Sevenoaks Town 1 v 2 Greenwich Borough

Sevenoaks Town 1 v 2 Greenwich Borough
Saturday 27th March 2010
Kent League Premier Division
Greatness Park, Sevenoaks
Admission: €6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 73
Match Rating: 3

It was only a last minute decision that took me to this game today. It was my intention to visit a Kent County League game in south-east London, however, heavy disruption on Southeastern Trains meant that Sevenoaks was the most convenient place to watch a game, and so I headed to the grandly named Greatness Park for this Kent League Premier Division encounter. The ground is located about a five minute walk from Bat and Ball train station, or about half an hour from Sevenoaks train station, which is served much more frequently.

Greatness Park is a fairly attractive ground which, although permanently enclosed, is set in a public park, with two small modern seated stands along one side with a stand providing a covered standing area located between the two seated stands. Changing rooms are portakabins close to one of the corner flags. Immediately behind the opposite goal end, there is a large grass bank which would certainly offer the best view of the action.

It is fair to say that Sevenoaks Town have been an absolute revelation this season. As a club that has finished in the lower half of the table in every season since they entered senior county league football in 2003, the aim for the club this season was a best-ever top ten finish. They have far surpassed this so far, currently in fourth place in the league and have been around there for most of the season, and were only three points off of second place. Before losing last week, they had won their previous five games on the trot and have also reached their first ever senior cup final this season. As for the visitors, they have not been affected by losing their Harrow Meadow ground last summer and now having to share Holmesdale's Oakley Round ground and are in good form, in sixth place in the league and only three points behind today's hosts and with a good end to the season, could come close to matching last season's excellent third place finish.

Two teams in good form meant I was looking forward to an open, attacking game, unfortunately this was not how it turned out, as particularly in the first half, both sides struggled to put more than a couple of passes together before losing possession. Sevenoaks did take the lead with quarter of an hour on the clock, with a long throw in was flicked on and John Maloney headed in at the far post. This was how it stayed at half time and was a reasonably fair reflection of the game, with Greenwich very rarely threatening the Sevenoaks goal. Within three minutes of the restart however, Greenwich were back on level terms, when a cross was swung in from the right, and the ball was headed across the keeper and into the net by Richard Moran. For the rest of the match, Sevenoaks did most of the attacking and spurned a couple of wonderful opportunities to win the match, which they were left to rue when Greenwich scored the winner five minutes from time thanks to a fierce drive from Sam Friskey. This was hardly a smash and grab victory though, as this was an evenly balanced game, just that Sevenoaks had most of the few chances available.

FK DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda 0 v 0 MFK Ružomberok

Wednesday 24th March 2010
Slovakian (Corgon) Superliga
Mestský Stadion, Dunajska Streda
Admission: €4.00
Programme: N/A
Attendance: 1598
Match Rating: 2

After one of the best games from an all-round perspective I have witnessed in years the previous evening at Rapid Vienna, I headed back over the border into Slovakia and then quickly headed on the hour long train ride south-east from Bratislava to the small, unremarkable town of Dunajská Streda for another game in the Slovakian Superliga, and the ground is about a fifteen minute walk from the train station via the town centre. I was quite interested to visit this town and football club, as it has a strong Hungarian population, 80% are ethnic Hungarians, and so the club is a focal point for football supporters of Hungarian descent in western Slovakia.

With a return to Slovakia meant a return to very cheap ticket prices, and the Mestsky Stadion, whilst very much looking old fashioned with very few mod-cons or luxuries that English fans are used to these days, certainly has some unusual characteristics and plenty of character. The ground consists of two covered all-seater stands along either length of the pitch, but what was more unusual was six separate banks of terracing, three behind each goal, which were some of the steepest I have ever encountered and certainly wouldn't be recommended for anyone with a fear of heights. They do however offer excellent views of the pitch. A kick off time of 5.30pm for a midweek kick-off was a curious one and certainly doesn't allow much time at the end of the working day to get to the game. This midweek kick off time appears to be standard in Slovakia, however. No programmes were available for this game.

