K. Sporting F.C. Haren 1 K.F.C. Wezembeek-Oppem 4, attendance 28
24’ 0-1
44’ 1-1
53’ 1-2
74’ 1-3
90’ 1-4
@ Sporthalstraat 21
1130 Haren
No Admission or Programme.
In the end we made it in plenty of time for this one, arriving thirteen minutes before kick off and it kicked off three minutes late on top of that! Although it is a 3G Pitch, the surroundings look old, so it was probably a grass pitch originally.
The match was 12th versus 2nd in the league table. It wasn’t high on skill, which is what you’d expect at this level, but both teams had a go and there were plenty of chances at both ends. Wezembeek were in control, having gone ahead midway through the first half, but Haren levelled a minute before the break, when their winger cut inside and finished with a shot into the far corner. Wezembeek edged back in front early in the second half and deservedly added two more goals to run out comfortable 1-4 winners.
We were booked on the 21.36 Eurotunnel, which was the earliest available at the time of booking, due to planned engineering works. We knew we weren’t going to make it on time for check in due to watching the extra match, but rather than reschedule, we just took a chance and hoped for the best. We ended up being given the 2250, which wasn’t too bad, but made it onto the 22.42. This left seven minutes late, so we didn’t gain much, but it could have been worse. The M20 was once again closed between Junction 9 and 7 as we headed home and added to the fact that most of the M20 is restricted to a 50 mph limit from Ashford to the M26, then it meant arrival home was five minutes before midnight.
I had visited Bregel Sport on 12th September 2010, when they beat S.C. Zichen-Zussen-Bolder 2-0 in a Limburg Provincial 1 match. That game was played at their ‘Richter’ ground, but in 2013 (unknown to us until last season) they had moved to their new complex in Meistraat .
Today’s match was a mid table battle, as ninth hosted seventh. The first half was goalless, with neither team looking like making a breakthrough. The second half continued in the same vein, but it burst in to life when Bregel opened the scoring, when a free kick from just outside the box left the ‘keeper rooted to the spot as the ball flew into the top corner of the net. Achel levelled within two minutes, with a shot from 20 yards, that beat the ‘keeper into the bottom corner with the aid of a deflection.
Bregel got the winner through their No.9, who had come on as a second half substitute, when a cross from the left was headed in from 6 yards with eleven minutes left. They ended up playing the last eight minutes, plus almost four minutes of stoppage time, with 10 men, having had a defender red carded for dragging down an Achel striker as he tried to break clear. Achel pushed hard for an equaliser, but the Bregel defence stood firm.
We had been keeping an eye on the clock, hoping that the game wouldn’t finish too far past 16.15, as we had noticed that there was a 17.30 kick off in the north east of Brussels, and it was only a few miles off our route home. With a bit of luck we would make it, as according to SatNav it would take us just under an hour to drive the 58 miles. By 16.22 we were on our way……
This match was used to kill a bit of time for us and was less than fifteen minutes drive from our intended afternoon match. Having done a couple of games at this level on recent weekend trips, I wasn’t expecting too much. The two matches I have seen before were just too one sided. Today was far more competitive, although once Termien made the breakthrough they ran out comfortable winners.
The game was played on Pitch 2, which runs end on to the main stadium, being separated by the clubhouse/changing room building. I had seen the first team beat K. Daring Hugo Jeuk 3-1 in a Limburg Provincial 1 match back on 5th January 2014, but hadn’t paid any attention to the other pitches within the complex.
Having taken no photographs on my visit to the main stadium, I decided to do so today. The ground looks unchanged in the intervening six years. (See below).
K. Stormvogels Haasrode 1 V.C. Houtem-Oplinter 1, attendance 130
45’ 1-0
53’ 1-1
@ Kartuizerstraat 2
Haasrode
3052 Blanden
€7 Admission
No Programme.
We were staying overnight in Leuven, so we checked in at our hotel before heading off to our evening matches. The driver was heading for O.H.R. Huldenberg in Brabant Provincial 1, but I had visited there in November 2014, so I needed an alternative. Haasrode fitted the bill, as it was an easy drop off en route to Huldenburg, without going too far out of the way.
