Surely It’s Sawley

As Wayne Rooney signs off in style with England romping to a 3-0 win over the USA it is worth noting three things

…You can always rely on Aston Villa to spoil a party and former Villa Keeper Brad Guzan proved party pooper extraordinaire as he denied Wazza an England goal in his final appearance…

Secondly, the UEFA Nations League is actually working after Croatia’s win over Spain tonight it means there is genuine excitement ahead of Sunday’s clash with our nemesis in the World Cup semi-final.

Thirdly, I bet when I wake up tomorrow morning, England are about 120-5 before recovering to post somewhere in the region of 250 against Sri Lanka before losing to set up a decider in the third test.

(Some of the younger punters in the Nags Head)

To be fair to Aston Villa, Gareth Southgate played in B6 for years and he is not only a very nice bloke and a great ambassador for the beautiful game, but he is also proving himself to be a top notch England manager.

I actually want to watch England games these days and the post-World Cup feelgood factor has yet to wear off, whilst winning in Spain means we are almost bona fide top ten material.

However, the topic of conversation at about 1.30 on Thursday afternoon in a cracking boozer in Sawley was the other burning issue of the hour – Brexit.

As politicians across the kingdom continue to try and score points whilst the average working man looks on in amazement, there was a ferocious conversation taking place in the 307 – Nags Head NG10 3AL.

If you click on Sawley’s Wikipedia page then not only is it one of those anomalies with a Nottingham postcode but based in Derbyshire, it also has a much higher than normal population of OAPs.

(a view of the lounge – Mansfield dark and smooth on keg)

It is fair to suggest that nearly all of them were packed into the Nags Head: it was heaving.  There are other boozers in this village (next post) that are more heralded than this one, but this is clearly the pub of locals.

(note the bike out front)

Pedigree and Saddle Tank (Marston’s) were on but this is an old school Marston’s boozer before the gentrification of its pub stock and, whilst it serves food to the septuagenarian and octogenarian masses of Sawley, this is still very much a pub.

It was a two-roomer and once I’d got my decent half of Pedigree (not award winning but very drinkable) I sandwiched myself onto a seat in the bar and heard two blokes going at it hammer and tongs.

They had destroyed a bottle of wine and the one bloke was coherent whilst the other feller  sounded like he was on a night out in Whitwick with more f***s  and b******s in a sentence than I’d heard in a while.

Anyway, that’s enough politics in my blog and suffice to say the old boys hugged and agreed to differ as they finished a second bottle of wine and left at about 2pm – top work!

These are the sort of places that are supposed to be struggling, but I saw little evidence of this as the grey pound is alive and kicking in this part of Derbyshire.

No nonsense is the term I would use to describe the Nags Head as it had no gimmicks other than selling Pedigree, reasonably priced food and a welcoming atmosphere.

Maybe the politicians of Britain should meet for a pint of Saddle Tank or Pedigree in here and thrash out a deal…the two old boys were making a good fist of it.

A better fist of it than England’s top order I reckon… A great boozer with a great name (think Only Fools And Horses) in a great location with those iconic cooling towers in the distance.