THE ROCHDALE COWBOYS V THE TOON *** FA CUP 3RD ROOND TOMORROW

Posted '12:55pm bells' Friday 3rd January 2020

8 OF 'THE NUFC MAD-SAD GROUNDHOPPERS' WHO ARE 

VISITIN' ROCHDALE FOR THE FORST TIME EVER!

Tomorrow 'The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers' will break new groond when we visit Spotland, in Rochdale!

'Yours truly' haz passed Rochdale a million times or more (slight exaggeration!) on the A62/M62 in visits to other groonds in this area since the 1960s and in mee job az a truck driver since the 1970s

We actually passed through it a few weeks back on the train on wor way to and from Bornley for a Premyaa Leegue fixture!
I've wanted to cross this groond 'off mee list' for years az it woz the anly Lancashire Leegue groond at the time where a'd never seen The Toon play!

Since then 2 more Lancashire clubs have been promoted from non leegue in the last few years, namely Fleetwood and Salford, but Rochdale is the one for me!---and at last I will get the chance, come the '12:31 bells' kick off time for live telly!
NUFC have sold wor entire 3,200 ticket allocation for The Willbutts Lane Stand which runs the full length of one sideline

We are on the 6:55 bells' train to Manchester in the mornin' and then onward to the delights of Rochdale train station (and the surrounding boozers!)
Az it's a orly kick off we wont have much time for 'tonsil ticklin' before the game---but plenty of time afterwards!🍺

At the time of writin', we have 11 crocked 1st team squad players, so a few reserves and kids, might--just might, make the starting line up!  (I am sure aall Rochdale fans will be delighted by this!)
In wor U23s game at Little Benton this afternoon (Won 3-0 v Fulim U23s (Longelo, Toure, Fernandez), we have left oot strikers Tom Allen and Elias Sorensen, plus defenders Lewis Cass and the delightfully musically named Ludwig Francillette (Nee relation to composer Ludwig van Beethoven!), which meenz they could be included in the forst team squad at Spotland!

FACTFILE: NUFC have never played Rochdale in a competitive game, mainly due to the fact that we have never played lower than the 2nd tier of Inglish futbaall and Rochdale have never played higher than the 3rd tier!
We HAVE played them in  Wartime Cup games in 1941, when we lost 2-1 at SJP, but won 3-1 at Spotland---Yoo would have to be at least 85 years old to have been to these games, which in effect were friendlies!
CONCLUSION: Not ONE of the 3,200 Toon fans who will be there tomorrow, will have been there before to watch us!

A full 'Geordie Times' match report on the game and 'booze cruise' pix will appear here sometime on Sunday!

Let's hope we are in the draw for the 4th roond, but as NUFC have lost a staggerin' 23 times to lower leegue and non leegue sides since the 2nd World War, divvint haad yet breath!😵