Maidstone United 1 v 1 Walton Casuals

Saturday 17th November 2012
Ryman League Division One South
Gallagher Stadium, Maidstone
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 1755
Match rating: 4

On a seemingly rare Saturday that was not taken up with a Charlton game or a game in the Premiership, today would finally be the day when I would make my long awaited first visit to Maidstone United's brand new stadium. With reports of an excellent stadium and almost unbelievably high attendances of people making the most of being able to watch their team play back in the town after an absence of 25 years (as a senior club - they did play in the town in their years in junior football after their brief stay in the Football League ended in the club's liquidation)

The Gallagher Stadium is very conveniently located just about five minutes walk from either Maidstone East or Maidstone Barracks rail stations, or just a little more from the town centre, and as one may expect of a newly built stadium that has been desired for so long by the club, it is a very neat, smart and impressive facility. As one enters the ground at one corner of the ground, having paid a rather hefty (for the level of football) £10.00, there is a large grey building housing the clubhouse and changing rooms. Further along this length is the only seated accommodation in the ground, with just under 500 seats. Behind both goals are metallic stands covering a few steps of terracing, and around the whole pitch is spacious hard standing. The metallic fencing enclosing the ground actually looks quite attractive too, to complete a very easy on the eye stadium. The main talking point arguably is the pitch, which is of the 3G, plastic variety. To my knowledge, they are the first senior club in England to have installed a plastic pitch, time will tell if it proves to be a sound investment. The club will certainly benefit from hardly any games being postponed, but it may hinder their long term progress as a club, as plastic pitches have not yet been approved by leagues higher than the Ryman League. Indeed the ground does have the feel of a place where the club has little prospect of climbing through the leagues, with a small ground with surprisingly relatively few seats placed in the one main stand. The programme was also very attractive, in full colour and consisting of 36 pages, almost half of which were advertising, but there was still plenty of interest to read.

Maidstone United have certainly christened their new stadium with successful football on the pitch, and they went into today's game two points clear at the top of the table, with two games in hand. A run of ten games unbeaten in all competitions came to an end in midweek, when an understrength team lost a Kent Senior Cup game against Tonbridge Angels in midweek. They would apparently be "home bankers" for this game, with today's visitors Walton Casuals rock bottom of the league, and in their last league game last Saturday, they contrived to throw away a 6-1 lead to draw 6-6 at home to Merstham.

On a heavily overcast afternoon with another amazingly large attendance - 1755, Maidstone's second highest of the season - the game quickly settled into a pattern of Maidstone dominating proceedings and creating the best chances to score. As the chances were being missed, there was a feeling that, if one went in, that could be followed by several more, although to be fair to the lowly visitors, they played reasonably well too and had chances of their own. Surprisingly, the scoreline remained goalless at half time.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, if anything Maidstone dominating more and the chances being missed were ever more gilt edged, with a combination of poor decision making and some excellent goalkeeping. Just as it looked like Maidstone would kick themselves and have to settle for a point from a goalless draw, soon after they had a goal disallowed for offside, it seemed they wouldn't even get that as Walton Casuals took the lead completely against the run of play, and what a poor goal it was for Maidstone to give away. Poor, as well as bizarre. A long ball over the top left a one on one opportunity. Initially the keeper looked favourite to clear the ball, but inexplicably he turned his back on the ball and jogged back towards the goal, allowing Kieran Dias to knock the ball past the all-at-sea keeper. The home side certainly did not give up after this hammer blow, and continued driving forward in search of a goal. One finally came in the fifth minute of added on time, when a ball was played low across goal from wide by Warren Whiteley, and the ball was tapped home at the far post by Michael Phillips.There was still time for the visitors almost to go back into the lead, with just about the final kick of the game, but this time the keeper saved well.

Video highlights at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV-pOMHMip0

Southampton 1 v 1 Swansea City

Saturday 10th November 2012
FA Premier League
St Mary's, Southampton
Admission: £30.00
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 30,501
Match rating: 3

There was a double motivation in going to this game. First of all, it would be an opportunity to watch Swansea City - the club I followed closely when studying in Wales and who I still consider to be my "second club". It would also be an opportunity to tick off another league ground fairly close to home, which I had not previously visited.

St Mary's Stadium, which one passes closely by on the train approach into Southampton Central, is located about a twenty minute walk eastwards from the station, passing the city centre en route. As one tends to expect of newly built stadia, it is built amongst rather unattractive industrial buildings, although the stadium itself is impressive and sensibly built. Whilst its modern design and lack of individuality do not set the pulse racing, the stadium is very comfortable and roomy, with excellent views throughout and plenty of legroom, and the stadium has a nice symmetrical feel to it. It is also designed well to accommodate the level of support Southampton are likely to attract and make the most of the noise generated. The 76 page programme had a very attractive and classy cover, and the content inside did not disappoint, with plenty to read and few advertisements.

