Friendly

Tuesday 13th July 2021

Kick Off 19.00 Actual 18.58

Knaphill Athletic 3 Dial Square 5, attendance 27

4’ 0-1

8’ 0-2

36’ 0-3

53’ 1-3 (pen)

67’ 2-3 (pen)

74’ 3-3

79’ 3-4

87’ 3-5

@ St. Peter’s Recreation Ground

Ford Road

Old Woking

GU22 9HJ

No Admission or Programme.

Originally, Bagshot were supposed to be the opposition tonight, but they pulled out of the game yesterday evening. Thankfully, due to the magic of Twitter, within an hour of the call off, Dial Square had stepped in to take their place. They are the club formed by Arsenal fans (Dial Square was their original name when they were formed) disgruntled at the way their club was being run by the American owners.

Knaphill Athletic had finished last season in bottom place of the Surrey County Intermediate League (Western), whilst Dial Square sat second bottom of the Guildford & Woking Alliance League Premier Division (North) when their season was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Considering the poor condition of the pitch, with sunken areas in the six yard boxes and grass that was far too long for football, the two teams put on an excellent show. Dial Square, who only officially begin their pre-season preparations next week, raced into a 0-3 lead, which they held until early in the second half and looked a really good side. The longer the game went on, the more they tired, and having pulled it back to 2-3, courtesy of a couple of penalties, it was no surprise that Knaphill Athletic levelled it up at 3-3 with sixteen minutes left. It looked like only one team was going to win it from here, but Dial Square responded with two late goals to win it 3-5.

Former Arsenal player Ian Selley (substitute in both the 1993 F.A. Cup Final Replay and League Cup Final versus Sheffield Wednesday, as well as playing in the Cup Winners’ Cup Final win against Parma in Copenhagen the following year), who is now 47, made an appearance for Dial Square tonight. Still looked good on the ball.

Belgium

Oost Vlaanderen Provincial 1

Sunday 27th January 2019

kick Off 15.00. On Time !

K. Atletische Vereniging Dendermonde 0 K.F.C. Eendracht Zele 3, attendance 173

41’ 0-1

61’ 0-2

84’ 0-3

@ Ros Beiaard Stadion

Bakkerstraat 47

9200 Dendermonde

€7 Admission

Team Sheet, printed double side, free.

Today was a bit of a risk in travelling over for a match. The provinces of Liege, Namur, Hainaut and West Vlaanderen had decided to call off all their matches this weekend, whilst Luxembourg are still on their winter shutdown. However, Antwerpen, Brabant and Limburg had gone down the route of the Referee making a decision at the ground. Here in Oost Vlaanderen, there was no additional information, so as far as we knew, they were all expected to play. The only real problem today, as far as we were concerned, was that the car load was going to be watching two different matches and as I had already been to K. Sparta Waasmunster ( 2-0 v Yellow Blue Beveren, Provincial 3E, 1st February 2014) where the driver was heading, then I would be being dropped off en route. I had read on the club website how proud Dendermonde are to have one of the best kept pitches in the whole of Belgium and a truer fact would be difficult to find. The pitch was immaculate and even at the final whistle it still looked pristine.

It is not just the pitch that is excellent. The ground is an absolute cracker. The old main stand has been refurbished and is in fine condition. This is flanked by two big open terrace sections, with more behind one goal. The entire length of the pitch on the opposite side is covered, with a mixture of bucket seats and benches in the centre section, with the ends being terraced. Just to round things off, there are proper traditional corner floodlight pylons.

The match itself was certainly a slow burner. Dendermonde came into this in ninth place in the league table, having won away at second placed S.K. Lochristi last week. Zele, which is only four miles away, were in fourth place and well in with a chance of promotion to the Belgian League. An unmarked header at the far post opened the scoring just before the break, in what was a dreadful first half. It was game over just after the hour mark, when a decisive pass opened up the defence to make it 0-2 and a close range finish rounded things off with six minutes left. The win leaves Zele in fourth place, just two points behind the leaders K. Racing Club Bambrugge. Dendermonde drop to tenth.

A miscalculation by the driver, forgetting about the length of time needed for picking up after the game, meant we were never going to make check in for our 19.20 return crossing on The Tunnel. On arrival, at 18.52, the timetable was once again suffering delays. We checked in, but there was no indication of what train we were actually on. It turned out it was the retimed 19.55, which ended up leaving two minutes early. Despite warnings that the M20 motorway was shut all weekend between Junctions 9 and 11, this turned out to be false, so a nice straightforward journey to Folkestone and back.