Welsh F.A. Cup

2nd Qualifying Round

Saturday 29th September 2018

Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.31

C.P.D. Aberffraw 0 Rhostyllen 0 (AET) (3-4 pens),  attendance 35

@ Parc Cynlas

Cae Cynlas

Ty Croes

Angelsey

LL63 5SN

£2 Admission

£1 Programme, 8 pages.

This match pitted Welsh Alliance Division 2 (7th place) with Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division (bottom of league table). Aberffraw had beaten Bodedern Athletic, who are in the division  above them, in the last round, so would have fancied their chances of another win today, as despite being one level higher up the pyramid, Rhostyllen have lost all seven league matches that they have played so far this season.

Having come within ten seconds of my first scoreless match last Saturday, it soon became obvious that the run would be ending this afternoon, even with an extra thirty minutes ‘action’. Both teams had upwards of a dozen efforts on goal, but every time the shot was straight at the ‘keeper, or dragged hopelessly wide of the target.

A glance at the squad lists on the back of the match programme meant it was a case of keeping up with the Joneses, which was matched by the Williamses, who also had six players with that surname. For good measure, we also had Roberts (x 5), Rees (x 2), Hughes (x 2) and Chesters (x 2) as well as a Brown and Browne !

It is trips like this that really make this hobby what it is. What can be better on a Saturday than travelling 590 miles, sat in a car for 10 hours, to be entertained for two hours……without seeing a goal ?! Even the backdrop of Snowdonia National Park was little compensation.

Below : Rhostyllen score the winning penalty in the shoot out.

Sweden

Allsvenskan

Wednesday 26th September 2018

Kick Off 19.00 Actual 19.01

Hammarby I.F. 0 I.F. Elfsborg 1,  attendance 17,896

31’ 0-1

@ Tele2 Arena

Arenaslingan 14

121 77 Johanneshov

Stockholm

240 SEK Admission + 30 SEK Booking Fee (rip off add on), Print at Home Ticket

30 SEK Programme, 32 pages.

Tonight, it was back to top division action, for third in the league table versus twelfth. The stadium is easily reached from central Stockholm, taking the Metro on line T19 south towards Hagsatra, getting off at the stop for Globen, which is less than 10 minutes walk away.

Tele2 Arena was opened in 2013 and has a capacity of 33,000. It is also home to fellow top division team Djurgårdens I.F. Having a retractable roof makes it an ideal venue for concerts, with the record crowd of 39,338 having been here to see Madonna in 2015. I am not sure if cash is taken inside the stadium here or not, as due to the close proximity of the city centre, there is no need to eat or drink here.

Hammarby were in with a real chance of becoming league champions just four matches ago, but three defeats and a draw in the subsequent games have left them looking out of it now, as they have dropped to third place, where they trail Norrköping by 4 points and leaders A.I.K. by a further 3, with just seven games remaining.

Elfsborg managed to score with one of just two efforts on goal during the entire match, whilst Hammarby were simply dreadful, despite having at least three quarters of the possession. They did have a goal disallowed for offside and also managed to somehow hit the post from an open goal just six yards out. If this is the third best team in Sweden, then it doesn’t say much for the standard of the league.

One thing that was unusual tonight was the attendance figure. It was officially given as 17,896, but on their on-line ticket page, it was showing they had sold 20,034 tickets around 2 hours before kick off. Most clubs add a load on to the figures (rather like Arsenal) so this must be one of the few that do it by actual number of fans present.

Sweden

Superettan

Monday 24th September 2018

Kick Off 19.00 Actual 19.01

A.F.C. Eskilstuna 3 Östers I.F. 0,  attendance 1,665

71’ 1-0

75’ 2-0

90’ + 4, 3-0

@ Tunavallen

Vasterasvagen 18

632 23 Eskilstuna

110 SEK Admission, Print at Home Ticket.

Programme, free. A3 size double sided printed card,concertina style.

Tonight’s  match was in the second tier of Swedish football, involving a journey heading 70 miles west of the capital. The train from Stockholm Central Station to Eskilstuna Central Station took 1 hour 5 minutes and cost 290 SEK return, followed by a walk of barely ten minutes to reach the stadium. Having been on four trains in the last couple of days to matches, where they have all been dead on time, tonight was not so punctual, although better than any train in England could ever hope to be. Four minutes late on the outbound journey, then just one minute late on the return !

Tunavallen was opened in 1924, with the original stadium being one of the host venues for the 1958 World Cup. Major renovation took place in 2002 and current capacity here is 7,800. Unlike the last couple of days, cash was actually accepted for payment of food and drinks inside the ground !

Eskilstuna came into the match in third place in the league table, with the visitors lying eighth. Östers had the best of the first half, but Eskilstuna dominated the second. The opening goal was a close range effort, following a shot parried by the ‘keeper, with the other two being decent finishes. 3-0 was not really a true reflection of how the game went.

