Bamber Bridge vs Ossett Albion (31/10/09)

Match 59

Ground #: 33

Ground: QED Stadium

Competition: Unibond Division 1 North (Level 8)

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £4 (student ticket)

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 128

Bamber Bridge 1

Eastwood 78’ (pen)

Ossett Albion 1

James 24’, Cook s/off 77’, Allison s/off 77’

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Planning for this game was a mess. Firstly Bamber vs Salford was the original game I had selected for Halloween until Salford’s FA Trophy run meant they now had a home game against Clitheroe and so plans were made to stay at a friend’s in Salford and make a day/night of it. Until the night before as they all bailed out. So on the morning I was faced with the prospect of doing nothing on a Saturday afternoon except grimace at every update from Hearts’ game at Fir Park or go outside and get some fresh air at a game. Although Lancaster’s FA Trophy game against FC United of Manchester was tempting I chose to drive to Bamber Bridge, my original destination, on my tod.

Bamber Bridge or “The Brig” is a small village South of Preston which is about all I can say for the place! It housed an American camp during WW2 which saw some trouble break out in 1943 between the soldiers and locals. Also a small textiles industry was here like most Northern towns but that seems to be about it in terms of highlights for the place. (I’m sorry if I’ve missed anything major out!) Having left Lancaster at about 1:30, I arrived at the QED Stadium at around 2:10 as it was the easiest ground I’ve ever had to find. Parking was also on site and a friendly steward helped me get a space so a stress free journey was complete! The QED Stadium (or Irongate) is a ground I had wanted to get to for some time because of all the positive things I had heard about it. The ground itself has a main stand which is an impressive seating stand that runs down the side of the pitch. Opposite that is hard standing which is where the dugouts are and large nets to keep the balls from flying into houses behind the ground. Behind one goal is a decent covered terrace while the other side is the clubhouse side which has a small covered stand and also a strange balcony area which I presume is the director’s lounge. Bamber Bridge were having a rebuilding season after finishing last season in the Unibond Division 1 North in 11th place. Disappointing from their standards. Currently in 8th position going into this game, Bamber had played so few league games because of playing in several cups (FA Cup, FA Trophy, Lancs Cup, etc) which they had all crashed out of. Their ‘trick or treaters’ (last Halloween joke I promise) to the QED were Ossett Albion who were suffering from an awful start to the season down in 18th place, just outside the relegation places. The Albion from Yorkshire were looking to pick up all 3 points in this “War of the Roses” battle.

Having watched the end of Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Spurs in the great clubhouse, I walked around the ground taking pictures before taking a seat in the main stand as I felt incredibly lazy and could not be arsed standing up today. The game kicked off with both sides looking fairly even although Bamber had an early chance to take the lead when a free kick from the right was dropped by Ossett keeper Lee Ashforth but the two Brig strikers could not react in time. From then on the game was played very competitively but with few chances as both teams were not using the width of the pitch to full affect. The game needed a bit of magic or stupidity to break the deadlock and we got one of them on 24 minutes. Thankfully it was a moment of magic. Ossett right winger Steve Smith picked the ball up in the corner and skipped by one poor challenge before he proceeded to rip the piss into the whole of Bamber’s left side with two nutmeg’s and skipped past another challenge before his shot was saved by Mike Hale but diverted into the path of Nathan James who smashed the ball into the roof of the net to make it 0-1. Bamber nearly equalized straight away as a great ball in found Phil Eastwood who’s acrobatic attempt was well saved by the Ossett goalie. The rest of the half was basically a non-event with some silly fouls and a yellow card for Ossett’s Martin Allison. Not many shots either apart from long range efforts and hit and hope. Off to the tea-bar at half-time for a good pie!

The second half started much like the end of the first, with a lot of effort but no real quality as Ossett tried to extend their lead but a lack of final ball let them down. It wasn’t happening for Bamber either with the game seeming to pass most of their players by. Only a deflected shot wide was their only shot of note by the midway point of the 2nd half until a mental 3 minutes would shape how this game would end. Firstly, Bamber finally got behind the Ossett defence and a great ball in was well saved by the Ossett goalie, however before a Bamber striker could get to the rebound, Ossett defender Kyle Cook decided to use his hands to get the ball away. Woops! Red card and a penalty to Bamber. The drama continued however as a lot of the Ossett team had surrounded the referee and Martin Allison must have said something too much as he was shown a 2nd yellow and Ossett were down to 9. Allison came off the pitch in disbelief telling the main stand, “I wasn’t the one that said owt!” Who knows. Bamber striker Phil Eastwood smashed the penalty home on 78 minutes and Ossett would need to hang on for 12 minutes to claim a point. The final 12 minutes were Lancashire’s re-enactment of the Alamo as Bamber bombarded the Ossett goal and were a final touch or more self composure away from taking an undeserved 3 points. In the end both sides were unhappy with the result. Bamber ruing the missed chance to beat 9 men, Ossett angry that they ended the game with 9 men as one fan shouted at the referee when leaving the pitch. An entertaining finish.

