"No dickets to Dottingham..."

Saturday 26th February - Nottingham United (away) 
Drew 3-3

It's Tuesday and Mrs Slush has decided to watch the "One Born Every Minute" she recorded the previous night.

At this point, may I point out that I had no hand in the decision to deem this programme worthy of space on the hard drive - I was in the White Horse "thrashing out" the finer points of our forthcoming arrangement with mine host Barry, soon-to-be the new face of our post-match watering hole, The Marquis of Granby.  (I might add that this was done over a very nice couple of pints of Tetley Cask, which itself surprised me as I haven't touched that particular brew since "The Lord's Tears" lost its allure for me some years back.)  But I digress. 
What is it about women who do nothing but complain about the pain felt during child-birth ("men should be forced to go through it" blah blah etc etc) then cannot wait to watch programmes that bring it right back into focus.  What's more, they then get mad when you don't wish to share the "experience".  Again.  For chrissakes, I was there at the arrival of both the Slushettes, I have no burning desire to sit through it all again on my telly screen.

Then there's the tears.  Bloody hell.  I hadn't seen so many since we beat Withernsea in the 1997 South Holderness Cup Final.  So, what did I do?  Sit down beside and give her a hug, assure her everything will be alright and reminisce about both "special nights" of our own?  You're having a laugh - it was into the study to catch up on the Blog.

Not that my account of the latest instalment of the Eastenders' CML story amounts to much - I wasn't there.

A mild bout of man-flu and a full complement on the bus combined to ensure that the trip to the 3G pitch at the Gresham Sports Pavilion last Saturday became the fourth I'd missed since we joined the Central Midlands League.

Given the result - a fifth successive away draw in all competitions - and the lack of reports of a quality cask ale in the post-match watering hole, on balance it appears not to have been a bad one to miss.

The game itself saw goals from Andy M and Gav fire us into a two-goal lead inside the opening half-hour, with several other chances to wrap things up before the break going begging.

A foul by Blounty then offered the hosts a lifeline on the stroke of half-time, which they accepted courtesy of Sean Canning.

The equaliser came when home striker Andrew Richards was afforded too much time and space within a minute of the second half restart.

A second penalty, this time awarded after skipper AG had been fouled, saw Andy M fire us back into the lead but, with just a minute left, Charlie got invovled in an incident at a corner - seen by the referee's assistant - and Canning was given a second opportunity from twelve yards out.  He didn't miss.

Other than the bare facts and a read through the hosts' well produced match programme I have little else to report.  Nobody even thought it worth reporting back on the quality of ale available in the post-match watering hole, The Varsity.  Perhaps the comment, "there was plenty of fanny in there" explains why. 

In summary, frustration appeared to be the overriding emotion of both the manager and skipper when I caught up with them afterwards. 
And frustration would also be a good word to sum up my own mood - I'd wanted to use this hour to catch-up on the first episode of the locally-filmed Sunday night serial South Riding!