Fouls n' Fights

To fill the midweek gap, here's another video. This time it's a compilation of football's top fights and fouls.

Not as good as what you'd see at Park Road(!)

Control

http://momentum.control.substance001.com/
I finally got around to seeing the Ian Curtis movie; I have to say, I don't think it's arty just 'cos it's shot in black and white. The 70's were full of colour and I struggled with seeing 1970's Manchester under a 50's gloom.

Curtis unfortunately wasn't ready for stardom. He would have been a happy family man living in Macclesfield working for the job centre if it weren't for Joy Division. He is obviously a heart breaking case - his suicide seemed inevitable following his inability to deal with fame, his affair and his disabilities. Still he left us with one fine tune: "love with tear us apart"

New Order were to go on and do greater and better work, but for now here is Ian's 1st appearence on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LdEM9xhMUM

Go see the film, if only for the main actor's performence: superb...and dare I say it he sings the songs so much better too!

Seven Days

Seven days is a long time in football.

At around 4.20pm on Saturday September 29th we were beating Dinnington Town 1-0 with 15 minutes to go and an FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round match looking a possibility and potentially only two games away from a live TV encounter at Leeds United or Nottingham Forest!

At around 4.20pm the following Saturday October 6th - having lost that FA Cup game 2-1 and losing midweek to Congleton Town in the Cheshire Senior Cup - we are now 1-0 down at home to our arch nemesis Holker Old Boys.

Could it be that after 7 straight defeats in the league that Holker would find their first win?

Thankfully it was not to be and it was our turn to reverse a 1-0 deficit in the final 10 minutes and gain our first league win of the season. How strange football is; in the space of a week Cheadle’s world is turned upside down, inside out and outside in!

Long Black Train...To Victory!

The Cheadle avoided the tracks of sin and found another way to redemption on Saturday.

Whichever way you look at it we entered the draw for this years "4th round" (2nd Qualifying, officially). We are in with the big boys, up to Conference North at that stage. [although we didn't get any of the Conf North teams in the draw...Cheadle are away to either Dinnington Town or Penrith Town - The Pole]

Sunshine in the collieries! This was a tremendous display ofthe football art from Cheadle. Trevor dreamt the night before that we'd go two-up and when "Daddy Cool" scored a brace in the space of two minutes his dream was becoming reality. However, in Trevor's dream we were pulled back to 2-2 for a replay. Sometimes dreams don't come true, thankfully....

This one went into overdrive when Mr Postman decided that "what Arron can do, I can do better" (did Dean Martin ever sing that song? Answers please) by also scoring a brace of goals in the 2nd half in the space of two minutes. He had to go one better of course when he completed a hat-trick later in the game.

In my mind Johnny Hussain supplied the crosses for Arron's goals but as Trevor said, "that's all he's done though, isn't it?"!! This striving for perfection and more effort is the Cheadle way. Trevor "could have a row with himself in an empty room" to quote our assistant manager, Steve.

Cheadle don't dive but they can't stay on their feet if they're battered...and there were some hefty encounters in this one! Thankfully Adam, Mac and Heathy were OK after very late challenges from Colls players. Once again our disipline was great and the work rate tremendous but most of all it was the team play, the passing and the joined up work that was most pleasing.

A good crowd, a good day. I belive that way maybe the last NWCFL team left in the draw until the big guns come in. We have ourselves the cup run that we wanted!

By the way the song is by Josh Turner. God has always had all the good tunes!

A Mars a Day

It was refreshing to see the Mars Bar back at its best.

After a sickly Mac came to the touchline saying he felt queasy it was left to Deano on his prodigal return to offer up the "Mars a day" solution. Still digesting the wonder bar that was handed to him by Trevor, Mac hit a beauty. In the end it was enough to knock out former winners of the FA Vase St Helens Town.

I have to say there seemed to be a lot of Crook Town [who we knocked out of the FA Cup last season] in this team; I felt for them having had team management turmoil in midweek apparently and a bit of rancour on the pitch.

It was a sad sight at the end when their goalie disappeared and missed the team warm down and post-match inquest. I am sure St Helens are a better team than this and I wish them well but take nothing away from our display.

We were great again on Saturday. "Put the champange on ice, we're going to Wembley twice". I hope we avoid the cliches and don't become a "cup team" to the detriment of our league form. But for now victory is sweet.