An enjoyable day out in Bamber Bridge as the game livened up towards the end. Bamber Bridge have shot right up the list of favourite clubs as every single person there today was friendly and helpful which makes the club so great. A decent ground and a great clubhouse (who are well known for their real ale’s but Lancashire Constabulary would have something to say about driving after drinking some of that!) makes the club a great one to visit. I recommend doing so! Another great advert for the Unibond League. Just a shame Hearts had to spoil the day with yet another pathetic performance at Fir Park.

Photos from Bamber Bridge vs Ossett Albion

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 6/10 (fairly decent, great finish)

- Value for money: 7.5/10 (can’t argue for £4)

- Ground: 8/10 (great ground, great clubhouse)

- Atmosphere: 6/10 (lively)

- Food: 7/10 (pretty decent pie and bovril – good price too)

- Programme: 8/10 (excellent effort)

- Referee: B.Copp – 5/10 (was ok)

St Helens Town vs Nelson (17/10/09)

Match 58

Ground #: 32

Ground: Knowsley Road

Competition: Vodkat Northwest Counties Premier Division (Level 9)

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £5

Programme: £1.20

Attendance: 107

St Helens Town 4

Dyson 6’,89’, G.Mitchell 43’, P.Mitchell 74’

Nelson 0

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The thing with sitting up late at university is sometimes, with friends, you talk about utter rubbish. Conversation topics that nobody else would understand or care about. Earlier this week, a friend at uni (lets name him Andy) who originally hails from St Helens was appalled at the fact that Clitheroe played in the league higher than his town’s football team. He also joked that imagine a team who play at Level 9 in the football pyramid played at Knowsley Road, one of rugby league’s most popular grounds with a capacity of 17,500. So upon investigation it was found out that they indeed do play at the home of egg chasing in St Helens, another journey was organised to a ground I hadn’t expected to get to this season.

St Helens is a large town in Merseyside that was famous in the industrial ages for being a centre of coal and glass making. Today the town is more of a commercial town with most signs of industry now being dormant with the large amount of chimneys that still are standing in the town but are not in use. The main industry in the town now is Pilkingtons Glass which is a “world leader” in its industry. Another famous presence in the town is the main rugby league team that play there – St Helens RLFC. One of the world’s first rugby league teams, they recently have become a major player in Super League, although having not won a Grand Final since 2006, they have lost the last 3, all to Leeds Rhinos. This town is a major rugby league town, but football is still played here, despite all the plastic scousers normally supporting either the red or blue side of Liverpool. The town’s team, St Helens Town, currently play in the Northwest Counties Premier Division which is set at Level 9 on the English League Pyramid. The league which is sponsored by Vodkat (dunno what that says about Northerners…) and normally feeds the Champion directly into Unibond Division 1 North. (Where last season’s Vodkat Champions, AFC Fylde are currently playing) St Helens were founded in 1946 and have a rich history of producing well known players in English football. Ex players include, Bert Trautmann, Bill Foulkes and Dave Bamber. In fact, Trautmann signed for Man City from St Helens exactly 60 years ago and the club were advertising an upcoming celebration game against a Man City Legend XI in mid-November. St Helens moved from their Hoghton Road ground in 2000 to move in with St Helens RLFC at Knowsley Road and were almost relegated from this league last season, but a late rally saved them and they went into this game in 5th place, 13 points behind 100% leaders Newcastle Town, but with a game in hand.

After arriving at Knowsley Road with good time to spare, it took a while for the hardy band of us to find our way in, with only one stand open for football games. When we found the only open turnstiles, there was a strange sight of both teams warming up on the big pitch next to the stadium which is unusual as the rugby league season is finished now until early 2010, so the pitch isn’t needed to be great at the moment anyway. Once in, there was a programme seller almost dumped next to the side of the main stand entrance and with no food or bar facilities open that I could see, it was worrying that I would have to go through the whole game on an empty stomach. We positioned ourselves in the uncovered terraces next to the Main Stand when a steward demanded that my friend take no photos on his proper camera for the match. It meant that most of my pictures for this game were taken ninja style and when no stewards were near us in fear of getting caught. Knowsley Road is an impressive ramshackle ground with two covered standing stands, with an uncovered section behind one goal and to the side of the Main Stand. (More on the Main Stand later) St Helens hosted Lancashire team Nelson for this game who hail from just Southeast of Clitheroe and were only one place behind St Helens in the table, so a close game was expected. The game kicked off in the eerie silence of the empty stands we could see with the only noise coming directly from the players themselves with both teams resorting to long balls to bypass both midfields. St Helens were already getting early joy down their left side when a great ball was crossed in and found Grahame Mitchell who just headed wide. It was 1-0 moments later when Nelson played a too high line that allowed Phil Mitchell to feed the ball through the defence where captain Iain Dyson ran through and rounded the keeper to make it 1-0. The rest of the half was a non event really with St Helens having most of the possession but not really creating the chances to go with it. Nelson also were doing very little and it already looked like the game would finish with only 1 goal scored. However, coming up to half-time a superb through ball was played through to Graeme Mitchell who scored easily with the outside of the boot to make it 2-0 at HT.

