FC get nowt from Guisley

FC United 1-2 Guisley
Unibond Premier League; attendance 2,106
My first trip up the Bury this season and a fine drizzle has started. All my other FC games have been away visits. Gigg Lane is not my favourite ground. I've come to dislike the place. Poor catering and posts spoiling the view. But at least we've got a temporary rented shabby home.

The game was well underway and it didn't look like anyone was going to score. How wrong can you be? Guisley net a soft tap in on 22 minutes , and five minutes later a strong header goes to back of the net. Both scored by Liam Needham. That's what the score board said. At least Bury do have a decent big electronic scoreboard. At this rate he'll get a hat trick and we'll be five down at the end.

A great goal from Jerome Wright gets FC back into the game and optimism returns. But it's not our day. Good use of wingers but nothing in the box to grab the passes and put them away. Sam Ashton the FC keeper makes some tremendous stops when the off side trap is sprung and Guisley are clear on goal. Considering making him my man of the match.

The last few minutes are the best 'cos you think FC will get something at the very, very end like the other night. Five minutes added time but it ends with the 50 odd Guisley supports singing "Guisley, Guisley". They only have one song between them and it goes "Guisley, Guisley".

Stomp off up the hill for the tram. Fall into a conversation with a couple of supporters - the consensus is we need another striker.

Transport is a bit of a mess in Manchester at the moment whilst they rebuild the tram tracks in the City Centre. It might be finished next year. But I have a plan. Get off at Victoria, jump on the free shuttle bus No.2 to GMex and get back on the other tram to Stretford. It works and I get home for 1820h.

Admission £7.50, tram ticket £4, bought Under The Boardwalk fanzine £2. Bloke came round at half time selling them and it fills in the time. Weather - 14 degrees, rain for first ten minutes of the match, slight north westerly breeze.

Notice there was a Tv camera at the match. Maybe FCUM-TV does still exist though the website hasn't shown anything for six weeks.

Late winner over Mariners

FC United 3-2 Marine
Unibond Premier League : attendance 2,122
A heavily overcast and wet day. That special rain we have in Manchester were everybody walks about in this fine drizzle that you can't feel until you sit down and realise your damp jeans are now stuck to your legs. Looked forward to this fixture against in-form Marine. They come from Crosby, which is posh Scouseland, and is famous for its Anthony Gormley statues on the beach. A bit of football trivia - Barcelona play in the old colours of the noted Merchant Taylor School in Crosby it is claimed.

The game started, but already grumpy because I forgot to bring my pie and had to buy an overpriced Yorkie bar to keep hunger at bay. Well matched sides so when we went 1-0 up after 20 minutes the outcome looked promising. However Marine, who played in yellow tops and green shorts - you'd think a nice choice of blue would be more appropriate, got a penalty and got back level. FC replied straight away, back in the lead.

Second half, and Msrine equalise after about 7 minutes. Their small band of supporters have brought some drummers with them and are now rattling on those snares with gusto. FC singing is now the "we hate scousers songbook".

The surprise was the 87th minute goal by FC United. A whole 6 minutes of added time added to the tension. A tramp uphill the tram station in the rain but in good spirits. That's when it went downhill. Tram service suspended 'cos of breakdowns on the line. That meant going for the alternative - the 135 bendy bus back to Manchester. Only had £20 note so expected wrath from the driver. What's happened to the country now have bus staff from Eastern Europe - he didn't even blink at the big note and said thank you.

Game 57; admission £7.50, Yorkie chocolate £1, Xmas raffle ticket £1 (didn't win), tram ticket £2.70, bus fares £4.40. Plus £2 for the FC United fanzine "A Fine Lung" which made good the hour spent on the buses.

FC United might make the play-offs

FC United's chances of winning this league are fading, but they still have a chance of a play-off place. Too many games in too few days. Six matches in 12 days is ridiculous. You really need a big squad to get maximum points from that fixture list. Lost tonight 3-1 (att: 456), and then matches to follow on Saturday, Monday, then Wednesday.

A few technical difficulties with FCUM-TV visual radio tonight, but they eventually managed to get a signal out of West Yorkshire. Thought I'd better make a donation 'cos at one point they ran out of credit. It's a good service run by unpaid volunteers for the benefit of the armchair army- 235 listening in tonight.

Writing about the hybrid visual radio then you should check BBC Radio 5 Live on Freeview. Along with the commentary you have pictures of the team sheets and a scrolling bar of other latest scores. I'm a fan of football on the radio, many a time it's been the only option. My wish would be for someone to sell a portable radio that receives just the audio channels from Sky satellite signals - there are about 200 of them.

FC Win 5-1 Hurrah Huzzah

The joys of the web for on a bitterly cold night you can be part of the armchair army. But you have to hand it to the 1,691 who went to Gigg Lane, Bury to watch FC United come back from 0-1 down to put 5 past Rossendale United. Once again the Visual Radio at FCUM TV proved excellent. Listen and surf - the hours just fly by. Match Report.

A few people I've met said it would be good if FC United stayed down in this division for a season. What defeatist nonsense. Winning two consecutive promotions to rise out of the North West Counties is hardly high flying. Getting to the Unibond Premier next year means there is still a long way to go, before you reach a national league which is the Blue Square Premier, formally the Conference. What football fan is happy when there team looses? Only a deluded one.

FCUM 1 BPA 4

Surfing away with a cup of tea, and a packet of ginger nuts listening to FCUM-TV online radio commentary. Excellent reception and we even got some CCTV like pictures in the first half. The commentary is slicker, faster (keeps up pitch action) and wittier than last season.

I don't know if this is FC United's worse defeat but it might have well as been. The crowd sounded like they took the poor play well, certainly heard "are we City in disguise", and 'we want Mourinho" being sung.

