The Football tourist

This week there is going to be a change to this blog. For a one-off edition I’m not going to discuss the match I went too this weekend as due to events earlier in the day I was not in the right headspace to be taking notes for this blog as I really needed a way to just relax, de-stress and switch off from events that had happened around me that day. This was Remembrance Sunday and whilst many people this year will remember that day for the terrorist attack on Liverpool Women’s Hospital it was events at the Remembrance service that I was attending at the time which had a far bigger impact on my need for an escape that day. I was not even aware of the attack till I received a phone call from my parents checking I was safe.

Due to this state of affairs for me the blog this week will instead give my view on all the changes of management that have been taking place across Premier League clubs in both England and Scotland over the international break. The three teams in England to make managerial chances were Newcastle United, Norwich City and Aston Villa. That is the order in which I will discuss my thoughts on the changes made. I may then also touch on Rangers north of the border.

First up are Newcastle United who have been looking for a new manager since their change of ownership at the beginning of October. It was the first thing Mike Ashley had done in years to please the Newcastle fans by finally fulfilling their wish for him to leave. The new owners have many drawbacks to them, but they do bring a lot of finances with them and with finance being king in modern football I think we will see them challenging for the title in seasons to come. They have bigger problems this season though as they have a huge fight on their hands just to avoid relegation.

The man they have bought in to keep them in the league is Eddie Howe, who recently got relegated with Bournemouth. I don’t think he will go down this season though as he now has a huge budget to bring in players in January and if he can get the fans on his side then they will gain the team points galore at home. For any of this to happen though they will first need to get a win on the board this season and they have the perfect opportunity coming up this weekend. The first game at home for their new manager is always an opportunity for any team to win and with the optimism that surrounds the club now the time has never been better for them to go on a run that might just save their season.

Next up are the only team below Newcastle in the league table. Norwich City fired Daniel Farke right after he got them their first win of the season. Whilst Norwich’s form this season has been dreadful and it has been clear for a while that change would be needed if they were to have any hope of staying in the league, but to make this change after you have achieved a morale boosting win and it appears that your luck is changing makes little sense to me. It also feels harsh on Farke as he had the team playing incredible football last season to get promoted and had finally managed to get the team turned around this season to get them winning again.

Norwich have bought in Dean Smith from Aston Villa to try an turn their season around but, even with the undoubted quality he possesses with a manager, I don’t believe that he will be able to keep them in the league. They don’t have the budget to go on a spending spree to bring in the quality needed to bridge the gap to the teams above them and with the time a new manager normally takes to bed-in I fear it may be a while before they start winning again and by then the points gap may have opened up enough as to have become insurmountable.

Dean Smith’s old club Aston Villa sacked him a week before he took the job at Norwich after a set of 5 losses in a row that saw them drop to 16th in the league. This was an aberration of form given the turn around that he had managed since he took over. I suppose that the financial repercussions of relegation were on the minds of the Villa owners when they made the call though and with their form as it was they felt they couldn’t take the risk of it continuing this way.

They have certainly made a great call with Smith’s replacement though, they have managed to tempt Steven Gerrard away from the excellent job he had been doing with Rangers in the Scottish capital. I must admit a huge bias and respect towards Mr. Gerrard both for his skills and achievements as a player as well as for the excellent job he has done in making Rangers relevant in Scottish football once more. The way he has transformed Rangers in his time as their manager has been nothing short of incredible. He transformed them from predictable also rans to a real force in their national league once more and even a team for others in Europe to be concerned about. Suffice to say that I believe Villa have made an excellent call with their new appointment and I reckon they will see their form turn around soon.

That change of management at Villa left Rangers without the man who had helped them break Celtic’s dominance of Scottish football. They have filled is huge hole in the club with former Rangers player Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, who may be better know to you as part of the Dutch team that reached the final of the 2010 World Cup. They lost that game to Spain and were one of the dirtiest teams in that World Cup, a far cry from the total football the Dutch used to be known for. I do hope his management at Rangers sees them playing football closer to the total football end of the scale as they have pulled in many new fans over the past few seasons and it would be awful for both them and Scottish football is they were to throw away that momentum now.

Those are my thoughts on the most prominent managerial changes that have taken place over the international break. The blog will be back to its usual form in my next post and the game in question takes me to as far north as the EPL goes to see Howe one of the new managers gets on in his first game. I’m off to St James’ Park to watch Newcastle United vs Brentford to see if Newcastle can make a winning start under their new manager and if Brentford can avoid making it a hat-trick of losses against teams who had yet to win so far this season. See you then.

Last weekend my exploration of Northern football stadia and the experience of the fans who use them took me to Crewe to experience The Mornflake Stadium of Crewe Alexandra, formerly known as Gresty Road. It was a trip I will only make once.

I made it this time to experience the First round of the FA Cup in it’s 150th year at the easiest place for me to get too. Not being able to drive I need to rely on public transport and with Crewe being famous as a railway hub it made sense to visit whilst I had the chance. It was only half an hour for me to get to on the train and the stadium is simple to get to from the station, its simply a 5 minute walk left out of the stadium. You turn left and from the road bridge you are then on the stadium is on your left, it’s then simply a case of finding a left to take that is a through road (the traffic lights are a good place to find such a road). The stadium and it’s huge attached car park are unmissable at this point.

The stadium is nothing to look at from the outside as all you can see is a brick wall as you pass it on the road. The south stand where my seat was located is the only large stand of the entire stadium and was the only one more than 50% full when I made it inside. Before heading inside though I went to pick up my ticket from the ticket office only to find out that the ticket office only sells tickets on the day and, because I had pre-bought my tickets I would need to collect them form the club shop round the corner. Luckily this was only 60 seconds walk away and the staff behind the collection desk were unfailingly helpful and were able to find my tickets quickly. They were unable to tell me anything about programmes though.

The staff member behind the shop tills was far more helpful on this point when I went to pay for my traditional keyring. It turns out that Crewe don’t do programmes and instead have a monthly magazine for fans who wish to get updates on the state of the club. This is not a bad way to keep longstanding fans up to date on the club, but it is no use for those casual fans who turn up for games once in a while or one-offers like me who know very little about the squad and rely on game programmes for info on which players are on the pitch. This lack of programmes along with manned, mechanical turnstiles that are becoming a rarity in this age of e-tickets and smart tech at turnstiles.

The most impressive thing about the stadium was the inner concourse which was extremely spacious with screens inside that showed scores from round the grounds in the FA Cup as well as views of the action on the pitch. Unfortunately, this impressive concourse was almost deserted as I headed to my seat. The stadium was only less than a quarter full for this game against Swindon, with an official attendance of 2,303 in a stadium whose capacity is 10,153. It was depressing to look at the stand and see so many empty seats. The Family Stand behind the goal to my right was completely empty, whilst the Rhino Safety Stand at the opposite end of the pitch was only filled on the back 3 rows of the stand directly behind the goal. The only stand, other than the almost full South Stand, that looked more than 15% full was the Ice Cream Van Stand opposite me that was about 50% full of the travelling Swindon Town fans.

Even the dugouts were not really there. The only clue that the area was any different from the rest of the seats was that they were blue instead of the normal red. There were none of the normal barriers to keep fans out of this area, but they were not needed at this game. The main thing that surprised me at this game was the announcement of the last food bank of the year at the ground would be in a few weeks time. I have never heard of a football club that doubles as a food bank for those in need in their local area before and whilst it shouldn’t need to be both I do wish that other clubs would follow the example of Crewe and do whatever they can to help those in need in their local area.

This was the last game I was able to make before this year’s remembrance services that took place around the country today and those that will happen at 11am this Sunday. The fans in the stadium observed the silence to a man and I only hope that those services this Sunday will be observed with the same deference.

The game began with Crewe in Red and White, whilst the visitors Swindon Town were in their away kit which was so reminiscent of a Norwich City home kit that even their fans sent up the cheer of ‘Norwich City’ many times when things were going well for them throughout the match. I even took to referring to them as Norwich in my notes, as this helped me keep clear in my mind which team was which. Normally I look at the strips each team is printed with on the back of the programme for the match. The lack of programme also means that I have no names for any of the players in my notes so they will all be referred to by the numbers they wore.

The first 15 minutes of the game were exceedingly dull as it appears I have found a talent for finding those games which are to have the most boring starts of late, this is a talent I could do with losing fast. The only moment of interest in this portion of the game was a forced substitution for the visitors. The Swindon number 6 went down after a tackle and was unable to continue through injury. He was replaced by the visitors number 24. This seemed to spark a little motivation in both teams as within minutes they had both had their first decent chance of the match.

First Swindon went close from a corner which fell to one of their players on the edge of the box who was able to turn and volley the ball towards goal. It beat all the defenders and the keeper, but it also beat the goal and went sailing over the top. It was the first time that either team had threatened to score all match, but Crewe would not be outdone and would go right up the other end to threaten themselves. From the goal kick they were in through the middle from a simple long ball, but Swindon’s keeper went full sweeper and raced out to clear the ball before Crewe could make use of the space the long ball had given them.

This marked the end of the excitement for now and the next 5 minutes of play were so atrocious that my gaze wandered to the Family stand end of the pitch, specifically what was at either end of that stand. At the far side of it was the stadium’s only screen which showed the game time and the current score, whilst the near side was home to a normal clock with black hands and a white back ground with little black marks to signify each minute between black numbers at each five minute interval. This should’ve made it easy to track the amount of stoppage time needed at the end of each half.

Back to the action on the pitch though, where Swindon’s number 11 got in behind the Crewe defence in the 23rd minute and found himself one-on-one with the keeper. He failed to beat the keeper though, his shot instead rebounding off the keeper’s diving body.
Two minutes later though Swindon did put the ball in the net for the goal that the game badly needed. The goal was scored by the visitors number 25 from about 20 yards out and was the first instance of true quality all match, absolutely deserving of opening the scoring. The visiting fans exploded with the joy of taking the lead and surged forward towards the pitch to celebrate with their players. They also threw 2 flares onto the pitch which fortunately missed anything they may have been aimed at and were swiftly dealt with by the stewards.

