Belgium

National League

Division 3 Amateurs A.C.F.F. ‘B’

Sunday 24th September 2017

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 14.59

R.S.C. Habay-La-Neuve 2 R. Entente Bertrigeoise 0,  attendance 280

19′ 1-0

34′ 2-0

@ Stade E. Mathieu 

Rue Des Carosses

6720 Habay

€8 Admission

No Programme.

Division 3 Amateurs is actually level 5 of the Belgian League. Unusually, the province of Luxembourg has four clubs competing in this division this season, as normally, whoever wins Provincial 1 from here swaps places with the bottom club from the league, which is invariably the champions of the previous season of Luxembourg Provincial 1. These two are joined by R.R.C. Mormont, who broke the mould by serving last season, and R.R.C. Longlier and there are actually two further league clubs from the province, as  R. Excelsior Virton play at level 3 and R. Entente Durbuy at level 4.

Despite only being a few weeks into the season, this was already a relegation battle. Habay, who are competing in the Belgian League for the first time in their history, were second bottom in the league table, without a point, whilst Bertrix were fourth bottom, with 4 points. The game was not great, between two very average teams, although at least Habay are off the mark now.

Horrendous traffic jams on the E411 motorway meant we missed our check in for the 21.50 return on The Tunnel, but problems with trains running late meant we managed to get on the 22.20 instead, although this didn’t leave until 22.46.

At least with this ground now done, all the remaining Belgian League grounds I now have left to visit are less than 300 miles from home !

Midland League

Division 3

Saturday 23rd September 2017

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.02

A.F.C. Solihull 2 Central Ajax 2,  attendance 23

33′ 0-1

75′ 1-1 (pen)

84′ 2-1

89′ 2-2

@ Tudor Grange Leisure Centre

Blossomfield Road

Solihull

B91 1NB

No admission or programme*

*Apparently there was a programme done for the game, but the person who does it had left it in his porch at home. At least it makes a change from the usual excuse that the printer broke down/the man who does it is on holiday etc, etc.

There can’t be too many grounds better than this for the level of football it hosts. Today’s game was 15th (second bottom) v 4th. Solihull played really well and it was a shame they couldn’t hold out for the win, but at least this point has lifted them one place up the league table. After the last minute equaliser, there were a couple of punches thrown during the goal celebration, which resulted in a red card for each team.

Northern League

Division 1

Wednesday 20th September 2017

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.47

Stockton Town 0 Marske United 3,  attendance 415

10′ 0-1

66′ 0-2

71′ 0-3

@ Bishopton Road West

Stockton-on-Tees

TS19 0QD

£6 Admission

£1 Programme, 16 pages.

I had visited Bishopton Road West to watch Stockton Town when they were members of the Wearside League ( 12th March 2011, 1-2 v Darlington Cleveland Bridge, attendance 20) when they played on a grass pitch about 300-400 yards from the clubhouse. The clubhouse is still in use, but they have now moved to a 3G pitch in another part of the complex. When entering the car park, the new ground is in the near left hand corner, whilst their old pitch, which is still used by youth teams, was through a gate in the far right hand corner of the car park.

Stockton have been a club very much on the rise since my last visit. They won the Wearside League for four consecutive seasons from 2012/13 through to 2015/16, then won Northern League Division 2 following their promotion. Two Wearside League Cups, two Monkwearmouth Charity Cups and the Shipowners Cup were also won during this period.

This season has seen them struggle a bit, losing their first eight matches of the season, but they have got off the mark by winning their last two league fixtures, which currently sees them sitting 19th in the league table (fourth bottom), whilst the visitors were fifth coming into this game. The early goal by Marske settled them down and the victory was very comfortable.

The ground is awful, sadly the case for so many of these ‘functional’ stadiums that are now replacing those that had some individual character. There are too many areas around the pitch where spectators cannot stand and far too many poor sight lines, especially with the number of spare sets of goal frames leaning inside the pitch barrier.

Apparently, tonight set a new record crowd for a Stockton Town league match, although they did better it with an even more impressive 432 for an F.A. Vase tie. The ground, in its current lay out, would not offer great viewing if crowds increase much more on this, although with the team now struggling a bit, the increased numbers may also level off.

Even with a good run, it was still 02.15 when I got home, but at least the Northern League is completed once more.

