The Football tourist

Saturday 14th January 2023: League Two: Brunton Park: Carlisle United vs Newport County

A fortnight before my abortive trip to Barrow in South Cumbria I headed to the north of Cumbria and their mortal rivals, Carlisle United. The Cumbrians, sitting pretty in the playoff positions, welcomed The Exiles to their Brunton Park home for an international showdown in the driving wind and rain of the North Cumbrian winter.

Graham Coughlan’s Newport County made the trip north from the south Welsh valleys on the back of 4 consecutive draws and having not won since December 2nd 2022. Having not won in over a month, lost a slew of loan players returning home in the transfer window and languishing in 18th place, it was unsurprising that they could only tempt 168 of their fans to make the trip with them. All the signs pointed to an easy victory for the hosts.

Once the hosts, in deep blue, got the game underway however the reality was as far from expectations as the positions of Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers in Captain America: Civil War.
County hadn’t made such a long journey just to roll over and have their belly tickled. The visitors established an iron grip on the ball and challenged their hosts to take it from them.

The Ironsides’ iron grip on both possession and territory almost bore fruit less than 120 seconds into proceedings. Tomas Holy miscued a goal kick straight to the Offrande Zanzala 10 yards from target but, luckily for the Cumbrian’s keeper, the resulting shot flew the wrong side of the left post with an open goal to aim at.

Just how much that gloriously spurned chance was down to the abysmal weather conditions both teams were having to battle more than their opposite numbers will never be known. One thing that quickly became obvious though was that neither side wanted to adapt to the conditions.

Newport kept trying to break through the home defence by blasting long balls over the top, where the wind would invariably sweep it away from it’s intended landing zone. This tactic did have the desirable side-effect of hemming the hosts into their defensive third. All they could do on the rare occasion the ball broke to their feet was attempt a similar long ball blast upfield, with predictable results.

The only player on either team who didn’t succumb to this punt and pray playing style in the first half hour was John-Kymani Gordon, Carlisle’s January loan signing from Crystal Palace. Getting the ball down on the turf then surging forward with it surgically attached to his boots was more his style. Unfortunately without any support he found himself consistently being forced down blind alleys by the visiting defenders.

Not that he had much chance to try out these innovative ideas much in the first half as it was all hands to the pumps for the hosts in their efforts to prevent Newport keeping the ball forever.

After all surely if Newport had enough time on the ball they would finally find a way to get the scoreboard ticking over. The closest Newport would come to doing so was from a cross deep on the left that was headed agonisingly over the bar at the back post, before the hosts took the lead.

Carlisle had barely been in the game at all before they opened the scoring in the first of 2 added minutes at the end of the regulation 45. The goal itself was one fitting for the quality of the match so far and owed far more to the conditions than the efforts of either set of players.

Carlisle punted the ball into the Exiles’ area and in an attempt to clear the ball a defender misjudged the flight of the ball let it dribble off the back of his head to drop free in the 6 yard box. Kristian Dennis was lurking in the right place to stab the ball home from point blank range, with the final touch of the half, to hand the hosts the leads on the stroke of half-time.

In a show of confidence Newport were out first for the second half and when they got us underway again the visitors went straight back to hemming Carlisle back into their area. This time however, the hosts were unwilling to simply surrender to their fate and, with the goal providing motivation, they set about showing their visitors why they’re the ones challenging for automatic promotion.

It fell to their newbie, John-Kymani Gordon, to double their advantage as the game ambled towards the hour mark. Picked out on the left touchline he bought the ball down with sartorial elegance and tied the opposition in knots with his mazy run into the box, before sweeping the ball under Joe Day in the Port goal.

Gordon carved Newport open with the consummate ease of a player plying his trade 3 divisions below the level he trains at. He is certainly one for the future with his parent club and hopefully when he returns to them next season he will get the chance to test himself at the top level.
In a show of confidence Newport were out first for the second half and when they got us underway again the visitors went straight back to hemming Carlisle back into their area. This time however, the hosts were unwilling to simply surrender to their fate and, with the goal providing motivation, they set about showing their visitors why they’re the ones challenging for automatic promotion.

It fell to their newbie, John-Kymani Gordon, to double their advantage as the game ambled towards the hour mark. Picked out on the left touchline he bought the ball down with sartorial elegance and tied the opposition in knots with his mazy run into the box, before sweeping the ball under Joe Day in the Port goal.

Gordon carved Newport open with the consummate ease of a player plying his trade 3 divisions below the level he trains at. He is certainly one for the future with his parent club and hopefully when he returns to them next season he will get the chance to test himself at the top level.

