Here We Go ...

...I could say "better late than never" -or "work/life/beer balance" (heavily skewed !!) - or that they were sooo bad I had to call in Professor Photoshop .... you choose ....

Manchester Premier Cup Final 2009

not that bad really - shame about the result ..
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No Disgrace !!

... tonight at Boundary Park in the Manchester Premier Cup Final against (two leagues higher) Droylsden, Mossley gave their all.

They lost 2-1 ...

The pictures are uploading on t'other machine as we speak - time being time (I've been at the "post mortem" in the pub since we got back at 2230 - tis now 0020 !) means I won't get them "up" until this evening - be assured there's some good'uns ! Knowing Carl (Droylsden snapper) like I do, he'll probably do it tonight (!) - check out

The Droylsden View

We played soooo well - the thread title says it all - I leave now to return to t'other machine ...
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Missed Opportunity @ Bookies ....

.... after last night's predictions - I should have gone for a "treble", cus they all came up trumps tonight - a Ryan Hindley goal was enough to ease Belper through, a late Phil Edghill goal saw Curzon "surprise" Skem - but the most exciting game was at the NMG where Ilkeston edged out Kendal Town 4-3 after extra-time.

Tonight I had pc, laptop and mobile phone all to hand in order to keep up - and it's thanks to a large number of people that I probably had a damn sight more enjoyment (I think) than those who went for the Barca/Chelsea option - cus the reactions/info I received came from "honest" fans rather than the corporate bullsh*t you get for "the big boys"....

Let's just see who chooses United v Arsenal over Mossley v Droylsden tomorrow night - sadly it may be rather a lot ...
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This Week ...

.... a lot of important football going on (and no I'm not talking about the UEFA Moneybags League) - OK my attendance this week will be at Boundary Park on Wednesday night for the Manchester Premier Cup Final between Mossley and Droylsden - let's see if the Lilywhites can cause an upset against their Conf North opponents - but 24 hours before that one, there are three other games where I have more than a passing interest - yes the Unibond play-offs begin tomorrow - we have Curzon Ashton @ Skelmersdale (c'mon Curzon), Ilkeston Town at home to Kendal Town (sorry 'Chels', but c'mon Ilson) - but most of all, Belper Town at home to Rushall Olympic (c'mon Rushall ... yeah honest ... !) - fingers and toes - and all sorts of other things will be dutifully crossed for a Nailers win ... this may well affect my Bank Holiday Weekend activities ...

First day at work doing 15 jobs instead of the usual 12 - so far so good (viz no real crisis - that happened last Friday where instead of getting the "last minute tips" from our departing Lotus Notes guru, we had an "Oracle database down" situation which took all bloody morning to solve - God I hate "enthusastic amateurs" .. ) ... tomorrow is naturally the first day of the rest of my working life (!) - let's hang in there ... just don't know what to do with all these "one-third chunks" of Mars Bars - now there's a conundrum for you !!!
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Rossendale United v Mossley

Last night was a "leavers do" at work involving beer in Cheadle Hulme and some beers in Manchester ... followed by a trip to Longsight for some "food with friends". Stayed over before coming back this morning .... it was the last Saturday of the season - with much "still on" in certain areas ... today's job - at the "SmiffyMatch" - was for Rossendale was to match the Salford result (away at Garforth) - however ... within 8 minutes Rossy were 3-0 down - and at half-time Salford were 1-0 down ... how it all changed after four o'clock ... the score at Dark Lane remained 0-3 while Salford saw fit to score 5 goals (OK Garforth got one back on 89th min but ....) So ..... to put it bluntly ....... Salford appear to have managed to "purchase their existence" in Unibond 1 North - that's the long and short of it - so many of us today were really really sorry to see Rossy go down - nice place, nice club (today's beer was Moorhouse's "Pride of Pendle" - Salford's "portakabin" can offer only keg Boddies - you can understand the pain ...). We have to be brutal up to a point - a Mossley sequence of LLDLL needed sorting ... I have to freely admit we appeared to get a season's worth of luck/decisions in a little over 65 minutes - 3 up - Mossley keeper should get a straight red (didn't - so then he saves the penalty !!) - second half - Rossy score, but it was disallowed ... everything went Mossley's way today - and at 1645 Rossendale were down ...... gotta feel for them - honestly.

Some pictures from today at

Rossendale United 0 Mossley 3

Back to Mossley to watch a little bit of the "United Get out of Jail Show" before home to this stuff ......
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25 up .....

On April 23d 1984 .....Stafford Rangers beat Oswestry Town, Belper drew with Ossett, I'll be honest, I haven't a clue how Mossley got on (!) - Lionel Ritchie was at Number One with "Hello" ......

.... and me and Mrs Smiffy got married in that church right next to Belper's ground.

We had "the bash" back in February - the week in the posh Elizabethan manor house ...




