Season 08/09 - Teams witnessed

A brief overview of all the teams I saw this season (regardless of whether I was supporting them or not) and how they did of the course of the season.

Accrington Stanley –> Who are they? Exactly. Sorry. Despite having hardly any fans and no money, Accrington still managed to finish in a respectable 16th position in League 2. It looked to be a spring board into next season, however news came out yesterday that a winding-up order has been taken out against them and so it remains to be seen whether they will even start next season at all. Worrying times for them at the moment.

Argentina –> Diego Maradona looked to be finding the managerial life simple with wins against Scotland, France and a qualification match against Venezuela and it seemed Argentina would cruise into the 2010 World Cup. Then they travelled to Bolivia, the 3000ft match caused serious trouble as they lost 6-1, a massive shock and hammering. It also left them 4th in the South America (only top 4 qualify automatically), 2 points off Uruguay. Their next match against Columbia (the team in 6th) on the 6th June will be vital for Maradona and Argentina.

Barnsley –> After their 0-0 draw against Southampton in September I said that I would be surprised if both of those teams were not relegated at the end of the season. More on Southampton when I come to them, but Barnsley did manage to prove me wrong by securing survival on the last day with a win over Plymouth and they even finished 20th in the process. They will be favourites for relegation again next season but will battle strongly to try and keep their Championship status secure.

Barnstaple Town –> In the end for Barnstaple it was quite comfortable to secure survival in the Western Premier League. They finished 18th (out of 22 – bottom 2 go down) after a great run of form towards the end of the season. Barnstaple will hopefully be a ground I manage to visit quite early on in the season as it is quite nearby.

Bideford AFC –> They finished 6th in the Western Premier, which I feel is quite a decent finish for them. They also reached the Q-F of the FA Vase before losing 4-0 away at Lowestoft Town.

Carlisle United –> An interesting close season for Carlisle as they announced that Greg Abbot would continue to be manager and so he will hope to try and bring some of his own players in to avoid a struggle like this season. With some big teams still or being relegated into this Division, I can’t see anyway Carlisle finishing in a play-off spot or above next season, although a comfortable midtable finish looks likely. They will have to replace Danny Graham who today announced that he will not be signing the contract Carlisle offered to him.

Celtic –> After three league titles in a row, a 0-0 draw against Hearts, combined with Rangers 3-0 win over Dundee United meant that their Glasgow rivals took the title. Manager Gordon Strachan then resigned in the week and with Burnley manager Owen Coyle set to reject them for a crack at the Premiership, a new boss is needed first before the rebuilt begins. Who knows what the Celtic line-up will look like on the opening day of the 2009/2010 season. They do have bogging away shorts this season though.

Chippenham Town –> Flirted with the play-offs for quite some time before a point deduction cost them and ended up finishing 8th in the Southern Premier League. Could have a decent crack at promotion next season if they keep the basis of their current team together,

Exeter City –> I don’t know how, but Exeter City will be playing League 1 football next season. The two times I saw them this season, they had been outplayed for large sections of the match and managed to fluke their way to 6 points. I do feel that Exeter will come straight back down again, but St James Park will be a place that no team will fancy going to next season so they might just do it. (Doubtful though). Will hope to get a blog report from there at some point in the season, hopefully when Carlisle United go down to the real St James Park.

Hamburg SV –> They looked very, very strong and looked at one point that a treble was on the cards. However, one team put a stop to all of that – Werder Bremen. Bremen beat them in the DFB Pokel Semi-final on penalties, then knocked them out of the UEFA Cup semi-finals on away goals and even had the cheek to beat them in the league. In the end Hamburg only scrapped into the final Europa League spot with the 90th minute goal on the last day.

Hamilton Academicals –> The Accies adapted brilliantly to their first season in the SPL and in the end finished in a (in my opinion) rather harsh 9th. Their best players could be on their way in the summer, so will need to replace them wisely or a struggle could be on as St Johnstone don’t really look that bad a team coming up from Division 1.

Hearts –> Well, as previously discussed in my last post at the end of the 07/08 season I feared for Hearts, a terrible team, no manager and a crazy owner. This season has been exceptional if you compare it to the dross I watched 12 months earlier. 3rd place in the league, Europa League play-off round (cheers Rangers, *washes mouth out with soap*) and a great, great manager. The fears are back though (I am a very pessimistic person), with our defence ripped out, our most creative player gone, these are big gaps to fill for next season. There is also the shadow of Romanov hanging over us and I feel that we would need to be bought out before those fears go away again. Cannot wait for the summer as we are linked with various players such as Maurice Ross, Paul Hartley, Roy Carroll and Miku. (A Salamancia striker – holds a Hungarian passport so could be true…..)

Lancaster City –> Finished 7th in the Unibond Div 1 North, their old manager was actually sacked the week after the 5-3 loss to Salford City and so with a new manager, a promotion tilt (they have the look of a club that deserve to be higher) could be on the cards next season. With next year set to be my last year at Lancaster, it would be rude not to repay them a visit.