It wasn’t till the 34th minute that Crewe came close to opening their account and levelling the match up. They had a freekick at this juncture that was cleared to the edge of the box where it was volleyed on the turn and fizzed inches wide of the post. It was the closest Crewe had come all match. Just 3 minutes later they were on the attack again, this time though one of their attacking players was cleared out in the air by Swindon’s number 20 who received a yellow card for his troubles. Many of the home fans felt he had got away lightly.

He almost made excellent use of this reprieve in the 43rd minute as he found himself in space in the area and unleashed a powerful shot that beat the keeper, but not the post. It cannons off the post and ends up going out of play on the other side of the pitch. This was the last chance of the regulation first 45, but not of the first half. There were a very generous 6 minutes of added time, which felt like a lot of time to add for one goal and one injury stoppage. Crewe almost made good use of it though when a corner was flicked on in the area by their number 9 where it was met by their number 22, who headed it over the top. That was the last chance of the first half that ended 1-0 to Swindon.

On my way out to grab food at half-time one of the stewards described the first half as painful and I agree entirely with this assessment. Thankfully there had been a goal, but the general quality of most of the play had been dreadful and with the unwelcoming feeling given off by the run-down nature of much of the stadium I was looking forward to leaving at the end of the match. My mood was not improved by the lack of food on offer at half-time. They had no substantial food on offer at all, so I went without any half-time sustenance.

I don’t know what Crewe’s manager said to them at half time or how much their play at the start of the second half was due to the replacement of the ineffectual 21 with number 37, but whatever the reason they came out in the second half looking far more positive and looked to play on the front foot.

Unfortunately for the home fans though this didn’t last long until the wind was ripped out their sails by Swindon scoring their 2nd goal of the match in the 52nd minute. This goal came from another simple through ball that found an attacker free in the box. This time the player in question was the visitors number 9 who wrapped the ball round the keeper and in off the far post. It was a quality finish that seemed to destroy Crewe’s will to fight.

Just 2 minutes later Swindon almost got their 3rd of the match with what, would have been, a spectacular solo effort from their number 11. He dribbled the ball through the hapless Crewe defence and only failed to score when he lost his footing whilst trying to transfer the ball onto his preferred right foot. The ref must’ve thought that a Crewe player was involved in this turn of events though as Swindon were given a freekick for this. The freekick was deflected over the top for a corner. From that corner Crewe managed to fashion a promising break only for them to waste it with a misplaced pass that went straight to an opposition defender.

Crewe decided to make a double substitution in the 64th minute to try and help them get back into the match, taking off both numbers 9 and 12 to be replaced by numbers 5 and 20 respectively. This did not work for them as Swindon looked to have scored a 3rd in the 70th minute with a tap-in after a little penalty box pinball only for the linesman to chalk it off for offside. Swindon were clearly on top by this point though and were not showing any signs of letting Crewe back into the game.

However, they did finally make a tactical substitution of their own in the 72nd minute of the match when they took off their number 20 to replace him with their number 7. The game did not produce any more decent chances again till the 79th minute. The intervening time was eaten up with yellow cards for each team and another double substitution for the hosts. This time they took off 17 and 16 to be replaced by 35 and 40. This bought Crewe up to 5 substitutions for the match, but even changing half of their outfield players was not enough to help Crewe get back into this one.

Swindon got their 3rd goal of the match in the 79th minute straight from a freekick on the edge of the D, the strike was so sweetly struck into the top right postage stamp of the goal. Going 3-0 down was enough for many Crewe fans to decide to head for the exits, but one Swindon fan was not given the choice of sticking around to watch his team win though as he was escorted out of the stadium by 3 security guards.

By this point of the match any competitive edge was gone from the match as it felt that both teams were now just waiting for the ref’s whistle to end the match in those last 10 minutes. Swindon even took the time to give more players a chance to experience the joy of winning in the FA Cup with a triple substitution in the 83rd minute. Numbers 19, 17 and 26 were given that experience as 9,11 and 25 were withdrawn from the match.

Crewe even managed to waste a golden opportunity gifted to them by the visitor’s keeper. The ball was passed straight to them 13yards out in the centre of the goal, at this point most people would shoot but not Crewe. They overplayed the ball till a Swindon defender got back in to nab the ball off them. At this point the trickle of home fans leaving the stadium turned into a flood.

Those who left missed Crewe finally managing to get the ball in the net in the 5 minutes added on at the end of the 90. The only problem with that was that the ‘scorer’ was yards offside when the ball was sent through to him. Crewe at least found out that they can attack and get the ball in the net though and this is something they hadn’t looked like doing for most of the match. That’s the only positive for the host from a game where they lost 3-0 to a mediocre Swindon who visit Walsall in the next round. Good luck to both of them in their attempts to reach the 3rd round.

As for my hopes of getting straight out of Crewe at the end of the match I had no luck. My train out of Crewe was cancelled and the next train wasn’t for an hour so I spent the time finding food instead. I will not be going back to Crewe.

Next weekend is another international break so I will be heading back to women’s football for the weekend as I explore the blue side of women’s football on Merseyside for the visit of Manchester United. A grudge match in the Men’s game, lets see how the Women’s game treats it. See you then.

I took what was meant to be a 5 and a half hour round trip to Burnley this weekend to visit Turf Moor and take in what I thought would be an easy win for Brentford away at a team that hadn’t won all season. What I failed to take into account was just how much motivation Burnley would get from the importance of this particular game, it marked the 9th year anniversary of Sean Dyche becoming manager of the club.

I would like to extend my personal congratulations to Mr Dyche for all he has achieved at Burnley since he took over at Burnley. He has managed to not only get Burnley promoted to the Premier League, but also to keep them in the league on a far lower budget than most of the other clubs in the league. He has done great things to achieve this and his players did everything they could to honour him on his anniversary.

Before I get to the game though first I had to get to the ground. Burnley and Turf Moor are in the middle of nowhere, it took me 2 and a half hours to get there and an hour longer than that to get back. First of all I got to Preston then had to change onto a tiny 2 carriage train from platform 3C heading to Colne. To get to platform 3C at Preston you have to go right down the far end of platform 3 then platform 3C appears on your left. It is a long walk down platform 3 though so give it time to get to the train, running the length of the platform takes an age.

The station that most of the online train ticket booking sights sends you too is Burnley Barracks but don’t go to that one, take the train one stop further on to Burnley Central as this is right in the heart of Burnley and just a 15 minute walk from the stadium. Burnley Barracks is right out on the edge of town and at least a 45 minute walk from the stadium. This tip was given to me by the home fans on the train in from Preston and I’m very grateful to them for it.

At Preston I had 20minutes between trains and with the platform only a minute’s walk away I decided to use the extra time at the station to explore. What I found was a couple of lovely food stalls on platform 4 from which I bought my lunch. First up was a delicious Tuscan pork roll from Jo’s Village Kitchen that I could easily have eaten 3 or 4 of no problem. Then I found dessert just next door from a stall run by The Little Bake Company which had huge slices of home baked caramel chocolate brownie, mint-aero rocky road and huge red velvet cookies that were all delicious, although they were eaten over the next few days as I found myself not to be as hungry as I thought I was on the day when I bought them.

The atmosphere on the train with both home and away fans was extremely relaxed with not a single harsh word between anyone. This is the most relaxed I’ve ever seen 2 sets of fans before any match, but I spose that was because of the lack of history between the 2 teams. I certainly doubt that the atmosphere would be so convivial for local derby games against Blackburn Rovers or Accrington Stanley.

The walk from the station is easy, just turn right out of the station and follow the road down to the roundabout by the train bridge. Then you turn left to head under the bridge and down Yorkshire Street to the ground and from there it’s a straight shot. Sure the ground doesn’t look all that impressive from the street, but the route from the station is so short and sweet that you just can’t miss it. On your way to it you pass the ‘Royal Dyche’ pub complete with a sign that shows Sean Dyche in full Henry VIII portrait style complete with a crown. Mr. Dyche truly is a legend in Burnley, but the pub is strictly home fans only and as my tickets were for the Brentford end I decided not to try and head inside.

I arrived at the ground supremely early and, as with the Huddersfield trip, I was once again there before the Turnstiles opened so I decided to head inside the club shop to pick up my traditional keyring. In there I met a gentleman on the staff who predicted that Burnley would win the match 4-0 and although he referred to himself as a ‘silly bald man’ he was almost spot on with his prediction. I thought at the time that it was a little optimistic that Burnley would score even one goal, let alone four, given the form that they had been in this season but I was about as wrong as it was possible to be. I had forgotten that Brentford were missing David Raya in goal through injury and I also hadn’t counted on seeing one of the worst first half performances that I’d seen from any team in all the time I’ve been going to matches.

I decided not to head straight in to catch the warm-up and instead explore the stadium to see if it’s possible to walk round it without barriers. I found to my pleasure that this is indeed possible at Turf Moor. On this walk round the stadium though I found a fan park round the far side of the stadium that looked almost completely deserted till I got closer and realised that the fans were all hiding from the dreadful weather under a large marquee. This marquee was set up opposite a large screen showing the early EPL game between Leicester and Arsenal so I stayed to watch the end of that game before heading inside.

Before the game kicked off there was a minutes silence in memory of those who have given their life for our country in war that was impeccably observed by all the fans in the stadium. This was done before this game as Burnley have no more home games before November 11th, so this was the natural time to show their respects for those who have kept our nation safe to live in the past and continue to do so today and in the future.

Due to Covid rules on social distancing the teams entered the field from opposite corners of the ground, with Brentford entering from the corner at the far end away from those fans of those who had made the long journey to see them. Whether this had any effect on the players I cannot say. All I do know is that they were nowhere the standards they had lived upto so far this season.

The first half of the match was all Burnley straight from the kick-off. They went on the attack straight from the first minute and pinned a shocked Brentford back in their defensive third for most of the half, it only took them four minutes to take the lead. They attacked down the right before crossing the ball to Chris Wood who was completely unmarked in the centre of the area. He completed the easy task of slotting the ball across the keeper and into the back of the net. This was an excellent start for a team that hadn’t won all season, but the travelling Brentford fans and players were all left shell-shocked by just how easy it had been for Burnley to score. Burnley fans were so happy to be leading a game that they started chanting ‘How shit must you be were winning at home?’

Burnley kept their foot on the gas and almost had a second goal in the 11th minute when they once again got in behind the Brentford defence with consummate ease. This time it was Ashley Westwood who had found the gaping holes in Brentford’s defensive line, but this time the defenders were able to get back just in time to knock the ball of his toes as he was about to shoot. He went down and turned to the ref looking for a penalty that the ref was never going to give.

