THE LEAST SAID THE BETTER???

The title says it all?? We were literally kicked off the Field (it wasn't a pitch as we know it) every time we got the ball there was a thug who wanted it more, Cloughy going to hospital was our first casualty. There was also a lack of light in the centre of the field, we did manage to get a couple of goals but a lack of awareness led them to scoring four. A bad night, but we can now focus on the league.

That's all from TheCodpiece-PorkyPike!!

"UP THE PIKES"

after reading your short message about it i feel we have a right to reply
firstly ide like to thank the management and secretary of pickering town fc , we in the technical box had good conversations during the match and all agreed on most incidents in the match, and your secretary was very polite and charming in the way he spoke to us the management of grangetown boys club, now for a true reflection of the match and hopefully you will also see it our way
1st we were pulled out of the hat on the radio as the home team , that makes it up to us were the match is played , we as the management decided on thornaby pitch as we knew it would be very boggy and cut up and the lights weren't 100% , which i knew would suit us a little more than pickering town, we also knew your players would be really fed up about travelling the 1 and maybe half hr travel through country roads after a hard days graft , seeing your players faces as they walked in , we knew this had worked ( a proper alex ferguson / mr mourinho mind game )
as the match kicked off we were 1st to every ball we wanted it much more than pickering players, we also knew your league to be at least 2 may be 3 higher than the teeside league, so to start quick wouldn't let you settle into your play , this also worked as we took a 3 goal advantage, all i must say being good goals giving the goal keeper no chance of any of them, you then got a goal with the last kick of the 1st half totally against the run of play
NOW !!!! yes there was a nasty challenge on 1 of your players , to this all management agreed could have warrented a red card , apart from that one challenge nothing else happend int he 1st half apart from grangetown boys club wanting to win more than pickering town players
2nd half
full credit goes to the pickering players who came out with a bit of fire in there bellies and played really well , scoring a good goal and then pushing our defence to the limit and could have gone either way, only for us to break away with minutes remaining to score the winning goal ( against the run of play ) , rite now for my rant , there should have been 3 players sent off in the 2nd half, 1 grangetown 2 pickering players, 1 player for elbow and our player for fore arm smashing him back, both illegal and not what we want to see from anyone , but the worst and has you put it THUG !! was the pickering player who stamped then kicked the grangetwon number 8 whilst laid on the floor, that is a THUG, HE DIDN'T WANT THE BALL DIDN'T ATTEMPT FOR THE BALL , HE JUST KICKED OUT , even the pickering manager said its a sending off , a THUG is a type of bully one who will punch and kick at anyone anytime , the so called GRANGETOWN THUGS ( as you call them) take every boxing day for in my time last 5 yrs doing the boxing day dip in redcar sea for the local CANCER WARD at james cook hospital, raising thousands of pounds for a unbelieveable cause, A THUG would steal that money , not hand it over , to finish this reply , i would like you to take a good look at the match in your headd again, and really appreciatte the committment GRANGETOWN PLAYERS showed because if the pickering players showed there supporters that kind of commitment , firstly you would have won the 1/4 final and secondly you probably wouldn't be in the predicament of a relegation battle , good luck to your management on the rest of the season as i hope you wish us the best on hopefully becoming the 1st ever teeside league team to reach the final of the north riding county senior cup !!! NOW THAT ISN'T SOUR GRAPES !!!!!!

I feel I had to reply to your reply, Think back to after the game in the clubhouse before we left, the guy with the pickering scarfe around his neck wished you every success and good luck in the semi-final, well, that was me!!! now is that sour grapes?????????

That's all from TheCodpiece-PorkyPike!!

"UP THE PIKES"

Hmmm. The right to reply must must have taken an age to conjure up. Not as long however as the fixture took to be arranged. Thornaby being the choice of ground due to it being sub-standard, well there is hospitality for you!!

I have attended several evening matches at N L grounds in recent years and not one of them had floodlighting that would get anywhere near the lux rating required. Several clubs in the NCEL whose standards slipped were placed on a weekly fine until they brought them up to scratch. I don't think you could say that the light's at Thornaby were even 70% so how on earth do they get away with it? That said the facilities were the same for both teams.

God help us if we are moved to the NL in the FA's re-organisation if Tuesday night's venue is anything to go on.

75 minutes travel is a relatively short journey for us so we can't use that as an excuse.

I guess the home team did want it more especially in the first half. Clough was taken out with a crude tackle (I was 15 yards from the incident) and our younger players found it hard to adapt, that said our more experienced players could have done much better, you have to be strong against physical teams and at times we were not. Grangetown took their chances very well and we lost, simple as that.

To the writer of the above epic,

Best of luck in the next round and if you and your team ever visit Mill Lane for a future match, we'll make sure you feel at home and even put out the red carpet for you, LOL.

Looks like Pickering Town finally met someone prepared to call their bluff. Over recent years there have been a number of times when you have been drawn away and managed to get the game played at Mill Lane. Redcar Athletic, Scarborough Town and Kirkbymoorside have all had to play at Pickering because Town were unwilling to play the game as drawn and on a Saturday. Finally Grangetown insisted the game be played on their terms and hosted the game at Thornaby.

YES, I agree that the playing surface at Thornaby is not the best but there are quite a few in NCEL that are just as bad. Also the floodlights at Thornaby can be a bit of a problem but don't take them as typical of the Northern League. There are a few grounds in the Northern League that are in need of improvements and Thornaby are a club, along with the likes of Morpeth and Brandon, where work is in progress. You will have nothing to fear if you are moved to Northern League Division 1 and you will get to visit some great grounds like Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, South Shields, Shildon and Consett with good facilities and passionate supporters.

As for the game having some bad challenges and crude tackles, how many yellow and red cards were shown ?

I think you will find that Pickering have merely followed the rules playing Senior Cup fixtures on a midweek evening. Pretty much every Saturday is taken up with league fixtures which do not have to be disrupted when floodlights are available. Saturdays or Bank Holidays have not been used by the Pikes in the later stages of this competition for as long as I can remember.

I was always under the impression that if a club did not have floodlights they were supposed to nominate a suitable alternative venue on competition entry or forfeit home advantage in the latter stages. Not sure what happened on this occasion, perhaps I am wrong? I'd be surprised to see many clubs willing to let their ground be used by others in the winter months, with possible weather interuptions arranging these fixtures can be a nightmare. I guess this is why the venue is usually reversed?

Whitby have solved the problem for these fixtures, they don't bother entering the competition!!

I am sure there will be plenty of debate on here if we do get dumped in the NL so I will hold back my comments until the FA make up their mind.

God I wish I'd been at Thornaby. A boggy pitch, poor floodlights, bad tackles, forearm smashes and vicious stamping!