..... tonight was a little more restrained - train to Greenfield, pint in the "Railway" and then walk into Uppermill for a meal at "Dinnerstone"

http://www.dinnerstone.co.uk/

Lovely place, excellent food (impressive tapanade)... with a couple of little niggles - in the style of Chaopraya a few weeks ago the gap between finishing starter and main course arriving was ... well non-existent - this despite no apparent "second sitting" ! Extremely reasonable cost for two .. £45-70 inc beer/wine ... put £50 on the plate and the change came back ............................................... one pound short - now I was going to leave all the change anyway - may have been an honest error - but didn't look clever ...... however I will still recommend for the quality of the food mind ...

Tomorrow sees our Lotus Notes guru @ work leave for "more secure surroundings" - which leaves me in the slot - it's gonna be very very interesting over the next few weeks/months/(hopefully)years ...

Lotus Notes/E-Mail Administration
Lotus Notes various databases- Admin/Development
Smart Plant(MARIAN) Administration
Oracle Admin/SQL "guru" - yep I once opened a book !!
UNIX/Sun Box - Admin/Development for legacy Business Management System
Forest & Trees (reporting tool) Admin/Development
Microsoft Access Database Admin/Development

Plenty of hours in a day to cover that lot - but tomorrow after work we drink beer ....nothing changes in some areas of life then !!
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Curzon Ashton v Clitheroe

Afraid I "picked a wrong'un" this midweek - the first half was hard work ... for the speccies that is ... and the second half only really burst into life with a goal for Clitheroe (who were looking to put a 0-5 home reverse on Saturday behind them - which they certainly did !) and a red card for Ogoo (who I'm afraid made a bit of a prat of himself after the card was brandished).

There was much shouting (from the Curzon side) at the performance of the officials - they weren't that bad - felt it was a smokescreen to hide a rather poor performance from the home side on the night. Play-off status is assured (albeit with an away trip to .. somewhere) - they were without two important midfielders (and it showed with the amount of by-passing and "over the top" stuff ... so if you're going to have a duff one - do it now before the really important games start

Here's a few pix from the evening ...

Curzon Ashton 0 Clitheroe 1

Maybe I should have picked Glossop's 2-2 draw against Squires Gate last night ... or Stalybridge v Droylsden tonight (Match Centre says 2-1 to Celtic at the moment - 78 minutes) - whatever ! Still this Saturday to sort out yet ....

Just got the "txt of doom" - Durham City 6 Mossley 1 ................ and Rory Patterson (who couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo in his time at Mossley) has scored a last minute equaliser for Droylsden at Stalybridge ... this is "real-time blogging" at its best !!!!!!
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Belper Town vs Stocksbridge PS

Early start on Saturday, leaving Mossley at 0730 to get an early start on Mother-in-Law's garden - all done before midday (fetching a ton of gravel and doing "stuff" with it - I now (Sunday 2130) have a bloody painful back !). All done allowed a couple in the "George" before onto the game between 2nd and 3rd in the Unibond South. Lovely weather and a very very healthy crowd !

Unfortunately Stocksbridge 'keeper Ben Scott contributed to his sides downfall with a couple of costly slips - although with the first Belper goal he certainly got a kick in the head from Wilson ! The ball then bobbed out to be returned by Ingall for 1-0. The second goal saw Scott horribly out of position - and lobbed accordingly by Rushbury. The start of the second half saw Stocksbridge show why they are "there or thereabouts" when Riley pulled it back to 2-1. However Stevenson put a sliderule shot between post and 'keeper to restore the two goal cushion for .... all of 5 minutes when Ward's cracking free-kick brought in back to 3-2. However the last minute saw total "comms breakdown" twixt keeper and defence allowing sub Barraclough to round the keeper for 4-2. Oh yes piccies - I had a few problems with the light and positions today - in fact at half-time I said something rude to the 70-200 and "went short" - you get a different view on the last two goals however from snapper Tim's pictures ...

Belper 4 SPS 2 - The Master

Belper 4 SPS 2 - Smiffy

One in club - one in George and one in Rifleman's to see Chelsea sneak past Arsenal .. back to M-I-Ls and ended up watching "True Lies" (again !) until God knows what time - a brisk walk "down the meadows" this morning - a bit more shuffling of plants, pots etc in garden before home and a jolly fish dish (made-up naturally - involved sherry and cheese and eggs and cornflour mixed in John Smiths bitter - I kid you not - and fish and pasta ..). A bath (which failed to improve back one little bit - d'oh !) - sort pix and now this ....

Tomorrow ... Glossop v Squires Gate ... or Curzon Ashton v Clitheroe ?? Reckon I should continue with watching "games important for play-off places" - just hope my back improves !
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WORLD FAMOUS - in Ilkeston !