That reprieve for Brentford the hosts at bay for long as Burnley got the ball in the net again just 4 minutes later. This was another simple goal for the hosts, a deep cross from the right hand side that was missed by Jansson, who completely misjudged his clearing header and it was instead flicked on by Wood to the back post where Maxwell Cornet was on hand to poke the ball home. Unfortunately for the hosts though VAR got involved and the goal was chalked off for an offside against Wood as he flicked the ball on. Another reprieve for the visitors that they would fail to take advantage of.

Brentford did have a couple of decent chances in the next 12 minutes before Burnley actually went 2-0 up though. The most clear cut of these coming in the 27th minute when a cross from the Bees right found Toney unmarked in the box only for his driven shot to be kept out by a strong right hand from Nick Pope in the Burnley goal. From the resulting corner Pope completely misjudged the flight of the ball and the ball broke to Frank Onyeka whose shot was then deflected out for a throw-in on the far side. Burnley went straight on the break from this and only a smart save from Alvaro Fernandez prevented Wood from adding to both his and Burnley’s tally for the match.

It took till the 32nd minute for Burnley to score a second goal that counted and once again it was an exceedingly simple passage of play that led to it. They got in down their left hand side and sent a cross into the box. The Brentford defenders were unaware of their surroundings and of Matt Lowton lurking behind them so they tried to let the ball run harmlessly out of the box and away to safety. Needless to say Lowton was able to beat them to the ball and head it in from 6 yards out for one of the simplest goals he will ever score.

The third Burnley goal took only a further 4 minutes to arrive and it was another simple one. This time a cross from their left found Maxwell Cornet in acres of free space in the box and from there all he had to do was cut inside and place the ball in the top left corner of the goal, not a single Bees defender got anywhere near him.

That goal made it 3-0 and the visitors were lucky not to concede a 4th in the 42nd minute. At this point any structure in their back line had evaporated and so a simple cross from the right was all it took for Burnley to be in on goal again. This time the ball pinged from player to player in the box before nestling in the side netting. Then Burnley almost scored direct from the resultant corner with Fernandez having to punch the ball clear from underneath the bar.

The game got to half time at only 3-0 to the hosts. To see a team that hasn’t won so far this season end the first half of a match 3 goals ahead of a team that has won plaudits for their impressive attacking play and who already beaten Arsenal, comeback to draw against Liverpool and run Chelsea and Leicester City extremely close this season may seen too surreal to be true. In truth though Burnley could’ve gone in at half time with a five or six goal lead and no-one at the ground would’ve been surprised. Brentford were truly awful all half and Burnley had been able to exploit that. In added time at the end of the 45 Burnley even had the confidence to try and score a screamer from 35 yards and it only just went over the top too. Burnley were in charge of the match and no mistake.

With this state of affairs the atmosphere amongst the Brentford fans on the concourse at half time was despondent, no-one could understand why the Bees had been so awful given their form so far this season. Theories ranged from a lack of motivation for the trip to play a team at the lower end of the table, to the absence of Raya’s commanding presence at the back leaving the defence in such a mess, to the players letting the results so far this season go to their heads and them now believing all they had to do to win in this league is simply to turn up. I believe the Raya theory to be the most plausible of these and with him expected to be out for many months yet they will need to find a way to adjust to their new reality if they are to rediscover their early season form.

Neither team made any substitutions at half time and whilst this made sense for Burnley, the lack of changes on the Brentford side was both confusing and infuriating given the awful performance they had served up in the first half.

Whatever Thomas Frank said to them at half time clearly had an effect though as the visitors came out looking much more up for it in the second half. Within 5 minutes of the restart Norgaard had a shot palmed away by Pope and Rico Henry hit the rebound both high and wide. The attacking intent was finally there from the visitors though.

This attacking intent was on full display again minutes later when Ivan Toney came close to getting one back for the Bees, but his teasing cross across the 6 yard box was missing anyone there to provide the simple tap in. Frank clearly took note of this as he finally made the visitors first substitution in the 57th minute when he decided to bring on another striker to provide support to Toney up front. On came Saman Ghoddos for Frank Onyeka and whilst Brentford certainly needed the extra striker on to finish off the chances they were now beginning to create the chose of Onyeka to be the one making way was strange, he was the only bees midfielder who had any positive moments in the first half. The substitution did work out for the bees though, so clearly Mr. Frank knew what he was doing.

Ghoddos would score Brentford’s consolation goal in the 80th minute with a stunning, spinning, volleyed finish into the bottom corner of the net from the centre of the area after the ball had been crossed in temptingly by his fellow substitute Mads Roerslev, who had come on minutes earlier to replace Sergi Canos. Before that though Ghoddos became the first player all match to go into the book in the 72nd minute but unfortunately I didn’t make a note of why this was. Either way though Ghoddos certainly had an undeniable effect on the match. He even had the final chance of the match for the visitors from a free-kick in the 86th minute. He put his first effort into the way and then his follow up found the arms of Nick Pope in the Burnley goal.

Burnley had dominated the first half, but for the majority of the second half they had to defend for their lives and they did this to great effect. At times though they did resort to timewasting tactics to give them the chance to reset and have a breather. The ref allowed them to do this for quite a lot of the half, but he did book them for it in the 83rd minute when Dwight McNeil got a yellow for kicking the ball away from a freekick just as the visitors went to take it. This booking may not even have been for the timewasting element though as this also counts as unsportsmanlike behaviour too in my book.

Burnley were excellent throughout the game though and thoroughly deserved their first win of the season. I have nothing but respect for the way that they set themselves about the task. Unfortunately this respect cannot be extended to their fans. Instead of revelling in the brilliant performance of their team throughout the game and celebrating their first win of the season they instead spent the second half of the game singling out individual visiting supporters to pick out for personal insults. This wasn’t just single fans in the home end doing this either, this was the home fans in the stand shared with the away fans picking out individual fans to humiliate en masse. I hope they celebrate any future wins this season in a far more appropriate way. Rant over.

There were only 3 minutes added on at the end of the 90 when it seemed to me that the Burnley timewasting all half should have been worth 5 or 6 by itself. However, as Felipe found out yesterday, the ref’s decision is final so 3 it was. Unfortunately there were no clear-cut chances in these minutes that would have given the visitors the chance to set up a grandstand finish to the match. So it ended 3-1 to Burnley and Sean Dyche had something to celebrate on his 9th anniversary at Burnley. I’m sure the home fans will be hoping that he stays at the club for a long time to come.

As for me, I felt compelled to head back to the club shop after the game to congratulate the ‘silly bald man’ on his excellent prediction for the match. I was unable to find him so instead I spoke to one of the other members of the shop staff and asked them to pass on my congratulations to him. This done I high tailed it to the station as trains out of Burnley are on a one-an-hour service and I had no wish to miss one.

Congratulations to Burnley for their first win of the season and I’m sure that if they play, across the rest of the season, like they did in the first half of this match then they will find a way to stay up. It would be a great reward for all the work Mr. Dyche has put in with them over the years. Good Luck to Mr. Dyche for many more seasons with Burnley.

Next weekend there are a lot of league games that I could go to, but I’m not going to any of them. It’s FA Cup first round weekend so I’m off to the railway junction where leaves on the line can bring the whole network to a halt to find out just who is Alexandra?

Ten days after my first visit to Prenton Park I was back there again, but this time it was for a Tranmere Rover’s Men’s game to see how the fan’s experience compares between Men’s and Women’s games at the same ground. Short answer to that is that the Men’s game was far more relaxing and enjoyable from this fan’s perspective because the staff put on a lot more events around the ground at the Men’s game for fans to enjoy.

I got there about an hour in advance of kick-off and straight away I realised that there would be a lot more fans at this match, it was busy. The shop which doubles up as the ticket office was open this time and the queue for tickets was long down one wall of the stadium. When I got to actually buying tickets the lady serving me asked which stand I wanted to be in and then just gave me the top ticket off the pile for that stand without any further thought as to how far to the side of that stand that ticket would put me or how bad the view would be. I chose to be in the ‘Kop – lower’ section so I would have the same view of the match that I had for the women’s game ten days prior.

However, the ticket I was given was right on the far side of the stand under one of the few parts of the kop stand that is not under cover. This was extremely inconvenient as it was raining at the time and it was made even more inconvenient a placement when a group of 15-20 young boys and girls chose to sit in the seats in front of me. The view that would give people looking towards that area of the stand was one I was not comfortable with and with the weather as it was too I made the choice to move further up the stand before kick-off.

Just a couple of quick notes on the shop itself. As you enter there is a bust on the desk in front of you, this is a bust of legendary club owner and chairman Peter Robinson who saved Tranmere for insolvency when he took over in the 90’s and set the foundations of the modern day club. Also, on the wall outside the shop is a blue plaque to Everton legend Dixie Dean who was born on the Wirral and began his career with 2 seasons at Tranmere before moving across the river to break records with the Toffees.

Having got my ticket and with a little time left before kick-off I decided to investigate the big white tent up the stairs opposite the shop. It turned out to be a beer tent complete with a bar and a screen that was showing the celebrations of the Chelsea players at the conclusion of their comprehensive win over Norwich in the early EPL kick-off that day. I didn’t find out just how comprehensive their victory had been till I got inside the ground and the announcer told the whole stadium over the loud speakers. Better luck for the rest of the season Norwich, but now lets get back to Tranmere and their game against the visiting Northampton Town.

Whilst the ground was far fuller than last week there were still many empty seats for me to move too. At least all 3 home stands were 75% full for this game though, the 4th stand at the opposite end of the game from the ‘Kop’ was set aside for the travelling Northampton Town fans. There were not many Northampton fans that had made the trip, but those who did make the journey did their best to add to the atmosphere.

For anyone looking for programmes in the ‘Kop’ stand they can be found at a hole in the wall in the gap between banners celebrating Tranmere’s Division 3 playoff victory in 1991 and their League Cup semi-final first leg success in 1994.

Before kick-off the stadium announcer read out the visitors squad for the match far before kick-off, then made the mistake of attempting to read out the home team’s as the teams were taking the field and as a result he was predictably drowned out by the fans cheering their teams out. I was reduced to having to read the numbers off the players backs as they took their positions for kick-off. I managed to note them all correctly, but having had to use the same method in midweek too it did not put me in the right mood to enjoy the match.

