The unofficial archives of Tiverton Town Football Club
Tiverton Town 2 - 2 RugbySaturday 25/03/2006 Southern League Premier Division | Chris Bell |
Tiverton Town put in a battling display on a gluepot pitch to recover from a disastrous start and rescue a 2-2 draw against a poor Rugby Town side. Darren Davies made a surprise appearance after his worrying injury on Tuesday with Booth in midfield for the injured Amapadu. From the kick off the visitors proved the old adage that defences have difficult dealing with pace as they raced through the home defence and within two minutes were ahead. The speedy Stone picked up a pass on the left and cutback across three defenders who failed to get any sort of tackle on him. His fierce shot was parried by a diving Ovendale but only to Gordon who netted. Five minutes later it got worse as Tullin swept a ball into the six-yard box for Evans to convert. With a third missed chance swiftly following something needed to be done quickly and Dodge responded by moving Booth back into defence to give it some more pace and Milsom up front to boost the attack. The changes immediately quickly began to take effect with Bale just failing to get on the end of a Mudge cross and Milsom putting a header wide from a good Pears cross. Despite Tivvy´s poor start‚ Rugby´s performance‚ once put under pressure began to falter and it was an opportunistic bit of finishing by Mudge that dragged them back into the game. The keeper and defender for some reason played after you on the edge of the area and Mudge nipped in to score. Immediately Mudge put Pears in only for the keeper to save and the same player then had another chance from a McConnell cross that he headed wide. The win which had seemed an impossibility twenty minutes earlier now looked likely with Holloway continuing his good run of form‚ Mudge showing uncharacteristic aggression and MOM Milsom playing well. A series of attacks rained down on the Rugby goal and finally the equaliser came. McConnell got in yet another cross and this time Pears made no mistake. All square at half time‚ the wind behind Tivvy and every indication they could go on and win. Their cause received some unexpected but welcome support from a group of Stockport supporters who had seen their game at Torquay postponed and provided noisy good-hearted entertainment throughout the afternoon. Early signs from the restart were that Tivvy might be about to self destruct again as Rugby ran at them and crashed a shot off the bar with Ovendale beaten. However‚ Mudge was soon charging down a clearance and putting in Pears for a cross shot that just eased wide. Milsom then had a header saved from a corner and Beddow‚ who had come on for Pears was put through but had his attempt deflected by the keeper for a corner. As the half progressed Tivvy´s game seemed to plateau and although chances still came their way a draw now seemed a more likely result. Mudge did manage a final flourish‚ cutting in from the right and shooting past the keeper‚ but once again past the post. Plenty of incident for a game with nothing riding on it but pride‚ and that was definitely evident‚ but two more points still went begging. Tiverton Town: Ovendale‚ McConnell‚ Davies (Hambly)‚ Gould‚ Croft‚ Milsom (Capt) (MOM)‚ Booth‚ Bale‚ Pears (Beddow)‚ Holloway‚ Mudge. Subs not used: Nogan‚ Skinner‚ Kelly Rugby Town: Afandiyev‚ Tullin‚ Herbert (Kolodynski)‚ Peaks‚ Wooding‚ Green‚ Gordon‚ Grey‚ Slinn‚ Stone‚ Evans (Wilson). Sub not used: Davison Referee: G Beale Taunton Attendance 372 |
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Tiverton Town 2 - 2 RugbySaturday 25/03/2006 Southern League Premier Division | Deafboy (SCFC) |
Going down on the Fingerpost coach‚ we were in a social club in Torquay when I got a text message from Martin White telling me the match might be in doubt‚ and that there was a 2.15 pitch inspection. “B*llocks!“ was the natural response. After texting a few other people‚ and discussing with other Fingerposties the chances of it being Torquay´s revenge‚ I received a message from Martin at 2.05 saying that the match was off. A good few others had it confirmed from other sources‚ and we knew it was off. indeed. A quick debate ensued as to what to do. I suggested going to see Yeovil at home to Tranny as‚ due to my incredible knowledge of the geography of the country I´ve lived in all my life‚ I knew that Yeovil were up and a little bit to the right of Torquay (on the map of course-in real life‚ it would just be left of Torquay if you were coming from Plymuff...)‚ and so suggested this‚ leading to a period of exciting talk over the possibilities of reconvening our slagging wars with the Plastic Scousers‚ only for the woman behind the bar to point out that Yeovil was 2 hours away from Torquay. Living up North West you tend to forget that not everywhere in the country has about fifteen football teams within 25 mins´ drive... Someone suggested Tiverton v Rugby as being an alternative mode of entertainment. This came as somewhat a surprise to me‚ as due to that brilliant knowledge of geography of mine‚ I was completely unaware of the location of Isengaard and Minas Tirith‚ let alone Tiverton. So it was back on the coach for a democratic vote. Go home or go to Tiverton? A few people put their hands up for going home‚ but by far more people put their hands up for Tiverton‚ pressing their claim with a loud burst of TIV-ERRRRRR-TON! So we were going to Tiverton v Rugby. Received a text from Mozzer at that point‚ clearly in the same location pub-wise as our dastardly enemy Martin White‚ he of scurrilous rumours that the Bury match was back on again‚ rumours that led to Imposter and I leaving valuable pintage in the pub in our hurry to get to Gigg Lane. ´The match is back on again!´ he told us. ´You spikey-haired muppet´ I responded‚ and with that‚ we were off to Tiverton‚ leaving our fellow County fans congealing in the pubs of Devon. I texted my mother‚ told her I was off to see Tiverton play Rugby‚ and asked her to check on the Internet where Tiverton and Rugby were in the table‚ who the Tiverton manager was‚ and what colours Tiverton play in. Her response was ´near the top of the table. Manager unknown. Blue. I´ve got better things to do.