Southend Manor 4 v 1 Waltham Forest

Saturday 5th November 2016
Essex Senior League
Southchurch Park Arena, Southend-on-Sea
Admission: £7.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 30
Match Rating: 4

I decided to fly into Southend Airport on my return to the UK from Amsterdam, touching down just after 1pm to allow me ample time to cross the town to take in this game in the Essex Senior League.

Southchurch Park Arena is about a 15 minute walk from Southend East train station and is situated within a large park in close proximity to the seafront, and which has a cricket field adjacent to it. There are plenty of opportunities to easily watch the game from outside football ground without paying the rather expensive admission fee, a theme which is continued for a very overpriced programme. This was rather put into stark contrast for me as last night I had paid less for admission and programme combined for a Dutch second division match, even at the current poor exchange rates, compared with this game in the ninth tier in the English football pyramid. Spectators enter through a turnstile block alongside the clubhouse, and after a short walk, the path leads to pitchside along one length. Unfortunately, this is not an endearing place to watch football, having the feel of a recreation ground and a quality of pitch to match, the appearance is rather dreary with precious few finishing touches. There are three small metallic stands are located by the half way line, two being all-seater next to each other separated by a retractable caged metal players' walkway, with a further one covering steps to stand on. The brick clubhouse building is situated some way back from the pitch and looks uninviting from the outside, but is actually really comfortable and cosy on the inside. And indeed, there was a friendly feel about the place. There is just hard standing behind white railing around the rest of the ground, with quite a bit space around the ground to the perimeter fence. The 24 page programme offered sufficient stats to preview the game, some pen pics of the visiting team and newspaper articles, but for the inflated price, some interesting reading material would have been welcome, but to its credit, there was very little advertising contained within.

Southend Manor came into this game in sixth place, with ten wins and two draws from their 17 league games so far, while Waltham Forest were a point and two places better off, in fourth place with ten wins and three draws from their 16 league games.

On the first really cold afternoon of the season, with a really biting wind blowing off the sea, this match was surprisingly dominated by the home side, given that the visitors were actually above them in the league table. It took Southend just 6 minutes to open the scoring, a quick break down the right wing ended with a cross into the box which a defender should have cut out but he missed the ball, allowing an unmarked Sam Short the simple task of tapping the ball home.  They doubled their lead on 17 minutes when a free kick was floated into the area and Michael Hopkins guided the ball in at the far post. They should have made it three within a minutes, when the ball was played through and sent the Southend striker through in goal, but he never really managed to control the ball before scuffing the ball wide of the post. The visitors came close to pulling a goal back on 25 minutes, when a weak header came back gently off the far post, and Southend again nearly scored on 31 minutes, when a free kick from deep was headed powerfully just wide of the post. But Southend went into the half time break deservedly ahead, although the game was far from over, as Waltham Forest did look quite dangerous on their occasional breaks.

However, within two minutes of the restart, Southend all but assured themselves of the three points. Callum Jex fired the ball from a corner, and it skimmed off the head of a defender to find its way into the far top right hand corner of the net. Things got even worse for the visitors on 53 minutes when a ball over the defence sent Callum Ibe clear and running towards goal, and he showed good composure to fire the ball low past the keeper. The visitors scored a consolation goal on 59 minutes when a looped cross from the right was bundled in at the far post by Omar Nyame. To their credit, the visitors kept battling away without ever looking likely to threaten an unlikely comeback in the remaining half hour, and Southend has their chances to restore their four goal lead. The visitors had Harry Larner sent off four minutes from time following a second yellow card.

And so Southend claimed a very comfortable victory with an impressive performance, always looking in complete control of the match, and they rose to fourth in the table ahead of Waltham Forest, who dropped to eighth. Although this was an entertaining match to watch, the walk to the warmth of the train ride home was most welcome after a bitterly cold afternoon outside.

Almere City 1 v 0 Achilles ‘29

Friday 4th November 2016
Eerste Divisie (Dutch Second Division)
Yanmar Stadion, Almere
Admission: €10.00
Programme: Free
Attendance:  1,530
Match Rating: 3

For my second and final game of my brief stay in the Netherlands, my options were limited this evening, with most interesting clubs to visit within comfortable range of my base in Amsterdam playing away from home this evening. Jong Ajax had their game moved to the Amsterdam Arena, but for me this option was ruled out, having visited there last night. And so instead I headed for Almere, one of the Netherlands’ new towns, and indeed to visit a club and stadium with a short history.