At half-time I investigated the smell of pies in the air and stumbled upon one open food stall where I bought a very decent meat and tattie pie and a bovril for £2.20. Also, again the winning raffle ticket was not mine, although I really wouldn’t know what to do with a bottle of whisky. For the 2nd half I decided to sit in the old main stand on some cracking wooden seats (no pun intended) for a better view as Nelson took the game towards St Helens with a couple of long range efforts that hardly troubled town goalie Graeme McCall. The problem with attacking so much to get back into the game is however that you are left open to a counter attack which is increasingly what was happening at Saints were looking for a 3rd and to wrap the game up as Graeme Mitchell had an acrobatic attempt blocked. Nelson didn’t learn from numerous close shaves when Phil Mitchell got up through on goal again and managed to get a lucky break off a defender that took the ball past the keeper and allowed himself an easy tap in for number 3. Both Mitchell’s scored today, so Peggy will be proud. It should have been 4 on 81 minutes when another break found St Helens outnumbering the goalie 3 to 1. However the first shot was saved and the rebound crashed off the bar and over much to the annoyance of the home supporters. Graeme Mitchell had another chance to get a 2nd when a volley from a tight angle was just fired wide as by this time Nelson had given even trying to defend or remotely play any football. St Helens did add a 4th late on when another 1 on 1 was cut back to Iain Dyson who made it 4-0 and the game was over. An easy win for St Helens.

A strange day out then in Merseyside as St Helens picked up an easy 3 points over one of the worst sides I have seen this season. The “match experience” at Knowsley Road for watching football is a strange one, with it almost being like a younger brother is not allowed to touch a lot of his older brother’s stuff. The nomadic existence of the club may hinder the club in the long term, but the money is surely not there for a ground for themselves. Knowsley Road is also set to disappear in 2011 when both teams move to the new St Helens Stadium which will have a capacity of 18,000, a Tesco store and 2000 parking spaces. Maybe, the club might be playing Unibond football by then, but hopefully the club can draw some bigger crowds than the 107 that was in attendance for this game.

Photos from St Helens vs Nelson

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 4.5/10 (quite one sided with not much entertainment)

- Value for money: 6/10 (its ok for £5)

- Ground: 8/10 (great, classic ground)

- Atmosphere: 1/10 (107 fans in a 17,500 stadium – do the maths)

- Food: 7/10 (decent, good value pie)

- Programme: 8/10 (excellent value and articles)

- Referee: M.Rawcliffe – 6/10 (not much to do)

Clitheroe vs Belper Town (03/10/09)

Match 57

Ground #: 31

Ground: Shawbridge

Competition: FA Trophy Preliminary Round

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £7

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 164

Clitheroe 1

Coar 22’

Belper Town 1

Stevenson 12’

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This game wasn’t at all one I had planned to go to as I was looking to get to a midweek game during the 1st week at uni (where you get very little work to do) and Lancaster’s FA Youth Cup game against Chester City was the one I wanted to go to. Yet, with the game being scheduled for a Monday night and the fact I can’t make a Monday night means that idea went right out the window. So 3 of us at uni were checking games and places to go to that were is near driving distance. Kendal vs Kings Lynn came up as did AFC Fylde vs Leigh Genesis but in the end, it was immaturity that won the day. As we chose the Lancashire town of Clitheroe. On first look, you may think, “why is there a town called that"?” However as this is a family blog there will be no clit hero jokes here, and upon further investigation we realized that their opponents today in the FA Trophy (Belper Town) were nicknamed “The Nailers” – and that was that. We WERE going to this game.

Clitheroe is a town which lies on the Southern edge of the Forest of Bowland (which is an utter pain in the arse to drive around – more on that later) and its main landmark is the castle which sits in the centre of the town. An old Norman keep which is also one of the oldest buildings in Lancashire has a massive hole in the middle of it which was ordered by the government in 1649 for reasons that are beyond me. The drive across the Forest of Bowland from Lancaster University should have been straight forward according to Google Maps. However after driving over a fairly big mountain, we got lost. Badly. Getting lost in the woods is always a problem, however with no or little phone signal and a fairly low amount of petrol (“if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail”, I know!) this was fast becoming a major problem. We were bailed out by stumbling across the town of Goosnargh and we quickly made our way to Clitheroe coming in on the West side. (Google Maps stated we’d come in to the North – thats how badly it went wrong) By this time it was already 3:30 and then trying to find Shawbridge (home of Clitheroe FC) was also an effort, but it was found and we got inside at 2:57. One final point of how much I balls up this journey was I had forgot to get money out and only had £7 on me. Admission was £7.

Clitheroe play in the Unibond Division 1 North league which is the same league as Lancaster City. Currently having a poor start to the season, they lay in 19th position out of 22. Luckily they had another cup competition to distract them in the FA Trophy. The Trophy is only open for clubs in Steps 1-4 in the Non-League system and more often than not a Conference (Blue Square Premier) team will end up winning the Trophy at Wembley. Last year the winners were Stevenage Borough who beat York City 2-0. Clitheroe welcomed fellow Unibond Division 1 team Belper Town to Shawbridge for the game, who hail from Derbyshire. They however play in Division 1 South which meant a different set of faces from the norm for Clitheroe to play. They came into this game doing well and were in 7th place out of 22nd. This, after losing in the play-off final to Stockbridge Park Steels last season.

