Worthing 3 v 3 Merstham

Saturday 26th February 2011
Ryman League Division 1 South
Woodside Road, Worthing
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 336
Match Rating: 4

Less than a month after paying a visit to Worthing, I made a return to the West Sussex coastal town today to visit the more senior and larger club, Worthing. Today was to be a day of celebration at Woodside Road, with this match being declared Fans Day, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Worthing Football Club, which included a reduced admission charge of £5.00, compared with the usual excessive (for this level) £9.00. This helped swell the attendance to the second highest of the season. Intermittently heavy rain overnight and in the hours building up to kick-off threatened to put a dampener on the occasion, but happily the pitch held up well enough to ensure that this would be one of only three games to be played from the scheduled ten games in the division today.

Woodside Road is quite a charming, old-fashioned ground with plenty of character, and I was certainly struck by the friendly feel to the place. As one enters the ground, there is shallow banked terracing behind the goal, with cover available to one side of the goal. A large grandstand on one length of the pitch offers a good, elevated view of the action, although railing at the front impairs the view of the near touchline. Along the opposite length is a few steps of terracing, with a very small stand in the middle. Behind the other goal there also terrace steps, with another covered area. After being hugely critical of the "effort" of a programme at Blue Square South club Weston-super-Mare last weekend, Worthing proved my point that clubs from lower divisions usually produce vastly superior programmes to that one. An attractive design, with plenty to read which is easy on the eye, interesting articles and all the stats and facts you could want, the 58 page publication was a very good effort by Worthing..

This game paired two of the apparent also-rans of the Ryman League Division 1 South, with both teams seeming to have little to play for this season, with Worthing harbouring only faint hopes of making the play-offs, in 10th place and eight points behind Burgess Hill Town in the final play-off place (with a further eight points to fourth placed Leatherhead), and Merstham in 14th place in the 22 team league, five ponts clear of the relegation places. It's fair to say it has been all or nothing with Worthing recently, having won four games on the bounce prior to drawing their last home league game 3-3 and then losing their last three games, including an embarassing home defeat to Sussex County League outfit Rye United in the Sussex Senior Cup, despite fielding pretty much a first team. Earlier in the season, the two teams shared six goals at Merstham.

The home side looked sluggish in the opening minutes with the visitors in the ascendancy, and indeed on just six minutes, Merstham took the lead when a long punt forward - which was to be a constant feature of Merstham's play all afternoon, was headed away unconvincingly by the keeper, who had come out of his area, straight to Sean Rivers, who showed excellent composure to lob the ball into the empty net. The rest of the half was forgettable, with Worthing having more and more of the game but were repeatedly guilty of giving the ball away cheaply far too often, mostly due to Merstham's pressuring style of play which was ugly to watch but effective. A heavy hail shower marked the whistle for half time, and relief was abound at the end of a dismal first half of football.

It did seem that the Worthing players would need something of a blast from the manager after a lacklustre display in the first half, yet within a couple of minutes, Merstham doubled their advantage with a similar goal to their first, with Rivers capitalising on another mistake by Worthing's Canadian goalkeeper, Tony Di Bernado. On 54 minutes, the home side were back in the game though, with a piece of either outrageous skill or fortune from Callum Saunders who struck from a narrow angle far outside the penalty area which flew into the net. Game on...but Merstham restored their two goal lead within a couple of minutes thanks to yet another long ball forward, and Harry Ottaway sidestepped the keeper to roll the ball into an empty net. Worthing did not look the forlorn outfit they appeared to be in the first half by now, obviously buoyed by their goal, and for the rest of the match, it was almost constantly one way traffic towards the Merstham goal. On the hour mark, Worthing pulled a goal back with Saunders' second of the game, volleying in a good cross at the near post from close range. On 70 minutes, the match was all square, man of the match Saunders this time the provider for a close range header by Terry Dodd. After looking second best for the first 50 minutes of this match, Worthing will really kick themselves for not claiming all three points as they hit the woodwork twice, the sidenetting and close range shots were desperately blocked. This was truly a bizarre game, rarely have I encountered a game that was so dull and lifeless in the first half, but was an absolute rip-snorter in the second half. For the neutral, it was a shame that Worthing could not claim the three points, as their young side seem to try to play good football on the ground, whereas Merstham, on today's display, would win few friends with their style of football, which is, to put it kindly, direct, with players always ready to go to ground and break up play with mysterious alleged injuries.