The host’s second goal arrived in the 57th minute and from there Newport’s defiance was broken. It looked like Carlisle’s strikers could now simply fill their boots and boost their goal difference to aid with their promotion push. It was not to be.

The final half hour would pass without either goalkeeper facing further tests. The closest either keeper came to being beaten was 10 minutes from time when Jack Armer burst into the box to collect the ball in the left channel, but even with the Day prone and powerless Armer managed to guide the ball into his gloves.

Carlisle had to be content with just a 2-0 victory as they closed the gap on Northampton above them to just 4 points with a game in hand, providing a huge boost to their hopes of automatic promotion.

Newport were done with this game as soon as the host’s second crossed the line, but they were unfortunate not to leave with a point for their first half efforts as they remained in 18th place. The gap to the relegation zone was still a healthy 7 points, but both teams currently in the zone had games in hand over them.

Carlisle won this battle between England and Wales now all that remains for them is to head up the football league. On the evidence of today’s game they shouldn’t have a problem with that. Teams on the way to promotion or titles always find a way to win when not at their best and that’s what The Cumbrians did here.

Monday 6th March 2023: Premier League: Gtech Community Stadium: Brentford vs Fulham

Derby Day – The first match every fan looks for when the season’s fixture list is announced. There is no better game to attend than the showdown against your local rivals on your home patch and now it was Brentford’s turn. They had yet to face a true local rival on home ground and today was the day.

Revenge, that was what was on my mind as I took my seat. I had been unable to secure a ticket to see Brentford head to Craven Cottage, only for them to lose 3-2 to a 90th minute Mitrovic winner. That was the third game of the season when Fulham were just the newly promoted prawn sandwich brigade round the corner, so to lose against them then was particularly galling. Especially since it evened up the head to head record at 23 wins each.

Now both of us sat on the brink of Europe, Bees were on home turf and a win for the red army would see us close the gap on them to a single point with a game in hand. Revenge would be sweet.

So it would prove to be as Brentford tore into their visitors from the first whistle, despite the treacherous conditions under foot. Bryan Mbuemo had already fired a shot agonisingly over the bar before the hosts took the lead in the sixth minute through Ethan Pinnock, a central defender. A corner broke to him on the edge of the box and he rifled the ball through the forest of legs in front of him.

Deadlock broken and all I know was that the ball was in the net as I went ballistic, such is the effect of seeing your team open the scoring in a derby. Not as ballistic as the fans behind the goal to my right though, it took the stewards five minutes to clear the flare from the pitch and allow the action to get back underway.

Having taken the lead the quality of Brentford’s attacking play decreased massively. Christian Norgaard was the next to try his luck, but his effort from distance ballooned into row ZZ. It didn’t help matters for the hosts that Fulham had resorted to some seriously cynical tackles to break up play.

Eventually the lack of end product and the rash tackles from Fulham started to curtail the Bee’s momentum. By the half hour mark the visitors had established a firm foothold in the match and were starting to put together some genuinely threating forays forward of their own.

The visitors equaliser arrived from the boot of their super-sub Manor Solomon, in from the start today, with just over 5 minutes of the first half remaining. Fulham were gifted a dubious freekick within striking distance of goal and when the strike cannoned off the bar Solomon was there, somehow unmarked, to smash the ball home.

Infuriated is far too docile a word to describe the feeling coursing through my soul at this point. To go in level at half-time when we had bossed the majority of the play would at least give the players motivation for the second half.

Frustration proved to be the perfect motivation as the Bees burst out of the traps once more, but this time there were a full 8 minutes between kick-off and the establishment of a home lead. We could not have wished for a kinder gift from the prawn sandwich brigade than the melee which led to the awarding of the penalty. Our attack was headed down a blind alley in the box when Fulham’s defence decided to implode and bundle our striker to the ground.

Ivan Toney simply does not miss penalties and so it proved to be again. He stroked this one into the bottom right corner of the goal. Sure Bernd Leno guessed the right way but even a keeper of his calibre stood no chance against such a sumptuous strike.

Once the flare had been cleared this time Brentford were able to maintain their momentum, even with the ref applying liberal use of the whistle, and looked like the only team capable of scoring for the rest of the half. The home defence were keeping Mitrovic and Willian satisfyingly silent.

It took until the 85th minute for the hosts to secure the 3 points with their third goal of the game. Mathias Jensen, much maligned by certain sections of the home fans for being always one pass short of great, was the man who put the seal on this derby day destruction. The set up was all Kevin Shade, on the pitch for just 10 minutes, who shimmied his way down the right wing, beating opponent after opponent, before cutting the ball back to the waiting Jensen. From there the midfield maestro simply had to direct it into the bottom corner and victory was assured.