The game promised to be quite an even affair, with the home side struggling recently, having lost their previous four league games, one of those being a 0-7 hammering at Spartak Trnava, and have not won in the league since October (although it should be borne in mind that two and a half of months of that time consisted of the winter break). Indeed, only on entering the ground did I discover that many Dunajská Streda fans had decided to boycott this fixture in protest at their team's poor recent performances. Today's visitors, Ružomberok, were in relatively good form, having won their previous two games but were only in seventh place in the twelve team league. The only familiar face on either side was Dunajská Streda's Samuel Koejoe, who had a brief and not particularly successful spell at Queen's Park Rangers at the turn of the millennium.

What was to follow was a truly abysmal game of football. To be fair, Ružomberok played what football there was and fashioned some good chances to score, but it was clear to see why the home side are in such a poor run of form, with players showing poor touch, control and cohesion, and as the game wore on, resorted more and more to aimless long punts upfield. From early on, the crowd were on the backs of the home team, and into the second half, this turned into ridiculing, which seemed quite a bizarre way to "support" their team. I can understand (but not necessarily agree with) booing out of frustration with the efforts of players, but ridiculing them with heavily ironic cheering seems a bizarre way to inspire the players fans follow. So, a very disappointing final game of my tour of the Bratislava and Vienna areas, with an unpleasant atmosphere and a dull game lacking in any real quality.

Stansted 9 v 0 Tiptree United

Thursday 25th March 2010
Essex Senior League
Hargrave Park, Stansted Mountfichet
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 25
Match Rating: 5

This was a bonus game that I had not intended to watch, but this recently rearranged match on the unusual match day of Thursday coincided well with my flight arriving at Stansted Aiport from Bratislava, and so from the airport, I caught the train from Stansted Airport for the short six minute journey to Stansted Mountfichet, from which Stansted's Hargrave Park ground is about a quarter of a ten minute uphill walk. Having flown in from warm, sunny conditions in Slovakia, I was surprised and nervous to discover that it had been raining in the Stansted area for most of the day, and apparently it wouldn't have been any surprise had the game been called off. However, despite the pitch being saturated, there was only a small amount of standing water along one touchline and the pitch was perfectly playable, even though it was clear that the pitch would make ball control difficult.

Hargrave Park is a tidy, intimate rural ground and certainly one of the more attractive grounds in the Essex Senior League, with a fairly charming small white wooden stand, and hard standing around the rest of the ground. A very decent programme was produced and much credit is merited for including updated stats after their game on Tuesday.

This certainly promised to be an interesting game, with Stansted having beaten Clapton 9-2 just two days earlier, which was their fifth win in a row, scoring 25 goals in the process, which took them to the top of the table. One feared for tonight's oppostion, Tiptree United, who started their first season back in the Essex Senior League strongly but are now very much a club in crisis, having sold their Chapel Road ground to developers, now share Maldon Town's ground but lost their manager and several players to Maldon at the same time, and apparently Tiptree have notified the Essex Senior League that they may withdraw from the league in the summer, with a merger with Maldon look probable. Before tonight's game, they had lost six of their previous eight games. However, the saturated condition of the pitch, Stansted having to play their second game in three days and the usual convention that senior clubs rarely manage to inflict consecutive hidings meant that this could turn out to be a closer game that may have been imagined.

However, such thoughts soon evaporated, as Stansted raced into a two goal lead within ten minutes and four by half time, and one really feared for Tiptree when they went down to ten men when a Tiptree defender was sent off for a professional foul as the last man. Tiptree did have their moments coming forward, but their defence was absolutely woeful, as time and again throughballs caught them square and Stansted forwards raced into clear goalscoring opportunities time and again. In the second half, Stansted were absolutely irresistible, taking advantage of a Tiptree team who had seemed to have thrown in the towel at half time. They went 8-0 up with half an hour still left to play, and at that stage it was really frightening to think what the score could be, particularly when Tiptree were reduced to nine men, but in the end, they only added one further goal. Stansted should easily have made double figures and it could have been several more than that, as they were denied by some excellent saves by the Tiptree goalkeeper and had other narrow misses.

