Hitting the Wall. S'all good - weekend matchgoing

[jameswba]

Zilina 2 Slovan Bratislava 0

A bit like Aitch's game. Zilina took two of their three chances, while Slovan had 9 corners to 2 and kept creating and missing clear chances. Two weeks ago, the sides met in the penultimate game of the season's 'basic phase' and Slovan won 6-0. Yesterday was the first round of fixtures after the league split into top 6/bottom 6.

Normally, seeing Slovan depart from Zilina defeated and dejected would be enough excitement for a Sunday, but yesterday's real main event was a concert in town, starting 30 mins after the football finished, and organised in tribute to the mudered investigate journalist and his partner.

[Ray de Galles]

Not much of note in Wimbledon’s desperately needed 2-1 win over Oxford United apart from three of the messiest goals you can imagine :

- ball played aimlessly towards box, deflects off Oxford defender’s head wrong-footing a team mate who slips and as he falls inadvertently trips an attacker to give away the penalty (correctly awarded I think, perhaps imp can do a ‘You Are The Ref’ for me?)

- 5 Wimbledon players fail to make a tackle or clearance in midfield, ball passed to edge of box where a sixth flys in to an attempted tackle/clearance but manages to nutmeg himself as his legs pass either side of the ball, tame shot squirms away from keeper and rebound is buried.

- free kick is floated in from wide and one touch of the ball leaves three Wimbledon players unmarked in front of the net, all seemingly offside but not flagged (presumably because they were being played on or the touch came from an Oxford player, all three seem to Riverdance around the ball until one of them punts it home while falling while another jumps out of the way of it, the shot hits the near post to trundle over the line.

The action photo of the winner below captures the full majesty of the entire game like no match report could :

[Uros Predic]

Southend United 0-0 Doncaster Rovers

The tide was in when we got to Southend, but thankfully someone had ensured we didn't miss out on seeing the beach by dumping it on top of the Roots Hall pitch. The sandy, boggy surface meant hope of free-flowing football was abandoned largely in favour of a scrappy, slippy kick and chase. As a result it made for a more entertaining 0-0 than most, despite a lack of shots on target.

[Tapiocahead]

The Bradford City match was called off, and I don't have high hopes for Wednesday's game against Wigan either. Went to Harrogate v FC United which was 6-0 in the end and was a fair reflection of the match.

[Ray de Galles]

I've always wanted a player to do the Morecambe & Wise dance as a goal celebration. I've just realised that's what Deji Oshilaja (number 4 in the picture above) appears to be prematurely doing.

[Aitch]

I've always wanted a player to do the Morecambe & Wise dance as a goal celebration.

Does this come close?

https://streamable.com/y6ryj

[Ray de Galles]

Sadly no, though very enjoyable all the same. Is there any kind of explanation for it?

[Aitch]

It's apparently a dance in a PC video game called Fortnite that the team play amongst themselves and with some supporters.

[Ray de Galles]

Oh, my boy loves that game so will have to show him the video - cheers.

[Southport Zeb]

Watched Southport play Telford tonight. First half was a good display by Southport but no goals. An excellently taken free kick right at the start of the second half put us ahead, after which we switched off a bit. With around twenty minutes to go it looked like Telford were the more likely to score the next goal, at which point Southport scored two in five minutes to secure the win.

A very strange season for Southport. Top in the early weeks of the season before going four months without a win which took them into the relegation zone. Now eight wins out in the last ten have taken us to within a point of the playoffs (admittedly Spennymoor who currently occupy the last playoff place have six games in hand). Add in the off field shenanigans and it's certainly been interesting.

[Ray de Galles]

With all the matches I was considering last night postponed due to waterlogged pitches I am taking up the offer of some freebie tickets ( I suspect there might be quite a few) for Arsenal v Milan tomorrow night. It's mainly to worship at the feet of Ramsey so I hope he's fit/selected.