With the 3 points now firmly in the bag Brentford relaxed for the first time in the half. In fact they relaxed so much that Thomas Frank decided to change formation to a 5-2-3 to see out the 8 minutes of added time. Pontus Jansson returned to action for the first time in months, but perhaps he was a little rusty as Fulham were able to grab a consolation second in added time.

A simple ball over the top caught the hosts defence comatose and the recently introduced Carlos Vinicius was able to nip in to tap the ball past David Raya. It was only his second ever goal for Fulham but unfortunately for him it was not the second equaliser.

Brentford secured revenge over their local rivals for their early season humiliation and restored their lead in the head-to-head battle. Now the only thing left to do is beat them to European Qualification by the end of May. With a 12-game unbeaten run in and now just a point behind them we have an excellent chance of achieving this goal.

Come On You Bees

Sunday 5th March 2023: FA Women’s League Cup: Selhurst Park: Arsenal vs Chelsea

It was freezing cold on the first Sunday on March 2023 and I was crammed into Selhurst Park, full to the brim with 19,000 fellow fans waiting patiently for the London Derby to kick-off. I had not however, come to see Crystal Palace face down a North London league rival. No, I was in this historic stadium for the showdown between Arsenal and Chelsea, the two greatest teams that Women’s football in the capital has to offer.

The only problem for both teams was going to be scoring goals. Both were without some of their most potent finishers. Arsenal would have to do without both Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema, who are both side-lined with ACL injuries and Chelsea have been shorn of Fran Kirby (Knee) and Pernille Harder (Hamstring) through injury.

Mead and Miedema have been out for months already for the Gunners, but in that time none of their replacements up front have scored more than a single goal each. The situation in Chelsea’s front-line is less dire. They still had the potency of Sam Kerr to finish off the chances and had bought in Lauren James in January to bolster their attacking options.

Other good omens for Chelsea included that Arsenal hadn’t beaten them in their previous 5 meetings, since the opening day of last season and this final is a re-run of 2020 when the blues run out 2-0 winners.

It took just 97 seconds for Sam Kerr to give Chelsea the lead. Erin Cuthbert launched the ball forward to Kerr, who held it up brilliantly before slipping it out to James on the right. Her cross floated it’s way over everyone, but when the ball was recycled to Guro Reiten on the left her cross to the back post was pinpoint accurate. All Kerr had to do at the back post was rise higher than the waiting James and nod the ball in from point blank range. She obliged with aplomb and Chelsea were on their way to what looked like a simple victory.

If Chelsea had continued to push forward and asserted their control of proceedings it may have been such a victory, but instead they chose to sit back, invite pressure and allow Arsenal to build up a head of steam. Luckily for the Blues nothing in the next 10 minutes gave any hint that their opponents had ever played in the penalty area before.

Arsenal drew scored the equaliser in the 16th minute. The ball ran through to an unmarked Stina Blackstenius 10 yards from goal, having deflected off a defender’s leg, and she did the rest, cooling slotting it past Ann-Katrin Berger and propelling Arsenal back to parity. It took just 8 minutes from the restoration of parity for the Gunners to take the lead as Kim Little powered in from 12 yards.

Little had started the move with a glorious outside of the boot flick up to Katie McCabe, who was hacked down as she twisted inside to set up for a shot. Kim is as lethal as a cyanide injection from the penalty spot and slammed it home to the keeper’s right.

Arsenal now had the lead and unlike their illustrious city rivals they showed no sign of resting on their laurels and surrendering the initiative. They kept their feet on Chelsea’s throats and doubled their lead in the dying moments of the half, on the fourth occasion that they untied ball and net. Their third successful attempt at this mission had been ruled out for offside in the build up.

When Arsenal got their third goal that counted it came off the boot of Chelsea midfielder Niamh Charles. In defence of Charles she had the right idea, to try and clear a dangerous corner from the right, but her touch bounced the wrong way and the next I knew Berger was picking the ball out of the net. Arsenal led 3-1 at the break and were proving that even without Mead and Miedema they still knew how to score goals.

Emma Hayes has won so much as Chelsea manager so she is no stranger to making the tough decisions and she showed this at half-time by removing Charles from the action at half-time and sending on Melanie Leupolz on in her stead. This was not the first Chelsea substitution of the match though, as Jelena Cankovic got hooked with just 39 minutes gone, with Kadeisha Buchanan given the task of justifying such an early introduction.