Manchester City –> Finished 10th in the Premiership, but the big news over the summer will be, who will their starting XI be next season? With billions to spend, Mark Hughes is basically playing a real life version of Football Manager so expect some crazy spending and City still winning nothing and coming midtable.

Millwall –> Reaching the play-offs can be seen as a great achievement for a team that weren’t expected to be around that area at the beginning of the season. Yet a win over Leeds in the Semi-Final put them through at Wembley to play Scunthorpe and despite going 2-1 up (the equalizer being a wonder goal) they still managed to lose 3-2. I doubt another promotion push will be sustained next season but as my predictions are normally so laughably wrong, they will probably go up automatically.

Morecambe –> Finished 11th and had an outside shot at the play-offs which would have been a play-off place if they actually had any sort of form in the first few months of the season. This, despite having a squad not as good as the 07/08 squad, shows good work done again by the boys at Christie Park. This coming season is also set to be the last season at Christie Park so get down there!

Motherwell –> Its hard to congratulate success at Motherwell when they have such a whiney, dislikeable tosser as a manager in the form of Mark McGhee. They finished 7th and so were the best of the bottom 6, yet due to “fair play rules” they have been laughably given a Europa League spot where they WILL go out the first round they are in. If you look on Wikipedia at the Europa League 2009/10 page, there is a great table to show what Round, teams come in. Motherwell enter at the First Qualifying Round where 95% of the teams will beat them easily. Still, why don’t Scotland give another spot to the Cup final losers? Oh. They have. :|

Rochdale –> Another decent season from the boys at Spotland, although some may feel that an automatic promotion place was lost rather than a play-off place gained. An interesting close season on the horizon as they currently have 0 goalkeepers so look out for that one.

Salford City –> Where do I start with Salford!? Their win at Lancaster in March put them on 12 points. Relegation looked likely, suddenly they picked up win after win and found themselves only 2 points behind Rossendale United on the last day. A win for Salford at Garforth Town (5-2) and Rossendale’s 0-3 home defeat to Mossley kept them up. Amazing and what an escape. Ironically though, Rossendale were reprieved and so Salford wouldn’t have been relegated anyway. Nevermind.

Scotland –> After that 1-0 defeat to Argentina, Scotland next played the runaway leaders in Group 9, Holland. We lost. Iceland were beaten (only just) to keep our slim hopes in qualifying for 2010 alive, although with Holland basically there already it would seem a play-off would be in order if we came 2nd in the group. Its a big big game against Norway on the 12th August. We will be helped by the fact Barry “straight-ball” Ferguson won’t be playing.

Southampton –> Oh dear. Those two words sum up Southampton’s season quite well as relegation to League 1 was confirmed, the club are currently in administration and will start next season in League 1 on –10 points. Although Saints legend “Le Tiss” appears to be part of a consortium buying the club, Southampton’s short-term future looks to be not so rosy, especially as it looks like another season will await in League 1 after this season. Also not helped by the fact their nearest rivals Portsmouth have just been bought up by some rich Arab. Never rains but it pours eh.

Tiverton Town –> Finished a disappointing 12th in the Southern Premier League. A better season, or at least a start will be needed next season at Ladysmead.

My final blog post will be detailing the grounds I wish to see in 09/10 (I’ll get to hardly any of them most likely) and then I sit back and watch Hearts sign more unknowns and Manchester City buy every football in the World. In the meantime, have some pictures of games I was at this season. (I didn’t take any of these)

Season 08/09 review

Well, that went fast! The season that started out in the sunshine at the REAL St James Park ended in the sunshine on the pitch at Brunton Park. The next couple of blog posts will detail the season and plan out (roughly) where I hope to go for 09/10. Although its doubtful that my plan will stick over the course of the season and I am at the mercy of the beast known as the fixture list. I personally cannot wait to see what games are when so I can pick my fixtures but that is for another day.

Statistics!

Games Attended: 14

Goals: 37 (2.64 per game)

Most Goals: 8 (Lancaster C vs Salford C)

Least Goals: 0 (Southampton vs Barnsley)

New Grounds: 10 (St James Park – Exeter City, St Mary’s – Southampton, Hampden Park – Scotland, Fir Park – Motherwell, New Douglas Park – Hamilton Academicals, Giant Axe – Lancaster City, The Sports Ground – Bideford AFC, Ladysmead – Tiverton Town, City of Manchester Stadium – Manchester City, Brunton Park – Carlisle United)

Best and Worst

Best Game: Lancaster City 3-5 Salford City -- An 8 goal thriller, played on a mud pitch in the pouring rain with two teams who cannot defend so just attack and Salford’s Steve Foster scoring all 5 for Salford. Also, I only paid £5 to get in and see it.

