AWAY DAY TO SCARBOROUGH

A midweek trek to Scarborough, 330 mile round trip, 3 1/2 hours, no bother. Let's make a day of it and take in Sedgefield races as well.

This was my first trip this season with Martin, my former regular driver who had not been to any away games thus far.

I was on the 9.00am bus out of Southport to meet him in Preston at 10.

One thing you can be certain of on a Martin trip is that you won't go the conventional way and he didn't disappoint. We ended up going to the highest pub in Britain The Tan Hill Inn at the top of Stonesdale Moor for lunch but a domestic emergency, the washing machine was leaking, meant they weren't doing any food for a while so we moved on. I can however now claim to have had a drink(J20) in the highest pub in Britain. We made our way to Sedgefield in plenty of time for the first race. As it has been a rather expensive month I decided just to have a couple of small bets in the first couple of races and save my main bet until the third race. I then broke one of my own rules, never to back against an odds on favourite but I really did fancy this one. Bushido duly obliged at 9/2-I took 5/1 so I was ahead. Martin then casually commented that in the next race there was a horse running in virtually Southport's colours so all the hours I spend looking at form went out the window and I lumped on Snow's Ride and it won comfortably. I think the bookies were running scared as I got 13/2 but it started at 7/2. I was now showing a very very healthy profit. My one failing with betting is that if I am behind I chase my losses whereas once I'm ahead I like to keep hold of what I've won. I decided to cut right back in the last race and with two to jump my selection was leading and I was regretting it but my horse ended up 2nd so it was the right decision in the end.

We left at the end of Race 5 as we wanted to make sure we got to Scarborough in plenty of time for the main business of the day.

We made great time so we decided to call in at Whitby on the way to Scarborough for tea. The day was just getting better, a spectacular drive up through some of the most picturesque scenery you could ever imagine, a winning day at the races and now fish and chips from the 2005 Fish & Chip Shop of the year. They were superb, as good as any I have had for a long time and I'm a connoisseur!

As we were walking back to the car in Whitby on a lovely night with a super sunset in the distance I remarked that it's a pity a great day is going to be spoiled by a football match at the end of it. How wrong I was going to be.

We got to the ground at 7.30 and it was nice to see a few of the more familiar faces had made the long journey. 67 fans in attendance by my count.

It was just £10 to get in and be seated (are you watching Kidderminster) and as much as I don't like sitting down I was quite grateful tonight as my legs were tired. The programme was a good read for £2.50 except that they called us The Shrimps! It gave this website a very good write up in their "Hitting The Net" feature. They were quite scathing of Port Chat however because of the colour, I quote "this is the most gut-wrenching, vomit inducing bright yellow mucus-coloured background I can possibly imagine. That's a bit harsh! However the credibility of the writer is questioned, he says of the official site "The first thing that hit me about this site was the fact that it is yellow but still looks nice. Anyone who is into web design will know that yellow often isn't the best of colours to use (good job I recently changed mine then) but this isn't too deadly. The content of the site is fantastic, Every link opens up a new page of facts, figures and photos which will certainly entertain for a good while. Worth a visit" Now I know the official site is coming on but I'm not sure this is an accurate description of it yet.

To the match, Dicko was back in his rightful position and came out to a nice ovation from the travelling faithful who I think realise he is Southport's Number 1, he was wearing a shirt with Walker on the back mind you.

Chris Lane made his 100th appearance for the Sandgrounders,

We had a couple of early chances with Bakes again looking in top form. Mike Powell was playing centre half alongside Faz and after a slightly shaky start looked very accomplished. I am always impressed with Mike and I am sure he has a great future ahead of him. It was he who played a lovely ball out of defence for Dales to run on to, skip past a defender and play the ball in for Leady to stoop low and score with a fine header. I thought he had missed as I think a few did as it seemed to take an age for us to realise it had gone in.

My thoughts turned to Saturday 1-0 up at half time etc etc. Scarborough came out strong in the second half but just couldn't break us down but it was backs to the wall in a very long second half. We hung on in there, just! We were ecstatic at the end, maybe we were a touch lucky but on Saturday when we deserved something we got nothing. As they say, it tends to equal itself out over a season.

Anyone there and those reading this should really applaud the lads for tonight's showing. Yes it wasn't particularly pretty, yes we were under the cosh and yes we were on our last legs at the end but the fighting qualities of the team were clear for all to see. You can be assured it won't be another abject surrender as in 2002/03. The players enjoyed this win, you could tell from their reaction at the end of the game as they celebrated  with the fans. It was good to see Liam walk over to the fans as well and join in the applause. The chant of there's only one Liam Watson hopefully showed him that the true fans are 100% behind him and all he is doing.  I'm sure we will have similar battles ahead let's just hope that more of them turn out like tonight.

I awarded Matty McGinn my MOTM but it could have been any of them. Mike Powell, Dom Morley and Leady were outstanding, Bakes was again superb but Matty never gave up for 90 minutes and his never say die attitude was great to see and as one of the unsung heroes I decided to go for him.

The journey home seemed to fly by and we were back in Preston for midnight. I had arranged to stay over at Martin's to save Julia coming out to get me, I'm just so kind!

One of the best days I've had for a very long time. It went well from start to finish. I really could get used to doing this on a regular basis but sadly work gets in the way and I will be back at the desk on Thursday.

At least the league table looks just a touch better.

Webmaster Rob Urwin Contact rob@southportfcstats.co.uk