The Happy Campers
The View From The Happy Campers!
Saturday 17th July
Yawn! The alarm clock rings at 03:30! I thought there was only one 3:30 in the day and it was just before you had your dinner! Quickly shower, car’s already packed with tent, rucksacks, instant tea and the obligatory Diamonds shirts and flags! Surprisingly the roads are empty at this time of day/night and it’s a quick jaunt to Corby to collect another member of the camping collective and arrive at Nene Park just before 5am!
Oh! How the morning summer dawns majestically above the owls and the gently fluttering flags of Northamptonshire’s finest footballing arena, as the midsummer sun breathes life into the hallowed turf that will, in a few weeks bear witness to our fine footballing heroes running out to defend our honour in League 2…… hang on, poets corner is just down the road, and I digress! Oh yes, it was overcast and thinking about rain!
The summer sun does Liverpool Docks no such similar favours and no amount of the stuff can disguise the bleakness of the place despite the endeavours of the modern architect to inject some class into the place! Plus it was still raining!
The expected ferry had been magically transformed into a SeaCat which would almost half the journey time, but more than double the turbulence of the ocean waves! Yak! Those thinking about making similar such ferry trips as foot passengers will be pleased to hear that check-in resembles something akin to getting on an aircraft, with your large bags being taken off you to be re-united at journeys end on a carousel. More free hands for holding drinks at the ships bar!
The SeaCat was also transporting both the Wrexham and Port Vale teams to the Isle, and after asking where the PV first team was and why they had also bought the youth squad along as support we were surprised to find that this was indeed their first team! Ooops! Seemingly the professional footballer’s diet regime during pre-season these days is punctuated by sausage sandwiches topped with cheese! Hmmm!
We docked at Douglas, IOM at 13:30 having adopted a pair of Port Vale fans along the way. They were also camping and the spirited atmosphere of the Steam Packet International Football Festival meant that we even allowed them to share our taxi to the Nobles Park TT campsite… until we realised that a seven seater taxi will NOT hold seven people plus camping paraphernalia! Ed’s humongous flag tipped the balance and we duly met our PV fans up at the campsite as they made their own way!
With the tents up and everybody showered it was off to the pub! A theme which will become commonplace during the coming week! The night did not start, however, before another camper pitched up in the form of Stephanie, who had made her own way over solo and was only staying for the two ‘group games’ – now that’s what I call dedication!
A boozy night, for some, ensued! The chatter of football was rife and of how we thought we would shape up next season. The topic soon moved on to music, and Steph and I soon found a bond in our love of naff 70’s and 80’s bands, both of us having seen obscure ‘rock’ band It Bites! More reminiscing later and Ed tested our memories to the fullest with his outstanding quote of, “Do you remember a group called Blur?!!!” After we had stitched our sides back together it was time for a kebab and a lazy option of a taxi the 5 minute drive back to the tents!
Sunday 18th July
The opening game of the tournament was held at the Bowl, a mini amphitheatre of a ground in Douglas. Ultimately in conspired to be a pretty lacklustre game with 605 supporters witnessing a Wrexham 1-0 win over Port Vale thanks to a decent free kick by Wrexham’s Danny Williams. Port Vale’s Levi Reid collected the man of the match award in which the only other memory is of the PV number 3 Craig James launching such a volley of abuse at the linesman he would be lucky still to be on the pitch were it 2-3 weeks time. Who said this sort of match is not held in a competitive spirit?!
Our own opening game, featuring the ‘new’ Rushden & Diamonds, gave a first taste of the ways and means of the thinking of Ernie and Stuart Robson.
The game took place a long bus journey out in the sticks in Peel and those of you who were present during RDFC’s rise through the league pyramid would have felt right back there as we were transported back in time to a place where your half-time cup of tea came in a proper mug and the club shop was just a cupboard with one of the players mothers sat in it selling pin badges and pennants!
Our first outing saw the obligatory raft of people asking “Where IS Rushden?” only this time it was the players not the opposing fans!!
A lively enough match progressed with Craig Dove scoring the first after 25 mins and then an absolute corker from Burge, who still looks like the lanky guy from ‘The Office’, blasting a left foot shot from fully outside the area! It sailed over the IOM keeper and was prefaced by some good build-up work from Gary Mills, who, it has to be said, looked good throughout the week. The only marring point of the game came 15 mins from the end when, with the score at 2-0 and RDFC cruising, the IOM’s Rob Bates was adjudged to be ‘last man’ having brought down Alex Hay. He was duly sent off by supposed League list ref Walton. If ever there was a case for some common sense and maybe an enforced substitution then this was it.
