What’s in a name as boys march on?

THE Giant Axe, possibly the strangest name for a football ground, but on arriving with the Fingerpost Flyer I found one of the best non-league grounds we’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of playing at.

It was by far better than a whole handful of grounds in our division and one or two from the National League.

There were enough seats for anyone who wanted one and a great terrace behind the goal that had the height to offer a brilliant view.

The only downers were the state of the pitch and the weather, it was the coldest of afternoons – it was so cold that the aforementioned terrace was covered in so much ice to worry any health and safety officer into calling for salt.

There were no surprises in the starting XI, the lads who’d beaten Spennymoor the weekend before all deserved their places.

The Dolly Blues have a pretty good home record this season and the home supporters were defiantly up for the game but it was County that started the brightest.

If I’m honest the home side were dreadful in the first half.

We dominated and spent the vast majority of the half camped in their end.

We opened the scoring with the first real bit of skill, Jason Oswell, (who else?) found a bit of space in the box and rose, salmon-like, to head into the top corner from the best cross of the afternoon.

We didn’t have to wait too long before the lead was doubled.

The pitch played its part as a ridiculous back pass bobbled just in front of the keeper while Gary Stopforth, chasing a lost cause, found himself on the touchline with the ball at his feet, he still had work to do but from the tightest of angles County were 2-0 up and the half was over.

Not long after the second half began the referee awarded Lancaster a penalty, no one claimed it, there were no home players on the floor – Michael Clarke looked like he’d been scythed down and a penalty was given and consequently scored to give the home side the confidence and belief that they were still in with a chance.

We had enough chances to score a hatful but the ball just wouldn’t fall right until very late in the game Bohan Dixons shot took a deflection that won us £6k, put us into Monday’s draw and possibly, more importantly, allowed us on to a warm coach for the happy journey home.