Match Five: Forest VARobbed

Return to the City Ground

The next match on my agenda was a return to the  time in four City Ground for the first time in four years.

First, I had to make my way from Cardiff through to Knutsford to two old mates from Nottingham University and then drive over the Pennines to the place of my birth Kirkby-in-Ashfield, to catch up with old school mates.

Previously, Match #4 Cardiff City 1 Watford 2

Searching for The Birches in the Black Mountains

I chose to go to Cardiff City v Watford as it gave me a great excuse to visit the statue in Elaine Morgan's honour. It also let me choose a route away from Cardiff which let me try to tick off another goal, to find the isolated house on the side of a mountain where Elaine started her writing career. When her husband, Morien, and her moved there in the early post-war years, it had no running water, toilets or electricity but it's extreme isolation would provide the perfect scenario for Elaine to put her mind to writing.

The Birches is actually traceable on Google maps but I had to drive to the tiny hamlet of Michaelchurch Ecsley to ask some locals for confirmation.

First, an excellent Welsh Breakfast at m B&B in Cardiff with a Welsh Cake thrown in.

Welsh Cake

Full Welsh

Lincoln House Hotel in Cardiff is lovely, but the organ doesn't work. I wanted to see how much of the Ukrainian national anthem I could remember.

Then it was off to find The Birches.

After arriving, I asked a few locals about the place on Google called "The Birches". When they said it was up the Black Mountains I thought this must be the place, as it was how Elaine described it in her autobiography. 

Stopped for a quick bite to eat at the Bull's Head.

From there, The Birches, was not much further, sitting on the edge of the Black Mountain range that forms the border between England and Wales.

Onto Knutsford then across the Pennines

Google instructed me to take a tortuous route north. The heavens opened up too to make the journey even more stressful and I arrived later than I'd hoped.

I had a lovely night catching up with my old uni mates in Knutsford and they very kindly put me up for the night.

Another great day! Mood score 12-0!

The next morning, I set off east across the backbone of England to go back to my home town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield.

I stopped for a bite to eat in Bakewell.

Then it was off the Chesterfield to have an obligatory selfie at Chesterfield's new ground. The friendly staff would have let me in to the ground to see inside but there was about to be a wake for John Duncan who passed away on 8th October.

Duncan played for Spurs and Derby and was Chesterfield manager
for one of their most successful periods

 

Chesterfield's famous crooked spire

It is a very impressive ground.

Back to Kirkby

After that, it was the short journey back to my roots in the small mining village of Kirkby-in-Ashfield where my first stop was 46 Cookson Street, where I grew up. I always make this pilgrimage but this time it was very sad as the house seemed to be totally derelict. 

Just down the road, past the still functioning Butler's Brother's Bus company, where I'd hidden once playing truant from the nearby school a few hundred meters away.

Jeffries Junior School, now called Forge Academy Trust

When I finally arrived at my mates' in Kirkby it was out for lots of beers. A quick one in appropriately named "Dog House" before going to The Cricketers, where I'd been many times before, most memorably on my 21st birthday.

Another great day. 9-0.

Match Five: Nottingham Forest 2 Brentford 2 

This was my 308th visit to the City Ground, four years and two days since my previous one. It was the 443rd time I'd seen the tricky trees and the tenth time I'd seen Brentford. 

I caught the fantastic tram service from Hucknall to Nottingham.

I was so pleased to see the Ukrainian flag flying high above Slab Square in the city center.

After a bit of shopping at Marks & Spencers I walked to the ground the way I used to in the old days, by the canal.

Brentford Team Bus

Cobb = roll or bun

Trentside boat sheds

Outside the Trent End, venue of the Legends Lounge, the only ticket I could buy

All Forest tickets, both home and away, have been long sold out so the only way of buying a ticket was to pay through the nose to watch in the warm and comfortable Legends Lounge.

The Legend today was Gary Mills, who became famous when he made his Forest debut against Arsenal at the age of 16 back in 1979. Gary was interviewed and then made himself available for photos, autographs and selfies.

With Gary Mills, who made his debut v Arsenal at the age of 15

My view was pretty good

Morgan Gibbs-White scored a cracking goal to give Forest a deserved lead. Forest had six shots on target to Brentford's zero as half time approached. This was looking good for thee points.

Forest had already had one good, and one half-decent, penalty claims waved away before a poor pass from Frueler led thier striker Wissa bursting forward to a one on one against Henderson and what happened next was grimly predictable. Murphy's Law reared its ugly head as Wissa appeared to fall at just the right moment for Henderson to make a slight contact on his knee. Wissa didn't appeal but stayed down provocatively. The referee Marriner didn't react for what seemed an eternity before he presumably received some message from above that he should watch the incident again on the screen. Inevitably, a penalty was awarded and Brentford grabbed an undeserved equaliser as they went off to a very angry crowd.

 

Brentford were understandably lifted in the second half and dominated the game until they scored another goal which struck us through the heart.

But Cooper's substitutions made a difference and Forest fought hard for an equaliser which finally arrived in the 6th minute of injury time. Relief all round, but this was a game we should have won.

As they say...

We woz robbed.

Beers in Nottingham afterwards with a couple of mates from Kirkby and a couple who we met for the first time from Brentford.

