Winsford United 5 GNE 2

Our second visit this season to this outpost of rural Cheshire. Regular readers may recall that your ageing scribe was absent for our League visit here at the end of August – aaah, Barcelona, my favourite city in Europe - however, the well known phrase “we’ve been here before” seems to be appropriate.

This phrase is often trotted out in a rather disparaging way when what seems to be a crisis hits. Time-worn know-it-alls tend to come out of the woodwork to claim that “nothing is new” and if we all learned the lessons of history then there would never be such a crisis again. Interesting to note perhaps that such paragons of virtue never seem to be able to predict anything but only react after the event!

There are a couple of examples here which may be of interest – or not.

Recently, the Director General (Witchfinder General?) of the BBC came under attack for the way he handled the crisis involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand relating to an on-air attack on the actor Andrew Sachs. Had he know his history, he would have recalled a similar incident in 1941 involving an unscripted joke by the comedian Sydney Howard which was considered to be insulting to the then Director of Variety. Mr. Howard was immediately suspended for six months and the whole incident was quickly forgotten.

We are all aware of the crisis in the banking industry of the last couple of years. All sorts of doom merchants appeared regularly on TV and radio declaring that “the end of the world is nigh” and making similar cataclysmic statements. Little did they know that exactly the same sort of financial crisis happened in 1857. Starting with railway companies in the US sinking under a burden of debenture debts, banks were unable to honour convertible notes due to a lack of liquidity. The effect of this then spread to the UK and other countries where finance houses had been rashly overtrading on the capital of their creditors. Banks collapsed. Does this sound familiar? Yes it does. In 2008/09, substitute “derivatives” for “convertible notes” and replace “Banks collapse” with “banks were rescued using tax-payers money” and we have something very similar. So, what happened after 1857? Did the whole financial world collapse, never to be seen again? Well, as we know, it did not. It rose again only to be hit by the Wall Street Crash of 1929!

The quote “History is Bunk” is accredited to the car maker Henry Ford. What he actually said, in 1916, was "History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history that we make today." Well, dear reader, as ever I leave you to make your own minds up on this one but, was he right?

Today marks a historic occasion in the history of the still fledgling Supporters Club – the first mid-week minibus. The jolly band of travellers assemble early at the Friendship for a 6 p.m. start. At the wheel tonight is Dicey who had the honour of piloting the unofficial – and unrecorded – Supporters Club and friends minibus to the Thatched House in Stockport the other Friday night to see a Rush tribute band by the name of “counterparts” featuring our very own Cod on lead vocals and smoke – very good they were too, if a little loud. Talking of bands, our multi talented Supporters Club Events co-ordinator is missing tonight having elected to go to see some band called “Editors” at the Manchester Apollo rather than watching the mighty GNE in League Cup quarter final action at Winsford. One has to question the priorities here but, to be fair, this date was originally down as an away match at Atherton LR. Editors or Atherton LR away – close call that one!

The fading glory of the Barton Stadium greets the GNE travelling army. £6 entrance and £1.50 for a programme which is full of detail but lacks something in imagination and presentation. Recent memories suggest that “it is always cold at Winsford – even in August”, and the atmosphere, or lack of it, inside the ground contributes to this feeling.

A 7 flag day as the people of Glossop (around 50 from a crowd given as 100) gather to support our team in the only remaining competition where we have any hope of silverware. The teams enter the arena – GNE in white again – with the same experimental central defensive partnership which was on display at Formby last Saturday.

After 45 minutes, its half time and Winsford lead 5-0. Yes, it’s true and worth repeating, Winsford lead 5-0. Half time discussion revolves around “what went wrong”. Various opinions expressed - as we know, football is a game of opinions – without reaching any firm conclusions although the consensus is that it is difficult to ask players to play in unaccustomed positions. One of the more senior players is asked to draw some positives from the first half display. His only comment was that the curtains in the clubhouse were “nice”.

The second half starts with GNE showing three substitutions from the first half and within ten minutes have scored twice – can we pull it back? Hope springs eternal only to be dashed on the jagged rocks of outrageous expectation. At the end of the match, the home side move on to the semi-final of the Vodkat League Cup having won 5-2 and the visitors continue to wonder how it all went wrong.

The journey home is quiet but Dicey makes good time and we get to The Crown well before last orders. Excellent pint of Sam Smiths Old Brewery Bitter and the best part of the night.

So what of the two outstanding questions.

Was it cold in Winsford? Well, yes it was a bit but not too bad for a night match in mid- March.

Editors or GNE? Well, your ageing scribe is no fan of the Editors, and, indeed, cannot recall having heard anything by them, but this one may have worked out to be Editors 1 GNE 0.