Charlton Athletic 4 v 0 Doncaster Rovers

Saturday 30th November 2021
EFL League One
The Valley, Charlton
Admission: Season Ticket
Programme: £3.00
Attendance: 16,449 (589 away)

It had been quite some time since my last visit to The Valley, over a month in fact, as I have had the altogether more enjoyable experience of groundhopping far and wide for the last three Saturdays. A fixture against Rotherham United originally scheduled for 9th October was postponed due to international call-ups, and although the game against Accrington Stanley did go ahead on the 19th, I decided to give it a miss, partly due to it being after work on the Tuesday night, and partly because I had had a late night out the night before, having been to see Rag 'N Bone Man at Worthing Pavilion theatre. Under normal circumstances, I probably still would have gone to The Valley, but decided against it as watching Charlton under the management of Nigel Adkins had become a painful experience. My decision was sadly partly vindicated, with Charlton apparently putting in yet another awful, disjointed performance, losing 2-3, a result which finally condemned Nigel Adkins to bring shown the door. A sad outcome from a nice guy and with high hopes that he could replicate his previous success in League One, but absolutely the right decision, as the team has looked directionless and lethargic under his leadership. 

With club legend Johnnie Jackson taking caretaker charge, Charlton had a great start to the post Adkins era, winning 0-1 at second placed Sunderland. The Addicks were still firmly inside the relegation zone, two points adrift of safety and in 22nd place, following three wins and three draws from their 14 league games. On paper, today represented a decent chance to gain another positive result, taking on Doncaster Rovers, who came into this game a place and a point below Charlton, following three wins and two draws from their 14 league games. I had decent memories of the last time Charlton faced Doncaster at The Valley, in a play-off semi- final second leg tie in 2019, when a see-saw tie saw Charlton lose on the night, but with the tie level on aggregate, the Addicks won in a penalty shoot-out. Since my last visit to The Valley, Charlton had won 1-2 at Fleetwood Town , won 4-1 at home to Southampton U23 in the EFL Trophy , lost 1-2 at Lincoln City  , lost 2-3 at home to Accrington Stanley, before surprisingly winning 0-1 at Sunderland in Jackson's first game in charge.

On a mostly sunny and mild afternoon, Charlton absolutely dominated this game, winning by a very comfortable scoreline which should really have been even more emphatic. On 9 minutes, Ben Purrington hooked the ball back from the byline for Elliott Lee to chest down just outside the six yard box and his drilled cross shot was headed off the line by Tom Andersen. But after Charlton lost Jonathan Leko to injury on 15 minutes, they opened the scoring on 21 minutes in perhaps rather fortunate circumstances, when Elliott Lee swung in a free-kick from the left wing, and the ball just evaded Jayden Stockley's head, and with no defenders anywhere near and the goalkeeper rooted to his spot, the ball floated inside the far post. And on 34 minutes, after George Dobson, who put in a superb, tireless, all-action performance in midfield, won the ball in his own half before playing the ball low forward into the path of Alex Gilbey who ran on and on, eventually into the penalty area where he went down under the challenge of Anderson, and the referee awarded the Addicks a penalty, which Conor Washington despatched, striking low into the right side of the net, sending the keeper the wrong way.

It was a comfortable half time lead, as Doncaster failed to come close to mustering a shot on target in the first half, anad Charlton continued on the front foot into the second half, with the seemingly inevitable third goal coming on 62 minutes.Eliott Lee drilled in a low free kick from just outside the left side of the penalty area, and the ball came back off the keeper into the path of Stockley, and he knocked the ball into the net from close range. And Charlton made it four on 71 minutes, when Diallang Jaiyesimi crossed the ball from close to the corner flag, for Ben Purrington to head the ball on the run 8 yards out, sending the ball across the keeper and inside the far post..Charlton had other good chances to further extend their margin of victory, but were denied by some inspired goalkeeping, most notably on 85 minutes when Stockley saw a header pushed onto the bar and out.

So, a thoroughly comprehensive result and performance against the Addicks, leaving most of us fans scratching our eyes wondering how the players put in such disjointed, dispirited and lethargic performances under Nigel Adkins, today put in a performance full of energy and desire, with pressing from the front forcing the Doncaster players into mistakes and not letting them settle into any kind of rhythm. This result lifted Charlton out of the relegation zone and into 20th place, and should give the side plenty of confidence going into Tuesday's game against fourth placed Rotherham United, looking for a third win on the spin.