I thought our passing was exemplary and our work rate fantastic as ever. Disciplinewise, this season is a revelation; despite the late challenges and headlocks our team didn't respond other than pass the ball better and score another wonder goal.

Can't wait to see the DVD evidence.

In the meantime here's a classic 70s advert for the chocolate bar that helped us onto victory on Saturday....

Can't Hold A Torch To That!

Cheadle Town have an un-official mascot in my dog Maggie; she is a regular at home and away games and has even managed to gain entry to grounds were no dogs are allowed (Oldham Town). She wears the traditional colours of Cheadle “black & white”...although I have recently found out that our first ever strip was emerald green!

Anyway, a shaggy dog mascot is preferable to a hairy man! The Olympics are but a year away and are this time in China.

This man is currently the front runner for the team China mascot and torch-bearer. Check out his singing on you tube, and look for him lighting the Olympic flame in Beijing next summer. Lets hope he doesn’t hold the flame to close we wouldn’t want to see him go up to!

Please Can We Skip A League?

Once one of my kids was stranded at Leeds without any money to get home. She had a credit card but the ticket office refused to deal with her purchase, saying “it took too long to process a credit card ticket."I called the office and asked why this was a problem; given that the said person was at work and therefore within his working day, surely what ever needed to be done had to be done?

I was reminded of this story when our visitors Kirkham arrived to play their first ever match at Park Road; apparently they had asked the league whether they could skip our league and start in the 1st division when applying to join!!

Presumably they were turned down on the grounds that in order to get into the 1st division you had to “work” to get there and until they had done their graft in the lower leagues they didn’t deserve to be in the top flight. Just as my ticket man wasn’t prepared to work, so Kirkham wanted to avoid any unnecessarily complicated tasks.

Well, welcome to our world, Kirkham. Good honest endeavour is the nature of the game at our level. Cheadle don't skive. I think if nothing else Cheadle have derailed our newest rivals' assumptions that progress from this league is anything but easy.

Saturday was a great game: a match that had everything. Good goals, good play, penalties...and off-the-pitch antics.

It was my first match back after the close-season holidays, and what a game to kick-start the season. Thanks to our team for putting in a good days' work at the office and I wish Kirkham well in the coming season. They will have many more tricky difficult games ahead.

Welcome to Division 2 of the NWCFL....

No Comment,Just Watch

MACCA'S NEW SINGLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H3Qr_dTEmA

Paul has a new single out but it is only available on American radio and youtube. His new album is due out on June 4th. There is another single out on May 3oth with the video premier on C4 that night.

Just letting you know.

Mark Edward Smith

I spent a very enjoyable four hours last night in a Hotel bar in the City centre in the company of Mark E Smith, lead singer and living legend of the Manchester band 'The Fall'. Many tales and stories were shared over a few pints.

It wasn't exactly a random thing as it was through a friend of mine who was interviewing him, so alas I cannot share any of the stories, you will have to wait for Q magazine. (I think the July issue).

Anyway it was a tremendous thing, I have been listening to this man for 28 years I think it was Peel who first brought him to my ears in 1979. It wasn't untill Liverpool in 1982 that I was to finally see the band play, I went with my friend at the time also called Mark Smith without the E, I had never been to many gigs at that point...in fact Darts were the only thing I'd seen! I had missed seeing the Dead Kennedys ( a error I corrected in 2004) by one day, which had resolved me to never miss anyone ever again, and pretty much over the past 30 years I have held true to this seeing hundreds of bands along the way. The Fall remain the band I have seen most probably around a dozen times seeing many different lineups.

Fall website-http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/index.php

They are a fantastic band live and I am looking forward to seeing them perform this summer at the Ritz Ballroom, suspended dancefloor and all! Thats on July 1st and is part of the Manchester Festival.

One thing I will tell you about last night is that we had a good chat about football as I was wearing my Cheadle Town badge; this led us on to disscussing Mark's team Man City. I mentioned the sacking of Mr Pearce, as he hadn't heard this news I now have my claim to fame "I told Mark E Smith that Psycho lost his job!"