Simeon Jackson was bought on with 12 mins to go and was a complete dervish! If there’s a faster footballer outside the Premier League then I have yet to see him. He frightened the IOM defence witless and was unlucky to hit the outside of the left post after a self-created opportunity saw him make enough space to unleash a fierce drive that beat the opposing ‘keeper hands up. This youngster certainly looks one to keep an eye on for the future.
After the game a pitch invasion of sorts allowed us chance to have a quick chat with the players. After Brian (aka Wakanoo!) had conducted his “Official Supporters Club” interview of Ernie, I wafted away the Carling fumes and asked him how he thought the game had gone! Ernie was extremely positive and upbeat and said that the most pleasing outcome had been how well the players have got to ‘know each other’ during the game. Barry Hunter was rested this game and spent most of the match watching the nail-biting climax to The Open on the telly in Peel’s clubhouse!
Monday 19th July
He who laughs last laughs longest, and Ed must have been rolling in the aisles as, after I had taken the rise out of him for 2 days for taking his piccies with his mobile phone and a collection of disposable cameras, my own super-duper new-fangled digi-cam expired necessitating a hasty morning trip into Douglas town centre to purchase a replacement!
Douglas town centre is pretty comprehensive in its range of shops, cafés and pubs and is probably similar in size to Stamford (if you have ever been there?!) thus confirming our decision to base ourselves in the ‘centre of things’ and not out in the wilderness! Yes, there is more to the IOM than Douglas but the whole island is reachable through public transport easily enough so I personally saw no reason to live out in the middle of nowhere for the week!
Bristol Rovers v Port Vale was held out at the Ballacloan Stadium in Ramsey, another decent bus journey away. The bus winds its way through most of the IOM’s lovely countryside, including passing by the Laxey Wheel which looks impressive enough for those of a sightseeing nature. Pictures captured from the upper deck of the bus were enough for us though!
Let me give you a bit of advice if you ever intend going to Ramsey… eat first! By the time we arrived there around 17:00ish the place resembled a ghost town! There are enough pubs to host a battalion of Marines, just so long as they don’t happen to be hungry Marines! We eventually found a bar/restaurant which appeared to sell meals only to find the collective of the also present RDISA had polished most of the menu off! It was almost embarrassing to keep putting our orders in to the waiter/barman only to have him come back 5 mins later telling us there was none left! Eventually the probing question of what WAS actually available resulted in the last five portions of lasagne being ordered, and I pushed the boat out with a chicken burger!
There was also a moment of pure Norman Wisdom slapstick comedy as a pigeon nesting high up on the wall of a shop front gently nudged a missile guided egg millimetres past Brian’s nose! Neatly splashing a few drops of yoke on his trainers, a few seconds earlier and we would have discovered whether scrambled egg on the bonce is indeed good for sunburn!
Ramsey’s stadium is quaint enough with a Subbutteo style grandstand on one side and a steep bank of large concrete steps almost hovering over one of the goals! The other two sides were sprinkled with the archetypal collection of old men (and in one case – lady) with dogs, and young boys kicking footballs up and down! Cups of tea came in the more conventional polystyrene cups – lids provided for those having to don safety harnesses and karabiners to scale the seating area behind the goal!
The match ended 2-2, penalties resulted in a 6-5 win for Bristol Rovers, and after only two days Port Vale’s competitive participation in the tournament was at an end! Harshly, Goodlad, the PV ‘keeper was adjudged to have encroached off his line during the final penalty, which he saved. The retake was duly banged in. Martin Foyle, the manager, was said by our two PV adoptees to have been ‘livid’ with the decision and said had it been a proper fixture all hell would have broke loose. Why is it that even after a friendly tournament game the talk is still of poor refereeing decisions?!
Our PV fans sought the only salvation possible and repaired to Douglas to drink heavily! Upon still feeling the pain – drink more!!
Tuesday 20th July
The Great Dress-Up!
The previous mornings shopping had saw, interspersed by bar visits (!) a complete ram-raid of the various charity shops of Douglas, and so, the morning of Diamonds’ second game v Carlisle saw the birth of Edwina, Clarice and Charlene! You may have seen the piccies, and it certainly brought a smile to the face of all the supporters and players present at the game! Not to mention giving Paul Redding and the local Manx photographer enough fodder for Monster Raving Loony Party brochures for years to come!
We also had the new heralding of our Ernie tribute song! To the tune of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ – Altogether now… Oh Ernie, it’s been a long cold lonely summer: Oh Ernie, it seems like years since you’ve been here: Here comes RUSHDEN doo do do dooo! Here comes RUSHDEN and I say, it’s alright Dooo dooo dooo dooo doo do doooo!!