Worst Game: Motherwell 1-0 Hearts -- Dire does not describe how bad this midweek fixture was. An early Chris Porter goal separated two awful sides on the night and then nothing for another 80 odd minutes. Some people paid £25 to watch that. Unlucky.

Best Team: A few candidates here, in relation to their level I though Chippenham Town were decent and had pace which would cause any teams problems. Exeter City will need home advantage next season to survive in League 1 and the two times I saw them here they looked decent at times (and were also very lucky)

Worst Team: Lancaster City looked laughable at times trying to defend while Barnstaple Town going forward looked dreadful. Maybe if they combined the two together…..

Best Ground: (Professional): Man City – The City of Manchester Stadium looks great, has a modern feel but still has character unlike other new build stadiums in the North, mentioning no Bolton’s, sorry teams.

Best Ground: (Non League): Tiverton Town – I love Ladysmead and hope to revisit there next season.

Worst Ground: Motherwell – A laughably bad ground with 4 stands that look nothing like each other or go together in a s**thole of a town.

Most Picturesque Setting: Tough one to answer but would probably go with Tiverton again.

Biggest Dump: Motherwell – I only drove through it to park for the match, it was dark and still looked terrible.

Best Programme: Bideford AFC – A great great effort which was full colour, good information and only £1.

Worst Programme: None – no programme was terrible this year and as a “paper chasing nerd” I only go to games that issue them anyway.

Best Food: Morecambe – the pies are class.

Funniest Moment: Salford City fans singing “can we play you every week” to Lancaster as they have previously beaten them in the FA Cup earlier in the season. (They had only won 1 league match at this point)

Best Punch Up: Tiverton vs Chippenham – for reasons beyond me, a Chippenham winger runs up to a Tiverton player after being awarded a free kick and elbows him in the face. Cheerio.

Hardest Place to Find: When driving to grounds I always seem to get lost (except going to Hamilton) so getting lost trying to find Hampden Park tops this list.

Friendliest club: Probably Tiverton again, friendly staff and fans.

Most Miserable club: Bideford AFC – quite easily the worst fans of the season. Moaning about anything and everything, despite a decent showing in the league this season. Hopefully won’t be going back to The Sports Ground in a hurry.

Best Song: “We only win away” – Salford City, “We’re from the capital! You’re from a s**tehole!” – Hearts sung at everyone bar Hibs in the SPL

Coldest Ground: Lancaster City was perishing when I went, in March.

Best Goal: Steve Foster’s 5th at Lancaster. Turned on the edge of the area and curled a great shot into the top corner.

 

My 07/08 season ended 80 minutes into Hearts vs Kilmarnock in the pouring rain. Killie had just gone 2-0 up at Tynecastle and I had serious concerns about relegation this season. Cue Csaba Laszlo who has been exceptional in his first season getting an average team at times into 3rd place in the SPL – the worries are out next season too however as we have already lost Robbie Neilson (to Leicester), Karipidis (to Omonia Nicosia) and Bruno Aguiar (to who knows) so hopefully replacements can be found that can propel the club to bigger and better things as currently, the top 2 in the SPL have pretty average squads at best and I would bet on Rangers exiting the Champions League bottom of whatever type of group they get. So it will be an extremely interesting summer to see who joins Ian Black in becoming a new Hearts player.

As for other clubs, this season was great for me, getting to 10 new grounds. Only 14 games due to time and money but will hopefully improve on that next year and with next year set to be my last at University, nearby clubs are top of the agenda to visit. (except Blackpool, they can get stuffed I am paying £28 to sit in a half finish stadium in Blackpool)

My next post will detail all the clubs I saw this season and how they got on in the end.

Roses 2009

Maybe my first non-football (well at least a football specific) post. Here at Lancaster University, there is a little bit of a rivalry between York University. It stems back to the 15th Century civil war, The War of Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and the Houses of York. The first competition happened in 1965 with it being in York and York coming out the victors. It alternates every year with “away” victories obviously rarer but a great achievement. Last year, the tournament was held here, at Lancaster, where York managed a late Lancs fight off to win 124-122, damn.

I had planned to write this last night and talk about how close this years event would be with the early events resulting in a tie, however as I currently write this, this years Roses, held in York is currently 62.5-14.5 to York. Oh dear. I had actually wanted to go to an event (two, for example are held at Lancaster) but due to time commitments (i.e these bloody exams) that couldn’t happen. Rest assured that I will write a blog report for next years roses back in Lancaster and can only hope the red rose can battle back tomorrow and Sunday to claim an unlikely win.

(Or we’ll just say that Lancaster actually won the war in the 15th Century, so there.)

