Mossley v FCUM

Useful Crowd + Barbecue + "well known linesman" (!!)

Well the weather stayed nice !! Finished work in good time today despite having no car - having done Saturday's "D2Ds" earlier in the week certainly helped (it's a postie thing - D2D or "housholds" = those annoying "flyers" - Sky, Virgin etc - that 99% of you immediately consign to the (recycle hopefully) bin, but add just over £12 - before tax - to my weekly pay !!).

Thought the game was a strangely muted affair personally - livened up a bit in the second half when Mike Norton came on (dunno why !), but I reckon there were more than a few eyes on the "real thing" that is the start of the season next Saturday - fairly warm as well this afternoon which probably contributed to the "easy-paced" feeling. A fair turn-out from the FCUM "army" as well probably put a few pennies in the Mossley coffers (once FCUM take their cut - they do you know !!). A 2-1 win for the visitors but, looking at the Mossley pre-season campaign as a whole, I'm happy - and I know many others are as well. My pictorial efforts are in the usual place - as in ..

Mossley 1 FC United of Manchester 2

... but it's usually worth a peep on the FCUM Message Board to see how the "pros" do it - a couple of their snappers were there today.

One last "do" up at Mossley before the season begins - next Thursday sees a First Team v Reserves "match/training session" followed by a bit of a Forum followed by Quiz Night. However if you can't wait that long, Mossley Reserves get their Galaxy Lancashire League campaign under way on Tuesday night up at Seel Park when they entertain Lancaster City Reserves. Also, with Mrs Smiffy still being "away" (moved from Hereford to Cornwall this weekend via Belper !), I might be tempted to pop over to Hyde on Monday night to see their Conference North game against Workington - they had a bad start to the season today losing 5-0 at AFC Telford United, so I guess they'll be looking to put that right rather quickly (Wukkie beat Gloucester City today 2-1 by the way).

Other news from the start of the Conference campaign saw Stalybridge Celtic beat Redditch United 2-0 and Droylsden coming out 4-2 winners against Eastwood Town ... and Stafford Rangers lost 1-0 at Boston United.
One quirky story regarding Stalybridge Celtic this week ... what with their "going full-time" as well - the "outspoken" Droylsden boss Dave Pace came up with a belter - check out this story from one of the the local rags - certainly ruffled a few feathers here ...

Also the "Road to Wembley" began today with the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round - Glossop drew 2-2 at home to Wigan Robin Park, while New Mills smacked Alsager Town 10(ten)-2 !

So - for many - the season is under way - however the Evo-Stik contingent have 7 more days to wait ...

Time for bed - if the nice weather stays nice later today ... that bloody garden (or the pile of breeze blocks and the sand and cement) awaits ...
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