Enormous credit must go to Stansted, for maintaining their hunger and desire to keep attacking when many clubs would "stick" on opening up a four or five goal lead or would start indulging in showboating. Taking their foot off of the gas would have been understandable considering this was their second game in three days on a sodden pitch. At any senior level, to score nine goals in two consecutive games is mightily impressive, and it is a shame that only 25 spectators were present to witness such a feat. Stansted are now very much in the driving seat to win the league now, four points clear with a game in hand, although they cannot be promoted as they have not applied..

Well, what a funny old game football can be! Little over two weeks after this game, when Stansted looked frighteningly strong and Tiptree - with the greatest respect and for whatever reasons - a disorganised shambles, and just a few days before on Easter Monday lost 0-5 at Witham Town whilst Stansted put eight goals past Sawbridgeworth Town, Tiptree won the reverse league fixture 2-1!

SK Rapid Wien 3 v 0 SV Mattersburg

Tuesday 23rd March 2010
Austrian Bundesliga
Gerhard Hanappi Stadion, Vienna
Admission: €20.00
Programme: Free
Attendance: 14500
Match Rating: 5

If ever a game turned out to be the complete opposite in almost every respect to what I had anticipated before kick off, this was it. I had been expecting not much more than a restrained, reserved support, with the football of moderate quality in one of the more low-keys professional leagues in Europe. How wrong I am pleased to have been, as it is no exaggeration to say that I was treated to one of the best all-round matchday experiences I have encountered, certainly when watching from a neutral point of view.

After watching a couple of games in western Slovakia, I made my way westwards over the Austrian border for the one and a half hour coach trip to the wonderfully historic and elegant city of Vienna, and for the game itself, the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium is located in the western suburbs, about a half hour underground train ride from central Vienna. The stadium is conveniently located almost adjacent to the Hutteldorf station. I had already purchased and printed out my ticket via the Rapid Vienna club website, and so headed straight for the turnstiles to scan my ticket. The downside of this system is not having a proper ticket as a souvenir of the game, but this is probably outweighed by the sheer convenience of buying and printing your ticket from the comfort of your own home. Excellent glossy 20 page programmes were handed out free of charge just inside the turnstiles.

I was seated behind one of the goals in the East Stand, where seating is unreserved and spacious. The opposite stand is reserved exclusively for season ticket holders, and both of these stands are almost identical, fairly shallow, and with a design along the tops of the stands that is very similar to Olympique Lyonnais' stadium. Along either side are much larger grandstands. All in all, a very decent, neat and tidy modern all-seater stadium which still has some character and no obstructing pillars.

As for the game, Rapid Vienna looked strong favourites, in second place in the league although six points behind the big-spending leaders Red Bull Salzburg. Mattersburg were in fifth place in the 10 team league, although a long way distant of the European qualification places. And indeed, the game went according to form, with Rapid Vienna dominating the first half but spurning a host of excellent chances to score, with Mattersburg focused much more on defending than putting together threatening forward moves, and so the scoreline somehow was goalless at half time. However, within three minutes of the restart, Rapid took the lead and from this point on, there was only going to be one winner. They added a second on 59 minutes and then made the game safe with a third with twenty minutes remaining, ensuring a very comfortable looking 3-0 victory for the home side. Mattersburg, whilst very limited going forward, did not look such a bad side as Rapid played excellently, highly motivated, full of attacking endeavour and they simply ground their opponents down.

