Lawyers, Doctors and Architects - weekend matchgoing

[Bored Of Education]

Bath City 0 - St Alban's City 3

Well that was utter shite and the wheels may be coming off our play-off hopes. It was actually worse than our cup exit a couple of weeks ago. We looked toothless everywhere on the field, couldn't string passes together and let St Alban's have free rein through the middle of us for the first two goals. Jerry Gill had a chance to really show his mettle with his half-time talk with us 2-0 down but, if anything, we were worse after the break but St Alban's seemed happy with their 2 goals for a while until they scored their third. Our only chance on goal was actually a St Alban's defender's clearing header that, had it been a foot lower, could have ended up in his own goal. We were at fairly full strength this week so no excuse there. No excuse anywhere really except that this team comprising mainly of young loanees aren't handling a dip in form as well as they handled a long and unbeaten streak. If St Alban's had lost they would have been bottom but, as it was, they were great value for the 3-0 win. I don't normally watch the manger's post match interview but will be watching it tonight.

[JVL]

My first trip to an ice hockey match in Halifax this season: Mooseheads 1-3 Sherbrooke Phoenix

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster year for Halifax - they topped their division and reached the President's Cup Final in May but this season has been pretty poor and they are now ranked 17th out of 18 teams (across the two conferences in this league). I think it's a combination of players moving on, the top teams getting lower draft picks in the following year and building a young team to be successful in 2021/22, as the teams seem to have 2-3 year cycles of success, followed by a couple of lean years. Anyway, Sherbrooke are currently the top-ranked team in the QMJHL and were clearly the better team on the day. Mooseheads had plenty of chances but the difference was in the finishing: Halifax had just pulled it back to 1-2 in the second period and then Sherbrooke turned it up a notch, scoring their third goal with one man less on the ice and then shut the game down totally, to the extent that Halifax barely made it up to the end we were sitting during the final period.

Highlight of the day was VL jnr. getting filmed by the roving cameraman and having his cheesy grin plastered all over the video cube hanging from the ceiling of the arena. I'm guessing everyone will have heard about that at school today...

[ursus arctos]

I think that many junior hickey fans see that volatility as a feature rather than a bug.

If the local lads are pants, one can be reasonably sure that they won't be in another season or two. The churn is such that noone can build a dynasty, while teams can bet the farm on a Memorial Cup run that almost always comes with a hangover. Generational players can also carry a club in a way that is much harder at the next level.

It is certainly very different from the old days when regional preferences.meant that clubs like the Junior Canadiens could dominate because of their hometown talent pool.

[JVL]

I think that many junior hickey fans see that volatility as a feature rather than a bug.

I thought that too - but listening in on the two blokes behind us yesterday, one of them was getting fed up 'with seeing them lose every damn week'. Which I thought was a bit odd, given how successful they'd been over the last two years or so, and given that he was clearly a season-ticket holder who'd been going for a few years and knew all sorts of stats about the players and teams. There's definitely a feeling of local pride as a number of the players are from towns and communities around Nova Scotia (with one or two foreign students thrown in: I was surprised to see yesterday that this year's Mooseheads squad features a player from the suburb of Antwerp where my relations live and work) and everyone wants a local lad to make the step up and get picked in the NHL draft. And the match did finish off with some old-style ice hockey handbags: helmets and gloves off, punches thrown and lots of pushing and shoving. That sent most people home happy!

[Stobart]

It doesn't scan, does it?

What are English towns normally 'full of' ? In Motherwell (which scans perfectly) it's scum, hoors and buckfast.

[seand]

Dundalk v Shamrock Rovers in the President's Cup (super cup) on Sunday as the League of Ireland returns after its usual horrendous 3 month close season. Dundalk's fourth successive "final", incidentally after ending 2019 with the FAI Cup final and two legs of the corss-border Unite the Union Cup.
Dundalk and Rovers look likely to be ahead of the pack so it should be interesting.... if we win it's a marker for the season, if we don't well it's just a preseason friendly innit?

This was called off due to an utterly ridiculous nationwide 'status orange' weather warning which resulted in loads of matches being postponed on the east coast because of a storm affecting a couple of counties in the west. The orange warning was in place countrywide only until midday anyway, and by 3pm it was 10 degrees, sunny and just a little breezy in Dundalk.

[Duncan Gardner]

What are English towns normally 'full of' ? In Motherwell (which scans perfectly) it's scum, hoors and buckfast.

Atherstone is wonderful

It's full of Villa, streakers and the Watling (Street)

[DCI Harry Batt]

What are English towns normally 'full of' ? In Motherwell (which scans perfectly) it's scum, hoors and buckfast.

Milton Keynes is full of "shit, shit and more shit". I like that bit.

[Patrick Thistle]

England is full of that as well, according to Cardiff fans who sing it several times a game

[DCI Harry Batt]

Fair.

[DCI Harry Batt]

(Although "England" doesn't scan)

[Patrick Thistle]

The Welsh* can sing anything and make it scan.

*some argument whether Cardiff fans count

[Ray de Galles]

They sing "Eng-er-land is full of...".

[DCI Harry Batt]

Ah, the old Ing-gur-lund. Like the awful England fans do. Ok.

[Duncan Gardner]

Worcester v Atherstone replay tonight. Ton of fun in B61 (Worcester being temporarily exiled in Bromsgrove)

[Ray de Galles]

There is a midweek matchgoing thread, DG. Though I did make the mistake of conjoining it with some whimsy regarding nicknames.

[Duncan Gardner]

Yes, I'll report in the midweek thread. Although not first person as I will be following it via BBC Local

[Patrick Thistle]

That must have been some powerful referee, stopping Barry Town from scoring for a whole 90 minutes. Was he standing on the line clearing balls away?

Not only was the red card overturned, that ref has been demoted to the Cymru North list. So it wasn't just the Barry fans thinking he was shit.

[imp]

Glad you've found closure.

[Patrick Thistle]

Well it was kind of vindicating.

I take your point that a ref can't be completely to blame for a team's defeat, but equally overturning the red card doesn't restore any points.