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Ploughed Back In : Matchgoing May 14 - 20

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    Ploughed Back In : Matchgoing May 14 - 20

    A very significant week ahead with crowds being allowed back in to grounds.

    Nowhere more pertinently than at Plough Lane on Tuesday where a limited number of supporters will watch a Wimbledon team for the first time in over thirty years.

    It's an u23 match with Liverpool but no less exciting for that, though obviously the really important fixture will be the initial first team one with a full crowd in.

    I'm there with my boy and some friends and their sons, all socially distanced in our bubbles but as close as we're allowed.

    The rest of the week for me is as follows ;

    Saturday - Finchampstead v Berks County, second v first in the Thames Valley Premier League.

    Wednesday - hopefully the Middlesex Senior Cup Final between Hanwell Town and Harefield United at Bedfont Sports' Recreation Ground - as long as I get a ticket.

    Thursday - the first of two consecutive days at Surrey v Middlesex in the County Championship at The Oval, weather permitting.

    The first of a few busy weeks as I try and make the most of restrictions relaxing.
    Last edited by Ray de Galles; 13-05-2021, 21:16.

    #2
    Oooh, how long have we been able to edit thread titles for?

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      #3
      I saw a couple of days ago that there was an SCFL Cup semi-final of some sort at Lancing earlier last week and I'm jonesing for some actual live football, so I really need to look up where the final of this and whether it's feasible for me to go.
      ​​

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        #4
        The final's at Steyning Town a week Saturday 3pm, Lancing v Loxwood.

        I was planning to go as I'm at Eastbourne for a speedway meeting that evening but have realised that tapes up there is at 5pm so I can't do both.
        Last edited by Ray de Galles; 14-05-2021, 10:09.

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          #5
          Cheers, Ray. I used to work near Steyning and it's an absolute bugger to get to by public transport (train to Shoreham then a bus for aaaaages), but I have to admit that I am tempted by it. It'll probably come down to whether my ex-wife is working that day, though, since it's not a journey I'd fancy taking with the kids.

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            #6
            Originally posted by My Name Is Ian View Post
            I saw a couple of days ago that there was an SCFL Cup semi-final of some sort at Lancing earlier last week and I'm jonesing for some actual live football, so I really need to look up where the final of this and whether it's feasible for me to go.
            ​​
            Jonesing?

            Springhead v Heywood St James is my plan for Saturday. I'm hoping to get to a game on Tuesday as well but with the lague elements of the various cup competitions nearing their business ends I'm going to leave it until after Saturday's results before deciding where. A visit to Saturday's visitors is a strong possibility though.

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              #7
              https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...e-mean-craving

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                #8
                The Wildhearts - Jonesing For Jones



                They actually were referring to heroin, mind.

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                  #9
                  Ah, rings a bell now, cheers.

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                    #10
                    My walk today took me past the Thurcroft Institute ground where there was a game going on. Absolutely no idea what it was but it had a referee so was evidently being played to some organised standard. Anyway I watched about ten minutes over the wall in the rain before I decided I needed to move on as my legs (which weren't on a particularly good day anyway) were starting to seize up. Saw no goals but it was still very nice to see a considerable quantity of shouting, swearing and misplaced passes though.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by longeared View Post
                      My walk today took me past the Thurcroft Institute ground where there was a game going on. Absolutely no idea what it was but it had a referee so was evidently being played to some organised standard. Anyway I watched about ten minutes over the wall in the rain before I decided I needed to move on as my legs (which weren't on a particularly good day anyway) were starting to seize up. Saw no goals but it was still very nice to see a considerable quantity of shouting, swearing and misplaced passes though.

                      The keeper charging out with a lot of ( misplaced) confidence. Somebody is going to get milled out of it.

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                        #12
                        Tewkesbury Town Pumas u10 1-3 Bredon AFC U10s

                        Our game this week was transferred from an away game to home game as Bredon's pitches don't drain very well and they had to postpone all games last weekend after a bit of morning rain.

                        Two weeks ago I reported on us losing 7-1 to this very team and how they could have picked us off at will. Yesterday couldn't have been more different in terms of performance. My boys started well and really took the game to Bredon. We even managed to take the lead on 10 mins when our corner was sliced into the net by a Bredon defender. This panicked the Bredon coach who changed his team around and brought on a number of subs. The boys didn't buckle though and even when I swapped 4 of the 7 players on 12 and half mins (halfway through first half) we kept up the tempo. That's not to say we didn't ride our luck though. We had a couple of chances, but the last 5 mins was a bit like the alamo and the pressure finally told around a minute from time when Bredon equalised - I didn't see the goal though as I was giving one of my players an ice-pack for a kick on the ankle. Half-time it was 1-1 though and we'd really given it a go.

