Fright Nights under the lights: Halloween matchgoing

[Arturo]

(and other midweek games too)

Norwich v Wolves

Both sides head into the game on the back of a defeat. City are paying the price for going into the season with only two recognised strikers. Nelson Oliveira is perpetually injured and Cameron Jerome, for all his graft, looks knackered and out of form while carrying the burden. We're trying to pass Marley Watkins off as a third striker, but I'm not buying it.

One highlight should be John Ruddy getting a nice reception on his first visit back to Carrow Road. Glad he seems to be doing ok since he left.

[Patrick Thistle]

Cardiff v Ipswich tonight. Saw Cardiff beat them quite convincingly in March.

Cardiff were pretty good back in August but it seems like Colin's love of defensive attritional victories is reasserting itself into the game play.

[Bermuda Iron]

Dudley Eve Trophy Semi-Finals tomorrow night, PHC vs Robin Hood then North Village Rams vs Devonshire Cougars. Kick offs schedules for 1900 and 2100 local time at the same venue, but with the prospect of extra-time and penalties in the semis it could be a late night, as they both should be close games.

[Patrick Thistle]

Half time and Cardiff are winning 1-0. Just had a bunch of schoolkids on at half time doing the dance from Thriller.

[cantagalo]

Birmingham v Brentford

Harlee Dean reckons the current Birmingham squad is ‘10 times better’ than the 2014-5 Brentford squad that made the play-offs. We shall see.

[Southport Zeb]

I watched AFC Blackpool beat Silsden 4-0 in the second round of the LWC Drinks North West Counties First Division Trophy (Northern Section). Could well have been more with better finishing. I presume Silsden played a weakened team as they have won 14/14 in the league so far.

[Arturo]

2-0 to Wolves tonight. Totally deserved. They were slicker, stronger, comfortable in possession and never looked in trouble. Perhaps the best side to come to Carrow Road so far this season.

Norwich are what they are - a side in transition. However, all our fine away victories are being undone by our terrible home form. Only two wins so far and none for two months.

On the plus side, watching James Maddison is a delight. I'll enjoy him while he's here until we flog him for squillions of pounds next summer.

[EIM]

Everything at Old Trafford tonight was poor except Nemanja Matic and Anthony Martial.

[Patrick Thistle]

Cardiff 3 v 1 Ipswich

The exact same score from this fixture back in March. Cardiff were in the main excellent, flowing passing, flicks and tips bamboozling the Ipswich midfield. Number 7, Lee Tomlin, provided creative energy for attack after attack.

Cardiff scored early in both halves. Then Tomlin got subbed and they lost their flow a bit. An Ipswich defender almost put through his own net and sub Danny Ward hit a post after creating a glorious chance from nothing. Then on 89 minutes Ipswich scored and with the announcement of 4 minutes of additional time the crowd got restless. But then on 90+1 the Bluebirds scored a third to settle it, Ward making sure he won the ball in the box from a rebound and slotting home.

3-1 was a fair result. It could have been more.

[Billy Casper]

Burton 2-4 Barnsley

Although the score line may suggest otherwise, this was mostly a game a dull game between two limited teams. We scored twice against the run of play only for Burton to equalise deservedly both times. Then Heckingbottom made a double substitution and we looked better for the final twenty minutes.

We've played much better this season and lost though.

[Furtho]

Wing Village 3-2 Buckingham United

Last night I went to Wing Village v Buckingham United in the Buckingham Junior Charity Cup 1st Round. The tournament is an invitation-only event set up 90-odd years ago to raise funds for local good causes via the staging of a knock-out competition (in fact two - there's a Senior Charity Cup as well). Participating clubs normally play their league football at below Step 7 in the pyramid, so while there are a few outliers most are members of the North Bucks & District League; such is the case for yesterday's combatants.

Because at this level of football hardly any clubs have floodlights, the game was staged at Ostlers Lane, home of Stony Stratford Town. 25 or so people thronged through the gate, not enough for the organisers to bother running a raffle, although evidently enough to pay the ref and Stony's gloomy groundsman, while still leaving some left over for the charity.

Despite being two divisions lower than Wing, Buckingham were deservedly 2-0 up at the break, having played some very tidy stuff. The local cognoscenti tend to be rather dismissive of the North Bucks & District League - fucking park football mate - but this was certainly on a par with the Spartan South Midlands League Division 2, into which North Bucks members must move if they want to try to climb up the pyramid.