As I was my first time back in blighty on 5th November, I was wondering if there'd be an opportunity to go to some Bonfire Night fireworks, but the one scheduled in Nottingham had been cancelled.

Oh well...

Another brilliant day. 19-0.

Next match #6: Harrogate Town 3 Carlisle United 3

Match Four: Croeso i gymru

 Next to Cardiff

Swindon, this is Swindon.

From Oxford I headed west towards Old South Wales (not "new", note). As always, I try to add a few curious (to me) twists into the trip. First, of course, was a football ground. Swindon Town's County Ground was on the way, so... got to stop for selfie video.

I was planning to include East Coker, home of Elaine Morgan's parents, but Somerset was too far out of the way. Next time.

Previously, Match #4 Oxford United 1 Watford 2

Instead, I headed to Purton, birthplace of that Oxford segue, Desmond Morris.

Purton, where no-one knew it was the birthplace of Desmond Morris

Purton is a typically cute English country village but, very disappointingly, no one there knew Desmond Morris was one of their favourite sons.

They had a cute old Co-op that reminded me of what they looked like in my youth, a library that was closed but a bizarre telephone booth outside where books could be exchanged and, I was heartened to see, a town hall flying the Ukrainian flag.

There were a few senior citizens at the community club but none of them knew about Desmond Morris. Instead, they regaled me with tails of another of their famous sons, Nevil Maselyne, the fifth astronomer royal. 

Getting Soaked in Mountain Ash whilst seeing Elaine once again

Next, it was the quite familiar drive across the Seven Bridge into South Wales. I'd done this trip several times to meet my hero, Elaine Morgan but, alas, this was the first time I'd been since she passed away in 2013.

I wasn't going to let something like that put me off reliving her memory, so I set off, once more, for Mountain Ash to see if I could find a statue in her honour.

As I pulled into the appropriately named Oxford Road, the heavens opened and it literally poured with rain for half an hour. I scrambled out of the car to put my raincoat on to see what I could find.

Disappointingly, Mountain Ash library was closed but the nearby doctor's surgery where Elaine Statue stood proudly was open.

Soaked in Cardiff

It was still chucking it down as I drove back down the valley to Cardiff. 

My B & B was lovely and it was great to change into dry clothes before setting out to explore a bit of the rain soaked city.

I had no problem getting tickets at Wimbledon and Oxford and, of course, thanks to Jake's mate Steve, even less getting one for the Arsenal v Forest match, (Just leaving Oxford I finally bought tickets for Forest v Spurs next week, so now will see all three Forest home games.)

But... Cardiff City's web site had a few problems meaning I couldn't purchase my seat in advance. I wasted a frustrating 45 minutes in a bar opposite the castle trying to do that before giving up and deciding to try to buy one at the gate -  bizarrely a rare thing to do these days.

I had lovely fish & chips (good old Dorothy's) and a great pint at the Cambrian Tap before getting a cab to beat the rain and arrive at the Cardiff City stadium.

Thank you, Gentleman Graham

I went to old Ninian Park, Cardiff's old ground back in 1977 but they'd long since moved into a sparkling new stadium called, "The Cardiff City Stadium" - it's like it says on the tin but it's hardly a romantic name.

I arrived quite nervous. It's unusual to turn up to a match these days without a ticket to get in.

There was a Ticket & Collections counter but they told me to go to the ticket office around the corner. This I did. There was a long queue and some (Watford) fans had been told to go round to the away end. I started to panic when they were asking for club membership Id cards. Crikey, Mrs Thatcher's plan to have every football fan registered, which seemed so abhorrent back in the day, seems to have come true.

Maybe I wouldn't get in after all this.

Suddenly, out of the dark, I heard a lovely Welsh accent "Do you want a ticket for the game? No charge. You can come and sit with me." Apparently his three friends couldn't attend tonight so he had some spare seats and he was happy to give them to anyone who wanted them.

Wow. Thank you so much!

He tried to offer this one-off deal to a few others who all seemed to suspect something dodgy before a couple of young lads agreed to come with us.

These were among the best seats in the ground and gave us access to the Ricoh Lounge, a kind of corporate bar setting. 

I thought this was too good to be true. We had a pint and a nice chat with Graham. One of the other two was a actually a Cardiff City season ticket holder but his mate, Pwyll (how about that for a good old Welsh name, I think pronounced 'Pwees".) was fairly new, hence them queueing up for tickets.

It was a good match and Cardiff started well went 1-0 with a Kipre header. Slavan Bilic's Watford team settled though and gradually came back into the game before a  Sieralta equaliser just before half time.

I was hoping to spot James Dean Bradfield, another South Wales hero, as I know he's a Cardiff fan (ironically after being a Forest fan as a boy) but he was nowhere to be seen.

In the second half, Watford scored the winner and despite a huge effort from the Bluebirds, they hung on to all three points.

Thank you again, Graham. If anyone in South Wales is looking to buy a used car, I would certainly recommend buying one from this very kind and lovely man.

After the match, it had stopped raining so I walked back to my B & B, via a couple of proper pubs.

What a lovely day. 16-0 and another ground caught up.

Next Match #5: Nottingham Forest 2 Brentford 2