Coming into this game, Southampton were in dire straits in their first season back in the Premier League, rooted to the bottom of the table, having picked up just four points from their opening ten games, losing eight games in the process, and have picked up just one point from their last five league games, and were dumped out of the League Cup 0-3 by lower league Leeds United. After a successful debut season in the Premier League last season, when they finished in eleventh place Swansea City have had a solid start to this season, notwithstanding a change in manager from Liverpool bound Brendan Rodgers to Michael Laudrup and found themselves in eleventh place in the league with twelve points from ten games.

On a sunny afternoon, perhaps unsurprisingly given the current plight of the home team, the crowd was rather subdued with a rather cagey opening to the game on the field, and a pattern developed of Southampton probably playing the more direct, threatening football, although they were hampered by some poor passing and ball control, whilst Swansea played their usual brand of passing football without ever really threatening that they would score in the first half. A goalless halftime scoreline would not have been predicted before kick off, but it was a very fair reflection on first half proceedings.

In the second half, the home side really seemed to up the ante, as they took control of the game and it seemed only a matter of time before they would score. On 64 minutes, that goal finally came, when Rickie Lambert headed towards goal, and Morgan Schneiderlin chested the ball forward before heading past the onrushing keeper Gerhard Tremmel. The relief around the ground was palpable, with hopes raised of a priceless win raised. Southampton have had an awful defensive record so far this season, so it was little surprise that they gifted Swansea an equaliser just nine minutes after taking the lead. Southampton's young Argentinian goalkeeper Paolo Gazzaniga played an awkward pass out to his defender, Maya Yoshida, whose poor first touch allowed Nathan Dyer to take possession and race forward before dispatching a low shot past the keeper and into the net off the far post. Southampton still had chances to retake the lead during the rest of the game, although Swansea probably had the best chance of all to win the game, when only a last gasp tackle denied a tap in for substitute Itay Schechter. But in the end, it was a point apiece, which both sides will probably be happy with - although Southampton will probably kick themselves for not claiming the much needed three points, the one point they did get lifted them off the foot of the table, whilst Swansea picked up a fairly rare point on their travels, having previously lost three of their four away games this season.

Charlton Athletic 5 v 4 Cardiff City

Tuesday 6th November 2012

Football League Championship

The Valley, Charlton

Admission: Season Ticket

Programme: £3.00

Attendance: 15,778

Match rating: 5

A BBC match report can be found here , or from a Welsh media point of view, here

Charlton Athletic 1 v 4 Middlesbrough

Saturday 3rd November 2012
Football League Championship
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 17,736
Match rating: 3

Match report can be found here

Stoke City 0 v 0 Sunderland

Saturday 27th October 2012
FA Premiership
Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent
Admission: £32.00
Programme: £3.50
Attendance: 27,005
Match Rating: 2

A long distance venture for a football game today was inspired by the train company, London Midland, offering a day rover ticket across their network for just £9.90 with a railcard. I initially shortlisted either Kidderminster Harriers, Tamworth or Nuneaton Borough to visit today, however I finally decided to take another step towards completing the 92 league clubs with a visit to Stoke City Football Club.

The Britannia Stadium is located about a half hour walk from Stoke-on-Trent railway station – one passes the stadium on the train journey from the south, but frustratingly there is no local station – and the walk is actually a rather pleasant one, alongside the Trent and Mersey canal, finally crossing over the canal with the stadium high above to the left. The ground certainly looks attractive and imposing on approaching it, although one can easily understand why the ground has the reputation for being cold and windswept, with its exposed nature. To the rear of the car park surrounding the stadium, behind one of the goals, are three statues of Sir Stanley Matthews.  Once inside the stadium, there is little to inspire the sense, just the feeling of another modern stadium. I purchased a seat in the Seddon Stand, along one length of the pitch, and this stand continues behind one of the goals. Two separate stands are located along the other length and behind the other goal. Although the programme was one of the more expensive at £3.50, it was a good and interesting read.

This game had a low scoring draw written all over it, with Stoke having drawn five of their eight games so far, scoring eight and conceding nine, and Sunderland drawing five of their seven games, scoring six and conceding eight. Each team has only won once so far this season.

On a cold but bright and sunny afternoon - a tad too sunny having to face the direct sun from where I was sitting - this match unfortunately very much played down to expectations. Competitive throughout, neither team really looked like scoring, certainly not in the first half.

The second half had marginally more action, although the game was delayed for around five minutes whilst the Stoke defender, Marc Wilson, was carried off on a stretcher with a broken leg. As the half wore on, Stoke did increasingly look to take the initiative and created some reasonable chances and Sunderland had their keeper, Simon Mignolet, to thank for keeping a clean sheet. Sunderland barely had a chance on goal throughout the 90 minutes, although they were denied a penalty when a goalbound shot from Stephen Fletcher hit Robert Huth's hand. The referee decided however that handball was unintentional. Stoke had their best chances in the last ten minutes of normal time, but in truth, one had the feeling that if the referee had played 80 minutes of added on time instead of 8, still neither team would have scored.

So a disappointing outing to a very poor advert for Premier League football, where even the Stoke support, renowned for generating an excellent atmosphere, were generally quiet - unsurprising with the lack of entertainment and attacking endeavour on the pitch.