The most memorable aspect of this match was most certainly the atmosphere, which was absolutely terrific. From start to finish, both ends of the ground never stopped chanting and supporting their team, prompted by a orchestrator at the front of the stand with a megaphone. It made a truly refreshing change to see such passionate, positive and constant support of a team, without any of the negative chanting that is frequently heard at English games. It is true that a 3-0 scoreline made it easier for fans to support their side so energetically, but there could have been potential for fans to become frustrated at the goalless half time scoreline against a team they expected to beat quite comfortably. I couldn't recommend a visit to watch Rapid Vienna enough, for a thoroughly enjoyable all-round matchday experience.

Slovan Bratislava 2 v 0 FK Senica

Sunday 21st March 2010
Corgon Liga (Slovakian Superliga)
Štadión Pasienky, Bratislava
Admission: €3.00
Magazine: €1.50
Attendance: 2045
Match Rating: 3

 








For the second game of my trip to Slovakia and Austria tour, I made the ten minute tram journey from my base in central Bratislava to the north eastern outskirts of the city, to watch the largest football club in Slovakia and the reigning league champions. I was initially hoping that this game would mean I would be able to visit the national stadium of Slovakia, the Štadión Tehelné pole, however as the stadium is currently closed for renovation, Slovan are currently playing their home games at the Štadión Pasienky, little more than a stone's throw from the national stadium. The Štadión Pasienky used to be the home ground of Inter Bratislava, but they merged with FK Senica - today's visitors - in the summer and now play at their ground.
 

It is fair to say that the Štadión Pasienky is very much showing its age, seeming to have seen very few improvements or facelifts since the days of communism. The stadium is certainly spacious enough, with large areas for refreshments and club shops just inside the turnstiles before walking up to the stands. As is common with central European grounds, spectators are quite distant from the pitch, as there is a running track in between, and the seating is uncovered for two thirds of the oval of seating, with just a very old fashioned stand covering one side of the pitch. An old fashioned electric scoreboard continues the theme of a dated stadium. An interesting and maybe unique feature of the ground are its floodlights, which are very large cylindrical columns with the lights attached towards the top of the columns.
 

Going into this match, the home side would have had to be considered clear favourites, in second position in the league and had won three of their last four games. Senica were in fifth place in their first season in the top flight, having been elevated directly from the fourth division for this season by taking the place of Inter Bratislava. One name of interest on the visitor's teamsheet was Onome Sodje, one of the many Sodje family members playing professional football and recently plied his trade in non-league English football.
 

As for the game, Slovan dominated from start to finish, restricting Senica to only occasional attacking ventures, but similar to yesterday's game at Trnava, the game was for the most part competitive, committed but lacking real skill or flair. The game remained goalless at half time, but as the rain started to fall, Slovan scored two good goals that their play deserved, scored by Michal Breznanik on 57 minutes and Karim Guede five minutes later.

A couple of positive points to mention from this game was the passionate support of about a hundred or so Slovan fans behind the goal who almost never stopped chanting throughout a game which was not the most entertaining nor full of goalscoring opportunities for their side, and also much credit to the Slovan team, every one of which came to those fans for several minutes to acknowledge the support.

Spartak Trnava 2 v 0 FK Dukla Banská Bystrica

Saturday 20th March 2010
Corgon Liga (Slovakian Superliga)
Štadión Antona Malatinského, Trnava
Admission: €4.00
Programme: 50 cents
Attendance: 4987
Match Rating: 3

Having arrived in Bratislava this morning, I soon made my way 30 miles northeastwards by train to the town of Trnava, for the first of my four planned football games during my trip to Slovakia and Austria. After spending a couple of hours touring the town, which was pleasant enough if nothing exceptional, I bought my ticket for a seat in the south stand for just 4 euros - such prices are common in Slovakia, which wouldn't even gain admission to a County League game in the UK! On entering the stadium, I also bought an attractive programme for just 50 cents, obviously I couldn't understand a word but was interesting to see the league stats and action shots of recent games.
 

