Curse of United

FC United have made their 1st signing of the summer, with Stuart Rudd coming in from scouse overspill town Skelmersdale. Yes, the Sutart Rudd that scored 38 goals in NWCL1 last season. 38 goals!! 38....goals!!! Unibond here we come then, a team that has a player with a scoring record like that can't fail to get promoted can they? Well probably not, but just have a think. Think of the name of the club FC United of Manchester. A football team with the words Manchester and United in its name. Hmmmnnn. Maybe we shouldn't get too carried away.
You see, over the years, Man United have signed many a player, nay striker, that was going to bang in the goals and win them the title. Garry Birtles won the title and 2 European Cups with Cloughies Forest, came to Utd and couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo.
Alan Brazil, won the FA cup and Uefa cup at Ipswich, had a good few years at Spurs, spent most of his OT life sat on the bench being spat at by the more discerning punters in the Stretford Paddock (and in his few games, actually looked and played like a granny attempting to cross the M6 on foot.)
Peter Davenport and Terry Gibson also came to OT with a big reputation and flopped when on the big stage (Gibson only scoring once, and that was off the bar from 2 yards out!)
Throw Forlan into the mix and you can see what a graveyard OT has been for strikers with big reputations in the game.
Lets hope that the curse hasn't been carried over to Gigg Lane and that the Ruddmeister can bang them in next season
*Disclaimer*
Should the worst happen and he breaks his leg on his debut, this blog takes no responsibility whatsoever.

Pre Season friendlies

The season is over, the World Cup kicks off in a couple of weeks (Brazil V Argentina final people), the sun will soon be blazing down on us all (arf) and soon the age old tradition of pre season friendlies will be upon us.
I have never really seen the point of the pre season friendlies, apart from the fact that you get to visit new countries and cities (USA in 2003 and 2004,) new grounds, places you would never usually visit etc, but apart from that, there is no point to them.
Players don't really want to get too involved in them as they are finding their fitness after a month of going on holiday and getting pissed up on cheap Spanish rioja and lager and chomping on big fat kebabs, and managers use then to give the YTS lad who was the next Wayne Rooney at 15, but at 17, more like the new Ian Ormandroyd a game, in order to put him in the shop window and mug some other clown of a manager that he can do some wonderous things for his team.
But these days, pre season is different.
Its our preseason, as its our team. It gives us the chance to see who Margy has brought in for the forthcoming season, a chance to tighten up the defence (but please Karl, no Joz there!!) and a visit to Halifax (erm...ok) and the historic Sheffield FC as well as a return trip to Radcliffe and the infamous Last Orders pub (though I feel that the infamous night is like the Loch Ness monster, people talk about it, but it never actually existed)
Add into this pre season the fact that there is a reserve team to watch and more new players to learn about and also a trip to Alty (hope the BBQ is on again) and its hats on the back of the head time once June and the WC is out of the way
Roll on.........

Its ovvvveeerrrr

So how was it for you then?
For me, it was superb, being involved in a fans club, being a member and having a say in the running of said club, watching a group of lads who have come together from scratch win the league in their 1st season, meeting lots of top quality people and catching up with people who I hadn't seen for years.
This 1st season culminated in a superb trip to Leipzig for a friendly, those of us who had given up M16, and our season tickets 12 months ago thought our Euro Away trips had ended, but no, and last week approx 400 FCers made the trip to Germany to see the lads fight out a 4-4 draw with LOK Locomotive Leipzig.
There has been many a highlight during the season, here are just a few of mine:
* Watching people turn up to Leigh and pack out the Goose and other pubs before the 1st ever game
* The trip to AFC Wimbledon, the welcome down there and the realisation of what was happening.
* The pies at Leek (and also the rain, not sure my jeans ever recovered to be honest)
* The night game at Northwich V Winsford, the 1st difficult league game and with cheating woolybacks to boot.
* Utd Utd day- the largest gate up to that point.
* Cheadle at Edgley Park. Bestie died that week, the silence, the applause, then the goon as Chaddy equalised in the last minute.
* New Mills at Macc Town. Sat out of the rain in the directors box, day of Besties funeral, 5-0 win.
* The trip up to Barrow (after all the build up, 2 flat tyres meant I got there at 2.20pm)
* Flixton on Boxing Day, crap day, crap weather, crap game.
* Winsford at home, huge crowd and a superb 2-1 victory.
* Blackpool in Sunny Feb, quality trip overall, classic beach football game.
* Chadderton at home. 4-0 and promotion.
* Great Harwood Town at Gigg. The presentation, the open top parade, the TAG at The Swan.
* Leipzig away. The 1st FC Euro away, hopefully the 1st of many.
So its Div 1 to come next year and with the new structure of the league, there will be no scouse teams to visit (well ok St Helen's but they don't really count.) No doubt next season will be a lot harder, but with a few new additions to the squad, and with a reserve team, so all the squad will be playing regularly, there is no reason that FC can't do well.
Promotion again? Who knows, will be tough, but it can be done.