The Yanmar Stadium is about a half hour walk from Almere Centraal train station, walking alongside convenient cycle and then bus only lanes throughout. The football stadium is part of a large sporting complex situated in the countryside. After passing through a large car park, spectators can purchase tickets at the entrance hut. Once inside, there is a small terrace area with portable refreshment and club merchandise outlets, as well as the entrance to the circular clubhouse, which is on the first floor and offers a good if slightly instructed view of the action. Along both lengths and behind one goal there are similarly shaped, short all-seater stands, with away fans allocated a third of the area behind the goal – which contained nobody this evening. Behind the remaining goal is the most attractive feature, a stand offering hospitality facilities inside and some seating to the front, the rear wall  of which is wooden. There is not much history of character here, unsurprisingly for a club and ground that is only 15 years old and its small support, but there is much to like about the place, which is neat, tidy and with a friendly feel to it. A 3G pitch is in place here. Programmes were available free of charge from the ticket office on entry and was comparable with non-league programmes in England. It was glossy, plenty to read for those who understand Dutch, and the essential statistics.

After a poor start to their season, which saw Almere pick up just four points from their opening six league games, they have been going great guns since, winning their last six league games, and came into this match in fifth place, with 22 points from 12 league games. This match really had the feel of a “home banker” then, as the visitors were rock bottom of the division, with just five points from their opening twelve league games, although two of those points came in the last three games.

On a cool evening which was dry to start with before steady drizzle arrived for the second half, Almere started this match on the front foot, with their forwards showing some good footwork to create opportunities, but Achilles weathered the early storm. Although Achilles always looked slightly the better team during the first half, Achilles did break on occasions but were unconvincing in the final third. Almere's first real chance came on 20 minutes when the ball was played through the defence to Sherjill MacDonald, but his toepoke goalwards was weak and easily saved. On 38 minutes the ball was pulled back for Tom Overtoom to strike a first time shot on the slide which was saved by the keeper’s foot, and a couple of minutes later, Overtoom struck a powerful low shot from outside the area was just palmed wide by the visiting keeper.

The second half continued in much the same vein, although the visitors almost claimed a shock lead in the 56th minute when a chipped cross shot by Kürsad Sürmeli came back off the far post. On 73 minutes, it was Almere’s turn it hit the woodwork, MacDonald crossing the ball high from the right wing to beyond the far post and Souffyan Ahannach hit the ball on the volley into the ground, and the ball bounced into the ground, looped up and came back off the far post. Almere came close to breaking the deadlock a few times before the end of the 90 minutes, but the match looked destined to finish goalless as Achilles tried to hold on for a rare and precious point, sitting back and wasting time as the game neared its conclusion. But two minutes into added on time, a deflected shot was parried by the keeper before being hacked away. But the ball fell to an Almere player, who lumped the ball into the box to Yener Arica, who chested the ball down before laying it back to Overtoom, who drilled a low shot from outside the area just inside the near post, to send the home players and supporters into wild celebrations as the away players sank to the floor in despair. The result was tough on Achilles, who played better than the league position suggested and were cruelly denied a rare, precious point at the death, to fall a further point adrift, now 3, at the foot of the table. But there was no doubt that Almere deserved to win, and they rose to fourth place in the table following this result.

Video highlights of the match can be viewed by clicking here

Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax 3 v 2 Celta de Vigo

Thursday 3rd November 2016
Europa League Group G
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Admission: €28.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 44,545
Match Rating: 4

After several years of the Netherlands being the only western European country – excluding some of the micro states – where I had not previously watched any football games, I decided to finally put that right this autumn. Watching football is notoriously tricky in the Netherlands, with club cards required to purchase tickets for many games, and purchasing advance tickets online is usually reserved for those with Dutch bank accounts. However, when I saw tickets for this game available on-line, and reasonably priced flights, I decided to make my way to the national stadium of the Netherlands.