... a bit of a follow-up from the Unibond Cup Final the other week - I "did my duty" and mailed the good pix to the Ilkeston Advertiser man - and today I receive my "complimentary copy" of the Ilkeston Adveriser - star date April 9th - one pic on the back page and two inside - all accompanied by the magical phrase "Photo by Mike Smith" - one for the CV !!! Oh and for those unable to get hold of a copy of said paper ... check out the Ilkeston Advertiser web site - here's a link ...

Smiffy gets pic on newspaper website as well !!

yep that's me .. shame about the result !!
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Football Last Night ...

... yep did the "glory hunting" down at Glossop (!!) - comfy 3-1 winners in the end although we had to sit/stand through a pretty turgid second half, which only livened up in the last 7 or 8 minutes with three goals (if there's any Abbey Hey fans out there - there were a couple at the game - I'm afraid I missed your goal as I was "closing down" for the night !!). Some pix at

Glossop NE 3 Abbey Hey 1

Not a bad crowd either - just one under 200 - considering "they" were on the box ... good to know that the FA Vase IS helping to increase interest at all games, not just the "big ones" - I had a couple of beers in the "Star" (Copper Dragon "Golden Pippin") before the game (yep that's after my couple in the Stalybridge Buffet Bar - Phoenix "White Tornado" - while waiting for the 237 bus !) - and there's certainly a "buzz" in there vis-a-vis Glossop North End - OK and West Ham too !! People will talk about "hangers on" and "glory hunters" - so what - if a few "stick" after the great Wembley party, it's a success - so the ground grading @ Glossop has I believe not made it to Unibond standard, but crowds of 200+ every game next season means money in the bank towards ground improvements - fingers crossed that the players stay loyal - 12 months on - who knows.

The "Six Tame Sides" team wish Glossop well - it would be nice to see them at Seel Park again - this time for a Unibond League game ....
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Football Tonight ...

.. well it is twenty to one - or 0040 for you young metric-type peeps...

Glossop it is ....


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(although it could have been Hyde - same road ....!)

As Threatened .....

... not a ball in site !!!

The Football-Free Gallery !

Some stuff from Sat/Sun/Mon - that "zoo photography" is not that simple ... I guess going on the busiest day of the year doesn't help either !

Believe Mossley have put an "L" where there should have been a "W" - my spies tell me - awful. Belper have been stuffed 5-1 and Celtic have won with an oggie. Ashton United turn a 1-5 defeat on Saturday into a 5-1 win today. Hyde keep a lifeline open (BSN bottom)with a 1-0 win at Gainsborough and Droylsden keep a lifeline open (BSN top) with a 5-1 stuffing of 'ucknall. Finally Curzon Ashton have gone a long way towards getting that play-off place after going to Halifax Town today ... and winning.

Hoping that normal football service will be resumed this very midweek - meanwhile compare the meerkat - or rhea - or monkey - or whatever !!
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Football-Free Zone ....

... and will be tomorrow as well. After Good (?) Friday's rain-soaked efforts, it's been "time off" (lad's 21st on Saturday - otherwise it might have been Hyde v Droylsden) - also managed a "bit of a walk yesterday and today. Tomorrow sees "family stuff" involving Chester Zoo, so Radcliffe v Mossley is another "miss" .. midweek sees a couple of options - on Wednesday go to Hyde v Southport (and be accused of being a "ghoul" - could be relegated on Wednesday dependent on tomorrow's result) - or Glossop NE v Abbey Hey (and be accused of being a "hanger-on" ?!?!?). To round of a somewhat unusual week - Saturday sees a trip to Belper involving shifting a ton of gravel at M-I-L's garden - natch hoping to get it done before 1500 - yep, Belper Town v Stocksbridge PS - another "must win" for the Nailers in their quest for auto-promotion (and another "hanger-on" accusation for me ?!?).

Meanwhile - following three days of "Learn Lotus Notes dead quick" last week - another three days of same next week, before one day in work on Friday (crazy, but first day in work for 11 days - God only knows what's piling up .....).

Stick some pix on tomorrow night - gotta few from Sat/Sun - probably get a load of reptiles tomorrow !!!
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Mossley v Colwyn Bay

... we got stuffed 6-1 "up their end" - and we got stuffed 3-1 "oop our end" ... not a lot more to say apart from ... we won the last 70 minutes 1-0 ... we need to start playing at 1500/1945 rather than 20 minutes in (Durham revisited dare I say ??) ... some pictures at

http://mossleysmiffy.jalbum.net/MossleyBaeColwyn/

Can't really say much more - as SJNR has pointed out, Mossley's last six games have been .. LWLWLW - naturally today's "L" fits in perfectly .... hmmm ...
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IlsonGuiseley Update

.. as in the pix from last night ...

http://mossleysmiffy.jalbum.net/IlkestonGuiseleyULCCF/

I have to say that ... over the 120 minutes ... the better team won ... but it's a bugger when they leave it untill 119 and 120 (minutes) to prove this premise .... !
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"Mugged at the Death" ..

