And, well, here's what happened: 1876 had to play at Nantporth against Rhyl 1879 cause of trouble at the away fixture.
Not on the terraces of Belle Vue - but on the pitch. Absolute carnage, proper punches thrown and I do believe court cases imminent for the (Rhyl) instigators. I mean they always say 'there's no place for that in footy' but come off it, we all love a bit of aggro. Even so, this was exceptionally violent stuff and more suited to 10.30pm at the cocaine-and-white cider festival, where all the chairs have splinters and the jukebox is stuck on Datsyn's Greatest Hits.
No matter. After some shenanigans the return fixture was initially postponed, then moved from Treborth to Nantporth, which is a proper ground in comparison and much better set up for segregation. Though I still consider Nantporth to be fundamentally cursed, it made sense, and a crowd of 840 duly turned up and were noisy and boisterous in the great tradition of things.
Either side of a pen for them, 1876 secured three vital points with goals in the first and last minutes. That seems a poetic kind of symmetry, too. Scorers were both former City players - Jaime Petrie and the winner from Corrig McGonnigle, with his 50th of a wonderful season. That lad is good enough for the Welsh Prem, and hopefully we'll get there soon enough. He didn't get his chance at City - too young really for the Nev Powell sides, and then totally sidelined by the nonsense foolishness that followed.
With 1876 looking to move back to Nantporth permanently as of next season, it was an advance shot across the bows that spoke eloquently of how very vibrant a community facility that ground could be with the right tenant. This time, though, the rent needs to be affordable. The running costs are onerous for any one club, although the 3G and the function room are potentially a decent way to offset that. The council is thinking about it - and have two very long-term and committed Bangor supporters as elected members these days.
Home, for me, will always be Farrar Road, but Asda having plonked a supermarket on the dreams of a generation is kind of a problem there. So, if this is going to be a return home, 1876 need to complete the job over the last few games of the season. Rhyl are top - six points clear. But we have two games in hand, and better goal difference. Four wins and we've overhauled them. Not as simple as it sounds, as ever, but absolutely achievable. That said, Denbigh Town are ten behind us with five in hand so there's a real chance they'll have us both off, which would be a bastard. But - as with Bodedern last season - whoever wins the league deserves to do so.
Does it feel like we're back? Well, that's not the question is it. We were back at FCUM. We were back the first time the Comrades produced a replica shirt for a team that did not yet exist. We were back at the vote to form a phoenix club. It was always in us: supporters, board members, owners, players, sponsors. All the people who believed in the idea that football was for, and by, the community. Whether we'd seen it immediately that the 'consortium of North West businessmen' was revealed, or hung on desperately to the last bedevilled minute of Italian semi-professionals and Argentinian World Cup winners - it matters not, now.
All are welcome. All are Home. And that's been the case since the first football club was formed in Bangor.
Back in 1876.
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