Both teams were in the playoff places in League 2 going into this game, with Tranmere sitting 5th and 1 point ahead of Northampton Town in 6th. It’s lucky there is a table in the programme to tell you this though as you would not have known of their lofty league positions from the quality of the football in the first half. I had myself another first half snoozefest. Thankfully though this was not to be back to back 0-0 games for me as things did improve in the second half.

The first 15 minutes of the game were dreadful though, with a complete lack of quality on show. The first exciting moment of the match came in the 16th minute when a visiting player shanked an attempted clearance over the top of the stand and out of the stand. That woke things up a little and clearly other players paid attention to the effect it had as another ball went the same way 20 minutes later.

The first proper chance of the match came in the 19th minute and it went to the home side. The ball fell to Liam Feeney just outside the box and he hit it sweetly on the volley but it sailed just over the bar. This chance however appeared to serve as a wake up for the visitors as they fashioned their first threatening chance just 2 minutes later. This one fell to Sam Hoskins 20 yards out and his shot was deflected wide for a corner to Town. They almost scored direct from the corner, but the Rover’s keeper managed to claw it out from under his bar and he also managed to get it to rebound off a Town player for a goal kick. The Northampton players were not happy with this call by the ref and for his protestations Fraser Horsfall was the first player of the match to be booked for dissent, he would not be the last. In the 43rd minute with half time on the horizon Paul Lewis followed his teammate into the book for the same offense. This came the minute after Town had missed a glorious chance to take the lead. A free header from 6 yards out in the centre of the goal was set wide of the post when it looked far easier to score.

Tranmere did actually have the ball in the net from a corner in the 26th minute only to see it chalked off as the ref had seen a foul on the Town keeper in the build up to the goal and gave a free kick to the visitors for this. This was Tranmere’s last decent chance of the half as Northampton took the momentum from this reprieve and went on the attack.

One of these attacks ended up with Aaron McGowan being found completely clear and alone in the box, just to the right side of the pitch from goal. He took a touch to control the ball though which gave Tranmere defenders the chance to get back into position and put him under enough pressure that he swerved his shot into the side netting. This was in the 28th minute and I don’t know id this did any damage to the ball, but 2 minutes later it had burst and needed replacing.

Town had many attacks on the break as the half came to an end and it looked like they would score in the final minute of the half when they had 2 players in space in the box to aim for but the cross was not of enough quality to pick out either, the ball then broke to a Town player 15 yards out in the centre of the box but he skied his shot. That was the final chance of the match and when the whistle blew for half time that made it more than 135 of football without a goal for me. My expectations for the second half were not high.

Half time did little to help my mood as the queues for food were extremely long and the service was just slow enough that I missed the first minute of the second half. Also, the food stand I had queued for was out of almost all food by the time I got to the front of the queue. They only had hotdogs left at that point and having queued for so long I was just hungry enough to go with it. I was not impressed by either the lack of choice or the speed of service though. The staff were very apologetic about the wait though and very polite.

This annoyance at half time and my recent luck with exciting football and goals left me with few expectations for the second half, but thankfully I had a half of football on my hands that delivered both excitement and finally some goals.

The half started with Tranmere being much more attacking and positive with their play. It looked like this would be Tranmere’s half, but Northampton were getting a lot of joy on the break and it was on one of these breaks that they gave the game the goal it so badly needed. Northampton broke quickly and got from one end of the pitch to the other in no time flat. I know the goal was scored from the centre of the box by Northampton’s number 19, Kion Etete but only because I was told this by other supporters around me who saw the goal scored. I missed the actual goal as at the time it happened I had been distracted by the chants of the Tranmere fans who had truly begun to believe in their teams chances of winning.

That goal was scored by the visitors in the 52nd minute and it spurred Tranmere’s manager Micky Mellon into action with the first substitution of the game 7 minutes later as Kieron Morris was replaced by Mark Duffy. This substitution worked wonders for Rovers as they went on to have the most dominant 5 minutes of football I have seen from any team in a long time. They put the Town goal under siege with many great chances to score and it was only with a great team effort from the visitors that were able to maintain their lead.

This incredible Tranmere momentum was brought to an abrupt halt minutes later when Northampton finally managed to break out of their own half and break down the other end of the pitch. This break was the most consequential of the match as at the end of it the Tranmere goalkeeper misjudged his timing as he looked to nip the ball off the toes of the attacker in the box. Contact was made and in one of the easiest decisions of the match the ref had no choice but to give Northampton a penalty which was coolly tucked away by Sam Hoskins for Town’s second goal of the match. This was a goal from which Tranmere never recovered. It was also the first goal I’d actually seen in hours of football so I couldn’t help a little smile, thankfully this was not spotted by the distraught Tranmere fans all around me.

Two Northampton players were booked for dissent in the first half and now with Tranmere 2-0 down and essentially out of the match it was time for one of their players to follow that example.

In the 71st minute Tranmere had a player taken out by an agricultural tackle on their right whilst on the attack, but no freekick was given with the ref instead deciding to play advantage. When the ball went out of play seconds later without any advantage being gained it appeared to go out off a town player, but a goal kick was given. This series of events was too much for Tranmere’s Jay Spearing whose protestations to the ref completed the hattrick of players booked for dissent. He was the only Tranmere player to be booked all match.

The only times later in the game that Tranmere looked like getting back into the match all came within the next 7 minutes. The first of these came in the 75th minute when Rovers managed to catch Northampton on the break and get a player free on the right side of the penalty area, but the first effort was saved by the Town keeper and the rebound was blasted harmlessly over the bar. The next two came a minute later when an ambitious drive across goal was deflected out for a Rovers corner, from the corner the ball was directed goalward and only stayed out with the assistance of the crossbar. The ball then bounced clear off the top of a defender’s head, who knew very little about his timely clearance.

The final notable Tranmere chance and the final chance of note for either team came just a few minutes later in the 78th minute of the match. This one came through Ryan Watson, who had only been substituted onto the pitch a minute earlier. He put in a testing cross from the Rovers right that wrong footed everyone in the penalty area and almost went straight in to the back of the net, almost. Everyone was wrong footed by the cross except Liam Roberts in the Northampton goal. He managed to get into just the right position to claw the ball clear from the underside of the bar before the whole of the ball had crossed the line. Many Tranmere fans thought the ball had crossed the line, but they were unfortunately mistaken.

The final 12 minutes of the match elapsed without any great excitement on the pitch as Northampton engaged in a game of keep ball. This is a viable game management tactic but, as with all game management tactics, it was no fun to watch as a neutral spectator. The only breaks in this game of keep ball were a couple of Northampton substitutions to ear up more time. This may have backfired though as their were 7 minutes of added time at the end of the 90, unfortunately though all that happened in this added time was more Northampton keep ball. This was how the game ended and thankfully my previous knowledge of the journey back made it a lot easier to do this time around.

This blog was delayed due to a very week taking care of other parts of my life, so much so that the next game is tomorrow when I am off into Lancashire for a visit to Burnley’s Turf Moor stadium.

I took a trip to Huddersfield on Wednesday to visit the John Smith Stadium and for the quality of the football I really needn’t have bothered.

Huddersfield’s stadium is one that I’ve wanted to visit for ages and the stadium itself was incredible. It’s just the football that let it all down.
I started this game 2 weeks ago when I was in Huddersfield for other reasons. I found myself at the stadium and Jenna on the ticket office helped me get a ticket for a game I could make. It was either this game or waiting till November 30th. Jenna was a great help but I should’ve waited.

I got to town early on in the day to check into my hotel for the evening as the last train back for me was leaving 5 minutes after the final whistle. Whilst the station is essentially a straight walk from the station google maps put it at 15minutes and I wasn’t taking that risk. Heading to the station that timing felt accurate. To get there you walk straight out of the station down the road straight in front of you and just keep going, turn right at the junction just past farm foods and then through the car park and you’re at the stadium.
To be fair though, from the station you could do a lot worse than head straight ahead and follow the arches.

The Stadium itself is gorgeous, it’s set into a natural bowl in the landscape. It’s got four white arches and when set against the green hills behind it the scene really is quite stunning. On the other side to the green hills runs the River Colne, alongside which runs a path that takes you from the entrance to the car park right up to the stadium.

Having got to the town early and with no other commitments for the day I got to the ground almost 2 hours before kick-off. The turnstiles weren’t even open. I have never been at a ground that early before so I had to find things to do. I couldn’t find any programmes as I was reliably informed that they were only sold inside the ground. Instead I found far more important things to do.

Opposite the turnstiles just past the ticket offices there was a stand set up by the NHS to teach supporters CPR. With the events at Newcastle vs Tottenham last weekend it is great to see Huddersfield taking this action to ensure as many people know CPR as possible. The fan who had the cardiac arrest last weekend was treated at the ground and appears to be on the way to a full recovery. The paramedic teaching me CPR told me that this recovery is partly down to the fact that two fans near him in the crowd knew CPR. Learning this skill really can save lives so it was great to see Huddersfield doing their bit to ensure more people can learn it. I hope other football teams take this onboard and set up stands like this to teach their own fans this important skill.

Behind this life saving stand there was a games hut with both table football and Fifa 2020 ready to play. What I didn’t realise and which there was no sign of on the outside of the hut is that you’re supposed to have under 18’s with you to enter. I got most of the way through a game of Fifa before a steward in the room enlightened me to this rule, but at least they were good enough to let me finish my game before I had to leave. From this point I decided to head into the ground.

Just after I got inside I was able to pick up a free programme. I have yet to be at another game where programmes are free for a league match, but to be fair the programme wasn’t worth paying for. It was rather thin and had no league table inside nor much about either team. The back did however have the normal squad list, just without a column to record the starting 11. It did have circles to record goals and cards though, not that either was particularly needed. The club shop sold something better than the programme though, it sold poppy badges which were a great sight to see and I’m sure poppy badges will be on sale at many other club shops across the land in the next few weeks in the run up to Remembrance day.

On the far side of the pitch during the warm up there was a cluster of orange shirts at the far end of the ground which turned out to be the strips of two local junior teams that were to form a guard of honour for the teams as they entered the field for the match. This was a lovely idea from Huddersfield and a great way to connect the senior team to the community and provide the juniors with role models to inspire their own progress in the sport.

