Archive for May, 2024

Blyth Town v Bedlington Terriers, Tuesday 26th December 2023, 3pm

May 31, 2024

For my second Boxing Day game I headed north for an hour or so to Blyth. I was there early enough to be able to leave the car outside the Gateway Park ground. With plenty of time to kick-off I made my way through a housing estate and followed a beck until I reached the sea.

It was busy, with people walking their dogs and strolling along the promenade. You have to stroll on a promenade, it’s compulsory.

With kick-off approaching I retraced my steps and handed over the six quid for admission. I was soon relieved of another two pounds for a raffle. I’m not really sure why I bother as the only thing I’ve ever won at one of these games is a trucker’s cap advertising engine oil. Maybe I should re-train as a lorry driver to get some use out of it.

Gateway Park has a small seventy-seater covered stand and I was there early enough to nab a seat before most of the crowd had left the clubhouse. There was a smaller adjoining standing area for latecomers with others lining the pitch perimeter and many of the two-hundred plus crowd nursing pints that seemed out of place on a cold winter’s afternoon.

Home side Blyth Town are a fairly recently established club, dating back to 1995. I had a look in the online programme and they had only made it into the Northern League around three seasons ago. The visitors, Bedlington Terriers, have a more illustrious history. They’ve been around for the past eighty years or so and hit a purple patch around the millennium when they won five Northern League Division One titles on the trot.

This fixture was in the Second Division and both sides were handily placed for promotion with Blyth in second place and Bedlington just one spot behind them. They both trailed leaders Newcastle Blue Star by a single point.

There weren’t many chances in the first half and the most excitement came whenever a wayward shot ended up in the car park. As I’d bought out the insurance excess on my hire car I had little skin in that game other, I suppose, than the inconvenience of having to have a windscreen replaced before driving home.

At the break I wandered into the clubhouse and had a look around. For a club with a short history, Blyth had a lot of trophies on display. As I bought a Bovril the bloke next to me let me know, with some delight, that Blyth Spartans were winning at South Shields three divisions up. Clearly there isn’t much of a local rivalry between the Blyth clubs, or at least not as far as that fella was concerned.

Blyth took the lead not long after the re-start with a strong header at the back post. They doubled their lead on seventy minutes with what may well have been intended to be another header but looked as if it might well have actually bounced off someone’s back.

The trusted tactic of a lofted ball into the box paid off for a third time with a cleaner headed connection as the clock ran down. The goal sealed the win for Blyth and opened up a gap between the teams in the battle for a top two spot.

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Boro Rangers v Redcar Athletic, Tuesday 26th December 2023, 11am

May 24, 2024

Jen had a trip to America booked and so I dropped her at the airport early in the morning. I’d thought about going with her, but I’d been doing some remote work and the time difference with the States would have meant some very early starts for meetings.

Another factor was the lack of sport going on out there at this time of year compared to in Europe and by staying behind it gave me the chance to get to a few games, including two Boxing Day fixtures. The first of those was a Northern League Division One clash between Boro Rangers and Redcar Athletic.

I think both sides were promoted last season with Boro Rangers having continued their previous form to sit at fifth place in the table. Redcar Athletic hadn’t fared quite so well and were down in fifteenth.

The game was at Trinity College, which sounds impressive, but is actually just a school. It’s an enclosed artificial pitch with a small covered seated stand and two small covered standing areas. It’s probably at about the bare minimum for Northern League level and if Boro Rangers were to get back-to-back promotions, I’m not sure that the ground would satisfy tier eight requirements. On the plus side, there was a burger stand and another selling cans of beer.

It was seven quid in and the eleven o’clock kick-off had attracted a sizeable crowd of more than 250, including two kids with a drum. There were a few away fans wearing club bobble hats stood nearby as I took up a position on the barrier behind one of the goals. Boro Rangers were wearing proper Boro strips, with Redcar Athletic in blue and black.

I can see why the home side would want to emphasise their Boro roots, but I’d have thought it would have been better to have their own identity, rather than being coming across as a tribute act with their kit. It’s like when you head up to Tyneside and the so many of the clubs have appropriated the black and white stripes.

