AWAY DAYS

(A PERSONAL VIEW OF RECENT MATCHES)

 The Runcorn game seems a long time ago now but the proliferation of away games recently has meant a backlog in Away Days Reports.

The build up to the Runcorn game was interesting to say the least with the warring factions in Runcorn calling for, on one side 1000 to turn up whilst on the other side they were calling for a boycott.

In the event 733 turned up of which some 450 must have been Sandgrounders.

It is quite an impressive stadium of that there is no doubt but how you have to feel sorry for Runcorn having to play there in front of pitifully small crowds. The rights and wrongs of the move are still open for debate and I am not sure how I would react if Sefton decided to move us to say, Formby and call us Southport FC Sefton…..  I think I have just decided how I would react!

I know there is more too it than just a name change and the politics are far too complicated for me to understand but it does seem very sad to me.

As for the game, well once the chaos inside the stand had died down following some rather inept stewarding, it was rather a nothing match considering the supposed rivalry between the teams and a 1-1 draw was a fair result. If someone had offered me 4 points from the Gainsborough and Runcorn games I would have snapped their hands off. I expected them the other way round mind you but who cares.

As for sitting down at football matches, it’s not for me I’m afraid and the Runcorn experience reminded me, not that I needed much reminding, why I prefer the lower end of the football pyramid.

It was with great interest that I read a Runcorn councillors comments that he felt he was sat “among a group of Southport hostiles” now I know my language can get a bit colourful on occasions but come on, hostile? As one person commented he sure knows how to win friends and influence people. It gave us all a laugh if nothing else.

Next away trip for me was Prescot Cables.

Having had some dental treatment on the morning of the Prescot game I was tying to avoid people as much as I could as I had a number of missing teeth! The chance of another new ground was too much to miss.

It really is at games like this that you start to question your sanity, standing for close on three hours in freezing cold weather in Prescot when you could be watching “top European football” on TV takes some doing but I know which I prefer. It was a good game, end to end stuff and after 50 minutes we were cruising but the introduction of the Prescot subs sparked them into life and to be honest I felt we were a bit fortunate to get to 90 minutes all square. The groan that went up when the game went into extra time could be heard all round, not that the game was bad it was just so cold. The penalty shoot out was played out in front of the BBC cameras (at least the cameras that hadn’t been nicked) who were filming a piece on an upcoming pantomime. All very strange, people dressed in odd costumes, then at the end of the real penalty shoot out a group of chaps dressed in Liverpool and Everton kits came out to take part in a penalty shoot out which the camera crew were pleading for people to stay behind and watch so that they could get good crowd scenes. By now my feet didn’t feel as though they belonged to my body so there was no way I was standing up any longer and at 10.25 it was home for me!