Charlton Athletic 1 v 2 Brighton and Hove Albion

Tuesday 23rd February 2010
Football League 1
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: £17.00 (North Stand Upper)
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 17508
Match Rating: 2

It was the case of return of the prodigal son this evening…after being a season ticket holder at Charlton for many years and a few wretchedly dire performances too many from the Addicks, this was my first return to The Valley since allowing my season ticket to lapse at the end of last season. Some things never change…a dire midweek performance at home against a team, on paper at least, Charlton really should have beaten.

I purchased my ticket from the Charlton website – not particularly necessary these days with every game being well below capacity, but this does ensure that I could choose exactly where I wanted to sit – in the Upper North Stand, behind the goal, with an excellent view of the pitch, although as is common in the North Stand, the seating is cramped and uncomfortable. The Valley is an excellent facility these days, at least on three sides, which all have modern grandstands with excellent views and nothing to obscure the view of the pitch. However the fourth side, behind the goal which accommodates away supporters is certainly showing its age and looks somewhat out of place compared with the other stands.

Charlton would have had to be considered favourites going into this game, up in fourth place in the league and with Brighton struggling in the relegation zone. However that does not tell the true story about the current form of the two sides with Charlton having recorded just one win in their last six games, all against very average opposition, whereas Brighton were unlucky to lose to Norwich and even more unlucky to concede a last minute equaliser at Leeds, and are certainly a much improved outfit since Gus Poyet took over.

On a cold, wet and misty evening, which claimed most non-league games in the south-east this evening, the pitch was in, by modern standards, a poor condition, in places extremely muddy causing the ball to hold up markedly. The game started as might be expected, Charlton having most of the possession although Brighton always looked moderately threatening whenever they ventured forwards. On the half hour, shortly after Charlton had two shots blocked in quick succession, Brighton's Spanish full-back, Inigo Calderon stormed forward from inside his own half almost unopposed before unleashing a powerful low drive to the keeper's right from 20 yards out, helped by a sizeable deflection off of the Charlton defender, Miguel Llera. The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, Charlton having more possession and some good chances to score without ever really looking convincing, whilst Brighton sporadically looked dangerous on the break. On 78 minutes, Brighton seemingly put the game beyond doubt, when a poor clearance from the Charlton keeper, Rob Elliott, was seized upon and Elliot Bennett fired home a powerful drive into the bottom corner from 25 yards out. Charlton managed to pull a goal back through Akpo Sodje, when he latched on to a long ball and poked past the Brighton keeper. However, this was almost the last kick of the game and on the final whistle, the Charlton players were subjected to a chorus of loud boos, which seemed fair after a performance that seemed to lack passion, cohesion and concentration. As a result of this game, Charlton lost further ground on the automatic promotion places, whereas Brighton pulled out of the relegation zone.

Beckenham Town 2 v 1 Tunbridge Wells

Saturday 20th February 2010
Kent League Premier Division
Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham
Admission: £6.00
Programme: N/A
Attendance: 78
Match Rating: 4

After the currently customary pre-Saturday concerns that if I were not careful, I could encounter a dreaded blank Saturday, after heavy rain during the week and a very hard frost this morning, I headed off to South London for this Kent League encounter between two teams stuck firmly in mid-table, Beckenham Town and Tunbridge Wells after confirmation that this game was definitely on, for what would be my last Saturday game in England for at least four weeks.

Eden Park Avenue is located about a half hour walk from Beckenham Junction train station, although Eden Park station is almost adjacent to the ground. On paying my £6 admission at the turnstile, I was extremely disappointed to hear that no programmes had been printed for this game. Apparently the printers were to blame, but according to the locals, it is certainly not the first time this has happened at Beckenham this season and there really can be no excuse in my opinion for a Senior club not being able to produce a programme, not even an emergency team sheet, particularly when many clubs at Intermediate level voluntarily produce excellent publications. Combined with the fact that team line-ups were not announced nor were they written on a whiteboard, and at a time when County League football is struggling to attract sufficient numbers of paying spectators through the turnstiles, I trust that the Kent League will suitably punish Beckenham.
Happily the lack of programme was the last disappointment of the day. The ground is neat and very well maintained, although its location in deepest suburbia ensures that it certainly wasn't the most scenic ground I have visited this season. The ground has only one small covered stand, with cushion seats left unsecured on top of benches. A novel idea for a seated stand, and not a bad one I would say! An attractive wooden clubhouse is located behind the goal, as is a teabar, however I didn't use either as I refused to spend any more money in light of the club's programme negligence.

