Who's house now?

The news, equal parts disappointing and unsurprising that Culverhouse & his team have called time on their brief Poppies tenure broke this morning.  The Poppies rumour-mill has already spun into overdrive.  Usually this can spit out any number of outlandish theories.  But, this time, I think we all have a fair idea of how the behind-the-scenes conversation between our owner and manager might have gone.

IC:  I want a better pitch

RC:  So do I, but at the moment this is what we have to play on

IC:  I want a bigger budget

RC:  So do I, but at the moment this is what we have to play with

IC:  Well, that's that then......(closes door)

Yes, it's a shame Culverhouse has left because he is a quality manager and those are thin on the ground as we have recently experienced with Nicky Eaden, who, on paper, seemed a great fit.  But did Culverhouse ever really strike you as someone who was here for the long haul?  Didn't you rather get a sense he was merely keeping his hand in until something better came along?  There are a lot of clubs at this level who would love to have him running their team and they would have looked enviously at us when he nailed (temporarily) his colours to the Poppies mast.

My two favourite Culverhouse theories are (A) he is being lined up to replace Cox at Boston as, no matter how well they do this season, Boston would much rather have free-thinking Culverhouse manage them than the rather one-dimensional Cox.  Or (B) it's back to Kings Lynn again for another crazy stint under Mad, Bad Cleeve.

But what if neither of those clubs want him?  Given his reluctance to move too far away from The Wash (perhaps he's an ardent bird watcher) let's hope he doesn't regret chucking the Poppies too soon.  Or perhaps Wisbech have a splendidly flat pitch?  And a newly discovered pot of gold?

"Wanna buy a shirt?"

Decisions, decisions

Bloody well done to both Kidderminster and Chorley for well and truly dropping the ball and allowing Boston and York to reach the play-off semi finals.  They had one job.....

The play-off's now (for the next few hours) look like this: -

Brackley v York

Fylde v Boston

I wouldn't have minded either Kiddy or Chorley going up - Kiddy without their pies is a nothing game.  Chorley?  Never been there, never wanted to.

I've reached the difficult stage of having to chose a promotion candidate from one of four teams that for various reasons I don't want to go up.

 

Obviously we don't want Brackley to get promotion as it puts us firmly back into third place in the County.  No, it's much funnier watching them blow the play-offs EVERY year and listen to Radio Northampton desperately trying to create some sort of rivalry between us and them.

York should stay down to keep their entitled fans in their place.  And York is a great place to visit.  And any team we do the double over shouldn't be good enough to get promoted.

We need Boston to stay with us because games against them still have an old-school flavour.  Forgetting for a moment their manager, we've all enjoyed tussling with Boston for so many years that it would be a shame for it to end.  For a season.

So that leaves Fylde.  Their sense of entitlement eclipses York's.  2022 indeed.  As a club they were screwed the moment Blackpool FC stopped being such a basket case and took all their supporters back.  And their manager (a the time of writing) seems an, interesting character....

So.....I guess Fylde by a short head from Brackley if I was forced to nail my reluctant colours to an equally reluctant mast!  Cox to stay down and be sacked by Boston by November.  We can but hope.

Fylde it is then....I suppose.

We're sure getting value for money from our man over the border!

 

Yet more from our Lincolnshire correspondent

 

Random, I know....

As we head into today's vital fixture it may seem an odd time for such a random thought to occur, but surely when random thoughts strike they need to be aired as soon as possible?  Or they just become "thoughts".  Bear with me.

We had a couple of young mascots at last Monday's final home game with Alfreton, where we'd obviously decided that watering the pitch with only one game to go wasn't economically viable.  The mascots were  introduced over the tannoy.  I wasn't entirely paying attention to their names, genders or schools attended.  But my ear caught that one of the kids gave their favourite players as Mr Kettering Gary Stohrer and the Liverpool star Terence Trent D'arby.  I think the other mascot named their faves as ace net minder Jackson Smith, angry troll Jordan Crawford and Fulhm's 1930's sounding player - Harry Wilson.

