Ouch !

Covers a lot of this week - certainly "seen the world" at work:

Monday - a walk in Royton
Tuesday - day off - taken for the first time in weeks (!)
Wednesday - different walk in Royton
Thursday - walk in Ashton
Friday - different walk in Ashton using one of these for the first time ever ever:

finished at 1700 hrs !

Saturday - heading into Oldham - phone rang - "Can you go to .... Rochdale ?"

... and with 90% of this being unknown walks (and in the case of Rochdale unknown bloody areas !) - and the weather being a touch unseasonal (!), it made for an "interesting" working week. Incidentally, my contract expired on 29th September - no official extension yet but have been "told" it's coming - probably lost in the post - ho ho !

Anyway - finished in Rochdale and got home in time to head for - Ashton United. Football-wise I was in a bit of a quandary today - Ashton United and Stalybridge Celtic both at home in't'Cup while Mossley were entertaining Prescot Cables in the league. Hurst Cross was chosen (I'll do Mossley next Tuesday !) - and the home side were given a footballing lesson by Spennymoor Town who ran out comfortable 3-0 winners.



STS Bonus Pic - What the entire Ashton United team needed - a kick up the ...

Much emphasis was placed on the alleged "two level difference" between the sides - a meaningless concept when talking of Northern League teams. If only the champions of this league had joined the Unibond/Evo-Stik over the last half-dozen of so years ... then there would have been no excuse for this "too far to travel" rubbish - there'd have been at least half-a-dozen north east teams there - and no room for the likes of Chasetown etc etc ... but then again, I've always been an advocate of a three-way Northern Prem/Midland Prem/Southern Prem split ... Chasetown in the Northern Prem ?? Bishops Stortford in the Conference North ? When it gets that ridiculous you can almost understand the "excuses from oop North" - but all it needed was for a few teams to "bite the bullet" early on - and maybe this whole ridiculous position we are now in would never have happened (and that bloody Isthmian League has got a lot to answer for as well - a real anachronism !).

Anyway - enough of my wobbling on ... some pictures from yesterday can be found at

Ashton United 0 Spennymoor Town 3 (FA Cup)

The "Ouch" in the title not only refers to aching joints and Ashton's loss - Stalybridge Celtic also bowed out of the FA Cup - as did Stafford Rangers (a real "ouch" here !). One other notable local departure saw Lancaster City knock out FC United of Manchester ...

Next week - Mossley on Tuesday, and probably (!) Hurst Cross again next Saturday - since their relegation from the Conference North I now only get one chance to see Stafford Rangers "up my way" - and this is it ...

One other pic from this weeks warm weather - a rather large (over two foot in diameter) spiders web in our garden - and it had certainly caught a few flies !


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