... or Guiseley 3 Ilkeston Town 2 - after extra time - in the Unibond League Challenge Cup on a chilly, breezy evening on Curzon Beach (you had to see it !) Throwing the usual "it's very late" ticket into the ring tonight - not only extra-time but I've had to sort sort a few pix out for the "Ilkeston Advertiser" - who have a deadline of 0930 this very morn - eek - fortunately my training course doesn't start until ... 0930 ... in Ashton ! Here's a couple from tonight - I'll try to put a set together tomorrow night ...



A lo-res monochrome version of possibly the pic of the night (the hi-res colour version now on its way to Ilkeston !).



A question of "what might have been" - when Ilson hit the post in the second half ....

Until later today then, I remain your ......etc etc etc !
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Football this Midweek - Where ?

Well we've "ummed" and we've "ahhed" - and touted for business (camera prostitute me !!!) - and so for me it's down to the Tameside Stadium (viz Curzon Ashton) tomorrow night to do the Unibond League Cup Final 'twixt Ilkeston Town and Guiseley - pix WILL be on later tomorrow night/Wednesday morining - but if there's anything any good, I suggest purchasing a copy of the "Ilkeston Advertiser" - cus I'm actually "doing for them" !!!! (usual rates apply i.e. "a credit" - assuming of course I get something printable ....).

So tonight we are charging up all three camera batteries - and also some AAs for the flash gun - wonder if Hyde have beaten Blyth ?

EDIT @ 2330 - yes they have !
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Football this Weekend - Where ?

Not for me ... weekend in Stafford (who incidentally beat Gateshead 4-1 - maybe I should .... !!) Father 80 years young- jolly good evening meal at Panache- Panache Indian Restaurant (thoroughly recommended- excellent food and nice place - "when I were a lad", it was the "Crispin" pub right opposite 'big school') - and we were up till 0200 !

Today a wander round Shugborough Hall (home of the Anson family - remember Patrick Litchfield - "snapper to royalty" ?) - some pix at Shugborough Hall, Stafford

Home this afternoon to check on football - had already been informed that Mossley - after blowing hot at Wakefield on Tuesday night - had blown cold in a 1-3 reverse @ Garforth Town. The big news was naturally Staybridge Celtic's 1-0 win over Farsley Celtic ............................. no actually it was Glossop North End's "Get out of Jail" performance against Chalfont St Wotsit to earn themselves a trip to Wembley in the FA Vase Final - on May 10th I believe - really pleased for all the hard workers down at Surrey Street - you've earned this day out and hopefully it will be something to remember for a lifetime. I might go meself - need to check "stuff" as it's on a Sunday which makes life tricky in a public transport sort of way... keeping the option open, that's for sure ...

This week - Mossley v Woodley Sports or Stalybridge Celtic v Alfreton Town ?
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Did England Win ??

OK, I've peeped on't'net and believe they grabbed a slutchy offside winner with 5 to go ... yep honestly did not watch it - although I have since watched the "Queens of British Pop" - excellent prog, proving that Marianne Faithfull should have jacked it in after "Broken English" - her voice had cracked nicely at end end of the 70s - now it's just embarassing .. unlike Siouxsie Sioux, Kate Bush and Suzi Quatro ... think it was Quatro who said "still gigging, never taken drugs .. still normal" - these three got there on their own qualities unlike Ms Faithfull who elevated herself to falsehood via the Rolling Stones and Mars Bars ...

Still - enough of that controversy - in the real world of football FC Utd came from 2-0 to win 3-2 agin Ossett Town to keep their play-off hopes alive - over 1600 @ Gigg Lane which ain't bad considering that "Ingerlund thing" was on Terry Steel Channel. Newky Brown Star lose their second midweek game this week 1-2 at home to Lancaster - still in play-off zone but ....

This weekend may well be footy-free for me - 'tis my father's 80th birthday, hence down in Stafford on Saturday - yes I know they're at home against Gateshead but ..... I'd be pushing it somewhat (vis-a-vis Mrs Smiffy rather than Dad Smiffy I think) !!! We'll see ..........
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Efficient or Stupidly Late ??

Wakefield 0 Mossley 2 - we got there with 10 men playing uphill in the second half - and damned well deserved it - train night out for me - straight from work - pint of Durham White Lion in the Kings Head (Huddersfield Station) was tonight's "pick" - placcy glasses @ Wakefield and (I kid you not) only time to purchase four cans of Carling @ Leeds (10 mins change time and a fanny with the ticket barriers !!)

Anyway it's faaaaaarrrr too late to talk - pix at

http://mossleysmiffy.jalbum.net/WakefieldMossley/

(Belper have won too - and go second with Stocksbridge & Glapwell both losing ...)
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