Neither of these changes had the desired effect for the blues though and nor did the introductions of Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Jessie Fleming, for Magdalena Eriksson and Sophie Ingle respectively. Their opponents had them pinned back into their own area within a minute of the restart.

The Gunners were unable to translate their dominance into goals though, even when Berger passed a goal kick straight into Blackstenius’ path in the 51st minute, as the second half devolved into a competitive midfield battle. Arsenal were consistently shading the battle, but whenever they ranged forward the thin blue line stopped them in their tracks.

The Gunners would spend the rest of the half lining up shots to break that thin blue line to dust without success, but at 3-1 up they could live with that and as the game reached it’s conclusion it showed. It took till the 70th minute for Chelsea to get any kind of forward momentum and till the final 10 of proceedings for them to translate that momentum into a credible goal threat.

In that final 10 minutes Chelsea threw everything they had at the Gunner’s backline. James, Erin Cuthbert, Reiten, Kerr and Buchanan all took their own pot-shots at glory, but despite all that firepower the Blues were unable to find the breakthrough they needed to provide hope of an increasingly unlikely comeback. For the final 5 minutes the ‘away’ team were even willing to weaken their backline. They went full send on their attacking philosophy and sent Millie Bright up from centre back to play as striker.

Ultimately though, nothing Chelsea tried worked and when the final whistle blew it was Arsenal who were left celebrating shooting down their first trophy since 2019. They may have forgotten how to win in the intervening years, but they certainly remembered how to celebrate.

Chelsea were left contemplating how a team that they have had the number of for the past 18 months, and without their two main goalscorers, could brush them aside so easily. They needed to work out the answer quickly as now they only had the FA Cup and WSL titles to defend.

Friday 27th January 2023: FA Cup 4th Round: Etihad Stadium: Manchester City vs Arsenal

City had already defeated one big London team in the Third Round they should hardly have been quaking at the thought of hosting another capital team in the Fourth Round. Sure this London team were the Gunners, the only team above them in the league table.

They were also fresh off back to back wins against Tottenham and Manchester United, the same United that had recently beaten City 2-1 in the derby. Oh and Arsenal are managed by Mikel Arteta, who had been Pep Guardiola’s assistant at City and thus had an encyclopaedic knowledge of their tactics.

Of course none of this mattered to Man City, after all they were at home and can beat anyone there, except Brentford (2-1, Saturday 12th November 2022, see ‘Pure Insanity At The Etihad).

For my part I was intrigued to see who would win this showdown between the best teams in the country. One from Manchester, the other the Kings of North London, a real North vs South showdown.

Arsenal kicked us off, with the young Matt Turner in goal, and decided that the psychical game was the key to stopping City’s silky skills tearing them apart. Within 2 minutes Haaland had already been thrown to the ground by Rob Holding and it seemed the Norwegian genius would have to get used to that treatment as the ref just let it go.

Both teams decided that the best defence was an overwhelming offence and they each came close to breaking the deadlock within the first 5 minutes. First the hosts slipped a great ball through to Bernardo Silva, but he ballooned his effort over the bar with only Turner to beat. Then it was the visitors turn to waste a great opportunity, Bukayo Saka inches away from connecting with a tantalising cross to the back post.

With both teams steaming forward at 1,000mph at every opportunity it was inevitable that the mistakes would creep in soon. They took just 10 minutes to rear their ugly head when Stefan Ortega, in the City goal, sent a goal kick sailing into the stride of Saka 20 yards from goal. The collective sigh of relief when Saka was unable to punish this with a clinical finish gave me goosebumps.

Neither set of supporters needed to worry much about seeing the opposition ripple their net though as, despite the intricate and inspired build-up play, both sets of strikers had left their shooting boots at home. The way both teams built from the back or hit their opponents on the break at breakneck speed could be made into instructional videos on how to do it. The work of the strikers into videos of everything not to do with the goal at your mercy.

The lack of goals was not for a lack of effort of brilliance in either team’s play, Ilkay Gundogan and Leandro Trossard being the main tormentors of the opposition for City and Arsenal respectively. The game had everything except a decent finisher, if either team could find it they would be home and dry.

Arsenal went searching for this elusive goal in the second half by removing Trossard from the fray in the 66th minute and Bukayo Saka in the 74th, their two most threatening players so far. Sending on Oleksandr Zinchencko and Martin Odegaard in the search for goals was a strange call from Arteta, a defender and a creative midfielder are not the natural places to turn especially when you’ve just gone behind.

