Christmas Baggy - Weekend Matchgoing

[Gangster Octopus]

Daft thing is we're not playing too badly.

[Gangster Octopus]

Pently.

[Gangster Octopus]

Missed.
Sums up our attacking...

[Gangster Octopus]

0-4. Merry fucking Christmas...

[longeared]

Parkgate 4-2 AFC Emley

Very much a game of two halves, Brian. After half an hour the away side should have been three up before Gate managed a well worked move to equalise against the run of play. "We often tire second half" said an Emley fan and although they took the lead again they did indeed tire and Gate scored three times in seven minutes to turn the game. The second of these was a brilliant free kick for the lead.

Very enjoyable game played in an excellent spirit until the last minute when the Emley keeper got sent off for swearing at the ref. "I was having a quiet Christmas, now I'm not fucking having a quiet Christmas" said the Emley secretary as she came past.

And Wednesday won and all. Look to the future now, it's only just begun.

[HORN]

Lost 3-2. I thought Newport did ok today (I’m disregarding the first seven minutes during which Lincoln established a two goal lead).

Good noisy home crowd too.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Anyone at Wycombe?

[Ray de Galles]

I missed it off on my holidays but good to see crowd scapegoats Appiah and Jervis scoring the goals.

[Third rate Leszno]

Marine 1-2 Farsley Celtic

3rd bottom v 3rd top in Evostik NPL Prem.

Farsley were just a bit more precise and less wasteful with their passing, going 2-0 up by the break. About 10" after it, the linesman started waving frantically and alerted the ref to something (presumably verbal) that Farsley's Jimmy Spencer had done, and to everyone's bemusement, sent him off.

Marine had a fair go at making the man advantage tell, pulling one back with a header that the book of football clichés would insist on describing as 'towering'. Despite that, and some dispiriting timewasting from the visitors, they couldn't force a clear enough opportunity for an equaliser.

[Merlin the happy pig]

United Counties League Premier Division. Newport Pagnell Town 2-1 Northampton ON Chenecks.
Tidy ground for step 5, really good cheeseburgers.

[Patrick Thistle]

Barry Town 2 v 1 Caernarfon Town

An evening kick off on the Saturday before Christmas. Caernarfon brought a decent number of fans considering the distance and the lack of roads. Barry went ahead early on with a lovely worked goal then a few minutes later gave away a soft equaliser after a defensive goof.

Barry then took the lead in the second half with a well taken goal by Mo Touray. Then held on as Caernarfon kitchen sinked them. Both sides had lots of chances right up to the end.

Also it was the first time I'd seen a lady referee bossing a man's match. It was notable that there wasn't much dissent or arguing and no one invaded her space. Makes me wonder if we should just have women referees to change player's behaviour. Cheryl Foster, the ref, is a former Wales international and she had a write up in the programme too. She was pretty good I thought. Much better than the chap we had a couple of games ago.

Some goons were letting off Chinese lanterns and then a ton of fireworks as the game was going on as well, to add to the fun.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Dundee Utd 2:1 Falkirk
Very strange game- for 20 mins nothing in it, wondering how they were the worst team in the league ( albeit they were very defensive and offered only one scrambled chance going forward) then we scored a deflection and it was amazing to remain 1-0 half time. We “knew” 2nd goal would be enough and after they had a man sent off it could’ve been 5, but was only 2.
lo and behold midfield controller Fyvie gets carried off ( they were very physical) and we cease moving the ball around and let them have it in our half for the 1st time ( their keeper was clearly playing for time and 0-2 up to then). Clumsy pelanty conceded and suddenly we have a nervy last 5. Against 10 men with no attack and no confidence.
There’s our problematic season right there. Still 3 points won, Ayr dropped 2 and I saw the V&A and had a few pints with old pals

[Billy Casper]

Blackpool 0-1 Barnsley

A just about deserved win, in a hard fought forgettable match.

Does anyone know why Blackpool's pitch is in such a state? It looked like a tractor had been making crop circles.

[Southport Zeb]

AFC Wulfrunians 1-1 Quorn

A fairly predictable result as these two sides have already met twice this season and drawn 1-1 on both occasions. The visitors took the lead early on with Wulfrunians equalising just before half time. Chances for both sides in the second half with Quorn probably having the better chances.

Wulfrunians play at a ground that was previously an RFU regional training centre, meaning that the large stand is adorned with a big rose on the side. The ground is right on the edge of Wolverhampton, but handily right next to the end of a bus route from the centre.

[RobW]

Lost 3-2. I thought Newport did ok today (I’m disregarding the first seven minutes during which Lincoln established a two goal lead).

Good noisy home crowd too.