Thinking of gigs, around the time I first saw Mark E Smith live I also saw a guy called Kevin Coyne, again I was with Mark Smith but this time we were in fact the only people there at all! He had a drink with us before his set and was a little fed up but said he'd perform a couple fo songs as we had turned up! As he started to sing one other person arrived an old guy with his dog, a little bit worse for drink he proceeded to heckle Kevin Cyone with various outbursts of hilarity, one I recall was " get your knickers off!" Check out Kevin here playing to a slightly larger crowd!

Cheers to Mark E Smith a living legend!

2006-2007 Review: Reflection from Polardin

It’s been thirteen months now since I took the plunge and dived "nine below zero". I have to say it’s been a lot of fun right from the start, which was an away game at Daisy Hill last season where 17 spectators saw a fantastic game...and they ran out of pies at half time!

It was a tentative start, but as the upper leagues continue to eat themselves with greed and implode with ineptitude, it was an inevitable and necessary change to my football-following habits. We only caught the end of last season but it was enough to get the bug!!

So what are my personal highlights of my first full season?

A fantastic start to the season! Six goals in the first three games and four wins. With the strike partnership of Vinnie Braine and Dean Martin we seemed to have a magic formula; four of those six goals were scored by the dynamic duo and we knocked the Div 2 champions-to-be out of the Cheshire Senior Cup on their own ground! Even the 2-3 reverse at Runcorn - who would also be promoted - was a fantastic performance.

We'd also progressed in the FA Cup. That was a great day beating Crook Town; so many stories and memories from that day alone. Ok, we lost 0-6 in the next round but it was Alsager after all and they were really good. Then another cup defeat to Stalybridge in the Cheshire Senior'. Sorry I missed this one - sounded like a cracker with Cheadle pushing them all the way.

Then the dark days. No win from September to November.

But even in these times there were some tremendous games and, to the credit of our players, we never gave up. We might have lost our heads at times, but never our belief. Take the Holker away game. Probably the best away-day of the season: breakfast with the players, an epic journey and a game where we were robbed; we could have won 2-0 - all of their goals were gifts! Our away days were - and will always be, I feel - the best. The flags and our vocal chords come into their own.

By December it was sad that we were out of all cup competitions. Probably my biggest disappointment of the season was not having a good cup run, but it wasn't for the want of trying.

We started 2007 undefeated in the whole of January. Some great games with Holker (3-3) and Daisy Hill (3-0).

Oldham Town away: another amazing day. Down to nine men and 0-4 down. A goal from us at that point sums up all that is best about our game - when it is on song we never give up! I’ve never seen us drop our heads. Lose them, yes, but not drop. That should be our motto!

Padiham's 5-0 win and later 3-1 win at Park Road were low points. Vinnie Braine reminding us of what could have been. But what a great team they are.

At the end of the season we seemed to run out of steam, which wasn't surprising when we were down to eleven players and had to face all the top teams in our last fixtures...and we didn’t have a lot to play for.

So, my "top ten" Cheadle moments of the season:
1. The 1-0 win at Winsford United in the Cheshire Senior Cup
2. Holker away - a great day out, despite the result
3. Crook Town (3-1) in the FA Cup
4. Lindon's goal at Eccleshall...in fact the whole trip, the game and the result. One of our best displays of the season
5. Deano's hat-trick at Daisy Hill
6. Trevor's touchline tantrums
7. The 'doubles' over Daisy Hill etc…
8. Ben Roberts' sending off for the reason given by the liner: “fed up of you”!
9. Scoring a goal when we were 0-4 down at Oldham Town and down to nine men. That showed real character. Cheadle character
10. The fact that I only saw one goalless game involving Cheadle all season

My non-Cheadle top ten moments of the season:
1. Having to go to Accrington twice in one day to see Great Harwood v CTFC as the kick-off time had been changed. Okay, this was last season, but I'm sneaking it in anyway.
2. Winsford United v New Mills, Div 2 Trophy Semi-Final 2nd leg and Carlos Meakin's clinching goal
3. The England amateur game at Burton Albion FC - another great away day
4. Marske v Skelmersdale - discovering where Tosin Onibudo had got to!
5. Singing in the rain, Chadderton away
6. The cold at Oldham Town
7. The players that came and went
8. Learning about this league from The Pole and how it works
9. The "league-hoppers" - the people who travel from ground-to-ground as a hobby
10. The lack of diving at this level

We have a real good core group of players and a dedicated management team. Trevor's team talks must be legendary just look at those 2nd half goal statistics. It’s a mad mad mad mad world and I love it!