After the restart Buckingham rather ran out of puff and big guns Wing asserted themselves on the proceedings, pulling level and then scoring the winner with about ten minutes to go. Silverstone await in the 2nd Round in three weeks' time.

[Third rate Leszno]

Liverpool v Maribor this evening. Not anticipating another 7-0, but will hopefully be a home win. Plenty of Slovenians already around town enjoying the local hostelries, I plan to go and do likewise in the next half hour.

[imp]

Roma 3 Chelsea 0

Worth every Euro to see Chelsea getting stuffed. Ha!

[Ray de Galles]

Waltham Forest 0 Basildon United 2
Essex Senior League

I’ve been meaning to get to see Forest for a while as they are only a relatively short jaunt up the Victoria Line from my office (well, Walthamstow is, their ground is actually quite a trek from the tube).

They’ve always seemed to have a really well-presented, welcoming online and social media presence - especially for a club that is obviously small even by ESL standards. This is matched by their excellent programme, by far the best I’ve ever seen at this level and a few above. To top this off I have now discovered they offer a free plate of ginger nuts at the tea bar.

The whole set up seems like a labour of love which makes it all the sadder that this was the first home game following the death of their chairman (the third such loss in around a decade apparently), who was apparently the key man in having them return to their Wadham Lodge ground after a few years sharing with Ilford.

There wasn’t much respite on the pitch, Basildon going top of the table with a win stemming from greater commitment and physical edge rather than any real football. The goals from a corner forced home after they spooked the home keeper and a penalty that nobody really seemed sure about, least of all the refreee.

Forest seemed to play all the best football on the night but no cohesion in the team (apparently they’ve been through a huge number of players already and are on their seventh keeper, who will soon be replaced by an eighth based on this display) and the defeat saw them kept off the bottom of the table only by groundmates Wadham Lodge FC.

Basildon had (as seems usual for Essex sides) a full set of narky, whining and thoroughly dislikable players, bench and fans. I really would recommend the capital-based sides in the league spilt away and form some kind of north/east London league of their own so they don’t have to deal with them, it would be far more dignified.

The major incident of note in the game was a 6 minute stoppage half an hour in after the visitors had kicked all the home team’s five allotted footballs out of the ground completely and none of them seemed retrievable. I wondered if we were going to see an abandonment until a couple of replacements were begged from the neighbouring five-a-side complex. It was that kind of match.

[Bermuda Iron]

PHC Zebras 3 Robin Hood 2 (aet)
North Village Rams 2 Devonshire Cougars 2 (aet - Cougars win 5-4 on pens)

Very late night for me last night. A double header for the Dudley Eve Trophy semi-finals, with kick offs at 7.00 and 9.00pm, at one of only 2 venues on the island that have adequate floodlights for regular league/cup evening games (the National Stadium is only used for internationals, high profile friendlies with visiting teams, and the FA Cup Final). First game was a very tight and heated affair, settled in extra-time, with a red card for a Hood player for kicking out off the ball. Extra-time meant the second game kicked off even later, predictably went to extra-time and then pens, meaning the actual match finished around fifteen minutes after midnight. Then I had to contend with the marathon journey home of 15 minutes, bastard BFA scheduling committee.

[imp]

Roma 3 Chelsea 0

Worth every Euro to see Chelsea getting stuffed. Ha!

Expanded version - featuring the Kardashians' Italian cousins who paid a visit to our section of the stadium to... I'm still not sure to do what.

[Ray de Galles]

I went to Merstham v Margate in the Isthmian Premier last night. Not an awful lot to report for most of the match but a surprisingly high quality game especially given the constant torrential rain. The home side were unlucky to end up 1-2 losers after dominating much of the match but I lost any sympathy I might have had for them after their terrible behaviour near the end of and after the game.

Their number 9, wide player Alex Addai, was one of the most objectionable players I've watched at any level in recent years. His attitude towards officials and opponents, but most of all his team mates, was rank throughout the game - constantly complaining and whinging in the most narky manner. All of that would have been bad enough if his selfish and often incompetent play didn't hamper his own side's momentum so much. After 88 minutes of petulant tantrums and little else he finally pushed the ref (who's largely had a decent game but had begun to lose control late on) too far and he tried to book him for dissent. Addai deliberately walked away beckoning the ref with a "You have to come to me" gesture & manner. When the ref finally relented to go to him, just to move the game on, he gave him another mouthful meaning he got two (deserved) bookings one after the other and was sent off.

