Droylsden 0 Belper Town 0
FAC 4th Qualifying Round
This game was always going to be a big one for the Nailers. It has been over 100 years since we made the 1st round proper so to be so near must have put extra pressure on the players and management.
Droylsden is a suburb of Greater Manchester and as we all know Manchester (pronounced MAN–CHES-TA) is one heck of a place to get to, even though it’s not that far from Belper. The sat nav said 55 miles and 1 hour 20 minutes – obviously it hadn’t heard about the roadworks and traffic in the surrounding villages !
Before setting off I went down to the triangle to get a few snaps of the Belper fans getting on the coaches. What a great sight to see, masses of Nailers fans boarding a coach to an away game, must be like the old days – I think I saw a tear in Foggy Laughlins eye (but then again it was quite windy at the time).
After seeing the fans onto the coach I called round for the chauffeur (Mr Carter) and the Jaguar. Take me to Droyslden and don’t spare the horses, all 4.2 litres of them. We left Carter Towers at approximately 11:55 and after a quick stop for petrol it was up the A6. We eventually arrived at the Butchers Arms ground at about 1:45, almost two hours to travel 55 miles (I
said that I thought his car was faster than that…). Having said that, we arrived before the Belper coaches. Oddly enough it was raining in Manchester – who’d have thought that? – and it continued to rain for most of the afternoon. It reminded of the lyrics to a Beautiful South track “If rain makes Britain Great, then Manchester is Greater” It didn’t make for great photographing that’s for sure.
Droylsden itself looks like it’s going through some regeneration, like the places you see on Location, Location, Location. The sort of town that is just outside a larger more expensive City.
After a cup of coffee in the boardroom I made my way into the club bar to s
ee if either Smiffy or CarlF had made it through the rain. Smiffy was sat in the corner chatting to Carl’s dad – the Droylsden snapper himself was outside having a cigarette (obviously to calm his nerves before the big game. After all the pressure was really on them as the side from two divisions above us). Eventually Carl returned and we said hi. Apart from Smiffy, Carl is the first Tog I’ve met from the non league photographers forum. Turns out to be a nice bloke (for a Manc ;-) ). While me and Smiffy decide where we can stand to keep out of the (now torrential) rain we both know that Carl will be huddled on the touchline with his waterproof camera cover and his Parker .
It was a good to see so many Nailers fans in the crowd, I chose the far side stand as my location for the first half. As I stood waiting to see which was the teams would be kicking I hear a local ‘youff’ say to his mate “What the f*ckin’ ‘ells he doing standing there with that camera?”, it was about this time that I decided the half-way line was not the place to shoot the action from.
A bit of a backs to the wall first half ended somehow still 0-0. A quick nip back to the boardroom for a cup of tea to warm us up, along with a couple of cobs for good measure before venturing out for the 2nd half. The game had already started even though I heard a buzzer despite the boardroom being located about 10 yards from the changing rooms. When I got outside Belper were attacking and had just won a corner – thankfully I hadn’t missed the only goal of the game.
Belper played more attackingly in the 2nd half and could have scored on a few occasions if the shooting had been more accurate. One great moment in the 2nd 45 was when Micky Harcourt was waiting to take a throw infront of the aforementioned stand. The locals were having some banter with him and I snapped him just as they said something really funny (I have to ask him what was said as I couldn’t hear myself) and he cracked up.
The game ended in a 0-0 draw which meant we both went into the live draw on Sunday lunchtime on ITV. At the end the fans (who had been tremendous throughout) were acknowledged by the players and management – it felt really good to be a Belper Town fan at that point.
The trip home took about one hour and forty five minutes and all I can say is that I’m glad it’s the Droylsden lads that are travelled to us on Tuesday and not the other way round.
Next Up Quorn UniBond Division 1 South
FAC 4th Qualifying Round
This game was always going to be a big one for the Nailers. It has been over 100 years since we made the 1st round proper so to be so near must have put extra pressure on the players and management.
Droylsden is a suburb of Greater Manchester and as we all know Manchester (pronounced MAN–CHES-TA) is one heck of a place to get to, even though it’s not that far from Belper. The sat nav said 55 miles and 1 hour 20 minutes – obviously it hadn’t heard about the roadworks and traffic in the surrounding villages !
Before setting off I went down to the triangle to get a few snaps of the Belper fans getting on the coaches. What a great sight to see, masses of Nailers fans boarding a coach to an away game, must be like the old days – I think I saw a tear in Foggy Laughlins eye (but then again it was quite windy at the time).
After seeing the fans onto the coach I called round for the chauffeur (Mr Carter) and the Jaguar. Take me to Droyslden and don’t spare the horses, all 4.2 litres of them. We left Carter Towers at approximately 11:55 and after a quick stop for petrol it was up the A6. We eventually arrived at the Butchers Arms ground at about 1:45, almost two hours to travel 55 miles (I
said that I thought his car was faster than that…). Having said that, we arrived before the Belper coaches. Oddly enough it was raining in Manchester – who’d have thought that? – and it continued to rain for most of the afternoon. It reminded of the lyrics to a Beautiful South track “If rain makes Britain Great, then Manchester is Greater” It didn’t make for great photographing that’s for sure.Droylsden itself looks like it’s going through some regeneration, like the places you see on Location, Location, Location. The sort of town that is just outside a larger more expensive City.
After a cup of coffee in the boardroom I made my way into the club bar to s
ee if either Smiffy or CarlF had made it through the rain. Smiffy was sat in the corner chatting to Carl’s dad – the Droylsden snapper himself was outside having a cigarette (obviously to calm his nerves before the big game. After all the pressure was really on them as the side from two divisions above us). Eventually Carl returned and we said hi. Apart from Smiffy, Carl is the first Tog I’ve met from the non league photographers forum. Turns out to be a nice bloke (for a Manc ;-) ). While me and Smiffy decide where we can stand to keep out of the (now torrential) rain we both know that Carl will be huddled on the touchline with his waterproof camera cover and his Parker .It was a good to see so many Nailers fans in the crowd, I chose the far side stand as my location for the first half. As I stood waiting to see which was the teams would be kicking I hear a local ‘youff’ say to his mate “What the f*ckin’ ‘ells he doing standing there with that camera?”, it was about this time that I decided the half-way line was not the place to shoot the action from.
A bit of a backs to the wall first half ended somehow still 0-0. A quick nip back to the boardroom for a cup of tea to warm us up, along with a couple of cobs for good measure before venturing out for the 2nd half. The game had already started even though I heard a buzzer despite the boardroom being located about 10 yards from the changing rooms. When I got outside Belper were attacking and had just won a corner – thankfully I hadn’t missed the only goal of the game.
Belper played more attackingly in the 2nd half and could have scored on a few occasions if the shooting had been more accurate. One great moment in the 2nd 45 was when Micky Harcourt was waiting to take a throw infront of the aforementioned stand. The locals were having some banter with him and I snapped him just as they said something really funny (I have to ask him what was said as I couldn’t hear myself) and he cracked up.The game ended in a 0-0 draw which meant we both went into the live draw on Sunday lunchtime on ITV. At the end the fans (who had been tremendous throughout) were acknowledged by the players and management – it felt really good to be a Belper Town fan at that point.
The trip home took about one hour and forty five minutes and all I can say is that I’m glad it’s the Droylsden lads that are travelled to us on Tuesday and not the other way round.
Next Up Quorn UniBond Division 1 South
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