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STANDING ORDER FOR GOALDEN LOTTERY
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AWAY DAYS RIP OFF AT KIDDERMINSTER My latest "Away Days" report took me to Kidderminster and ground number 142. We (me and the missus) set off early for this one and decided to avoid the motorway on the way down and go down the A41. Calling in for petrol at Tesco on the Formby By Pass the lady at the counter asked me if I was on my way to Kidderminster? I nearly fell over to find someone who actually knew we were playing at Kidderminster. She then told me her son had already set off! A nice leisurely drive down with a short stop for our picnic lunch saw us arrive at the ground at 1.15 pm and our first mistake was to go in the car park and pay £3 for the privilege when there was free parking just around the corner. I think that's what put me in a bad mood! It was quite a way from the town centre so we just had a wander round the ground. It looked very nice from the outside. The usual fans were turning up as the time passed and we ended up with 77 fans in the away part of the ground plus a few in the main stand. Now for the fun part. On walking round the ground it became apparent that Kidderminster had decided not to open the away terracing so we had to pay £16 to sit down. I have no problem with paying £16 even though it is very steep for Conference football but the fact that the Kidderminster fans only had to pay £13 made me see red. I questioned virtually every steward and got really angry. One steward told me that they had informed Southport that this would be the case, well if that is so they never passed it on to the fans. I then advised one steward that I was going in to the home end and he radioed the safety officer who said he had our safety officer with him (who no doubt got in free) and he said that our safety officer knew all the Southport fans and if he saw anyone going in the home end they would be ejected. We decided to walk round to the home end and I asked the steward on that gate what would happen if I went in the home end and he said I couldn't because I had my Southport shirt on. I offered to take it off. You had to bear in mind that I had e-mailed Kidderminster on Monday to find out what the position was and received no reply. It was a ludicrous situation and one that I am sure will anger a lot of visitors to Kiddy as the season progresses. Our safety officer put in an appearance and I asked him if he was going to do anything about the inequitable treatment, he ignored me. Well I intend to complain to the Conference. I understand a number of our fans spoke to Mr Clapham and whether he does anything about it remains to be seen. It may seem trivial but it is wrong! I also hate sitting at football matches, one of the reasons I watch lower level football is so I can still stand up! It was a bad start but putting this aside the ground was excellent with probably the best facilities we have seen for some time, the programme was a good read at £2.50 and the pitch was in very good condition. Having seen York overrun us I was a bit wary of this game but in all honesty Kidderminster weren't a patch on York and midway through the first half, after Christie missed what must be an early contender for miss of the season it was an absolute shocker, I felt we might just hang on. When Steve Daly burst through the Kidderminster defence to put us 1-0 up two minutes into added time we wondered if we could pull off the shock of the day. From our position in the stand we couldn't tell if he was offside but the reaction of the Kidderminster fans seemed to suggest they were less than happy, I'm sure Conf TV will clear it up! The second half went much the same way with a lot of huffing and puffing from Kiddy but somehow you felt it could be our day. Dicko's penalty save on 58 minutes reported on the BBC Text service as "tipped around the post" was unbelievable it was a lot more than tipped around the post I can assure you. We were under pressure but Robbo and Dales both had good chances to extend our lead before Wayne Hatswell (he of Mark Wright fame) equalised in the 84th minute from a corner to score the 5000th League goal against us. You had a feeling that they would go on and win it but we held out and the travelling fans applauded the lads for a hard earned point. I enjoyed the game, it was tough but we battled it out and created a number of chances and more of the same will do nicely. 1-1 at a team who were two leagues above us last season will do for me. It was a straightforward journey home up the motorway and back in for 7.45 and an e-mail straight off to Kidderminster to complain.
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