Going into this game, both teams were sitting comfortably in mid-table, with already seemingly nothing to play for, as is often the case in a league where there is no relegation and in the case of this year, the top two sides are running away with the league. Beckenham were in fifth place, some twenty points off the leaders Faversham Town, and Tunbridge Wells down in tenth place, only 5 points behind Beckenham, although they were on a bad run of form, having lost by four and three clear goals in their last two games, and lost four of their last six games.

The game itself was an entertaining and very even affair, with both sides freely carving out chances for themselves, and both sides missed a wonderful opportunity to open the scoring inside the first 20 minutes, first Tunbridge Wells when the keeper made an awful mess of a backpass, to leave the forward with practically an open goal, but he could only hit the post, admittedly from a tight angle. A worse miss followed for Beckenham shortly afterwards, when the ball was pulled back to the edge of the area and with the keeper already committed, the Beckenham player ballooned the ball over the bar. Beckenham did take the lead halfway through the first half however, thanks to a well taken penalty after a defender was adjudged to have pulled back the forward. Tunbridge Wells deservedly got back on level terms on the stroke of half term.

The second hald continued similar to the first, played in a competitive spirit and with chances aplenty at either end, although as the game wore on, the pitch cut up badly and by the end of the game this clearly had taken its toll on the players, some of whom looked dead on their feet. Beckenham scored what turned out to be the winner ten minutes from the end, and defeat was harsh on Tunbridge Wells, who contributed fully to an open and enjoyable game.

Yate Town 3 v 2 AFC Totton

Saturday 13th February 2010
Zamaretto (Southern) League South and West Division
Lodge Road, Yate
Admission: £7.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 147
Match Rating: 5

As has been commonplace for me in recent weeks, today I ended up at a game which was about third or fourth choice at the time of setting out, but it turned out that I would watch a real cracker of a game with plenty of goals at a very pleasant rural venue.

When I booked my Megabus tickets to Bristol a few months ago, the intention was to watch the team I support, Charlton Athletic, at Bristol Rovers, however, subsequently that game was put back to the Monday as Sky chose this game for their televised fare. Luckily, Bristol has a plethora of non-league clubs in and around the city and so finding an alternative was never going to be a problem. I had still not made my mind up which game to go to on the coach journey down to Bristol - the very local derby at Longwell Green Sports against Brislington in the Western League was tempting, however I finally decided upon watching another Western League game, last year's champions, Bitton, at home to this year's high-flyers, Ilfracombe Town. On arrival at Bristol bus station, this plan and the back up were both ruined as the bus I needed to catch to get to either game was seriously delayed due to breaking down on a previous journey. So instead, I embarked on a 45 minute bus journey northwards into Gloucestershire, to watch the Zamaretto League encounter between Yate Town and AFC Totton.

The home of Yate Town, Lodge Road, is about a 20 minute walk from Yate train station, and is an attractive setting for football, with two sides of the pitch closely surrounded by trees. Facilities are somewhat basic for an established Southern League club that was in the Premier Division up to last season, with one small seated stand along one touchline and a covered stand of terracing behnd one of the goals, but the ground is neat and tidy and adequate for the modest level of support that Yate attract. The programme was reasonable although probably more comparable with County League efforts than other Southern/Isthmian clubs. Nevertheless it had enough information and statistics to be a decent read and provided a good background to today's game.

Going into today's game, Yate were on a good run, having won three of their last four games and having only lost twice in the league since mid November. A poor early part of the season means they languished in 11th place. AFC Totton would surely be tough opponents however, up in second place in the league, and having played at least three games fewer than all those around them in the league. Although there is seemingly little chance of pushing for the championship - unbeaten Windsor and Eton are 12 points clear, a play-off berth looks a very real poincreasingly likely for Totton.

