Poppies Walk the Walk at The Walks

Somehow over the years, despite being from roughly the same region and trading umpteen players and even a few managers, we have actually played Kings Lynn quite rarely. Certainly since 1979 you can count the matches on the fingers of one hand (or if you’re from Kings Lynn, half a hand).  Back in the early 80’s there was a cup tie at Rockingham Road, memorable for me chiefly because I had my scarf nicked by one of the visiting nutters who roamed the ground that day.  One even tried to climb a floodlight, perhaps thinking it was some kind of fertility symbol.

Then we met in the Carl Shutt promotion season, when my main memory is of Lee Cowling scoring at their place and celebrating wildly, like this was his first ever goal.  Which thinking about it, could have been right. He looked only slightly more pleased when he turned up at the player of the year do a few weeks later accompanied by an absolute stunner.  We had long wondered ‘is there anything Lee Cowling brings to the party?’  This was his answer.

Now it was time for another trip, and if anyone thought this was small beer compared to festive derbies of days gone by, think again. With Norwich playing away, this was the biggest game in Norfolk bar none!  I could almost hear the excitement in Alan Partridge’s voice. Since our last visit, the stadium looked exactly the same which meant of course it was now 500% better than ours.

But who needs fripperies like terracing and a decent view, when the mighty Poppies are taking full advantage of a surface where the ball doesn’t bobble outrageously or get stuck in gloop. Dark horses for the playoffs?  Why not, so long as we keep winning a few more than we lose. The main challenge will be keeping our boys fit and fresh for the inevitable 20 games we must play in April, once Latimer Park has finally dried out.     

Football 101

Good, battling away win at St Neots today.  However, if the players want to make tight wins into easy wins may we suggest -

When you see this....

....put these....

.....through THIS!

Memo to Auntie Beeb

Just a quick note BBC, the whole country has NOT got a hard-on for Salford City.  We're not all cheering on those plucky underdogs, owned by barely a half-dozen multi-millionaires, in their battles against monsterous, bullying, footballing giants such as Notts County and Hartlepool.

Some of us recall how the media went similarly ga-ga over the Diamonds Scum when they first started knocking supposedly bigger clubs over.  Thankfully this attitude was soon tempered when commentators actually looked at this "Miracle by the Nene" and saw the obscene funding being forced into Max's vanity project.  Suddenly they weren't the plucky underdogs.  They were the fat cats.  So much money was gushed into "Project Inbred" that even Brian Talbot managed to get the team into the Football League.

Not only is the Beeb absolutely besotted with Salford City, but they are lazily not even pretending to look beyond them when it comes to televising FA Cup games.  That's right, let's throw even more money at Non-League Man Utd, sorry, Salford City.  Just what the club needs!  Northwich Victoria away to Northampton..... Other than the lowest placed team away to a club that almost went out of business last week, where's the story there?

So, Notts Couny and Hartlepool were lined up as sacrificial televisual lambs for the Class of 92's hobby club.  I'm not sure I recall the TV folks falling over themselves quite so much to televise OUR games against Notts County and Hartlepool a few years ago.  Strange that.  Mind you - I doubt they'd have televised us had we reached the f**king final!

What's the betting that their replay with Hartlepool gets the live TV treatment too?  Kerching!  Assuming of course the Beeb have any clue a to where Hartlepool is.  How close is it to Salford?

And what if Salford win the replay too?  Bosses at the Beeb will be praying to the Gods of TV Ratings that they draw Manchester United in the 3rd round.  Double Kerching!  They'll probably turn the rest of the season into a new football-based soap opera.

Cancel Strictly Come Dancing - replace it with Salford Coming in Pants!

Kettering Tyres or Spare Tyres?

So, when a replica Poppies shirt makes
it look like one of the players
has got a beer belly, what the hell
will it do for the rest of us??????