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Hope. It's the hope that kills ya. After a lamentable and soul-destroying 1-0 defeat in the massive relegation six-pointer at D&R, Alan Devonshire's charges had surprised everyone (except perhaps themselves) with a deserved 3-1 victory over in-form and playoff-chasing Tamworth at York Road the following week, so our survival chances weren't dead but remained on life support – it was imperative, especially after away wins for Boston and Woking on Tuesday night, to string consecutive league wins together (hopefully, five of them), for the first time since early October, and next up was a game at one of our favourite and most visited destinations in recent years (the Shaymen had also won promotion to the National League for the 2018/19 season) ... one where we have a winning record (P10 W6 L4, going into Saturday), dating back to a legendary Trophy match in 2004:
14.02.04 FAT W 2-0 Hale, Yaku ~ "Hale and Yaku at The Shay"; "Alexa, play Modern Romance"
09.09.17 NL L 2-3 Goodman, Marks ~ my birthday!
13.01.18 FAT W 4-1 Emmanuel (2), Pritchard (2) ~ lower division Stockport in the next round, who we led 2-0 at half-time in a replay; that shoulda/woulda/coulda been our season for Trophy success :(
30.03.19 NL W 1-0 Obileye ~ important win, took us 11 points clear of relegation rivals H&W
18.01.20 NL L 2-5 Mensah, Upward ~ sandwiched between a 2-2 draw and then a 3-1 home defeat vs Halesowen in the Trophy
30.01.21 NL W 3-2 Orsi-Dadomo (2), Coley ~ lockdown season
21.08.21 NL W 2-1 Barratt, Ferdinand ~ a last-minute winner on opening day
06.11.21 FAC L 4-7 Acquah (2), Kelly (2) ~ an 11-goal FA Cup thriller!
25.02.23 NL W 1-0 Nathaniel-George ~ prompting the hitherto most recent of several celebratory group photos, over the years, in the Three Pigeons
13.02.24 NL L 1-2 Sho-Silva ~ midweek game, rescheduled; the Magpies on the receiving end of a painful 98th-minute winner
A stopover in Halifax (as we did last January despite the match being postponed because of a frozen pitch before we'd even made it to King's Cross on Friday afternoon, resulting in the rescheduled midweek game mentioned above) would have been preferable, but Macleod (M) – the social butterfly that he is – was attending a Boys Wonder gig in Shoreditch the night before and had refereeing commitments on Sunday, so I was on the 05:56 (!) from Maidenhead on Saturday and Macleod (M), who'd stayed over in London after the gig, joined me for breakfast in McDonald's outside King's Cross; after a slightly delayed train journey via Leeds, on which topics of conversation included The Bootleg Beatles, the MUFC Supporters' Player of the Season vote (Reece Smith for me) and Oliver Holt's ranking of the 92, we met with Steve H. aka the Sweetie Blinder aka Solihull Steve in glorious sunshine outside Halifax station and started a pre-match pub crawl that went as follows: København (better than before; our first meeting with a couple of lapsed Arsenal fans who've completed the 92 and are close to finishing the National League), Vocation (better than before; we sat on the roof terrace, as we had done ahead of the opening day win in 2021, joined this time by the Crosbys, the Smiths and the Batemans #MobbedUp), Meandering Bear (cheaper than before; the lapsed Arsenal fans recommended a place just up the road), and Hop In (a new one for us, and a welcome addition; Steve H. insisted on buying us bottles of his favourite beer – which Macleod [M] and I didn't really want, and which he didn't drink himself! – while Phil W. steadied his pre-match nerves with a 12.5% stout)
Lacklustre first half preceded me noticing – while munching on roast potatoes with chilli during the interval (The Shay remains the National League ground with the best food) – that Tristan Abrahams was warming up on his own, suggesting he was definitely in the doghouse (after his perhaps understandable reaction to being hauled off at D&R) or that he was coming on; it was the latter, thankfully, and his spirited performance helped galvanise those wearing black and white stripes (on and off the pitch)
I remarked as time was expiring that we'd tried hard but had lacked quality, which I think was a fair assessment ... then the ball found its way to substitute Sam Barratt, with a clear opening on his left foot at the edge of the penalty area, and, unlike last month at Forest Green Rovers (when he had passed up the opportunity to shoot), he buried it – cue pandemonium in the away end
Fifty-seven of us were jumping for joy once again a couple of minutes later as Shawn McCoulsky bagged his 12th league goal of the season with a deft finish; other results hadn't gone our way (not least Solihull winning at Southend), but we didn't care too much about that as Best Years of Our Lives (apt), Allez Allez Allez and other MUFC victory songs reverberated around The Shay, and we serenaded a steward who looked like Art Garfunkel!
After celebratory beers and a group photo in the Three Pigeons (hopefully not for the last time), an expert supermarket sweep in the Sainsbury's outside Leeds station, a return train journey that featured groups from Scunny, Donny and Grimsby (Grimmy?) 'bantering' with one another ("Where's yer steelworks gone?!") and a walk back to Cox Green, I made it through the front door just before midnight – 18 hours after leaving home!
Xcellent away day, but the bottom line is that we're still five (essentially six) points from safety with only four games left to play; as the legendary NFL owner Al Davis famously said, "Just win, baby!"
Your fans were brilliant never shut up! I hope the 3 points are crucial for you. pic.twitter.com/yZXpbrMHI6
— Danial Clark (@ClarkDania77609) April 12, 2025
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