Belgium

Division 3 Amateurs A.C.F.F. A

Friday 20th September 2019

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.05

R. Union Saint-Ghislain Tertre-Hautrage 1 R. Leopold F.C. 1, attendance 127

13’ 1-0

84’ 1-1

@ Stade Saint Lo

Rue du Moulin 68

7330 Saint-Ghislain

€8 Admission

No Programme.

Having won Hainaut Provincial 1 last season, R. Union Saint-Ghislain Tertre-Hautrage have moved from their Stade Achille Bavier ground in Tertre, to this athletics stadium in Saint-Ghislain on their return to the Belgian League. It is quite distinctive, with its unusual blue running track, but oddly enough, the visitors also play at an athletics stadium that has a blue running track as well.

I only noticed this fixture had changed to a Friday night at around 17.30 on Thursday evening, and within half an hour it became apparent that they had indeed moved ground this season, so it was no problem filling the car for the trip across The Channel. We were booked on the 14.20 outbound crossing on The Tunnel, but having had a clear run down through Kent, we actually made it onto the 13.50, which left a minute early.

A quick look at the league table suggested this might not be the best of matches. Saint-Ghislain sat bottom, having lost all four of their matches, whilst Leopold were just two places above them, having picked up just two points from their first four games. Saint-Ghislain went ahead within a quarter of an hour with an angled shot across the ‘’keeper and Leopold had quite a few chances, some of them which looked harder to miss than score, but we reached the interval with it still 1-0. Leopold again had the better of the second half chances and they were finally rewarded with an equaliser, when a cross from the right was headed in from close range with six minutes left.

With the second half getting started nine minutes behind schedule, due to the Referee keeping both teams waiting on the pitch for a good five minutes before he reappeared, it meant we would be tight for our check in time for our 00.20 train home. We made it though and we actually left on time. Unfortunately, having arrived in Folkestone, a car ahead of us broke down, causing a fifteen minute delay to unloading, then a closure on the M20 meant we lost another 15 minutes on the diversion route.

Carmarthenshire League

Premier Division

Wednesday 18th September 2019

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 17.57

Pontarddulais Town 6 Loughor Rovers 4, attendance 85

13’ 1-0

16’ 1-1

49’ 1-2

68’ 1-3

71’ 2-3 (pen)

74’ 2-4

84’ 3-4

86’ 4-4

90’+ 2, 5-4

90’+ 4, 6-4

@ Coed Bach Park

Gwynfryn Road

Pontarddulais

SA4 8LG

No Admission (they did do a raffle) or Programme.

When you drive into Coed Bach Park, the first thing you notice is the metal entrance gates to the smart ground on the right hand side of the car park. It is fully enclosed, floodlit and has cover on each side of the pitch. However, if you look a little to the right, you see a brick building and an open pitch. This is the football ground. The other, of course, is home to Pontarddulais R.U.F.C. who, as is normally the case in these parts, are the ones with all the facilities!

I rounded off my midweek ‘early kick offs’ (that’s it now until the end of March when the clocks go forward) with an absolutely cracking match here. Pontarddulais started the night tenth in the league table, whilst Loughor sat in sixth place. The first half was good, but it was only 1-1 at the break. The second half was superb. Loughor were 1-2 in front within minutes of the restart and then a substitute volleyed in to make it 1-3, with his first touch of the ball, as we approached the final twenty minutes. Pontarddulais replied with a penalty, before the same substitute scored again to put the visitors 2-4 ahead with sixteen minutes left and surely wrap up the points…….

Six minutes to go and Pontarddulais headed in from a corner. Two minutes later a long throw in was glanced past the ‘keeper to level it up at 4-4. Loughor had a great chance to regain the lead, but a couple of minutes into stoppage time Pontarddulais completed an incredible turnaround, with a cut in from the right that was finished with a low shot into the far corner. There was still time for them to add another goal, with a mirror image of the last one being well finished from the left. So, 6-4, but it could easily have been 10-10. What a game!

Both teams were on the pitch warming up at 17.30 and the Referee very sensibly got the match underway three minutes early at 17.57. We had two minutes of added time in the first half, six minutes for halftime, then a further four minutes of stoppages at the end of the match, but were still all done for 19.39. It wasn’t properly dark until I reached Port Talbot on the long trek home.