With both team’s strikers misfiring in front of goal it fell to Nathan Ake to break the deadlock for the hosts. He surged onto the ball as it cannoned back off the left post and drove his shot across the body of Turner and in off the base of the right post to cue euphoria in the home ends. It was the first moment of true quality in either penalty area all match and it would also be the last.

Having taken the lead City were content to sit back and protect their lead against a dangerous set of Gunners. Unfortunately for the fans who had travelled all this way north of the capital the guns continued to misfire, despite setting siege to the host’s goal for much of the remainder of the match. It was actually City who came closest to providing another goal, through World Cup winner Julian Alvarez. The Argentine launched a solo sortie into Arsenal territory and smashed the ball towards goal from 30yards. He seared Turner’s hands, but without a teammate gambling for a simple tap-in City’s lead remained just the singular goal.

It would remain so till the final whistle as Alvarez’s hail mary shot was the only decent goal threat from either team between Ake’s goal and the ref calling time. Most of the home fans had called time on their attendance before Alvarez went for the spectacular though. The home stands were more sparsely populated than the Gobi desert at full-time.

City won the battle for the North as they march onto probable FA Cup success, but as I write it is their visitors from the South still lead in their league battle. City won this battle, but Arsenal may yet win the war.

Sunday 8th January 2023: FA Cup 3rd Round: Etihad Stadium: Manchester City vs Chelsea

The FA Cup 3rd round is always a historic weekend of football and this season is just so happened to coincide with my first weekend in my new city of Manchester. The Etihad Stadium is just a short jaunt down the road from my new abode. Thus as the draw was made I was keeping an eye on just what potential banana skin would be thrown City’s way and what lower league team did they get drawn against… Oh, just Graham Potter’s Chelsea.

So on my first weekend in Manchester I had lucked out with a toe-to-toe tussle between two Premier League heavyweights right on my doorstep. I thought I was in for the highest quality, end-to-end confrontations for the purist that I could ever hope to witness. I couldn’t have been any more hopelessly naïve.

Sure Chelsea were fielding a rotated team; with N’golo Kante, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Edouard Mendy, Raheem Sterling and Reece James all omitted from the matchday squad (most for injury reasons). Even so it was shocking and embarrassing, for the Londoners, just how easily a City side without Erling Haaland or Kevin De Bruyne brushed them aside.

This match took place just 3 days after City had beat the visitors 1-0 in the league down in London and I thought Chelsea would be out for revenge and would really take the game to their hosts. However, from the first whistle it was City tore out of the traps, shoving Chelsea firmly onto the back foot and then the hosts ensured their visitors stayed there for the rest of the 90 minutes.

The match began so badly for the visitors that when they managed to get a touch after 5 minutes had already elapsed, they chose to use it to time waste. Surely that was intended to break up City’s rhythm and give them a chance to formulate a plan of how to get a foothold in the game. It didn’t work.

At the very least it gave Chelsea none of the initiative and did nothing to loosen City’s iron grip on possession. Chelsea’s timewasting had seemed to make City a little reluctant to bring the ball out of their back line though. As such Chelsea were allowed to maintain parity with their hosts for a full 23 minutes, before Riyad Mahrez shattered that illusion with a sumptuous freekick over the wall and into the top right postage stamp.

Now with the lead on the scoresheet and with Chelsea’s defensive wall crumbled to pieces City had doubled their lead before the half hour mark. They were slightly helped out by VAR gifting them a penalty for handball, from an incident that I couldn’t see properly from my vantage point high up at the other end of the ground. Julian Alvarez stepped up to slide the ball under the dive of Kepa Arrizabalaga launching himself to his right. The keeper did get a glove on it, but his wrists were weak and the ball slipped through it and into the net.

Gifting City a two-goal lead was a questionable call from Potter’s visitors as they tend to simply accelerate away from you at that point. So it proved to be here as Foden added the host’s third a full seven minutes before half time. This triggered a flood of away fans out of their seats and onto the concourse for an early half-time drink.

I was surprised to see that many of them actually returned for the second half as by this point the match was over as a contest. City could now look forward to the Fourth Round, but before that there was still 45 minutes of this victory parade for them to enjoy.

One person who had distinctly not enjoyed that first half was Chelsea manager Graham Potter, who sent his team out early for the second half with two changes to their beleaguered personnel. Mateo Kovacic and Kai Havertz were removed from the field, with Denis Zakaria and Wesley Fofana being sent on as the twin silver bullets to resurrect their team’s hopes of a result. The silver bullets failed spectacularly.

