If I hadn’t been required in the shop I probably would have given this match a wide birth as the thought of seeing a happy Penfold is extremely chilling, if not downright disgusting. One good thing to come from today was being able to see what happens when Bangor aren’t in the final.
It was quite interesting to see what happens behind the scenes. I was able to have a sneaky peak behind the scenes because I blundered around the main stand looking for a bag of merchandise. I walked through the clubhouse (“The VIP section” for the final) and then went into the inner sanctum of any football club; the players’ and officials’ corridor. I opened the door at the same moment Steve Evans left the TNS changing room, he eyed me suspiciously.
I couldn’t find the accursed bag of merchandise anyway, I had a look in the media room (“The room that Vera and Linda were using to make tea and squash” for the final) and in the doping room (“The Media Room” for the final) but I couldn’t find anything.
Nantporth seemed quite busy today but this wasn’t because there was a large crowd, there wasn’t a large crowd. There were a lot of people doing jobs. It’s an obvious thing to say but you need people doing jobs to help events run smoothly. You need people to do all the small, unseen jobs like operating the turnstiles, selling programmes, being ball boys, dressing up in cuddly dragon costumes, assembling the winners’ podium. The fact the FAW were paying people to do some of the jobs shows that they realise people are needed as well.
The game wasn’t much to shout about. Here are the basics; Druids rarely threatened, TNS established a clinical 2-0 lead then couldn’t be arsed to make an effort after that. At the end of the match the TNS players celebrated but I struggled find a reason why they were quite so happy. I mean, what did winning the Welsh Cup actually mean to them? Their club has hardly any fans and they don’t represent a place. It felt like I was watching my six-a-side team celebrating a victory.
If you want an image that exemplified today it would be the kid in the full TNS kit incessantly banging a drum whilst he stood next to the half-time tea bar queue. Nothing would stop him, not even his mother’s appeals, can you imagine how annoying and irritating the noise was? Irritation could have been the word of the day.
If you think about it the image I just presented; “TNS annoying the fuck out of people”, it’s not just an apposite image for this year’s Welsh Cup final, it’s an apposite image for the whole of Welsh domestic football in 2012.
Bangor City 4 Glantreath 1,
North Wales Coast Cup Final – Played at Nantporth,
6/5/12
So Bangor actually won some silverware this season. The scoreline suggests an easy victory and for once suggestion is more than mere suggestion.
It was good to see that the less than full-strength Bangor team today enjoyed their victory. It was also good to be able to toast the end of the season in the clubhouse.
Now we only have to wait seven weeks until the European draw!
The match was typical fare for this level. To judge from the tackling, argy-bargy and Holyhead’s post-match celebratory banners these sides didn’t like each other.
On the way home I wondered when the Holyhead fans had made the banners. I surmised that nobody would actually go to the trouble of making a celebratory banner before a match, as nobody would knowingly tempt fate like this.
By discounting that possibility there was only one other possibility; the banners were made directly after the match. However the makers would need to work at a speed approaching light speed to produce a banner directly after the match. As an experienced banner maker I knew that working quickly doesn’t always produce the best results, they simply wouldn’t have enough time to make a legible banner of the quality that they produced.
This meant discounting the second possibility and reassessing the first possibility, which meant accepting the idea that some Holyhead fans made the banner in preparation for the match. I should applaud the decision of the Holyhead fans. When they decided to make a banner they made a good decision, football needs banners!! I applaud the fact that a banner was produced. I applaud them for the effort involved in obtaining the paraphernalia; the banner material, the pain, the brushes. After getting all the stuff together I can only applaud the effort in making the banner.
But, and it’s massive but, after clearing all the barriers they came up with that! (See Below) They used their time, effort and creativity to make a banner that references Britney Spears!!! I mean come on now people, you could have done better than that!!! I now want Holyhead to lose all their matches.
Kowalski
Eric Blair
Harry Lime
Kevin Price