That would have been bad enough but at the final whistle Addai was allowed to stand at the side of the pitch to scream in the ref's face while club volunteers and (I presume) officials also queued at the entrance to the clubhouse to insult and swear at him . Their manager then followed him in to the dressing room area to scream "You fucking cheating cunt!" at the ref. There was no sign of any protection or apology from anyone at the club. I left the ground hoping everything would be covered in the ref's report with Merstham being punished and wondering if there was any point in complaining to the Isthmian League myself. A thoroughly dispiriting end to a decent evening's football.

[jameswba]

I left the ground hoping everything would be covered in the ref's report with Merstham being punished and wondering if there was any point in complaining to the Isthmian League myself.

I think so, if you feel that strongly. If nothing else, it's a bit of support for the ref, who sounds like he didn't do an awful lot wrong.

Different country, different circumstances, but I wrote to the Slovak FA last year after 90 minutes of having to listen to Slovan Bratislava fans chant racial abuse at the black players of my local team. To my surprise, I got a quick reply assuring me that the incidents in question had been reported by both the ref and FA delegate, and would be acted on. They also said that I should write in again if I had further concerns.

If we don't complain in these situations, we're essentially being apathetic.

[Ray de Galles]

Thanks, that was the nudge I needed. Just sent a mail to the Isthmian League secretary.

[imp]

Thanks, that was the nudge I needed. Just sent a mail to the Isthmian League secretary.

Good on you. If I may, though, I'd like to raise an objection to the phrase about the ref "losing control of the game". Is it really the refs who lose control, or is it the teams? I only ask, because I had that accusation levelled at me by a youth team coach after a game last year with eight yellow cards in the second half. Maybe I did "lose control", but I just punished the infringements as they happened and I'm pretty sure I would have been giving further verbal warnings too. If the teams didn't curb their behaviour after getting cautioned and verbally warned, there wasn't a lot I alone could do about it. And there was no guidance from either coach telling their players to calm down and start behaving. Do you blame the landlord when the customers get drunk and start a fight?

[Patrick Thistle]

Depends how many decisions the landlord gets wrong, really...

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, good point imp, lazy phraseology on my part. What actually happened was that both sets of players pushed it too far and started getting lairy when he punished their indiscretions. If there was a problem it was that he tried not to caution players for most of the game but was forced to late on by repeated infringements, the players and benches seemed to use this as an excuse to cry inconsistency.

The worst culprit for all of the problems was Merstham’s manager, Hayden Bird - a name I vaguely recognise but can’t place. It was obvious all game that Addai was heading for trouble with either the officials, opponents or even his team mates and a sensible manager would have subbed him off - especially as he was having such an ineffective performance.

To compound that mistake with his screaming, swearing tantrum at the ref after he left the pitch was just pathetic, better management would probably have secured a point or win - or kept eleven men on the pitch at least.

[imp]

Depends how many decisions the landlord gets wrong, really...

There's actually a hint of a point in your quip - you could argue that the landlord does have some influence. He or she can stop serving obviously drunk punters, and/or throw them out in advance of possible trouble. If there were several obvious signs that something was in the air and they didn't turf them out or call the cops, then you could argue that the landlord lost control of the pub. But if there's a grievance being nurtured from a previous fight in a different pub, or someone stares at someone's pint outside of the landlord's vision and it all kicks off, there's not a lot they could have done to prevent it.

@ Ray - yes, an early yellow can sometimes nicely set the tone that you're in charge (but it needs to be for a good reason). And there's no doubt teams can sense when a ref isn't in charge and will exploit it. But not all refs are steely authoritarians, or have the knack of behaving like one when the need arises, so the large portion of the blame lies with the teams, especially the coaches. Like you say, it's obvious when a player needs to be taken off, and I often mutter to captains or coaches that the psycho-eyed number 4 is sailing very close to a red. They either sub him out or, in the more entertaining cases, yell something like, "Benny, calm down, you fucking idiot!"

[jameswba]

Thanks, that was the nudge I needed. Just sent a mail to the Isthmian League secretary.

Happy to be of use. It's obvious you have a lot of good will towards the game at that level, you're paying to be out watching it on a weekday evening, yet you left dispirited. I'd say the league needs to hear your complaint. At least those were the kinds of thoughts I had when I took to my keyboard to contact the Slovak FA. It will be interesting to see if the Isthmian League responds.

Imp, has it ever happened to you after a game that's got (apologies for that phrase again) 'out of control' that someone present has got in touch, either personally or with the association, to express support for you?

[imp]

No, but after that particular game someone called out to me, "You did fine, don't let the bastards get to you", or something similar. Which is really appreciated.