Stalybridge Celtic vs Nuneaton Borough

Sometimes it’s handy when other people help you to make your mind up for you. True to form some shambolic teamwork from Northern Rail and Trans-Pennine Express on Tuesday morning, culminating in a rather late arrival at work, made it certain that I was not going to Prescot v Mossley in the evening. Coming home was little better – you get those sort of days on the railways – all too bloody often unfortunately.

Not to worry – the “fall-back game” fell into place and when I arrived at Bower Fold a few minutes late (it’s a long walk from the Buffet Bar !) it was still 0-0. The first half was pretty much end-to-end – lots of hard work with little in the way of clear-cut chances at either end.

That was until the Celtic defence starting thinking about their half-time cuppa just a little too early and strikes from McPhee and Darby gave Nuneaton a richly undeserved 2-0 lead. Conceding one just before half-time is a real pain – conceding two ….ouch ….

The good news was that the half-time cuppa they’d been dreaming of obviously contained banned substances as Celtic came out for the second half looking like they meant business - they’d also brought Paul Sykes on for Maxfield – coincidence ?? I don’t think so…

Within 10 minutes of the restart, a corner on the Stalybridge left was finished off by Paul Sykes who bundled it just over the line – it was a case of “all eyes right” to the linesman who confirmed it had crossed the line (NOTE I’ve since been advised that the goal was credited to Keeling). Five minutes later saw the “goal of the game” – for me anyway. It was one of those diagonal crosses (from Smith) that have “HEAD ME” written all over them – Mark Hume did – a cracking header – and the comeback was complete at 2-2.

“Oh no it wasn’t” cried the audience (well some of them), as two minutes later a Nuneaton free-kick ended up bobbling around in the Celtic box, hitting the bar before Darby said “enough of this fannying around” and smacked it in. 3-2 to Nuneaton. However Celtic just “wouldn’t let it lie” and a similar goalmouth scramble effort at the other end saw Sykes apply the finishing touch to once again level the scores.

It was great entertainment for the rather sparse (308) crowd (the two Managers must have been having nightmares about some of the defensive “frailties” at both ends though !), and the Celtic Male Voice Choir erupted with a prolonged bout of “Johnny Reed’s Barmy Army” – didn’t get the stopwatch out but it was a good 3-4 minutes !!!

With a little over 10 minutes to go another cross from Smith arrived in the Nuneaton box, and in the ensuing melee, Nuneaton’s Brown, under pressure from Hume and Sykes, managed to put the ball into his own net. There was still time for Nuneaton to press for an equaliser – and they certainly pressed ! One effort just over the bar, some smart work by Pettinger in the Celtic goal were just two of several efforts. However (or should that be “somehow” considering what had gone on earlier !) Celtic held out to take a valuable three points.

It was certainly a “tale of two defences” – and not very good ones at that ! You have to credit Celtic for coming back into the game after the ‘double whammy’ just before half-time however. The arrival of Sykes certainly made a big difference, and the quality of some of Smith’s crosses was well evident. The crowd was disappointingly low – but I guess that when you’re going through a bad spell, and there is the “lure” (??) of Manchester United on terrestrial telly – it’s going to happen – plus I firmly believe that “a tenner” puts off a good many neutrals/floaters.

Home to discover that Mossley had drawn 2-2 at Prescot after conceding a late late equaliser – bugger !

I’ll have a look at the pictures tonight – and see if we can find something that’s not too blurry !