Hello,
After beating Darlington in the 2nd round, myself and plenty of other York City fans will have been watching the following day's FA Cup draw with high hopes of who we would be playing next. This is what it's all about, teams like York in the Conference having the chance to go up against the Manchester United's of this world some 4 leagues above us.
The draw didn't disappoint, just like getting Stoke last season we draw an away tie with Bolton Wanderers. A high-flying club with a decent shot at getting into European competition. I was well chuffed, it was time for me and Lisa to have another footy-filled weekend.
This would be the first long drive (about 60 miles) which I would not be doing in Ji-Sung Park, the car I had to sacrifice when we moved in last year. Therefore it would be in Lisa's Mini. The weather threw about 7 kinds of shit at us over the M62 towards Lancashire. It was a scary feeling when you can barely feel any grip from the road or see through the windscreen. These problems mingled with the sat-nav barking orders at me and Lisa coughing her guts up (which she's done for the past week). It was a complete mindfuck! Anywho we made it in one piece into Bolton via the A666 or as I liked to call it; 'The Devil's Highway', pretty much because there was more potholes than actual tarmac. It really did make me think it's the kind of route your soul will take to burn in hell for eternity.
After checking in we made it up to our room in the perhaps the scariest lift I've ever been in. More than 2 people and the thing would clang and jerk all the way to the top. The room though was nice and while Lisa was getting her hair ready to go out I flicked through a tourist brochure entitled 'Welcome to Lancashire'. Thing was when I opened it, there was an advertisement for Skipton Castle which is in North Yorkshire! In case you didn't know, Yorkshire and Lancashire have never really got on. So it was funny to see their own tour guide pretty much tell you there there's nothing to see at all in Lancashire whatsoever!
The tour guide's right, me and Lisa ventured into the centre of Bolton to find that it's the deadest town I've ever come across in my whole life! It was unnerving to see how vacant Bolton is, worse than Berlin when I went there in -15 degrees C. In the search of a restaurant we found absolutely no signs of life in this place. The only things we found were the bus station and a man content at swearing at us for no apparent reason.
Eventually we found somewhere to eat, a restaurant on Bradshawgate known as Tiggis. I learned an interesting fact about Bolton here. It's home to the world's largest pepper grinder.
Once shake from that bad boy and your food ends up under a foot of the stuff. Didn't really matter because the white wine sauce my chicken came in was so good I actually wanted to start mating with it. On leaving (and getting funny looks from the waiters for taking pics of their prized pepper grinder) we walked around looking for somewhere to drink. Unfortunately the bars in that area were either the same as we get in York, vacant or shit. So after coming to the conclusion that Bolton's not the best place for a night out ,we called it a night.
Mind you on the way back, I came across a nightclub which some guys in York might be familiar with. Yup, Bolton's still got an Ikon here years after ours shut down. The place brings back fond memories of the underage nights they put on there, me and a bunch of lads at 15 kissing girls and smuggling vodka. Oddly though, it looks exactly the same as York's did!
I awoke the next morning and it was "Good Morning Bolton!"
Hmmm, not the best view but mind you when I stayed in Leeds once, the view was on fire.
It was time to pack up and get to the game. On arriving, the pre-match anticipation started to build when I saw the Reebok Stadium, which is a quality venue I have to say.
Doesn't have the charm of Bootham Crescent now does it?
Inside was also of good quality. It's a pity that not many people use the place to be honest. The below picture was taken just before the game and it didn't get much fuller.
Meanwhile, York's end was considerably fuller. (This was from YCFC's Facebook page)
The match kicked off to a roar from the York fans which was relentless for most of the game and first impressions were that this was going to be a tight affair. You would have expected Bolton to be hammering us left right and centre but it was us who had the best of the first half. While defended like demons and rarely gave the home side sight of goal, we also had a golden opportunity at the start but unfortunately the nerves got to Ashley Chambers as he went to pass the ball instead of having a shot. As the teams went in for half time, I was feeling confident. It seemed almost like Bolton were on the run from us and perhaps there would be a famous 'Giant Killing' today at the Reebok.
This may only be my opinion, but Bolton's manager Owen Coyle brought out the big guns in the second half. The arrival of Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander meant we were playing a full-strength Bolton team which would normally be up against Arsenal or Chelsea. Yet were making little headway against York! The second half was more of the same, tight defending from York and the odd chance here and there. As the clock ticked past 75 minutes I was starting to think that a draw was looking more likely, if so that would mean they'd be coming back to our place and with the home advantage we'd be more likely to win than here. Then there was a moment of complete disbelief on 82 minutes, Neil Barrett headed towards the bottom corner and 5000 York fans leapt up to celebrate as it looked damn certain it was in but denied by a wonderful save from Adam Bogdan. Then the counter attack from Bolton started and within seconds of our opportunity of taking the lead, Bolton scored in an awful twist of fate thanks to Davies' strike.
From there, the bubble had burst with only 5 minutes remaining and everyone in red and blue feeling dejected and me nearly in tears. At least I could hear the Bolton fans for once.
The final nail in the coffin came from Elmander's superb 25 yard goal and the dream was over. But the quality of how we played and how we battled a team which was far bigger than us shows our character and class. I just wished we could have held it for 7 more minutes!
That was it, we left and decided to explore Middlebrook shopping park. Which was built in 1996 by drunks as it's like a maze! Went to the cinema and watched that 'Love and Other Drugs' film which if you like the look of Anne Hathaway's breasts, you'll love. Mind you the ending nearly sent Lisa to tears, so the feeling was mutual after the match.
All in all, a quality weekend with Lisa who I love so much, shame about the result!
Ah well, let's get in the playoffs again!
Here's some more photos for ya.
Cheers
SJB
