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Non-League Day this Saturday

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    #26
    Non-League Day this Saturday

    wingco wrote:
    GO, I'll be at that Wealdstone game.
    I gather that you're working. Pity, I'd've bought you a pint...

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      #27
      Non-League Day this Saturday

      I certainly like the idea of seeing three matches in three different divisions on the same day. I would totally do that, were it not for other commitments.

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        #28
        Non-League Day this Saturday

        Giving a miss to our clash with the Unoriginal Hatters tonight, if I get to a Saturday match then Herne Bay v Deal Town in the FA Cup looks like the one.

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          #29
          Non-League Day this Saturday

          York unfortunately wont be able to participate in non-League day as our game with Bath has somewhat improbably been postponed due to international call-ups!

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            #30
            Non-League Day this Saturday

            I went to a FA Cup preliminary round derby of Grantham Town versus Stamford.

            Shamefully, I have not been to watch Grantham in many years, but I made the effort on Saturday and even dragged the wife along.

            The game was quite mad. Mainly due to the completely incompetant referee. I will bleat on here about Forest getting dodgy refs, but I was genuinely horrified at how poor/blind and incredibly soft this guy was. It was lucky that both linesmen did have an idea what they were doing, as otherwise it would have been a complete shambles.

            Firstly the ref spent half his time with his back to play. Secondly, there were some shocking challenges going in without so much as a free-kick, never mind a yellow card. Stamford defenders were climbing all over the diminutive Grantham forwards with nothing being given. At one point the Stamford holding midfielder knocked a Grantham player to the floor. Then, as he knew he was in the wrong and was awaiting the ref to give the free-kick, he smiled broadly and jokingly sat on him. Yet nothing was given.

            The best was saved for the second half. The Stamford left-back had been giving Grantham's No.9 Tris Whitman a real bashing during the game. At one point the ball went out for a Stamford goal-kick. As Tris ran back towards his own half to get onside, the Stamford left-back deliberately pushed him over. The ref completely missed it, only to turn round and see the Grantham player facedown in the grass. After talking to both linesmen he finally sends off the left back. This only livens up the craziness. The Stamford guys are quite agrieved about it and challenges start flying in. For the next couple of minutes, Stamford's No. 6 start kicking Tris and also knees him in the back off the ball. which the ref doesn't see. When Tris receives the ball for the first time since the sending off incident, Stamford's No. 6 has his arms around his waist. That's quite normal. What wasn't normal is that he picked him up, spun 90 degrees and threw him to the ground. It was like something out of WWE. It get's worse though. The No.6 quickly scarpered, and the ref sends off Tris, who then goes mad at the injustice of it all and storms off. The ref gives a signal that the reason was for elbowing. Meanwhile Stamford's No.6 is pissing himself laughing behind the refs back.

            Towards the end, Grantham are clinging onto the 1-0 in injury time. The players (Grimes in particular) are doing a good job of holding the ball up near the corner flag. Every few seconds though the same Stamford player flies in to tackle them. Each time a free-kick is rightly awarded by the linesman. After the 4th free-kick is given, the ref walks off to take up his position, but the linesman shouts him over and has a word in his ear. The ref then finally gets a yellow card out for persistant fouling. (ie it was the linesman who told the ref to give the card, as the ref was happy to let it continue)

            Grantham did finally hold out for 1-0. The goal itself was one of the few pieces of decent play in the whole match. Good Grantham passing found a striker just inside the box who fired in a shot. The keeper saved and the ball flew out to (from what I have seen was Grantham's star player) Gio Carchedi just outside the box who chips everyone with a lovely side-foot shot.

            For £8, you certainly get your money's worth. The ref got some serious stick on the way off the field from the home fans. It was a totally abject performance.

            For what it's worth I think I will go back. So in that regard the non-league day has done it's job. Now I just want to see who they get in the first qualifying round.

            As an aside, and in response to a WSC article a few months ago, Grantham has halfway flags. They are not position on the T of centreline and sideline, but about a metre off the pitch.

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              #31
              Non-League Day this Saturday

              Shite refereeing is par for the cause. Last weekend our ref didn't even know the rules. A Canvey Island player got down on his hands and knees to head a backpass to the 'keeper. Instead of awarding us an indirect free kick and booking the defender for unsportsmanlike conduct, he fucking laughed and applauded Canvey's ingenuity. Farce.

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                #32
                Non-League Day this Saturday

                Is that really an offence then?

                The ref at Molesey v Guildford City was just incredibly unobservant and arbitrary but I can't say it affected the game (or at least, it affected both sides equally). The Moles being steamrollered 0-3 despite their keeper being MotM and saving a penalty.

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                  #33
                  Non-League Day this Saturday

                  I went to Hastings vs Carshalton yesterday. Hastings' ground, The Pilot Field, is quite an extraordinary place. It used to be used for greyhound racing so it has a track around it, but this hasn't been used for years, and it also has one of those big old grandstands like a lot of bigger non-league clubs used to have.

                  The game itself was a bit limp. Hastings have a very young team, and they were weak - Carshalton weren't anything special won comfortably in the end. They took an early lead but then had a player (Tom Davis, formerly of just about every non-league club in the south of England) sent off - a second yellow card for taking a dive. A second goal early in the second half killed the game off, and it stayed 2-0. It said in the programme that the club was very concerned at crowds having dropped by about 40% in their first two matches of the season. They'd reduced prices for this match and the crowd was significantly higher, but I can't see too many of them returning on the basis of that performance.

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                    #34
                    Non-League Day this Saturday

                    Tristram Whitman is at Grantham now is he, Badger? Fucking hell. He was with us for a while. Rubbish.