Well, it sounded alright while we were out there! And it was certainly better then the RDISA ladies version of Gimme an R, Gimme a U, Gimme a D Oooops!
The game, at the National Sports Centre (NSC) in Douglas, was energetic enough with Stuart Gray and Alex Hay netting, and a late equaliser from Carlisle after a fine save by the impressive looking trialist Welsh Under 21 ‘keeper Lee Wozgan saw the ball unfortunately ricochet off his legs straight into the path of the oncoming Kevin Henderson. No matter, we had made the Final!
It was by now bucketing it down and it was three very dishevelled looking ‘ladies’ who made their way back to the QuarterBridge pub to change! I must say though… I could only get hold of gussetless tights, and in affirmation of the makers claims, I really DID feel comfortable and hygienic!!!
The day was also notable for our very own Airwair Diamond falling foul of the footballing officialdom! The linesman patrolling the near side of the pitch had complained that the yellow shirted AD looked too much like one of the players and he was forced to cover himself up with his Rushden flag! It’s a common mistake to make isn’t it, nearly giving an offside decision after seeing a bloke surrounded by two kids and a young boy in drag sitting in the middle of a running track!!??
Sniffing and sneezing it was back up to Peel for the evening game between Wrexham and Bristol Rovers for who was to earn the privilege of meeting Diamonds in the Final the coming Saturday.
A quick recce of the same post Ed had affixed his flag to at our first match revealed the rather substantial pole to have snapped under its weight, so we did not bother this time!
The pitch was swathed in the sort of shocking swirling wind and rain you only need to be out in for two minutes to get absolutely saturated and I mused that it probably would be a similarly shocking game of football that would result! How wrong could I have been?! The drowned rats there present saw what in my opinion was the most exciting and well played out game of football of the week. A complete credit to Denis Smith and Ian Atkins (yes, him!) who had obviously told their players to get on with playing a professional game of football in the most testing of circumstances.
A pecking order of sorts had been established which saw Ed have to make the three sided journey in the maelstrom to collect our mid-game cuppas! With myself, Steph, Diamonds Rob, Claire, Wakanoo and the accompanying Kev safely ensconced under the cover of something crossed between a dug-out and a bus shelter Ed bravely fought his way back with seven cups of tea on a tray. The cups were certainly overflowing when he returned, slightly weaker than normal, somewhat colder but never more welcome and satisfying! Good work Fella!
Travel back from Peel requires a good 50 min wait for a bus so we decided to savour a piece of good old-time footballing hospitality in the clubhouse! A couple of weeks ago during a Gems thread I pondered what indeed constituted a “clubhouse atmosphere”, if he means completely empty with weak beer, no atmosphere and not even the availability of a cup of tea for the non-drinkers then it can be placed where the proverbial sun doesn’t shine! I’ll stick to dropping crisps thanks very much!!
The evening followed a by now regular pattern of pubbing it in town, a kebab and taxi home to our surprisingly, given the downpour, dry tents!
Wednesday 21st July
Unsurprisingly, given the downpour, Ed and I found ourselves waking up ill! A phone call from home informed me that our cross-dressing antics had made the ET but that was scant consolation to us as I struggled into town for our usual newspaper and coffee in the pub feeling like I’d contracted the plague!
Ed had tried his best to force some food down, the results of which – a pile of half digested grapes and a couple of ounces of stomach bile were testimony to on the pavement outside the pub seating area! Nice! There was no shortage of spare seats around him but I decided to nurse my own aches and pains inside with my paper!
Our intrepid devoted traveller Steph had by now departed for home with work commitments calling so Rob, Brian and Claire made their way to Ramsey especially early – hoping the food availability would be improved! Ed and I waited ‘til the last possible minute to board a later bus and head off there ourselves dosed up on aspirin and coffee!
The IOM national squad eventually fell foul to a 3-0 loss to Carlisle but not without a fight. The IOM man of the match ‘keeper saved a penalty and a fantastically driven free kick, looking ‘in’ all the way was unfortunate enough to bounce back off the Carlisle post with the ‘keeper well beaten. It’s my opinion that there are no ‘easy matches’ against teams of only a couple of ranks below your own calibre – remember San Marino’s early scaring of England! These teams have nothing to lose, everything to give, and the possibility that in 90 minutes time a league scalp will be theirs. I have nothing but praise for the IOM squad who stood up to everyone they faced square on, attempted to play football in a proper manner and were a credit to their management team and the Island as a whole.
