Beer Moose

Newport have never struck me as a football league club and I don’t think they will be one for much longer. Cambridge however are looking like they will be a league one club again, and we made the trip to Wales hoping to avoid another defeat to a bottom of the league club.  Setting off around 08:00 we made our first stop at the rather nice Rugby Services, where a Greggs was much needed! Nom Arriving in Newport around 13:20 we went for a walk to find a pint. ? Newport castle? A local suggested we visited The Potters, which happened to be just round the corner! A nice sports focused pub with Alpacalypse from Salt on tap, which I enjoyed. We saw even more sights walking back to the ground. Screams non league  Through the turnstiles we were presented with the choice of a stand with a roof to the side of the pitch, which felt a bit cramped or a stand behind the goal without a roof. We opted to stand behind the goal in the rain. Not a bad view Hardcore fans After a rather nothing fir...

  Another away day! It feels like ages since I’ve been to The Abbey! Looking to bounce back from a bad day at Harrogate, the amber army flirted with the tricky M25 for an evening game against Crawley.  As soon we arrived the chief steward announced that there would be no booze sold in the ground. Bit weird. Happily there were both pies and chips! The pie was alright. Glad to see some variation from the classic pukka pies. Being served in a bag and no forks wasn’t ideal though. The chips really hit the spot! Maybe the best chips I’ve ever had at a football ground! The other thing to note is that our white and green kit is cursed, no wins in it… A rather drab first half was significantly improved by a Cambridge United half volley goal!  Two second half KaiKai goals in front of the travelling faithful sealed a 3-0 win on the road against a frankly laughable Crawley side. I can’t remember watching a side who gifted so many needless corners from poor passes out from the back. ...

 I don’t like other teams that play in Yellow or Amber as it feels like Cambridge never beat them. Oxford are always tricky despite missing a stand at their ground, Burton have one of the worst grounds in the EFL and we only seem to beat them in playoff semi finals and then there’s Harrogate. Harrogate are a relatively new addition to the EFL and it seems that their short time in it is coming to an end, at least for now. They find themselves bottom of the league and haven’t won for ages, a stark contrast to high flying Cambridge. A thousand plus away following made their way up north filled with optimism, despite still being scarred by a 5-4 loss on our previous visit to Harrogate where a point would have seen us promoted.   Our first port of call was a rather busy yet small bar area. Draught choices were Madri or Harrogate Town Pilsner which is apparently brewed by Carlsberg.  The Harrogate welcome was a friendly one but this ground did not feel very football league...

  A slightly bleak blog photo for what will hopefully be an exciting blog of my weekend up north! Once again I received excellent hospitality at the house of Rach and Jo for another Manchester area away day! If you’re wondering if I’m knight in amber armour keep reading! I travelled up on Friday afternoon and arrived in Stockport at around 17:00. Our first stop was Thread, a Belgium themed bar in the heart of Stockport. Here we met up with Liz and Aaron. Plastics only because the food festival was on. I really liked Thread! Lovely building and full of delicious Belgium beers! Since I was post nights (Rach and Jo were too) I decided to play it safe and have a Chouffe session which I really enjoyed!  Our next stop was Petersgate Tap and old fave of ours and somewhere we could sit down!  A rose between two thorns? I missed the memo to wear black Beautiful  The Dry Irish Stout from Stockport brewers Runaway was simply divine.  From here we headed back to Rach and Jo...