Sweden

Division 1 Norra

Sunday 23rd September 2018

Kick Off 16.00 Actual 16.01

Assyriska F.F. 0 Västerås S.K. 2,  attendance 463

59’ 0-1

65’ 0-2

@ Södertälje Fotbollsarena

Genetaleden 5

Geneta

151 06 Södertälje

100 SEK Admission

No Programme.

Today’s action was a third tier match, where third from bottom in the league table were hosting the leaders. It was a 45 minute train ride from Stockholm City Station (on the commuter train, rather than the regional network, costing 72 SEK return ) to Södertälje Centrum Station. From here, it was 2.5 miles to the stadium. With plenty of time and with the weather not too cold, we opted to walk, which took just over 50 minutes, with a couple of minutes less on the return.

The Södertälje Fotbollsarena was built in 2005 and has a capacity of 6,400. The stadium also hosts the matches of Syrianska F.C. who are in the same division. Cash was taken at the turnstiles, but as with the match yesterday, once inside, food and drink was only available by paying via mobile phone.

Assyriska never had the fire power up front to trouble the league leaders, although they did have an effort cleared off the line, as well as a disallowed goal, which was flagged offside. Västerås finally broke the deadlock just before the hour mark, doubling their lead five minutes later. They should really have scored a couple more as they opened up the home defence at will late on.

The official attendance for the match was given as 463, but I only counted 279, of which 75 were in the visitors section, although they had another 25-30 sat in the centre of the main stand.

Sweden

Allsvenskan

Saturday 22nd September 2018

Kick Off 16.00. On Time !

I.K. Sirius 0 Östersunds F.K. 1,  attendance 3,840

90’ + 5, 0-1

@ Studenternas I.P.

Ullerakersvagen 6

753 09 Uppsala

190 SEK Admission, Print at Home Ticket.

15 SEK Programme, 8 pages.

It was a 30 minute train ride north from Stockholm Central Station to Uppsala for this top division clash, between third bottom in the league table Sirius and sixth placed Östersunds. The train left on time in both directions, with the cost being 190 SEK return. The walk from Uppsala Central Station to the ground took just over 15 minutes.

The Studenternas I.P. was opened in 1909 and originally had a running track around the pitch. This has now gone, with both ends of the ground now having ‘temporary’ type metal terracing butting up to the pitch. There is a new west stand under construction, which once finished, will take capacity up from 7,200 to around 10,000. I hope the traditional huge corner floodlight pylons survive as the ground is modernised.

Entering the ground, it was very unusual to have male stewards frisking female supporters. In fact, in most countries, this is pretty much something that would not be acceptable in the current climate. Then, once inside, there is no cash payment accepted for food and drink, with transactions carried out via mobile phone banking. At least there was free water, along with paper cups, available from containers under the stands. It was also a bit of a problem trying to buy a programme. Although they were actually taking cash for these, most of the sellers were refusing bank notes, but they seemed okay with coins. In the end, one of them agreed to take a 100 SEK note and gave change, which included four 20 SEK notes !

As for the match, it was never one to live long in the memory. Both teams hit the crossbar in the first half, with Östersunds always looking the more likely to nick it. I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to see my first scoreless match of the season, but with just 10 seconds of the five added minutes left on the clock, (they left the scoreboard clock running as we hit the 90 minute mark) the visitors scored with a close range finish from a pull back from just inside the box, much to the delight of the travelling fans, who had arrived at the ground en masse, having marched from the city centre.

Independent Schools F.A. Cup 1st Round

Wednesday 19th September 2018

Kick Off 16.00 Actual 16.06

King’s College School Wimbledon 3 Brighton College 1,  attendance 23

6’ 1-0

13’ 2-0

25’ 3-0

68’ 3-1

@ Kingsway Sports Ground

Kingsway

New Malden

KT3 6JB

No Admission or Programme.

This was played at the school sports ground, rather than the school itself, with no problems gaining access to watch the match.

With a strong wind blowing throughout, it was the team playing with the wind at their backs that dominated. KCS opened the scoring with a lobbed effort from inside the centre circle and added two more before the break. Brighton spent almost the entire second half in the KCS half of the pitch, but found the three goal deficit too much to pull back.

Sheffield & Hallamshire F.A.

Association Challenge Cup 1st Round

Tuesday 18th September 2018

Kick Off 19.30 Actual 19.31

Wombwell Town 7 A.F.C. Bentley Development 1, attendance 92

19’ 1-0

29’ 2-0

32’ 3-0

35’ 3-1

64’ 4-1

76’ 5-1

84’ 6-1

88’ 7-1

@ Wombwell Recreation Ground

Station Road

Wombwell

S73 0BJ

No Admission (collected money by raffle ticket at £1)

Programme, free, 4 pages.

