November Rain - Weekend matchgoing

[jameswba]

Are Trencin still rebuilding their ground? It's being going on for longer than it took Spurs to rebuild White Hart Lane?

Yes. At least you can see the stands going up now after nothing happened for a good year or more.

They were allowed to play a cup game there the midweek just gone, with 900-odd in the one old stand.

[longeared]

Well after all the discussion over Rawmarsh and Parkgate it's been rained off. Announced literally straight after I'd checked the bus times and all. Hallam are also off and Worksop's ground is awful if it rains, so an afternoon of listening to Wednesday crush Blackburn it is.

I see ingoldale's game has also gone, Plymouth's stand roof has been damaged in the storm.

[Felicity, I guess so]

In Blyth for home game v Farsley (are they very friendly lions..?)

The charity shops yielded nothing but the converted Wallaw (cinema) pub is full of the original decor inside.

50-50 I’ll get soaked but have been meaning to come to a game here for years

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

For the second consecutive Saturday, I am Sleaford at midday, only to find that Sleaford v Ansty Nomads is postponed.

The original fixture was postponed last Saturday and as both teams had a free day today, was re arranged.

The reason for my persistence is because the ground is right next to the Sleaford avoiding line. This is only ever used when services are being diverted off the East Coast Main Line. This happens quite a bit on sundays but rarely on a Saturday.

These two Saturdays have been the last opportunity to get pictures of HSTs from the ground, as the next engineering block on a Saturday isn't until well into next year, and by then LNER will be an all 80x fleet.

Still, at least England got dicked in the rugby, so the Blue Harbour brigade are crying into their Bombardier.

[HORN]

I've been to enough Newport away games to know that, particularly on long away trips, our fans can be repulsive. It seems the same is true of Salford's.

Worse still, they're beating us.

[HORN]

Ha. 1-1.

[HORN]

Oh gawd. 1-2. Three awful goals.

[HORN]

And now we've missed a pen. A wretched afternoon so far.

[Paul S]

East Thurrock Utd 3-1 Wingate & Finchley

Not a fantastic game to watch, but apart from the four goals there were two sendings off and a missed penalty which went soaring over the bar into outer space plus a melee involving most of the players towards the end. Rookery Hill is never a nice place to watch football and it didn't lift the disappointment of the rugby result, but this game improved as it went on and I felt like I'd had my monies worth. The East Thurrock PA kept on announcing the opposition at Leyton Wingate for some reason.

[Third rate Leszno]

Lower Breck 2-1 Shildon (FA Vase)

Very good win for 6th tier Breck over their 5th tier visitors, who'd brought a coachload of fans down from the north east. Shildon began well, hitting the post within a couple of minutes and penning Breck back for periods before taking the lead with a sweeping move that saw former Carlisle man Matty Robson slot the ball home.

After the break, Breck started to get back into things, and equalised with a break that may have featured an offside in the build up, prompting one irate visiting fan to bellow at the back of the linesman's head from a distance of about 3 feet, "You've got the easiest job in the world and you can't even manage to do that right cos you're SHIT!!"

While he was still fuming, the home team scored a second which had an element of comedy to it, the winger falling over backwards as he got to a cross but managing a weak spinning header that fooled the defender on the line, who also fell over as it dribbled into the back of the net.

The last half hour was all-action stuff, lots of Shildon pressure and determined defending from Lower Breck, who also managed a couple of good chances on the break. Massive celebrations at the end showed how much it meant to the winners. Enjoyed the game, and despite the functional nature of the ground (4G pitch, only 2 sides accessible to spectators and the Anfield Sports centre backing onto the main viewing area) it was friendly and had a very cosy (and busy) bar with a decent selection of cheap drinks.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Blyth scored a convincing 2-0 win. Didn’t look likely in the opening exchanges- Farsley were big, organised and niggly and Blyth nervy (and looked smaller and younger) but Blyth were well on top before h-t without really threatening the keeper.
’Mr Blyth’ Robbie Dale eventually tucked one away and they could’ve had 4 as Farsley pressed, the 2nd eventually coming when fast sub Levi...forget surname burst through and was felled by the goalie. Great free kick hit post, too.
bought a fanzine for the 1st time in ages and enjoyed the shouts and banter from the stand behind me. Great string of ‘ball out of the ground’ moments which had a rotund Blyth official kicking replacements on in his school shoes, to much mirth. And by the 3rd or 4th time small boys could be seen scampering after it across some grass.

