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It’s far from a secret amongst my friends and match day acquaintances at EP that my favourite away ground during the NLN days was the Northolme. Town centre; an almost unique barrel roofed stand; cover along the opposite touchline and behind one goal and a decent terrace at the other end. I enjoyed all of my trips there, and when I was forced to miss the one in 201718, (post chemo and stem cell transplant), it was a huge regret.

Additionally, whereas I found the trip to their county neighbours Boston a wearisome drive, getting to Gainsborough wasn’t half as bad. So. it was just after the turn of 2014 that the fixture list had us making the journey eastwards. The introduction to regional football had hardly gone well – the disastrous decision to go part time, amidst the nonsenses of the McKnight era, was reaping its reward, and results had been far from good. A dismal run through October and November had seen us fall to lower mid table – hardly what was anticipated 4 months previously. There had been a partial redemption over the festive period with wins over Oxford City and Bradford PA, added to a draw with Workington, but nobody making their way to the Lincolnshire market town expected what unfolded before us on a wintry afternoon.

Kristian Dennis had made the short move down the M60 from Curzon in the summer. I had seen him many times at the Tameside Stadium on my non-County match days, and was well aware of his goal scoring prowess – he had hit the target 72 times in his two season at The Nash. But there had been precious little evidence of it at EP. An opening day penalty against Boston had been followed by only 2 more, although he had suffered a couple of injuries.

It took him only three minutes at Gainsborough that day to add to his tally. A half hit shot squirmed away from home keeper Phil Barnes. Within ten minutes he had got on the end of a Nicky Platt corner and his glancing header doubled the lead. By half time it was three as Iain Howard seized on a loose ball in the area.

It soon became four after the break when Dennis wrapped up his hat-trick with a left foot drive. It was the first treble for a County player since Carl Baker hit one in a Johnstones Paints Trophy tie at Gresty Road over 4 years previously. (As it happened it was Baker’s second hat-trick in 10 days after one at Brighton). The Holy Blues pulled one back, but County ‘went nap’ 20 minutes from time with a classic.

From fully 30 yards Chris Churchman rifled a thunderbolt into the top left hand corner. It was a goal to grace any game, but particularly for the youngster who was making his first full appearance after emerging as as a substitute in the game against Oxford a couple of weeks earlier. That concluded the scoring, but a 5-1 away win was something to be savoured. It was the first time I had seen us score 5 away from home since a 5-0 win at Darlington in May 2007.

Travelling back over the Pennines Jeff and I wondered if this was to be the start of a resurgence and to some degree it was. The next 6 games brought 4 wins and a draw, and thoughts started to turn to a play-off push. Sadly it was back to normal service by mid February. The remaining 15 league games saw only a single victory , and that was against Harrogate on the last day. It left us in a final position of 14th – effectively 130th in the English hierarchy. It was to be the lowest place in our history….

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Memories of trips to The Northolme

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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	07/09/13	h	Edgeley Park	The Skrill North (Tier 6)	W	3	1	2,802
Sat	04/01/14	a	The Northolme	The Skrill North (Tier 6)	W	5	1	579
Sat	17/01/15	a	The Northolme	Vanarama Conference North (Tier 6)	L	0	2	511
Sat	11/04/15	h	Edgeley Park	Vanarama Conference North (Tier 6)	L	1	3	2,504
Sat	03/10/15	a	The Northolme	Vanarama National League North (Tier 6)	W	1	0	664
Sat	27/02/16	h	Edgeley Park	Vanarama Conference North (Tier 6)	W	2	0	2,990
Tue	15/11/16	h	Edgeley Park	Vanarama National League North (Tier 6)	W	1	0	2,112
Sat	08/04/17	a	The Northolme	Vanarama National League North (Tier 6)	W	1	0	851
Sat	26/08/17	h	Edgeley Park	Vanarama National League North (Tier 6)	W	1	0	3,006

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