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City to City: weekend matchgoing

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    #26
    Originally posted by imp View Post
    Taking the opportunity to nip up and meet my cousin and his lad - both Harrogate Town fans - to watch their home game with Wrexham. Two new grounds in four days. I am duly tumescent.
    And a jinx...

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      #27
      13 minutes of added time here at Stevenage. Has anyone ever seen more than that?

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        #28
        Dublin v Kerry at the start of the Gaelic football season, nowhere near as cold or wet as predicted so far.

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          #29
          Norwich win by being slightly more arsed than Burnley.

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            #30
            Brentford 0 Leicester 1

            After four minutes with Leicester having missed a sitter and taken the lead, I was worried that they might outdo their Southampton score but our kids found their feet and in the second half were the better side. Not bad after making 9 changes from last week and the other two not being part of the first choice team.

            An honourable defeat is a not a bad way to say goodbye to FA Cup football at Griffin Park.

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              #31
              Watched Southport get their first league win in over a month today in a fairly dour game against Gloucester. The only goal came after the ball hit the crossbar, somehow rolled along it and was turned back into the six yard box where Devarn Green applied the finishing touch.

              This is the second time I've seen Southport play "at" Gloucester - today in Evesham and previously at Cirencester. Might get to actually see them play in Gloucester at some point.

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                #32
                Queens Park Rangers 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday

                Our last six games have ended in away wins which is certainly grist to the mill of thought that we're a side more suited to playing away at present. We started out well here, we didn't have to make the running so that suits us. Our first goal was scored with a splendid delayed reaction from our end, Fox cut into the box, had a shot and everyone wheeled away, it took time to work out we'd scored. Being in the lower tier puts you close to the action, it's not quite Arthur Wait Stand levels of being virtually sat on the pitch but the players on the near byline are bloody close. I was close to their fans, they dutifully sang "your support is fucking shit" at which we all laughed and pointed at the empty stand to the right. Then one of their fellas was giving it large, he turned away and fell over which we laughed just as much at.

                The game drifted inconsequentially along for a while until they brought Osayi - Samuel along, which also brought Eze into the game more. The latter strikes me as one of those players who is clearly good but will end up being signed by someone who overpays massively for him, like Bournemouth or West Ham or Bournemouth or Bournemouth or Bournemouth. We brought Nuhiu on and he was fucking brilliant, he held the ball up well and did a moving pirouette by the touchline. QPR had some pressure, then in injury time we broke away, Reach flung in a pinpoint cross and Winnall finished. There were, as young people say, limbs, three blokes in front of me fell over the seats and then there was general relief we'd won. "That'll make it less stressful" said the bloke next to me. Anyway we made a defensive fuck up, Nakhi Wells scored and then the game was back on again. They even managed a corner, which they wellied over the bar and we'd bloody well won. Particularly enjoyed young Alex Hunt leading the celebrations in front of me, he did that Klopp-type "ohhhhhhhh......Ay Ay Ay!"

                Not much to report pub-wise from London, mainly as the choice of venues wasn't entirely in my hands. We went in the Dove in Hammersmith which got invaded by people celebrating a 95th birthday and my mate told a story about seeing Fabio Capello in there with a lady much younger than him. Post match pint was difficult, a lot of pubs don't actually let visiting fans in as my sources suggested, so we ended up in the Eagle in White City where Jeff Beck's finest came on the jukebox and we sang Hi Ho Sheffield Wednesday across the table to ourselves.

                Anyway, this morning I had an uneventful train ride to Birmingham apart from the Red Kite circling Bicester North, ticked some pubs - someone could have said the Vine at Brierley Hill is at the top of a hill - then went to

                Lye Town 0-1 Gresley

                which was a grey game on a grey afternoon. When I plan to visit non league in other parts of the country I sometimes get carried away by the excitement of new grounds and weird teams and forget the context of the fixture - this was a bottom of step 5 clash which is the sort of thing I largely avoid at home. Neither side looked like scoring on a tricky pitch until Gresley got a pelanty about 10 before half time. Their fans were all "he'll smash it" and were debating whether he'd clear the stand roof. As it was he smashed it against the underside of the bar and the keeper pawed it away. Said fans also smoked an awful lot, so if I stop posting next week assume I've died of passive smoking. Though I suppose if you had to watch that regularly it'd turn you to smoking, drink, drugs and criminality.

                Back via Birmingham where I reinforced my view that the Second City's pubs are very hit and miss, though I did enjoy the Wellington. Now to try and stay awake for our appearance on MOTD (which I assume will be last).

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                  #33
                  Horsham 3 Bishop's Stortford 3
                  Isthmian Premier


                  A ridiculously entertaining game: six goals, three penalties shared between the sides (one of them a contender for the worst decision I've ever seen after a visiting player slipped with nobody within three feet of him, recovered, shot, nobody appealed and yet the whistle blew to award a spot kick), a hat trick from a 44 year old, an appallingly incompetent display from a stand in ref that infuriated me even as a neutral and possibly the best goal I'll see all season.

                  All played out in a very welcoming and impressive community stadium and a very healthy crowd for the level. The only real negative was the snack bar having "guacamole style relish" which contained 3% advocado and lawd knows what else - something I had been blissfully unaware of before. Luckily I only had a Bovril.

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                    #34
                    Well, I Am glad that I didn't travel to Ruislip today.