Carlisle United vs Millwall (02/05/09)

Match 47

Ground #: 22

Ground: Brunton Park

Competition: English League One

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £14

Programme: £3

Attendance: 9,470

Carlisle United 2

Kavanagh 7’, Thirlwell 50’

Millwall 0

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With the joyful time of “exam season” now on the near horizon, it was time to finish my season (unless a game pops up which is very doubtful) and also time to get in another ground to cap the 2008/2009 season off. With my missus born and bred in Carlisle and a last day game vs Millwall, Brunton Park was to be the ground I finished my season off on. The previous week, Carlisle could have eased their relegation fears as they took on Cheltenham Town who were League Two bound away at Whaddon Road. They could only muster a 1-1 draw, despite being 1 up and only finished the game with 9 men and nearly lost it late on. It therefore seemed Carlisle would be playing League Two football next season as they started the day in 21st position on 47 points, two points behind Brighton, a win was a must.

For this must win game they welcomed play-off challengers Millwall, a team that many fans fear and as soon as we arrived at Carlisle station a big police presence awaited us all to greet the Millwall fans on arrival. Millwall, this season had improved greatly under boss Kenny Jackett and currently went into this game in 4th and a playoff place confirmed. Carlisle on the otherhand had fallen from a last gasp playoff defeat last season to Leeds to this final day must win game. In the programme, a director opened with the line, “On behalf of everyone at the football club I would apologise for the poor season we have just completed.” It had been a poor season.

Brunton Park is an old school ground with some modern elements that make it a decent day out in the Football League, despite it being so far North for most fans to get to. We stood in the Warwick Road end, which is a strange stand, due to the layout which I havent seen before at a ground but it had a good view of the pitch behind the goal, shame I decided to stand behind a pillar for the game then. To my right was the most modern stand (I presume), the East Stand (or to please their sponsors, The Cumberland Building Society Stand) which was a normal, large all seater stand which the hardy bunch of Millwall fans were placed in at the corner. Behind the other goal was a stand, a little like Morecambe’s Car Wash stand with no cover and terracing only which I was told is not normally open but was open today for kids. Then down the other side of the pitch was another strange stand, but a stand I liked as it had both terracing and seating, something I hadnt seen since Germany. Also cobbled into this stand was the directors area and boxes. The atmosphere needed to be great to cheer Carlisle on in their must win game and it was great and also credit to the stadium DJ who played some great tunes before the game such as Madness and “Welcome to the Jungle”.

When the game kicked off, I had to admit, amongst the 8900 or so Carlisle fans I must have been one of the few who did not believe they could do it as I just felt Millwall would be too strong or Brighton and Northampton could get the point(s) they needed to stay up. However with an increasing attachment to Carlisle as a place (hopefully my missus won’t read that!) I secretly wanted them to stay up and it became clear early on that either Millwall were not up for this game or they could not care less as several times, Carlisle players skipped past half-hearted challenges or none at all from the team in orange. Carlisle needed an early goal and they got it when the ball was cut back to Graham Kavanagh (who along with Ian Harte I had looked forward seeing) was told to shoot by the Carlisle fans, he did and his shot rocketed into the top corner with Millwall goalie David Forde given no chance. The dream was on! Carlisle though had lost 6 points in two months by conceding late goals and so it was felt by all the Carlisle needed to get a 2nd. They had their chances in the 1st half with Dobie and Anyinsah going close. The 1st half came to a close and currently Carlisle were safe and Brighton the team dropping to League 2. A long 45 minutes to go though.

The 2nd half started with Millwall bringing on Jason Price who looked tall and was causing the Carlisle defence problems, however Carlisle broke and when the ball fell to Paul Thirlwell who hit it on the volley I first thought, “why has he wasted that!?” The ball flew straight in, 2-0. Carlisle fans could now really start to believe, especially as news broke through that Leeds had taken the lead against Northampton. The 2nd goal though seemed to wake Millwall up, only 50 minutes into the match who then started to get more of the ball and pushed Carlisle back as they began to get nervous. Millwall created many chances, Gary Alexander first hit the bar with a header with a well worked move and then Jason Price also had a great chance before Graham Kavanagh nearly sliced the ball into his own net after clearing a low cross. The 2nd half was one of the most tense games I can remember with the time ticking slowly down as Carlisle just needed to hang on. Millwall’s best chance came on the 88th minute when a low cross found Nadjim Abdou who just needed to pass the ball in, however he passed the ball wide and it was clear that Millwall were not going to score. 5 minutes of injury time were called which by this time loads of chavs had decided to stand on the line at the edge of the pitch ready for a pitch invasion, they ignored the announcer's pleas to keep off the pitch and when Carlisle won a corner late on, they charged onto the pitch early. When the final whistle was blown, Carlisle had done it! Cue a proper pitch invasion and a mass police presence around Millwall to stop any real nawtyness going on. Me and the girlfriend wandered down onto the Brunton Park pitch to take a couple of pictures which was nice.