There was a lot of squabbling and bickering between the teams with everyone appearing to appeal for everything, no matter how unlikely the prospect of getting the decision. The visitors took the lead ten minutes from half-time when someone got on the end of an enormous throw and stabbed the ball home.

I got a coffee at half-time, which was crap, and a burger which was much better. I’d barely resumed my position on the barrier when Redcar conceded a penalty with a handball. It was dispatched to bring Rangers level.

The momentum swung further towards the home side a few minutes later when the Redcar captain picked up a second yellow. Nobody else complained about the decision but he chuntered away to himself all the way to the dressing room.

Despite being a man down, Redcar restored their lead fifteen minutes from time with a header from a corner, only for Boro Rangers to level again moments later. The home side pressed for a winner and controversially were in possession and looking to get a shot away on the edge of the Redcar box when the ref blew for full-time. It wasn’t quite of Clive Thomas proportions, but he got some stick for it. The dropped points put a spoke in the wheels of the home side’s play-off ambitions but I thought a draw was a fair reflection of the game.

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Middlesbrough v West Bromwich Albion, Saturday 23rd December 2023, 3pm

May 23, 2024

In the old days, the Saturday game just before Christmas was usually poorly attended. It was likely due to a combination of people wanting to save money for Christmas and it being the prime day for being dragged around the shops to spend whatever you had put aside. I’m not sure that’s the case anymore with online shopping.

However, this game felt more like a Boxing Day fixture with those who work away already home and with most people finished for the holidays. The main talking point in the car on the way there was the extent of the Boro’s injury list and whether we actually had an entire first choice eleven currently on the sick.

With Howson, Jones and Fry available I couldn’t argue that it was a true stiffs side and with McGree, Coburn and Crooks being fit enough for the bench maybe the tide was turning.

Sammy Silvera was pushed further forward to fill the lone striker’s spot. He’s known primarily by Harry and Ali as the player most likely to hit the roof of the stand rather than the target but with plenty of interchanging between the front four the burden of finishing was shared around.

We took the lead just before the break with a good finish by Morgan Rogers after some excellent build up play. He was rewarded with his name being used in that re-worked version of Last Christmas. He’s looking to be a decent prospect and hopefully he’ll kick on with a bit more game time.

The lack of a second goal meant that I was never comfortable until the final whistle went and whilst the result was just what we needed I think I was probably more pleased by the return of McGree and Coburn. If Hackney isn’t too far from fitness and we can bring in a couple of players in January, then it should all start to look a lot rosier for the New Year.

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Ossett United v Sheffield FC, Friday 22nd December 2023, 7.45pm

May 21, 2024

This was a game between old and new. Ossett United were formed in 2018 as a merger between Ossett Town and Ossett Albion whilst Sheffield is the world’s oldest football club and dates back to 1857. Apparently, it was just a weekly kickabout amongst themselves as married v singles until nearby Hallam got their act together to provide some opposition. I like that they are just Sheffield with no need for a suffix such as United or Wednesday. Just Sheffield, the Sheffield Football Club.

I parked a few yards away from Ossett’s Ingfield stadium in front of some shops. It was nine pounds, fifty to get in with another couple of quid for the raffle and then a fiver for a coffee and a decent pork pie.

There weren’t any programmes, either paper or digital, despite there being a programme shop that now owed its existence to the backlog of unsold old stock that they had. I suspect that it gets regularly topped up as people clear their lofts.  It’s a shame in some ways that programmes seem to be disappearing, but time moves on, and I doubt that there’s much content that isn’t readily available online. There were some team sheets available for a donation and so I took one of them even though I could have looked on Twitter for the team news.

I sat down in the main covered stand behind one of the goals to eat my pie and watch the keeper warm up. The goalie coach seemed to think that it was shooting practice for his own benefit and blasted most of his efforts into the corners where the keeper couldn’t get anywhere near them. They’d have been better off staying in the dressing room.

The ground is a lot older than its current tenants and there were smaller covered standing areas to my left and at the opposite end, with some open terracing in front of the clubhouse on my right.

There was a decent turnout, which was eventually announced as 326. Quite a few of the lads who were wearing Santa hats and stood in front of the club house looked as if they had been on the drink all day. With the fixture taking place on Black Eye Friday, it’s fairly likely that they will have been.

