Saturday was always going to be.... interesting. Despite supporting Dale for 6+ years, I had never ever gotten to the ground via train. It felt almost like an Away match. New station, singing on the train, everything was set as if we were planning for a journey to a new ground. Well for one of us it was. Niku was about to experience his first taste of Spotland. His only appearance in a Dale shirt before that came away to Macclesfield. In fact, looking back I don't think he even wore won then. Lucky for him today he bore my lucky (I say this but I can't think of when it's ever brought Dale good luck) Centenary Black+White shirt. Still, it was an honour for him, and an honour for me showing him our ground. I was excited. James was here too, donning his new McArdle Home Shirt, which he had asked his mum to get him as a birthday present. Fair play, I don't know too many people willing to show such support to the club he has only become accustomed to in the last 8 or 9 months. However here he was, and here I was, Gary Jones on my back. Why Jonah? Well the honest truth is, it was the cheapest player I could find in terms of single numbers and letters... The next closest was Jon Shaw, and he was never going on the back of any shirt I will ever wear!!!
And so it begins.... Meet up at the station for ten past 12. 20 past for Niku. What you will become aware of for the season, is Niku's time keeping. Never once has he been ready to leave his house, or arriving at mine, or simply arriving anywhere. He simply has a phobia of being on time. Scary, but he has to live with it, not me :/ £2.20 was the train fare! These rail cards are bloody brilliant. Extremely cheap for an adult fare, return to Rochdale. So we set off and arrived at Salford Crescent. We were fairly lively on the way up, but it was the first and only change where we got going. The energy drinks kicked in, certainly for super-hyper kid James, who jumped off the Grove train smashing into things, shouting Dale as loud as he could. Sure, we got a few awkward stares, but I couldn't care less. We were in motion! On the next train we really got going. We started setting out our team for the day, we got a few songs going and eventually took the volume
up a shade too much. In all honesty, we weren't that loud. The carriage was full of noisy teens stopping off at Piccadilly, and we weren't being frowned upon by any! Sure enough, the driver took heart to our singing, and very inpolitely told us to shut up or get off the carriage. As he walked away a couple of quite loud "Up The Dale's" pissed him off so much, that he gave us a last warning. We laughed it off, had a good bitch, until Niku pointed out the big sign to the left of where James was sitting. "Passengers must not sing on the train, unless they are given permission from the Driver. Unless this written confirmation is obtained, passengers should not disrupt the public peace" Well, we were laughing our heads off. The sign was right next to where we had chosen to sit, and despite our real urge to go and ask the Driver fo
r written confirmation, we opted out, knowing that we had no clue of what was to happen when we got off the train.As I previously explained, I was no more clued in than either of the 2 people next to me, when it came to getting to Spotland from the station. Me and Niku were both bare chested underneath our Dale shirts, so after being persuaded by us 2, James took off his shirt and started to ask for directions. Obviously, he didn't want to be seen in a Dale shirt asking "Where's Spotland?" He gave us the signal, and we followed him from a safe distance, until we were clear to walk on. Imagine the same incident happening 4 times on the walk to the ground. Shirt off, directions, shirt on, embarrasment over. Shirt off, directions, shirt on, embarrasment over, etc etc. Fair play to James, he put on his best Torquay accent and took one for the team. Me and Niku didn't help by following a randomer who we believed to be wearing a Dale away shirt, half a mile in the wrong direction! On the way to Spotland we stopped off at Asda for our final set of directions. A humungous french baguette in hand, alongside 2 apple turnovers between 3, and a box of cold sausages, we walked the final mile. Lunch was out of the way and we arrived at the ground at 2.50pm. With all the messing around it took us near to an hour to make it. Although we know it now, and we were confident we could do it again no questions asked.
The game? Well the game was a good-un. Dale were magnificent first half. Buckley, Dagnall and Kennedy show
ed their class as per usual, and the football we played on a pristeen pitch was really enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, we should have buried more than just the one chance, and that was the dissapointing thing. Second half we were under the cosh, but strong performances from Jonah and JK in Midfield, were backed up by a solid back 4 where Wiseman was outstanding. Things are certainly on the up, especially if we can keep O'Grady in good nick alongside Dagnall. For the record, this was my first appearance in the Thwaites Beer Stand, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cheaper than the WMG, you can stand up for the whole game, watch from the front at all times, and the singing is much better than I thought it was. The highlight was certainly the last 10 minutes, standing next to Kenny Arthur. James collected the ball once or twice, and shouts of "Keepit!!!" in a rich Scottish accent through us off guard a couple of times. We thought he was shouting Keepers, and the ball came straight back. Upon reflection, he was always trying to slow things down, and wanted us lot to keep it and not give it back! Perhaps those few seconds he took to slow it down were vital, as things could have got more tense at the end, considering we conceded another needless goal.
ed their class as per usual, and the football we played on a pristeen pitch was really enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, we should have buried more than just the one chance, and that was the dissapointing thing. Second half we were under the cosh, but strong performances from Jonah and JK in Midfield, were backed up by a solid back 4 where Wiseman was outstanding. Things are certainly on the up, especially if we can keep O'Grady in good nick alongside Dagnall. For the record, this was my first appearance in the Thwaites Beer Stand, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cheaper than the WMG, you can stand up for the whole game, watch from the front at all times, and the singing is much better than I thought it was. The highlight was certainly the last 10 minutes, standing next to Kenny Arthur. James collected the ball once or twice, and shouts of "Keepit!!!" in a rich Scottish accent through us off guard a couple of times. We thought he was shouting Keepers, and the ball came straight back. Upon reflection, he was always trying to slow things down, and wanted us lot to keep it and not give it back! Perhaps those few seconds he took to slow it down were vital, as things could have got more tense at the end, considering we conceded another needless goal.We got the bus back. 5.00pm we caught in coming straight out the ground. For £1.50 it took us straight into the Town Centre, from which we had a light 10 minute jog to the station, only to find the train was delayed, and we could have walked from the bloody ground and caught it in time!!! Back to Manchester Vic we headed, claiming a space between carriages and singing "There were 10 Bury Bomber's in the air" all the way down to 0. Admittedly, we weren't quite in full voice, although we had an excellent warm-up in preparation for Northampton Away next weekend. The walk from Manchester Vic to Piccadilly was magic!!! Proudly puffing out our chests and singing verse after verse of songs from every player, not least Kenny Arther, we were given dirty looks from disgruntled Arsenal fans for dapening their misery, happy City fans for taking some of their spotlight, and a couple of idiots who just wanted to shout at us. But we couldn't care. We were more than happy, and celebrated in fine voice. Bring on Sixfields next week. I cannot wait!!!
Up The Dale!!!
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