Earps Upside Your Head - Matchgoing 22nd - 28th March

[Snake Plissken]

Anyhow, the mum told me how she had booked travel, hotels etc. to take her daughter to an Arsenal women's team game against Brighton in May (at Boreham Wood), but they don't have tickets for the game yet as they're not on sale until this week. Given the capacity of the ground, she's very nervous about getting them at all, and wanted to know if I had any "connections". I should have said, "If your daughter comes back to our team, I might have." But I didn't. I said no, I don't. But if anyone on here can give me any pointers, I'll pass them on.
.

On sale to the general public in about an hour.

https://www.arsenal.com/tickets/wome...brighton-women

[Ray de Galles]

Cymru 0 Polska 0 AET (Polska win 5-4 on penalties)
European Championship Qualification Play-Off Semi-Final
Stadiwm Dinas Caerdydd

Gutted.

I suspect that Poland not managing a shot on target in 120+ minutes but then executing five precision penalties will haunt me (and many other Welsh people present) for years.

[Snake Plissken]

Tampa Bay Lightning 3 Boston Bruins 1
Amalie Arena

I “chose” my NHL team in the spring of 1990, getting on the bandwagon just before they went to the Stanley Cup Final. It actually predates me ever going to Turf Moor. And hockey has been the major sport in terms of my travel, life and meeting my better half. Since following the B’s, I’ve seen them in the flesh twice including last night - which is now a third of the number of games that I’ve actually had tickets for. (Three in the 1995 lockout and one cancelled due to Covid game in Prague.)

And my record is now 0-2.

Two hours to drive the 23 miles to the (magnificent) venue so I missed the pre-game show as I go to my seat just as the puck dropped. A lot of visiting support in the place so I felt comfortable displaying my fandom. Bruins had been through a tough, physical game the night before and were clearly very tired so it wasn’t the best game.

Speaking of fandom, I know Boston fans in general have an, er, reputation for being loud and crude. And I have to say… I get it. In a very funny detached British way. Was sat next to a Bruins fan who lived in Florida, and we were talking about Bobby Orr (never saw him) and the old Gahden (went there).

So the result was disappointing but just getting to see the team in the flesh, albeit from the nosebleeds, means I didn’t really care.

[ursus arctos]

I've likely said this on here before, but Orr was easily one of the top five most transcendant sportspeople I have ever seen live.

[Patrick Thistle]

Bobby Orr is one of two ice hockey players mentioned in Tragically Hip songs.

[Via Newbury Park]

Potters Bar Town 1-2 Dulwich Hamlet
Isthmian League Premier
Att: 226 (no dogs, too wet)

As it pelted with rain on my way back from work, I was sure this would be off. As I left for the match my partner was just getting home; she said she’d see me in 10 minutes as there was no way that the match would be on. And if this had been a month ago, I suspect it would have been off; 95% of the pitch played OK, but one corner was muddy to start with, had standing water by half time, and in the second half a Dulwich cross flashed across the goal, both teams appealed for the corner/goalkick and, from my position skulking under the cover near the halfway line, it seemed as if the ref had to point out that the ball hadn’t gone out as it had stopped in the mud. But, perhaps with the fact that every midweek between now and the end of the season was already booked up in mind, it went ahead.

As such, the standard of football was not the highest, which was a shame as it should have been a decent contest with Hamlet just outside the play-off places and Bar on the back of four successive wins. The eventual result was about right; 1-1 at half time felt fair after a half that was competitive but low on chances, but Dulwich came out strongly in the second half, getting around the left-hand side of the Bar defence (in the opposite corner to the waterlogged mud heap) on a regular basis. That said, the winner came about in a curious fashion; Dulwich had just had a goal disallowed for what looked like not much, only for the goalkeeper mishit the free kick directly to a Dulwich forward, who was able to run the ball back towards goal unhindered before finishing past the defenceless keeper.

Not much of a game then, but there were some unexpected aural pleasures; a burst of bell-ringing from the nearby church, the squelch as the assistant ran up and down his sodden line, and the sound of an alarm after a clearance into the players’ car park. And the sight of the decently-sized away support crammed into the small terrace behind the goal in the second half was more amusing than their songbook.

[Via Newbury Park]

[Via Newbury Park]

Frenford FC 0 Great Wakering Rovers 3
Essex Senior League
Att: 73, mostly away fans

As Robert Burns once said, 'the best laid schemes o' mice an' men an' gentlemen groundhoppers gang aft arses up when it bloody siles it down from 3pm onwards'.

With East Grinstead versus Ramsgate postponed for the eleventeenth time I considered Raynes Park Vale versus the Rozzers, but it was a 50/50 gamble for a jaunt to Wimbledon and I decided to play it safe with a visit to Frenford FC, who are based a short walk from Redbridge tube station in East London. By the time my tube got above ground at Stratford, it was game off at RPV, so I was pleased with my decision, although I did get wet feet walking through the A12 underpass.

Frenford Clubs were founded in Ilford as a boys club by a chap called Jack Carter in 1928 and this ground now bears his name. In 1942 Frenford FC were founded, moving to this new facility in 2010 and gaining promotion to the ESL last season.

I used to live not far from where Frenford are based (clue in the username etc) but I'd been entirely unaware of their existence until the Eastern Counties South came into existence a year or two after I moved away, so this report was very much appreciated.