Belper Town v Bradford PA

“Grandma’s Party” – yes it was a ‘three-line whip’ as they say in the House of Commons so I was (luckily as it seems !) spared the full horrors of Burscough v Mossley for the delights of Belper Town v Bradford Park Avenue. Traffic down the A6 was not too bad at all, so I arrived in good time for tea, natter and then a “slope off” down to the “George”, where pints of Woodfordes “Nelson’s Revenge” and Coach House “Christmas Pud” awaited – I was soon joined by Nosmo from Ilkeston who was giving the trip to Ashton United a miss.




A Belper sky....


Into the ground at 1504 – sold out of programmes ! The early pressure came from Bradford, urged on by a good turn-out of away fans, but Belper slowly but surely started to get back into the game - some good work between Hobson and Rushbury saw some equally good work by Skiba in the Bradford goal. It was all pretty “even stevens” as the half came to a close – with Belper probably being the more satisfied of the two sides.




Belper's Danny Tollerfield makes an early save


However Bradford took the lead while I was still finishing my pint of Pedigree through Lennon ! This galvanised Belper back into action with chances coming from free-kicks and a succession of corners. Belper finally got their deserved equaliser on 72 minutes, when debutant Peter Smith (not my Peter Smith !!) got onto the end of a cross from Glarvey.




Celebrating the equaliser !


More sustained pressure from Belper came to nought however and the proverbial “kick in the teeth” arrived with 10 minutes to go when Flynn was first onto a shot that came back off the bar. Belper pushed on in search of another equaliser, but with three minutes to go it was Park Avenue who won a free-kick. Neil Ross fired it straight through the wall to give the unsighted Tollerfield no chance. One late chance for Belper by Jon Pickess, but once again it was Skiba to the rescue - 3-1 at the end – a scoreline that truly flattered the visitors.



"Mad Pete" in the bar afterwards.

Back to the refreshment corner after waving farewell to Nosmo, who was “zig-zagging” his way back to a curry in Ilkeston. A few beers and a natter – plus checking out the trip to Holland in May with Belper Secretary Dave Laughlin. Back to “the party” – more beer and the asleep at 0200 this morning. Ten hours later it was “drop daughter back in Derby”, home to Mossley – and this …

Just changed to the new "beta" version of Blogger - and have been have interesting results in signing in - we shall see how it goes !!!.