Short video highlights of this game can be viewed by clicking here 

Bexhill United 3 v 0 Wick

Wednesday 27th October 2021, Kick-off 19.30

Sussex Senior Cup 1st Round

The Polegrove, Bexhill-on-Sea

Admission: £6.00

Programme: £1.00

Attendance: 173

After a month without taking in any midweek football, a home game for Bexhill United was enough to tempt me out this evening.

I noticed a nice enhancement for the first time this evening an eye catching, very professional looking fixture board position just above the perimeter fence and next to the main entrance of the recreation ground. An excellent way to increase awareness of games taking place at the Polegrove, and to enhance the club’s identity there.

After a fairly shaky start to their first season back in the top flight of the Southern Combination League Premier Division, Bexhill United have been in great form, unbeaten in their last eight league games - a run started the last time I watched Bexhill play, with a 2-1 win at home to Lingfield. They came into this game in fifth place in the table, following eight wins and four draws from their opening 15 league games. On paper, this game looked something of a home banker, with Wick plying their trade in the division below, and they came into this game in 12th place in Division One, following four wins and two draws from their opening 13 league games.

On a mild but rather breezy evening by the sea, the first half saw Bexhill do most of the attacking, although Wick held their own and were proving a tough nut to crack as Bexhill struggled to break the visitors' defence. On 5 minutes, Bexhill saw a free kick parried away, whilst on 9 minutes, a curling shot on the run by Bexhill's talisman Jack Shonk flew just over the far post with keeper beaten. On 22 minutes Evan Archibald received the ball just inside the area following a fortunate deflection off a defender, but his chipped shot was caught by the keeper, while on 36 minutes another free kick was well parried by the keeper.

Into the second half and it appeared that Bexhill had opened the scoring on 53 minutes, when Archibald ran onto a chipped ball into the box and slotted the ball home, but the linesman quickly raised his flag for offside. But on 64 minutes, Bexhill finally broke the deadlock when a curling cross from the right wing by 17 year old Ollie Hull was met by Archibald, and although his volleyed shot went into the keeper's body before bouncing out, the officials ruled that the ball had crossed the line. I had an excellent view and that appeared to be the correct decision. Bexhill made it two on 74 minutes, again Hull was involved after his shot was parried and the ball fell to Archibald, who tapped home. Wick did finally manage to mount some pressure, forcing a couple of corners, but Bexhill made absolutely sure of progression on 84 minutes when a fabulous diagonal ball from virtually his own penalty area by Tom Vickers picked out the run of Hull to run onto and clear of the defence, eventually tapping the ball past the keeper to round off a superb performance from the youngster.

So it was Bexhill who progress to the next round and will hope to draw one of the higher profile clubs who enter the competition in the second round. Credit to Wick for a battling performance, but ultimately paid the price for not carrying much of an attacking threat on the night.

Sheringham 1 v 0 Harleston Town

Saturday 23rd October 2021, Kick-off 15.00
Eastern Counties League Division One North
Weybourne Road, Sheringham
Admission: £6.00
Programme £2.00
Attendance: 90

It is always a pleasure for me to head to East Anglia, and Sheringham has been on my radar ever since they were promoted into senior football in 2019, being something of a geographical outpost, at a nice seaside location. Fares on the Greater Anglia network are usually exorbitant unless bought well in advance, so when Greater Anglia announced a sale, offering tickets from London Liverpool Street to virtually any destination on their network for a fiver each way, less than half the price of even their usual cheapest Advance fares at £24 to Sheringham, I soon started booking various trips to Norfolk, starting with this one today.

Weybourne Road is about a 15 minute, less than a mile walk from Sheringham station, although I took a rather more indirect route, along the charming high street, picking up a delicious crab sandwich en route before walking along the seafront, to the side of a golf course and to the ground, tucked behind a sports centre, which is currently in the final stages of redevelopment. A short lane takes visitors along the side of the sports centre, into a small car park, with the football ground to the left and the brick clubhouse building to the right, which contains a reasonably sized bar area and a tea bar hatch on the first floor. The clubhouse also serves the town's cricket club, whose field is located behind the pavilion building. Access to the football ground is gained up a flight of steps, paying the admission fee at a hatch in a black wooden hut in one corner of the ground. There is hard standing behind the end closest to the entrance and along the far length, where a fairly large and sturdy stand occupies the area around the half way line, with a row of seating along the front, and two deep steps to stand on behind. The remaining two sides do not have hard standing and are not intended to be accessed by spectators, apart from the area between the entrance and the dug outs. The ground has quite a nice setting, with a grass bank lining the end behind one goal and housing just behind, and the pleasantly designed sports centre, steep headland and a glimpse of the sea can all be viewed behind the other end. A very good 28 page programme is produced by the club, printed on good quality paper and in full colour, it contains plenty of interesting articles to read, and even a page welcoming groundhoppers, which was a nice touch indeed.

