Now Farsley are playing in Blue Square North (Conference North), following a one season adventure in the Conference (or Blue Square Premier), I'm starting to regret not going to those away games in the Conference last season. I made it to two away games, Altrincham and Droylesden, that's one current Conference North team and one team who should be in the Conference North, but were lucky to escape.
I
missed local derbies away at recent ex-football league neighbours York and Halifax. The home game versus Halifax on Boxing Day was magnificent and saw a 3-0 win before 1,501 supporters. The result against York City was pretty poor but the experience of the game was stupendous. The largest crowd of the season (1,603) and the biggest away support I've ever seen down at the Nest, not only that, it was on the Television, with the huge trucks from Setanta Sports parked up behind the Shed. There was also a whole lot of West Yorkshire Police there and it was just quite surreal, when a couple of years earlier a clash with near-neighbours Ossett Town had yielded less than a tenth of that night's attendance. It is now sad to see that Halifax Town are no more and a reformed club are playing in a division below the mighty Ossett Town. (and I mean absolutely no disrespect to Ossett Town, I am just using them as a point of measurement on the football pyramid).
Speaking of points of measurement on the football pyramid, 1998/9 or 9 seasons before Farsley made the Conference, Farsley were five divisions below Oxford United and last season they played in the same league. I was disappointed to miss Farsley's 5-1 loss at the Kassam Stadium in April, the result was terrible yes, but a chance to see Farsley play a league game before 4,000 in a football league style stadium and a time in the season when Farsley still had a faint hope of staying up. I also missed the away victory at Torquay, Torquay who were in the football league a year before, also Farsley's last win of the season and when the Celts had a real hope of staying up (they lost the last six games after that).
So, what did I actually see then? Aside from the aforementioned Manchester away games and home local derbies, other highlights were beating Cambridge United at home, nearly giving run-away winners of the league Aldershot a good game at the Nest, seeing the bald eagle Jim Smith's Oxford side narrowly beat Farsley and the opening day of the season's victory over Stafford Rangers.As I mentioned in the first paragraph, Farsley held Burton away and face them tomorrow at the Nest (December 23rd). Burton are now 8 points clear at the top of the Conference, so what a good result for Farsley and the chance of the classic upset. Had this been two or three years ago I would have been coming home for Christmas
early, but now I'm confident we can get a result and maybe I'll go watch the Celts take on Salisbury in the second round. The fact that I can probably count on one had the amount of times Farsley have been in the FA Trophy on one hand, still doesn't mean much to me, after last season's exploits.If Farsley can have a strong second half to the season and get into the play-offs, it is unlikely that they will be as fortuitous to get promoted, but if they do it again, it won't be as special as the first time but I will make a much better effort to get to some away games. I should make more of an effort to get to games in Conference North, but I don't think it'll ever be the same!
pic 1: Farsley v Halifax on Boxing Day
pic 2: Farsley at the Kassam Stadium (from Oxford United site)
pic 3: Cambridge United at Throstle Nest (from Cambridge United site)
pic 4: Farsley v Aldershot
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