An International Match for Cheadle Town FC...perhaps

This blog would like to pay tribute to the smallest country in the world - which is up for sale. Sealand consists of a man-made structure 6 miles off the coast of Suffolk. Population?...well, it consits of the family Bates, who squatted at the structure which used to belong to the government in the 1960's. Having gained squatters rights to the "building" they set up their own government, law and created their own country. Now that's enterprise!

In 1967–8 Britain's Royal Navy tried to remove the Bates family. As they entered territorial waters, Mr Bates tried to scare them off by firing warning shots from the former fort. As Bates was a British citizen at the time, he was summoned to court in England following the incident. The court ruled in Bates' favour that Sealand was outside British jurisdiction as it was beyond the three-mile limit of the country's waters. In 1975, Roy of Sealand (Mr Bates) introduced a constitution, followed by a flag, a national anthem, a currency and passports.

The Sealand national football team is represented by a Danish team. According to FIFI Wildcup (a tournament for micronations and/or those unrecognised by FIFA) website, the North Cyprus national football team beat Sealand 6-1, but it doesn't give any further details.

Perhaps Cheadle can arrange an international match with Sealand in the near future.

Puzzler

The answer to last week's puzzler is that even in metric countries, they still measure the car wheels in inches.

This weeks puzzler: what will be the shortest day this year 2007?

John "Snow" Cale

On the back of a snow storm John Cale blew into town two night's ago. Cale was the only good thing that came out of the art-indulgent rubbish that was the Velvet Underground...you remember them, that failed art student band bank rolled by Andy Warhol in the sixties.

John Cale obviously saw through the pretentiousness and left after their second album. The Welsh-speaking avant garde genius falling out with the mad-as-cheese Lou Reed.

Anyway, 4o years later he's playing punk rock to an ageing Mancunian crowd; snow-coloured ponytails seemed fitting on this cold, cold night. But what a gig it was! As he heads towards his 60th birthday he's obviously decided to go out with a bang; a very complex range of punk rock and roll.

After a weekend of watching football it was a relief to see some guy rock the house. Apparently Jamie T was downstairs mesmorising the 16 year-olds while their dads were headbanging to this hot, hot music.

I'm looking forward to the weather changing and some real sport being played this year but if snow brings such genius to town, I for one will not be complaining...

The Puzzler

New feature. [and you didn't discuss it with me, the editor? Naughty boy - The Pole]. A weekly puzzler for you to consider. I will set a question each week.

This week's is a Metric versus Old Imperial measurement. As you all know the rest of the world is all virtually metric, but what one factor on modern cars, even in metric countries, is still measured Imperically i.e the good Old Blighty way?

Think about it.

Serving Suggestions

Always a favourite with me is the "serving suggestion" idea on food packaging. The one that beats them all is the mug of soup with the suggestion to serve it in a mug! Classic.

Mind you, considering what happened to a woman from Australia this week who swallowed a spoon whilst eating spaghetti, maybe they're not such a bad idea after all:

"Doctors at Canterbury Hospital in Sydney were stunned to see the nearly six-inch-long utensil stuck in the esophagus of the woman, whose name was not released due to confidentiality.The 26-year-old woman was reportedly eating spaghetti when she began laughing. When she swallowed the teaspoon, she began to gag reflexively."

Mud, Glorious Mud

After our recent exploits in the mud during our Eccleshall trip (see the videos on older posts), I got thinking about other mud stories.

A friend of mine reminded me of a lazy PE teacher at school who one day, during a downpour, refereed from his car parked along the touchline. He gave instructions by flashing his lights; one of us would run over and he'd wind down the window and give his decisions. On one flash of his lights he was asked why he stopped play. He said "Oh sorry, I didn't. I was just messing with the radio."

Or there's the grandfather story about his time on the frontline in the trenches of France. He stumbled in the mud and found a German helmet sticking out of the wet muddy surface; the spiked helmet unmistakeable. When he pulled at it a whole German soldier came up with it! Thanking him for saving him from a muddy demise, he walked off back onto the enemy line!

The Year Just Gone

I've just been looking back over 2006.