Northern Premier League

Division 1 North

Tuesday 19th September 2017

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.46

Scarborough Athletic 4 Mossley 1,  attendance 819

5′ 1-0

45′ + 2, 1-1

59′ 2-1 (pen)

71′ 3-1

90′ + 1, 4-1

@ Flamingo Land Stadium

Scarborough Sports Village

Ashburn Road

YO11 2JW

£10 Admission

£2 Programme

20p Team Sheet.

Back on 14th October 1989, I visited the McCain Stadium, in Seamer Road, when I saw Scarborough 3 Grimsby Town 1, attendance 2,828, in Division 4 of the Football League. Since then, Scarborough were wound up in the High Court in 2007 and the stadium was also to disappear and the site is now a Lidl supermarket.

Scarborough Athletic were then formed, competing in the Northern Counties (East) League, playing their home matches at Queensgate, home of Bridlington Town, some 18 miles down the coast. This year they have ‘returned’ to the town, at their brand new 2,070 capacity (250 seats) stadium, complete with 3G pitch.

Quite what sort of view spectators would actually have if the attendance was anything near the quoted capacity is hard to say. Tonight, with just over 800 here, it wasn’t great. It is quite clear that if the club are to progress, the stadium will need quite a bit of work to accommodate increased numbers through the gate, but it will get them by in the mean time. Of course, they might never get back to the heights of the Football League.

It was a good job Boro scored early, as Mossley looked content to play for a 0-0 draw. They still lacked adventure having conceded so early in the game and the eventual 4-1 score line was a good reflection of the way the game went. Goals number three and four for the hosts were superb strikes. I would go as far to say that this was easily the best match I have seen this season and it kept the interest throughout, despite the visitors negative attitude.

£10 admission is a bit steep for this level of football, in my opinion, and the programme is rubbish for £2. It was nice to park at the stadium for free and it took less than five minutes to get away afterwards. At least the Northern Premier League is re-completed.

Gwent County League

Division 2

Monday 18th September 2017

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.01

Ynysddu Welfare 3 Machen 0,  attendance 75

27′ 1-0

57′ 2-0

64′ 3-0

@ Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre, 3G Pitch

Coed Cae Ddu Road

Blackwood

NP12 2DA

No admission

Programme, free, 32 pages.

The first thing to note here, is the superb programme they issue, (produced by Manager Benjamin Murphy) which is free, and puts many clubs to shame higher up in the game who produce far inferior programmes to this, but have the cheek to charge £2 for them !

The club are now playing out of their own village, having left Ynysddu Welfare Park (visited 30th September 2003, 1-1 versus Cwmaman Institute, South Wales Amateur League Division 1) for the 3G pitch here at the Leisure Centre. We were told that despite being relatively new, this site is to be sold off for housing, but apparently there is already a replacement facility built nearby, so another visit to the valleys will have to be made some day.

As for the game, which was 3rd v 7th, Ynysddu were the better side throughout, with the third goal being the pick of the bunch. The win now sees them go second in the league table behind Wattsville, who are top by way of a superior goal difference.

Belgium

Limburg Provincial 1

Sunday 17th September 2017

Kick Off 15.00  Actual 15.02

S.V. Herkol 2 K.V.V. Weerstand Koersel 2,  attendance 141

12′ 0-1

57′ 1-1

78′ 2-1

86′ 2-2

@ Herent

3910 Neerpelt

€8 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

S.V. Herkol are newly promoted into Provincial 1 this season. On this performance I don’t think either club will be challenging for promotion into the Belgian League system at the end of the season, although the game itself was very entertaining as a neutral, especially the second half.

Pretty uneventful journey outbound, but once again the UK Passport Control were pathetically slow on the return journey, which caused us to miss our 20.36 train, having queued for 45 minutes once through the check-in, but instead were on the 20.50.

Oxfordshire Senior League

Premier Division

Saturday 16th September 2017

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

Freeland 3 Chalgrove Cavaliers 0,  attendance 16

31′ 1-0

57′ 2-0

77′ 3-0

@ Freeland Village Hall

Wroslyn Road

Freeland

OX29 8AL

No admission or programme.