There were a few green shoots of hope in the early exchanges of the half, particularly when their first attack in forever saw Rodri pick up the first yellow of the match in the 55th minute. Those green shoots were decisively pruned by a double City substitution just before the hour mark. Rodri was taken off to protect him for the next round, Sergio Gomez joined him in making way for Kalvin Phillips and Joao Cancelo.

From this point onwards the game devolved into a monotonous groundhog day. City hogged possession and pinned Chelsea back into their penalty area without ever threatening to get the scoresheet ticking over again. The turgidity of the fare on offer could have sent any insomniac into a coma so deep they would sleep through a nuclear war.

The visitors were last season’s beaten finalists in both domestic cups, but this was the performance of a team on the brink of collapse. Sure you play in blue Chelsea, but you’re not in Everton’s position yet. Despite the dreadful attacking play from both team, Guardiola point blank refused to bring on either Haaland or DeBruyne to spice things up. I fully understand not risking your best players in a tie you’ve already decisively won, but the match was crying out for the invention and forward thinking brilliance they can provide.

Despite both teams having gone to the beach long ago, there was one last tick over of the scoreline 6 minutes from the final whistle. Don’t get too excited, it’s not a goal from some gloriously incisive open play, it’s just another City penalty. A Chelsea defender bundled an attacker going nowhere to the turf and Riyad Mahrez had the chance to add his team’s fourth goal from 12 yards. He made no mistake, slipping the ball under Kepa’s despairing dive.

That was the last notable act of a game that saw Chelsea dumped out of a competition they have reached the final of 5 times in the last 6 seasons at the first time of asking this season.

For their part City’s reward for destroying Chelsea was a home draw against Premier League leaders Arsenal in the 4th round. Since that was also on my doorstep I decided it would be rude not to go to that game too.

So less than 3 weeks later I was back at the Etihad to see who won that actual high-quality end-to-end confrontation for the purists.

Losing 5-2 at home is enough to knock any team’s confidence. So to be facing your fiercest domestic rivals, where the hatred is visceral, in the same stadium just 12 days later ought to end awfully. Just one problem with that though, no-one told Liverpool.

They’re always at their best when no-one gives them a hope in hell of getting a result, I learnt that back on 25th May 2005. Now the world has seen that never-say-die attitude in full force once again.

Facing a United team on the back of some incredible form, unbeaten since 22nd January, the scousers tore them to shreds. Sure it took the Reds 43 minutes to take the lead but that was just how long it took to translate their dominance from pitch to scoresheet. Once they had the lead they didn’t let up, they became the team they were last season and blew they opponents away.

The match ended 7-0 to the hosts. Along with bragging rights over their rivals, this result also gives their fans hope that the return to the behemoth that came just 2 games away from quadruple immortality may not be as far away as they feared. In even better news, both Nunez and Gakpo secured braces so at least the future looks secure.

AFC Bournemouth, glued to the bottom of the table, are the next opponents for Klopp’s rebuilding reds. To show true progress they need to back-up tonight’s humiliation of their near neighbours with a similarly positive result on the south coast. Secure that and they can head to Mission Impossible: Santiago Bernabéu in 10 days time.

Failure to secure the full 3 points in Hampshire would see this 7-0 relegated to the status of yet another false dawn in a season that has been full of them so far.

The voice of our football childhood passed away peacefully in his sleep last night.

Listening to him describing the action on Match of The Day every Saturday evening, resplendent in his trademark sheepskin coat, was a welcome escape from the world. You heard his voice and knew that your worries were about to melt away in the sea of his encyclopaedic knowledge of the beautiful game.

Thank you for my childhood Mr Motson, I hope you enjoy your eternal rest

So today I woke up ready to catch up on my blog where Potter gets Smashed To Pieces, but then I saw the Champions League scores from last night and Anfield….

This was supposed to be the showdown of the season between the two leviathans of European football. Heck, it was even a repeat of last year final when it was only a virtuoso performance from the keeper in the visitors goal last night that stopped the hosts completing a treble. The hosts were a team that had been two games away from etching their names in immorality with an unprecedented Quadruple last season.

Coming into this season the vast majority of Europe knew that they were the team to beat well not anymore, we’re looking at the score in shock and disbelief.

Yes Real Madrid have an incredible legacy of success at this level with an unrivalled 14 titles from 17 visits to the final, but Liverpool are the most successful English team in Europe. Their 6 titles from 10 final visits is double the titles and final visits of their closest domestic rivals on the list, Manchester United. Plus their record in European fixtures at Anfield, with the crowd roaring them on is fearsome. Not just a fortress where they rip teams to shreds, but also the setting for many an improbable, glorious comeback where victory is ripped from the jaws of certain defeat.