Weston-Super-Mare 3 v 1 Bishop's Stortford

Saturday 19th February 2011
Blue Square South
Woodspring Stadium, Weston-super-Mare
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 191
Match Rating: 4

This was one of those days where, having booked a coach journey down to Bristol, I still hadn't made my mind up at the time of setting off about which game to go to from a selection of half a dozen games.Heavy overnight rain meant I could strike a line through the Bristol clubs in the Western League en route, with their games either postponed or too much at risk, and so I headed out on a 20 minute train journey to the North Somerset coast for the Blue Square South game between Weston-Super-Mare and Bishop's Stortford. Delays to both the coach and train journeys ensured I would come crashing through the entrance gates with the teams about to kick off.

Weston-Super-Mare is quite an intriguing club. First of all, they can boast the very impressive claim to fame of never having been relegated in their history, all the more impressive when one considers they were formed in the 19th century, although luck has played its part in maintaining this statistic in recent times, as in three out of four seasons between 2007 and 2010, they have occupied a relegation place but were reprieved on each occasion.

The Woodspring Stadium, which located about a 20 minute walk south-east of the town's train station, has surely some of the most basic facilities that one would find at this level, and being relatively newly built in 2004 and in an industrial part of town, is rather bland and not easy on the eye. To start with the positive, there is an excellent large stand of terracing behind one of the goals. Along one length of the pitch, where one enters the stadium, there is a shallow but long all-seater stand, whilst only hard, single level standing is available around the rest of the ground, albeit with a small covered area behind the other goal. The resources, facilities and support give the feel of a club that is probably a couple of divisions higher than would be its natural placing, but full credit to Weston-Super-Mare for apparently punching well above its weight in the Blue Square South. I am usually loathe to criticise matchday programmes at non-league level, understanding the thankless task that is taken on by volunteers in non-league football, but unfortunately Weston-Super-Mare's offering, considering the status of the club and the price of £2, is quite dismal, being comparable with many County League publications - indeed, I have seen many better offerings at that level. The 36 page programme has plenty of colour in it, but almost exclusively for the benefit of advertisers, of which the programme is heavy.The cover is printed with the same paper as the rest of the programme, and although the essential information about the teams, the league and season is contained, there is little justification for a £2 charge for it.

Coming into this game, both teams looked reasonably comfortable in mid-table, with Weston Super Mare in 12th place and Bishop's Stortford two places behind, but they have both played more games than all of the teams below them, as many as four, and recent form suggests they still have work to do to guarantee survival. The home side had picked up just three draws from their previous seven games, before beating FA Cup heroes Dover Athletic away last time out. Bishop's Stortford, who comfortably have conceded the most goals and have the worst goal difference in the division, are in terrible form, having picked up just two points in their last nine games since their last win on January 9th, including a 0-4 home defeat last time out to Woking. Last month, the two teams drew 1-1 in Hertfordshire.

The match started quite evenly, but the home side took the lead on 24 minutes when a free kick was headed powerfully across the keeper and into the net by Simon Gilbert. Just as it looked like Weston Super Mare would take a deserved slender lead into the interval, Bishops Stortford equalised a minute before the interval with a smart spin and shot from 12 yards out by Harlee Dean. However no sooner had Dean got the visitors back on level terms, he gave his side a mountain to climb as, within a minute of scoring, he got himself sent off for an elbow after the referee consulted with his linesman, forcing the visitors to play the whole second half with ten men.

