Whose idea was it to go to the Lido? He's a daft sod whoever it was! To be fair, we were guests of Welfare Chairman, our good friend Brett Marshall - and it has to be said that we were quite pleased we didn't have to pay to watch this end of season offering.
Yes, the home team had nothing to play for, unless you count a position in the squad next season! Boss Lee Tryner has a difficult job ahead of him - especially if the future plans regarding the sponsorship and development of the Lido are to mean anything. You can have the best facilities in the world, but if the team isn't up to standard then it's effort wasted.
The playing surface at Clipstone is superb - Rob Spiggs has done a great job. Clipstone must be hoping that they will have a team worthy of the surface by the 10th August when the new season starts!
Quick chat with Brett prior to kick-off and we got to talking about the Nottinghamshire non-league season 2012-2013 in general. Both me and Kev are of the opinion that it's been a poor one on the whole ( Basford Utd and AFC Mansfield the exceptions) - Brett summed it up in four words - "it's on its arse!" Succinct and to the point!
Clipstone never got in the game at all in the first period, whilst Rossington had a lot of possession, but looked like they needed a goal 50 yards wide and 20 yards high. Their aim was a little wayward to say the least! Seemed as though they were ever going to trouble Welfare keeper Jamie Davies despite having 80% of the play.
Four attempts were so wide, I was thinking about getting my boots out of retirement - surely I couldn't do any worse! Clipstone had one wayward effort that flew wide of Jordan Wildey, and a shot from Dom Jones that flew high over the bar.
The first shot on target came from Main's Nathan Frazer on 40 minutes, but Davies was well placed to catch the effort. The keeper could do nothing about the goal that followed five minutes later though - a superb solo run from full-back DANNY TAYLOR that saw him evade several challenges before drilling the ball home. H-T 0-1
We nipped over to the cricket ground to catch a few overs of Clipstone v Farnsfield and found that more entertaining that the footie! Nice ground, but the cars look like they parked a bit too close to the boundary though, especially with this lad at the crease.
Six - cleared the ropes by 10 yards!
Panoramic view of the cricket ground
I only made two notes in my pad during the second half - one was on 48 when Rob Paling hit Welfare's first effort on target. It was a fairly tame effort that Wildey collected with ease. Wildey again had to be alert 5 minutes later when Paling fired in the home teams second on target effort of the game - actually forcing the keeper to dive to his left to palm away. Other than that - camera stayed pocketed as did the notepad.
Had a final chat with Brett before we departed - and he made a point of telling us that he has nothing to do with selecting the team - his main concern is in selecting the right wallpaper when any decorating needs doing! We said we'd keep in touch during the closed season - may take in the pre-season friendly v Retford Utd, you never know.
"Nottinghamshire football is on it's arse!!"
Seems like we've met before!!
Programme £1.50 : thanks Kev
Attendance : 55
Referee: Mr. Steve Holroyd - quiet game, but there were no malicious challenges and no complaining - I think the players just wanted to get this game out of the way and enjoy the closed season. Nice to see another female assistant in Gemma Gale. Very good flags ( not a euphemism) and got most of her decisions correct.