Early days, but this was 3rd v 6th. A young Chalgrove team competed well throughout, but the hosts had that extra bit of quality and were deserved winners. Having decided to give up the evening match that I had intended to do when leaving home this morning, I stuck with my original choice of Freeland for my afternoon game, as I had seen them away at Mansfield Road, towards the end of last season, when they were a very entertaining team to watch. Nothing looks to have changed.

North Berks League

Division 3

Saturday 16th September 2017

Kick Off 10.45 Actual 10.52

Drayton 7 Uffington United 1,  attendance 92 

8′ 1-0

16′ 2-0

29′ 3-0

51′ 4-0

55′ 5-0 (pen)

57′ 6-0

67′ 6-1

69′ 7-1

@ Diamond Light Source

Harwell Science and Innovation Campus

Chilton

OX11 0DE

£4 Admission, including programme *

* As I will not buy programmes on ground hops organised by Groundhop UK, I jokingly asked the girl on the gate if it was any cheaper to get in if I didn’t want the programme. “Go on then, £2” was the reply. Still £2 more than any other game in this league, but much better than the extortionate £4 that Groundhop UK force the clubs to charge for this level of football.

This was the first of three matches today on the ‘North Berks League Hop’. This match was to be a ‘one off’ at this ground, as it has never been used previously by a Saturday club. Drayton have featured on a previous NBL Hop, when the game was staged on their proper ground in the village, a few miles north of here.

On arrival, it became apparent that both teams were in yellow and black. Both having black shorts and socks, but the Drayton shirts had black stripes. However, due to the colour clash, Drayton played with their shirts inside out, which looked more of a clash than when they were the correct way……plus it meant they had no numbers visible !

This must have been embarrassing for the North Berks League officials in attendance, especially when they went round trying to sell copies of the league handbook, which clearly neither of today’s clubs had bothered to reference following the cock up with the kits !

Even the programme (I was shown a copy by someone) could have done with proof reading, as the front cover stated the ground address as being in ChiltERN, rather than the correct spelling of the village ChiltON !!!!

Two very poor teams, with Uffington being absolutely awful. The only decent player on view was the lad up front for Drayton who bagged four goals. No idea what his number was…… and once again the attendance figure was inflated, with the official attendance according to Groundhop UK being 112.

I had already seen a match at the middle game on the schedule, so was planning to go elsewhere, before returning to take in the third game. After watching this farce, I decided to cut my treble down to a double instead and not bother with the evening match at Westminster.

Belgium

West Vlaanderen Provincial 2A

Friday 15th September 2017

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 19.58

K.F.C. Meulebeke 1 K.S.V. Diksmuide 1,  attendance 149

23′ 1-0 (pen)

38′ 1-1

@ Dr. Leo Abeele Stadion

Inglemunstersteenweg 11

(entrance via Ter Borchtlaan)

8760 Meulebeke

€6 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

This was 6th v 1st. Diksmuide have played as high as the third division of the Belgian League and were relegated back into the Provincial league less than 10 years ago.

Diksmuide had a player sent off for a handball that led to Meulebeke taking the lead from the penalty spot, but they were well worth the draw, and even had a second player red carded in the last minute for an over the top tackle.

Delayed both ways on The Tunnel……9 minutes late going out, due to a re-timed schedule, then 7 minutes late on the return, this time thanks to the UK Passport checks causing massive queues, despite the time of night. It doesn’t help when only one booth is open !

Independent Schools F.A. Cup

Preliminary Round

Wednesday 13th September 2017

Kick Off 15.15. On Time

Lingfield College 4 Trinity School, Croydon 4 (AET) 7-6 penalties,  attendance 20

9′ 1-0 (pen)

14′ 1-1

30′ 1-2

40′ 1-3

55′ 2-3

73′ 3-3

82′ 3-4

86′ 4-4

@ Lingfield College

St. Pier’s Lane

Lingfield

RH7 6PN

No admission or programme.

The senior competition of the Independent Schools F.A. involves the U-19 age groups, where matches are 80 minutes duration and extra time, if required, is played as 2 x 10 minute periods.

There wasn’t much between these two teams. The penalties were all scored up until it was 6-6. Trinity, who had gone first, missed their next two, with Lingfield missing their first chance to win it, but scoring the next kick to advance to the 1st Round, where they will visit Bolton School.