Liverpool F.A. Senior Cup

1st Round

Wednesday 21st November 2018

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.02

Lower Breck 2 Skelmersdale United 0,  attendance 261

35’ 1-0

66’ 2-0

@ Anfield Sports & Community Centre, 3G Pitch

Breckside Park

Lower Breck Road

Liverpool

L6 0AG

£3 Admission

£1.50 Programme, 28 pages, plus free team sheet.

On first impressions, the programme looks decent and you are issued a match specific ticket when you pay your admission money at the reception area to the building, but……..you then notice the wrong date on both the programme cover and the ticket. Opening the programme and reading the first page of text and it gets worse….twice they use ‘there’, instead of ‘their’……I couldn’t be bothered to read on, but I wouldn’t imagine it got any better.

I have been to many Hellenic League grounds over the years, which are possibly the worst standard Step 6 grounds you could possibly come across, but these dreadful 3G caged grounds make those seem far better than they were. I would probably put this ground top of the list of ‘worst ground of the current Step 6 set up’. It is just accessible down one side and behind one goal. As for the tiny atcost stand that is plonked in one corner, well what a waste of time that is, but as we all know, the F.A. will say it ‘ticks all the boxes’.

On the pitch however, Lower Breck are really impressive. They are currently in fourth place in the North West Counties League, Division 1 North, whilst tonight’s visitors are two levels higher, in the Northern Premier League, West Division, although they are propping up the table. The opening goal came against the run of play, but they dominated the second half and once they scored the second goal it was game over. It was an excellent crowd ( I only counted 234, but still very good) swelled by a good away following, despite it being a really cold night in such an exposed ground. At least it was dry.

The journey home wasn’t as bad as it could have been, considering the M6 was closed from Junction 15-14 and the M25 was closed from Junction 11-10, but I still made it home for 02.10.

British Universities & Colleges Sport

Northern Conference Cup 3rd Round

Wednesday 21st November 2018

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.01

Bangor University 3 Newcastle University 2nds 4,  attendance 16

2’ 0-1

36’ 0-2

53’ 1-2

75’ 2-2

77’ 2-3

83’ 2-4

90’+2, 3-4

@ Nantporth 3G Pitch

Holyhead Road

Bangor

LL57 2HQ

No Admission or Programme.

After staying overnight in Bangor, this was my obvious choice for this afternoon. The 3G Pitch here is next door to the stadium of Bangor City, which is behind the left hand goal, down in a hollow and running in the opposite direction. It is also where the teams got changed for today’s match.

The five hour journey for Newcastle will have felt all the better having progressed into the quarter finals with this win. They were coasting at halftime, but a free kick early in the second half lifted the spirits of Bangor and they drew level with a shot from a tight angle that went through the ‘keeper’s legs with fifteen minutes left on the clock. However, within two minutes, Newcastle were back in front and when they made it 2-4 with seven minutes left, it looked all over. Bangor pulled it back to 3-4 in stoppage time, but despite playing an additional seven minutes, they were unable to force an equaliser.