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Nice report again Rob(if i may)and bloody nice to meet up with you at last,hope you had a good journey back home, see you on your next trip hopefully.
 
Nice report again Rob(if i may)and bloody nice to meet up with you at last,hope you had a good journey back home, see you on your next trip hopefully.

Great to meet you Sir Swiss - or 'legend' if I may - and I'll be looking out for you in all the good pubs on our great Shrimpers journey. :thumbsup:
 
It's not you, it's me (or Richie C) ...

Well, it's that time of the year that I pack up the rusty old white van with Mrs S' luggage and take her on a romantic trip of Travelodge venues to celebrate our anniversary somewhere in the vicinity of a Blues game. You may remember that I had banned her from attending games after our last League defeat at Swindon but at least had the grace to furnish her with the gate fee to assist her charity shop shoppping sprees on match days instead. I know --- chivalry ain't dead when it comes to charity. After a fine trip across the Cotswolds from Buckingham, I left her to navigate the six charity shops that Cheltenham had to offer whilst I tried to locate Richie C at The Kemble Brewery - somewhere near the ground, I was told. I found it purely by chance whilst trying to find somewhere to park. It is another contender for the compendium of 'great alehouses near lower league grounds' - it was a bit rammed, but worth the intimacy.

I could have been forgiven for thinking that the discovery of TKB might be a lucky omen for the day. No chance. The Blues were dreadful as Cheltenham looked up for it right from the off - their forwards closed down our defenders and Daniels very quickly and I was very impressed with their energetic right-back, Jombati, who defended well and got up and down that flank in a flash.

I've not seen many games this season, but I'm surprised that JPK is keeping Granty out of the side. Mohsni and Dickinson were getting annoyed with each other's lack of understanding of their respective expectations and we only linked play between midfield and attack when Mohsni dropped deeper into the middle to play a few chest passes into the path of oncoming midfielders. I couldn't understand why Hall was played further inside in the second half and Dickinson out wide as Hall looked totally lost there.

The two games this week should be an interesting test of our (wait for it) "bouncebackability."

Mrs S did very well though and though it is far too soon to consider inviting her to games again this season, I'm wondering if I should ban myself or Richie C instead.
 
Morecambe and Burton away.Some people know how to pick their games.:winking:
(Didn't take a laptop with you I notice).:smile:

I did - but after the first night away, it lost its allure. Two contrasting performances to be sure, but I was sure glad to finish with the Burton performance rather than the Morecambe one. Two contrasting keepers too and great to see Granty back as well.
 
Morecambe and Burton away.Some people know how to pick their games.:winking:
(Didn't take a laptop with you I notice).:smile:

I did - but after the first night away, it lost its allure. Two contrasting performances to be sure, but I was sure glad to finish with the Burton performance rather than the Morecambe one. Two contrasting keepers too and great to see Granty back as well.
 
The Calm After The Storm - Plymouth, 11.01.14

It was very much a case of calm after the storm out here in the wild west. I live in Cornwall and The Duchy had been ravaged by the elements since just before Christmas. Luckily, Home Park has one of the best drainage facilities in the League and so this game was only ever marginally in doubt despite the rain in the previous week. Me and my best mate Andrew Worsdale - who I went to Roots Hall with as a kid back in the days of Billy Best and Spud Taylor - headed down to Penzance station in glorious sunshine, something I hadn't seen for some time. We were greeted there by the erstwhile most Westerly Shrimper in the UK, Tim Wright, and his crew of Penzantian Shrimpers for the day. Tim is now the second most Westerly Shrimper in the UK since I moved westwards within 'PZ' earlier this year. He hails from Leigh and he was one of the first people I met down here playing football 20 years ago. We picked up another Shrimper in Cornish exile in Richie Cunningham en route at Truro and hey ho, The Kernow Blues are on their way to Devon for our third away game there this season.


First stop across the glorious Tamar Bridge was The Fortescue in Mutley Plain, a wonderful old-fashioned alehouse where we could sit outside on their rooftop terrace in the early afternoon sun. A few pints of Dizzy Blonde added to the heady pre-match balminess and then The Kernow Crew headed towards Home Park, stopping briefly at the entrance to the park to snaffle some pasties from the back of a white van. Large ones at £2-10, that'll do nicely thank you.