On many occasions, going down to ten men seems to galvanise a team, however that did not appear to happen here, as Bishops Stortford were barely a threat in the second half and it seemed only a matter of time before the home side would claim the three points, although they needed yet more help from the away team to secure them. I watched the Bishop's Stortford goalkeeper, Ross Kitteridge, way back in early July as he played a trial match for Charlton Athletic at AFC WImbledon. With an uncertain display on that day, it came as little surprise that Charlton did not sign him up, and he had a second half to forget today. On 58 minutes, his attempted clearance from a backpass was charged down, and as the ball rolled to the centre of the 18 yard line, he just beat a Weston's Duncan Lynvall to the ball but could only fumble the ball, allowing Gilbert to nick the ball and score his and his team's second of the game with an easy finish into an unguarded net. This seemed to make the points safe with the away team looking impotent going forward, but they made sure of the points when some good trickery inside the box allowed Justin Porter to beat Kitteridge at his near post from an extremely tight angle a minute from time. For most of the second half, Kitteridge suffered persistent good natured stick from the home fans - hopefully for him, it was just "one of those days".On the subject of the fans, it should be noted that whilst the level of support at Weston-Super-Mare is low for this level, averaging around 200, what support there is is passionate, vociferous but good natured and knowledgable, and indeed, the overall impression was of a club that is friendly, that makes the most of its limited resources.
 

Sittingbourne 0 v 2 Metropolitan Police

Saturday 12th February 2011
Ryman League Division 1 South
Bourne Park, Sittingbourne
Admission and Programme: N/A (as gates open when I arrived)
Attendance: 123
Match Rating: 2

At the final whistle of the Norton Sports v Herne Bay game, I briskly made the long walk from south to north-east Sittingbourne, almost four miles, to Bourne Park, home of Sittingbourne FC, to catch the last forty minutes of the Ryman League Division 1 South game between Sittingbourne and Metropolitan Police.

Whereas Woodstock Park, home of Norton Sports, was a pleasant rural venue, the opposite would be true of Bourne Park, which is located in the middle of a messy industrial park. There is also very stark signs of the troubled period in the nineties as one passes through grand gates with the slogan "Bourne to Win" as one enters the Cental Park complex, passes the extremely impressive Central Park stadium, which was the club's former home until eye-wateringly excessive spending forced the club to sell the ground to the local Council, where the priorities of greyhound racing conflicted too much with football, with the result of the club building up a former training pitch below Central Park, and is a much more basic and humble venue. Sittingbourne's money problems continue however, as they took the decision earlier this season to no longer pay their players, which will surely put them at a huge disadvantage at this level.

Bourne Park has been developed in a much more realistic way, with one main all-seater stand providing good, elevated and unobstructed views of the action. Hard standing is available around the rest of the ground, with two small and very basic covered structures opposite the main stand and a more regular stand behind one of the goals. Behind the other, as one walks into the ground, is a small club shop and a larger portakabin style clubhouse, with a tea bar between the clubhouse and main stand. Whilst Bourne Park is not easy on the eye by any stretch of the imagination, it does have a compact, close-knit feel to it.

This match paired two of the better sides in the division according to league standings, with Sittingbourne in eigth place, Metropolitan Police up in third place but have lost their last three games. I arrived at the ground five minutes into the second half, with the Metropolitan Police one goal up, having scored after just four minutes of the game, but there was little sign of Sittingbourne getting back on level terms, as the visitors dominated the game. Ironically, just as Sittingbourne were beginning to get back into the game and creating some half chances to score, Metropolitan Police scored a second goal on the break, which was a very good effort as Eddie Smith raced onto a through ball before lobbing the onrushing keeper from just outside the area. It was however a controversial goal as a Sittingbourne player went down injured in the build up, and scenes threatened to turn ugly as players and management comlained loudly and bitterly at allowing the game to continue. Without reason, as the rules say that play shoul only be stopped for head injuries, which this was not. This killed the game as a contest, as the Metropolitan Police seemed content to stick with what they had and although Sittingbourne has the majority of possession and attacks in the final third, they never really looked convincing and likely to pull a goal back.

Norton Sports 2 v 3 Herne Bay

Saturday 12th February 2011
Kent League Premier Division Cup Quarter Final Second Leg
Woodstock Park, Sittingbourne
Herne Bay won 5-2 on aggregate
Admission: £4.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 106
Match Rating: 4

For today's fare, I headed to the Medway towns in north Kent to visit the newest venue in the Kent League to watch an intriguingly poised Premier Division Cup tie between two clubs who were landlords and tenants prior to this season, Herne Bay visiting Norton Sports in the Quarter Final second leg of the competition.

