The traffic beats the Tash, and a 5-1 defeat.

Sassco traditionally had a huge pre-season programme – sometimes up to 10 games. We usually played higher level teams, but always enjoyed the road trips. Report as below:

On a busy Saturday afternoon, both main routes into Cramlington from our side of the county were struggling with road works. I chose both the wrong routes there and back. Travelling there we got stuck on the Tyne Tunnel traffic. On the way back, the poxy Sat Nav took us on to the A1. Nelly went AWOL and we were also lacking Dave Graham, Mark Muers and Dave Gourlay, Titch Conlin from the regular set up. Marky Mark made a return, but just about everyone else was there from the previous hammering off West Auckland Town FC.

First error occurred when I drove into the kid’s playground and parked next to the swings. Simma (aka Driving Miss David Simpson), as expected, followed me. We eventually got to the car park of the Samms Centre. The centre was quite impressive – not too different from the changing areas at Northumbria Centre. We did have the unfortunate sight of Macca’s excuse for a penis in the changing rooms. Langan and Stoker both exclaimed, “How the f**k do you f**k with that?” Macca’s reply was that he wasn’t too bothered and that he’s learned to live with his inadequacies. The second error was that Harper was missing. We were now around ten minutes away from kick off. I just assumed he’d got sick of the whole show and dropped out. I spent around one minute on tactics in the team talk and around five minutes slagging him off, only for him to ring and say that he thought it was a 3:00pm kick off. Eventually, the traffic beat the Tash back to Sunderland.

With Tash obviously not going to show for kick off, me and Gourlay hastily put together the team (Gourlay was injured, but there for moral support). Stoker was plonked in attack from the off. Newcastle BT looked impressive. They are in a higher standard than ourselves, but finished near the foot of the lower division in the Northern Alliance (that’s the League, not the pre-Iraq War rebels in the north part of Iraq). Still, they would be classed the same as a strong Premier opponent for us.

It seemed to show as they had some decent chances in the opening moments. They eventually scored, but from kick off, Macca put Stoker through to equalise. From then on it was an even game. Our left hand side was weak. An “injured” (that’s what he claims) Dixon and Macca faled to stop the opponents putting in good crosses. A lot of it was a simple lack of marking and sticking tight to the opponents. We soon leaked two easy goals. The team was in a bit of disarray. Questions were being asked by the players as a change was obviously needed, “What’s happening on the sidelines?” someone said to Dave Gourlay, to which he replied, “Well, Dov’s taking photos….”

Changes were made. McConville who was ineffective and deserved his “Fancy Dan” label was moved from centre mid to centre half. Marky replaced him. Digga and Macca were also switched. Macca was inept on the left hand side, despite assisting with Stoker’s goal. He didn’t give much help to Dixon, who spent the game kicking the ball to the opponents.

The changes didn’t do too much. Within minutes, they were 4-1 up with a simple through ball. Eventually they got another and it was 5-1. After this, I came on to replace Dixon and the team immediately received a lift. No more goals were leaked. I can’t take all the credit, as Simpson pulled off some excellent stops throughout the ninety minutes. I went up for a corner in the last minute, but was thwarted by the ‘keeper when a goal was certain.

A good day out. Traffic was a bugger, but the Tash’s complaint that we need more local games is quite insular. He needs to realise that Sassco go out far and wide to promote the name. Sort yourself out Tash and give your head a shake. The pitch was quite hard, but the venue was excellent (in my opinion). The weather was also excellent. A bad result though, but mind you, I got some good photos of the airplanes and trains.

“Dov did well,” quotes Michael Pearson. ” We need experience like him in the team. These young-un’s like Campbell and Mulvaney haven’t got a clue.”

“If he came on earlier, I think the score would be reduced. Bad mistake keeping Dixon on as long as he was. I’m not sure having Harper as the coach is the right choice. Sangha’s team talk; especially the section where he slagged Harper off, was poetic.” said Gourlay.

“Suck us off…” said Stoker.

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Sassco unbeaten in 133 days of football.

Since the cold, miserable conditions and a difficult 3-1 away win over Country Park Inn back in mid December, Sassco hadn’t seen any action at all. We nearly missed out today as well, when Ken Street, the referee, turned up twenty minutes late.

The conditions were excellent. The pitch was very good, with ourselves moving to Pitch A for this one; our old stomping ground from 2002 to 2004. This was also Mickey Pearson’s first game in charge, with Langan assisting. Sassco were helped with Scott Hembrough making a belated return to the team after his last appearance (in this country) back in 2006.