Home Park has a faded glory feel about it these days, but retains a good atmosphere and of course, that cracking pitch that belied the effects of the rainfall that has besieged the southern coast in the previous weeks. There was an impressive turn-out from the Essex Riviera and some of our fans greeted Luke McCormick, the Argyle 'keeper, with adverse reminders about the reasons for this custodian's custody at HMP(s) from 2008-12. He made a good diversion of Ben Coker's dipping free-kick just in front of us but the best save of the match came at the other end when Dan Bentley clawed a goalward header out from just inside his right post. It was difficult for my ageing eyes to see much goalmouth action at the other end however as the pitch seems particularly long at Home Park. Not that there was much more goalmouth action to write about in the first half - though we had plenty of pleasing possession, we seemed to lack penetration and guile and a good old poke where it mattered.


In the second half, we started brightly again but Argyle took the lead just after the hour when a deflected shot from Blizzard looped over young Dan into the top left corner. Blues came back into it almost immediately when a fine pass from sub Cauley Woodrow set Kevan Hurst on a chase into the Argyle area. I didn't think he would make it before McCormick and I couldn't actually see the connection or the ball end in their net but luckily my ears are still working enough to hear our fans when they're happy. We never looked like scoring again unfortunately and Argyle were unlucky close to the end when a shot bounced off the inside of our post into the path of one of their players who pleasingly slipped on his approach and miscued in front of an open goal. I think a draw was a fair result and it looks like Plymouth will end up as the highest placed Devon club this season. As for the Blues, I hope John White makes a quick return as Ryan Leonard, although effective in managing Jason Banton from the skipper's right back berth, was sorely missed in midfield. Not a great match, but a pretty good point all things considered and you never really lose when you've got The Fortescue to return to after the game.
 
Following the glorious report by 'Another Surrey Shrimper' of his grand day out to Blackburn last week, I might resurrect this hoary old chestnut seeing as I'm on the road again this week-end. I can't promise the gems that AAS provided but as I'm out and about in a new place for me - Abingdon - before attending a new ground for me - the Kassam - then it might just work.
 
Following the glorious report by 'Another Surrey Shrimper' of his grand day out to Blackburn last week, I might resurrect this hoary old chestnut seeing as I'm on the road again this week-end. I can't promise the gems that AAS provided but as I'm out and about in a new place for me - Abingdon - before attending a new ground for me - the Kassam - then it might just work.
Blushing xx
 
M is for Mortality

Now I remember why I don’t go ‘on the road’ so much these days.

The M5 – a key road when emerging from Cornwall – was horrific on Friday the 13[SUP]th[/SUP]. I saw a sign warning of one and a half hour delays between Junctions 22 and 21 when heading north of Exeter to try to link up with the M4. When I ran into the first wave of hold-ups, I got off at J23 and headed off towards Glastonbury, then Bath, before eventually getting onto the M4 heading east towards Abingdon but that probably took longer than if I’d sat out the delays on the M5.

I got to Abingdon much later than I’d hoped so instead of a walk along the river and stopping off at riverside pubs, I contented myself with a walk through town to the river for just a pint in a riverside pub, ‘The Nag’s Head.’ They had their own brew which went down fairly well whilst I eavesdropped on a conversation between a couple in which a loud woman was talking about having made plans for the bloke to “get all of it” in case she encountered The Grim Reaper first. I couldn’t hear what the bloke said though as he was relatively quietly spoken. I thought this an unusual pub conversation but in the context of seeing an old friend over the week-end who nearly died a few weeks ago, mortality was high up on this trip's menu.

I woke up to the news of the bombing of the Syria chemical weapon-sites and a sunny morning in Abingdon before meeting my step-son and his girlfriend at the Kassam. He’s a Villa fan but he talks of “we” and “us” when watching The Shrimpers and he really enjoys our away games because of our travelling fans. I lay around on a grass verge outside the stadium until they arrived and even got a bit of a sweat on as it was so warm.

And that was to prove the best part of the occasion. Going down to an early goal and looking so vulnerable to Oxford’s direct approach made me fear that we’d ship another at some stage despite our efforts to get back in it and so it proved just before half-time. The Oxford keeper Simon Eastwood made some good saves but it was one of those days where we were destined not to score. Too much was expected of Simon Cox in a lone striker role, particularly against two towering centre-backs who gobbled up everything played to him in the air (unsurprisingly).

Credits due to Mark Oxley for some good saves that kept the score respectable and to Elvis Bwomono for rising above some thudding challenges and making some positive runs, one in which he crossed for Cox who volleyed over. Credits also to our fans for their ongoing great support of the team on a disappointing afternoon. That’s it for me this season: the three home games I attended (Blackburn, Blackpool and Scunny) yielded maximum points and for the two away games (Plymouth and this), zilch.

And finally, there was a major accident on the M40 when I was heading-up to Brum after the game. I saw car doors and panels on the roadside and a concertinaed car bashed in at both ends. It didn’t look as though anyone inside would have survived that. Now that accident probably was truly horrific.
 
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