Mangotsfield United FC - Pitchero

THAT WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS!Time now for a nostalgic look back at a particular month in recent or not-so-recent years & see howwe fared in that period. Today we go back & look at AUGUST 1997.MUFC RESULTS IN AUGUST 199716-08-97 MANGOTSFIELD UNITED 2, WESTBURY UNITED 0 SCREWFIX LGE19-08-97 MANGOTSFIELD UNITED 10, KEYNSHAM TOWN 0 SCREWFIX LGE23-08-97 MELKSHAM TOWN 2, MANGOTSFIELD UNITED 2 SCREWFIX LGE26-08-97 MANGOTSFIELD UNITED 4, ODD DOWN 0 SCREWFIX LGE30-08-97 MINEHEAD 0, MANGOTSFIELD UNITED 1 FA CUP PRELIMTHE 1997-98 SEASON OVERALLThis was a disappointing season for MUFC, but it was also to prove to be a season of transition, asthe Club elected to change its priorities. Following 2 campaigns of “cheque book” football, duringwhich we kept finishing 3 rd behind Taunton & Tiverton, manager TERRY ROWLES was forced tobuild a squad within a much lower financial budget with a view to bringing success to Cossham St,but despite a good start to the season, it just didn’t happen. Poor attendances were partly to blame.In February 1998, with the Club still looking to re-direct its finances towards ground improvementsinstead, TERRY ROWLES stood down & was replaced by NICK TANNER. The Club were in midtablegoing nowhere, (the Big Two were so far ahead of us, you needed binoculars) & NICK TANNERspent the rest of the term assessing his squad in the hope of doing better in 1998-1999.THE GAMES IN QUESTIONWe began the season with a decent 2-0 home win v The White Horse Men of WESTBURY UNITED.Goals from MIKE BROOKS (13) & SIMON WINSTONE (50) – whom we all knew in those days as“Scrapper” – settled the game, but a pitifully low opening–day gate of just 135 had the alarm bellsringing straight away. Having said that, it was in the middle of the holiday season, so there you go!But if we ever needed a great bit of publicity to boost the Club, then it came just 3 days later as wedemolished hapless local rivals KEYNSHAM TOWN by an amazing TEN goals to nil! It was one ofthose performances where everything went right & here’s who bagged the goals:SCOTT HENDY 1-0 (8), TONY BENNETT 2-0 (13), GARY HEWLETT 3-0 (15), WAYNE MORRIS 4-0(28), TONY BENNETT 5-0 & 6-0 (60 + 64), GARY HEWLETT 7-0 (64 pen), SIMON WINSTONE 8-0(69), TONY BENNETT 9-0 (75) & BRETT GREADY 10-0 (88). For the record, our line-up was:RICHARD WESTON, WAYNE MORRIS, PAUL CICHY, DYLAN DALE, SCOTT HENDY, GARYHEWLETT, SIMON WINSTONE, MIKE BROOKS, JUSTIN PRITCHARD, TONY BENNETT & BRETTGREADY. Subs who came on: MARK BROWN, DARREN WELSH & RALPH HUSBAND.Some great names from the past there, eh? I recall one MUFC fan having a MOAN about the onesthat TONY BENNETT actually missed – as if scoring 4 wasn’t enough! Anyway, 4 days later, weheaded to The Conigre to face MELKSHAM TOWN, who were a hard side to play against, particularlyon their own ground. The tie ended 2-2, with TONY BENNETT (22) & MARK BROWN (85) nettingfor us, with Gordon Saunderson (21) & Brent Murden (88) replying for the home side. We felt it agood point, as MTFC had won their first 2 games, which led to a good gate of 310 at The Conigre.Next up was another home win, this time 4-0 v ODD DOWN, a side who always gave us a hardmatch, home or away. TONY BENNETT, DYLAN DALE, GARY HEWLETT & MARK BROWN wereall on target for us. The successful month of August 1997 ended with a 1-0 FA Cup win atMINEHEAD, with MARK BROWN netting the winner to earn us a tough trip to Gloucester City inthe next round, but little did we know at the time, whereas August 1997 had been a great monthfor us, September 1997 would prove to be the exact opposite! More from “TWTMTW” again soon.FIELD REVIEW -15