There was plenty of singing, although the most effort went into joining in with the pre-match and half-time music. Unsurprisingly, Fairytale of New York was popular. I suppose a sentimental song is always going to be blasted out when the singer has just died, and you’ve been downing Jaeger bombs since midday.

It was a classic mid-table encounter with visitors Sheffield, in a red and black kit, in fourteenth place in the eighth-tier Northern Premier League, Division One East table. Ossett in light and dark blue kit were one place behind them. I noticed a few home fans were wearing the old yellow and black colours of the defunct Ossett Town.

Sheffield applied the pressure early on, sending ball after ball into the box. It paid off after a quarter of an hour when someone eventually got on the end of one to put them a goal up. A second goal from a header on the half-hour meant that the teams went in at half-time with Sheffield two ahead.

Ossett looked better in the second half and missed a couple of decent chances to get a foothold in the game but were hit on the break and eventually found themselves four-nil down. The evening finished with a last-minute back-post volley for an Ossett consolation that finally gave the local kids something football-related to sing about.

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Club Thorne v Field, Wednesday 20th December 2023, 7.45pm

May 15, 2024

Jen and I had returned from Spain primarily so that I could have a cataracts op. My eyesight had been deteriorating for a while and the day after getting home I had the old cloudy lens whipped out and a new plastic one popped in. It was all very straightforward and within a day or so I’d dispensed with the eye patch and got back to normal.

My version of normal involves going to the match and therefore two days post-op I was driving south to somewhere near Doncaster for a West Riding County FA Challenge Cup game between Field and Club Thorne.

The drive was easy enough and I marvelled at how much better my night vision was. In recent times, car headlights had looked like star bursting fireworks, but with my new bionic eye they looked exactly as I’d recalled them from the olden days.

The journey was enhanced by listening to a podcast with a Weller interview. He’s notoriously wary in those situations, but the bloke he was chatting to got him to open up on all sorts of issues. The time passed quickly.

The game was at the Moorends Welfare Ground, which is where Club Thorne usually play their home fixtures. Either Field also play there, or else the fixture had been reversed for some reason. It was three quid entry and I handed over my change from a fiver for some raffle tickets.

I had time to queue for a coffee and a chip butty before kick-off, changing my order at the last minute after hearing the bloke in front of me complaining that the cheese on his cheesy chips wasn’t sufficiently melted.

There were probably around a hundred or so spectators, spread around a main stand with railway sleeper seating and a couple of raised concreted areas. There were also picnic tables behind one of the goals, although they didn’t get a lot of use. I thought that it wasn’t a bad turnout in the run up to Christmas and for a competition that may not have been a priority for the eleventh-tier teams.

The lino on the side I was stood reminded me of Billy Casper and he got on with the ref about as well as Billy did with Mr. Sugden. No matter which way Casper flagged, the ref would overrule him and give the decision the other way. I’d have gone home if I were him. Or abandoned the flag and swung from the crossbar.

Thorne went ahead early on and soon doubled their lead with a neat, lofted shot over the keeper. It reminded me of the one that Paul scored against me in a Bishopsgarth v Blakeston game when we were fifteen. Except that this one wasn’t going ten feet over the bar until a rogue gust of wind stopped its progress towards row Z and caused the ball to drop just under the bar for a freak goal that no keeper in the world could have anticipated.

Club Thorne sealed the win with a third goal a few minutes from time and I headed back north reflecting on how much easier it is to drive at night when you have a full complement of functional eyes.

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Gimnastic v La Nucia, Saturday 16th December 2023, 5.30pm

May 14, 2024

I’m doubtful as to whether I should count this game or not in my list of grounds that get a tick. On one hand, it was an eleven a side game on a full-size pitch with a proper ref. I can’t remember whether it had linos or not, but it may well have done.

On the downside, I only watched for ten minutes at the most and the players were twelve or thirteen-year-old kids. I’ll have to give it some thought, but I’m leaning towards not counting it. It’s more a gut-feeling than a strict application of my personal groundhopping rules.

It was taking place on the adjacent pitch to the main San Vincente del Raspeig stadium where I’d been watching a tier five fixture. I wandered in at half-time in my game and some kids very helpfully wrote down the team names and told me the age group and which team were which. For what it’s worth Gimnastic were in green with La Nucia in red and black.