Unfortunately they probably wont have found role models from this match as both Huddersfield and their visitors Birmingham City started the game with the first thought simply to keep the ball and they achieved this by passing backwards at every opportunity. The first half was a real snooze-fest. There was only one chance of note in the entire half where a team actually looked like they may actually score a goal. This came in the 43rd minute when Huddersfield got a freekick halfway within their attacking half. The freekick was sent into the box and met by an excellent diving header that flew mere inches past the post.

There were other attacks in the first 45, but none where either team looked like scoring nor looked like they truly wanted to score either. There was one minute of added time at the end of the half and I’m really not sure where they got it from. The ball hardly ever went out and there were hardly any other breaks in play either. Suffice to say that EFL on Quest must have been struggling to find highlights for their midweek programme.

The screens on the stadium concourse at half time showed both the current league table and stats from the first half. I didn’t see any stats for shots or shots on target in the first half, perhaps this speaks volumes about the quality of the play. One stat that did stand out from the first half was the amount of long balls, it was 30 for Huddersfield and 40 for Birmingham City. A more depressing stat from a half of football I cannot think of.

The halftime break also allowed me to buy a hot chocolate to warm myself up on what was a freezing evening in Yorkshire. What it didn’t bring was any substitutions from either side, which was quite baffling given the dearth of skill or desire on show in the first half.

The first thing to note about the second half were the two clashes of heads that occurred in the half. Both times this occurred the medics were one quickly to attend to the players involved and after a quick assessment the players involved were able to re-join the match.

To be fair to Huddersfield they were the team that had the only clear and obvious chances of the match, the first of which was in the 43rd minute as mentioned. The next of which was in the 57th minute seconds after they had a penalty appeal turned down by the ref when Ward went down in the area. The ball broke to O’Brien on the edge of the penalty area who hit it first time with a splendid strike that flew inches wide of the post. It was the second piece of quality all match and given that fact it was now an hour into the match this made the complete lack of substitutions by either side particularly puzzling.

The first much needed substitution didn’t arrive till the 70th minute when Birmingham’s Lee Bowyer made the first move. He took off his captain Lukas Jutkiewicz and bought on long-time Watford striker Troy Deeney who joined his boyhood heroes in the summer. The important substitution of the game came six minutes late when Huddersfield took off Danny Ward and bought on Frazier Campbell, the first player all match to show the desire to win.

He almost scored within a minute of coming on with a glorious spinning volley from 12 yards out, but the Birmingham keeper got into just the right place to prevent it from going in though and denied the home fans that had come to the game having something to celebrate. Campbell had one last glorious chance of the match in added time at the end of the 90, this time he hit the post with a powerful shot from distance that flew just wide. Campbell was absolutely the man of such an otherwise boring match and he was only on the pitch for 18 minutes.

The lack of desire to win shown by the rest of the players in the home team can be summed up by 2 examples for the final 10 minutes of the game. The first of which was a freekick in the 83rd minute when they had players lining the edge of the box ready to make runs to latch onto the freekick but it was instead played square 35 yards from goal where the receiving player instantly turned away from goal and looked to play it back into his own half. The second was in the 89th minute when the keeper decided against clearing the ball to Harry Toffolo, who was in space on the right, in favour of wasting time. Toffolo was not pleased with this any more than the 15,608 fans in attendance, including the 1,600 away fans who had made the long journey up from Birmingham for the match.

The atmosphere of the match was lacking. This was partly due to the awful lack of quality of the play on the pitch but also partly due to the design of the stadium, which makes each stand a separate structure entirely with gaps at each end for any noise that was made in one stand to escape from the stadium. there is no fully joined up outer structure to keep the atmosphere inside.

Also, one last note for those driving to the match. The main walking route from the stadium heads straight out through the car park and as such no cars are allowed to leave this car park for 15 minutes after the final whistle. Park instead in the car park attached to the cinema 2 minutes away on the far side of the stadium from the station. There appeared to be no such restrictions on that car park.

The stadium was amazing to visit, just a shame the football wasn’t at all up to the same standard. I may return later in the season in hopes of catching a match that lives up to its beautiful surroundings.

This weekend I’m heading back to Prenton Park to see how a Men’s game there compares to the Women’s game I witnessed there 10 days ago.

I was back in London again this weekend and after the incredible game served up by Brentford the last time I visited, for Liverpool’s visit, I couldn’t resist heading back there to see how the Bees dealt with the visit of another title favourite. On a weekend of derbies across the football pyramid with Swansea vs Cardiff and West Brom vs Birmingham it was only fitting that my return to Brentford was for their London derby against Chelsea. As derbies tend to be cagier games with both teams setting out not to lose to their rivals I wasn’t expecting an attacking game at all. My expectations were subverted. Given the position of the teams heading into the weekend I should’ve known it would be a good attacking game. Brentford were 7th with Chelsea leading the way.

Having been to the stadium before and thus knowing what to expect I was a lot calmer than I have been pre-match for a long time. The atmosphere inside the stadium was electric once again though, bees fans are intent on enjoying seeing their team in the EPL for as long as they can. This party atmosphere amongst the bees fans may also have had something to do with the fact that this game signified Thomas Frank’s 3rd anniversary as bees manager.

The amount that Mr Frank has achieved at Brentford since taking over from Dean Smith is certainly impressive. He has got Brentford promoted back into the big time for the first time since 1947 and he has done this with a club that has a high squad turnover and a tradition of bringing in players from lower divisions and making them better. Ivan Toney being a prime example of this, bought from Peterborough United last summer his goals fired Brentford to promotion and he has continued this form in the EPL.

Mr Frank has also fostered a deep connection between the team and their supporters, his programme notes for this game ended by thanking the fans for their contribution to the incredible comeback against Liverpool. In those notes he also talked about the fan’s passion turning the Brentford Community Stadium into a fortress, I have no doubt that is possible but most fortresses have cooler names. The current name does show Brentford’s ambition to become a true focal point for the local community though and with many other clubs drifting further from there fans this ambition is a refreshing one from a club going places.

One last quick word on the programme . At the back is an editorial by ex-bee Ben Burgess called ‘The Last Word’ that is always worth a read. For this game it focused on the belief you need to achieve things and Brentford certainly aren’t lacking in that belief.

The game set off at the same mad pace as on Liverpool’s visit 3 weeks before, albeit with slightly less skill on show from the visitors. It only took 15 seconds for the first chance of the match when a weak backpass from Trevoh Chalobah almost let Ivan Toney in to put the hosts ahead, but Mendy got across just in time to clear and spoil things for the home supporters.

Chelsea then almost went ahead themselves in the 7th minute as a rare mistake from Raya almost resulted in a own goal and a very embarrassing moment for the in-form bees keeper. Luckily for him he was able to recover in time to clear the ball and save his blushes. He has been in inspired form so far this season and bees fans will hope this was just a one off moment for their beloved keeper.

The rest of the first half continued in similar end-to-end fashion, but unfortunately my enjoyment of this excellent spectacle of footballing talent was spoilt somewhat by the questionable decision being made by the ref throughout. The ref chosen for the game was not a man the Chelsea fans liked at all and they showed this by chanting “you’ll always be a c***” at him every time he gave any decisions against them. Perhaps understandably he didn’t give decisions against them often though, with the first freekick against them not being given till the 18th minute when Kovacic took out Jensen on the touchline to cut out a bees counter attack. He received a yellow card for this which sent the Chelsea fans berserk with rage. The ref’s perceived leniency towards the visitors up till this point had already made the bees fans ask “can we have a referee” 3 minutes earlier. The ref was in a terrible position whatever he did in this game, but his performance lost him any respect he had with either set of fans going into the match.

Both sides had chances to score throughout the half, with Brentford’s Mbuemo hitting the post in the 22nd minute from point blank range. Chelsea went straight up the other end and thought they’d opened the scoring only for it to be ruled out for offside. 5 minutes later the visitors had a freekick deflected onto the roof of the net.

With N’golo Kante almost scored twice in a single minute. First he came inches away from connecting with a brilliant through ball only for Raja to pinch it off his toes, then he skied a chance from just inside the box from the next Chelsea attack.

Chelsea ruined the hosts day when they took the lead they probably just about deserved right before half time. They had a chance cleared off the line by Rico Henry in the 44th minute, but they came right back at Brentford and Ben Chilwell was able to slide the ball in from close range. Thanks go to the stadium announcer for the scorer of the goal as I couldn’t actually see who had scored from the other end of the ground.

This was a body blow to the Bees right before half time and it showed at the start of the second half as they lagged far behind the pace in the early part of the second period.
It took till just before the hour mark for the Bees to begin to regain a foothold in the match.

The only things I made any notes about in this period though were a couple of incidents that the ref seemed to miss. First in the 58th minute when Brentford were on the break and Sergi Canos was cleared out on the wing by a hard tackle and then in the 60th minute when Ivan Toney was pulled back by the neck of his shirt in the penalty area. Nothing was given for either of these incidents. This seemed unbelievable to me at the time, particularly for the foul on Toney.

As the Bees refused to go away in the second half and the tension around the ground increased Mr. Frank made a gutsy decision that could have disastrously backfired, he went for it. He took off Frank Onyeka, a midfielder, for Marcus Forss, a striker, in the 67th minute.
A move like this from a manager is a show of strength and huge belief in his team, not to be happy with a narrow loss to a title favourite shows just how much belief there is at Brentford this season and why teams are having such a hard time so far against them.

Shortly after this is seemed as though the gamble had backfired as Chelsea got through the home defence and Lukaku was left with no defenders near him just 6 yards in the centre of the goal. The relief from the Brentford fans when his shot went sailing over the bar was palpable.

That scare behind them Brentford made another attacking substitution in the 73rd minute as Mr. Frank took off Sergi Canos, who had been playing at RB, and bought on Saman Ghoddos, another striker, in his place. This meant Brentford now had 3 out and out strikers on the pitch despite being 1-0 behind against Chelsea. I doubt many other teams will make the same call in similar situations this season.

Just 2 minutes after these substitutions it looked as though they had paid off with Mbeumo finding himself clean through in the penalty area with just the keeper and the post to beat. He beat the keeper, but not the post.

