Who put the **** in Scunthorpe? Weekend Matchgoing

[Gangster Octopus]

A second for us, which is a little unfair on Scunthorpe.

[Gangster Octopus]

A hard fought 2-0 win against a good Scunthorpe side.

[jameswba]

Zilina vs Nitra in the Slovak league tomorrow. I've seen four Zilina home games this season, and these have returned 23 goals. Might be dIfferent tomorrow, as Nitra challenging near the top of the table largely because of their miserly defence.

[Third rate Leszno]

Litherland REMYCA 6-0 Holker Old Boys

Surprisingly one sided second half, goals included an indirect free kick from 8 yards out after the keeper picked up a backpass.

Although the Litherland Sports Park isn't the most inspiring of venues, surrounded as it is by an athletics track, it was quite pleasant today with the autumn leaves blowing about. In the first half I stood in the covered standing area which offers an extra 4 inches of elevation if you stand at the back on the raised flags.

[Paul S]

Brackley Town 3-3 Billericay Town
Att 731

A dull first half but an excellent second half made for a tremendous game of football. Moneybags-ricay still don't seem worth their price tag but this shouldn't take away from the hosts performance. Really glad I went.

Morning:

A first visit to the new greyhound track at Towcester for their Saturday morning SIS card which is shown in the far east. The facilities are superb, the viewing excellent and a massive full English breakfast for £3.50 with unlimited tea & coffee for all has made me hopeful for the future of the sport.

[longeared]

Peterborough sports 5-1 Romulus

Remember that thing I had about not seeing a six goal game ? Well I managed the third on the spin here.

Anyway, the game, first half was a big lump of nothing, second the home side pulled away thanks to the inability of the away side to clear corners and the fact they were rubbish.

Anyway, cracking day out, drank a shitload of beer, saw a cracking sunset out west, would like to see the report from Partick of the alpacas.

[Billy Casper]

Barnsley 2-2 Middlesbrough

'It's going to be a cagey affair' the man on Radio Sheffield promised us, so it was no surprise when we went 2-1 up in the ninth minute.

Boro had 66% of the possession without really testing Adam Davies*, while we hit the post and created some decent chances from our rare breaks.

We worked hard like always and although the Boro fans on here might disagree, I thought we more or less deserved a point.


*Apart from, you know, the goals.

[Patrick Thistle]

Anyway, cracking day out, drank a shitload of beer, saw a cracking sunset out west, would like to see the report from Partick of the alpacas.

Ah, sadly we didn't make it. Mrs Thistle and sister spent too long shopping for us to do that too.

[Viktor Boskovic]

Kidderminster 2 0 Chester

35 years of watching lower division and non league football, and it's safe to say I've seen quite a few horror shows, but today's was right up there with the worst of them. I keep on telling myself we won't exit the cup with a whimper like we did last year, and every year it happens again - you can stuff the FA Cup!

[Furtho]

Buckingham Town 1-4 Winslow United.

The teams are similarly placed in, respectively, the United Counties League Division 1 and the Spartan South Midlands League Division 1, but the problem for Buckingham is that their discipline has a tendency to fall apart. The first quarter was pretty even, but when Winslow then opened the scoring in slightly controversial circumstances, the Buckingham goalkeeper and one of their central defenders spent the rest of the first half either shouting at the linesman or, yet more impressively, offering out members of the Winslow support. It is no coincidence that the Buckingham manager watched the match from the fire escape of the clubhouse because he’s in the middle of a four-game stadium ban.

Somewhat against the run of play the home side pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 on the stroke of half time, but the impressive and above all composed Winslow lashed in a third soon after the re-start and the result was never in doubt from then on. Buckingham for their part rounded things off with the sending off of their captain.

All in all, tremendous fun.

[cantagalo]

Brentford 1 Millwall 0

Overall a deserved win, helped for the first time this season by a bit of luck. Millwall had the ball in the net but Lee Probert had already blown for a penalty which Dan Bentley saved brilliantly. Millwall’s style of play is reminiscent of John Beck’s Cambridge but they’re strong and nasty enough to survive.

A special mention for Probert who refereed like he’d smoked a giant spliff before the game and another at halftime.