On another bitterly cold afternoon, this was probably the most entertaining game I have watched all season, full of attacking endeavour, chances galore and only close misses and inspired goalkeeping kept the score down. Totton took the lead on the stroke of half time, although how on earth only one goal was scored was a complete mystery, Totton being particulatly unlucky not to score more, finding the Yate goalkeeper in inspired form, although Yate also had plenty of clear opportunities to score. In the second half, Yate turned the game on its head as they took advantage of some very average Totton defending to take the lead within 13 minutes of the restart. Yate extended their lead to 3-1 with 12 minutes remaining to seemingly secure the three points.Totton ensured a tense finale by pulling a goal back a few minutes from time, however Yate held on for a win they may have just about deserved, however a high scoring draw might have been the fairest reflection of a highly entertaining game in which both teams played a full part.

Lisburn Distillery 0 v 5 Linfield

Saturday 6th February 2010
Northern Irish Premiership
New Grosvenor Stadium, Ballyskeagh
Admission: £9.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 960
Match Rating: 4

So, the high-scoring, one-sided games just keep on coming for me, and long may that continue - at least, certainly in terms of the goals. Today made it 23 goals I have witnessed in my last four games, in which one team has scored at least four goals in each game.

Today's daytrip to Northern Ireland was enabled by a bargain £2 return ticket with Ryanair from Stansted to Belfast City Airport, which is located just three miles east of Belfast city centre, and the current timings of the flights make for a comfortable dayout, leaving mid-morning and allowing plenty of time to spare as well as watch a football game in the Belfast area, with seven clubs in the top two divisions within half an hour of the City Airport. For today's game, I chose to take in Lisburn Distillery against Linfield. On arrival at the airport, I embarked on a 5 minute walk to nearby Sydenham train halt (although a courtesy bus is also available), and then a half hour train ride to Lambeg, which is the closest station to Lisburn's home ground, as it situated about 3 miles outside of Lisburn. The New Grosvenor Stadium is a pleasant, brisk half hour walk from Lambeg station along a "B" road through moderately pleasant countryside.

Today's game promised to be a struggle for the home team. Lisburn Distillery have gone from qualifying for this season's Europa League to currently being bottom of the table by some distance, and in recent months, the very existence of the football club has been in real doubt. In recent weeks, the appointment of the former Northern Ireland goalkeeper, Tommy Wright, has apparently brought about a marked improvement in performances, without converting these into many victories. The visitors were Linfield, the biggest club in Northern Ireland and who always take a large following to games (today was no different) but who have been unusually inconsistent this season and found themselves down in fourth place going into this game. Things were looking up for them though, having recently re-signed on loan Peter Thompson, scorer of some 152 goals from 234 games in a previous spell for Linfield before trying his luck in England with Stockport. Linfield has also put Newry City to the sword 5-0 at Windsor Park the previous week. A nice subplot to this game was 40 year old Glenn Ferguson, lining up for Lisburn against the team who released him in the summer after a glittering, medal-laden career with them and leaving them as their third highest goalscorer of all time. This would be the last time Ferguson plays against Linfield, with his retirement at the end of this season.

As for the stadium, the pitch is surrounded by a greyhound track. This doesn't detract from the view watching the game as the pitch is still close, although it does make it pretty much impossible to watch the game behind one of the goals - the other is not accessible. There is an impressive looking new glass fronted stand along one side of the pitch, although this is not open for football matches. Alongside this there is a small covered terrace stand, and on the opposite side is a small, traditional seated stand. All in all a comfortable, neat and tidy stadium.

Lisburn actually started this game quite strongly, although once Linfield took the lead on 22 minutes, there was only going to be one winner. They scored a second on 33 minutes, and the half time lead could and should have been more than 2-0. In the second half, Lisburn battled on gamely, but their limitations were becoming more and more apparent, although they held out until 71 minutes, when the Lisburn goalkeeper, Phil Matthews, hit a clearance straight against the shins of Peter Thompson and the ball sped into the net. That was very unfortunate on the Lisburn goalkeeper, as he had kept the score down with several wonderful saves. Linfield went on to score twice more to ensure a thoroughly convincing 0-5 away win, Peter Thompson scoring twice and so no final fairytale goalscoring for Glenn Ferguson, who had one strong header saved well by Matthews, but otherwise barely had a sniff.

As I made my way from the stadium to start the long journey home, I reflected on another enjoyable day watching football in the Province. For those who haven't watched football in Northern Ireland, I would wholeheartedly recommend a visit. I have always found games to be very competitive and enjoyable to watch, the people friendly and the support passionate - although this does readily and frequently stray into more colourful language, it has to be said.

Video highlights of this match can be seen at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UykGaCvR7g0