Upon first viewing inside the ground (see picture above) is the pitch – which is frankly laughable. A ‘small’ incline going lengthways up the pitch hinders any sort of football played on here (as we were about to see) and probably hinders any proper ground improvements too until the pitch is flattened. As for the ground, its your typical Unibond ground with mostly standing, although they did have a small seated section running near the corner flag down one end of the pitch. As we were so late in, the game was just about to kick off as we arrived and so took a place near the dugouts to watch the first half which kicked off with Belper making the better chances early on as the wind also played havoc with both team’s game plan. Belper took the lead on 12 minutes when they swung a cross in from the right (up on top of the hill) which wasn’t dealt with well and Lee Stevenson managed to turn his defender and shoot past Danny Hanford. Belper then tried to double their lead as Clitheroe struggled to make any impression on the game, except Alex Brees (who looks about 14) making good runs down the right which Belper struggled to deal with. Clitheroe did grab an equalizer though on 22 minutes after a freekick was headed straight at Belper goalie Martin Kearney. For reasons beyond me though, he only pushed this out into a packed penalty area and ex Lancaster City striker Alan Coar scored a tap in from about a yard out. Not much else happened for the rest of the half as both teams looked fairly even and the wind was hindering both sides.

For the 2nd half we all sat behind one goal and watched one of the least memorable halves I have witnessed in football. It actually was a blessing that two uni mates had made the trip as at least we could all talk to each other as the game was so dull. Brees needed to shoot on so many occasions after getting into good positions only to waste it by either trying to play a clever pass or make a successful pass to one of his team-mates who wasted each shot. Belper also had some play, as they actually thought they had won the game on 71 minutes when a Ben Walker shot managed to find its way in after a good cross, but the assistant referee ruled it out for a foul. The final chance of the game came late on when more good work by Brees set up the Clitheroe # 8 (he’s not even in the programme) who ballooned his awful shot over the bar. Full time. A replay to come, which I won’t be at.

Firstly, sorry was the delay in publishing this (if you were so desperate to read about someone’s trip to Shawbridge!) I have had a surprising amount on in my 1st week back at uni. Secondly, on the game, it all seemed a bit rushed for me to totally enjoy the game. Its a lessoned learned and I have already started to make plans for my next game on Halloween at Bamber Bridge. Finally, as it has taken me so long to get this post out there, the replay actually took place on Tuesday night which Clitheroe managed to win 4-1 away at Belper to go through to the 1st Qualifying Round away at Bradford Park Avenue. (Which PA should win) Overall, a decent ground, a strange pitch and I hope to be back one day when I’m less stressed out!

Photos from Clitheroe vs Belper Town

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 4/10 (stalemate)

- Value for money: 6/10 (was ok – not the greatest quality for £7)

- Ground: 6/10 (the pitch!?)

- Atmosphere: 7/10 (both sets of fans got behind their team)

- Food: N/A – had no money to buy any!

- Programme: 6/10 (decent attempt – good amount of info)

- Referee: G Hock – 6/10 (seemed ok)

Preston North End vs Reading (29/09/09)

Match 56

Ground #: 30

Ground: Deepdale

Competition: English Championship

Kick Off: 7:45pm

Cost: £15 (Young Adult ticket)

Programme: £3

Attendance: 10,987

Preston North End 1

Parkin (pen) 85’

Reading 2

Church 34’, Kebe 43’

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So now back up North for what looks to be my last year at uni (*sob*) and I decided to try and get to grounds that were in the local area and there was one that stood out from the rest. Preston. Why I had waited till now to go see the largest team in the area (sorry fans from Burnley, Blackpool, Blackburn, etc) until now I don’t really know. However with it being Freshers Week and final years having not much to do, me and 3 uni mates made the short journey down the M6 to a midweek Championship clash. Preston is a city in Lancashire and was England’s 50th City as it was granted city status in 2002. During the Industrial Revolution Preston became a boom-town due to its large textiles trade. Recently the city has suffered from the effects of de-industrialization, but recent developments have seen the city improve and become more popular.

Preston is a footballing city and has always been by heart. The major club in the town, Preston North End were founding members of the Football League way back in 1888 and won the subsequent championship that season. That season they also went undefeated in the league, one of only two teams to be ‘invincible’ through a top-flight season (Arsenal were the others in 2004) and were the first team to do the double. Sadly though, the Twentieth Century brought very little success and even had the Lilywhites playing in the bottom tier. Yet, this has now allowed the club to become one of the few teams to have won all four professional leagues in England showing their true rise and fall throughout the seasons. Preston has also been home to a famous ladies team – Dirk, Kerr’s Ladies FC who became so popular, that the FA banned woman’s football at its members grounds until 1971 (50 years after they had banned it). With Preston clearly being an important part of English footballing history, it was this reason that the National Football Museum was opened at Deepdale in 2001. We went round before the match and I was extremely impressed with the place, and the exhibitions and items that they have at the museum. It was also free (although we did all donate) and had a good cafe/shop too that had the Champions League game between Rubin Kazin and Inter Milan on at the time.

