Forever Blue With Ian Cheeseman: A Feast Of Football Hits The Spot

What a sporting weekend I’ve just had. On Friday night I went along to Boundary Park to watch Oldham Athletic beat Aldershot 2-1.

The support from the Athleticos, the singing section in the Rochdale Road End, was amazing and the players rewarded them with a late winner. It’s great to see the Latics coming back to life under their new owner Frank Rothwell, but of course it might take some time for the club to get back to where it should be in the Football League. 

I interviewed Frank and new Chief Executive Darren Royle for my Friday night Tameside Radio sports show, Sports Talk, and they impressed me greatly. If you missed it you can listen to it via the OnDemand section of tamesideradio.com, just scroll down to Sports Talk on 19th August. My trip to Boundary Park was followed on Saturday by Manchester City’s home game against Crystal Palace.

The Blues had struggled against Palace last season, so when they were 2-0 down at half time it looked like history was going to repeat itself. Although City had played poorly in that first 45 minutes, especially in the way they had conceded goals, I remained very confident that they would turn things around in the second half.

Well they certainly didn’t let me down. The comeback kings turned a two goal deficit into a 4-2 victory with some sparkling football and a huge performance from the Portugese maestro Bernardo Silva and the man mountain up front, Erling Haaland. City’s genius coach Pep Guardiola changed things tactically during his “Pep talk” at halftime, with Phil Foden moving more centrally and Silva encouraged to move out wide where he started to run the Palace left side ragged. 

Haaland is a powerful man. The way he held off two Palace defenders, when found by Ilkay Gundogen, was impressive. I don’t think many defenders are going to get the better of him defensively and of course his finishing is clinical. That goal completed his first hattrick for the club. I’m sure many more will follow. On Sunday evening I chatted to another famous City hattrick scorer, Tony Adcock, for my podcast Forever Blue. Tony was one of three hattrick scorers when City beat Huddersfield 10-1 back in 1987, the others being David White and Paul Stewart. You’ll hear from Tony Adcock on this week’s Sports Talk on Tameside Radio 103.6FM from 7pm.

You’ll also hear from Hyde United Chairman Steve Hartley, Ashton United joint Chairman Jonathan Burke and Ashton manager Michael Clegg who I spoke to after watching The Robins beat The Tigers 1-0 in a passionate Tameside derby. 

I was asked to be part of the commentary team by Hyde, which was a rare treat. I still consider that as my favourite broadcasting skill, but of course I remained strictly neutral, despite being alongside two huge Hyde fans. Ian Burke’s style is very light hearted and I loved joining in with the banter and hope those listening enjoyed our words as much as I enjoyed the game. I thought Hyde were unlucky to leave with nothing. They hit the woodwork three times and at times they were laying siege to the Ashton goal late on, but just couldn’t score.

Their manager Michael Clegg was philosophical and very honest in his post match interview, but that’s typical of football at so-called grassroots level. 

I’m a die hard Manchester City fan, as I’m sure you know by now, but I also love local football/sport and always try to get to as many games, at all levels, as I can. I can recommend games at all levels of our wonderful sport. It really is the beautiful game.