Today I have mostly been watching football.
Well, only two games, I shouldn't exaggerate like that really.
But they were both quite good.
This afternoon I went to ...
Totesport.com Reserves League.
At Bracken Moor, Stocksbridge Park Steel's ground.
They call it the 'Look Local Stadium' too, apparently.
Sheffield Wednesday (2) 4 (Jeffers 2, Hinds, Miller pen)
Walsall (1) 2 (Nicholls, O'Keefe)
Attendance - More than you'd expect for a 2PM Tuesday kick off, over 150 there I'd estimate but I didn't feel the inclination to count them all
Admission and Team Sheet - Both free
Yes that's the Franny Jeffers in the red boots, he played very well too.
Left click any picture for an enlarged view.
It is heart warming in this day and age when there are so many alternatives to watching football matches, just how many people will skive off work and head up Nanny Hill in Stocksbridge to watch a reserve team fixture on a Tuesday afternoon.
What a bunch of crafty lead swinging malingerers you all are, I salute each and every one of you. I suppose if you need to hide out of the way where your employer won't see you, there aren't many more remote replaces to take refuge in than the home of Stocksbridge Park Steels.
AWOL workers of the World unite!
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what kind of standard of game I would be witnessing this afternoon and and feared it might be two second strings going through the motions, uninspired by their humble surroundings.
Bracken Moor is a really old fashioned two sided ground, I personally always like visiting the Steels ground because of it's location and olde worldliness, but when you're used to plying your trade at Hillsborough or the Bescot Stadium, I would imagine a run out at a sports ground of this calibre is a bit of a culture shock ... at least it will be good preparation for any of the Walsall party who will be making the trip to Stourbridge for their FA Cup game in the near future.
I shouldn't have worried, it was apparent early on that both sides had come in a positive frame of mind and wanted to play an attacking and open game. And Brian Laws the Wednesday first team boss was in attendance so a few of the Owls players wanted to make an impression too.
A fast flowing, end to end opening spell, saw both keepers at full stretch and tested from a good variety of angles, it was obvious there were going to be goals in this game it was just a question of when.
On half an hour the former Everton, Arsenal and England 'prospect' Francis Jeffers burst into the box and was flattened by two Walsall players, but the ref waved play on. He (Jeffers not the ref) could've just laid there contemplating the clouds, asking 'Why me?' but he dragged himself back to his feet and got on with the job in hand. Jeffers was rewarded for his perseverance two minutes later, when a neatly weighted pass to run onto sat up just right for him to lash the ball across the keeper with his right foot for the opening goal.
The career comeback starts here!
Four minutes later Richard Hinds headed home a second Wednesday goal from a corner and then went straight back to his defensive role and made a saving tackle almost immediately from the restart.
But Walsall were still intent on having a say in this game and after threatening to reduce the scoreline already, Alex Nicholls found space on the edge of the Owls area to run through and smash home an unstoppable shot.
Jeffers nearly added another goal in first half stoppage time, but his cleverly weighted flick beyond the keeper was cleared off the line by a Saddlers defender.
Half Time 2-1
The second half carried on in the same vein as the first with the initiative swinging one way and then the other. But on the hour a Tommy Miller put Wednesday 3-1 ahead and it looked as if Walsall's resolve would now be stretched to the limit. But they went straight back up the pitch and another powerful Nicholls shot hit the post and left the goal shaking, Sean Cuff in the Wednesday goal was probably grateful he hadn't got a touch on it.
Then Walsall substitute Richard Davies whacked a long distance shot fizzing narrowly over the bar.
It looked as though it definitely wasn't going to be the Saddlers day when Cuff saved well from yet another effort from Nicholls and then the Owls took the ball up the field and went 4-1 ahead a minute later when Jeffers buried a left wing cross from close range.
But Walsall still wouldn't give up chasing the game and with five minutes to go Cuff had to react quickly again to put the ball round his upright for a corner. Josh O'Keefe got on the end of the flag kick to make the final score 4-2.
A highly entertaining game of football which both sides played their part in. And a very good start to my double header.
It's a long way from the European Champions League to
Stocksbridge on a dull October afternoon.
And then I headed south down the M1 to ...
Blue Square North.
At North Street, Alfreton, AKA 'The Impact Arena'.
Alfreton Town (0) 1 (Howell)
Gainsborough Trinity (0) 0
Admission £10. Programme £2. Attendance 517
While everything around him is a blur of activity, Trinity's new(ish) manager
stands rooted to the spot in studied concentration (or similar).
Trinity had the best of the early exchanges and Paddy Gamble in the Alfreton goal made an excellent point blank stop to prevent the visitors from taking the lead - Yes, any Mansfield Town fans reading this, you didn't imagine what I just said.