                        The second half was a bit more one-sided with our boys playing more on the counter attack than anything else. Again though, our profligacy in front of goal came to the fore - our left winger failed to get a shot off when he had all the time in the World, a couple of balls flashed across the goal with no-one able to get on the end of it, and a few times we had the extra man but failed to find them. About halfway through the second half, Bredon finally got their second having put our defence under a lot of pressure. Their player took the ball down beautifully about 20 yards out, used the sole of his foot to set the ball up, and then blasted it past our keeper who wasn't far off getting a hand on it. This then led to a bit of an end to end game for the final 10 mins or so and with almost the last kick of the game, Bredon lobbed the ball into the box and one of my players, in an attempt to clear it, managed to slice the ball through the legs of our keeper. Really bad luck and not what the boys deserved.

                        With that all being said, after the last couple of weeks in which we've conceded 7 goals in each game, I'm really proud of how the boys worked as a unit and really had a go in a game they themselves were expecting a pasting in.

                        Next Saturday we have our first 9v9 game, which includes the introduction of offsides, no halfway mercy rule on goalkicks and no foul throws allowed. Training on Tuesday will be completely dedicated to learning the offside rule.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by longeared View Post
                          Saw no goals but it was still very nice to see a considerable quantity of shouting, swearing and misplaced passes though.
                          Much like the PL, then.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Simon G View Post
                            no halfway mercy rule on goalkicks
                            What does this mean?

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                              #15
                              It should say halfway line - when a team has a goal kick, the opposition must retreat to the halfway line.

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                                #16
                                Gutted Simon, my first quick glance at the result had you as scoring 10. Sounds like you played well though.

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                                  #17
                                  They really did - I was so proud of them.

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                                    #18
                                    Springhead 6-2 Heywood St. James
                                    Manchester League Gilgryst Cup


                                    A cracker of a cup tie in the hills above Oldham which the home side only began to run away with after the visitors missed a great chance to level things at 2-2 shortly after the break. Indeed it was Heywood in orange who took the lead early in the first half with a piledriver from the edge of the box after a pull back from the right. Springhead equalised from the penalty spot then took the lead when their magnificent beanpole of a no.10 beat Heywood's left back with ease and put in an inch perfect cross for no.9 - with whom he was clearly on telepathic terms - to slam home at the far post for his second of what would eventually become a hat trick.

                                    Although Springhead just about deserved their half time lead both teams had produced some fine football and it was from another great move - a cross field pass brought down superbly on the right touchline for a whipped-in cross which an onrushing striker steered agonisingly wide - that Heywood came close to drawing level. This would prove to be the closest they came to scoring until netting a late consolation with a rebound from a missed penalty.

                                    I watched the second half from a raised bank running the length of one touchline which offered a fantastic view of the action but which must create major problems with drainage in a part of the world named for one of its many natural springs and where rain - it didn't stop for the entirity of this game - is never a stranger. Plans to develop a spa town on the lines of Harrogate here were once being discussed but the Industrial Revolution had other ideas. Springhead today therefore is just another struggling post-industrial backwater lacking the charm of many of its neighbours a few miles deeper into Saddleworth. The football club is on the up though. Covid may yet delay things but plans are in place for a 3G pitch to be laid as part of wider developments in time for the club's centenary next year. Purists may of course be saddened by this but the idea is to create a community facility with kids at the heart of it as currently there is nowhere adequate for them to play in the whole of the wider Springhead/Lees conurbation.

                                    My vantage point was the perfect spot to watch Springhead, with no.10 at the heart of everything, tear holes in Heywood's defence time and time again throughout the second half, the pick of the goals being the most exquisite dinked cross for his strike partner, having darted through a gap between Heywood's centre backs to glance the perfect header past a despairing keeper who, to be honest, wasn't the most mobile of fellows. Of the 3 groups in this competition (each of 5 teams playing each other home and away with the top team from each group and the best of the runners up meeting in the semis) one is already settled, one is as good as but this one is poised on a knife edge. Having both played 6 games Springhead lead Oldham rivals Heyside by a point with Heywood who have played 2 games less 3 points further behind. Heyside visit 'Monkey Town' on Tuesday and it's a game I'm thoroughly looking forward to.