Swansea Senior League

Division 1

Tuesday 17th September 2019

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 18.07

Mumbles Rangers 1 Brynawel 5, attendance 20

12’ 1-0

18’ 1-1

37’ 1-2

40’ 1-3

43’ 1-4

63’ 1-5

@ Underhill Park, Pitch 1

Newton Road

Mumbles

SA3 4SW

No Admission or Programme.

If you want a game without floodlights during this midweek, the only place you will still find games scheduled are in West Wales. There was a full programme of matches in the Swansea Senior League Divisions 1 and 2 tonight, so I went for the top division match that was 7th versus 11th (2nd bottom) in the league table.

Underhill Park is the main sporting hub in the town, hosting football, cricket and rugby. Mumbles Rangers play on Pitch 1 here, which is directly outside the changing rooms. It was roped along a section of each side, oddly done with each club roping off the side where they had their ‘bench’. What was more surprising was that they had a tea bar up and running from around half an hour before kick off.

Mumbles, who had won two of their opening five matches, took an early lead. As Brynawel had drawn three and lost three of their first six games, I expected this game was heading only one way, an easy win for the hosts, but it soon turned round. Brynawel levelled, then tore the hosts apart, and a three goal burst just before halftime sewed the game up. They added one more during the second half, but it could have been far worse for Mumbles and they should be thankful it was only 1-5 in the end.

Despite kicking off seven minutes late, there was an eight minute halftime, where Mumbles even went back into the changing rooms. Even when we finished at 19.47 the light was pretty reasonable.

Belgium

Hainaut Provincial 1

Sunday 15th September 2019

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.04

R. Leopold Club Hornu 0 Sporting Club Montignies 0, attendance 98

@ Stade Barbet

Rue Du Commerce 98

7301 Hornu

€5 Admission

No Programme.

This was our first trip of the season over to Belgium. The driver was heading for A.S. Snef-Tyber, which I had been to, where he would be completing Provincial 1 in Hainaut, whilst two of us were being dropped off in Hornu, which would also see the completion of Provincial 1 in Hainaut for me as well.

Leopold Club Hornu are one of the oldest clubs in Belgium, having been formed in 1921. They have a very low 129 matricule number and they first played in the Belgian League back in 1946, having suffered relegation and promotion in the meantime, but having been relegated back into the Provincial League in 1997, they have remained there ever since and even dropped into Provincial 3 at one stage.

Having won promotion back into Provincial 1 this season, they have had a reasonable start, topping the league table with seven points from their opening three games. Montignies arrived here in eleventh place. Unfortunately, neither side had any ambition to try and win the game and they served up an absolutely dreadful match. I saw three awful matches yesterday and this was equally as bad. Yesterday it was due to the fact that the level we were watching was of a very poor standard. Today, it was because neither team wanted to win and were very happy to play for 0-0.

Having not been over here since May, we had forgotten what a shambles Eurotunnel are. Our outbound 09.20 train left eight minutes late and despite arriving back at The Tunnel twenty minutes before check in closed for our 20.20 return, we were told it was full (as we were well within our check in time, this seems a very strange way to operate a service) and we had been moved to the 20.36 crossing instead and surprise, surprise, it didn’t leave until 20.47.

Witney & District League

Division 2

Saturday 14th September 2019

Kick Off 16.15 or 16.30 Actual 16.30

Ducklington 2 Wootton Sports 3, attendance 178

33’ 1-0

51’ 1-1 (pen)

73’ 1-2

87’ 1-3

90’+ 2, 2-3

@ The Glebelands Playing Fields

Aston Road

Ducklington

OX29 7US

£4 Admission, including Programme*

*(Once again you got a programme whether you wanted it or not. Again I applied the rule of putting it in the nearest bin, as I don’t even want a ‘free’ copy on any event run by Groundhop U.K.)

Third game of the day and again confusion on what time the kick off was. This was an even shorter distance to travel, being just 5 miles from Minster Lovell, so it didn’t really matter, but it meant arriving at the ground an hour and five minutes before kick off, so Ducklington were certainly not going to have to rush to try and make the most of their big pay day.

