Fr... fr... fr... frustration!

August was meh, September was really good, October’s turning out a bit crap. Consistent in our inconsistency, you could say.

It really didn’t start that badly at Salford last Saturday. Pett had a decent shot from outside the box early on that Young tipped over the bar, and Mellon jnr headed wide from the resulting corner. Woods had a low shot from the edge of the D saved. It couldn’t last though, could it.

It was too easy for Nmai to run into our box, and Monthe, having been slightly caught for pace by him, made a clumsy attempt at a tackle, and I don’t think there was any doubt that it was a penalty. Poor Manny certainly didn’t argue. What followed was gutting. Hudson pushed Harris’ penalty onto the post, but we couldn’t clear the ball from the ensuing goalmouth scramble and Udoh headed it on. What a crappy way to concede yet another early goal.

Around 20 minutes in, the match was interrupted by Britain First supporters running on the pitch wearing hoodies saying, ‘Gary Neville is a traitor’. Now, I’m no fan of Gary Neville. I don’t believe that he’s the man of the people that he portrays himself to be. I’d be inclined to agree that he’s a wanker. But calling him a traitor is idiotic inflammatory nonsense, which is exactly what Britain First are all about.

Their former leader and deputy leader were both given prison sentences for hate crimes. One of their supporters is serving a life sentence for a terrorist attack. The bloke who founded the group, a former BNP activist, left them in 2014 because even he thought that their actions had become “provocative and counterproductive”.

Gary Neville may well be a wanker, but Britain First are fascist shit-stirrers whose only aim is whipping up hatred, and the thought of them being in any way associated with, or cheered on by, our supporters is repulsive. I couldn’t help but remember their attempt at some kind of gathering in Oldham town centre in 2016, which Andy memorably described as, “I thought it was a bunch of smackheads until I saw the flags”.

(I believe they were boasting on Twitter about running on the pitch with 5000 business cards. What a great use of time and effort and money. Did they think the players were gonna read them? Thick fuckers.)

Anyway, back to the football…. We were still very much in the game, but the referee wasn’t doing us any favours. A good bit of play saw Robson’s shot put behind for what was clearly a corner, but a goal kick was given. Half an hour in, Hannant was absolutely clattered into the hoardings in a horrible challenge, but the referee saw nothing wrong with it. It looked awful and a stretcher was brought on, but thankfully Hannant was able to walk off, albeit with help, having suffered a nasty gash to his knee, and Morris was subbed on for him.

Hudson was man of the match and made good saves from Mnoga and Woodburn to keep us in the game. Quigley really should have done better from what was admittedly a tight angle late on in the first half, but his tame effort was an easy save.

We continued to go for it in the second half, and Payne blazed a shot over the bar early on. Caprice came on for Ogle to give us more pace down the right (no, his challenge on Nmai wasn’t a penalty, he got the ball), and Fondop (who maybe should have started) came on for Quigley 56 minutes in.

An uphill struggle got tougher an hour in, when Nmai got ahead of Sutton chasing down a long ball from the keeper and went down on the edge of the box. I thought at the time it was a clumsy challenge in a very dangerous position; others (Micky Mellon very much included) thought it was Nmai who clipped Sutton’s heels and went down. The referee saw it as the former, unfortunately, and gave him a red card. Sorry, Will. We fucking jinxed you, putting you on the cover of the fanzine.

Mellon snr responded to us going down to 10 men by making an attacking-minded double substitution, bringing on Garner (whose dark arts we were crying out for) for Mellon jnr and Drummond on for Payne. Hudson continued to give us a fighting chance and made a great save from a header from a Salford corner. We had an excellent chance to equalise when Fondop headed the ball back across goal, Morris’ shot was saved, but Garner’s shot from the rebound was well over. And I must admit, I double-checked who’d spooned it over the bar and thought “oh thank fuck, it wasn’t Drummond”.

Our old friend, Fabio Borini, came on in the 81st minute. I much preferred his last appearance against us, nearly 13 years ago. With the score at 1-1, and Liverpool getting bullied out of the game to some extent, the ball glanced off his face, he went down like a sack of shit, and the ITV cameras caught a furious Jamie Carragher on the bench shouting “GET HIM OFF”. Ah, what a lovely day that was. And what a shit day last Saturday was.

Mellon snr started his post-match interview, to the surprise of no-one, with “first things first, it needed a stronger referee”. Maybe, but as any therapist will tell you, focus on what you can control. He did say that we needed to play better and pointed out that it was the 6th time that we’ve conceded in the first 15 minutes. Fair play, he said he was too far away to tell whether or not the penalty was fair, and that it was poor defending. He didn’t approve of the red card – “does the guy just run and clip Will?” – and I agree with him that the challenge on Hannant was ‘shocking’ – “how does that not get officiated there?”. Ultimately, though, he conceded that we had to do better: “We’re still very much a team that needs to learn”.

Hudson was a little more diplomatic, but not much: “A couple of dubious decisions from the referee, but we expect that now in this league, don’t we.” Bless ‘im, he was quick to play down his own performance – “I’m just doing my job” – and said a couple of times that he couldn’t wait for the next game, which was great to hear.

It’s not ideal that we lost another two players, when our squad’s already a bit depleted. Thankfully Mellon snr confirmed yesterday that Hannant's injury wasn't as bad as feared and he should be available today, and Daniels has also made a good recovery and should be ready, which is a relief.

It was a much better result at Boundary Park, where Lancashire beat Yorkshire 20-14 in the women’s rugby league Roses match. I’m afraid I can’t give you a report from the game, as I didn’t manage to shake a red-wine-induced migraine off in time to make KO. Honestly, last Saturday was so shit.

This Saturday is going to be better, though. Our friends Saraan and Rachel have travelled up for the Shrewsbury game. Their last game was Cheltenham away. Their last game before that was Wembley. So we’re deffo gonna win today.

Issue three of the Beyond The Boundary Park Alert System fanzine is still available, and you can buy it before the game from Pete in Rifle Range or from me in the Greyhound. It's £2. Bargain.

We've got a great opportunity to put things right today. We're at Fortress Boundary Park against a team that's 21st in the table (and, worryingly, only 3 points behind us, so we could do with widening that gap). It's a 3pm KO off for once, thank fuck, our lucky mascots are going to be at the game, it's going to be a great day. Yes it is. KTMFF.

Written by Arlene Finnigan. Photos © Phill Smith.