It was great to see Retford Manager Brett Marshall in action again, a pleasure to be in the company of Scarborough Athletic Manager Rudy Funk for the first half, and a real treat to have a lengthy chat with Long Eaton player Kelvin Mushambi during the break.
They were the highlights of an afternoon at Grange Park - the game itself excelled in tedium for the most part, and only a 90th minute penalty saved us from notching up another 0-0 draw.
Rudy was at the game to watch his Bank Holiday opponents - and in all honesty, having already seen Scarborough play, the Derbyshire side ought to be put to the sword at Queensgate on Monday.
Long Eaton : Whalin, Webster, Gamble, Carder, Whiley (c), Breach, Arnstrong, Martin, King, Mellors-Blair, Bowles. Subs: Rickford, Hunter, Ganderson, Mushambi, Webb (GK)
Badgers: Fisher, Corrigan, Baugh, Hayes, Nightingale, Payne, Chambers, Chappell, Brown, Hatfield, Owens. Subs : Scott, Pride, Wells, Smith, Howard
Half-time summary - after the teams had performed the usual ritual handshake, they then ran around for 45 minutes. H-T 0-0
Decided to go and interupt "Mushy" while he was half-way through his half-time exercises, and although he is still enjoying life at Long Eaton, he is finding that at 35, it's becoming more of a labour of love rather than a pleasure. Nice boots though, Kelvin!!
Still works full-time, has a boozer in Town and still finds time to train and play - busy, busy, busy............
The second half saw a marked improvement, and on the hour, I actually took out the note pad! Well worth noting the free-kick from Paul Gamble that flew just past Fisher's right-hand post.
Retford had a chance to break the deadlock soon after when Brad Wells fired a cross in from the right that was met by Adam Scott, but luckily for the home team, Ross Whalin was well placed to save.
On 72, Shaun Rickford missed a sitter - left alone in the Retford area he was picked out by superbly by Martin Bowles, but contrived to head wide when he should have buried it.
Great sequence of shots from Mr. Goodman !! Click to enlarge - unless you are Shaun Rickford......don't look, Shaun!!!
Not wanting to ruin Rickford's day, but the next sequence of pics is of the away team's winning penalty taken by ADAM SCOTT in the 90th minute!!
So, we didn't see a great game, we didn't see a hat full of goals, but at least we didn't get the dreaded 0-0 draw. In all fairness, the home team did deserve something from the game, but it wasn't to be.
Admission £5
Programme £1.50
Attendance 96