For the rest of the game Brentford laid siege to the Chelsea goal and it seemed like the equaliser would only be a matter of time. Brentford had shots cleared off the line in both the 84th and 86th minutes, but both times they didn’t let the disappointment of failing to score break them. They simply won the ball back and surged forward again searching for that elusive equaliser.

By this point Chelsea were really hanging on and resorted to the tries and tested game-management trick of time-wasting. Whenever they had the ball they decided not to attack and instead just keep possession in their own half or attempt to draw a foul from Brentford to win a freekick that they could then eat up more time taking. It’s a very effective tactic, but not at all satisfying to watch from a fan’s perspective.

Brentford had one last chance to equalise in the four minutes added on at the end of the 90. From their own cornet the ball broke in the air and Christian Norgaard met it with a delicious bicycle kick that look to be sailing into the top corner of the goal, right on the postage stamp. It was not to be. Edouard Mendy in the Chelsea goal leapt to his left to keep it out with a spectacular fingertip save. It was an incredible display of skill from both players, but ultimately the score remained at 0-1 and the whistle went for the end of the match a minute later.

Chelsea return to the top of the table and from what I saw at the game they have a real shot at the title this season. Their ability to perform under pressure and hold on for the result is something all title-winning teams need to have. Brentford fans can also take heart from the match though. The way their team fought till the end to try and take something from the match against the table toppers shows that they have the character they will need to get results throughout the season.

The next blog will be coming to you from West Yorkshire as I head to a midweek championship game between Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City. I look forward to what Yorkshire has in store for me.

Having had last weekend off for the international break I couldn’t wait till this weekend to go back to a game, so I looked online for a midweek game that would be easy to get too.
The game I found was Liverpool FC Women vs Aston Villa Women in the Women’s Continental League Cup just half an hour’s bus ride from me at Tranmere Rover’s Prenton Park ground on the Wirral. Even better for me was that as a Liverpool Member I found out that I can get free tickets to their Women’s games, I believe tickets are £6.50 for most fans. Add to that the fact that these two teams went opposite ways in the leagues 2 seasons ago, when Villa got promoted to the WSL as Liverpool were getting relegated out of it and this was a no brainer of a game for me to go too.

For those coming to Liverpool FC Women’s games from further afield the easiest way I could find to get there on public transport was a train to Liverpool Lime Street then take a 5 minute walk to St. Thomas Street and get the 464 straight through the Mersey tunnels. On that bus you can’t miss the ground, it stops right outside but you do have to cross the road to get into the stadium. Word of caution if you’re going to a midweek game at Prenton Park though, the last bus back to Liverpool is at 6:50pm so it’s worth working out another back beforehand or you’ll be left scratching your head on how to do so after the game like I was. The only way back to the city at that time in the evening is to turn left from the ground and take the 25 minute walk down a straight road to Birkenhead Central station, the train to Lime street station takes 10 minutes from there and they run until 11:30pm.

When you get to the ground it feels really weirdly positioned near a busy crossroads in a sleepy village on the Wirral. The ground also look deeply unimpressive from the outside with the main thing you can see from the outside being red brick walls. It is more impressive when you get inside though. To get inside for Liverpool Women’s games at the ground you have to cross the road from the bus top and take Prenton Road West. You carry on down that side of the stadium, past the painted wall of football boots till you get to the Johnny King statue by the Mersey Clipper pub. Then you head down the path in between them and through the car park to the Kop turnstiles where you can actually get inside.
Due to the demand for tickets to the game they had only opened up one stand, so both home and the small contingent of away fans were all behind the goal at the Kop end of the stadium. This made the way the game ended unfathomable to me, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m not even in the stadium yet.

Getting into the stadium as it turned out would not be easy. I had headed to the game expecting to be able to pick up a ticket at either the ticket office or on the turnstiles as I have been able to at many grounds in the past. That’s not how it works here though as all tickets for Liverpool Women’s matches must be bought online.

It seems crazy to me that they do things this way when they need to be doing all they can to encourage people to come to Women’s games. One of the ways to encourage people to try new things is to make it easy for people to just turn up and try them out. This policy of not having tickets on sale at the ground clearly flies in the face of that and anything that makes it harder for people to come to Women’s football games should be changed when the goal of everyone in football should be to bring Women’s football up to the level of fan interest and engagement that the Men’s game enjoys.

The stewards and ground staff were extremely helpful in getting things sorted out though and after a few conversations in which I explained the situation and gave them my membership number, they were able to verify my membership and they let me into the ground. Actually that’s one thing I noticed about all the staff at Prenton Park for the game they were all incredibly helpful, enthusiastic and polite. The staff at the ground were the biggest advert for Women’s football I could ever hope to see.

Once inside it was clear that there would not be the normal football atmosphere for the match as the majority of the fans were families with young children and this made the ground feel far more relaxed than a football stadium normally does just before a match is about to kick off. It also made me stick out like a sore thumb as a white bloke in my mid-20’s, anywhere other than a football match the whole thing could’ve looked rather disturbing.

The last thing I want to talk about before I get into the actual match is the Liverpool mascot ‘Mighty Red’ who I saw out of the corner of my eye talking to some of the youngsters in the stands. He then came over to me, took my programme then opened it up and signed it. I have never had a mascot do anything like that at a game before, but I think more should.

The game itself was not the highest quality that Women’s football has to offer as both teams left some of their better players on the bench to make sure they were rested for their league games.
The quality was still impressive from the Ladies on the pitch though as both teams took to the task in hand with the attacking attitude that most football purists like to see. Neither teams were parking the bus, they were both having a go and trying to win the match.

Villa made their recent WSL experience count early on though as they were ahead after 2 minutes with a great counter-attacking goal. Liverpool had a corner at the far end of the pitch, but the ball broke loose and with just 3 passes Villa had it up the other end with Shania Hayles in the Liverpool box with just one defender and the keeper to beat. She cut inside after wrong footing the defender and slid the ball under the keeper’s despairing dive and into the back of the net. 1-0 to the Villa.

An error 6 minutes later almost had Liverpool level as the Villa keeper mis-controlled the ball in her area with a Liverpool attacker lurking nearby, but the keeper recovered just in time to clear the ball and prevent an embarrassing moment from wiping out Villa’s lead.
From that clearance Villa went straight up the other end where only some excellent last ditch defending by Liverpool’s Meikayla Moore prevented Villa’s Alisha Lehmann form scoring a second for Villa. This was almost ruined by the Liverpool keeper’s clearance which missed Lehmann by mere centimetres.

Villa bossed the majority of the first half and almost got a second goal just 11 minutes in. This time it was Gemma Davinson who latched on to a brilliant cross from the Villa right and it took the attentions of four Liverpool defenders to stop her getting the second goal that Villa’s play to that point absolutely deserved.

Villa’s first setback of the match came 18 minutes in when their captain Marisa Ewers had to be substituted with an injury, her replacement Remi Allen took the armband for the rest of the match.

Liverpool took advantage of this Villa setback to finally go on the attack themselves 2 minutes later when good work on the left by Georgia Walters ended up with the ball getting to the feet of Liverpool’s star player and local lass Missy-bo Kearns to have a shot from just outside the box. It flew agonisingly just wide of the post.

Liverpool managed to stay on top for the rest of the half and carved out 2 more guilt edged chances before the break. The first being an ambitious drive from 30 yards that the Villa keeper got positioned just right to keep out. The second came from a corner just after the ref had waved away the hosts claims for a penalty. A header from 6 yards out from the corner was somehow kept out by the visitors, but I couldn’t see quite how.

The first half ended 1-0 to Villa and the hosts manager Matt Beard had seen enough to make a triple change at the break.

Ten minutes into the second half Liverpool had established a foothold in the game and got in on their right through the excellent Melissa Lawley, unfortunately her cross hit the back of the head of a Liverpool player in the centre and bounced harmlessly away from goal.
Four minutes later though Liverpool were back on the attack and they got a corner that Missy-bo Kearns attempted to score directly from, unfortunately for her though the Villa keeper was on the ball and managed to get her fingertips too it to dig it out from under the crossbar and put it over the top.

However this was enough to convince Villa manager Carla Ward that now was the time for her to make a triple change. She took off both their goalscorer Hayles and their main playmaker Lehmann. With Villa leading and Liverpool in the ascendency perhaps the idea was to tighten up the defence and protect their lead. It didn’t work out.

Missy-bo Kearns had another incredible effort from distance this time that once again had the Villa keeper scrambling to make another brilliant fingertip save to keep Villa’s lead intact. Beard then made the substitutions that made all the difference, but which looked as strange as the Villa ones at the time. He substituted Missy-bo Kearns and Walters and replaced them with Liverpool’s record appearance maker Ashley Hodgson and the Woman who would make all the difference to the match Leanna Kiernan.

Those substitutions took place in the 63rd minute and by the 66th Kiernan had equalised. Her goal was a thing of beauty, she picked up the ball on the edge of the area, danced past 3 defenders then shaped to shoot across the goal before sliding it in at the near post. The skill and precision that were on show in the scoring of this goal were a pleasure to witness and I would be extremely surprised if a WSL club does not make an offer for her services in January. Unfortunately her spectacular cameo in this game lasted on 14 minutes before she had to be substituted with an injury. Liverpool will hope that she is not out for long as she showed she has the ability to turn games around and her presence in the team will be crucial to Liverpool’s promotion ambitions in the league.

Her goal and injury were the last major actions of the game, but the 4th official still managed to find 7 minutes of stoppages to add on at the end of the 90. Quite how 7 minutes was decided on I wouldn’t like to guess, but 7 it was.

At the end of those 7 many fans thought the game was over and the draw was the result, but this was a cup game so group stage or not there had to be a winner and in this tournament that winner was to be decided on penalties. This would have been an exciting way to end the game if not for the fact that it was decided that the penalties would not be taken in front of the only stand with fans in it, but would instead be taken at the other end of the ground as far away from the fans as possible. Why they chose to do things this way is anybody’s guess, but it seemed like an own goal to me not to involve the fans in this crucial moment in the match.

I have no idea who took any of the penalties, but I do know that Villa missed their first one and this proved to be decisive. Liverpool won the shootout 5-4 and in this way they won the match. It was a very strange ending to the match, but the right result to get the locals to return in the future and hopefully enough for them to tell others about the joys of Women’s football and in that way grow the fanbase for the Women’s game.

