Town Walls for Goalposts

To keep us with a post in each month, i'm just posting this piece i rattled off from a group on Facebook the other week, a group setup by David... a bit of a reminisence of primary school football on my behalf.

I think the "year 4 pitch" we used jumpers for goalposts (could include Campri Ski Jackets too - guilty as charged) for one goal, and the medieval town walls of a world heritage site as the other goal - ye, we were just that cool! The "town wall end" goal, as i remember, was roughly marked out by steps up to the archway leading to 'y canolfan' and some old signpost or something... crossbar, as always in such jumpers for goalposts situations was decided by the height of the keeper (sometimes by a certain stone in the medieval world heritage site town walls). Common sense amongst us to agree or disagree to calls of "POST!" or "BAR!" were always fun, and often ending in an agreeable 5 yard penalty, of which was probably going to be 'pelted' at the goalie full in the face. This situation could however end up in a call of "its my ball!" where a new rule is inserted: Agree with the ball owner. That, or simply kick the blue plastic fly-away ball into..whatever...that was... was it a garden? an orchard? overgrown wasteland with steps going down to 'the sports field' - deadly steps or what?! Many a ball met it's end in there, and so too the school roof. The demolition company must have had enough footballs to diversify their business entirely. Other situations saw you running out of the "bottom gate" (barging a dinner lady out of the way first) and running down Rosemary Lane chasing this thing, the punishment for leaving the premises forgotten about, retrieving that ball was all that mattered!

The wall of 2 goals side-by-side still stands, i think. 2 goals side by side and a 45 degree slope of a pitch (I say pitch, I mean tarmac with chippings to really graze your knees up) fantastic! A ball lost on this pitch was pretty much irretrivable... St Agnes Road, or over the wall/fence into "that guys" garden / plantation.

Not many people can describe their 'playtime' primary school football the way we could!

A Spann in the works

Wrexham have been something of a base / launching pad / home for Trinidad & Tobago footballers in the last few years, nurchering talents such as Carlos Edwards (a good mention on Match of the Day last Saturday "cutting his teeth with Wrexham"), Dennis Lawrence and Hector Sam.

Following the summer-long rumours and constant readings of Sunderland and Sheffield United messageboards to a particular Trinidad & Tobago player on trial with both clubs throughout June and July - not to mention the fantastic YouTube clip appearing amongst it all, and heavily rumoured to join Wrexham (Brian Carey had him on a shortlist since February at Trinidad v Iceland apparently)... He was finally spotted on the Wrexham team bus for the trip to Darlington on Saturday, and was sat amongst the bench for the defeat... It seems he had his first full training session with the club yesterday judging by all the photos in the local papers this morning and splashed about on various websites, and mention of a 3 year contract. So just a work permit to come through, and Silvio Spann with (hopefully) strikes like the one leaving his foot last month in the Gold Cup below, are coming to the Racecourse very soon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChSTu7wuCiM

Mind the Gap

I've had Radio 5 on in the office today, listening to all the latest football news, revelations, specualtions and transfer debates. Listening to the amounts of money being splashed about quite off the cuff blase from the presenters and reporters... John Terry "earning" £135,000 "a week". Wasnt Terry on the bench for half last season too, oh, and now out for a possible month - what's that, just over half a million pounds, for 'light' training for a month? Last week it seems Alan (broken leg last season) Smith has gone to Newcastle for "£6 million", with all these exchanges flying about and the money exchanged for Tevez over the past year or so, and so on and so on... I just had to listen harder to what really is happening just those 3 divisions higher than the club I follow...

The below is stuff I know you all know, but to put into context read on: The owners of these "big" clubs are a mix of American Football club owners, Russian Oil Tycoons, and new to the "big" club bracket are wannabes Manchester City with an ex-Thai Prime Minister with the vault. Their managers splashing that bottomless pit of off-shore Swiss bank account cash on said wages excessing £100,000 a week, players owning penthouses and property across the world, racehorses, owning any cars they want, the clubs they play for have megastores the size of an average Tesco and selling as many products as Tesco with the club Trademark stamped on everything. Fair enough...

Come down just 3 divisions, and the club I follow, the owner is the guy who owns the Ford dealership on the corner next to the ground, the club shop (the size of an average house lounge) sells home and away shirts (shorts if in stock), a couple of scarves, 3 styles of pin-badge, a bumper sticker and the official calendar... and thats about it. Some players house-share (in a case well documented, a player houseshares with the chairman), the players are often spotted in the local pubs and doing the food shopping in ASDA with the Mrs - i've spied a couple since working in Wrexham and wandering around at lunch. The top player is on maybe £1250k a week, which may stretch to a semi-fancy car and a semi-detatched house in a Midsomer style village just outside the town...

I know it's early (super early!), but I "so" want a cup-run and a lucky draw to take on some Premier League club and give it a go again (we could do with the money). The enjoyment of watching Neil Taylor kick Blackburns Bentley all over the pitch in pre-season isnt enough.

And so, the new season draws ever closer. The gap between leagues pulls further apart. "Fuck the Gap"