Lockdown Trivia 3 - ‘Hyde and Seek.... On The Road with the Steelmen'

 

‘Hyde and Seek. On The Road…with the Steelmen

Another tale from the Steelman Programme archive. This time a trip to Hyde for a Blue Square North match on September 11th 2010. 

What a great league this was, I loved the Blue Square North, but I probably enjoyed it more than most with having my daughter Carly living more or less slap bang in the middle of Liverpool and Manchester. Two minutes off the M6 and M62 in a village called Winwick, a place of well renown for once being the site of one of Britain’s top lunatic asylums. Hyde itself has a somewhat lamentable history with its connections to the notorious child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in the 1960s and more recently the infamous Dr. Harold Shipman. A real Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde character Harold was. This has nothing to do with football of course but another interesting piece of useless information is that Hyde United are in the record books for suffering the worst ever defeat in the F.A.Cup, having succumbed to the great Preston North End team, the Old Invincibles and Lillywhites, what a nickname that was, 26-0. 15th October 1887 was the date of the massacre. Still, something to be proud of I reckon.

Moving on 123 years, the Steelmen were hoping for at least, a modest victory if not a massacre of the Cheshire men, The Tigers. Which leads me to an obvious pun, predictable I know, that the Tigers must have been pretty toothless when they played Preston at Deepdale that infamous afternoon. Alright, move on.

What follows is the piece, report, call it what you want, I wrote for the Corby programme, ten years ago. With a few amendments.

‘Hyde and Seek. On The Road...with Clive Smith’

‘It was last season I made my bow at Hyde, deep in the suburbs of Manchester, having travelled up north on the Friday before the game, taking advantage of my daughter Carly's location in Winwick near Warrington - ideal for Corby games up North! A rail ticket purchased with my new senior citizen rail card for around £6 was a perfect start to the day. However as it is with British Rail, the train from Warrington Central to Manchester Piccadilly resembled an Indian Calcutta commuter express. Jam packed, a spot standing in the crowded doorway at the end of the carriage had to suffice. I found myself surrounded by braggart and obstreperous Manchester City fans on their way to see their team "stuff" their opponents, Blackburn Rovers. I suffered in silence as more and more of these such morons embarked at every station, conveying an arrogance only those who's club has been transformed overnight from 'run of the mill' to world beaters can. Unbearable. ‘Why do they have to speak so loud?’ ‘Who do they think they impress?’ were thoughts running through my mind as I felt like punching the lights out of them. Finally we pulled into Piccadilly and we all went our separate ways. I changed here for the connecting train to Hyde, a couple of stops away, twenty minutes or so. This is all timed to achieve the purpose of arriving at the Hyde ground around the same time as the Corby supporters who travelled up by bus. It's a bit weird switching from an overcrowded train of bandwagon Manchester City supporters to an empty train heading for a destination where very few care about their local football team. This is the world of Non League football. 

Home of Hyde United

Hyde Station is bereft of life. No ticket collector, no cafe, nobody around. A proper old branch line. Hyde’s ground is situated fairly close by, a twenty minute walk down a main road, up a couple of back streets and there it is. Hyde F.C. Founded in 1885. ‘Were the locals more interested in their team back then’ I pondered? Did people in those long ago days have a predilection to follow their lofty neighbours, the Manchester clubs? One surprise about the ground was to discover that Manchester City had in fact come to Hyde's aid by playing all their reserve fixtures there. Extra revenue, obviously a bonus and surely some people would be interested enough to go along and watch some 'promising' juniors or the occasional first team player on a comeback trail after injury. You would think. But knowing the mindset of so-called 'Big team supporters' dwelling in these outposts, I doubt it. Hyde's ground boasts a stand, rather peculiar shaped one it has to be said, with two prominent structures protruding from the roof, like two funnels of an old cruise liner, each with the club's and their squatters logo. Nice touch. 

Brian and John agree - its an away banker!

Roly looking smug. 'Be a piece of piss today'

In the clubhouse it's nice to see familiar faces. Brian Dighton, Roly Davies, Martin Brothwell, John Crawley amongst them. General consensus was that the Steelmen with the best away form of any club in the league over the two previous two seasons were expected to win today. Hyde struggling near the foot of the table suggested an away victory. 'But you can't take anything for granted'. Confidence is omnipresent as we sup our pints of Tetley's Bitter. 

With hindsight, ninety minutes later, maybe the team was too over confident! Not that manager Graham Drury would allow any such thoughts. What unfolded left Graham and his staff as bemused as the fans. Chris MacKensie in goals, the ever reliable Chris, had a mare! Straying off his line on more than one occasion he was eventually caught out when he made a pig's ear of tackling a Hyde player very nearly on the half way line! The Hyde fans couldn't believe their luck. An open goal and their forwards made no mistake. 

JC wondering wtf is going on!