We also saw fans of another team in the museum too, who had made the long journey up from Berkshire for the evening’s game and that was Reading. Many fans who have only become interested in football recently (i.e – the plastics) may see Reading and think of them as a permanent fixture of the top two tiers in England. However, the club had only achieved promotion to the Premiership for the first time in their history three years ago and while their two season stay was brief, they had impressed at times and nearly qualified for the UEFA Cup in their first season. Since then, nearly every player who played for the Royals in their Premiership days have gone, as only 3 remain; Ivar Ingimarsson, Marek Matejovsky and Kalfia Cisse. Their long serving manager Steve Coppell also left in the close season and so it was up to Irishman Brendan Rodgers to oversee this season of “consolidation and change.” It hadn’t started well as Reading went into this game in 21st position, only 1 place outside the drop zone. A slow start or a team destined to struggle? Preston on the other hand were in 3rd place going into this game and looking good for another crack at promotion. The 4 of us, got into the ground fairly late (for me) after spending so long in the museum, but we still had time to buy a famous Chicken Balti Pie (which is full of win) and place a £1 bet on Neil Mellor to be first scorer. We were sat in the biggest stand, the Sir Tom Finney Stand in a fairly decent position. Behind one goal was where a small band of Reading fans were and a section of the home support in the Bill Shankley Stand, the other stand behind the goal was all home fans which was Alan Kelly Stand. The newest stand which was only built recently is the small Invincibles Pavilion which is a nice looking stand although fairly small. Preston also played UB40’s “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” just before the teams came out which I think is a great song to play before a game.

Preston made the better start to the game with some great crosses being whipped in that troubled the Reading defence, but after the early stages the game began to get more even with both teams having a decent amount of possession but Reading creating the better chances with Andy Lonergan saving well from Jobe McAnuff. Brian Howard was next to have a crack at the Preston goal when he controlled a ball in well but fired just over the crossbar. Reading then continued to trouble Preston, especially right winger Jimmy Kebe who clearly the fastest and most skilful player on the pitch. Preston now needed to get firmly on the ‘control’ button otherwise they could well lose this game, sadly for Preston boss Alan Irvine his team firmly pressed the ‘suicide’ button as they threw the match away in 9 minutes. Firstly Richard Chaplow lost the ball in midfield to Brynjar Gunnarsson after 34 minutes who then put through Simon Church who thanked Chaplow for his gift and skipped away from the last defender and easily slotted the ball past Lonergan. Preston now needed to respond well and it looked like they would when they won a series of corners, however a poor ball was cleared away to Jimmy Kebe who sprinted away from two Preston defenders and scored the 2nd easily. The fan right in front of me went ballistic at his side’s defending for the second as he shouted, “THATS UTTER GARBAGE!!” Before making his way to the half-time queue. The HT whistle went to the sound of a chorus of boos from the home end. A big 45 minutes were ahead for Preston and their unbeaten home record.

For most of the 2nd half, not really much happened after Chris Brown had a goal, correctly, ruled out for offside on 55 minutes. Reading nearly had a 3rd goal and all 3 points on 60 minutes when a ball came over from the right hand side. McAnuff managed to miss still from 5 yards out with a fluke save from Lonergan and Preston scrambled the ball clear with no damage done. The final 20 minutes was when Preston started to actually play fairly well and for the most part, Reading had no answer except in the form of their Australian goalkeeper Adam Federici. Firstly Ross Wallace brought a great save from Federici that he managed to push onto the bar. Then Preston hit the post twice through Mellor and Wallace, both of these shots I managed to miss as I played the role of annoying fan who went to the toilet. Preston were handed a lifeline with 5 minutes to go when Matt Mills stupidly brought down Jon Parkin in the box who himself took the penalty and scored with ease. Game on! Preston then battered the Reading goal and nearly had their equalizer when Parkin hit a half volley from well inside the area which brought a brilliant save from Federici. Preston’s corners after this suffered from the problem that had hindered them all night as they failed to beat the first defender and Reading had managed to hang on.

A surprising result then at Deepdale, and a decent night out in Lancashire watching this. A few final things about the game, firstly I was surprised at the low attendance on the night – only 10,987. Hearts get more than that for every league game, so its a surprise to see a team challenging for promotion to the Premiership getting crowds of this for a league game. Secondly, is the quality of the football. I hear stuff like “The Championship plays some of the best football outside the top tier in Europe”, I’ve now seen two games in this league and the quality has been dire. Even some of the stuff I’ve seen in the SPL has been better. Maybe I should go to some of the top teams in the league such as Newcastle or West Brom before I’ll come back to that statement. It was still a decent night out during a week where I have very little to do. No idea where or what my next match will be, I have a few options so we’ll see what happens in the next coming days. Its nice to be back in t’north again.

Photos from Preston N.E vs Reading

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 5/10 (never got going)

- Value for money: 6.5/10 (thankfully nabbed a Young Adult ticket for £15)

- Ground: 8/10 (really liked Deepdale, also a great museum)

- Atmosphere: 5/10 (was up and down throughout the night)

- Food: 7/10 (Chicken Balti pie was superb – shame it was £2.40 though)

- Programme: 9/10 (great effort)

- Referee: Andy Penn – 6/10 (not much to do really – penalty decision was right)

Holsworthy AFC vs Dartmouth AFC (19/09/09)

Match 55

Ground #: 29

Ground: Upcott Field

Competition: Southwest Peninsula Premier League (Level 10)

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £4

Programme: £1

Attendance: 53

Holsworthy AFC 2

Penry 2’, Parker 82’, Cole s/off 89’

Dartmouth AFC 1

Johnson 37’

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I’ll quote from my last blog report, “Its also unlikely I will get to another game before going back to university…”, well things change. Saving enough petrol during my work experience week with the lovely people at RGB allowed me to get to another match in my last weekend down here before university and Holsworthy was the location I chose. Research was the key here, as finding out that Holsworthy is actually closer to me than my #1 target in N.Devon, Ilfracombe, was great news. So on a sunny day, I took the short drive down to Holsworthy ready for my first dip into the SW Peninsula League. Holsworthy is a tiny market town in West Devon with its main claim to fame is being mentioned in the Domesday Book. It also became a Port Town in 1154 (which means it became a safe trading centre and not a place for ships to dock which is what I first though). A more recent note about the town, is a small World War 2 POW camp was placed here and now the St Peter’s church of Holsworthy has two items that were created by German and Italian POW’s.



