WITH football pitches in Darlington almost as frosty as the relationship between Jose Mourinho and Barcelona's fans, there has only been one game in The Northern Echo Sunday Invitation League since the last column.

The match which did survive the big freeze saw Spraire RA beat Shuttle and Loom 2-0 to keep their slim title hopes alive.

Spraire play their games at Darlington RA' but presumably the pitch has acquired undersoil heating since the column last visited. However for pretty much everyone else the last two weekends have, like a typical Sunderland performance, been sadly lacking in any football.

NOT for Paul Stout, however, the midfielder, a key player for Division One champs Newton Aycliffe Sports Club until they folded last summer, spent last Saturday playing for Crook Town in the quarter finals of the prestigious FA Vase. Of course, he's played in bigger games.

About this time last year, he was playing against the column for Aycliffe in The Northern Echo Sunday Invitation League Cup.

He played for West Auckland Town in the first round proper of the FA Cup a few years ago too.

Michael Carter (Nestfield) and Garry Barnes (East End WMC) have also played in the FA Cup and Neil Tarrant (also East End WMC) has appeared for Scotland under-21s. The column can only boast an appearance in the Bishop Auckland Schools Football Association Under-13 League Cup Final but would be interested to hear others' big match experiences.

DESPITE their reputation for being a load of unfit, overweight alcoholics, not all Sunday league players are like that. Granted, most of them are, but the odd one can be spotted down the gym occasionally. Of course Division Two stars like Lee Hall and Craig Stoddart of The Northern Echo can be seen working out at The Penthouse, while you'll find Jonathan Armitage of Division One Spraire at Bannatyne's Health Club. But your average lower division player, like Luke Stott and Marc Tills of RAC, or Brown Trout's recently departed Dan Brooks, are more likely to be found at The Dolphin Centre.

That's where the column has been over the past fortnight and it has certainly provided a real fitness boost. The weights and treadmills have all been used but, until a forthcoming refurbishment is completed, there's no better way of building stamina than going from locker to locker looking for one that actually works.

ONLY three games left for Copper Beech and realistically, we need to win them all in order to win promotion from Division Three. Northgate CIU are our opponents this weekend - "ref and weather permitting, " warns manager Alan Curry - and there's still a massive game against second-placed Royal British Legion to come.

Meanwhile, defender Brassa is unhappy that, after scoring the first hat-trick of his career two weeks ago, he was not mentioned in the Local Heroes match report. As he's unlikely to score another one for many years, and even managed to persuade goal-hungry top scorer Stu Armstrong to let him take a penalty in order to complete his haul, we are happy to set the record straight here.

Published: 10/02/06