At a crossroads

Where next for 'A Game In Four Quarters?'

There are only so many words even I can write on Easington United and as we enter the final straight of another season I'm finding it really hard to justify this blog's existence.

With the match programmes, weekly reports and the general administration of the club already occupying many hours, even the monthly edited version of 'AGIFQ' is proving hard to maintain.

Ironically, as I type this piece, it looks as if the "four quarters" bit may be coming to an end anyhow, given the likely change of playing strip next season. Therefore the end of the season may prove to be a fitting time to end what is after all nothing more than a vehicle for self-indulgence :-)

In the short term I may limit things to accounts of particularly interesting games and/or trips. To this end the first two months of 2015 has so far been short on either as this brief photo diary will show...

Saturday 10th January

CML North Division

Easington United 2 Brodsworth Welfare 1

Saturday 17th January

CML Cup R3

Easington United 0 Belper United 4

Saturday 24th January

CML North Division

Harworth Colliery 5 Easington United 0

Tuesday 10th February

Premiership

Hull City 2 Aston Villa 0

Saturday 14th February

CML North Division

Easington United 7 (Seven) Dinnington Town 4

Saturday 28th February

CML North Division

Newark Town 4 Easington United 0

A rare City win over Villa, an amazing fightback from 4-1 down at home to Dinnington and my first ever visit to the Collingham home of Newark Town (ground tick) were probably the highlights. Reports of each of these games can be found in the usual places. Meanwhile I'll try and get my 'arris into gear to at least try and make March sound interesting...

Cheers to Burt and Craig for the pics (well, all but one of them).

December 2014

East-ending the year on a high

With no game scheduled for the 13th December and the Yuletide game at Westella always looking susceptible to bad weather, December was something of a truncated month for the first team. Just two games were played, with 'Hutch' grabbing a hat-trick in both but only the result of the second going in our favour. Lack of fixture on the second Saturday at least enabled me to take in a second Reserves game this season. And although also ending in defeat, it again reinforced why the decision to reduce our number this term was the correct one.

Saturday, 6th December

CML North

Easington United 3 Askern 6 

Coming on the back of the first away win of the season, we were all pretty confident leading in to the Askern game and this despite being without both Sam (hamstring) and Frosty (away). With Hutch scoring early to cap a promising start, such confidence appeared well-placed. However, Askern had obviously not read the script and by the time Hutch capped his hat-trick with two excellent strikes in the space of three second half minutes, the Doncaster-based visitors were 5-1 up! Hutch's goals promised a grandstand finale but it was the visitors who added the final goal of the game in injury-time.

Prior to kick-off, photographer Colin Brammer captured the two teams' photo for the #FootballRemembers initiative.

My "official" report of the game can be read here and Colin's pictures can be found here. The pics can also be viewed on our Facebook page.

Saturday, 13th December

ERCFL Division 2

Easington United Reserves 1 Haltemprice 5

My only previous viewing of the Reserves had seen them fall to a 1-5 home defeat at the hands of title favourites West Hull Amateurs. Despite the result it was a game the Stiffs were in right up until the latter stages and one they could take a fair amount of encouragement from. This was not too dissimilar.

Trailing 0-1 at the break and then coming right back into things at 1-3, the locals eventually paid for missed chances at one end and costly mistakes at the other.

But, hey, this is virtually a "new" team and games like this are all part of the learning curve. Despite it being a fourth successive defeat in the league there are no panic buttons being pressed yet.  
Report here.

Saturday, 20th December

CML North

Easington United 6 Thorne Colliery 0

I hate the last Saturday game before Christmas and dread the fixture list coming out in case it gives us an away trip. Ever since the mauling at Sculcoates back in the HPL days, I've come to see 'Mad Friday' as one of the big curses on the calendar!

Thankfully, this year saw us handed a home game, meaning a journey of some distance to any team but Westella...and they'd already been. The counter-attraction of the Slushette's Christmas Dance Show at nearby Withernsea meant I was due to miss much of the first half but thankfully Thorne Colliery's travel problems ensured that this didn't become a problem. Their late arrival at the Farm meant the game was kicking off just as I ambled through the gate at about twenty past two.

And as it turned out, there perhaps couldn't have been a better way to sign off for Christmas than this, a biggest win of the season against a team who'd given us a bit of a doing for much of the recent meeting at their place.

The official match report can be found here and the Facebook pictures page here (shots kindly taken by Craig Stephenson - bloody hundreds of 'em!).

Sunday, 28th December

Premiership

Hull City 0 Leicester City 1

I "called" this game beforehand and yet still went, even though I knew I would end up being disappointed. All the signs were there beforehand - the win at Sunderland two days' earlier that had most City fans thinking of a nine-point gap between themselves and their Sunday opponents come the end of 2014; the fact that Panto Villain Pearson's Foxes hadn't won in ages; and even the fact that the Younger Slushette sacked this game off in favour of an afternoon at her Gran's.

And of course we lost. And we lost in the cruellest manner possible - from the visitors' only real shot of note all game. Meanwhile the home attack - which included for the second half £10m striker Abel Hernandez - proceeded to miss at least half-a-dozen glorious openings.

In short it was what is known as a #TypicalCity day.