Traveller’s Tales: Tamworth v FC Halifax Town
“You’ve got a letter,” Mrs B announced, “I can see the word camera through the window in the envelope too”. Funny I thought I’m not one of those real ale drinkers, I wonder if the Snorkeler has signed me up for a free drink offer? Anyway, I was just about to set off out the house to meet the usual suspects and now had post to open. Oh, joy it’s a letter of congratulations from the Department of Driving Back from Football Matches. Apparently, I’ve set a new speed record. It’s a good job I was on my way-out Mrs B wasn’t too pleased and wanted to discussed it further…
Bright sunshine, icy paths and snow patches hiding in the shadows; it was another chilly winter’s day as we set off on the 115 miles’ journey south. With two hours driving ahead of us we set Tesco Pete a task to find us the best chippy in Tamworth using all his IT skills and less than 90 minutes later he had found it. 100% positive reviews and close to the ground, he had even found the postcode. What a result.
With posters advertising Tamworth’s fixtures on the door and seats available to eat inside, things were looking good. “So, what did you think to those chips?” asked the Greetland Shayman as we left. It was a loaded question, he’d seen us all politely wrap up our less than half eaten lunch and squirrel it into a nearby bin. Tesco Pete then admitted that the 100% feedback was based on a total of just two reviews. Too much time spent on the way down chasing imaginary monsters again we thought, you give him just one job….
Tamworth’s Lamb ground has had a major renovation since our last visit in January 2014. The pitch has been upgraded to a state of the art 3G surface and is now available for the community to hire. The famous slope has also been removed to provide a good playing surface. The only drawback is with segregation being in force, the away fans need to be at least seven feet tall so see the goal line now that the pitch is two feet lower than before. Perhaps away fans may now refer to that part of the ground as the deep end?!
After a great midweek win, most of the pre-match predictions suggested we may even earn a draw, I thought a 2-1 defeat, Pete a 1-1 draw and the Greetland Shayman going for sneaky 2-1 away win. Sitting with a great view in the main stand, Adam Heslop gave us his prediction of 5-0 to the Shaymen. That sounds optimistic we thought.
10 minutes into the game and it was all Tamworth. An early booking for the Shaymen and the home fans in and amongst us were well up for this. Half time and as if by magic it was 4-0 to the Shaymen! How did that happen? No really, how did that happen we thought? Everything that could go right did go right.
The second half and Tesco Pete’s checking the odds of an unlikely fight back; perhaps he’s not the only one of the 173 travelling fans who can’t believe what he’s watching. Soon there’s a goal back, a sending off and, every Shayman is back behind the ball whilst we’re cheering every misplaced Tamworth pass as they press forward. The home fans sense their chance and we exchange good quality banter. It feels a bit like the next goal wins. Soon we’re all alone, home fans had drifted away, 6-2 to the Shaymen, wow, really, how did that happen?
Driving back (slowly!) we just laughed whilst Tesco Pete found an old link on his phone to the league tables, we’ve not looked at those for a while.
Total miles on the road this season 2884, total Goals 38
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