From then on it was all a desperate struggle. Another weak goal was conceded, Chris misjudging a high cross. One of those days! Taking a different vantage point in the stand by the half way line for the second half, it didn't look any better. Our presence (Crawley and I were late leaving the bar!), was given away when we objected rather loudly to a diabolical referee decision against Steve Towers. All eyes turned towards us. A few glares. No threat. Good banter. Apart from one noisy little squirt who was determined to batter our eardrums and all around as well, with a quick fire lesson of the ABC of Obscene Language. His intention, doubtless to intimidate us, failed. No saint myself but having to put up with this non stop vitriol spewing from his mouth; well you can only listen to so much! With just a hint of jest I told him to calm down. Told him he'd have a heart attack! Don't be a tool! A few more glares were cast our way but I did sense a degree of embarrassment from his fellow Hyde companions. Though one look at the dastardly figure of Crawley, well imbibed, was enough to make any of them have second thoughts of taking on their interlopers, their unexpected guests. They were happy enough anyway. Corby were crap and deserved to get beat 2-1. Hyde had more go about them on the day.

'Bugger all to smile about Graham', Martin tells Drury, 'We were shite today!'

A quick jar and post match analysis and I left to make my way back to the station. Again, not a soul around. Except for one old boy on the opposite platform looking as forlorn as the surroundings. Thoughts of following Liverpool many years ago, being chased and threatened in every bloody station in the country entered my head. Memories. Where was everybody? The place was desolate. This is the kind of station which inspired Paul Simon to write his classic ‘Homeward Bound’ in the 1960s. 

'I'm sitting on a railway station, got a ticket for my destination...' 

I could imagine Paul sitting here jotting down those lines. And in fact it wasn't far from here that he did write those lines. Widnes. Just by where my daughter lives! Apparently there's a plaque on the platform to commemorate the fact. Have to check it out I think.

Back at Piccadilly for the connecting train to Warrington, with its returning Man City fans surprisingly subdued, they were held to a draw! Great stuff I think to myself. Arrogant prats. My train of thought is interrupted; pardon the pun, by an announcement that the 18.27 to Liverpool calling at Warrington is delayed by half an hour. Brilliant! Thirty minutes later, the platform is looking more like an airport lounge there are so many disgruntled people hanging around. Another announcement. The Warrington train is cancelled! Only British Rail! I'm only going about twenty miles down the track. I could walk the bloody thing I think to myself.  My mobile rings. It's my daughter. 'Where are you?' 'Brilliant!' she exclaims. We are supposed to be going out for a meal at eight. The rail officials are being overwhelmed by angry travellers. ‘What's happened to the bloody train?’ ‘What are you going to do about it!’ Eventually a replacement is found, and we are on our way again, only an hour late but we’re on the move. 

Was I going to enjoy a pint!’ 

Corby Team; MacKensie; Pitham Hope Gulliver Charlton; Lavery Andy Hall, Towers Webster; Mackey Walker subs Jarman Kirk Diggin.  Mackey scored Corby’s goal from the penalty spot.

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It was interesting afterwards to read a different view of the game as reported by the Manchester Evening News, highlighting a couple of facts we didn’t know before the game. Which made the result even more of a disappointment.

'Hyde gained their first win of the season thanks to a late winner from debutant substitute Dale Johnson. With his first touch, he picked up the ball just outside the area and beat three men before firing the ball past a despairing Chris Mackenzie.It was a great return to Hyde for Johnson and hopefully will provide the impetus for the Tigers upfront over the coming weeks.

Shaun Whalley had opening the scoring for the Tigers on eight minutes when he scored a great opportunist goal from wide on the right as he caught Mackenzie napping. Hyde could have increased their lead on 23 minutes when a long kick downfield from keeper Russell Saunders bounced over his counterpart, but was scrambled away by Asa Charlton before Carlos Logan could take advantage.

Corby received a lifeline right on half time when Chris Lynch was adjudged to have fouled Ben Mackey in the area. Mackey himself took the penalty and was relieved to see the ball roll over the line as Saunders just failed to keep it out. It was harsh on the keeper, making his home debut following the departure of Craig Mawson.

After the break Hyde relied on the pace of Logan and Whalley to keep the visitors under pressure. Both went close before Logan brought another good save from Mackenzie. Mackey had a late chance for Corby but this was very much Hyde’s day and lots of positives to build on.

The only sad note for Hyde was that Tom Manship limped off after 28 minutes on this return. However it was due to a knock on his knee rather than a recurrence of his Achilles injury, so hopefully he will not be out for too long.

Attendance: 268

Funny how people have a different view of games. No mention of MacKensie’s howler on the half way line but then again if it‘d been the home goalkeeper…didn’t matter probably, considering their form of late, going by the report, a goal was a goal however much help they needed!

Side note;

Manchester City F.C. Reserves and Academy used the facility as their permanent home until 2015, when a purpose-built academy stadium was opened on the campus at the Etihad Stadium.