Gamble looks to be enjoying a new lease of life at North Street and is regaining the confidence his game relies on. Good luck to him, he had a torrid time of it at the Stags and had to do a lot of growing up fast and learning from his mistakes in public ... Though I might not have been quite that generous to him the night I drove all the way from Edinburgh to Stevenage last season to watch a game where Paddy dropped a last minute clanger that lost the game for Mansfield.
Anyway, back to tonight's game, Alfreton grew in stature as Trinity's early promise and fizz seemed to go flat. Paul Clayton ought to have put the Reds in front, but his stinging shot came back off the crossbar with the Trinity defence pulled all over the place.
Though they weren't really at the races by that point, the visitors looked to have a good call for a penalty waved away when Darryn Stamp went down under an heavy challenge just before the break.
If it doesn't move, paint it bright red!
The second half was just about as one sided a game as you'll ever see. Alfreton were literally queueing up to have a crack at the Trinity goal and it beggars belief that the only goal they managed to score came from a goalkeeping error, when Phil Barnes fumbled a cross and only managed to help it into the path of Anthony Howell who happily accepted the opportunity to smash the ball home from the edge of the box.
Barnes got a lot of stick from the home fans behind the goal for that error and was cheered ironically whenever he had to make a save for the remainder of the game ... which was actually quite often.
Andy Todd now turns out for Alfreton Town, off the top of my head I think I've now seen him playing for at least 7 or 8 clubs. The pinnacle of his career, quite obviously, would've been turning out for Worksop Town though.
And if you think that is a slightly biased observation, you just wait until I've done the spell check and 'proof read' from the next game on my itinerary and posted it ;-)
I was chatting to some Trinity fans I know and they were saying that under the new manager Brian Little, they seem to be starting games very well but aren't sustaining the tempo for more than about twenty minutes, so by the sound of it tonight was a fairly typical performance from the visitors.
Looking along the touch line you could see (and hear) the Alfreton manager Nicky Law (an ex Spireite nemesis of mine) up on his feet, very animated and constantly calling out instructions. Brian Little on the other hand looked like a statue, motionless and deep in thought. Probably ruminating over how on earth he got to be stood on a touch line at 'Ofton' when he used to be in the hot seat at Villa Park. I know a few Wrexham and Tranmere fans who would most probably relish the opportunity to answer that line of enquiry.
Is he the answer to Gainsborough's prayers?
On current form you would have to say the jury is still out debating that question, but the early evidence doesn't look very good for either party.
It takes time to mould a football team, but in this quick fix industry you never know quite how much time and patience you're going to be afforded.
It was only a single goal defeat for Trinity in the end, but that margin of defeat flattered them no end. I've seen a lot of games this season where teams have rued not taking a glut of chances and been felled by a sucker punch against the run of play ... Gainsborough weren't ever going to do that to Alfreton tonight once they had fallen behind though, they had nothing left in their locker. Nothing at all.
On the way out the Trinity fans asked if I'd thought I'd got good value for my £10 admission fee. I told them Alfreton were definitely good for entertainment value, but that after the first half an hour Trinity probably owed everyone present a £5 refund.
The best team won.
The second best were nowhere near.
THE66POW
We were talking about which games we'd been to this season and possible ways of raising a few quid to help out Worksop Town through their current exile at Ilkeston Town's New Manor Ground. Be it through donations, sponsored events or whatever.
Somebody suggested that they ought to set me a target of games to attend this season and get people to sponsor me if I could reach that number.
I've gone a bit overboard these past few weeks, realising that I had to get a decent cushion of games attended racked up if I'm going to reach the target figure. But it's all for what I consider to be a worthy cause, so that offsets the 'minor' inconveniences of traffic jams, ever increasing diesel prices, typical British weather, getting lost in the back end of beyond every now and then and persevering with a few games that haven't exactly caught the imagination.
Worksop Town have a proud past, almost 150 years of it (there are only three clubs in the world older than the Tigers), but it is NOW that counts, great strides need to be made in the present to guarantee the future or else the past, good times and bad, will count for nothing.
Now the idea is starting to take off properly, it's high time I set up some proper criteria.
What criteria qualifies as actually attending a game? The question was actually asked, so I guess I ought to answer it. Only games I have actually seen for their entire duration will count towards the total. No games where I miss the kick off or leave before the end of will count, nor will any matches that are abandoned before they are scheduled to finish - to that end can I please ask that a couple 0f North Notts based CMFL clubs get their floodlights and back up generators serviced regularly.
Yes Adie, I'm breathing in!!!
