Radford FC have been turned over 2-0 by UCL Div One leaders Bourne Town, from Lincolnshire. I don't think Radford Director of Football, Big Glenn Russell, will be knocking me up a cheese and onion cob anytime soon, as my jinx from the terraces tightens its grip.
We turn off Selhurst Street onto Radford Road. It's my favourite area of inner city Nottingham. I'm with Faggsy, Little Al and Crazy Steve. We chew over the fat at The Lion, a corner pub on Mosley Street. It has a magnificent beer garden and a community feel about the joint. It has an array of real ales and craft beers to choose from. I could quite easily settle in for the evening. I jump off the tram in Market Square and say cheerio to Faggsy, who I'll see again down 'The Bill' on Tuesday evening.
Sundays have been a bit lazy of late. I'm usually up at 4 am for an early morning shift at the paper shop. I tend to have a kip on return to HQ. Afternoons are spent listening to episodes of Radcliffe and Maconie, whilst writing up notes for my blog. Ms Moon is usually as happy as Larry watching a chick flick from the sofa's edge.
It's Tuesday evening and I'm hanging around outside the Nags Head at the bottom of Carlton Hill, waiting for Faggsy. It's not a pub I frequent, as a ten minute walk away is the glorious Old Volunteer with its stunning frontage and good selection of guest cask ales.
The Mighty Millers of Carlton are playing noisy neighbours Basford United in the quarter finals of the Notts Senior Cup. The visitors, as a club, aren't my cup of tea. They've had more managers than the Rovers Return. They are battling to stay in the Northern Premier League and rely on visiting supporters to swell the crowd. Not many have bothered to make the six mile journey across town.
It's £8 on the gate and £2 for the best value programme in East Midlands Non League football. It's superbly headed up by Joe Standen and a small band of volunteers who contribute with regular columns. There's a huge gulf in class between the two sides in the first period. It's astonishing that it takes a whole 45 minutes for a fully fired-up, but off target Basford, to take the lead.
They've fluffed their lines in the final third on many occasions. There's a comedy moment from the penalty spot when one of their forwards is wiped out by 'Felix the Cat', who is in the nets for The Millers. The resulting scuffed spot kick hits the bottom left post, rolls across the line and smacks the inside of the right hand post. A rebound finally falls to another player whose shot is well saved by Felix.
Tommy Brooksbank, the Carlton Town manager, will have the Sir Alex Ferguson hairdryer on full blast after a sub standard first half performance. Basford will be fuming that they aren't out of sight. The Carlton players are dropping like flies. Felix is playing on one leg, the dangerous Lamin Manneh has pulled up with a tight hamstring, Alex Hardwick limps off and Niall Davie is in the wars again. The visitors put the game to bed and coast to victory. The Millers, to their credit, put a shift in for the final thirty minutes.
The highlight of the game is another relentless set by DJ Murph. This has also been picked up by When Saturday Comes reader Martin Naylor, who actually wrote into the cult football magazine, singing the praises of our esteemed DJ. Alan has two rules with his music: he plays what he likes and always includes a track by The Fall. His killer track this evening is 'Pssyche' by Killing Joke from back in 1982.
There's bad news to report for the rest of the week, reader. I fall victim to a vicious virus that lays me low and bedridden for four days. I'm excused (relieved) from Emmerdale Farm and Corrie duties. I use my time effectively to finish off a mighty fine travel book by the broadcaster Stuart Maconie called The Full English: A Journey in Search of a Country and Its People.
I also listen to a few podcasts from the BBC Sounds app. I'm amused by 'My Mate's a Footballer' which features the comedian Joe Wilkinson, who plays the postman in Ricky Gervais's After Life, and the Leeds United, Nottingham born striker, Patrick Bamford. I've always been a fan of Bamford, who not only gives insightful interviews to journalists, but also scored some extraordinary goals at youth level for Nottingham Forest, when I used to take a keen interest in their academy. By chance he scores a worldie in an FA Cup tie at Peterborough United. which is the main topic of conversation in the latest episode.
Wednesday lunchtime is spent in Nottingham city centre. I've shaken off my ailments. I meet Ms Moon outside a new restaurant located on Heathcoat Street called Taquero. It's the brainchild of the folks who brought into Nottingham, Iberico World Tapas and Bar Iberico. It's highly-rated on Google review and good value at just over £30 for lunch for two, including a service charge.
It's 8 am on Thursday morning and I'm sitting in The Hungry Pumpkin, a family run cafe on High Pavement. Tony Mac and I hoover up a full English before walking it off up to the railway station. We've planned our return to Manchester for an age now, following the publication of Manchester's Best Beer Pubs and Bars, by Matthew Curtis. We've both ticked off 61 out of the book, leaving another 140 to go at.
We alight the Norwich to Liverpool EMR train at Manchester Victoria at just shy of twelve bells. We're tucking into a paddle of craft beers at Bundobust, on Oxford Street. We decline the kind offer of some Indian tapas, as we're booked in to have some street food later in the day.
There is time to call into a few more bars before checking-in at our Airbnb, located in the heart of the Northern Quarter. We're soon out and about in town. One of the picks of the day is the newly opened Pomona Island craft ale owned bar called North Westward Ho, on Chapel Walks. This splendid building was a former Thai Restaurant. It's named after a pub ship that moored in the Pomona Docks in the 1970s.
Tony Mac has grabbed some tickets for a beer festival that are a steal for £3. It's being hosted by GRUB who are based in Cheetham Hill, just a short walk away. Former Wimbledon and Norwich City striker Efan Ekoku was born in the area, as was the brewer Sir Edward Holt, playwright Jack Rosenthal and Grime artist Bugzy Malone.
Curtis describes GRUB as a 'trailblazer on the Manchester food and drink scene.' On entry we can see why. There are 18x taps downstairs with further choices from Sureshot, Neon Raptor, Cloudwater and Northern Monk upstairs. We tuck into some food too. Tony enjoys some South Korean chicken. The rest of the evening is murky and hazy; a bit like the beer. 14x pubs in a day is a good return though.
Breakfast is taken at Koffee Pot. It has American-based breakfasts during the day and serves tacos and craft beer by night. Refuelled, we cross over the road and board a tram to Bury, where Gary Neville and Phil Neville are from.
I'm not a 'Spoons fan nor an admirer of their Tory donor owner, the recently knighted Sir Tim Martin. But you have to admire the architecture and pub fronts of some of his pubs. The Art Picture House is a tastefully restored 1920s cinema.
Across the road, just past the Robert Peel statue, is a three star CAMRA Heritage pub called the Old White Lion. Again, it's a stunning building with a jaw-dropping interior. They only have Timothy Taylor on cask. I have a Boddingtons for old times sake.
We hop back on the tram down to Prestwich. The lights are out at Church Inn, so we tick a few more pubs off on the main drag.. We give a punter short shrift as he sits on his laptop whilst hosting a Teams call. We talk loudly to cheese the poser off. The landlord at The Crooked Man is a lovely bloke and a Bury fan too. He's surprised to learn that his bar is an entry in the Curtis book.
We bump into Gary Neville on Deansgate as he poses for a selfie with two ladies who have pounced upon him. There's time for a swift one in Rain Bar before the 7.38 pm train home to Nottingham.
Man of the Match: DJ Murph
Attendance: 181
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