We were desperately holding on at the end there thanks to our keeper's brain malfunction. He did make a few great saves first half mind to keep us in front. Apparently the first 30 minutes was the best we've played this season, but I couldn't really tell from where I was sat. Great goal by Harry Anderson, showing what he is capable of when he gets his head down and runs at defenders, but then he didn't do much else after that.
Semenyo looked very dangerous, especially up against Neal Eardley but then oddly switched flanks and Toffolo is quick enough to keep with him. We didn't defend set pieces or crosses particularly well but looked in control against at 3-1, until Smith gave the ball away.

[Paul S]

Billericay Town 0-4 Woking
Att: 1,200

The wheels have well and truly come off Glen Tamplin's attempt at making Billericay a league club. The bloke hasn't been seen near the club for four weeks, players have left in their droves and there was a huge gap in the Ricay defence which Woking drove a bus down. Quite frankly Ricay are lucky it was only 4-0 it could quite easily have been 7 or 8.

The ground at Billericay really does look superb though. Nicely developed, it looks great and I'll give Tamplin his due he has built a very nice looking stadium. The problem is, was it his money he put into the club or is it loans which will bankrupt the club. Only time will tell.

[Bored Of Education]

Bath City 2 Chelmsford 1

Yet another faux-Cockney team with Estuary-English-accented supporters and manager come to Twerton Park. However, whereas, last week, Billericay were a much better team than us and won not least to having a really good manager in Dean Brennan, Chelmsford had fat Simon Jordan fake-tan-a-like Rod Stronger whose exhortations are limited to "Do good" and suchlike. We were almost as bad as Chelmsford City, truth be told, but we do have an excuse in that we only have 12/13 players fit. Indeed, yesterday was the first time I had seen a match where one team didn't make one sub ever, I think. We were still too good for Chelmsford who did have periods where they looked dominant but didn't actually make us feel nervous that they would get a draw. They had a keeper who did make a Banks-sque save but also had the worst kick out I have seen in a keeper - his defenders preferred to kick it into touch rather than knock it back to him.

We now have the festive matches against local rivals Chippenham (twice) and Weston Super Mud. The former haven't won in three and last year we beat them 5-2 at their place but they beat us 5-1 at ours so no idea what is going to go on. WSM are bottom of the table and have lost the last three but, injuries notwithstanding, we should beat them (with the usual caveat of "assuming the game isn't called off" which it probably will be).

A post script to the Chelmsford game was that, during the traditional post-match interview with the manager in the bar, some Chelmsford supporters abused Jerry Gill, to which he either told them they should go outside or offered them out - depending on your viewpoint and, probably, support. It's a shame as the interviews with players and the manager post match are a great bit of connection with the players but it has got occasionally laity with away supporters. Having said that, the lads we met in the pub later were alright if loud and absolutely pissed.

[N est à?]

Hur hur hur, "Rod Stronger"

[Capybara]

Bradford Park Avenue 1 Hereford FC 0

Not a great game but a good day out. Hereford probably had the better of it but couldn't really create the chances so it was not really that much of a surprise when a defensive error led to the only goal in the second half sending Bradford top of the league. A great clubhouse, real ale (Saltaire) and lovely chips.

[Sash]

Wolves 0 Liverpool 2

Felt like this was a good shout to fill the void left by the demise of the cold rainy night in Stoke. Thought that Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago was an unpleasant place to play football but this was significantly worse and not just 'cos of the locals' odd persistence with the old "Sign on" and "Feed the Scousers"... errr... classics.

I do like Molineux and the various little reminders of the club's pioneering days in international club football, including a poster for Dynamo-Wolves in Moscow (1955) opposite the entrance to the media centre.

The pre-match disco was somewhere between LOL & WTF. It was Friday night, I suppose.

Liverpool did well in the circumstances. Some tremendous time-wasting in the second half too but Van Dijk... ooof. Didn't think he played particularly well in the first half but the way he basically mauled Traore as he tried to run away from him on the hour mark was... well... pretty frightening. I watched the replays and I don't think you can tell on the telly just how aggressive that challenge was. Traore was finished after that. (No idea how he's playing in the Premier League tbh. He's absolutely awful.)

[Giggler]

Bury 2-1 Tranmere Rovers.

I hate Tranmere. They provided the first ever kick to the swingers that football gave me when I was 9 in 1990 and they beat Bury in the play-offs. Then, in 1995, we played them in the third round of the cup with them in the second tier and us in the fourth. We went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes only for them to score on 82 and 88.

We went 2-0 up on Saturday in stoppage time with a beautifully taken goal by Coalan Lavery but they got one back a minute later. A nervy end but we held on well, especially given we really should have been dead and buried by half time.