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                      #35
                      Non-League Day this Saturday

                      I love Pilot Field too although the bar lets it down.This Ryman blogger gives another account of the Hastings Carshalton game to add to the TwoHundredPercent one..

                      We at Wealdstone got a small uplift in attendance as we beat Bury. Just over 500 in the crowd. Quite a few Watford and QPR visible. We had a celeb there too. Nice to meet you Wingco.

                      WTF happened to Kingston SSK? Stuffed for 6 at Ricay.

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                        #36
                        Non-League Day this Saturday

                        In the end I went for Solbiatese v Pro Sesto in the Eccellenza (step 6 here in Italy). Not the worst game ever considering the monsoon conditions, the newly promoted visitors deservedly defeating the freshly relegated hosts 1-0.

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                          #37
                          Non-League Day this Saturday

                          There will be something about the Wealdstone match on 200% tomorrow, I should think. I wasn't there myself, but David Bauckham went and has offered me something on it.

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                            #38
                            Non-League Day this Saturday

                            Woahwoahwoah. Wait. David Bauckham?

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                              #39
                              Non-League Day this Saturday

                              420 at Hitchin to watch the home defeat against Bashley, 30% up on the average.

                              Non-league Day wasn't a huge success everywhere though, of the eleven Southern Prem matches seven experienced attendance decreases. I guess it's all related to the effort each club puts in.

                              Re: non-league officials. The ref at the Redditch v Cirencester match yesterday blew up ten minutes early for half-time. After hearing about it from the crowd, then consulting his linesmen, he had to bring the players back on the pitch and restart with a dropped ball.

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                                #40
                                Non-League Day this Saturday

                                My understanding is that crowds have been pretty dismal at a lot of clubs so far this season, so I'm unsurprised that it was an uphill battle getting people out yesterday. I'm kind of keeping an eye on it all and may write something angry about it in a few weeks if they don't pick up. Hitchin put in a lot of work on it and were rewarded accordingly.

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                                  #41
                                  Non-League Day this Saturday

                                  It's true, they did. There's markedly more energy around Top Field than there has been in awhile, you even hear songs and chants, which hasn't been the case in years. Oxford City and Stourbridge (over 50% up) also did well yesterday.

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                                    #42
                                    Non-League Day this Saturday

                                    I went to watch Mangotsfield in the FA Cup Prelim Round yesterday, and the opposition left back was a lad who used to work for me. It doesn't get much more tinpot than that.

                                    Happy that he didn't let himself down, but still ended up on the losing side.

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                                      #43
                                      Non-League Day this Saturday

                                      oh, and the crowd was up for mangotsfield, but that may have been more to do with the fact that the opposition were another bristol team than non-league day.

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                                        #44
                                        Non-League Day this Saturday

                                        Is that really an offence then?
                                        Yes, it's considered unsportsmanlike conduct and should be an indirect free kick and a booking. When the backpass rule was brought in I remember a Nottingham Forest player doing it, legitimately at the time, so FIFA changed the rule. Basically worded something along the lines of 'deliberately circumnavigating the spirit of the rule'.

                                        WTF happened to Kingston SSK?
                                        We're just rubbish, to be honest, maybe not as quite as bad as we were at the start of 09/10 but nearly as bad. Dowse changed half our team that year and we ended up making the playoffs, I think he's probably going to try the same thing judging by his post-match interview.

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                                          #45
                                          Non-League Day this Saturday

                                          Well, Non-League Day came and less people turned up to Farrar Road than the week before, this was decidedly odd as we were live on telly last week.

                                          I could tell this would happen earlier in the day.

                                          During the morning I was stationed behind a tressle table in the Deiniol shopping centre with several others. We endeavoured to sell Bangor City merchandise but the only thing that left our stall was our dignity, our only reward was the withering glances of people in premier league polyester.

                                          When you can't even garner a smile you know you're not popular. I'll wager they'll be back in Farrar Road by the last match of the season title decider.

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                                            #46
                                            Non-League Day this Saturday

                                            Amor de Cosmos wrote:
                                            It's true, they did. There's markedly more energy around Top Field than there has been in awhile, you even hear songs and chants, which hasn't been the case in years. Oxford City and Stourbridge (over 50% up) also did well yesterday.
                                            To be fair Oxford City were playing Leamington who bring a pretty healthy away support. They also had a higher attendance against Banbury last monday, most of Banbury's regular supporters were at that game mind.

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                                              #47
                                              Non-League Day this Saturday

                                              Bank Holiday Monday was derby day so there were quite a few healthy crowds about. I know nothing about Leamington, except they have a competitive team and healthy support it seems. They weren't in the Southern Prem (I don't think) when we were relegated three years ago and my ten-year-old non-league club directory doesn't list them. Are they a recently amalagamated side?

                                              edit: On looking at their website they seem to have disappeared for about ten years during the 90s — doesn't say why though.

                                              Comment


                                                #48
                                                Non-League Day this Saturday

                                                The old club, AP Leamington, was in (what is now) the Conference on and off during the early 1980s. They were effectively a works team (for Automotive Products), and lost their backing when the company got into trouble and was sold on. The old ground was sold to developers and the club effectively folded in about 1988 or 1989 or so. The new club was founded in 2000 and claims the history of the old one (I think it was founded by supporters of the old club), but it's a new ground and effectively a new club.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Non-League Day this Saturday

                                                  Ah right, I do have a faint memory of AP Leamington's existence. Clubs with initials in front of their name were unusual in England back then.

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                                                    #50
                                                    Non-League Day this Saturday

                                                    Really impressive that March Town United attracted 1,109 for a level 10 v level 9 cup tie, albeit for a derby that hasn't occurred in a while. Judging by their website they seem pleasantly shocked too.

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