I almost saw my 1st live mascot minute’s silence...except Blyth don’t have a mascot.

[Simon G]

It's the big Gloucestershire derby at Whaddon Road this weekend as the mighty Cheltenham Town take on Ecotricity's advertising department.

Annoyingly, Cheltenham's record against Forest Green is appalling so the best we can hope for is a draw.

We didn't get a draw, nor did we deserve one.

Bogey teams are so frustrating.

[Ray de Galles]

Wimbledon v Lincoln for me tomorrow, despite saying the other week I wasn't interested. No home matches for the Imps this month (except for the Leasing.Com), but fortunately three local matches for me. Can't imagine anything other than a 1-0 defeat again, and weather is supposed to be appalling.

I was, unsurprisingly, at the game too. Pity I didn't realise you were or I could have kept an eye out in the bar. Unless it was you in there post-match in the crombie, England rugby shirt, St George's Cross kilt, thick white walking socks and tan brogues?

Thought we got the draw we deserved even if it was nicked at the death. All the better that it pulled The Dons out of the relegation zone at Franchise's expense and carries on the run of relatively good form under Hodges.

Strange to see former and current Welsh internationals Eardley & Morrell turn out for the opposition too.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Isthmian League South Central Division. Chertsey Town 7 (seven) -0 FC Romania. It was 3-0 after 5 minutes.

[ingoldale]

What a joke. Plymouth had a hole in the roof of one of their stands and decided just after 12pm the game was off as a result. Given the weather had been absolutely shit for about 24 hours at this point I am pretty sure they could have called it off before we started travelling down.

Plymouth was nice though and I met some nice Plymouth fans in Barbican who I had a couple of pints with.

[cantagalo]

Brentford v Huddersfield

Meeting of the two form teams in the Championship. I'm hoping for another excellent Brentford performance but fear they will find it more difficult against the Cowleys' Huddersfield than against Swansea or QPR (both good teams but they do let the opposition play).

Brentford 0 Huddersfield 1

This week I decided to do my match report before the game.

Danny Cowley is the new Neil Warnock.

[Paul S]

White Ensign A -A Wroxham
FA Vase
£6 entry
Played at Great Wakering Rover ground

Match abandoned due to floodlight failure after 60 minutes with Wroxham leading 3-0. It wasn't as one sided as it sounds and White Ensign missed some very easy chances and really should have had a couple of goals. The match was petering out when in the 60th minute the floodlights failed. 15 minutes later the referee abandoned the game as they couldn't get the lights back on and it was to dark to play. My first ever floodlight failure.

[Southport Zeb]

Notts County U18 1-2 Chesterfield U18
Newark Flowserve 3-0 Rugby Town
Nottingham Panthers 4-1 Manchester Storm

Started the day with Bestwood Village Parkrun, which has some rather steep climbs. Shortly after I finished it started raining, and was quite heavy by the time I got to Basford United's ground. Notts County are playing most of their youth games at a sports ground belonging to the university, but had moved this one to Basford's artificial pitch due to the weather. Fairly even game, with a second half penalty deciding it in favour of Chesterfield.

For the afternoon I headed over to Newark, where there was what appeared to be a competitive match up between home side Flowserve, going well in the Midland League, and Rugby Town, in a similiar position in the United Counties. Newark scored their first after ten minutes before Rugby had a good spell in which they hit the wodwork twice. However the home side got a second with just twenty minutes gone, which pretty much ended the contest. A third after half time secured passage to the last 32 of the Vase.

Just under 400 in attendance at Newark. The ground coped well enough, but I suspect that a bit of work will need doing if they want to rise any higher - at the moment there is only access on two sides. I think a promotion would also mean a name change as sponsored names aren't allowed in the NPL.

Finished the day with Elite League ice hockey between Nottingham and Manchester, won fairly comfortably by the home side. Both sides appeared to have somewhere they wanted to get to afterwards, as there were very few stoppages. Only two players went to the penalty box all afternoon. Good sightlines as wouldn't be expected from a modern arena.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

And the new ground is covered.

The Stade du Ray was a mess in the rain.

Made it and the weather was fine (unlike this morning when the run was delayed, almost cancelled and then got started in a thunder storm and rain that put Cumbria to shame).