Thursday 22nd July
There was no footballing today prior to the round of play-offs, just as well really as no one surfaced prior to lunchtime! Ed and I continued our convalescence while most everyone else nursed hangovers from hell! The ‘wee man’ Ed finally unzipping his tent flaps around 6pm! Tiger and Monty – sorry, Rob and Claire had gone for a round of crazy golf. The Port Vale lads, one of whom was trying to seek an open curry house at half four in the morning the other who remembers not how he managed to get home the night previous, looked similarly rough! Jono, the youngest and probably therefore the craziest tried the ‘kill or cure’ method of a few lagers in the afternoon with a bit of shopping while Dean, enlightened by my own stance on the demon drink, took Coke the rest of the day! (That’s the stuff manufactured by the Schweppes Co. NOT the kind favoured by….. Oh you know what I mean!)
Suitably empowered by our rest we all ventured out on the town again in the evening, and to our pleasure also found the players on a rare, ‘dry’, curfew-enforced night of relaxation. I had the dubious pleasure of taking a leak adjacent to Stuart Gray and Rob Gier and can honestly say, footballing prowess aside, I did not feel out of place!!!
A still non-drinking Ed decided that the Chinese meal he had just taken did not agree with him in the middle of the High Street, and it was fortunate that he was not immediately followed by Stuart Wardley, who’s dubious taste of footwear in the form of some dodgy flip-flops that would not have looked out of place on a Goan beach would have afforded him little protection! The youthful sprightliness of Lee Wozgan saw him attempting a little jig on the dance floor, well, it was either that or he was trying to unstick his shoes from the carpet! It was one of the rare places I have felt it necessary to wipe my feet on the way out of!
Friday 23rd July
Disaster (almost)!!!! Our cunning plan appears to have been foiled! The male shower block contained four cubicles in which a pound must be placed to allow the flow of water! It took about half a day to establish that shower two required no such input of funds and this plot, and careful timing of the showering roster had saved us blokes about £50 so far between us! Only after an emergency visit to purchase shower tokens did I realise that the engineers there present with the shower money box in bits had failed to fix the problem and the free showering continued unabated! No matter that the temperature of the delivered water resembled that of the core of the earth and was no mean feat to stand under with sunburnt heads, and no matter that the trough at the bottom of the shower filled up all too quickly with ones own dirty soapy water and dead skin cells! (Am I not painting a glamorous enough picture of the delights of camping??!!)
Aaaaaaah! As if the relief of the free showering was not enough I finally put paid to the myth that man can live on kebab meat and cheeseburgers alone! I had cracked, and on a glorious Friday afternoon had the best Sunday roast I had tasted outside of the realms of my own kitchen! Brian and I tucked in like starving refugees and two empty plates later teed us up nicely for the afternoon sojourn the short journey to the NSC.
The NSC is not the greatest of places to watch football, surrounded as it is by a full sized running track with the managers and subs sitting right the way over on the other side of the pitch and the atmosphere there generated is not fantastic either.
Unfortunately this was also accompanied by possibly the worst footballing spectacle of the week with Wrexham and Carlisle grinding out a fairly mind numbing 1-1 draw with the only high point being the linesman bumping into the soft flexible plastic corner flag, collapsing as if pole axed by a scud missile, and spending the next five minutes writhing around in absolute agony clutching his shin surrounded by a mass collection of physios and ambulance men before being carried into a hastily summonsed ambulance and driven off to hospital! Those worrying themselves silly over his state of health had their worst fears confirmed when the tannoy announcer revealed that the deaths door lino had suffered a slightly twisted ankle!!!
Wrexham (I think, such was my numb state by the 90th min!) took the game, and therefore third spot of the tournament, 3-4 on pens after a display of penalty taking in keeping with the rest of the match i.e. dire. There was hardly any Wrexham fans there as they had hosted Liverpool at home during the week as well as being in this tournament, and that probably added to the general apathy.
With karaoke in the pub in the evening we didn’t much fancy the major expedition out to Ramsey again to see the wooden spoon match between Port Vale and the IOM, so we despatched our adopted PV’ers alone to watch their own team win 5-1, all being scored before half time! It’s not so much the stadium, which is a nice place to watch football, but it’s an hour’s bus ride away and an hour to wait for said bus after the game! Far too much effort when a night of singing is in the offing! The lads arrived back in the pub at ten, an hour earlier than forecast, and told us that there was a football special running – it had been running all week but had been stopping in the wrong place and wondering why no one was on it!
Saturday 24th July
The Big Day! The final! The pinnacle! Rushden & Diamonds v Bristol Rovers!
Ernie had put his trust in youth with Marcus Kelly playing on the left, DT in the centre, Wardley and Hunter sat out, Dempster started and Belly on the right.