This has to be the weirdest football match I’ve ever been too and I’m still scratching my head as to what I went through. The experience from start to finish was both sublime and ridiculous.

I have to admit to a lack of planning on my part as I only chose what weekend game to go to midweek when it became clear that I wouldn’t be having any luck in the draw for tickets for Man City’s visit to Liverpool. In my disappointment at that realisation I decided to go to Bolton instead as it seemed an easy place to get too and I’ve been fascinated by the club since I was young. Their badge looked like something a child could draw, so I liked it instantly. Also, I found a Youtube vlogger called StuntPegg a couple of seasons back and the majority of her vlogs were from Bolton Wanderers so I wanted to go and see if the atmosphere conveyed in those excellent vlogs was present in real life.

I booked my train to arrive at Bolton for 1pm, figuring that would leave me more than enough time to find the ground, buy a ticket and watch the warmups before relaxing into the game. Except for one thing, Bolton’s ground isn’t in Bolton. It’s 2 hours walk or 30 mins cycle away, but luckily there is a 10 minute train ride that you can take to the tiny little train station of Horwich Parkway. Off the train the first thing that caught my eye was the backdrop of rolling hills topped in mist. A lovely countryside view, but not the place you expect to find a massive stadium of a club on the up.

The journey even to Bolton was crazy even before I realised that the stadium isn’t in Bolton. My journey took me through Wigan and having missed my earlier connection by minutes I suddenly had 40 minutes of free time in Wigan. It’s a lovely town and near the stations there is an exquisite octagonal war memorial in the grounds of an equally lovely church. If you have a chance to visit do.

Another reason to visit Wigan is Wallgate Station. The waiting room windows are covered in poems and the whole place is gorgeous. It’s on a line from Southport to Alderley edge and the route is one of the most scenic I have ever been on. The only downside to that route is that the train seats were extremely uncomfortable.

The stadium itself is set on the edge of a huge retail park that seemed to have attracted half the population of Greater Manchester that afternoon. The retail park does have an upside for supporters coming in by car, there is serious levels of parking available. I would be amazed in anyone coming to the ground can’t find a parking spot, even when the ground is full.

Even with the confusion over the location of the ground I still made it there with an hour to go till kick off, so I went to buy a ticket certain of a good seat in such a great stadium. The amount of supporters at the ground was impressive though and when I did get a ticket it said ‘impaired view’ and that confused me later. The lady who sold me the ticket didn’t ask for any details of who I was, which means there is no way for the club to know who comes to games and no way for them to prompt them to return to games in future.

Bolton are the only club that I’ve been too which don’t take details of the fans coming into their games and thus no way of building a supporter base. However, this doesn’t seem to effect the number of supporters coming to the ground. Three of the four stands were teaming with supporters when I got in there. The ground itself is impressive inside and out.

A word of warning though if you’re looking to pick up a programme though. In this digital age, with many places becoming card only, the programme sellers at Bolton are one of the few things that are still cash only. The nearest ATM is at Asda in the retail park should you turn up to the stadium cash light.

If you have time before kick-off I highly recommend taking a lap of the ground and taking in the statue of Nat Lofthouse on the approach to the ground for the station. There are four plaques surrounding the statue, two of which show scenes of Lofthouse’s career highs and one of which celebrates the significant moments in the club’s history.

However, the final plaque is the most important of the four as it commemorates those supporters who lost their lives at the Burnden Park disaster on 9th March 1946 when 33 supporters died during a sixth round FA-Cup match between Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers at Bolton’s Burnden Park stadium. This is not the place for me to go into the disaster, so I highly recommend you looking it up yourself if you wish to know more. It was great to see Bolton remembering those who passed though, they will never be forgotten.

The stadium staff are lovely, the stewards are helpful and kind, which I’ve found is a rare quality for stewards these days, and the staff at the food kiosks are some of the nicest I’ve ever met. They were fast and extremely polite. The wait for food was only a couple of minutes, which is nothing compared to most grounds, but the young lady who served me still apologised for the wait. The staff deserve huge credit for making my overall experience at the University of Bolton Stadium extremely enjoyable, they are also the most diverse group I have met at a football stadium. The one lad serving a whole stand at Preston was White whilst all but one of the servers at Brentford were Black. Bolton on the other hand had the staff at almost exactly 50/50 between those groups, with staff from Indian, Hispanic and East Asian backgrounds in the mix too.

Bolton fans are some of the most passionate I have ever met and the numbers that they travelled in to see their team in League one is brilliant. The official attendance numbers were 14,524 but in the ground it both looked and felt like way more. Many people talk about the Newcastle fans as the most loyal fans in the country, but from what I experienced Bolton fans could run them really close.

The Bolton fans covered themselves in further glory pre-match. During the tribute led by the stadium announcer to the late Roger Hunt MBE, a legend of the game and one of England’s world cup winners in 1966, the Bolton fans broke out into a spontaneous round of applause in his memory. It was an incredible show of class from the Bolton fans and I will remember that round of applause fondly for the rest of my life. Thank you Bolton fans!

The match itself was high quality and both sets of fans did a great job of trying to contribute to the atmosphere. Bolton were the better side throughout and some of the skills on show were brilliant. The standout moment of the match though had to be in the 32nd minute when Declan John pulled off an incredible backheel to go past an opponent on the touchline. It was something I’d never seen anyone pull off before and I certainly didn’t expect to see it in league one. The quality of the match was unlike anything I’ve seen before at this level in the leagues.

Bolton were on top the whole of the first half and they took a 2-0 lead early on that they didn’t look like surrendering the whole game. Sarcevic scored the first for Bolton in the 18th minute, cutting in from the Bolton left to slot the ball into the far top corner of the net, postage stamp stuff.

The second Bolton goal followed 5 minutes later and was almost a carbon copy of the first except that Afolayan, number 17, had to ride a few Shrewsbury tackles on his was to cutting inside and scoring in the far bottom postage stamp of the net. Two incredible and almost identical goals a mere five minutes apart and Bolton dominated the rest of the half to go in two goals to the good. The only Shrews player who came close to Bolton’s level in the first half was Bennett, Shrews number 17, who spent most of the half keeping his team in the conversation of the match. He also had a match long battle of the 17’s with Afolayan which was great to watch.

I had a great view of all this sublime Bolton play in the first half as, despite my tickets saying ‘impaired view’ the sightlines from every seat in the stadium are excellent, there are clear unobstructed views of the pitch from all round the stadium. Why my tickets said ‘Impaired view’ I have no idea and I’ll never find out either. Just another thing to wonder about with Bolton.

Their second have performance was confusing too, they were like a completely different team as Shrewsbury took control of the match and they almost drew level in the 56th minute from the penalty spot. The penalty itself looked soft and from my viewpoint any contact looked like it was outside the box, but the ref gave it so that’s that. Luckily for the Bolton faithful justice was served as the penalty was dreadful. After a long wait to take the penalty it was weakly chipped down the centre of the goal, the goalkeeper barely had to move to keep it out. If the pen had more power on it or the keeper had dived then maybe it would’ve had a chance of going in, but as it was it has to be one of the worst penalties I’ve ever seen at a game.

The visitors kept pressing though and, despite a scary moment in the 77th minute where they almost scored an own goal, they looked like they had a chance of getting back into the match. There chances were few and far between though as Santos, one of the Bolton centre backs, was having the game of his life blocking every pass through that the Shrews tried.

Shrewsbury did pull a goal back towards the end though, but the circumstances around the goal were controversial. It’s the 89th minute of the game and Shrewsbury are on the attack once again, but a pass through the Bolton backline was flagged for offside just as ball reached it’s intended target. I looked away to make some notes about the overall game and when I look up again seconds later the ref has overruled the offside and Shrews have a freekick on the edge of the box. I have no idea why. Shrewsbury scored with an incredible strike from the freekick, but I have no idea how they got that freekick to begin with.

That was the last action of the game, despite the five minutes added on which contained no moments of note and Bolton ran out 2-1 winners. They totally deserved the 3 points.

The strange placement of their stadium came into full focus. I was in the first small group of people to reach the station, but even so we had to wait outside the station as the platform was too small to have us wait on. Your stadium is incredible Bolton, but the station is not good enough for it. Expand the station please to make it fitting for your great club.

Also, please add some more big screens inside the stadium. As with Deepdale there was only one screen visible from the stands which was perfect for fans in the west stand behind the dugouts, but which was in the blind spot from my seat in the Nat Lofthouse (east) stand. It was an improvement on Preston’s though as it was ad-free and actually provides fans with useful info about the game, such as the score and how far through the game they are in a cumulative fashion. Preston’s screen reset between halves.

Another strange thing about this game was the position of the away fans in the stadium. Normally the away fans will be situated in a corner of the ground close to the home fans so that both sides can feed off the other and create one hell of an atmosphere, like the one I experienced last week at Brentford vs Liverpool. However, at Bolton the away fans were in the only stand not filled with home fans and they were almost centrally positioned in that stand. This left them as far away from the home fans as possible, which meant that despite the incredible efforts from both sets of supporters the atmosphere in the ground was flat as a pancake. Neither set of supporters lacked for passion or inventive charts, but the distance between them left no chance for them to feed off each other and give the ground that true football stadium feeling. The players tried their best to lift things with the greatest exhibition of skill that I have ever seen in a lower league game, but to no avail.

The stadium is incredible and the fans are inspiring, but the atmosphere was one of the worst I have ever experienced at a football match and I’ve been to non league games with a few hundred fans before. This juxtaposition of incredible stadium, inspiring fans and inspired football against such an awful lack of atmosphere has me wondering whether to go to another game some time and I’m just not sure.


There will be no blog next week as I take a week off for the international break to focus on other commitments on the Saturday. I had planned to got to a Women’s match on the Sunday, but they’re all down south and with Sunday public transport that’s further than I’m able to go for a day.
I’ll be back in 2 weeks when I’m back in London for the whole weekend and using will the opportunity to take in a London Derby.

This game is one that I have been looking forward too for months, ever since the hosts got promoted. I built up this game in my head as the holy grail game of the season that I would do anything to get a ticket too. A game where I have a deep emotional connection to both sides.

