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Radio Manchester will be covering the "Big Manchester Derby" on Saturday afternoon.

95.1FM or via T'internet!

Karen Rowley sold two full Football cards last night raising £180.They were won by Nick.....a mate of Foz's Dad & Mike Ford.Of course when the winning team was scratched off one of the cards it was.......Torquay!

Also Neil Faulkner has very kindly offered to sponsor each trip to the tune of £50!!

My brilliant mathematical brain makes that £280 raised in total!!!

Great stuff!!!

Radio Manchester are covering tomorrow's game.

There will be a preview between 2.50-3.00pm with reports every 10 minutes or so.

09066 555902

Call 09066 555902

This morning around 9.15am I put a piece of bread into the toaster in the dining room at the very pleasant Parks Hotel in Torquay.I was looking forward to the challenge of playing Torquay, but by the time the toast had popped up I had received a call from Grahame Rowley advising me that the match was off.Pretty dejected but not that surprised, considering the weather on the journey down on Saturday & what had clearly been a pretty bad night,I consoled myself that it had been ages since we had a game postponed & these things happen.The Hotel owner expressed surprise that the game was off as the ground is situated in one of the highest parts of the town & had good drainage to his knowledge (He had been to Torquay's last home BSP game against Woking).The Family Flynn checked out & proceeded to sample the retail delights of the English Riviera & just before setting off on the journey back I decided to drive up to Plainmoor to see if I could gain access & see how bad the pitch was.Unfortunately the ground was locked,but part of the pitch was visible from an exit gate situated in one of the corners.Very surprisingly, the section of the pitch near the home supporters end seemed perfect.Niall & I then tried to gain a view of the rest of the ground but a 10 minute circumnavigation of Plainmoor was unfruitful.We were just about to depart when I spotted a railing that I thought I could stand on to give me a view of the end where the Alty supporters would have been.My hopes for the vista were surpassed as it revealed about 90% of the pitch which was perfectly playable around 1.15pm.When I say perfectly playable,I mean there were NO signs of water whatsoever.I have sent some photos to John Laidlar which may be published on the Club website.

So if the pitch was perfectly playable at 1.15pm without any intervention from Torquay United Football, why was the game called off at 9.05am?The weather was not great but the rain showers were intermittent throughout the morning & I would be genuinely surprised if the forecast said incessant rain.The wind was variable but on the whole lighter than Saturday.With the team staying overnight in Devon & the travelling supporters either already in Torquay or well on their way, why wasn't the initial inspection later or if there was going to be one at 9.00am, why couldn't a later inspection be arranged?I really would struggle to comprehend a scenario where there was NIL chance of getting the game on!!

Let the conspiracy theories begin!!

Ryan talks about his first senior goal against Weymouth & his future at Moss Lane

09066 555902

I have just spent 15-20 minutes ringing a sample of pubs in the Alty/Timperley/Bowdon/Hale area.

They will all be closed tomorrow until at least 3.00pm apart from The Griffin in Bowdon.

The pubs I rang were:-

 Orange Tree
 Malt Shovels
 Moss Trooper
King George
Wheatsheaf
Cheshire Midland

Disturbingly at least half of them advised me that the Police had TOLD them to close & one stated that they were very concerned that if there was an incident at their establishment that it could potentially threaten their future license.

I suspect that there will be very few pubs open tomorrow.