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Image from Tigerroar.co.uk – Gloucester City on the internet

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Trips around the National League took us to places we had never previously been, nor to be honest did we ever thin that we would go to. Braintree was one of those, and the journey in January 2012 necessitated an early start so as to pick Mark up in Sheffield. Getting to Cressing Road we noticed that Matty Mainwaring was getting off the team bus – it was a return for him after a spell at Hull.

My abiding memory of this game is a classic example of a the ‘dogs abuse’ that Tom Elliott got from some of the travelling support. They were on his back from the 1st to the 90th minute. Totally uncalled for in my opinion. Elliott was raw and young at that stage; prone to some mistakes, but had shown already in a struggling team that he knew the way to goal, having hit the target 6 times already. Over the years there have been many players who have been the ‘whipping boys’.

Sitting behind me for many years was somebody who was on Aaron Wilbraham’s back all the time. I daresay that, still playing 20 years later in 2020, Wilbraham has had the last laugh there. As has Elliott. A good career at a far higher level than the one County have operated at. Maybe Jim Gannon knew a bit more than those ‘terrace pundits’ when he expressed disappointment at Elliott’s departure in the summer of 2012!

We came into the game at Braintree 9 league games into Gannon’s second coming – and with only one win, (over Barrow), to show an improvement was required. It didn’t look that way as the home team were 2 up inside the hour. Joe Connor got one back with 25 minutes to play but a defeat looked on the cards.

Introduced from the bench after Braintree went two up was Danny L Rowe, signed on loan from Fleetwood a week or so previously. The shooting power he has displayed over the years since then, particularly at Fylde, came into play. As the game ebbed away he rifled one in on the 90th minute, giving us a point. It was the first of 6 he was to score in the next month, a period which saw us accumulate 12 points and provide the basis for escaping a second successive drop.

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Reflections on trips to Cressing Road

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Sat	21/01/12	a	Cressing Road	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	D	2	2	833
Sat	14/04/12	h	Edgeley Park	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	D	1	1	3,199
Sat	22/09/12	a	Cressing Road	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	D	0	0	653
Sat	16/03/13	h	Edgeley Park	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	L	1	3	3,250

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