Haasrode started the game in twelfth place in the league table, whilst Houtem-Oplinter were second, two points adrift of the leaders Sportief Rotselaar. The first half was very dull. Neither team managed an effort on target until Haasrode opened the scoring in the dying seconds of the half, when a shot on the turn from the edge of the box went in off the inside of the post. Houtem-Oplinter went up a gear in the second half, levelling the score with a close range finish after Haasrode had failed to clear a corner. They were unlucky not to nick a winning goal as they were well on top for the last half an hour, twice hitting the crossbar. Haasrode nearly won it in stoppage time though, when they broke clear, but the ‘keeper saved well with his legs.
During the afternoon game it had been misty, but as we headed eastwards, it became more foggy. Although it swirled over the stands for much of the match, it never became bad enough for the game to be under threat of not lasting the full ninety minutes, although I believe that wasn’t the case down the road in Huldenberg!
At this time of year you can never guarantee everything going to plan. We were booked on the 09.20 Eurotunnel, but were loaded on the earlier 08.50 train, which left a minute early. We knew we would get at least three games in over the weekend, but things turned out better than expected.
Our day was starting in the bottom level of Oost Vlaanderen Provincial, where we would see fifth in the league table hosting fourth place. The game was lacking in skill, but was very entertaining. Neigem scored early on and could easily have been five or six goals ahead, but for some dreadful finishing. Winnik levelled in stoppage time, when a long range effort was spilled by the ‘keeper, with the ball volleyed in by a striker following in.
Winnik never really got going in the second half, despite kicking down the slope. The game could have gone either way, but as we approached the final ten minutes, a long ball was played over the top and as the Winnik ‘keeper game out to scoop the ball up, he misjudged the bounce, with the loose ball scrambled over the line to put Neigem 2-1 up. A third goal for the hosts finally made the game safe in the last minute. There was still time for a Neigem player to receive a yellow card, when he removed his shirt as he walked towards the bench as he was being substituted!
S.K. Munkzwalm 5 K. Standaard S.V. Denderleeuw 3, attendance 206
3’ 0-1
12’ 1-1
17’ 2-1 (pen)
49’ 3-1
59’ 3-2
70’ 3-3
82’ 4-3
85’ 5-3
@ Zwalmmeersch
Rekegemstraat 19/1
9630 Munkzwalm
€5 Admission
Team Sheet, free.
Today was the first trip to Belgium of the new year and indeed new decade. With the only Provincial 1 matches we hadn’t visited being too far east to risk the weather, we played safe and chose to stay west of Brussels, taking in the Oost Vlaanderen 2B runaway leaders S.K. Munkzwalm. With the 3G pitch here, our only problem would be snow, but it was a pleasant day in the end and quite warm when the sun broke through.
Munkzwalm saw their 13 point lead at the top temporarily cut back to 10 points, as second placed K.V.C. De Toekomst Borsbeke won 2-0 last night. Today’s visitors, Denderleeuw, came into this in sixth place in the league table, just 4 points off third place.
Denderleeuw opened the scoring with a curling shot into the top corner after just three minutes, but Munkzwalm had turned it round by the seventeenth minute, levelling it up with a close range finish, following a blocked shot, before converting a penalty, awarded for a trip, to make it 2-1, which was how it remained until halftime. It was 3-1 within minutes of the restart, but two goals for the visitors, both scored from the edge of the 18 yard box, pulled it back to 3-3 with twenty minutes left. Munkzwalm won it with two goals in the last eight minutes, capitalising on two defensive mistakes, when a sliced clearance from a defender was volleyed in from 6 yards for 4-3, before a misplaced pass was intercepted by the winger who scored with a shot off the inside of the post to make it 5-3. Denderleeuw had a man sent off in the last minute following his second yellow card.
The decade got off to a good start as far as The Tunnel was concerned. We were booked on the 09.20 outbound, but were in time to be boarded on the 08.50 instead, whilst we made our planned 19.20 return train without any problems. The train even left a minute early in both directions!
Above : Munkzwalm go 2-1 up from the penalty spot.
The last time I saw Southwater play at home, back on 2nd January 2010, they lost 1-3 to Hurstpierpoint in a Mid Sussex Charity Cup 2nd Round match, which was played at Southwater Leisure Centre. This season they have moved into the recently opened Southwater Sports Club, which has a cricket pitch and tennis courts, as well as two football pitches. The club had tweeted on Friday night that “with our amazing new pitches and drainage we have no issues with called off games”. Since moving here they have not had a match postponed, which is hardly surprising, as the two pitches are absolutely superb and despite being halfway through January they remain in immaculate condition. There can’t be many clubs at this level who have access to such good playing surfaces.