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                      #35
                      Whereas I'm disappointed that I didn't...

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                        #36
                        Aylesbury & District League Division One
                        Wingrave 4-3 Aylesbury Raiders


                        My first visit to a game this low down the pyramid, lured in by promises of a picturesque village ground. The ground didn't disappoint; surrounded by village houses and a church, though the clubhouse was slightly out of kilter with the rest of the ground.

                        I was a bit worried by Wingrave’s warm-up; everyone standing in a circle trying to keep the ball in the air. But despite the very heavy pitch, both teams tried to keep the ball on the deck.

                        Wingrave went two goals up early, being the quickest to react to a couple of fortuitous deflections.

                        It looked like Raiders would capitulate at this point, with most of the team arguing amongst themselves to shouts of “it’s the same thing every week” and “go and find another team then”.

                        The referee, who was more preoccupied with stopping players swearing than anything else, gave the Raiders right back a yellow for his persistent use of expletives. He’d not learn his lesson though, and would be given a second yellow in the second half for the same reason.

                        A Raiders penalty with about 35 played looked like they might get back into it, but the first decent corner of the half resulted in a bullet header making it 3-1 to Wingrave at the break.

                        Powered by a combination of half-time fags, vaping, bananas and a favourable second half slope, Raiders brought the game back to 3-3, and had plenty of chances to take the lead.

                        In the end, a soft free kick was bundled in at the back post by Wingrave to give them the three points they only just deserved.

                        More photos on my website here.

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                          #37
                          Terrific photos, FG. That's a WSC Shot! feature right there.

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                            #38
                            Those photos are excellent. The whole set on the blog too. Fine work

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                              #39
                              Yes, great stuff. If you're on Facebook the Football Landscapes group would love your shots.

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                                #40
                                Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                And a jinx...
                                Harrogate Town 0 Wrexham 2

                                My cousin (pre-match): We've won the last seven on the trot
                                Me: Erm, about that...

                                I am The Cooler. Me being away from Frankfurt allowed the rest of the family to enjoy an Eintracht home win against Leipzig.

                                Wrexham deserved the win, though. After scoring early with a sweet Jennings free-kick, they absorbed a lot of Harrogate pressure. The home team play a lot of neat football on the turf, but didn't take a single one of a half dozen good chances. Second half, though, they resorted to lumping it long and Hooper scored the second with a proper strike after a gritty run. I particularly loved: the Wrexham goalie, who enjoyed very much getting abused by the Harrogate faithful behind his goal in the second half, and gave us a little round of sarcastic applause at the end. I particularly hated: The Loudmouthed Twat Behind Me who spent the entire game banging on about the referee, even though the referee had a totally inconspicuous game - as far as I saw he barely put a foot wrong. If I hadn't been wearing a Lincoln City hat I might have been tempted to turn around and tell him to shut the fuck up, because you are an ignorant, fog-horned arsehole.

                                If Lincoln lose 0-2 to Portsmouth on Tuesday night, I'm going to start worrying that I possess some sort of negative psychic powers.

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                                  #41
                                  Just seen FG's post - superb photos and interesting report. Did the ref card the bloke because he swore at someone, or just for swearing in general out of frustration? Former's a card, the latter I'd always let pass.

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                                    #42
                                    Superb set of photos them, FG. Very difficult to get the exposure right when you're down at ground level on a grey day like yesterday.

                                    Meanwhile, I went to Marine 2-2 Brighouse Town.

                                    Lively start with the Mariners taking the lead with a speculative shot that the goalie really should've stopped. A couple of minutes later it was all square when the Marine 'keeper, Daniel Atherton (on loan from Liverpool) spilled a free kick and it was tapped home by the onrushing Brighouse striker. The rest of the first half was less thrilling as it descended into a midfield struggle with not very much goalmouth action. I went and got myself a Bovril (pepper mill provided).

                                    Second half was a more watchable 50 minutes, a mix up between full-back and goalie from Marine allowed Brighouse to take the lead, but within minutes it was 2-2 when James Barrigan shot low through a crowd of players. Both teams had good chances to score a winner but couldn't take them. Good crowd of 504, helped no doubt by the Red and Blue parts of the city not having a game on.

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                                      #43
                                      Hull 1 Chelsea 2

                                      Really enjoyable game of football. My first go in the upper tier of the West Stand. Cracking view, shame it's not open more often.

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                                        #44
                                        Shrewsbury 2 v 2 Liverpool

                                        The Champions of Shropshire looked the better team second half. Great night!

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                                          #45
                                          Yeah, watched it on TV and they definitely deserved the draw and probably the win. Excellent old school pitch invasion as well.

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                                            #46
                                            Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm at Walthamstow (Essex Senior League) most Saturdays so don't often get the chance for more "arty" shots like these.

                                            imp It was very much a case of all swearing. He gave the players quite a few warnings before the first booking after about 15 minutes. The majority of them managed to rein it in, except the one who was given a second booking for swearing again. Both bookings, they were along the lines of "f*cking raise it* rather than directed at anyone in particular.
                                            Last edited by Forest Gump; 27-01-2020, 08:35.

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                                              #47
                                              Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post

                                              There must be another game near the party?
                                              I enjoyed the responses to this. There was, alas, a Fisher home game close by but I didn't realise until full time.

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