Upcott Field is a car friendly ground with ample car parking space on the site behind one of the goals and slightly to the side of the other. In one corner of the ground is the clubhouse, although this was the first time I had encountered a “members only” bar, that to enter, you needed to be signed in by a member. No entry for me then! Thankfully there was a a tea bar in operation selling all the usual suspects, although the woman running it had the most broad Devon accent I have ever encountered and I couldn’t understand her. At all. Down one side of the pitch is a small but adequate enough stand which has room for seating and standing under cover. Then there is basic standing behind one goal and the other lengthways side of the pitch which is railed off. Behind the other goal is just plain grass and a small amount of trees where for the duration of the game, a group of little kids had their own kick-a-bout. Holsworthy AFC had been a fairly decent side until recently, as they won the Devon County League in 2003/4 and finished in the Top 5 another 2 times later before re-structuring of the football pyramid saw Holsworthy become founder members of the SWP Premier. In the two seasons in it, a 16th place (out of 18) and 15th place (out of 19) have been achieved, thus just avoiding relegation both times as the bottom two are relegated. So Holsworthy had not taken that well to being in this league and this season had struggled again as they had only picked up their 1st win of the season on the 14th Sep with a 3-2 win at Clyst Rovers. They sat in 17th position (out of 20) going into this game. The visitors were Dartmouth AFC who had been formed in 1999 between two older Dartmouth sides. They had adapted better than Holsworthy to the SWP league with two 7th places finishes although this season had seen a poor start and sat in 14th place coming into this game. A possible early ‘6 pointer’ then at stake here.



The game kicked off and for the first 120 seconds I was worried as the quality from both sides was laughable as both teams seemed scared to run with the ball or do anything with it except hoof it forward. An early goal came though when a well worked run from a Holsworthy striker slotted the ball through the Dartmouth defence who appealed for offside (which it clearly wasn’t) and Matt Penry jumped to stick out a leg and helped it up and past the goalkeeper to make it 1-0. Holsworthy looked to extend their lead on 11 minutes after a period of scrappy play when a great ball found Levi Landricombe, who had looked far and away the best player on the pitch, but his first time lob shot spun just wide. After this early battering though Dartmouth began to realise that kicking the ball forward wouldn’t hurt and began to create some chances. A freekick fizzed wide on 20 minutes and Holsworthy got clear a few goal mouth scrambles as it looked like this toothless Dartmouth team would fail to score. That all changed though when a ball sent on from the left by Dartmouth’s #11, who had looked dangerous all game, found Lee Johnson and he got in-between two Holsworthy defenders and gave keeper Chris Waring no chance. Cue Waring going ballistic at his defenders who hadn’t put up much of a challenge to win the ball. A carbon copy goal was scored 3 minutes later but this time Johnson had been penalised for climbing on the Holsworthy defender. At half-time it was 1-1, and a very interesting 2nd half ahead. Also, after not entering the last few games, I bought my £1 half-time draw ticket. I didn’t win. (I never have)



For the second half, I moved over to the uncovered, hard standing on the other side of pitch to take a different view of the match as both sides again started slowly with no real action to speak of. The first big chance of the 2nd half, fell to Landricombe again who shot from outside the area but just saw it narrowly miss the bar. The match now though was extremely stretched with both midfields going AWOL as Holsworthy would go on the attack only for Dartmouth to rebuff them and counter themselves. Yet on 63 minutes, Holsworthy should have retaken the lead when a cross from the right missed everyone except the Holsworthy left winger who proceeded to stab the ball in at the far post…however, his stab got underneath the ball and went over the bar from about 3 yards out. What. A. Chance. Dartmouth then went onto have the majority of possession and would have created some real goalscoring chances but a combination of greediness, an awful final ball or not enough options up front for them to capitalize stopped this. Holsworthy then went and snatched victory on 82 minutes when a cleared Holsworthy corner only made its way to the edge of the area where Alex Parker was waiting and smashed the ball through a crowd of players to make it 2-1. Dartmouth weren’t going to give this up easily though as they began to batter the Holsworthy goal and won a late free kick on the edge of the area. (Picture below) Sadly though, Dartmouth decided to play a clever ball rather than just hit it and the striker who had moved into space got the ball stuck under his foot and the chance was gone. There was still time for a Holsworthy player to be sent off, firstly for being booked for a daft challenge and then continued to gob off to the referee who gave him his 2nd yellow. Dartmouth had one more clear chance as a shot from outside the area went over, but no equalizer came and Holsworthy picked up their 1st home win of the season.