Let's hope there is a bounce back for Saturday's match. But well done the FCUM-TV radio team for an evenings entertainment.

One of those days

It's my day off work but do a couple of hours in the morning for some lieu time, go to the lotty (allotment) and it looks like some fox or squirrel has been snaffling a couple of sweetcorns and digging...Watch England v. Japan in the Women's World Cup. A gripping match spoilt by a last minute equaliser from a direct free kick in the last minute. Both of Japan's goals come from excellent free kicks they just appear to go straight through the wall like a bullet. The Chinese crowd are all supporting England, you didn't expect them to cheer for Japan did you. Oh well, is this three games and the plane home next week?

FC United are away at Clitheroe. Streaming radio commentary is not working again. Still got technical issues at FCUM.TV. I'll check the Match Updates forum later on. 1-1 and the floodlights fail.

Tonight's football story on the news. Does McClaren play Mr.E.Heskey or Mr.P.Crouch as the striker? Has it come to this - it has.

Just a frustrating day all round.

AFC Wimbledon v. FC United

Followed the game with Matchdayupdates. Thanks must go to the thumbs of the Wimbledon fan who text these into the web page from his mobile at the game. It's a very under used service. It's free, it works and you can even receive it on your mobile. A good example of fans making their own media - the supporters direct approach.

Sat Aug 4 17:08:43 2007
full time afc wimbledon 2 fc united 0 full time

Sat Aug 4 17:03:03 2007
hussey on for haswell

Sat Aug 4 17:02:07 2007
no crowd announced but looks decent

Sat Aug 4 17:00:45 2007
garrard replaced by will salmon

Sat Aug 4 16:57:07 2007
fergie and jolly replaced by butler and beckford

Sat Aug 4 16:54:34 2007
sam hatton shout from 22 yards turned round by the excellent fc united keeper

FC Champions

"FC United were crowned champions of North West Counties Division One after a wonderful team display saw them demolish Atherton Laburnum Rovers 7-1 in front of 2,249 supporters at Gigg Lane." Unibond Northern Premier League Division 1 next season - 4 more promotions and it's the bottom rung of the Football League. A few games still to play including a cup final....also a new web address (URL) - http://fcumfiles.co.uk

Click here to watch 'FC-United-Champs-2007'
Fantastic, a whole new set of teams to see next year, plus an entry to the FA Cup and the FA Trophy.

Shirt Elections

FC United are giving members the opportunity to choose next seasons shirt. 147 entries have been whittled down to 4. One member one vote, no sponsors name on the shirt. I've gone for shirt 4 - not that I've ever bought a football shirt.

Unibond #2

The regular after match celebration at Gigg Lane, crowd 3602. Been checking the Northern Premier League or the Unibond as everyone calls it. Some tough teams and bigger distances to travel. No idea who'll the opposition will be until the two First Divisions are sorted - east-west split, north-south split? Local derby could be Radcliffe Borough. Teams from all over the north - Colwyn Bay, Shepshed Dynamo, Woodley Sports, Bridlington...Is another promotion possible? Yes, noted that Cammell Laird have done well in their first year after coming up from the NW Counties. Higher attendances next season? One would hope so...

We're going to the Unibond

Already promoted before this game, a few more points wins the title. Next year the Unibond Division 1 - about to be reorganized into two sections based on geography. A good day out in Bury.

Margentina

Always have to be wary of any story on April one...FC United in blue, light blue even worse. Amusing though. Fans might start singing "Margentina, Margentina"

United v. Blackburn Rovers

Spent the afternoon in a long, very long, but interesting meeting. Not even an armchair. The mobile phone doesn't let you down. Scores being sent in by text from my mate Colin, I fired up the web browser for the Premiership latest from the BBC Sports website. A goal down, but came back to win 4-1 which made it a pleasant day. The City fans in the meeting were happy with their 1-0 too. So smiles all round then.

Got home to check on FC United as they had an important League Challenge Cup semi-final 2nd leg to win. Which they did by 4-3, 6-5 on aggregate over Congleton Town. Put me down for the final against New Mills on Thursday 3rd May at Curzon Ashton's ground. Never been to a FC mid-week game, never been to minor league Cup Final either.

FCUM TV / 3

You have to feel for FCUM TV. They have a weekly show on Channel M (Sky 203) to fill but the match is called off due to an unfit pitch. This means not only finding some footage to cover the gap, but a backlog of fixtures to film before the end of April. All of this done on a very low budget. Volunteers driven by passion for the team and for football. There was a nice touch the other week. A brief interview with Billy Davies, manager of Preston North End who was watching his son referee a FCUM Reserves game. As fans we can now video the crowd entertaining ourselves and leave the pitch action to the bigger cameras of FCUM-TV. Check this half-time song on YouTube Link.
FCUM-TV by the fans for the fans - it's the real deal.

North West Counties

Now I haven't been to a NW Counties Football League game for a while but I've got plans and the desire...

How about FC United v. Maine Road on Easter Monday 9th April - the mini-derby reds v. blues. Ramsbottom v. FC United with a trip on steam train from Bury using the East Lancashire Railway. It'll be an all ticket match as the ground is mostly field and not terraces. The tie could switch venues so I won't build any away-day hopes yet.

So at present it's hibernation armchair supporting watching FCUM TV on Channel M (Sky 203), or using t'internet. There is a great new video player console on the FCUM-TV website for watching clips you've might have missed. Makes browsing a doddle, well done lads.

Issue 2 of North West Side Stories is out now. This gives an insight into what goes on in grassroots football. Worth reading just for the comments about pies from "Farny at the Far Post" (Alan Farnworth, Vice Chairman of the NWCFL)...Pies and football, no burgers, no prawns.