The all-seater 18,000 capacity stadium has two large banks of uncovered seating behind both goals (one of the ends I sat in), and along one side was a newly built shallow covered stand, whilst on the opposite side there was a smaller stand which had a temporary look about it, with the rest of the side providing uncovered seating. You couldn't ask for a much more central location than this stadium, just a couple of minutes walk from the town centre, and a couple more to the train station. This central location also ensured a pleasant backdrop to the stadium looking from the South Stand, with Trnava's taller monuments in the background and the city wall which runs along the back of the North Stand.
 

Going into this game, the visitors would have appeared to have been the favourites to take the points, up in third place in the league and having lost only three of their 22 games played so far, and well on course to qualify for Europe next season. Trnava would surely be no pushovers though, who went into the game in sixth place and had won their previous game 7-0. The game itself was competitive enough, although seeming to lack real skill or incisive play for the most part. Trnava always looked to be the better team during the game, with Banská Bystrica only occasionally truly threatening the Trnava goal. Indeed, goalscoring opportunities were at a premium in the first half, apart from Trnava hitting the post, but the goalless scoreline at half time adequately reflected the game.

 
However, just a couple of minutes into the second half, a Trnava forward embarked on a mazy long run into the penalty area and was eventually brought down for a clear penalty, which was dispatched cooly by Peter Dolezaj sending the keeper the wrong way. This didn't seem to spark the visitors into life, as the home side continued to dominate, and they extended their lead with 13 minutes to go, when Koro Kone finished well when played in with a slide-rule pass. 2-0 was how it stayed, a thoroughly deserved victory for the home team which lifted them up a place into fifth in the league. Dukla Banská Bystrica remain comfortably in third place and still within close touch of the top two, but today, on the whole, they didn't look like a team flying high in the league.

Penrhiwceiber Rangers 3 v 2 Newport YMCA

Saturday 13th March 2010
Welsh League Division 2
Glasbrook Field, Penrhiwceiber
Admission: £2.00
Programme: 50p
Attendance: 48
Match Rating: 5
















This was one of those groundhopping days when I unearthed an absolute gem, when I was thoroughly impressed with every aspect of the day and left with not the slightest tinge of disappointment. Having booked a coach trip to Cardiff some months ago, the original plan was to stay in the surrounding area to watch a game in the Welsh League (no club in the League of Wales is based anywhere near Cardiff), and watch Cardiff Corinthians, Dinas Powys or Cardiff Bay Harlequins. Once I realised that today would be blessed with blue skies and sunshine, I decided to be a little more adventurous and search for one of the many picturesque settings in the Valleys. On arriving in Cardiff by coach and spending a short time wandering around the very pleasant city centre, I embarked on the 45 minute train ride northwards to Penrhiwceiber, enjoying the intermittently beautiful scenery as the train wound its way alongside the River Taff and into the Cynon Valley.

Penrhiwceiber is a small village which itself is not particularly attractive, however the football ground, which is a couple of minutes walk from the village centre and a little more from the train station, most certainly is. Glasbrook Field, which is fully enclosed but does not have floodlights (as is the case with most Welsh league grounds) has a steep hill mostly covered with trees as the backdrop behind one side of the pitch which has a small covered stand, whilst the other side, which has a shallow bank of stone terrace along its length, also has a more distant steep hill in the background, but is more immediately lined by a row of houses.Behind either goal there is just hard standing. All in all, this was a thoroughly inspiring and beautiful rural arena for a football match. A superb programme was sold for just 50p on entering the ground. It contains 32 colour pages printed on good.quality paper, with an attractive cover and layout, all the essential stats and more, and penpics for players of both teams. And all for just 50p - it puts to shame vastly inferior programmes sold for £1.50 or more at similar or even higher level clubs.

Everythng pointed to a home win today. Penrhiwceiber went into this game top of the league, thanks to beating previous table-toppers Cwmbran Celtic away the previous weekend, and look in a strong position to gain promotion in a couple of months time, having narrowly missed out last season. Today's visitors, Newport YMCA, are struggling at the other end of the table, although with a comfortable cushion from the relegation zone and they have games in hand on most of the teams surrounding them in the league.