It was in this cauldron of past invincibility that they took the lead within 4 minutes of kick-off, Darwin Nunez finishing off a beautiful team move with an exquisite backheeled flick past Courtois. Things look even rosier for the hosts when they doubled their lead 10 minutes later, Salah taking advantage of a Courtois mistake to rifle the ball home off the outside of his right boot. So Liverpool were now 2-0 up and the game wasn’t even 15 minutes old.

The Liverpool of old, basically any Liverpool team under Shankly, Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish, Benitez or current manager Jurgen Klopp would have run riot from this position and inflicted a humiliating defeat on the team that has robbed them of European glory in 2 of their last 3 final appearances.

This however is not the Liverpool of old and this season they have looked capable of collapsing the second the slightest thing goes wrong. So it would prove to be again last night. It took 7 minutes for Real to get a goal back after going 2-0 down. Then when Vinicius Jr. eradicated their deficit 10 minutes before half time, pouncing on a mistake by Allison to double both his and his team’s tally for the evening, Madrid smelt blood in the water and the hosts crumbled.

It took just 180 seconds of the second half for the Spaniard’s to take the lead and then they secured it with a Benzema brace either side of the hour mark. From going 2 goals down within 15 minutes, at such a difficult stadium to get results, to coming back and inflicting the biggest defeat in their European history on your illustrious hosts, that’s Real Madrid and that’s just how fragile Liverpool are this season.

Last season the scousers were nigh-on untouchable and now their a team everyone knows they can get a result against. Oh how the mighty have fallen and oh how badly they need a refresh across many areas.

This was gonna be there season, they were the team to beat, but not anymore, now they’re looking at the score in shock and disbelief.

Monday 2nd January 2023: Premier League: Gtech Community Stadium: Brentford vs Liverpool

As the calendar ticked over into 2023 I decided to begin my year in church, my football church. Sneaking this visit in at the end of a long festive season of travel, whilst also sorting out a house move, I was perhaps less excited for the visit of the team who had come within 2 games of the quadruple last season.

Though the fact that Liverpool were in abysmal form and no longer a team for anyone to be afraid of may also have contributed to my low excitement levels. Whatever the reason, I took my seat convinced I was about to witness a 0-0 borefest. By the final whistle I had learnt my lesson in humility.

The corresponding confrontation last season was a barnstorming bananza of a game and it didn’t take long for everyone in attendance that this one would be just as good. Sure Brentford were without Ivan Toney, due to an injury niggle, and the visitors were playing a largely second-string team, also injury-forced, but both teams gave it there all from the second the ref blew his whistle.

Liverpool got us underway and immediately attempted to get on the front foot, forcing Zanka to commit a foul on Nunez within 2 minutes. Brentford were giving as good as they got though and, with the match still in it’s first 5, Norgaard rose highest in the area to head the games first clear cut change mere inches over the bar.

An end-to-end battle at 100mph erupted into being with both teams wasting presentable chances before the 10 minute mark, with Roerslev even nipping the ball of the waiting Janelt’s toes to mess up a decent chance at one point. Brentford were however limiting their chances to make intrudes behind the visiting defence by trying too many high balls at just the right height for the twin towers of Van Dijk and Konate to deal with without breaking sweat.

The reds were not without their own profligacy though especially when Nunez was sprung clear in behind the Bee’s backline in the opening exchanges. He did the hard work of taking it round Raya before bulleting it straight into the torso of the single covering defender from 5 yards out. Both teams were creating chances with ease and it was only through sheer dumb luck that the scores remained level for as long as they did. At times the Bees foolish decisions would smash closed a glorious opening whilst at other it was only the swarm of Bees sweeping back that choked out a certain goal for the visitors.

This ridiculous stalemate was finally broken in the 19th minute and I had no idea who scored it. I was too busy celebrating taking the lead and swimming in the deep relief of seeing a VAR referral for a possible handball come back all clear. I would guess that Ben Mee got the final touch, but on later review it turned out to be an own goal by Konate that had garnished the game with the goal it deserved.

Having weathered the storm that followed Bees had the ball in the net again 7 minutes later, but this one wouldn’t count. The linesman’s flag went up instantaneously to burn my elation to a crisp and the VAR review I was anxiously awaiting never arrived. We would have to settle for a 1-0 lead for now, but the visitors were now rattled. They continued to keep the pressure on the hosts though and pinned us back into our own half, until we doubled our lead.