So Carlisle had stayed up! At the expense of Northampton Town who will be playing in League Two next season, also a small well done to Exeter City who were promoted to League One today, despite the two times I had seen them this season they hadn’t been very good but all the best to them. (A blog report from St James Park will come this summer) Millwall I dont think cared particularly much as they now have the play-offs to look forward/dread to. They play their old chums Leeds in the semi-final (unlucky the police on duty for that game!) while the other semi-final will be between MK Dons and Scunthorpe. The overall day out had been tense but a good ground and two great goals and a good old fashion pitch invasion had lead to a good day. I’m sure I’ll be back to watch Carlisle at some point again, although hopefully it won’t be a relegation decider anytime soon.

It also was my last game for 2008/2009, a season for me which started in the sun watching Exeter beat Accrington Stanley had finished on the Brunton Park pitch with 2009/2010 to look forward to, although the small matter of Hearts trying to secure a Europa League spot and exams will keep me busy until the next season. I will write some season overview sometime next week and a final round-up of what happened to all the teams I had witnessed this season when their seasons end. Hopefully 2009/2010 will see me get to more great games and more great grounds. Well done Carlisle!

Photos from Carlisle Utd vs Millwall

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 7/10 (the game itself was average, but it was so tense and two great goals)

- Value for money: 6/10 (£14 in League 1 is about the same price)

- Ground: 7/10 (decent ground which has character and many stories)

- Atmosphere: 8/10 (Carlisle fans got right behind their team, Millwall took 500 which was decent enough for a game that didnt matter for them)

- Food: 7/10 (Scotch Pie = win)

- Programme: 6/10 (decent enough effort)

- Referee: Neil Swarbrick – 5/10 (a lot of pulling back of players went unnoticed)

Manchester City vs Hamburg SV (16/04/09)

Match 46

Ground #: 21

Ground: City of Manchester Stadium

Competition: UEFA Cup Quarter Final – 2nd Leg

Kick Off: 7:45pm

Cost: £5

Programme: £3

Attendance: 47,009

Manchester City 2

Elano (pen) 17’, Caicedo 50’, Dunne s/off 75’

Hamburg SV 1

Guerrero 12’

HAMBURG WIN 4-3 ON AGG.

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With an Easter double over I was determined to get in at least another game after Tiverton to wrap up my season. With exams in May, its extremely unlikely I would get a chance to get to a Cup Final of any sort to wrap up my season, so I am looking at Carlisle Utd vs Millwall on the 2nd May which could well determine Carlisle’s and Millwall’s future and that game could see them going in different directions. Yet, during the Easter break whilst reading the greatest website in the World, BBC Sport, I stumbled across the news that Man City had reduced prices for their UEFA Cup match against Hamburg to £5 so I jumped right aboard this £5 bandwagon and me, the missus (!?) and Jonny (a uni friend) made our way to Eastlands.

Man City are now officially the richest club in the World after being bought in the summer by Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is now the majority shareholder at the club and can outspend anybody, although their spending ‘might’ has not been flexed yet, although a ridiculous £100m bid for AC Milan’s Kaka was made in January which very nearly saw the Brazilian move to Manchester. Yet despite this money they are still seen as Manchester’s “2nd club” by most, as Manchester United *spits* are the more successful, although are not actually based in Manchester and neither are most of their fans. Since City’s return to top flight football in 2002, they have rarely flirted with relegation and in those 7 years have seen an amazing transformation. Even at the start of last season with Thaksin Shinawatra as owner and Sven in charge, compared to today with Mark Hughes (who is under pressure himself) currently as manager. City also have played at the City of Manchester Stadium (or Eastlands) since 2003 when they took over after the stadium was used in the 2002 Commonwealth Games and was tinkered with by City such as building a North Stand and removing the running track around it.

City’s UEFA Cup run was all they had going for them now this season as a mid-table finish beckons and no domestic cup competition involvement means that City’s only chance to get into Europe it seems was to be winning the UEFA Cup. Their campaign had started back in July with victory over EB/Streymur of the Faeroes and although they had some hairy moments against Aalborg in the previous round, they had made it here. Their UEFA Cup opponents were Hamburg SV who under boss Martin Jol were having a great season and were going for trophies on 3 fronts, the Bundesliga (currently 2nd going into this game), DFB Pokel Semi-Finalists (German FA Cup vs Bremen) and of course the UEFA Cup. Hamburg is a city in the North of Germany which I may be going to visit in the summer (I can barely remember my previous visit when we lived in Germany) and the club have not won anything since their 1987 German Cup win. So this was a big game for them in a very good looking season. Hamburg the previous week had won the 1st Leg 3-1 at the Nordbank Arena, despite going 0-1 down after 30 seconds when Stephen Ireland scored, but goals from Mathijsen, Trochowski (pen) and Guerrero gave Hamburg a merited victory.

I was slightly concerned that Eastlands would be another new, soul-less stadium that lacked any sort of atmosphere but I could not be more wrong. The ground is very modern and shiny looking still, and we made our way to the North Stand behind a goal with already a cracking atmosphere and this was only 7pm. As the ground filled up, it was clear that this would be City’s biggest European attendance of the season (currently 26,018 vs Copenhagen) and with inflatable bananas, lots of flags, City fans were right up for this one. A mention must also be made to the Hamburg fans who it seemed took many City fans by surprise, my 13 years in Germany meant their support was not surprising, with a mass bounce, flares, giant artwork and constant singing it wet my appetite for a possible summer trip to Germany even more.

