & his decision to stay delighted all Salford fans (except Bobby bizarrely), Paul Highton followed (which he confirmed to me in the bizarre setting of a Walkabout toilet) and a bulk of the squad was retained but without the big-time Charlies, sounded promising.

More surprising were some of the new signings. Robbie Paul, Paul White & Matt Gardner had all been bandied about as potential signings if we went down for a month or two so they surprised few if anyone. Craig Stapleton, however, definitely came out of left-field & I don't think I quite believed that he was coming over here to play National League rugby until I saw for myself pictures of him in training. We also plundered the financially-troubled Widnes side by snapping up Adam Sidlow & the hugely rated kid Richie Myler, while with only 1 overseas player available (Stapleton), the 'Italian' utility player Chris Borgese joined the 'Spanish' utility player James Jimenez on the plane from Australia. A truly multi-national squad was developing!

Reports from Jacksonville suggested that training was going great & a friendly draw in the group stage of the Northern Rail Cup meant that our first 6 games would be versus lower-league opposition. With that in mind, we were to play only 1 pre-season friendly; against the Super League Champions-elect ( no really, this year we're going to win it definitely, we're a massive club) Warrington Wolves. The playing surface at the Halliwell Jones was not conducive to the champagne rugby that the mighty Wolves will undoubtedly serve up for us this year and with 4 days to go to kick-off was deemed unfit so a late switch saw us playing at the Willows.

An early-ish start saw us in the Eccles Cross for a few discussing the early blows we'd suffered in the week leading up to the game. Firstly Robbie Paul had gone in for a back operation that would rule him out of the first 2 months & then 2 days before the 1st friendly new signing Damien Reed was jailed for a year for a vicious assault on a friend outside The Birdcage in Leeds (a court-case I've since discovered the club knew nothing about until he asked McRae for a reference).

The short tram journey took us to the Willows where we watched the 1st half of the Utd-Spurs cup match before entering the ground to see that Warrington had a full team out. At this point I feared the worst, even more so about 3 minutes in when Martin Gleeson ran through a weak Ratchford tackle to give the Wolves an early 6-0 lead. We responded well & were unlucky to have a Jimenez try ruled-out. The pressure built though & a nice angle from Littler was met by a smart pass from Wilshere to see the Horse dart over. Wilshere added the extras on the hooter & we went in level and very happy.

The introduction of Myler midway through the 1st period had made a big difference & it was fitting that 10 minutes into the 2nd half Myler chased through his own towering kick before outjumping Bridge & flicking the ball to Sidlow who raced the remaining 20 metres to put us in front. We maintained the pressure on the Woves & fittingly the impressive Big Phil Leuluai crashed through to extend our lead to 18-6.

Warrington then hit their straps for 10 minutes though & an Andy Bracek try was quickly followed when some great work by Anderson sent GB hooker Jon Clarke (whoever thought I'd be typing that in all seriousness) over by the sticks. Shortly afterwads Rauhihihihihi went over by the sticks & Warrington had the lead back. The game finished at 18-22 and we were perhaps unfortunate not to have won but a great hit-out & a good indicator of the potential in this squad.

Getting back in the Tavern we were able to see replays of the now infamous Sheff Utd balloon goal against Citeh which provoked huge laughter among us & we stopped in the Tav for a good few hours catching up on off-season events before heading to the Height to round off a good day out that got us all warmed up for the short trip to Rochdale.