Personally a good year in all started with a new job last January after a three-month lay-off due to illness and an operation. In Febuary on our Uncle Jack's 85th birthday two distant cousins came over from New Zealand. The 'Kiwis' have certainly had an impact on us this year. Also the very same day we had a visit from Ray Winstone at our house. In March I went to Rome, in April I found Cheadle Town and the "don't dive" philosophy was born. May was spent on jury service. June was a whole month of classical music performances including concerts, festivals and our daughter's recital. July was so hot I nearly melted on the golf course or whilst riding my bike around town. August saw me in London for The Producers. In September I hardly stayed still: I misssed too many football games with two trips to Dublin, London, Edinburgh and The Lakes. In October I was best man at a Dublin wedding and in Novemebr Beatles' 'LOVE' came out. By december I was shattered and found it hard to sleep with a five-test Ashes series to watch through the night. At work the endless stream of 16 year-old homeless children never stopped: on average one a day.

Internationally the picture was even more depressing:
IRAQ: What started in 2003 as a supposedly straightforward drive to topple Saddam Hussain deteriorated during 2006 into a dismayingly complex and savage struggle, with Iraqis by the thousands killed in sectarian reprisal attacks and the US military death toll nearing 3,000.

DISASTER IN DARFUR: Violence worsened in Sudan's Darfur region, where fighting between rebels and government forces has killed more than 200,000 people. The United Nations approved a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force, but Sudan blocked its deployment.

MIDEAST FIGHTING: Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia fought a month long war in the summer; more than 900 people were killed and much of southern Lebanon was battered. Lebanon's Western-backed government emerged more embattled than ever, while Hezbollah claimed increased popular support.

AIRLINER PLOT: British authorities said they narrowly thwarted a terrorist plot to bomb several jets over the Atlantic. The disclosure led to tough new restrictions on the contents of carry-on luggage.

NUCLEAR STANDOFFS: The United States and its allies were frustrated in their efforts to rein in nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. North Korea tested a nuclear bomb in October, and Iran - despite a threat of sanctions - pushed ahead with plans to bring its first nuclear power plant on line in late 2007.

SADDAM CONVICTED: Saddam Hussain was convicted in the slaying of 148 Shi'ite Muslims, including children, following an assassination attempt against him in 1982. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but proceedings against him continued on genocide charges stemming from a chemical attack on Kurds in 1987. Then he was hung.

Finally, my favourite footballer story - apart from the fact that Ashley Cole sold less than 5,000 copies of his autobiography - was this story about Wayne Rooney:
Footballers aren’t known for their intelligence and a confused Wayne Rooney cemented the stereotype of the dozy sportsman once and for all. Rooney went bananas when his fiancée Coleen got a text message from someone called Sam. He demanded to know who this Sam was, but he had mistaken the word Sam for what was actually 5am – the time the text was sent.

The Dame

The dame turned sixty this week; check out when he was five (see the picture on the left).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrmiDWzGvSI

We all knopw that David has a permantly dilated pupil as well as having two different coloured eyes.

Just to put the record straight. His eyes changed colour when after he was caught bragging about a girl on the school bus when he was 10 he was punched so hard in one eye it changed colour! Happy birthday to the laughing gnome.

Polardin's 12 Days Of Christmas

Based on current events and all things Cheadle...
On the first day of Christmas, a GP gave a Scottish man one robotic hand...
On the second day of Christmas, a woman gave birth to triplets in two wombs...
On the third day of Christmas, a female dragon lizard at Chester Zoo gave birth to three babies...in what the Zoo is calling an immaculate conception...
On the fourth day of Christmas, four Scottish towns were submerged in water after the heaviest rain fall in years, putting the global warming myth finally to rest...
On the fifth day of Christmas, Cheadle Town were knocked out of all possible five cup competitions this year...
On the six day of Christmas, Deano scored his sixth goal of the season...
On the seventh day of Christmas, Polardin, The Donardin, Sulardin along with Matt, Pat, Maggie and The Pole went to New Mills seven-strong and ready to roar on their support...
On the eighth day of Christmas, we fantasised about beating New Mills 8-0...
On the ninth day of Christmas, England were 9 wickets out and coming home...
On the tenth day of Christmas, ten airports were closed across Britain under fog...
On the eleventh day of Christmas, we had eleven players on our pitch back to basics good honest endeavour without cause for rancor playing the beautiful game as it should be played with no diving or cheating...
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Cheadle were finally awarded a penalty! [I wish - The Pole]