The game started off quite franticly with both teams trying to settle down and City needing an early goal. The game got a goal after only 12 minutes, however it was Hamburg who stormed into the lead when Jonathan Pitroipa crossed during a counter attack, Dunne could only divert the ball to Guerrero who finished well past Given and stunned the home fans. Silence apart from the 3000 Germans going mental behind the other goal. It means City still needed 3, although this would only take the match into extra time. City needed a quick response and got it, 5 minutes later when Trochowski was judged to have handled Elano’s shot and he scored the resulting penalty. Given that it was at the other end of the pitch I had no chance to see a clear view on whether it was a penalty or not. This rocked Hamburg and City looked to up the pressure and try to find the two more goals they needed, although Hamburg looked comfortable on the ball, defensively they did look shaky and Elano was so unlucky to see his freekick crash off the bar with Frank Rost beaten at half time. So at 1-1 at half time, City had reacted well to going 0-1 down and a big 45 minutes lay ahead of them.

City came out all guns blazing and got the 2nd goal only 5 minutes into the 2nd half when a shocking clearance only found Ireland at the edge of the area he played it into Caicedo’s path as Hamburg defenders missed the ball or slipped, he skipped past his marker and slotted low past Rost, could they do it?! They should have had the 3rd when another Elano freekick again beat Rost but cannoned off the post and was cleared for a corner. From this corner, poor defending again allowed Caicedo an open goal from close out but the ball bounced in front of him and he skied it over. Had that gone in, I believe Hamburg could have collapsed and City would have got the 4th goal they needed to go through outright. City kept pressing though and Robinho had two shots brilliantly saved by Rost, Caicedo had a goal ruled out for offside after he rounded Rost and Hamburg were being pushed further back. The pressure dropped on 75 minutes when City Captain Richard Dunne who was booked in the first half (after this booking me and Jonny both agreed he would be lucky to survive the 90 minutes) stupidly brought down Petric and was sent off for a 2nd yellow. Hamburg had two good chances of their own as Given saved well as City looked to readjust. In injury time both Sturridge and Richards had good chances but Hamburg held on to win the tie 4-3 on aggregate.

I think City will know they missed a great opportunity here, they deserved extra time at the very least and had Hamburg rocked for the majority of the 2nd half, but Hamburg held on and the players were celebrating with the fans well after the final whistle had gone as they set up a Semi-Final meeting with fellow German side Werder Bremen who drew 3-3 with Udinese in their 2nd leg to go through 6-4. I was extremely impressed with Eastlands and the City fans and someday will make a return visit. The 92 Football League teams are a target a lot of people like to hit, this ground meant I was on 7/92, so a long way to go yet! I would try to get one more game in this season at least with a tasty date at Brunton Park hopefully on the horizon. Hopefully.

Photos from Man City vs HSV

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 7.5/10 (great entertainment featuring some top quality players)

- Value for money: 9.5/10 (£5 for a European Competition Q-F!?)

- Ground: 7/10 (great ground that will only improve in time)

- Atmosphere: 9/10 (both sets of fans were fantastic)

- Food: n/a (didnt eat at the ground but they seemed to have a wide choice)

- Programme: 10/10 (less of a programme and more of a book, this 98 page prog featured very few adverts and some great articles)

- Referee: Nicola Rizzoli – 7/10 (no idea about the penalty decision, seemed to get everything else right)

Tiverton Town vs Chippenham Town (13/04/09)

Match 45

Ground #: 20

Ground: Ladysmead

Competition: Southern Premier League (Level 7)

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £7.50

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 301

Tiverton Town 1

Knighton (pen) 32’

Chippenham Town 2

Adams 15’, 35’, Allison s/off 34’

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The 2nd part of my Easter double saw a drive to East Devon to visit Tiverton Town of the Southern Premier League in the hope that their game against Chippenham today was far better than the Good Friday dour fest at Bideford. Tiverton is the major town in Mid-Devon (although to me its East) and has seen a recent expansion and development, firstly with the North Devon Link Road that runs just past Tiverton and also the regeneration of much of the town. The main football team in the town are Tiverton Town who currently play in Level 7 of the English Football Pyramid having been promoted from the Southern Division One West league in 2001. They welcomed Chippenham Town to Ladysmead which brought a wry smile to my face when I was planning what fixtures to go see whilst I was down. The reason for that smile is because I lived in Chippenham for 22 months from 2005 so I know the place extremely well. However for some reason or another I had never got round to visiting a game at Hardenhuish Park – the home of Chippenham – so a visit there is on the cards but not in the near future.