A good day out then in Sunny West Devon and although the standard of play in the Southwest Peninsula doesn’t seem great, its still easy to enjoy. One final note for one Holsworthy fan who was only less annoying than the Chippenham drummer. She screamed at the players every 5 minutes with stuff like, “GERRRRT ITTT AWAYYY!” While also giving abuse to one Dartmouth player and the referee. I do like fans being passionate and getting behind their team, but sadly some can fall into the category of being an annoying turd. She fell into the latter. That didn’t let a decent day out down though and I wish Holsworthy all the best this season. Dartmouth should be fine also as they were unlucky to lose this one.

Photos from Holsworthy vs Dartmouth

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 6/10 (just a little bit away from being a great game)

- Value for money: 7/10 (£4 is fine to pay for any football at Level 10)

- Ground: 5/10 (not much here to distinguish it, but still retains some character)

- Atmosphere: 6/10 (for non-league this was good, began to boil over late on though)

- Food: 4/10 (didnt sample any, but a decent list there for ok prices, woman who served us though was far too moody)

- Programme: 4/10 (book of adverts really, but only a £1)

- Referee: Tony Cloake – 4/10 (whistle happy, but got red card decision right)

Melksham Town vs Marlow United (05/09/09)

Match 54

Ground #: 28

Ground: The Conigre

Competition: FA Vase 1st Qualifying Round

Kick Off: 3pm

Cost: £5

Programme: £1

Attendance: 61

Melksham Town 3

Auckland 27’, Jordan 80’, Stoddart 83’

Marlow United 1

Mason 40’

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I’ll be honest, people might not realise how much effort and preparation go into me going to the games I do. I follow the “fail to prepare then you must prepare to fail” mantra which normally comes off. When I leave, how I will get there, etc. The game in Melksham however wasn’t particularly well prepared for, it was also doubtful whether I would even get to go to Melksham today as I had a more important task in picking up the missus from her cruise. The pick-up point was Chippenham and I had to convince her of the the merits and excitement to be had watching the FA Vase, while also hoping that she would be here on time to make the journey and still be in time to pick up a programme (!!) Yet, the luck was on our side today as she arrived on time and we made the shortish journey to the Wiltshire town of Melksham. Melksham is a decent size town on the River Avon and Wiltshire’s fifth biggest town by population. A quiet town with hardly any marks of note brought back memories for me as I lived in Chippenham for 22 months and visited Melksham quite frequently.

After a pit stop at the MacDonald’s on the way into the town, we made our way towards the brilliantly named “The Conigre” ground which should have been easy to find. However, roadworks on Melksham High Street blocked the quickest way in and so the problems started. The ground is well hidden regardless and the diversion signs to get us onto the other side of the High Street were no help at all. A 30 minute drive around the outskirts of Melksham made me think that The Conigre was not going to be found and even when we got back onto the High Street, we still couldn’t see it. Therefore desperate measures were needed. We dumped the car in a car-park and walked to try and find the ground, which was found with ease once I had spotted the large “Toolstation League” logo. Panic over and game on! Melksham Town play in the Western Premier (which is Level 9 of the English Football Pyramid) at The Conigre, which once found is a great wee ground right in the town centre. It has a striking black and yellow paint job all the way round which is of course the colours of Melksham Town. The ground has a small seating stand which is next to the rather spacious (for this level) dugouts and also is next to the clubhouse down one side of the pitch. The clubhouse was a tad messy compared to clubhouses I had visited before, but I was still made to feel extremely welcome. Behind one goal is just a plain standing space with some trees before the best feature of Melksham’s ground, a corrugated iron cover and standing walls that went down one side of the pitch and behind the other goal. (Picture below) Written on the iron was “Welcome to The Conigre” and “Melksham Town” which made this a main and striking feature of the ground.

Melksham’s start to the season had been a little indifferent, winning both their opening league games before losing 3 in a row, including crashing out the FA Cup away at Reading Town. They currently were sitting in 10th (out of 20) and were using this game to try and get their confidence back according to their physio who I overheard. They were playing in the FA Vase 1st Qualifying Round which is an FA competition for teams playing below Step 4 (Level 9 and below) and was won by Whitley Bay in the 2008/09 season at Wembley. A competition that allows smaller clubs a day out to Wembley is a big thumbs up for me and so many teams take this competition seriously as they all have a chance of winning at this level. Melksham hosted Hellenic Premier Division side Marlow United who hail from Buckinghamshire, just south of Wycombe. They themselves had also had a mixed start to the season, winning 2 and losing 3 in the league as they currently lay in 17th position out of 22. They had also been put out of the FA Cup after just one game, losing to fellow Western Premier side Hallen at home. This game was also a little close to call and so a good footballing show would hopefully be put on.