                                    *second pic's not up to much but it gives a decent idea of the lay of the land.



                                    Last edited by Artificial Hipster; 16-05-2021, 13:47.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Finchampstead 4 Berks County 1
                                      Thames Valley Premier League
                                      Aborfield Recreation Ground


                                      A surprising result as I'd heard Berks were by far the best team in the league but The Finches hammered them to take over at the top of the table.

                                      The match had been moved to a public rec as the hosts share their regular ground with the cricket club, not they would have got any play in on a day where the weather cycled though all four seasons in just the ninety minutes of the match.

                                      When the teams lined up I immediately noticed one of the Berks players was quite the heftiest outfield footballer I have ever seen at any real level. He was probably in his early twenties and looked like a 3rd XV prop forward but had an absolute beaut of a right foot.Unsurprisingly he stationed himself in the centre circle and sprayed gorgeous pinpoint passes around the whole pitch, only leaving his station to take every attacking set piece. It was fantastic to watch him.

                                      Unfortunately his team was stymied by being the most over-coached side imaginable. Three tracksuited herberts bellowed a non-stop barrage of jargon-packed bullshit all match from the sidelines, the main product of which seemed to be a confused, aggravated and pissed-off set of players who spent a lot of their time arguing back to the bench or with each other.

                                      Finchampstead took the lead just before half time when their left winger (who had been beating his man with ease all game) put a cross in that was met with a scuffed finish from an onrushing team mate which just crept inside the post.The linesman initially flagged but after a prolonged chat with him the ref signaled a goal. Predictably this outraged the Berks bench and team except for their centre half and captain who, perhaps tellingly, just shrugged and said "Fair enough". Speculation at half time was that the debate between the officials was if the final ball had gone backward or forward.

                                      The gaggle of visiting coaches confirmed their delusions of grandeur by bringing out a wipe-clean tactics whiteboard out during the break which really was too much for what, after all, was a public park. It didn't help them anyway as straight from the break the hosts grabbed another goal via a second contentious decision when the flag stayed down for a counter-attack with the ball ending in the net.

                                      The Berks "bench" started ringing the changes taking off their midfield general (dead on 60 minutes, even more like a prop) and their similarly bulky, grizzled-looking target man who had more than an air of Bomber from 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet' about him but was another with a lovely touch. In the latter's place a striker who was the spitting image of our own E10 came on which spooked me out a little.

                                      They piled on a lot of pressure and threatened to make a game of it by pulling a goal back when a deep cross was steered over the onrushing home keeper. However this was immediately cancelled out when Finchampstead's left winger stormed past his man and firing in a cross which was stabbed home by a defender for an own goal. He then went on another run down the touchline a few minutes later to set up a striker for the fourth.

                                      Berks only had pride and a better goal difference to play from then but only proceeded to wind each other up to the point where there was screaming rows throughout the side right up until and beyond the final whistle.










                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Perth Glory 5-1 Western Sydney Wanderers
                                        A-League, Sunday 16 May 2021


                                        I wasn't planning on going to this one as a 6.15pm kick off on a Sunday night is not the most enticing prospect, but with Glory's recent upturn in form giving them an outside chance of crashing the Finals party, I managed to persuade my son to come along too and keep me company (I did have to bribe him with teriyaki chicken sushi).

                                        Another small crowd of 4,500, but a good 1,500 up on last week when we all had to mask up and The Shed was closed, were thoroughly entertained by a Glory side who have rediscovered how to score again. Birthday boy Andy Keogh celebrated his 35th birthday in style bagging 4 goals including a goal of the season screamer (about 45 seconds in) when he lobbed the 'keeper from about 35 metres. Glory were two up at half-time but WSW pulled one back just after the break with a beauty too, in off the far post, and it was game on. But Glory got a penalty to allow Keogh to complete his hat-trick and then he nodded in a 4th on the goal line. Having not scored all season, it was a very pleasant surprise to see him break his duck in such spectacular fashion.

                                        Unfortunately the biggest talking point from the game was in the stands and the heavy-handed security throwing out a supporter who had the audacity to remove his top when Keogh scored his beauty, with security accusing him of being intoxicated. I was behind the opposite goal but you could see things were kicking off and at half-time a number of fans walked out in protest. Turns out this supporter may be autistic and even Glory chief executive, Tony Pignata, has tweeted that the security were totally out of order. Whilst I've personally never been treated badly or seen anything like this before, it's unfortunately another depressing episode in a long line of incidents of fans (from all clubs) attending an A-League match and being subjected to being treated like shite by the matchday security.

