Alfreton Town v Stalybridge Celtic

Now that was some day out .... feel free to go straight to the pictures ...

Alfreton Town 3 Stalybridge Celtic 5

It followed the Friday night "Redundancy p*ss up" as it was described beforehand - I sloped off at 1930 - big day ahead as they say (and leave the young'uns to it !)

Left Mossley @ 1115 aiming for a 1300 bus from Matlock to Alfreton - however some crazy traffic jam (involving two ambulances flying past) near Glossop threw that one out of the window. Ended up driving to Ripley, leaping out of car (leaving Mrs Smiffy the easy drive to M-i-L @ Belper) and catching the "Red Arrow" to Alfreton. A couple of pints of Saltaire "Bavarian Gold" in the "Victoria" before ... game on.

And what a game it was - even when Alfreton took the lead, it seemed to me that Stalybridge Celtic were the more settled and composed team of the two - happy to build from the back and through midfield - Alfreton seemed more rushed, more frantic. The equaliser was a belter from Peyton - and 60 seconds later it was 2-1 when Barlow scored from the edge of the box. half-time bar was frantic (with mostly Celtic fans !!) - managed a bottle of "Black Sheep Ale" though (nice to see decent bottled beer behind the bar - Shepshed are another club that do this as well).

Second half - real end to end stuff - a quality performance from Celtic keeper Phillips who made half-a-dozen quality saves when it mattered - but there was only going to be one winner. A beer in the bar (bottled "Warrior") and back to the Vic to see the Alfreton guys, before heading back to Ripley, thence to Belper. Soon nodded off in front of "Strictly Come Snoozing" or something !

Today - some garden tidies before heading off for a wander along Curbar Edge and Froggatt Edge, before home ...

D'you know - I'd almost forgotten about the lack of communication at work on Friday following Thursday's "positive moves" - still there's always tomorrow ... and tomorrow ... and tomorrow ... creeps in this petty pace from day to day etc etc etc .. (Macbeth for you heathens out there !!!)

Football on Tuesday will see a walk up the road to see "crisis-torn Mossley" - from what I've briefly read (plus the txts I got on Saturday afternoon) ... all is not well at Seel Park. It's a League Cup game against Radcliffe Borough - time for me to see if things ARE that bad ...
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