Southwater came into this as league leaders, six points clear of second placed The Unicorn Bognor Regis, but having played three games more. Newtown Villa started the day in fifth place, level on points with fourth placed Capel, but having played five games more to amass the same total!
When Newtown Villa took an early lead it was just what the game needed from a neutral point of view and Southwater really turned on the style as they fought hard to get back into it. Despite levelling the scores after twenty minutes, they were unable to get in front before halftime, but not for the want of trying. They hit the crossbar four times and also had a goal disallowed. Southwater edged in front within five minutes of the restart, but the visitors were always in the game and looked dangerous on the break. When the lead was increased to 3-1, just after the hour mark, their resistance was finally broken. Southwater now attacked at will, but despite creating chance after chance, they only managed to add two further goals.
@ University South Wales Sport Park, Stadium 3G Pitch
Treforest Industrial Estate
Main Avenue (A4054)
Upper Boat
Pontypridd
CF37 5UP
£5 Admission
£1 Programme, 28 pages.
This season has seen a restructuring of the Welsh Pyramid. At level two there are now two divisions called Cymru North and Cymru South. The former is basically the Cymru Alliance League under a new name, whilst in the south, the new division replaces what was Division 1 of the Welsh League (this reduces from three divisions to two).
I have been to see matches at the University South Wales Sport Park twice before. The first time was on 22nd February 2003, when the ground was known by its former name, University of Glamorgan Playing Fields. I saw Cardiff City U19 draw 2-2 with West Bromwich Albion U19 in a Football League Youth Alliance Merit Division match, on a grass pitch that was beyond, but running parallel to the synthetic hockey pitch that is next to the car park. The second time I came here was for a Welsh League Division 1 match, on 26th May 2009, when I saw Bridgend Town beat Cwmbran Town 1-0. That game was played on a pitch in the near right hand corner of the complex, which was railed off and had dugouts and a small stand. It was a ground that Pontypridd Town have also played at, amongst various ground shares, since they left their former town centre ground Ynysangharad Park, which could not be brought up to the required ground grading standards due to it being in a public park.
I knew that Pontypridd Town had returned to play at USW Sport Park, but assumed it was back on the ground they used previously. Rumours of them using a 3G pitch here led me to believe that the grass pitch was now replaced by plastic. It turns out that they actually play on the brand new ‘Stadium 3G Pitch’, (complete with two seated stands of around 100 seats each) which is in the far left corner of the complex (end on to the grass pitch I have seen Cardiff City U19 use) running parallel to a full size indoor 3G Pitch. This was their third home game here and the first time they have played a midweek game here.
Despite this being 12th versus 14th (out of 16), the fact that it was a local derby, added to the novelty value of the first match here under lights, meant there was a very healthy crowd of close on two hundred here to see The Dragons coast to a very comfortable 6-0 win. The opening goal came courtesy of a good save by the Taffs Well ‘keeper, but as the ball hit the pitch, it went spinning backwards over the goal line as he desperately tried to claw it away. Rather harshly, some of the crowd were saying it was an own goal! He was unlucky with the second goal as well, when a shot was deflected past him to give the hosts a 2-0 lead at the break. It certainly didn’t look to be his night, when he was beaten at his near post for the third goal, then miss kicked a clearance which resulted in him being lobbed from 25 yards for the fourth. He certainly couldn’t be blamed for the last two goals, a near post header and a side footed finish from 6 yards.
Tottenham Hotspur 2 Middlesbrough 1, attendance 49,202
2’ 1-0 Lo Celso
15’ 2-0 Lamela
83’ 2-1 Saville
@ Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Bill Nicholson Way
748 High Road
London
N17 0AP
£20 Admission + £3.50 (Non Members) booking fee, Print at Home Ticket
£3.50 Programme available, didn’t bother buying.
Tottenham moved into their new 62,062 capacity stadium towards the end of last season, playing their final five home league matches there, having played at Wembley Stadium in the interim since leaving their old ‘White Hart Lane’ stadium in May 2017. There is a definite overlap of the stadium footprints at the South end (of the new ground), although I am not too sure whether the actual playing area has any overlap.