Norton Sports' new home, Woodstock Park, is about a half hour walk south from Sittingbourne rail station, just into the countryside beyond the extermities of the town and and is a very neat and tidy complex, with plentiful parking outside and one walks past the fairly impressive clubhouse on entering the ground. This is the first season that the ground has hosted senior football, Norton Sports having lodged at Winch's Field, the home of today's visitors Herne Bay for the last two seasons since their promotion from the Kent County League. So it's not surprising that facilities are still somewhat basic here at the moment, with only the length of the pitch by the clubhouse and behind one of the goals open to spectators, although all with tiled hard standing, and a slight bank outside the clubhouse makes for a reasonable vantage point to watch the action. There are two uncovered stands, a small one close to the entrance and clubhouse, and a larger one behind one of the goals. In this day and age, a surprising feature is the lack of floodlights, which caused the early 1.30 kick off today. Presumably Norton Sports have made a firm commitment to install lights as soon as practicably possible, although there is no sign of their installation currently. The basic facilities in no way detract from a pleasant rural, neat and peaceful feel to the ground.. Note should be made of a very reasonable £4.00 admission fee, which is one of the cheapest charges I have encountered at this level and compares particularly well with other Kent League clubs, a league in which one encounters some of the highest charges at County League top division level. The 24 page programme was a pretty reasonable effort with a minimum of advertising and plenty of facts to digest, although short of reading material if I were to be super critical. Strangely, there was a match report of a game four games ago, but not of the last three.

Herne Bay brought a 2-0 lead from the first leg, and away goals would only count if scores were level at the end of extra time. Herne Bay are always one of the strongest teams in the Kent League and this season is no different, as they are in second place in the league, just two points behind leaders Erith Town but with a game in hand. Norton Sports are having a reasonable season as well, in seventh place in the 16 team league but have lost their last three games.

The home side needed to claw a goal back early in the match to give themselves a realistic chance of turning the tie around, and that's exactly what they did, when an Ashley Baverstock drive was diverted into his own net by Toby Ashmore on four minutes. They should have extended their lead, having had a surprising share of attacking and chances against a good side who were sloppy for most of the first half. However, a hammer blow for Norton Sports came five minutes before half time, when a fierce shot by Byron Walker could only be parried upwards by Nick Shaw and into the net. Ryan Rook gave Norton Sports renewed hope on 73 minutes, with a low shot after a previous shot had deflected into his path seven yards out. But with ten minutes remaining, the home side seemingly threw away any chance they might have had a forcing extra time when a free kick deep in their own half was passed straight to Herne Bay's Rhys Lawson, who strode forward to set up substitute Darren Marsden for a simple finish, and the visitors ensured a win on the day as well as in the tie overral when Marsden struck again in the final minute with a delightful measured finish from the edge of the area into the top corner. So in the end, a spirited display by Norton Sports to try to retrieve the tie, but ultimately the two goal defeat in the first leg proved fatal, and it was Herne Bay who progressed to a semi-final showdown with Corinthian.

Newcastle United 4 v 4 Arsenal

Saturday 5th February 2011
FA Premier League
St James Park, Newcastle
Admission: £35.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 51, 561
Match Rating: 5

It had long been an ambition of mine to pay a visit to St James Park, Newcastle, which boasts the third largest capacity in English club football, packed with some of the most passionated supporters in the country. I chose this game as arguably one of the best footballing teams in Europe, Arsenal, were the visitors today. My hopes were high for an excellent all-round experience, and my, I was not to be disappointed!

