Away Days - Pre-season Friendly

The 2013/14 season promises to be the most exciting yet for Trafford FC fans'. New grounds to attend and some very, very long journeys to tackle. Here, our very own George Cheetham will give an account of all these trips, under the title of 'Away Days' - hopefully giving an insight into following non-league football and, more importantly, Trafford FC...

A (rushed) Trip to..... Linotype/Cheadle

Hello. So then, this is the first of my new blog on Trafford's trips to the grounds of the Evo-Stik Premier Division throughout this season, or rather my experiences of the day, including trip, view of the ground and club and my report of the game itself. But beforehand it's the pre-season friendlies. As I missed the Sandbach Utd game, this starts with our trip to Linotype/Cheadle Heath Nomads to give
them their full title, of the Cheshire League First Division. So, here goes!.....

After leaving work at around 4 o'clock ish I decided to catch the end of the day's play at Lancashire vs Glamorgan at Old Trafford, as Lancs' Simon Katich was approaching his hundred. He duly achieved this milestone at 5.35pm which left me to sprint up Warwick Rd, just in time to catch the 256 bus back to Stretford, and just about manage my
connection through to Stockport. Once, at Stockport, the 11 bus onwards to Cheadle Heath was already in. Now, I am sure that in the whole of human history, during the existence of buses, no-one has ever had a journey on them work this well. Anyway despite stopping along the way for a handful of Stockport County fans on their way to their game at Cheadle Town, and dressed in all the kits for this season, arrived at the required bus stop five minutes before kick-off. Having been to the ground some 10 weeks earlier for Cheadle's game with Grappenhall Sports, I knew where I was
headed so, cue another sprint to make the kick-off. I managed to arrive at 6.58 for the 7pm kick-off, which in fact, ended up being slightly delayed.
Cheadle Heath Nomads were founded in 1919 and merged with Linotype FC to create the present club.
The ground, The Heath Norbreck Avenue, itself is just around the corner from Edgeley Park. It is very tidy with two full-size grass pitches, set almost side-by-side, one is the club's barred off league pitch, and the other is the pitch we would be using this evening. There was also a 3G-five-a-side pitch which was in use also, with many balls threatening the cars parked outside the cage. There are no
stands or seating in the ground, and only one pitch (the other one) contains dugouts.

Anyway, onto the game. Trafford began the game with their 'first' eleven, including new signing Joe Shaw, the returning Cedric Krou and captain Nia Bayunu. The opposition saw former white Micky Ryan in defence and another former TFC centre-half Paul Riley on the sidelines.
Trafford dominated the game, which, with all due respect to Cheadle, was to be expected. However,the first-half was a mostly dull affair, which appeared, as many early friendlies do, to be based on fitness over full performance. As such my attentions turned to the many examples of aviation flying over the pitch on approach to Manchester
and myself being ( possibly rightly) teased over my picks of hobbies. I also decided this would be the perfect opportunity to decimate the two pork pies I had brought with me for dinner. This proved correct!!
On the pitch, Cedric Krou in particular put in a good shift, as did Joe Shaw and Paul Ashton but it was Steve Mason who netted the first goal heading in from Andy Smart's corner. At half time, the small crowd in attendance headed into the clubhouse. Inside was a smart room with a big screen and dance floor, and the bar in the far corner. I ended up getting a coke which was kindly purchased by 'Little' Dave, who is the famous bar manager at
Vaughanie's haunt, the Nag!  I was also, asked what the 'small plane that keeps flying over' was. Never before had I been asked a plane related question at football before, but nevertheless I was happy to pass on my, ahem, expertise!
At half time it transpired that the flash car parked next to pitch was owned by Manchester City's Reece Wabara, who famously found the net for Oldham Athletic against Liverpool in last season's FA Cup tie. Anyway, onto the second half, and a fully changed X1 was introduced
including Kamahl Whight, Liam Shipton and Luke Heron. The game certainly livened up somewhat, and it saw five goals being scored, firstly Sam Hood scored his second in two games, Kamahl Whight netted twice, sandwiching Jordan James' strike and Eric Yeboah also found the net after replacing Liam Shipton for the last 20 minutes. 
So, the final score was six-nil and all goals were onside, despite the lack of any linesmen. The next few minutes were spent attempting to convince one of our players' girlfriends, who had little interest in the game, that the score was six nil and we were not pulling any legs!
And I managed to avoid any horror journey's back to Urmston by grabbing a lift back from manager Garry Vaughan, which I was very relieved about!
The club at Cheadle seems a very tidy and friendly set up, well run and they look well set for the future. Good luck to them in their season.
- George Cheetham