It feels like years ago, which of course it is, since I went to the old White Hart Lane ground. In fact, it was 22nd March 1987, when I saw Tottenham beat Liverpool 1-0 in a Division 1 (now Premier League) match in front of 32,760 spectators. It was very early on in my ground hopping days and was done purely to watch the game. Thoughts of ticking off ‘The 92’ had never entered my head at that stage, but that is no longer the case.
The attraction of visiting the ground tonight (apart from recompleting ‘The 92’) was that the tickets had gone on general sale (this was the lowest crowd they have had here for a first team fixture so far), so it was easy to book online, although you were still ripped off £3.50 to print off your own ticket at home! It helped though that all tickets at the North and South ends of the stadium were only £20, which is about as cheap as it gets to watch a match at a Premier League ground these days.
Jose Mourinho played a reasonably strong team, although Harry Kane is missing through injury and Dele Alli and Son Heung-Min were both on the bench, but did play during the last half hour, replacing Eric Dier and Lucas Moura respectively. According to the screens at the ground, Spurs have not lost a home game to lower division opposition in the F.A. Cup for 41 matches, going back to a defeat by Nottingham Forest in 1975! That run looked like it would soon be added to, when a mistake by the Middlesbrough ‘keeper gifted Spurs the opening goal in under two minutes and when the second goal came after a quarter of an hour, it looked like this could be a real thrashing. On balance of play, it could have easily been five or six nil at the break. Spurs played some really good football, and as a neutral, it made the game very easy to watch.
The second half tailed off a bit, but a late goal for Boro meant a very nervy last 10 minutes (including stoppage time) for the hosts. At least it gave the 3,700 fans in the away section of the ground some hope, although Boro never really did enough over all to take the match on into extra time. If it wasn’t for the away fans, the atmosphere would have been pretty dead, as the home support were only heard with an occasional chant here and there.
Due to the late kick off time and the possibility of extra time and penalties, I was forced to drive to the match (if I wanted to guarantee getting home). I drove to Southbury railway station (a couple of miles inside the M25, just off the A10 heading into London), using free street parking in Crown Road, no more than 200 yards away, and got the train 3 stops south to White Hart Lane station, which is only a few minutes walk from the ground. The first train back after the match was at 22.07, so rather than rush, (or leave the game early) I decided to make do with the 22.37 (one of the reasons I don’t use public transport in this country as it is so infrequent and unreliable). I was sitting in the South end of the stadium, up in Row 69, and despite taking forever to get down the blocked exit routes (they stood and applauded the team off the pitch, which was not helped with them attacking the far end in the second half) I easily made the train and was home before midnight.
It has to be said, that of all the new grounds that have been built for Premier League/Football League clubs during the last 30 odd years, (Scunthorpe United kicked it all off when they moved to Glanford Park in 1988) this is, in my opinion, the best of the lot and would rank well against any ground, not just in Europe, but the World.
So, ‘The 92’ is complete once more, for this season at least. Brentford are due to start next season playing at their long awaited new stadium. If things continue to go well for them on the pitch (they are currently third in the Championship) they could start life at their new home as a Premier League club!
Once again, the main objective today was to get a game on grass, rather than taking the 3G option, so when I received confirmation from the Stratton Juniors Secretary just before 11.30, that the game was going ahead, then it was a trip to northern Swindon and an opportunity to tick off the only ground I had yet to visit in the Wiltshire Senior League.
The match was a ‘relegation battle’ (although there isn’t actually any relegation from this league) as fourth from bottom in the league table took on the team two places below them. As it turned out, the biggest battle for the teams today was with the strong wind that was blowing diagonally across the very exposed pitch, actually blowing more fiercely as the game progressed. Stratton played against the wind in the first half and held a narrow 1-0 lead at the break. Ludgershall struggled to come to terms with the conditions in the second half and a goal from the hosts early in the half sealed the three points. Stratton had been awarded a penalty, for a foul, but this was well saved by the visiting ‘keeper, but the ball wasn’t cleared and it was was cut back inside, resulting in a neat left footed finish from their winger, beating the ‘keeper at the near post.
Above : Stratton Juniors No.10 opens the scoring from a tight angle.
