Yes, despite being billed as a first team friendly, it’s just the Under 21s out. Worse, 5 of the team are trialists, and when an opposition fan (well, father of an opposition player) asks who in our team has played for the first team, I can only really point at keeper Flavell – and even he only got a few games last season after 3 keepers got injured (2 loanees) and a 4th fell out with the coach and was sold despite being the most in-form player in the team at that time. (The coach was to lose his job by season’s end.) Thus, it was a predictably disjointed performance with no-one standing out for the Super Reds.
Having been before, I parked 5 minutes from the ground, having turned the car around for an easy escape. £10 in, a bit steep for Under 21 friendlies but that’s on Barnsley not Buxton. Indeed, the first team WERE here tonite, bizarrely forced to watch the opening half from the stand. What was the point in THAT? Anyway, standing with Eric, we found out why the first team were pulled. A Reds fan (and Sky cameraman) walking around the pitch stopped for a chat. Turns out we’re playing Glasgow Rangers on Satdy, behind closed doors. Of course it is. Our pre-season consists of Worksop, Buxton, Harrogate and York City. It woulda been nice to play Rangers at Oakwell, though my recollection of Rangers coming to Sunderland in the 80s was of 6,000 Glasweigans wrecking the place. I suppose we could do with avoiding that.
I’ve already had a beer in the social club, on the right as you enter, as well as shaking hands (hoofs?) with the mascot, ‘Bucky’. (‘The Bucks’, see. I know, it’s no ‘Ron Corn.’) He was sweltered, he told me. I advised him to stay in the shade. It wasn’t the evening for dressing up in an animal outfit and being out in the sun. There was a smattering of Reds shirts around. Like me, Eric had no idea it was an under 21 game, though XXX did. Late notice, apparently, though too late for either club to mention it on their social media. But how did XXX know? Given she’s ‘had relations’ with more Reds footballers than I’ve shaken hands with (apparently) maybe she still has her contacts, despite her youth having disappeared long ago.
By now, I’ve walked around the pitch to lean on the fence on the far side. The home end, just past the social club, has a cluster of youngsters, obviously missing their football badly enough to be chanting. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard chanting at a friendly. Mind, I haven’t been to that many. But ‘if you are a Matlock fan surrender or you die’! (Will this attitude prevail at a pre-season meeting of the two? I suspect not.)
On the long side opposite the Main Stand a low propped roof and a couple of steps of terracing lay behind me as we leant on the fence and basked in the sun’s rays. No sign of Bucky. Perhaps he was having a well earned drink. Or maybe sat with the cluster of red track-suited individuals in the Main Stand. Buxton take the lead on 14 mins, as a throughball is slotted easily past Flavell. So much for 1st team experience. Soon, a trialist is injured and forced off. That’s a blow for him. Reds junior Kieron Graham then dispossesses the last defender and is through on goal. Mind, he’s still 35-40 yards out, but absolutely no-one makes an effort to close him down (too hot?) and he runs forward and calmly finishes. He’s perhaps the best of a bunch, keen, closing down, direct. And small. I’ve seen his type fail too many times at this club.
Half-time we’re level, but to prove anything they can do, we can do just as well, our centre half attempts to sidestep the opposing forward and loses it. Hapless. Is he one of the trialists, I wonder? If so, he’ll fit in well at Oakwell. Sub keeper Ravenhill tips round a shot before saving a penalty, diving to his right. I have no idea what the penalty was for. Not cos I disagree with the ref, I was too busy chatting/daydreaming. By now I’ve taken to having a wander round the ground.
Buxton seal it with a few minutes to go, hammering it from close range as the young Reds fail to clear a corner. The ref adds exactly zero minutes to the 90 and I’m off, looking forward to another glorious ride home, in the dusk. Such a pity I’m not capable of simply driving the same route I came, and somehow I miss Glossop and end up in Stockport. Still, it’s nice to have a drive out...
The Damage:
£10 ent
£10 SALT Alpacalypse Session IPA x 2
= £20