This is something we're used to at our level.  Most people have a "big team" who's fortunes we follow with varying degrees of interest.  You can often deduce someone's age by which "big club" they follow.  My second team of choice are the tricky trees of Nottingham Forest, so if you guessed my affinity stemmed from the late 1970's you wouldn't be far off.  Co-Patgodee PW dons the old gold of Wolverhampton Wanderers during his down time, suggesting that even though we attended school together in the 1980's he was in fact born in the 1940's....

By logical extension all Poppies supporting Leicester fans can trace their support back fully 6 years, and we shouldn't have any Tottenham fans in our ranks at all.....

Having finished my fishing trip....back to the thrust of this article.  We are used to world class players, and Harry Wilson, being mentioned in the same breathe as our more modest stars, but does the reverse ever happen?

Has a young mascot being applauded onto the pitch at Old Trafford ever named Ronaldo and Altrincham's John King as their favourite players to a chorus of befuddled confusion?  Not that this would happen of course, as everyone hated John King, but you know what I mean.

Would the mascot at, say, Chelsea be strong-armed into changing Welling's Nigel Ransom for Didier Drogba before their favourite players were announced to a sparsely populated Stamford Bridge?

Part of me would absolutely LOVE this to have happened at some point, if only to jolt top division fans into the uncomfortable realisation that football actually exists outside of the annual borefest of trying to qualify for the laughably named "Champions League".  So, if you are a young mascot, about to run out at a Premier League game today AND reading this (!) do me the most enormous favour and casually drop into your favourite players list Roy Clayton, Brett Solkhon or even Kyle Perry.  Do it.  It'll make you feel better!

"Who the f*ck is Johnny Graham?"

Another glimpse over into Lincolnshire....

 

Paul to start to think about substitutions anytime now......

Tivvy +20

At Patgod we do love a good anniversary. A date to relive old memories, reminisce about past glories and for a few moments go back in time. Is this how it begins?  One day you’re having what you think is a normal chat about how things once were, the next you’re dribbling incoherently and laughing at random things. From certain examples among our fan base, this can take effect surprisingly early in life.

Anyway, what triggered this particular musing is a chance coincidence.  For reasons entirely unconnected with football I find myself in a corner of the south west just a few miles from Tiverton.  That set me thinking, 2002? Then with a jolt I realised it was exactly 20 years ago to the very day! 27^th April (I have a good memory for dates, if not much else).  What a day that was.  Well worth reliving, on the off chance anyone reading this who was there hasn’t thought about it for at least a week.

The early millennium Poppy was positively spoiled with last day of the season cliffhangers. In 2001 we had to win while another team didn’t to avoid the drop, twelve months later it was the same equation but with the opposite outcome – hence despite the distance to the Devon border, at least 1,500 of us converged on Tiverton’s little ground (back then we could afford to be condescending) for what no one expected to be an unruffled tension-free afternoon.

I can only really remember three things about the game itself. Steve Ooh Aah Lenagh fired us into an early lead, they equalised, we scored a second. Maybe not in that order. Ok a fourth thing. In the early days of mobile phones, some fans were connected to events at Folkestone, where a Tamworth win would deny us the title. The game down there see-sawed rather more. As the minutes ticked down we heard that, with the score tied at 3-3, Folkestone had saved a penalty.

The clock reached 90 minutes. Back then that was pretty much it. Games finished at 4.46.  As the ref blew we were over the fence, then moments later there was an explosion of joy on the pitch as the news magically arrived from Folkestone. We have jolly well done it, many congratulations, is the family friendly version of what I said to Wayne Diuk.    

The rest was messy. There were people on the dressing room roof, they thought it was all over. Kettering were back. After about an hour of partying and singing we finally dispersed, to start to contemplate a triumphant return to our rightful level in the non League game. Where we have spent precisely 5 of the last 20 years.  

  Doesn't look much after all these years, but was packed with red 20 years ago today