What do you do when your local football team is playing an away match some 40 miles away? Well if you are one of a number of hard core Glossop North End supporters the answer is to go and support your team, as was the case when The Hillmen travelled to Bacup Borough for a VodKat Premier League match in late February.
On a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon with the strong wind getting stronger the players are out on the pitch warming up. So far the crowd is non-existent as both sets of players go through their pre-match rituals. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised as areas of the ground have already been cornered off to hint that maybe a large crowd isn’t expected.
As the players descend back into the small changing rooms for their final preparations and a fight for the tape the crowd slowly begins to grow. Surprisingly the majority of fans slipping through the turnstiles are wearing the Glossop colours of blue and red.
Glossop’s away following comes as an even bigger surprise after inspection of the club’s away form this season which can, at best, be described as patchy with just five wins from 13 games in the league. As the crowd await the two teams Glossop
Assistant Manager Terry Hinks is clearing away the bibs and cones from the warm-up and tries to put his finger on the problem. “At the start of the season we played quite a few away games which we lost and our confidence got lower. Funnily enough I think the away form improved when we started to play more home games which we won and from there the confidence grew and we took this into away games.”
Three wins from their last four league away games would appear to support Hink’s view.
Glossop Director Adrian Priestly was one of the people who made the trip and explains why he made the effort: “First and foremost I would say I am a supporter before a director. When the team play at home I have a lot of responsibility and chores. I have to watch when the balls fly out of the ground things like that so when I go away I can enjoy it a lot more and I love the away games.”
Adrian moved to Glossop in 1980 and his affiliation with the club began very soon after: “The day after we moved in I went to find Glossop North End Football Club. I watched on and off as at this point as I still had my season ticket with Man City but about 10 or 11 years ago I was asked to be a Director. I got involved with various fund raising committees and was asked by the then Chairman do I want to become a Director.”
On a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon with the strong wind getting stronger the players are out on the pitch warming up. So far the crowd is non-existent as both sets of players go through their pre-match rituals. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised as areas of the ground have already been cornered off to hint that maybe a large crowd isn’t expected.
As the players descend back into the small changing rooms for their final preparations and a fight for the tape the crowd slowly begins to grow. Surprisingly the majority of fans slipping through the turnstiles are wearing the Glossop colours of blue and red.
Glossop’s away following comes as an even bigger surprise after inspection of the club’s away form this season which can, at best, be described as patchy with just five wins from 13 games in the league. As the crowd await the two teams Glossop
Assistant Manager Terry Hinks is clearing away the bibs and cones from the warm-up and tries to put his finger on the problem. “At the start of the season we played quite a few away games which we lost and our confidence got lower. Funnily enough I think the away form improved when we started to play more home games which we won and from there the confidence grew and we took this into away games.”
Three wins from their last four league away games would appear to support Hink’s view.
Glossop Director Adrian Priestly was one of the people who made the trip and explains why he made the effort: “First and foremost I would say I am a supporter before a director. When the team play at home I have a lot of responsibility and chores. I have to watch when the balls fly out of the ground things like that so when I go away I can enjoy it a lot more and I love the away games.”
Adrian moved to Glossop in 1980 and his affiliation with the club began very soon after: “The day after we moved in I went to find Glossop North End Football Club. I watched on and off as at this point as I still had my season ticket with Man City but about 10 or 11 years ago I was asked to be a Director. I got involved with various fund raising committees and was asked by the then Chairman do I want to become a Director.”
Support
As the players line-up in the tunnel the managers take their respective places in the dug-outs. As assistant manager Hinks takes his seat he doesn’t seem surprised with the Glossop following. “We had a great turn-out a few weeks ago away at St Helens and the support through-out that game was fantastic. It boosts me and Steve (Young, Manager) when we see our away fans outnumber the home section so the effect it has on the players must be top drawer.”
As the game kicks off it seems the adverse weather conditions have caused many locals to stay away with the official attendance standing at 57. As Adrian explains, the blustery conditions nearly made him think twice about even getting out of his car.
“It’s definitely a bit bleak, not so much the football the fact that the weather was perishing.” He laughs. “We looked at the temperature and it read 12 degrees outside when we got out of the car but when we got into the stand it must have dropped considerably the wind was whipping down off the moors, we were absolutely freezing.”
If the conditions were causing havoc in the stands they were causing mayhem on the pitch. After a sloppy start from the visitors, as they struggled to keep their footing
on an incredibly soft pitch the home side took an early lead. The travelling fans were soon rewarded for their efforts and as the whistle went for half time North End had a
2-1 lead.
As the clouds above grew greyer making the moors surrounding the ground even more daunting the game remained a tight affair. It wasn’t until the 74th minute that the travelling fans could rest easy as Glossop striker Kieran Lugsden put the visitors 3-1 up. That was the way it stayed and as the referee blew his final whistle the Glossop players applauded the travelling fans efforts as they trudged off a by now extremely heavy pitch.
Deserved drink
Before heading off to his local ‘The Friendship’ back in Glossop, where locals wait for updates on North End games Priestly adds his assessment of the game. “I thought it would be tough and it was but we hoped to win and we did although it was a bit harder than we thought. I thought the support was fantastic yet again as it has been all season.”
Hinks agrees: “As a player when you can hear your own supporters making more noise than the home fans when you score its fantastic and it makes it like a home game for us.” Adding, “This game shows how far we’ve come. We didn’t play that well but we got a result.”
Just as the floodlights go out on the Bacup ground Hinks makes one more point. “Around Glossop everyone has been coming up to the players and myself and Steve and wishing us look and saying they have not seen the club perform this well for the past 10 years.”
Praise indeed. With an even longer trip to Silsden still to come in March on today’s evidence you would be a fool to bet against the North End faithful from turning out in their droves.
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