This was two levels lower than the first two ‘hop matches today, but it was still a case of paying top dollar to watch it. Although they tried, the standard of play here was about as low as you could get, with plenty of effort, but with two teams of limited ability, to say the least, it wasnt great to watch. The dreadful state of the pitch won’t have helped. It looked like it hadn’t seen any water in months. Ducklington led 1-0 at the break, but should have added a fair few more, but having failed to do so, were easily beaten in the end. Three second half goals from Wootton saw the game made safe, before a goal for the hosts, two minutes into stoppage time, made it look closer than it was.

It had been a real endurance test watching three games of such poor standard today, although the hot weather may have contributed to that. It wasn’t helped by the Referee at this match adding nearly seven minutes of stoppage time in the first half, then a ridiculous sixteen minutes to the second half, of a game that was turgid at best.

With the obsession of having these ground hops at intervals of what certainly feels like every other week, it means dropping lower and lower in order to find clubs and/or leagues that want to be involved, but as long as there are sufficient numbers turning up, then they will be here to stay, no matter how low the level drops. It will take some doing to find a league with a lower standard of football than this, although the scenery around some of the villages in this part of the Cotswolds does make up for it somewhat.

We could have gone on the organised trip, which this time involved just two mini buses, but we would have first had to drive to Oxford to meet up, then pay to park the car, before paying £19 each for the privilege of being driven the 49 mile round trip to the three games and back . We decided to drive ourselves instead, and as there were three of us, it only cost us £5 each and none of us live anywhere near Oxford!

Witney & District League

Premier Division

Saturday 14th September 2019

Kick Off 13.30 or 13.45 Actual 13.30

Minster Lovell 2 Carterton 3, attendance 126

29’ 1-0

38’ 2-0

48’ 2-1

62’ 2-2

85’ 2-3 (pen)

@ Wash Meadow

Minster Lovell

OX29 0RN

£4 Admission, including Programme *

*( As with this mornings game, you had the programme whether you wanted it or not, so it was again a case of finding the nearest bin for it, as I don’t even want a ‘free’ copy from any event organised by Groundhop U.K. At least the club were a bit more sensible by ‘only’ charging £4 more than they normally do!)

This was a bit of a strange one here, as there was some confusion regarding kick off time, as depending where you were getting the information, it was either 13.30 or 13.45. Quite a number of twitter feeds had tweets and retweets stating both times. It wasn’t a problem getting here, even for the earlier time though, as it was only seven miles from the morning match, but even so, it meant the club only had 15-20 minutes pre match to try and sell refreshments and really cash in on the day.

It turned out that it was indeed a 13.30 start, so their money making opportunity was certainly squeezed to the bare minimum. I thought these ‘hops were supposed to be about making money for the clubs, but on this evidence, you wouldn’t think so………

Anyway, on to the football, which again was of low standard. Minster Lovell led 2-0 at the break, but Carterton somehow turned it round in the second half, winning it with a late penalty. The one moment of quality was the free kick scored by the visitors that pulled it back to 2-1. It started the comeback that certainly wasn’t expected from their first half showing.

Witney & District League

Premier Division

Saturday 14th September 2019

Kick Off 11.00 Actual 11.02

Milton under Wychwood 1 Spartan Rangers 2, attendance 166

3’ 1-0

48’ 1-1

85’ 1-2

@ The Village Green

Shipton Road

Milton under Wychwood

OX7 6JH

£5 Admission, including Programme *

It is hard to imagine just how low a level of football you can go to where the crowd will be in excess of three figures, but of course, this was only possible as it was part of a ground hop. The fact that there was a £5 Admission charge (* The club still charged full price for concessions and you had the programme whether you wanted it or not, despite it having a £1 cover price) was a giveaway that this was an ‘organised’ ‘hop. As this was a Groundhop U.K. event it meant that despite the programme being included in the price, my copy was deposited in the nearest bin, as I won’t even take a ‘free’ copy from anything they may be involved in and charging this much at this level of the game actually makes Premier League prices look reasonable in comparison!

I hadn’t watched a match in this league since 2010, but can’t remember it being as poor a standard as what this match was. It was a lovely setting for a ground, helped greatly by the fantastic weather, but sadly the quality of football was lacking somewhat. Milton scored early on and were coasting it. Spartans were very poor, but somehow they levelled it up at 1-1 early in the second half and somehow managed a late winning goal, that certainly wasn’t deserved, taking into account their performance over the ninety minutes.