Early and needless sending off for Reims, and Nice quickly pounced and went 2-0 up, and so it stayed. New stadium is way out, and tonight's game was one of the last to take place before they open the tram line extension up to it - it opens in a couple of weeks.

[RobW]

I was, unsurprisingly, at the game too. Pity I didn't realise you were or I could have kept an eye out in the bar. Unless it was you in there post-match in the crombie, England rugby shirt, St George's Cross kilt, thick white walking socks and tan brogues?

Thought we got the draw we deserved even if it was nicked at the death. All the better that it pulled The Dons out of the relegation zone at Franchise's expense and carries on the run of relatively good form under Hodges.

Strange to see former and current Welsh internationals Eardley & Morrell turn out for the opposition too.

We had a pre-match drink at the Albert(?), though I heard the bar at the ground was good. Deeply frustrating game. City should have been at least 2-0 at half time, and for all the efforts of the Dons in the second half, I couldn't see us conceding. One decent cross though, not closed down and that was that. Real kick in the stomach. Least I was well under cover and could see the majority of the pitch. Pity about the smell of shit at the ground, but damn glad I don't have to return.

[Ray de Galles]

The smell will be the Hogsmill Sewage Treatment Plant just south of the ground. Strangely the smell never makes it over to the other side of the stadium where I sit - despite the fact you can smell if from Berrylands Station which is further away in the other direction. I thought it normally has to be a hot day to be noticeable and Saturday was anything but that.

I tend to agree with your analysis of the game, thought Wimbledon had passages of controlling it before you scored but certainly deflated from there until half time. They were the better side after the break even if an equaliser looked unlikely. It took a bit of guile from one substitute ( O'Neill putting in an inswinging left foot cross from the right as opposed to the big booming "up and unders" your centre-halves had mopped up all game) and a deft run and finish from another with Appiah's header to get the goal they deserved.

What was going on between your fans and Wagstaff (The Don's bearded number 7) ? Watching the goal on TV he went mad gesturing at the away section afterwards.

[RobW]

I'm not sure. Due to the proximity of the pitch to the stand we were enjoying shouting at Pinnock and Wagstaff for the duration of the second half. Unfortunately I couldn't see the melee at the other end, but it seems Morrell was clever enough to get suspended for the Gillingham game (when's he away on international duty with Wales). One assumes the suspension isn't held over.

Apparently Jorge Grant came off injured, and that didn't help our shape. Appleton really doesn't rate Harry Anderson at all it seems.Would have just been simple straight swap, with Harry perhaps playing right wing and Andrade moving to the left. Instead, Hesketh came on (thought he was pretty good too) in the No. 10 role and that pushed Payne out wide left. Problem is Payne in a No.10 too and there was a distinct lack of balance. Not sure why we only had six subs either. Guessing that Pett is still out, but heard nothing on his fitness nor that of Ellis Chapman. Too soon probably to talk of 'must win' matches, but we've got to get something at Gillingham. Get some belief back in the squad.

Edit: Apparently Jorge Grant simply "wasn't doing enough" according to Michael Appleton and the reason why we have 6 players on bench is cos at least one member of our squad has to be homegrown (I wasn't aware of this rule), and Ellis Chapman was out with a dead leg.

[Ray de Galles]

If we're relying on Morrell in the next set of qualifiers, we're finished. He was (unsurprisingly, to be fair to him) way out of his depth in his recent appearances for Wales.

[elguapo4]

Don't know how the EFL work it, but here in Ireland Danny Mandriou went away with the Ireland u21s while we had a game and his suspension was carried forward to the next game, don't be surprised if that happens.

[seand]

FAI Cup final, it's only Dundalk v Shamrock Rovers. Dundalk chasing 'the' treble and a possible quintuple, but shorn of their midfield talisman/enforcer who is suspended. Rovers, league runners-up, enjoyed their best season since winning it in 2011. By far the most successful team in the cup, but they haven't won it since 1987. Could be the biggest attendance for a domestic match in 50 years. Could be an all time classic. It'll be 0-0 and pens.

Ugh, I was close.... a fairly grim 1-1 ending in penalties and a deserved win for Shamrock Rovers over a Dundalk side who've now lost 3 of the last five finals (winning the other 2) without ever really playing to potential in the final. Just over 33,000 at it, the second highest attended domestic match in recent decades.