This was the first game I had actually parked my car at the ground and so me and my Dad who chummed me to this game managed to get a good look round Ladysmead. The ground itself I really liked, behind both goals is covered terrace with a snack bar behind the goal nearest the main road, running down one side of the pitch is a covered stand for seating which cost an extra £1 to sit in and at the opposite end is another covered standing section with the entrance to Tiverton’s clubhouse here too. The clubhouse is great with Setanta Sports News on when I was in there reporting on Leicester’s 1-0 win over Leeds to all but give them promotion from League 1. Tiverton were in midtable coming into this game 12th place out of 22. Chippenham had been play-off contenders in most of the recent seasons and had a small chance to sneak into this seasons play-offs until they were deducted 3 points last week for fielding an ineligible player at their win at Yate Town. It now meant that they had to win to keep their small hopes alive and hope the sides above them lost today.

The game kicked off as we stood behind the goal Chippenham were attacking with their fans giving some banter to Tiverton goalkeeper Steve Book (ex Cheltenham Town and Swindon Town player) and Tiverton captain Nathan Rudge (ex Chippenham player) were responding well. However 10 minutes in, Rudge then proceeded to kick a Chippenham player off the ball and only received a yellow card, much to the disbelief and anger of the ‘Nam fans. Tiverton then went a bit mental as the game boiled up and could have been two men down as another two shocking challenges came in before Rudge then clattered ‘Nam striker David Pratt off the ball as he looked last man. Had to walk! No, not even a yellow card shown. This only 15 minutes in. From this free-kick, Chippenham took the lead as a great cross was headed in by ‘Nam captain Ross Adams to make it 0-1. It was all Chippenham as they looked to attack down the wings, yet Tiverton broke down the right and a striker was bundled down to give them a penalty and Tom Knighton crashed it down the middle to make it 1-1. Then Chippenham lost the plot as another bad tackle on a ‘Nam player got them a free-kick and winger Samuel Allison ran over, grabbed the ball off a Tivvy player and then elbowed him in the face. What an idiot and Chippenham were to play with 10 men for around an hour. It didnt matter as they retook the lead from this freekick after Book had made a great save and Pratt hit the bar only for Ross Adams to drive a lot shot into the bottom corner for 1-2. Both teams had chances at the end of the half but Tiverton still felt they were in this match with a one man advantage.

The second half began with Chippenham’s tactic plain to see; defend while trying to hit Tiverton on the break with them being a man down. It allowed Tiverton to come at them and they did with some great crosses being put towards the ‘Nam’s goal including one that resulted in ‘Nam goalie Chris Snoddy having a cut to his head and a long stoppage. Play continued in the same way with Tiverton attacking and Chippenham trying to hit them on the break which they should have done with Seavill missing two 1 on 1’s to put the game beyond Tiverton. Towards the end of the game only some last ditch blocks stopped Tiverton getting a draw that their direct play maybe merited. The final whistle blew with Chippenham winning 2-1, a decent game but the 1st half was clearly better.

Chippenham’s win meant that they play-off hopes were still there unless Hemel Hempstead Town beat Hitchin Town. They won 4-2. So Chippenham will remain in this league for another year along with Tiverton with both teams feeling that a better challenge for promotion could be made next season. They will be joined by two teams that the fans were talking about today at the ground, firstly Team Bath could make the drop into this division after pulling out of the Conference South, the student team which has split opinion were given a full page article in the programme on their impending demotion or folding altogether. The other team which will be joining the division after being confirmed Champions today will be Truro City which would bring a collective moan from most teams in this division as a 100+ mile trip to Cornwall is on the cards. The game itself was highly enjoyable and although the 2nd half didn’t match the 1st it was still a good day out in the warmth and sunshine (!?) Ladysmead has won the “best kept Non-League ground” award before and it is no surprise as it is a cracking ground with easy access and I plan to make a return next season in the summer.

Photos from Tiverton vs Chippenham

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 6.5/10 (1st half was great, but a good day out all round)

- Value for money: 6/10 (sadly no student discount here, but £7.50 is still not bad)

- Ground: 8/10 (great, tidy ground full of a character)

- Atmosphere: 7/10 (good banter with Chippenham fans and Tiverton got right behind their team too)

- Food: 6/10 (nice burger and a great selection but needed more soft drink options)

- Programme: 5/10 (fair enough effort but too many adverts really)

- Referee: J.Amey: 2/10 (oh dear, how this game only had 3 yellows I will never know)

Bideford AFC vs Barnstaple Town (10/04/09)

‘North Devon Derby’

Match 44

Ground #: 19

Ground: The Sports Ground

Competition: Western Premier League (Level 9)

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £5 (concession ticket)

Programme: £1

Attendance: 515 (looked more)

Bideford AFC 1

Densham 84’

Barnstaple Town 1

Squire 8’