This promised to be a decent game between two clubs who have made great starts to their campaign. Sheringham came into this game in fourth place, following seven wins and a draw from their opening ten league games, with games in hand on the three clubs above them. After a one season stay in the Eastern Counties League Division One North in season 2018/19, in which they finished second but were demoted due to ground grading issues, Harleston spent the two Covid related unfinished seasons in the Anglian Combination League Premier Division, before being elevated back to step 6 football for this season. And very well they are doing too, topping the table  by eight points following ten wins and a draw from their opening 12 league games, and beating the then second placed Whittlesey Athletic 4-0 at home.

On an overcast and slightly chilly afternoon, this was certainly a lively, competitive and entertaining game, played at a high tempo, and with some strong tackles flying in, tempers did threaten to boil over on a couple of occasions. Sheringham scored what turned out to be the winning goal as early as the seventh minute when the ball was played to the edge of the penalty area, and was laid off for Ben Boyce to drill the ball home low inside the left hand post. Sheringham had slightly the better of the first half, but on 31 minutes, the visitors saw a powerful close range shot superbly parried by the Sheringham keeper up onto the crossbar and away. Sheringham retained their narrow lead at the break, but with a feeling that this game could still very much go either way.

Into the second half and the visitors had a couple of great chances to get back on level terms in quick succession, on 56 minutes, when Sheringham were again indebted to their goalkeeper for preserving their lead. First he just managed to just get his fingertips to divert a low cross shot just beyond the far post, before parrying a fierce shot shortly afterwards. Within a minute of that, Sheringham came close to extending their lead, when a header following a corner dropped on top of the crossbar. Both teams continued to look a threat, but as the game wore on, Sheringham's players seemed to become content with what they had, employing plenty of time wasting tactics to kill the game and see it out. They succeeded, quite comfortably in the end, earning a hard earned three points, which they just about deserved on the balance of play despite their keeper having to make a couple of outstanding saves to preserve their early lead. The win lifted them to second in the table, six points behind Harleston but with two games in hand, and it looks like there should be a good tussle between the two clubs towards the top of the table over the coming months.

Newport (IOW) 4 v 2 Millbrook

Saturday 16th October 2021, Kick-off 15.00
Wessex League Division One
Smallbrook Stadium, Ryde
Admission: £6.00

Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 133

As sad as it was to see Newport (IOW) obliged to vacate their St Georges Park home at the end of the 2019 season, it did - eventually - open up the opportunity for me to visit a new ground for senior football on the Isle of Wight, which always makes for a cracking day out.

