A much changed City team travelled to Parton last saturday to play their reserve team in a league fixture. Having played them in the cup at the sheepmount earlier in the season and winning 10-1, it may have been viewed by some that it would be a pretty straightforward 3 points for the lads.
For those of you who have never played at Parton the pitch looks over the sea and as it was such a lovely sunny day you could see right across to Scotland. With regard to the pitch it looked like every piece of grass around it had been cut with the exception of the pitch which was long but bumpy.
The game kicked off and City immediately went on the attack and this was to be the pattern of the 1st half. Chance and half chance continued to be created and missed, with the Parton goal living a charmed life. Patience was the name of the game and when Lee Sturrock was crudely brought down in the box, Johnno Simpson confidently picked the ball up to take the penalty and confidently hit the post with it (that's you off pens). It looked like a goal was never going to come before half time and indeed it didn't.
Manager Paul Henderson urged his team to keep doing what they were doing (except score!!) and most importantly not to get frustrated. Wise words they were as well, when 15 minutes into the second half Joe Watson's cross hit Lee Sturrock on the head and City went 1-0 up. City were in total control and a second goal followed 10 minutes later. Robin "cinderella" Ward picked the ball up on the half way line and ran past 3 defenders like they were not there, round the keeper and tap into an empty net, an excellent goal from cinders, and probably a contender for Goal of the season (IMO).
At this point Parton seemed to lose their shape a little and after holding on to 0-0 for nearly an hour maybe a bit of heart as well. City scored their third goal when cinders got another and their fourth and final goal was a screamer from Joe "the pound" Watson following a well worked short corner.
All in all 3 good points, nice and solid at the back (although to be fair we were not tested too much) and inventive if not clinical everywhere else.
Good performances all over, but Craig Bell deserves a special mention as he never lost a header and kept talking and organising everyone around him. Also to James Gibson in his first game of the season, unfortunately he hasn't been available as much so far this year as he's been modelling for Vidal Sassoon, nice barnet Gibby!! and Steven Monaghan who played his very first game for the Club following in his dad Tony's foot steps, who cut his teeth at City many years ago (nice to see Tony and speak to him at the game as well). Steven, you will get sick of people saying "are you Monna's boy?".
No game this weekend as County Cup, so would be nice to see a few of the lads support the Alliance team at Workington, me and Hendy are going through if anyone needs a lift just give me a tinkle.
Finally, I have to ask what was Ivan the terrible doing with that spot the ball, he is such a monster of a boy that he scratched right through it so we had no idea who had won. Also why was Joe "the pound" wearing a girls hair bobble on his wrist, what a tart, Andy - have a word please.