Bristol Premier Combination League

Premier Division

Wednesday 11th September 2019

Kick Off 18.30 Actual 18.06

Totterdown United 2 Pucklechurch Sports 1, attendance 35

35’ 1-0

58’ 1-1

69’ 2-1

@ Bristol Barbarians R.U.F.C.

Norton Lane

Whitchurch

Bristol

BS14 0BT

No Admission or Programme.

Having done a match in the same league last night, we knew that an 18.30 kick off, without floodlights, might mean us seeing a shortened game, but both clubs tweeted this morning that it was an 18.00 kick off, so perhaps we’d be okay. Both teams were on the pitch doing their warm ups at 17.30, but any hopes of getting underway by six disappeared when the Referee only arrived at 17.56, although he was soon ready for action and we kicked off at 18.06.

Totterdown had drawn their opening two matches, whilst newly promoted Pucklechurch were playing their first match of the season tonight. It was a game of very few clear cut chances, which Totterdown just about deserved to win. They did have quite a few scrambled efforts that were blocked with desperate last ditch tackles or blocks, but they should really have done better with their finishing.

Having had a short halftime, the game was all over by 19.42 and the light, or lack of, never came into question.

Bristol Premier Combination League

Division 1

Tuesday 10th September 2019

Kick Off 18.30. On Time !

Bradley Stoke Town 1 Shirehampton Reserves 1, attendance 25

3’ 0-1

44’ 1-1

@ Patchway Community College, 3G Pitch

Hempton Lane

Patchway

Bristol

BS32 4AJ

No Admission or Programme.

Bradley Stoke Town were promoted from the Bristol & District League, having finished in third place last season. They played most of their matches at the Gloucestershire F.A. Ground in Almondsbury, on the 3G Pitch, but as a result of a number of teams using it, had to play most of the matches with a 17.30 kick off time on Saturdays. When the new facility at the Community College opened in February, they relocated here, along with their Reserve team.

Despite having floodlights, the game was still scheduled as an 18.30 kick off, which was due to the league not allowing them to start any later. If it wasn’t for the lights, which came on during the second half, it may have been a problem getting a full match in, despite the prompt start and it was pretty dark when the match finished at 20.09, even on a nice sunny evening.

The game could have gone either way. Shirehampton scored very early on, before Bradley Stoke levelled a minute before the break. Both teams had chances to win it in the second half, but some poor finishing meant no further goals were added.

At least we got to see the player who made the news when signing for Bradley Stoke Town back in November…….as their No.6 was none other than…Bradley Stokes !

Gloucestershire County League

Les James League Cup 1st Round

Saturday 7th September 2019

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Quedgeley Wanderers 2 AEK Boco 2 (4-5 pens), attendance 26

44’ 0-1

73’ 1-1

77’ 1-2

88’ 2-2

@ Waterwells Sports Centre

Stephenson Drive

Quedgeley

Gloucester

GL2 2AG

No Admission

£1 Programme, 20 pages.

I picked this match as it was the chance to see the league newcomers Quedgeley Wanderers, promoted from the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League, take on the early season table toppers AEK Boco, who have taken 10 points from their opening four games.

Quedgeley are a very good addition to Step 7 football, with a very neatly enclosed pitch and a nice clubhouse that did hot and cold food and drink, with the bacon rolls at £1 (2 rashers) being the pick of the day. Whoever sells their advertising boards has done a superb job, as every space around the pitch is sold, both on the inside and outside of the rail!

AEK Boco dominated the early stages, but just couldn’t score, eventually breaking the deadlock when a left wing cross was volleyed in at the near post just before the interval. Quedgeley came into it more in the second half and were rewarded with an equaliser that was smashed past the ‘keeper from near the penalty spot. Boco were ahead again within a few minutes, when a long ball was controlled on the corner of the 18 yard box and shot into the far corner of the net via the post. A neat one-two on the edge of the box saw Quedgeley nick a second equaliser with a couple of minutes left to send the match to penalties to decide the winner.

Boco went first, and after five kicks each it was 4-4. Boco then scored their next one and Quedgeley missed theirs, and that was it.

A couple of hundred yards from the main pitch, there is another pitch which the Reserves and Third teams use and it is better than many of the grounds that I will visit in England this season !

Today, it hosted Quedgeley Wanderers Reserves 2 Chalford Reserves 7, in a Stroud & District League Division 1 match.