For the first half, I decided to sit in the seating stand as you could have a decent view from here. The game kicked off with a contrasting style of play and contrasting style of management from the two sides as Melksham’s boss, Wayne Thorne was part of the “loud and angry” style of bosses yet still get encouragement to his team, while Marlow’s Kevin Carvell was calm and talked to his players normally and Marlow made the early chances with some great blocks being made very early on to stop Marlow opening the scoring, yet it was Melksham who should have taken the lead on 6 minutes when a free kick was dropped by goalkeeper Carl Murray and Melksham captain David Seal sliced his volley over the bar with the goal gaping. It was a big chance and Melksham knew it. The football then began to get scrappy with very few chances as the build-up play was good but the final ball was letting both sides down. The next big chance came on 25 minutes when a long through ball found Marlow striker Jon Mason who was put through one on one with Melksham’s goalie Luke McFarlane, but the striker did not have the quality to get the ball on his stronger foot and the last defender and goalkeeper mopped up. Then Mason left a needless tackle on McFarlane which left the goalkeeper clutching his arm but was missed by the referee. Melksham however were furious, yet karma was on their side as just two minutes later an awful backpass was intercepted by Melksham’s Nat Auckland who poked the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper to make it 1-0. The game then continued to be tight with very little chances for either side until another long ball over the Melksham defence found Jon Mason who looked offside but he waited for the goalie to come off his line and lobbed him with ease to make it 1-1 after 40 minutes. Marlow had another chance before half-time after Mason (who was already unpopular) went down with the most outrageous dive and the referee bought it just outside the box. The free-kick just went wide so it was level at the break. A very interesting 45 minutes lay ahead.

At half-time, I quickly checked to see how Scotland were doing in their must-win game against Macedonia (it wasn’t looking good), bought a decent cheeseburger and then moved around to the other side of the pitch to get some more pictures and see the game from a different angle. The second half was even more even than the first with very little chances for either side, even half chances. It was interesting to hear some of the comments from the players being a lot closer to them in this half. Such as the Marlow #7 who shouted, “I am having an absolute mare!” Then he dived in the penalty area, got annoyed at the lack of decision and recklessly brought down a Melksham defender in anger. At least he was being honest then. Another thing I did not realise about the FA Vase was that in this round, if the scores stayed level after 90 minutes, they played an extra 30 mins of Extra Time before going to a replay. So at this point I was just wanting a goal, a winner, so I did not have to force another 30 minutes for the missus. Melksham looked to have provided that on 80 minutes when another long ball provided by Ben Macey, found Sam Jordan who easily turned past the last defender and shot low past the Marlow goalkeeper. Melksham had 10 minutes now to hang on and as their manager bellowed, “I want to see every one of you!!”. He definitely saw Lee Stoddart then who latched onto a great diagonal ball from Macey and chipped the goalie who managed to get a decent hand on it, but could not prevent the ball from rolling in. 3-1. Tie over. The last 7 minutes I did expect to see Marlow create some chances to keep the pressure on Melksham, but the game was up and Melksham hung on with ease with no final chance to talk about. They go onto play Hellenic League side Fairford Town in the Second Qualifying Round.

An enjoyable day out in Wiltshire then as I got to see a ground and game I didn’t expect to go to. I do like the idea of the FA Vase as it provides clubs with another competition to keep a Wembley dream alive should they (and they normally do at this level) crash out of the FA Cup early on. I really like The Conigre, especially the corrugated iron section as that is something a little different from what you usually see at football grounds. A good day was topped off when I found out walking back to the car that Scotland had managed to beat Macedonia to keep their World Cup dream alive, until Wednesday (9th Sep) when we will probably lose to Holland. Its also unlikely I will get to another game before going back to university at the end of September, so it looks like Deepdale will be my next new ground.

Photos from Melksham Town vs Marlow United

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Match Ratings:

- Match: 6/10 (fairly decent FA Vase tie)

- Value for money: 6/10 (£5 at this level is fine)

- Ground: 7.5/10 (great little ground, also love the corrugated iron)

- Atmosphere: 4/10 (got some singing which is rare for non-league)

- Food: 6/10 (cheeseburger was £1.80 which is ok, clubhouse could do with some work)

- Programme: 6/10 (fairly decent effort, a tad thin though)

- Referee: M.Derrier – 5/10 (was ok, most major decisions fell to the linesmen who weren’t great)

Football Snapshots – Tivoli Stadium

As you can see its not my picture, but I feel I had to say goodbye to one of Germany’s most loved stadiums. Alemannia Aachen’s Tivoli is thought to be by German football fans as one of the most atmospheric out there. Aachen, a large spa city located on the border with Belgium and Holland has seen its team achieve a minimal amount over its 109 year history. Runner up in the German Bundesliga (and 2.Bundesliga) as well as 3 German Cup final appearances (which they all lost), including the most recent appearance in 2004 when Werder Bremen beat them 3-2.

Despite the lack of success, attendances at the 21,632 ground have always been fairly good and I experienced that when I went to visit in 2001 when they hosted Rot-Weiss Oberhausen to the Tivoli. A 2-1 win, as well as great fans is what I remember and my ticket to stand on the famous “Würselener Wall” only cost 8 DM or £3.50. A fantastic amount for what was 2nd tier football. (No chance of that happening in the Championship…)

The picture below shows close Aachen’s new ground (The Neu Tivoli) is to the old one. Aachen welcomed the Tivoli to league action on Monday (Aug 17th) night in the only way they could. By losing 0-5 to St Pauli, so will hope for a lot better when current 2.Bundesliga whipping boys FSV Frankfurt visit on Aug 30th. As for the old Tivoli, I’ve heard the fans have bought it as a memorial, no idea if this is true, but great if it is and will be a permanent reminder of Aachen’s old and great home.