There cannot be many major stadia as close to a city centre as St James Park, with one of its towering grandstands visible from many parts of the town centre, and is about a five minute walk from the train station, ten minutes from the train station. I bought my ticket for the game in advance over the internet, which was posted to me, at no extra charge to the ticket price. As is often the way, prices were inflated for this major match - my £35 ticket for a seat in the Gallowgate End would be £10 cheaper for the visit of a lesser club. St James Park certainly is an impressive arena - it seems to be absolutely huge as one walks up a slight hill towards it. Inside, the design is rather unique but imbalanced - the Gallogate End and the East Stand are relatively small, similar sized and designed stands, whilst the remaining two stands, the Milburn and Sir John Hall stands are much, much higher, with rooves that allow light through. Visiting fans were assigned the very top section of the Sir John Hall Stand - whilst they would experience fine views of the city, a seat up there would certainly not be recommended for anybody with a fear of heights nor with a desire to be able to identify which player was on the ball. The stadium looks very neat, bright and pleasing on the eye, certainly a match for any stadium in the country. The 84 page programme was certainly packed with information and contained relatively few adverts, although the relatively poor quality paper was a minor disappointment.

Getting anything out of this game would surely be a tall order for Arsenal. Having made a good start to their first season back in the Premiership after a one season sejourn in the Championship, Newcastle inexplicably fired popular manager Chris Hughton and replaced him with a manager that has had more experience of failure than success, Alan Pardew. In a further self-destructive move, they recently sold their top-scoring talisman, Andy Carroll - the £35 million price tag was a mouth-dropping amount of money for an inexperienced Premier League striker, but the sale has left Newcastle seeming to lack any real quality in their forward line. Going into the game Newcastle found themselves in tenth place, a respectable effort although only six points separated them and the first relegation place. As for the visitors, Arsenal have quietly remained in contention for the title, clear in second place but five points adrift of Manchester United.

With it being well-known that if Arsenal are allowed to play football and are given any encouragement to play attacking, flowing football, if Newcastle were to get anything from the game, they would need to keep the game tight early doors. Unfortunately for them, the opening ten minutes were a complete nightmare, conceding three goals, game over. Theo Walcott scored the opening goal in the very first minute after breaking clear of a couple of Newcastle defenders before slotting past Steve Harper. Just a couple of minutes later and Johan Djourou made it two, firmly heading home an Andrei Arshavin free kick. On ten minutes, Robin van Persie slotted home from close range and one feared that it could all get rather embarassing for Newcastle, with the home side in complete disarray defensively, and Arsenal looking like they would score with every attack, and they duly extended their lead to four on just 26 minutes when van Persie's headed home for his second.of the game. Somehow, a four lead was how it remained at half time, and by the time the second half had kicked off, a fair number of Newcastle fans had already written the game off and headed for the exits.

The second half kicked off in a similar vein, although with Arsenal more in cruise control and Newcastle looking incapable of even getting one goal back. However, two key moments within 5 minutes of the restart were to impact on the game with unbelievable results. First, the central defender, Djourou, had to be replaced due to injury by at out of form Squillaci, and far more importantly, Abou Diaby lost his head and earnt himself a red card for angrily pushing Joey Barton by the neck to the floor after a strong but fair challenge by Barton.It looked like no more than a consolation when Joey Barton converted a penalty on 68 minutes after Laurent Koscielny had brought down Leon Best in the box. On 75 minutes, Newcastle pulled another goal back when Best smashed home from close range. Surely this was just making the scoreline respectable, but the previously unthinkable of Newcastle getting something out of the game really started to look a distinct possibility on 83 minutes when Barton confidently converted a second penalty after a soft looking penalty award. The Geordie fans had really came to life by now, creating a wonderful, deafening atmosphere, roaring on their team to mount wave after wave of attack as Arsenal just seemed to crumble. The equaliser duly came on 87minutes when an appropriately wonderful goal capped an astonishing comeback, when Chieck Tiote hit a stunning volley from 25 yards out which gave the young Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny absolutely no chance to lift the roof off St James Park. Even more remarkably, Newcastle could even have won the game, when Kevin Nolan's shot went agonisingly wide of the post in injury time. But in the end, the points were shared after a truly breathtaking game, where 90 minutes of football allowed me to experience everything I could have wanted - an Arsenal masterclass, an amazing come-back with all 8 goals scored at the end where I was sitting, and an atmosphere second to none, not to mention this match being the first time in Premier League history that a team has come back from four goals down. There's not many times I would begin to consider £35 to watch a football match being value for money, but on this occasion, it was worth every penny!

Video highlights of this match can be seen at  https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/153655

A full match replay can be viewed by clicking here