[MrLeam]

Guiseley 6 Shildon 0

No goals at half-time and Guiseley looked hugely disappointing. Better (obviously!) in the second-half, albeit helped by a Shildon defender being sent off. You can see why Guiseley are struggling though, but the ground is decent and the last 45 good entertainment.

Halfway through the half I was checking other latest scores and suddenly realised I'd actually booked train tickets months ago to watch Notts County vs Barnet instead and completely forgotten about it!

[Uros Predic]

Charlton Athletic 1-0 Doncaster Rovers

Touch of deja-vu as for the second time in five days I watched my team's chances evaporate in the first half after their most influential player was forced off injured, and then go down to a solitary preventable goal. Like Wales, Rovers also managed decent amount of possession in the opposition half without really testing the 'keeper. Athletic will be up near the top at the season's end, we probably won't be, this game was merely a marker of that.

Also, the game was subject to a seven minute delay at the start of the second half as Charlton's brick-wall-cum-striker Josh Magennis ran full pelt into the referee at kick-off, knocking him clean out. He had to be replaced by the fourth official.

[Southport Zeb]

Ended up going to Slimbridge yesterday, or rather the neighbouring village of Cambridge where the ground is. Visitors Salisbury scored the only goal of the first half before the hosts scored twice in a couple of minutes about the hour mark. Slimbridge's lead didn't last long as they forgot about marking at the back post and Salisbury were soon leading 3-2, before getting a couple more in the closing stages. I think this is the first game I've been to for which there is an online programme but no physical one.

[mirko bolesan]

Birmingham City 1 Cardiff City 0

I took the opportunity of a Friday night KO to make my first trip to St. Andrews to watch Birmingham play the club I used to support, Cardiff City. When you haven't watched Championship football for a while you forget just how angry the fans get at the ref (and at each other), and tonight's game was no exception.

I wasn't expecting a classic - the managers of the two sides are Cotterill and Warnock - and I didn't get one. Overall I think Birmingham deserved their three points, Che Adams scoring a nice individual goal in the first half. Brum seemed to get to every second ball first and won all the 50/50s, it also doesn't take a genius to work out that Sol Bamba isn't a central midfielder - that didn't work at all. Apart from some (understandably) nervy defending from set pieces near the end of the game Birmingham won out pretty comfortably.

Cardiff's main threat throughout was the excellent Ken Zohore, who looks like the exact sort of player Crystal Palace or Brighton might sign in January in an attempt to stave off Premier League relegation. Aside from Zohore, Cardiff looked pretty impotent as an attacking threat. They've clearly got to the top of the league on the basis of something, it just wasn't clear what on Friday evening.

Birmingham have enough decent players to stay up - in fact Cotterill was bemoaning the fact that his squad was too big before the game, but I guess that's part and parcel of the job when you take over from Harry Redknapp.

[Greenlander]

Patrick Thistle, ChrisJ, NickSTFU, the bloke with the coracle, my mate also called Patrick - your boys... will be pissed off they didn't win.

Shrewbury bossed the first 30 minutes with the number 20 (Nolan?) running everything and should have been out of sight. Problem was your forwards always wanted an extra touch or another pass. Yet as half time drew closer Argyle finally sprang into life and had a couple of decent chances helped by your keeper being unable to catch anything. He conceeded at least two corners by spilling the ball and this seemed to give us some belief.

The memo that states Graham Carey should never be allowed to run unchecked towards goal obviously hasn't reached Salop but Derek Adams handed the advantage striaght back by removing our lone forward for another defender and we spent the last half hour waiting for the inevitable.

Enjoyable game - both teams could have won it and the draw was fair enough. It's the best we've played since August but then again that's not difficult.

[Bermuda Iron]

North Village 5 Royal Bermuda Regiment 0

Shit game really, where Village proceeded to take the piss out of a very unfit and unorganized Regt side. I know they are mainly part-time soldiers, but you would have thought they would be physically capable of running around for most, if not all, of the 90 minutes. Highlight of the game was a very angry Village winger, who was getting wound up by his opponent all game, finally losing it and kicking him (rather tamely it has to be said) on the shin in a fit of pique. Straight red card, and gales of laughter from the Regt defenders who realized they had won that battle, if not the war (sorry for the poor metaphor).