That glorious second came courtesy of Wissa in the 42nd minute, just over a minute after his much more attractive finish had been ruled out for offside in the build up. The 2nd goal that counted was a scruffy ball bundled over the line, but they all count .With a comfortable cushion heading into half-time I expected the Bees to be able to hold-on after the restart, but knew that Liverpool would come at us like a pack of starving wolves at the start of the second half. If we got through that first 10 minutes unscathed I was confident we would keep the 3 points in London.

Klopp dredged his bench for options at half-time and came up with a triple substitutions that bore fruit almost immediately. As expected the visitors tore into the Bees and within 5 minutes their onslaught drew blood. Oxlade-Chamberlain, not one of the subs, got the final touch for the goal. Before that though it was the scousers turn to have a goal chalked off for offside by VAR. Nunez had won a foot race with the defender and flicked the ball into the net past Raya. The Bee’s defence were calling for the flag before the ball even hit the back of the net and they were proven right when VAR concurred with their assessment.

There was no such reprieve when the Ox nodded home at the far post, connecting with a glorious cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Raya was left flailing at thin air for that goal and the rest of the Bee’s team were all out of ideas for how to stem the tide. Particularly the tide of Andy Robertson who was constantly tormenting them down the left wing.

Deficit halved and with their tails up Liverpool kept coming at the hosts who were unable to lay a glove on them but they could do everything except score. It took a double sub in the 74th minute for the hosts to regain a proper foothold.

Ten minutes later this foothold had developed into a 3rd goal. We scored 3 against them last season, but this time it was enough for all 3 points. Our third this year came from the boots of Bryan Mbuemo, who has the simple task of sweeping the ball under Alisson, with the grace of a swan, after being picked out by a route one ball curved into his stride.

Brentford were able to see out the final 5 minutes no problem to secure a famous win against a team that had fallen into the abyss of mediocrity. It was their first win over the red scousers since 1938, but in my rush to catch the last train north from Euston I was unable to revel in the glory of the moment.

For my fellow Bee’s fans it must have been glorious to experience this victory and see our team move into 7th, the Europa Conference League position. For myself I hope to feel that pure elation on my next visit to church, for the derby against local high-flying rivals Fulham.

Saturday 11th February 2023: EFL League Two: Crown Oil Arena: Rochdale AFC vs Northampton Town

So I spose I should start by saying that this was my 9th game in just over 5 weeks and I was sick to death of football, like you’d get if you tried to watch every game of the World Cup and did nothing else. Plus Rochdale is not a team that holds any personal draw for me; rooted to the bottom of League Two with a mountain to climb to avoid joining their local rivals, Oldham Athletic, in the depths of non-league football.

Not only do the Dale, 5 points adrift of safety, have a mountain to climb to remain part of the 92 next season but anyone reaching Rochdale by tram or train then has a walk up a mountain to endure to reach the stadium. Rochdale AFC may be rooted at the bottom of the league pyramid but their ground is in the village of Spotland, high on a hill overlooking Rochdale proper.

Rochdale hadn’t won since 29th December 2022 and I had no expectation of them winning this on either. The main reason for that was that their visitors were Northampton Town, sitting pretty in 4th place and just one point below the holy grail of the top 3 that would see them automatically promoted to League One.

The two teams may be headed in opposite directions come the end of the season and in just as contrasting form. Whilst the Dale haven’t won this calendar year, Northampton came into this one with just the singular loss over the same period. From kick-off though it became abundantly clear that the abysmal form of the hosts had rubbed off on the visitors.

It took 15 minutes for either team to threaten the opposition’s goal and to my eternal shock it came from the hosts. A cross from the right was flashed across the 6-yard box and all it needed was the daintiest of touches to deflect it home, but none was forthcoming. That it took so long for either team to credibly threaten an opener was symptomatic of the dire fare on offer.

Most of the time was spent with the teams passing it to each other when they should have been passing it to teammates. Half an hour of this goalless mistake-fest was all it took for me to decide I wasn’t staying for the second half, especially with family coming to visit late that day for the first time since my latest move.

When I left the scores were the same as they had been at the start with not a cat in hell’s chance of changing in the second half, so I felt fully justified in my decision. Opps…

By the time I got off the train back in central Manchester I was able to check the final score and see just how badly wrong my judgement had been. Rochdale took a rare lead in a match just 7 minutes after the restart, only to throw away an historic win by conceding a last minute equaliser. That is the emotional rollercoaster that makes football worth watching and games worth attending. It also would have made a brilliant story for this blog but, thanks to burn out and a belief that the half was a premonition of the whole I missed out on what could have been.

That is why you should never leave a game early and why ‘A Half Is Not The Whole’.

I will be back soon with a blog about one of the January games that I went too. That one I did stay till the final whistle of.