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With being on holiday currently from uni (if you can call revision a holiday), the need to visit more grounds was high. No game for over a month meant an Easter double for me in Devon. The first game, playing on Good Friday was a derby between Bideford AFC and Barnstaple Town. Bideford is a small town in N.Devon on the estuary of the River Torridge. Bideford, I must admit is probably my favourite town in North Devon, for its lovely river (sorry, estuary) running through it which can provide some nice views. Bideford AFC currently play in the Toolstation Western League Premier which is on Level 9 of the English Football Pyramid. Despite winning this division lots in recent years, the club have never applied to play in the Southern League (they last played there 1974/75). In the programme it mentions that the cost of travelling to clubs 000’s of miles away is not appealing and with clubs like AFC Hayes and Uxbridge (both in London) playing in the league they would join, it is understandable. The club play their home games at The Sports Ground which is on the main road that runs through Bideford which is opposite a Morrisons. The ground is in a great location and is quite a nice ground with standing all around the pitch, apart from a long covered section running down one side of the pitch with both seats and stands and on the other side a smaller but taller stand for seating only.

Today’s visitors to Bideford today was Barnstaple Town, who are only 10 miles away to the East. A local Good Friday derby it was then, with the added spice of Barnstaple in relegation trouble, trying to avoid the drop to the Western 1st Division and playing mighty giants such as Shepton Mallet and Wells City next season. Going in to this game, Barnstaple were in 20th position, out of 21, and 4 points behind 19th place Chard Town, but with two games in hand. Bideford meanwhile, were having a great season and recent unbeaten run had seen them leap up to 2nd place in the league, 5 points behind leaders Bitton, but have played 4 games more. With promotion a no, but 2nd place a possibility, this game should have enough in it to be a classic. Another spice to this, was the return of Barnstaple manager Owen Pickard, and players Darren Hawkings and Kevin Squire to Bideford. Hawkings in particular was given a heated reception by the people standing next to me.

Having arrived at the ridiculously early time of 1:25, and in the ground by 1:45, I took a few pictures (some are the wrong size due to me peeing about with my camera) and was quite astounded at the quality of Bideford’s programme. A full colour, glossy number which puts many league clubs to shame and cost only £1. The ground filled up to a strong number as is expected with this game being an annual, Boxing Day/Good Friday fixture, and 635 attended the return fixture in Barnstaple over Christmas – the highest attendance in this league this season. The game kicked off to a strong wind and it was clear from the start Barnstaple were up for the fight and playing towards a strong wind in the ground. A few feisty challenges happened early on as both teams struggled to pass the ball to each other regardless of how close teammates were. The opening goal came out of nothing, absolutely nothing. A Bideford throw in had nearly reached the half way line down by the touchline nearest to me, when Barnstaple defender Darren Hawkings, who height wise can only be described as big, smashed the ball towards the goal in a clearance. However this ‘clearance’ hit the post and Kevin Squire was on hand to head the ball home. 0-1. Barnstaple then sat back on this surprise lead and let Bideford take the game to them. The passing got even worse however as both teams resulted to hoof-ball back to each other as this killed the contest and the atmosphere as the game began to be horrible to watch. Bideford thought they were level on 44 minutes when Hawkings headed a cross straight into his own net, yet the referee had judged a push on the defender. Half time, 0-1 and a hope that the game got better. A lot better.

It didn’t. The 2nd half was one of the worst 45 minutes of football I had seen with Barnstaple still defending well and killing the atmosphere as the 515 (although 600+ seems fair) crowd wondered what on earth they were watching. Bideford had another goal disallowed on 68 minutes when Densham volleyed home after a great passing move (probably the only passing move of the game) but he was offside according to the assistant, I wasn’t so sure. Bideford did get a deserved equalizer on 84 minutes when a free kick out on the far side was hooked home by Densham to wake the crowd, and although they pressed on, Bideford could not find a winner.

A point apiece will not please either side, although deep down Barnstaple would have probably taken that before the game. Very very few players impressed, but the standout for me was Barnstaple’s Darren Hawkings who won every header he went for and played a generally decent game in defence. The Sports Ground is a nice venue and may be back quite soon, although a trip to Barnstaple’s Mill Road is a must first. Also, due to the strange fixture list, this was Bideford’s last home game of the season with 4 away games in a row to complete the season. Barnstaple next have another derby against N.Devon’s Ilfracombe Town on Easter Monday. If I had known about this game I would probably be going to that but instead I next travel across to East Devon on Easter Monday and hope the game at Tiverton is a far better game than this.

Photos from Bideford vs Barnstaple

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 3/10 (not good)

- Value for money: 6/10 (cant complain too much for £5)

- Ground: 6/10 (quite nice ground in a town I like, very good facilities)

- Atmosphere: 3/10 (none really)

- Food: 6/10 (I ate a pretty decent burger and they had a lot on offer)

- Programme: 9/10 (this is how to produce a match programme!)

- Referee: Robert Greenwood – 7/10 (I thought he had an ok game, Bideford manager Sean Joyce would disagree with me)