´ ´Fair enough´ I thought; can´t expect people to understand the excitement that obviously comes with going to see Tiverton play Rugby. I then informed everyone that the correct version of the ´Jim Gannon´s blue army´ was now ´Manager Unknown´s blue army!´ We got a couple of renditions of this out before I got a text from Scarf telling me that Tiverton and Rugby were 12th and 13th in the table‚ Tiverton play in yellow‚ and their manager was Martyn Rogers. ´Hmm´‚ I thought to myself‚ ´how come my mother told me they were near the top of the table?´ I then did a sexist thing and put it down to a non-football watching female´s understanding of football tables and the properties of places at the top of the table. It wasn´t until I got home that I found out the real reason. When I told her I was going to see ´Tiverton play Rugby´‚ she assumed I was going to see Tiverton Rugby Football Club! Doh.... We sped to the glories of Tiverton in a mighty sense of excitement‚ heightened only when a packet of plastic blow-up snakes were opened and passed around the back. The alcohol that was consumed in the Torquay social club may or may not have been responsible for the eager re-labelling of the snakes as sperm‚ affording opportunities to be immature which were eagerly seized upon; “Stop putting your sperm in my face“ and “How much can I offer for your sperm?“ We arrived at Tiverton and to a man crowded around the 2 open turnstiles; we were clearly relishing the opportunities to relax as a group of County fans and sing County songs and thoroughly have a bl**dy good time without the neccessary evil of having to endure watching County. Apparently the PA announced us entering the stadium; a great touch and certainly a way for us to make our entry! We took our place upon the nearest terrace‚ and spilled out into a rough circle directly behind the Tiverton goal which Mark Ovendale‚ ex-Lu´on‚ was protecting. I did consider the idea of shouting “Lu´on reject!´ at him‚ but then thought that would be taking the p*ss out of Tiverton‚ and instead joined in with everyone else in singing “Mark‚ Mark‚ give us a wave!“ and was delighted when he gave us a nice wave in response. Football fans are very easily pleased…We then turned our attention on Martin Rogers‚ but he ignored our requests for a simple wave. So we then launched a volley of “Boring‚ Boring Martin Rogers” in his direction. Bet he cried himself to sleep last night… I´m not the best person for identifying which songs we were singing(!) but we went through quite a variety it would seem. I especially liked the “Rugby fans, give us a wave!” directed at the 7 or so Rugby fans in the terrace opposite us, and then when we got a nice wave out of them, serenaded them with a volley of “You can stick your rugby up your arse, SIDEWAYS!” First time I´ve seen any anti-Sale songs in a football context…At half time we did a conga around the entire pitch, which was exceedingly fun, as we got lots of quizzical looks from the locals before we encouraged them all to get up and clap as we made our way around! Poor Taff though, the exertion was too much for him, and he nearly collapsed… Our ambition really was just to sing as many songs as we could get through and treat the Tiverton fans to an example of County fans at their noisiest. County have often had a reputation for being nice fans and good travellers; Mad Dog Martin Allen was so impressed with our performance at Tranmere that he was moved to write to the club praising our fans, and a Premiership referee being given the prawn sandwiches (or the black pudding sandwiches anyway) treatment at Bury actually asked if we were the home fans. But lately, especially with the Ghost Train back in operation, our fans seem to have excelled themselves, and we were, I think, keen to keep our reputation high, and so were aware that as a bigger club coming in for the day, it would be very easy to be boorish and take the p*ss, and so we tried to keep a fine line between having fun, being loud, being entertaining and yet not taking the p*ss, and hopefully we managed that. There was admittedly one party out of the 48 we took who was fairly drunk and went over the top occasionally, but we policed that as best as we could, and the Tiverton fans were excellent, they were very friendly and seemed to appreciate us being there. On their forum, one of their fans said that it was the first time there had been any real feeling of atmosphere in there for a few years, and if that is the case, I personally am delighted that we managed to have such an effect. Certainly, Rugby were 2-0 up…then we arrived, and the Tivvy lads battled back to get a point! We´re gonna take some of the credit for that I think…! We had a thoroughly enjoyable time at Tiverton, and it has been suggested that we look into the possibilities of setting up some sort of link between Stockport County and Tiverton Town; certainly a couple of fans bought Tiverton shirts, so you would think that Tiverton might become their second or even third team…Certainly, at the very least, I am sure that it would be possible to invite Tiverton up to Edgeley Park for a pre-season friendly. Or I´m sure we would enjoy going back to Ladymead. I still wish that the County match was not called off, but as an alternative to the County match, you can´t really get better than Tiverton Town v Rugby F.C.! I texted a Citeh mate of mine before the match and told him that I was off to see Tiverton v Rugby. He came back at me with a typically-Premiership big clubbist view; ‘I think you´re mad.´ He then texted me after the match; ‘2-2, 6 hours there and back on the coach, no County, and a fiver to watch Step 7 football. Was it REALLY worth it?´ My response? ‘Genuinely…yes.´ And it was. |
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