I even managed to see a goal before I had to head back to the adult game next door, although I’ve no idea what the score was at the time or at the end. Anyway, even if I don’t tick off the ground, I’ve got a record of having been there. That will save me from racking my brains as to why it looks familiar if I do happen to turn up there again a few years into the future.

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FC Jove Espanol v Athletic Club Torellano, Saturday 16th December 2023, 5pm

May 12, 2024

My second game of the day required me to drive back north beyond Santa Pola to Alicante. Fortunately, the Ciudad Deportiva de San Vincente del Raspeig was on the outskirts of the town and so I didn’t have to endure the slow crawl through Alicante town centre.

I parked up near the ground and after a brief wander around to pick up some drinks and pastries from a supermarket I returned to the car to cover the floor with crumbs whilst listening to the first half of the Boro’s game at Swansea.

This was a fifth-tier game in the Tercera Group Six and unusually there was no admission charge. It soon became apparent though that the reason for this was that they were having a pre-Christmas toy collection instead. As I had no toys with me I just gave them some euros, thinking that older kids would probably prefer cash to buy Diamond White and fags anyway.

The artificial pitch had two rows of concrete seating around it, apart from one side where there was a much bigger stand that was largely uncovered but with a small amount of roofing at one end. On sunny days I suspect that you had to be there pretty early for a seat in that area. As it was teatime in December, I was happy to find a spot out in the open on the opposite side.

Jove were in a red and black kit with Torellano in blue and white. There was a Korean guy playing for the visitors and he put in a lively first half performance. The other noticeable fella in the opening stages was the ref who seemed to enjoy dishing out the cards.

Neither team broke the deadlock before the break and with a lengthy queue at the tea hut I wandered next door where what appeared to be an under-thirteens game was taking place.

I moved to the main stand for the second half just for a change of vantage point. Unfortunately, I’d nipped around the back for a slash when the visitors opened the scoring on the hour. No doubt it will have been, as the kids say, a ‘worldie’.

Jove applied some pressure but the away defence held out until two minutes from time when there was a collision right in the outer corner of the penalty box. The decision could have been given either way but, as so often happens, it went the way of the home side.

The penalty taker took an exceptionally slow walk up and was virtually stationary when he struck the ball. Luckily for him he sent the keeper the wrong way to level the scores and earn Jove a point.

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La Union CF v CD Estepona, Saturday 16th December 2023, 11.30am

May 11, 2024

With the Madrid trip done and our five weeks in Spain drawing to a close I took the opportunity to squeeze in a couple more games on the day before we headed back to the UK for Christmas. The first was a morning fixture about an hour’s drive away to the south for a fourth-tier game at La Union.

I was early enough to have a pre-match wander around but there wasn’t much going on other than locals meeting up for a coffee or a beer and some small town yapping.

The Estadio Municipal de la Union dates back to 1973 and can accommodate 3,000 spectators. With tickets costing fifteen euros a pop, I doubted very much that we’d get anywhere near a capacity crowd, even in a place with little else to do at that time of day.

I was right in my assumption that there wouldn’t be too many people attending. A few young lads lined up against the barrier on the near side, whilst most people wandered across to the four-row concrete terracing on the far side. There was little shade for a mid-day fixture though and it was one of those rare occasions where I thought that wearing a hat might have been the sensible thing to do.

I’d seen the visiting team, Estepona, at the back end of the previous season. At that time, they’d been pushing for a play-off spot. It obviously hadn’t worked out as they’d hoped as here they were, one season on, still playing at the same level. There wasn’t much to note in the first half apart from a few ropey tackles and some over the top appealing that was usually accompanied by gesturing for a card or two to be given.

Estepona took the lead ten minutes into the second half with a shot from the edge of the box that sneaked in at the foot of a post. It might even have come back off the upright and in off the keeper’s bonce. Understandably he was furious about it as, less understandably, were a few of the fellas near me.

La Union finished up with ten men when one of their players picked up a second yellow for showing his frustration at the timewasting. Estepona continued to drag everything out though and successfully ran down the clock to take the points.

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