Arriving at 1955 (still need to time myself properly from the Buffet Bar - but hey I left there at 1814 back to Mossley, quick change, quick "hello" to Mrs Smiffy, quick run back to catch 1857 back...) - twas still 0-0 nevertheless.
On 20 minutes, Lee Ellington found some space on the left and let loose a terrific curler that the Farsley keeper just managed to put round the post. The next second all hell broke loose as the Farsley number 11 (no programme - no name !) wiped his feet all over Smith which led to a "bit of a do" adjacent to the dug-outs. When all calmed down the cards remained firmly in the ref's pockets ! It was fairly even after that but Bridge did have the better chances - a glancing header that went just wide, and shortly before half-time a Smith cross (oh he's over on the left !) saw Paul Sykes smack a a thundering header against the bar.
The "glancing header" photoshot.
0-0 at half-time - time for a snifter in the "Hare and Hounds" (Bombardier) - and time to see the Holland equaliser in the England game (from 57 different angles of course - lousy defending came to mind after the first of the 57 angles).
Back into the Fold to see Farsley take the lead when their number 11 (remember him from earlier) set up Grant to make it 1-0. Not long after that Keeling (?) got booked for a fairly innocuous challenge - this disappointed me, especially after the "kerfuffle" in the first half - if a ref chooses to let something like that go - and then pulls out a yellow for next to nothing - then in my mind he loses the respect of all and sundry - instantly.
Five minutes later an absolutely awful cock-up in the Stalybridge defence led to a second goal for Grant and Farsley - a back pass from Winn that went horribly wrong (did the keeper shout ? no idea). That was the turning point - any confidence that Celtic DID have went straight out of the window. Substitutions made little difference - the long ball (known as "hoof ball" in the Unibond and below) came into play, and as far as I (neutral) could see, that was the end of that. There was still time for Farsley to almost grab a third when a short free-kick 20 yards inside the Farsley half went horribly wrong and was quickly depatched up the other end. They missed however. And then the rain came down as if to add insult to injury.
The rain coming down .
There was still time for Pettinger to make a class save to keep it to 0-2 until - one quarter of the Stalybridge illuminations decided to call it a day. The ref dashed over to the dug-outs, discussed matters with Dickie Bird (borrowed his light meter) and said "on with the show" (the light meter/Dickie Bird stuff is of course a figment of my emancipation) It was all over bar the shouting (at the ref) anyway..
Lights out (note the lack of players attacking the lonely Farsley keeper)...
No doubt there will be recriminations all round tonight - the ref should have sent their 11 off in the first half - then he wouln't have created their first goal - the game should have been called off when the lights went out - the chants of "off" were almost immediate from the 'Bridge faithful !!) And as the players were leaving the field the "errant floodlight" started to flicker back into life - too late though - the flicker had gone out of Celtic when that second goal went in......
1 comment:
if the game had of been called off when the floodlight went off then the score would of stood as it was after 75 mins
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