The Ammies

Last Tuesday I was in Manchester with my girlfriend, I had been dreaming to attend a non-league match for a while, possibly a Salford City Football Club one. I've probably been attracted by the team's unusual colours (orange and black), or maybe by the team's logo which seems representative of a long history in a football context.
On that 8th of October was going to be played the rematch for the 6th day of the Evostik Premier Division North season, 9th level of the classical UK's football pyramid, considered as a respectful league since the players are semi-professionals.(Between the team's line-up are included players who milited in Football League clubs).
The upcoming match was between Salford City and Bamber Bridge FC, the "bianconeri" who come from Preston periphery.
The playing field is Moor Lane, the ancient ground dates back to the 17th century and became the City home during the 70ies.
Moor Lane is situated on the north of Manchester, it's possible to get there by bus, there's a comfortable stop in the city center on Blackfriars St. Parsonage, the direction is Bury and the final stop for the ground is Kersal Vale:
being honest the toughest part of the trip was finding the final stop since I hadn't a map with the bus direction and stops.
Luckily after asking some people for advice me and my girlfriend found the right stop and dismounted the bus.
We immediately took the stadioum's road, this must not be overlooked as it was dark and that was an unkown part of the city for us, after 5 minutes walk in a beautiful block we saw the Salford's ground.

The entrance was very tight and definitely "old school", you have to pass trough a foot pedal operatedturnstile which looks pretty old-fashioned.

We bought the £7 ticket and a match program for only £1, unfortunately as I said the match was postponed so the match program was a couple weeks old and had different date and slightly different datas, apart from that it was very well done.

There's more than one stand around the pitch so the spectators can choose where to sit or stand, the main one looks old, it has the tipical brick walls which keep fascinating me as an Italian lover of the British style.
Some squared pylons support the roof's stand blocking the view during the game, it's a pretty common thing in the non-league stadiums, I find it chatacteristic so the pros overcome the cons.
When we got there the team's mister was organising the pitch for some pre-match exercises, we passed really close to him while walking around the pitch(it's a really nice thing in my opinion because we can't do it in Italy, not even in the smaller districts pitches).

At that point we went looking for the Club Shop, the society of Ammies answered one of my tweets saying that there was one, even if small.
Keeping entering in the wrong doors that are on the main stand's side, before getting in the shop, I saw a small pub and the club house.

From there my night changed, positively of course, I had the opportunity to meet a very kind man, Tony, who was managing the shop and knows everything about Salford FC.
Once we introduced he couldn't avoid expressing how strange seemed that two italians could get into the Manchester pheripery to see the City.
He told me and my girlfriend a lot of interesting anectodes on Moor Lane, even though this ground has been used for centuries now, it only became the home of Salford FC in the mid seventies.
The players also have a singular nickname due to the fact that they formed the amateurs football team of Salford, they are called "the Ammies".

I remembered already that Enock Balotelli, brother of the well known Mario, who militated for Manchester City, had played for a little for the Manchester nort-western team.
It's been fun understanding how the fame preceded poor Enock, who had to fulfill his will of a football black-and-orange career playing for just 5 minutes.
The time flew and it was already time to go and attend the match, but not before having left the shop with: a scarf, a badge, a cup, a couple stickers and a pen, everything strictly branded SCFC.

We ate the usual sandwich (bought in the City center at Subway), sat on the stand close to the midfield line and the "hostility" begun.
It was maybe fault of the timing but unfortunately, on a tuesday night at 7.45 p.m., the stands were almost empty.
Tony had anticipated that the team, supporters included, were having a hard time and for that reason the stadium attendences were greatly diminished.

The referee was a girl who well managed the match, excemption made for the lasts handful of minutes. She should have been more strict since the Bamber Bridge's players started to feel the tension rising.
By the way they started the match at their best, the guests were pressing the Ammies and snatched a penalty after only a couple minutes caused by a guillible collision in the penalty area: central shot and O'Bryan, home goalkeeper, lands on the right. The result was then 0-1.

At that moment Salford felt the importance of changing the match inertia, they started to press until they obtained a penalty in their favour. Mota, the spanish funambulist, takes charge of the shot and smoothly strucks the Bamber goalkeeper! 1-1.

During half-time I had to go to the restroom and followed behind the main stand a man that seemed to have my same need.
Right there rise the old changing rooms, included the referees one, all of them in old and British style. Also toilets kept up with the same style. Nowadays the players change themselves inside some sort of containers.

The second time went on more slowly and saw the Salford City shove pursuing the victory goal and the Bamber Bridge get dangerous only on a couple of counterattacks.
At the end, after an action on the left and a good cue, home n. 10 Bancroft bagged the definitive goal. The result was then 2 nets to 1 for Salford, partial that wouldn't have changed anymore until the end of the game.

The little audience and I were very happy for the victory and the convincing performance of the guys in orange shirt, we all went then to cheer the team near the changing rooms.
Eventually me and my girlfriend went to say goodbye to Tony at the Club Shop clearly with the promise we would have come back one day to see another match of the Ammies.
We went again over the street that connects Moor Lane to Kersal Vale and, taken again autobus n. 92, went happily and fully satisfied by the night, back to the hotel.