The Amsterdam ArenA is conveniently located adjacent to the Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena train station in the southern suburbs of the city. Located amongst modern buildings housing shops, bars and open spaces with retail vans parked on, there was an excellent atmosphere around the stadium ahead of kick-off. Having collected my ticket at the main reception, I made my way to the turnstiles and inside the stadium which is impressive in terms of its size, design, comfort, facilities, as well as excellent legroom and lines of visions – with unobstructed views from all seats in the two tiers that go all the way around the stadium. However it is fairly typical of modern stadia built across Europe in the last twenty years or so, with no particular Dutch feel to it at all. That said, the seats are attractively coloured, and flags displaying the club’s achievements neatly hang from the roof. Away fans were housed in the top tier in one corner, and they certainly were colourful and noisy this evening. The stadium also features a retractable roof, which was the first to be installed in Europe. From what I could see, no programmes were produced for this game. Plastic flags were left by each seat, and prior to kick off these were waved with gusto along with several club anthems, which made for quite an impressive sight as well as sound.

At the half way stage of the group, this match would be between the two clubs best placed to fill the two berths to progress to the knockout rounds. Ajax had won two and drew the other of their three games, whilst Celta de Vigo had won one and drawn two of their games, and are three and four points ahead of Standard Liège and Panathinaikos respectively. When the two teams met in Spain last month, the game finished 2-2, with Ajax twice taking the lead. In their domestic campaigns, Ajax were in second place in the Eredivisie, three points behind leaders Feyenoord, whilst Celta de Vigo were in ninth place in La Liga.

On a cool but dry evening, Ajax had the better of the first half, although they almost gifted the visitors the lead on 15 minutes, when the Ajax keeper passed the ball straight to Celta’s Theo Bongonda, who took a couple of touches before firing low past the far post, to the keeper’s relief. In the 23rd minute came Ajax's first real chance when Kasper Dolberg took control of a pass into the box, but he fired his shot in the ground which allowed the keeper to make a good save to his top left. On 36 minutes, Hakim Ziyech struck a low shot from outside of the area which went just past the far post on 41 minutes, following a corner, the ball struck Dolberg on the back and forced a good finger tip save from the keeper as the ball headed for the top right hand corner. But within a minute, Dolberg did score to give Ajax the lead. Bertrand Traoré, on loan from Chelsea, slipped the ball through to Dolberg, and his first delicate touch took the ball past a defender by the outer corner of the penalty area, before striking it low inside the keeper’s near post. It was a lead they certainly deserved, finally converting their dominance on the game into a lead, with the visitors rarely looking a threat.

The second half started in much the same way, and Ajax doubled their lead on 66 minutes. Following a good flowing move from their own half, Traoré showed some good footwork to beat a defender before getting to the edge of the six yard box before passing the ball low to the far post, and Ziyech had the simple task of tapping the ball home from a couple of yards at the far post. Ajax seemed to seal the three points four minutes later. Jaire Riedewald won the ball back in his own half before striking forward to pass the ball to Amin Younes, who dribbled the ball from the left wing to the outer corner of the penalty area and along the line to a central position before firing the ball into the bottom right corner via a faint touch from the keeper’s fingertips. The visitors looked a beaten team now, until out of nothing, they pulled a goal back on 79 minutes. Iago Aspas threaded the ball low through a couple of defenders for John Guidetti to run onto, before firing the ball low past the keeper from a slight angle. Celta pulled another goal back four minutes from time, when Aspas showed good footwork to evade a couple of defenders before firing low into the bottom right corner from the edge of the area. Suddenly Celta had the chance of a point to go for, and they nearly grabbed an unlikely equaliser two minutes from time when an Ajax defender failed to cut out a low through ball and Bongonda struck a powerful shot which the keeper saved, but if he had passed to Gudetti who was virtually alone in a more central position, he probably would have scored. Ajax held on for the remainder of the match to claim three points and guarantee progress to the knockout round. It was a win they certainly deserved, dominating for long periods and it was only when Celta brought on Guidetti and Aspas, and after they scored, that they finally looked a threat.

Video highlights of this match can be found by clicking here