A week and a half since my last blog entry because the external hard drive where I store my photo files decided it didn't want to play any more and so I've spent most of my week restoring files from a back up drive. Since there's almost 300,000 pictures on the drive plus all sorts of other data files, it's taking a while as you might imagine! Anyway - I'm almost there - hopefully.
So, since the Senior Cup win against Wombwell Main, The Ambers have played two more games with decidedly mixed results.
First up was a League Cup tie against Eccleshill at Oliver's Mount. A close encounter saw Handsworth come out on top, winning 3-2 with a late goal from Leon Howarth.
Eccleshill had taken the lead in the first half but 2 goals from Alfie Dodsworth early in the second half put The Ambers in front.
The visitors equalised in the 84th minute and the game looked destined for a penalty shoot out until Leon popped up to score the winner and take Handsworth through to the next round.
It was an exciting game but as Ian Robinson said in his match report, Eccleshill must be sick of the sight of Handsworth because we'd already beaten them twice in the League this season before this win.
Ian's Match Report is here:
https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/teams/126071/match-centre/0-5785684/report
And my pictures are here:
Three days later, on Saturday 11th November, we made the long journey to Pickering Town to see if The Ambers could add another win to make it 3 in a row.
This was our first visit to Pickering and involved a round trip of some 170 miles so we decided to travel on the Saturday and stay overnight at the Premier Inn after the match, driving back to Sheffield on Sunday. That plan worked! The accommodation was excellent and we'd booked the "Meal Deal" so dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday were sorted!
However, the journey up there took just about 2.1/4 hours because I decided to believe the sat nav rather than my instinct. I'd heard of lane closures on the M1 near Meadowhall so followed the sat nav which sent us up the M18 and A1(M). A long section of the A1(M) was under contraflow (which I obviously didn't know about!) and the traffic queues began about 4 miles before that.
The Saturday weather was dry, cold and mostly bright but the outcome of the game was less than bright for The Ambers.
Pickering scored first with a free header from a corner kick but goals from Leon Howarth and Brendan Bagley gave us a 1-2 lead at half time. The second half saw Pickering score 3 times to end up as 4-2 winners. One of their goals came from a dubious penalty award although to be fair, the ref rejected what appeared to be a nailed on penalty for Pickering a few minutes earlier. We think he realised his error and so, first chance he got, he gave them a less obvious one.
The defeat wasn't totally down to the referee although he had a lot to do with it. Most of his decisions were questionable (for both sides) and the game developed into a stop-start, niggly affair illustrated by a "handbags" clash involving the vast majority of the 22 players towards the end.
It became a "long ball - get after that" game and that's a tactic Handsworth are not particularly good at. Handsworth were missing leading scorer Alfie Dodsworth and midfielder Sam Fewkes but also missed a couple of good scoring opportunities.
The defeat wasn't easy to take because we all know that The Ambers can play much better than they did on the day.
Match Reporter Ian Robinson wasn't at this one so you'll have to make do with my brief comments above and my picture album to get a feel of the game:
Next up was supposed to be a midweek trip (yesterday) to Tadcaster for a league fixture but that was called off on the morning of the game. We wouldn't have been at the match anyway, It's another round trip of about 100 miles and I didn't feel like another long trek back home, especially in the dark and past my bedtime!
There's another 100+ miles away trip to Silsden on Saturday 18th November but we won't be there. I have some business to attend to on Saturday morning and won't be through with that until after lunch so couldn't get there before kick off. We'll get our football fix at Olivers Mount where Handsworth Reserves have a game against Thorncliffe Villa in the County Senior League.
In other news... We didn't get our bird-watching trip. A dry day was originally forecast but the prediction changed so we decided to leave it for another time. I've said before that the weather forecasts are not to be believed and that truth happened again. It was a dry day.
However, It worked out for us in the end because our plumber called in to finally fix our leaking central heating boiler. James Noble is his name. Based in Dronfield, he's a great bloke and very good at his job! Check him out!
https://www.checkatrade.com/trades/NobleGasAndHeating?image=719869&type=1&album=40913
I also got a new winter coat! I'm ashamed to admit that when I tried on my "Craghopper" winter coat for the first time in 12 months, I couldn't fasten it properly! I've worn it every winter since I retired (10 years in March 2024) but "idle, fat git" mode has taken over and I'm heavier than I've ever been. I blame COVID and lockdowns...
Right - I'll leave it there. If you've made it to the end, "Thank You" and if you haven't - can't say I blame you!
No comments:
Post a Comment