Not the most exciting game. Bit boring from the sidelines apart from Dixon’s mutterings and words of wisdom which no one was listening to, and Paul McConville complaining that he deserved a start. Simpson just looked tired. Our opponents were easily beaten by a us in the cup last season, but had the better of the league fixtures with a win at their place and a 3-3 draw at our place (available online in the Media section). Traveller’s seemed to have quite a bit of the play, but ran out of ideas before they reached any danger areas. Sassco sprung into life when Muers latched on to a through ball and “scuffed” it into the back of the net. Muers had surprisingly retained his positon up front. It was Sangha’s master plan to introduce Hembrough to the squad and everyone expected Muers to make way. In fact, Hembrough played out on the left wing to leave the two fat ladies, Muers and Langan to be in attack. The goal took a lot of pressure off him. Hembrough did get involved and eventually broke clear himself only to be scythed down just outside the area. The referee awarded a penalty and Dave Gourlay slotted to make it 2-0 to Sassco before half-time…

…which came and went. Second half saw Sassco taking their foot of the pedal, but even then, Traveller’s couldn’t get into it, despite having a number of corners (in each half), plus some wasted long range efforts. Dave Smith was commanding in goal and plucked most of the high balls to nullify any threat. Second half saw all three subs coming on, with Langan, Campbell and Muers making way.

Nothing much else to say. Simon decided to wear his pink Sport Relief socks just allowing to show his blue socks, but it’s quite obvious that pink and blue don’t go. We thought we’d lost a ball and sent young Paul (Bri’s son) out into the undergrowth (where Stoker’s been hiding) to look for the ball before realising that Emu had been sitting on it all the time.

Finally, McConville sent me a text afterwards saying he’s not interested in playing on Saturdays any more. 

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The traffic beats the Tash.

On a busy Saturday afternoon, both main routes into Cramlington from our side of the county were struggling with road works. I chose both the wrong routes there and back. Travelling there we got stuck on the Tyne Tunnel traffic. On the way back, the poxy Sat Nav took us on to the A1. Nelly went AWOL and we were also lacking Dave Graham, Mark Muers and Dave Gourlay, Titch Conlin from the regular set up. Marky Mark made a return, but just about everyone else was there from the previous hammering off West Auckland Town FC.

First error occurred when I drove into the kid’s playground and parked next to the swings. Simma (aka Driving Miss David Simpson), as expected, followed me. We eventually got to the car park of the Samms Centre. The centre was quite impressive – not too different from the changing areas at Northumbria Centre. We did have the unfortunate sight of Macca’s excuse for a penis in the changing rooms. Langan and Stoker both exclaimed, “How the f**k do you f**k with that?” Macca’s reply was that he wasn’t too bothered and that he’s learned to live with his inadequacies. The second error was that Harper was missing. We were now around ten minutes away from kick off. I just assumed he’d got sick of the whole show and dropped out. I spent around one minute on tactics in the team talk and around five minutes slagging him off, only for him to ring and say that he thought it was a 3:00pm kick off. Eventually, the traffic beat the Tash back to Sunderland.

With Tash obviously not going to show for kick off, me and Gourlay hastily put together the team (Gourlay was injured, but there for moral support). Stoker was plonked in attack from the off. Newcastle BT looked impressive. They are in a higher standard than ourselves, but finished near the foot of the lower division in the Northern Alliance (that’s the League, not the pre-Iraq War rebels in the north part of Iraq). Still, they would be classed the same as a strong Premier opponent for us.

It seemed to show as they had some decent chances in the opening moments. They eventually scored, but from kick off, Macca put Stoker through to equalise. From then on it was an even game. Our left hand side was weak. An “injured” (that’s what he claims) Dixon and Macca faled to stop the opponents putting in good crosses. A lot of it was a simple lack of marking and sticking tight to the opponents. We soon leaked two easy goals. The team was in a bit of disarray. Questions were being asked by the players as a change was obviously needed, “What’s happening on the sidelines?” someone said to Dave Gourlay, to which he replied, “Well, Dov’s taking photos….”

Changes were made. McConville who was ineffective and deserved his “Fancy Dan” label was moved from centre mid to centre half. Marky replaced him. Digga and Macca were also switched. Macca was inept on the left hand side, despite assisting with Stoker’s goal. He didn’t give much help to Dixon, who spent the game kicking the ball to the opponents.

The changes didn’t do too much. Within minutes, they were 4-1 up with a simple through ball. Eventually they got another and it was 5-1. After this, I came on to replace Dixon and the team immediately received a lift. No more goals were leaked. I can’t take all the credit, as Simpson pulled off some excellent stops throughout the ninety minutes. I went up for a corner in the last minute, but was thwarted by the ‘keeper when a goal was certain.

A good day out. Traffic was a bugger, but the Tash’s complaint that we need more local games is quite insular. He needs to realise that Sassco go out far and wide to promote the name. Sort yourself out Tash and give your head a shake. The pitch was quite hard, but the venue was excellent (in my opinion). The weather was also excellent. A bad result though, but mind you, I got some good photos of the airplanes and trains.

“Dov did well,” quotes Michael Pearson. ” We need experience like him in the team. These young-un’s like Campbell and Mulvaney haven’t got a clue.”

“If he came on earlier, I think the score would be reduced. Bad mistake keeping Dixon on as long as he was. I’m not sure having Harper as the coach is the right choice. Sangha’s team talk; especially the section where he slagged Harper off, was poetic.” said Gourlay.

“Suck us off…” said Stoker.

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