                                        Comment


                                          #21



                                          Ground Hoppers 3-1 Lewisham Project
                                          Ground Hoppers 3-2 Lewisham Project


                                          Bromley & South London League First Division

                                          On Saturday I made a late decision to get outside and watch a game, and this doubleheader (2 x 60 minute matches) at Sydenham Sports Ground seemed my best bet. The ground consists of two immaculately kept pitches and a clubhouse surrounded by an industrial trading estate in South London. There was a veterans game on the other pitch, which offered entertainment and reassurance that there's ample time for me to get my boots back on, during stoppages in the game I was watching.

                                          In the first game Ground Hoppers (yellow and blue) started brightly and went 2-0 up through some clinical finishing; the second from a brilliant defence-splitting pass. But Lewisham Project tried to play good football, and if they were better in the final third could've made more of a game of it. That said Ground Hoppers' tiny goalkeeper was very good, and made a number of decent saves throughout both games.

                                          The second match followed the same pattern, with Ground Hoppers going 2-0 up before the break (the second via the corner pictured), but LP made a better fist of things in the second game, got it to 2-2 and looked more likely to win it, only to be undone by a late goal. Things got uncharacteristically ugly after that late winner; one of the home players grabbed the ball and was being a bit of a dick, so an LP centre-half gave him a bit of a shove to get it off him. Cue the dick-acting player's dad marching on from the sideline bollocking and threatening the centre-half ("he's a kid, he's only 16") as if the player had any way of knowing that. A few blokes who'd spent too much of the afternoon at the clubhouse also got involved, coming down onto the pitch. All very unnecessary, and thankfully the two teams were largely sensible enough to let things fizzle out and get the spectators off to carry on. Still, nice to be out the house.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Kintbury Rangers 2 Hungerford Town Swifts 0
                                            Hellenic League Bateman Sports Presidents Cup Quarter Final


                                            A bit of a local west Berkshire derby in the sun/rain/sun on Saturday afternoon. Kintbury is a lovely little village in west Berks and they play in a lovely little recreation ground which, oddly for Step 7, comes complete with a decent amount of "football furniture" and even floodlights. Also they had a feature of the home and away benches being on either side of the pitch. It seems like a superb idea for non-league football as it at least prevents too much chatter between the opposition managers. I was also delighted to see there was a large number of abandoned pitch machinery behind the goal in the undergrowth which is a sure sign of a proper football ground.



                                            Kintbury Rangers used to be in the Hellenic Premier and once hosted Newport County at their "ground" which must have been quite a day, however they are now at "Step 7" level playing in the Hellenic League Division Two. Hungerford Town Swifts are one of those odd clubs who like to think they aren't a reserve team side but are really. If you share a kit, ground, website, badge etc. then it's hard to pretend you're not.



                                            Kintbury took an early first half lead when their plus-sized goalkeeper dressed all in pink launched the ball the entire length of the pitch. A Rangers player reacted first and stabbed the ball home. The keeper really was a sight to behond. Rather than a water bottle he sipped from a can of Monster energy drink during the match. Dressed all in lurid pink he kept a bright pink goalkeeper towel in his goal. Kintbury were in the ascendency for most of the game and made it two early in the second half and were never really troubled after that.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                                              When the teams lined up I immediately noticed one of the Berks players was quite the heftiest outfield footballer I have ever seen at any real level. He was probably in his early twenties and looked like a 3rd XV prop forward but had an absolute beaut of a right foot.Unsurprisingly he stationed himself in the centre circle and sprayed gorgeous pinpoint passes around the whole pitch, only leaving his station to take every attacking set piece. It was fantastic to watch him.
                                              I know the player you're talking about and I've seen him play on a few ocassions. I once saw him score a 30 yard piledriver. It gives me a lot of pleasure to know he's defying all conventions by playing at what is a decent level considering his size. Berks County have been promoted as part of the restructure. I'd love to see if he can do the same at Step 6 but I think the games might get too physical.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                On my way to the Bridge. Train cancelled and soaked to the skin in a cloudburst.

                                                It's good to be back.

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                                                  #25
                                                  As expected, I decided not to go tonight. Too soon for me, the idea of a crowd being a bit too horrifying. I'm sure it'll all go well.

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