Arnold Town are in serious financial trouble, according to an article in the Nottm Evening Post. Manager Graham Walker thinks that the small gates will eventually see the club fold, but the £180,000 debt may have finished the club off way before the low gate proceeds have a lasting effect.
Let's be 'avin you!!! Where are you!!!
Teams: Eagles - Walker, Hall, Price, Hayes, Hore, Smith, Spiers, Corrigan, Middleton, Slawson, Royes.
Miners: Mountain, Bradley, Spencer, Brett, Watson, Walton, Korol, Stanley, Westcarr C, Jones, Westcarr J.
A decent enough turnout for this game - and there were a lot of familiar faces in attendance, including good friend Rob Townsend, who spent the first half with us. Rob is a cracking Referee, but is currently out of the game through injury. Get well soon, buddy!
We had spent a while deciding where to stand, because on the dug out side of the ground, some views are restricted - by the dug outs! We ended up just below said dug outs where the view was passable.
The game was only five minutes old when Arnold took the lead. A free-kick from the left was headed at goal by Danny Hayes, and although Welfare keeper James Mountain did well to parry the effort, the loose ball fell kindly to MITCH SLAWSON who had the fairly easy job of slotting home at the far post.
Mountain made a good diving save on 28 to keep out Slawson, then Gedling managed to force a save from Lance Walker, Wes Spencer's free-kick from the right causing the keeper to leap into action.
CHRIS HALL netted the Eagles' second goal on 34, a rare left foot curler from 12 yards that left Mountain grabbing for thin air. H-T 2-0
We had a walk to the main stand side of the ground during the break, but decided that was a bad idea as the wind blowing past the stand was a bit of a bugger - so we trudged back to our origin position - and how pleased were we that we made that decision!
Within two minutes of the restart, REGGIE ROYES collected the ball on the left, cut inside his marker, and from the edge of the box swung a sweet, curling shot into the far top corner of the net. Keeper Mountain just waved the ball bye-bye as it sailed past him.....
The remainder of the game was scrappy to say the least, with nothing really to write about. F-T 3-0
Referee Kev Guise had a fairly good game, although the general feeling was that the Tom Watson booking was a bit harsh. Apparently accumulated offences saw the number 5 go into the book - but the actual challenge was so innocuous it would normally not even have warranted stopping the game.
Admission: £4
Programme: £1.30
Attendance: 111
Let's hope Arnold can dig their way out of the financial hole they are in - although if the club does eventually die, will the Arnold public, as Walker so rightly says, EVEN CARE?