X-Road Warriors 1 Young Men's Social Club 0

A tight game between the 2 promoted sides, with the lack of real quality on show (but lots of effort) probably meaning they will both do well not to go straight back down again. This was the first ever Premier Division points and first ever Premier Division goal for X-Roads, somehow fittingly scored by their captain with a towering header from a corner just before half-time. Another red card in this game, this time straight after the final whistle where the YMSC No 10, who had come on as sub, decided to lose the plot completely and launched a very loud and foul-mouthed tirade towards the ref, his own bench, and anyone else in the 50-odd crowd who would listen. It appears the fat, lazy, talentless individual feels very strongly he should be starting every game, not warming the bench with his more-than-ample arse. Well, after that performance and red card, you won't be doing either for at least 2 games...

[NickSTFU]

Patrick Thistle, ChrisJ, NickSTFU, the bloke with the coracle, my mate also called Patrick - your boys... will be pissed off they didn't win.

Shrewbury bossed the first 30 minutes with the number 20 (Nolan?) running everything and should have been out of sight. Problem was your forwards always wanted an extra touch or another pass. Yet as half time drew closer Argyle finally sprang into life and had a couple of decent chances helped by your keeper being unable to catch anything. He conceeded at least two corners by spilling the ball and this seemed to give us some belief.

The memo that states Graham Carey should never be allowed to run unchecked towards goal obviously hasn't reached Salop but Derek Adams handed the advantage striaght back by removing our lone forward for another defender and we spent the last half hour waiting for the inevitable.

Enjoyable game - both teams could have won it and the draw was fair enough. It's the best we've played since August but then again that's not difficult.

My mate Phil reckons we were shit and deserved nothing.

He's a miserable bugger mind.

[RobW]

Went to Haringey v Heybridge Swifts in the 4th Qualifying Round, dragging my Man United supporting colleague along with me. Unlike the 3rd Qualifying Round, no booze was allowed pitch side, which was disappointing, but at least the game was entertaining. Can't recall much of it tbh, but Swifts were by far the better side and Borough equalised in the second half against the run of play. Swifts, er...swiftly scored twice and then added a fourth to cement their superiority before a late consolation for the home side. Twice as many fans there as there were for the previous round, and i'll do my best to keep going on random Saturdays.

[Ray de Galles]

Stretching this to midweek. Christ, was it good to see Wimbledon beat a very useful Rotherham side 3-1. Lyle Taylor Baby notching a hat trick after 21 games without a goal and still wasn’t man of the match for me. That went to Harry Forrester who, as I expected from his early sub appearances, has completely changed the dynamic of the side playing centrally behind Taylor as a lone frontman in a revised 4-2-3-1 formation.

The returning Darius Charles in central defence was another key performer, a contrast from his recent cameo appearances as an emergency centre forward in a desperate attempt to rescue games. The Millers could easily have won the game after equalising The Dons’ early opener in the 70th minute, so to win with two late goals was doubly gratifying.

Bottom of the table (but improving) Plymouth are the visitors on Saturday, the kind of game Wimbledon have screwed up in recent seasons - even when they’ve been in better form.

[HORN]

Newport had been unbeaten at home for 200-odd days. Tonight was my first visit of the season. Sigh.

[Nefertiti2]

Oxford Charlton. two good footballing sides. Draw probably a fair result.

[Third rate Leszno]

Maribor 0-7 Liverpool

Another thoroughly enjoyable European jaunt, for once the trip wasn't spoilt by the football.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Unterhaching 1:0 Preußen Münster

Tight game, although we deserved the win.

For some reason, the DFB decided it was a high-risk game and wouldn't sell beer in the stadium. The Münster fan I spoke to had been on a bus for twelve hours, which is plenty of time to get toasted. And they were all in the Biergarten after the game.

[KGR]

Carlton 1-1 Matlock, NPL League Cup First Round (Matlock won 4-1 on pens).

ABAB, not ABBA.

Carlton improving all the time, much better football this season there thanks partly to having a nice pitch for once.