After sharing at East Cowes Victoria Athletic's home Beatrice Avenue for the last two (unfinished) seasons, Newport have set up home at the Smallbrook Stadium, on the outskirts of Ryde, for this season. Although predominantly hosting speedway meetings, Smallbrook Stadium was the home of former Wessex League outfit Ryde Sports from 1990 until 1997, when the club folded, and has been hosting an increasing number of home fixtures of Ryde Saints, of the Isle of Wight Saturday League, over the last few years. After a ten minute flight across The Solent on the hovercraft, then stopping off for a lunchtime pint in The Marine pub opposite the Hovertravel terminal, I then embarked on the 40 minute rather hilly walk up through the centre of Ryde, through its southern suburbs and into the countryside beyond. It is certainly not a ground designed for the non car user in mind, with public transports not passing near and the last half a mile or so walk is along a windy country road without a footpath, and so it is just as well there is a fairly large car park available behind one one end of the ground, where the entrance is. It is nice to see that Newport arrange a dedicated matchday bus service from St Georges Park to Smallbrook Stadium for £4 return, although apparently low usage threatens the future of the service. After paying admission at a kiosk, an excellent 32 page programme packed with information to read was available from a table just inside the ground, along with raffle tickets and some club merchandise, and a path then leads around the bend along the speedway track perimeter fence towards a tea hut in the corner, which offered an impressive range of decent quality hot and cold refreshments. Some tables and chairs are placed on a patio area in front of the hut, whilst pitchside of the path in front of the hut is The Royal Box - which seems to be reserved for wheelchair users at speedway meetings and offers a relatively decent elevated view of the action - more ideal for speedway, as riders enter the corner, than for football spectators, although it remained a popular place to watch the action from today. A long stand with three rows inside - save for a small area in the middle - stretches most of the length, and has some welcome elevation to provide a reasonable view of the action, given that there is some distance to the pitch, with shallow terracing below the seating, then a fair sized grass bank, and then the speedway track. The far end, or bend, as well as along the opposite length, are completely inaccessible. The path around the tea hut, and the grass banks behind it, make for a popular vantage point, as does the wooden balcony outside the clubhouse next to the entrance. Whilst it makes a nice change to have a PA system fully used at this level, the variety of music was limited to some rather obscure fifties tunes throughout. Although Smallbrook is far from ideal for watching football at, it is pleasantly quirky, rural and peaceful, offers good facilities around the ground and serves its purpose well enough as a temporary stop gap for Newport. Newport are hoping to move into their own ground in time for next season, and received some more certainty in that regard yesterday when the geographically better option of developing part of the Seaclose Recreation Ground close to the centre of Newport was ruled out by the authorities, leaving the club with their original proposal of developing land about three miles north eastwards between Newport and Wootton Bridge.

Newport have made a decent start to their fourth season in Division One, coming into this game in third place in the table, following seven wins and a draw from their opening ten league games. They have only picked up a point from their last two games though, but there were plenty of goals in those games, drawing 4-4 at New Milton Town last Saturday, twice coming from two goals down to claim a point at the death, following a 5-2 defeat at today's visitors the previous Saturday. Millbrook were formed from a merger of senior club Bush Hill and junior club Oakwood Youth, and as Bush Hill were elevated from the Hampshire Premier League Senior Division in the summer, having been there or thereabouts at the top of that division for several seasons. They have made a solid start to their first season within the National League System, coming into this game in tenth place, following five wins and five defeats from their opening ten league games, and in their last game put six goals past Ash United without reply.

On a mild and sunny afternoon, the first half turned out to be a rather one sided affair, with Newport cutting through a rather shaky defence almost at will. They opened the scoring on 8 minutes when Jordan Browne turned and struck the ball low across the keeper and into the bottom far corner. They doubled their lead on 24 minutes, when a ball over the top found the run of Connor Kelly, and he cooly lobbed the ball over the keeper and into the unguarded net. Joe Craig made it three on 32 minutes, tapping the ball home from close range following good work from a team mate to beat a defender out wide before dinking the ball into the unmarked Craig. Millbrook had a great chance to get back in the game on 34 minutes, when a free kick was played in from the right and just evaded a meaningful connection at the far post, instead drifting just wide of the far post. And it seemed like the game was put to bed two minutes later when Newport were awarded a penalty for a trip in the box, which Kelly struck low into the right side of the goal, sending the keeper the wrong way. 4-0 was how it remained at half time, and it seemed that all Millbrook had left to play for in the second half was pride.

And indeed, Millbrook were much improved after the break, perhaps helped by a lowering of intensity in the hosts' play, and they pulled a goal back on 49 minutes when Mark Barker showed good strength to shrug off a challenge by a Newport player wide on the right before running towards goal before flighting a shot which the keeper got a touch to, but the ball carried over the line. Newport did have some great chances to restore their four goal lead, but Millbrook scored their second on 76 minutes when a free kick was beautifully fired into the top left corner. In the end, Newport saw the game out fairly comfortably for a win they certainly deserved and to gain some revenge for their 5-2 defeat to Millbrook three weeks ago, but credit to Millbrook for a decent second half performance despite a four goal deficit at the break.

After the game, a walk back to the Hovercraft terminal was interrupted by picking up a few beers of various Isle of Wight breweries from the Co-op, then stopping off for a couple of pints whilst watching Brentford against Chelsea in the very friendly and welcoming King Lud pub on the Esplanade, before heading back to the mainland following a most enjoyable day out, which enabled me to recomplete my visits of all grounds in the Wessex League.