I never got to visit this ground back in the early 1990’s when it was used by the original Wombwell Town during their days in the Central Midlands League, so with the newly formed club now using it, it became top of the list for a midweek visit, especially as the number of floodlit matches here will be pretty low due to the small number of teams in their division.

Wombwell are in Division 2 of the Sheffield County Senior League, having won their opening three league matches. Bentley Development are in Division 1 North of the Central Midlands League, which is in effect one level higher.

The gulf between the two teams was massive. Wombwell could have easily scored 15 goals, but failed to do so, with a combination of poor finishing and a very good visiting ‘keeper keeping it down to just the seven. There looked to be a slight hope for the visitors when they reduced the arrears to 3-1, but they were totally overwhelmed in the second half.

Wombwell have ambitions to climb the pyramid. On the field they look to be going in the right direction and the ground is certainly good enough to get them up a few more levels, although the floodlights would need improving as they were really poor, although there were a number of bulbs not working, which certainly didn’t help.

Midland League

Les James Challenge Cup 1st Round

Saturday 15th September 2018

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Coventrians 4 Leamington Hibernian 0,  attendance 37

7’ 1-0

42’ 2-0

69’ 3-0

86’ 4-0

@ Coventry Colliery Ground

Bennetts Road North

Keresley

Coventry

CV7 8HY

£2 Admission

Programme, for donations, 4 Pages.

Coventrians moved here at the end of last season, playing their final 3 matches here, having left Holbrooks Park. Leamington Hibernian are certainly not the whipping boys this season, having already avoided defeat three times in their first five fixtures and losing one of the other matches by just a single goal.

However, the early goal for the hosts today set the tone and when they got the second goal just before the break it was game over. The four goal winning margin was a little harsh on Hibs, although they never really looked like they were ever going to win the match.

Professional Development League

Saturday 15th September 2018

Kick Off 11.30 Actual 11.29

Coventry City U18 2 Colchester United U18 1,  attendance 34

50’ 0-1

85’ 1-1 (pen)

90’+ 4, 2-1

@ The Alan Higgs Centre

Allard Way

Binley

Coventry

CV3 1HW (postcode on official website, but not recognised by my SatNav or Google Maps)

No Admission or Programme.

I had previously been here on 15th January 2005, when I saw the U18’s beat Aston Villa 3-1 in a Premier League Academy match. The pitch used in those days is now being built over (Photo 1 below, pitch was where the partly constructed steel framework is now behind the building). The new pitch is probably a couple of hundred yards away, beyond the new 3G caged pitch, where there are 4 grass pitches running widthways, with today’s match being on the nearest one.

The match was absolutely dreadful. Both teams had obviously had any attacking thoughts coached out of them, with every pass looking to go backwards if possible. Terrible stuff to watch as a neutral.

Colchester had a penalty saved when they were leading 0-1 and it turned out to cost them dearly. Coventry had a penalty awarded with five minutes left, which meant they were at last going to have to play the ball forward !!! They duly scored and then got a totally undeserved winner four minutes into stoppage time. There was still time for another five minutes to be added, during which there was a 21 man brawl (just the visitors ‘keeper not involved) that ended with a red card for each team.

One of the passengers had already seen a match on the new pitch our match was on today, having visited at the end of last season, but with the two clubs also meeting at U16’s level on the adjacent pitch, he decided to watch that instead. A good choice, it ended up 9-2 !

Coventry Alliance

Division 4

Thursday 13th September 2018

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 18.07

Black Hercules 5 Crick Athletic Reserves 0,  attendance 19

20’ 1-0

43’ 2-0

49’ 3-0

58’ 4-0

76’ 5-0

@ Dunchurch Sportsfield & Village Hall

Rugby Road

Dunchurch

CV22 6PN

No Admission or Programme.

I only picked this match as it was the nearest ground to home that I hadn’t visited. Both teams were there in plenty of time, but when the Referee came out around ten minutes before kick off, it seemed that there might not be a match, as he was not happy with a number of rabbit holes on the pitch. Luckily, they were filled in using wood shavings, but it meant that the match would be reduced to 2 x 40 minute halves following the late start.

Black Hercules are new to the Coventry Alliance this season, their name being taken from a racehorse, which was a winner at the Cheltenham Festival, with quite a few of the players having won their bets placed on it, apparently. They came into this game in fifth place in the league table, whilst the visitors were top.

Despite the score line, it was actually a much closer match. It was just that Hercules were more clinical in front of goal. At 2-0, Crick had a header cleared off the line and from the clearance Hercules broke away and made it 3-0 and the visitors were finally broken.

The match was all over by 19.32 and had the game kicked off on time  there would have been no problem whatsoever getting the full 90 minutes played. Unless I do a match in the Swansea Senior League next Tuesday, where they are scheduled to kick off at 17.30, this was my final non-floodlit midweek match until the clocks change again at the end of March.