Belly and Marcus played brilliantly, with Bell in particularly scaring the defence witless with every surging run forward down the wing. Urged on by constant on-the-trot coaching by Stuart Robson he hugged the touchline most of the game and was delightful in his trickery, step-overs, whipped in crosses and pace. Marcus’s efforts were rewarded with a neat headed goal at the left post and he carried on showing mature improvement from last seasons end. Stuart Gray looks fit, fit, fit which is good and Lee Wozgan capped a solid tournament with a fine save at his left post in the dying seconds of the first half.
Bristol scored late, very late on, with the board having already been flashed 2 mins extra. It was a shame, but to see a scoreline of 1-1 flattered Bristol immensely. Quite simply I think we destroyed them, quick and accurate on the pass, fluid on the move, all that was missing was more goals! It set up a nail biting penalty shoot-out (no extra time in the tournament) in which Wozgan again showed his worth with two good saves before Rob Gier tucked home the winning penalty and thus bringing home the first silverwear of our ‘new’ era!
OBN himself Brian Talbot turned up to watch ‘the boy’ in the final who didn’t really cover himself in glory I’m afraid. I’m not one of the ne’er do well-ers but quite frankly he wasn’t good. The first game when he came on he was good and made a contribution, this game he started and didn’t. He lasted ‘til about 5 mins from the end when replaced by Sambrook, but in that time had done one air-kick, fell over twice near the ball, and generally hadn’t made much telling efforts to find space or the ball. He did do two very long pinpoint passes out to the wings that anyone would be proud of but whether you can count his contribution in that, I don’t know? The jury’s out still and let’s still give the boy a chance to flourish (?) outside of his dad’s gaze. Hopefully BT won’t turn up at many Diamonds games next season!
Young Marcus Kelly deservedly took the man of the match award, David Bell picked up the Player Of The Tournament trophy and Lee Wozgan was awarded the RDISA’s similar offering, so a Diamonds clean sweep! With the trophy lifted and photos taken left, right and centre it was time to have a celebratory drink before heading back to the campsite to pack up ready for the 22:30 ferry.
Fittingly our taxi didn’t turn up, so it was a good job we had given ourselves plenty of time! Our minibus was waiting for us in Liverpool and by 6am I was back home and getting into bed!
As a final verdict I think the tournament offered a very tangible benefit to our squad. I spoke to Ernie and Stuart Robson later as they were on our ferry back and they were both amiable chatty chaps, very charismatic and had time for everyone who approached them throughout the night. SR said that the main benefit was in getting to know each others better while Ernie said that he had asked the players to ‘pass the ball and they had done’ it’s nice football to watch and I believe if we can also start to make a telling contribution once our striking partnership of Hay and Dove click then we’ll be in the mix. The one thing which gives me reason to believe that we will NOT be back to defend our IOM title next year comes in the opinions of almost every player we spoke to – the pitches are simply not good enough, especially when trying to play football along the ground, and the training facilities are similarly poor. We have among the best facilities in the land at NP and I think we’ll quite possibly be utilising that next pre-season. Some of the pitches had more curves than a page 3 model and it only takes one bad divot to have a nasty ankle turn which we certainly do not need in the build up to a fresh campaign.
As an aside, one of the players had some pretty forthright views on Onandi Lowe, “enigma” is possibly the best and most polite summing up word! He also believed that if we had kept him, we would have stayed up. Simple. No questions asked. “He was the best player at this club by an absolute mile”, and then adding, “when he played properly”
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the IOM and if we were to go back, which I doubt, then I shall make every effort to be there again – it was a good test for the players and 99% of the matches were played in a highly competitive spirit with no quarter given throughout. The spirit and camaraderie among the fans was fantastic and we all made some new friends and had a considerable amount of laughs along the way! I’m really upbeat about the new season now, the new players look good and appear to want to play proper football, and I see Ernie and Stuart as two genuine and really likeable blokes who want to do well and take us forward as a club.
The one downside was that the tournament did not seem to be well publicised at all – I can feel a letter to the IOM tourist board coming on! We got in three taxi’s in the first three days, none of whom even knew that there was a festival on at all! There were no posters in the pubs or shop windows and it was only after about three days when the papers came out with the reports in that people cottoned on! Oddly, Thursdays paper comes out on Wednesday, and if you work in ‘the business’ you can even get it on Tuesday evening!!! Attendances varied between the 400 – 950 mark except for the Wrexham/Carlisle debacle which saw about 150 pitch up!
Finally, Thanks must go to Helen who organised our trip, and not least to all my fellow campers Brian, Ed, Rob, Claire and Steph who made the week so much fun!
Come on you Diamonds and let’s hope the good work continues next season!
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