The game started off with Penrhiwceiber very much on the front foot, and it was no surprise when they opened up a two goal lead, and their attacking, expansive style of football was impressive and enjoyable to watch. Maybe they had reached the comfort zone at this point, as they definitely seemed to take their foot off the gas once they had scored their second goal, and by half time, Newport YMCA were level thanks to some sloppy defending. At half time, this was a game that could have swung either way, Penrhiwceiber always looking the better team and made most of the attacking move, however Newport always looked capable of scoring on the break.

Ten minutes into the second half, Penrhiwceiber scored what turned out to be the winner, and although there was no further scoring, the match was competitive with action at both ends throughout, played in an excellent spirit, and Newport could probably count themselves unlucky not to have snatched a draw, as they camped themselves in the Penrhiwceiber half throughout the last quarter of the match. The quality of the football on show today was certainly quite impressive.

As I made my way back to the train station to embark on the long journey home, I reflected on a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of football, probably the most all-round enjoyable experiences of the season. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Penrhiwceiber if a friendly club playing at a naturally beautiful, rural setting and who produce an excellent programme is what you are looking for.

Waltham Forest 2 v 1 Maldon Town

Wednesday 11th March 2010
Ryman League 1 North
Cricklefield Stadium, Ilford
Admission: £7.50
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 36
Match Rating: 3

A rare midweek football venture took me to east London for this Ryman League encounter. It’s fair to say there was nothing particularly appealing about attending this fixture, both sides already having nothing meaningful left to play for this season, and the ground being set firmly in urban surroundings, however, towards the end of the working day I just got bitten by the bug of wanting to watch some football, and this was the only easily accessible game in the south-east.

These days, Waltham Forest groundshare with Ilford at the Cricklefield Stadium, which is located about a five minute walk from Seven Kings train station. The Cricklefield Stadium is also an athletics stadium, which always brings with it the disadvantages of having a running track between the spectators and the pitch, although here spectators are not too distant from the action apart from behind the goals. There is a small seated stand along one side of the pitch which offers a good and relatively comfortable view of the action, and a small covered area for standing on the other side, and along both sides there is plenty of banked open terracing. Trees lining either length of the ground make this stadium slightly more attractive than may be anticipated. The programme was not the best, with a photocopied paper front cover and although it contained more than enough match and league stats, there were few articles of interest. On the positive side, it contained a below average proportion of adverts.

This game certainly didn’t capture the imagination of the fans, with a pitiful crowd of just 36. The Manchester United – AC Milan game being shown live on TV may well have been considerably more tempting for many than watching Ryman League football in person on a bitterly cold evening with a biting, icy wind, although crowds generally have not been much higher than this all season for Waltham Forest, apart from cup games and very local derbies. Indeed, they have the third lowest average attendance out of 132 clubs at non league step four level.

Going into this game, both teams were sitting in the lower half of the table, with Waltham Forest in 12th place and Maldon in 15th place, but with Waltham Forest 18 points off a play-off place and Maldon 14 points clear of the relegation zone, and so there is little meaningful left to play for for both sides this season.

The game turned out to be an entertaining affair with all three of the goals scored came within a 15 minute period midway through the first half. Waltham Forest took the lead on 20 minutes, when a corner was headed in firmly by Luca Frankis. Maldon were back on level terms within 5 minutes when Jack Jefferies scored with a powerful shot that the Forest keeper got a hand to but not enough to keep the ball out of the net. Forest retook the lead on 33 minutes when a free-kick was powerfully headed home by Danny Gabriel. With chances aplenty at either end, this game looked certain to yield plenty of goals, but in the end the scoreline stayed at 2-1, but credit must go to both teams for producing a very entertaining game of football on a bobbly pitch in perishingly cold conditions.