The visitors have been my team from the age of 5 and watching them helped me through so many things. Istanbul in ’05 is the defining football memory of my childhood and the benchmark for best day of my life, but it may just have been beaten. The hosts are a team I’ve been going to the games of since 2015 and I was at the last game with fans at their old ground.

Both teams hold special places in my heart and this was my first chance to see them play each other head to head. They hadn’t played each other in the league since 1947, way before my birth. It’s fair to say that if the game wasn’t an incredible spectacle with beautiful football on both sides I was going to be extremely disappointed. As you may have guessed from the title of this blog I was not disappointed, the game was incredible and I’m still buzzing thinking about it almost 24 hours later.

The game in question is Brentford vs Liverpool at the new Brentford community stadium.
This meant travelling down to London and that meant 3 hours of travel from my flat to the stadium. That is travel that I wouldn’t normally bother with, but this was a special occasion.
I left myself enough time to travel this time and arrived at the ground an hour before the game and just in time for the away team coach to arrive. I have never experienced that at a ground before, but I may try and get to grounds in time for it in future. Seeing the Liverpool players walk from the coach to the tunnel was incredible. It’s the nearest I’ve ever been to my heroes who finally won Liverpool the premier league and very soon I was going to be cheering against them.

Brentford’s Community Stadium is an incredible stadium and it will serve Brentford well as they attempt to establish themselves in the Premier League for years to come. I do miss the pubs on each corner of Griffin Park a little though and I’ll never forget the games I went to at that brilliant old stadium. No denying the toilet upgrade at the new stadium though, the old ones were awful.

I picked up a program outside the ground before heading in to sample the atmosphere and watch the warm-ups. Finding food was difficult, though there were many food kiosks they only sold falafel, vegan sausage rolls and other trendy food. If you want burgers you’re out of luck, but hot dogs and pizza can be found from ‘The Griffin’ Kiosk at the far end of the North Stand near block N121. Brave of them to try new things but for me you can’t beat proper football food, hot dogs and burgers with whatever drink you want.

The roar that greeted the appearance of the teams for the warm-ups was earth-shattering. My seat in the home ground was right near the away fans and it felt fitting being caught between the two sides of supporters as my loyalties were split also.

Liverpool warmed up in front of me. Mane and Salah exchanging passes whilst Milner and Henderson stretched whilst chatting in the middle of the pitch. It was surreal and things only got better from there.

Before kick-off there was a rare moment of unity in the stadium as all supporters joined in on a chorus of Hey Jude, a traditional Brentford pre-match song. That was the last unity between supporters all match.

When the football kicked off so did the chants from both sets of supporters and they didn’t stop till after the final whistle. The atmosphere created by the chants was matched by the football from both sides. Brentford vs Liverpool at Brentford Community Stadium on Saturday 25th September 2021 is without a doubt the best game of football I have ever had the pleasure to watch. It could’ve been 2-1 in the first ten minutes.

Salah found himself free in the box with just the keeper to beat and with Raya duly beaten it looked like 1-0 to the visitors 7 minutes in. Not so fast! A brilliant goal line clearance from Ajer denied Salah his 100th Liverpool goal, for now. In my notes I had that clearance down as Jansson, but other events later in the game made me realise I’d better check all the identities after the game and every other place I looked had Ajer down for the clearance.

Brentford then had a goal line clearance of their own to rue just a minute later. They went straight up the other end and Mbuemo slotted the ball past Alisson only he hadn’t got enough power on the shot and Fabinho was able to get back to clear off the line. Bees then skied the follow up chance. Less than ten minutes in and it could’ve been 1-1 already.

The rest of the first half continued at this frantic pace and the quality was amazing throughout. Both teams played top quality football, but it was Brentford who drew first blood. The goal was scored from a cross on the right that got flicked on by Toney and turned in at the back post by Mbuemo, sorry no the goal was apparently scored by Pinnock. I was so caught up celebrating the goal in giddy euphoria and when I looked up I saw Mbuemo running towards the stands so I took him down as the scorer. He must’ve been running to join celebrations I didn’t see cause I was so caught up in the moment.

Liverpool’s equaliser 10 minutes before half time is another goal where I had no idea of the scorer. The only thing I saw at the time was the exact moment it was clear this was going to be the equaliser. Salah had the ball on the Liverpool right, then Henderson came past on the overlap and there was no Brentford player within 15 yards of him. I was screaming from the other end of the pitch for someone to close him down and whilst Mbuemo tried his best he couldn’t get there in time to stop the cross. The cross was pinpoint and it was met by a header at the back post to steer it home. At the time I thought it was possibly Mane or Trent Alexander-Arnold, but it truth I had no idea. Turns out it was Jota.

Liverpool should have taken the lead minutes later but a brilliant double save from Raya kept the scores at 1-1. Raya touched Jones’ long range effort onto the post before getting up to deny Jota from point blank range on the rebound. Minutes before half-time it was only an excellent tackle from Rico Henry nabbing the ball off Salah that stopped that 100th goal and meant the teams went into the break all square. A fair reflection of a half that could’ve easily ended 3-3 instead of the 1-1 that it did.

One small unfortunate moment for Brentford before the break was Ethan Pinnock having to be substituted with an injury. He scored the opening goal of the match and has been a stalwart at the back all season for the Bees so Thomas Frank will hope the injury isn’t serious.

The second started at the same bonkers pace as the first, in fact the whole game was played at a bonkers pace with equally an bonkers high level of football from both teams.
Salah finally got his 100th goal 10 minutes into the second half, but not without more drama. A defence splitting pass found him behind Brentford lines in the box and he belied the pressure of 2 near misses already in the game to slide it past Raya from 6 yards out. The linesman then flagged for offside and the goal was ruled out, much to the delight of the Bees fans. That delight was short lived as VAR intervened and the goal was given. Cue despair for Bees fans and delight for Liverpool fans. That was hard to swallow.

Liverpool’s lead lasted 10 minutes before Brentford were level. This one included tech too, but this time it was of the goal-line variety. Brentford attack and it’s pinball in the Liverpool area at the back post. Alexander-Arnold had been the one standout bad performance of the whole game and he was beaten to the ball here by Vitaly Janelt who was able to guide it over Alisson and it crossed the line just before Trent was able to get back and clear it off the line. I was unsure whether the ball had gone in, but the ref pointed to his watch and gave the goal. I have no words to describe the feeling.

The Liverpool fans had been celebrating so much after Salah’s goal and it felt like the game had gone, so to be back level again left my brain with nowhere to go. It’s something I have never felt before and I have no frame of reference to describe it.

Parity didn’t last long though as 3 minutes later Liverpool were back ahead. Crushed is not strong enough for the depression inducing sadness of thinking your team has secured a draw against a title challenger only to go behind again minutes later. The goal was a moment of standout quality from Curtis Jones in a game of incredible moments.

A superb strike from outside the box hit hard and true into the postage stamp. That is how it looked from the stand, but apparently it took a deflection of Ajer on the way through to beat Raya. It would’ve been a worthy winning goal for any game, except that it wasn’t the winning goal. There was still more drama to come.

Before we get to that though there were a couple of important substitutions that changed the course of the end of the game. Liverpool bought on Firmino and I thought Jota had gone off, it took me at least 5 minutes to realise that it was actually Jones who had been taken off. The more impactful substitution came from Brentford as Thomas Frank decided not to settle for anything less than a fight to the whistle. Frank gambled by taking off Defensive midfielder Christian Norgaard and bringing on Attacking midfielder Yoane Wissa. A risky call at 3-2 down against a team with a real shot at the title this season, but it worked a treat.

Minutes after Wissa came on he was the man who equalised for Brentford in the 82nd minute. I have no idea how he scored, all I remember was that the ball was in the net and the fans celebrations were wild. I have never seen scenes like it. I was so caught up in celebrating the unbelievable equaliser that I wasn’t even sure who had scored. I wrote it down as Wissa then changed my mind to Baptiste, who had also just come on, then changed it back to Wissa again when I saw his face on the big screen with the word GOAL around it.

This was not the end of the drama though as it looked like Brentford had actually won it all in the 86th minute through Ivan Toney. I can tell you even less about this goal and I didn’t see it go in. I just saw Toney wheeling away in celebration and then got lost in my own celebrations. I also didn’t see the linesman flag for offside, the first I knew about the goal being ruled out was when it came up on the big screen that the offside was being checked by VAR. Thinking you’ve won the game then seeing the goal has been ruled out is an even worse feeling than I got from Liverpool’s third goal. It stayed 3-3.

The final moment of drama came in the added 5 minutes at the end of the match. Toney went down in the penalty area and from where I was at the other end of the ground I was convinced it was a penalty, but nothing was given.

When the final whistle went I was disappointed with the draw for Brentford. Disappointed by a result I’d have bitten your hand off for if it had been offered before kick-off.
It was a crazy game, you’d never guess that one team was newly promoted playing in their first Premier League season and the other was one of the favourites for the title. Both teams looked like title contenders in this match.

Going ahead early then going behind twice and having to come from behind both times late in the second half. After that you think you’ve scored a winner only to have it chalked off for offside. Most teams would be disappointed with a draw after all that, but Brentford should be so proud of themselves instead. Brentford held their own and even dominated at times against a brilliant Liverpool team with a real chance of title glory. Not bad for a team who haven’t played at this level since the 1940’s. On this evidence Brentford will absolutely be staying up and they will give every team that visits the Brentford Community stadium one hell of a test. Do not expect an easy game in West London this season.

The next visitors are Chelsea and I’ll be at that one too. Not sure what game I’m off to next weekend, but for this weekend I had an incredible experience at, in the word of one of the stewards “one hell of a game”.

As a football mad Londoner now living in the north I am taking the opportunities presented by my new location to visit many of England’s Football stadiums that I have always wanted to visit but never had the opportunity too before.

Why do this?

• As an avid football fan for my entire life I have often wondered what the fan’s experience is like in other parts of the country and now I have moved up north I have the chance to find out what I’ve always wanted to know.
• The blog is about sharing my experiences at these new grounds with other football fans to give them an idea of what to expect when visiting the ground in question. Is the ground worth the travel and what are the pitfalls to watch out for whilst there?
• I’ll be visiting as many grounds this season as possible across both the Men’s and Women’s games.
• This blog will serve as the record of my experiences at the grounds I visit and I hope it will inspire other football fans to take the chance to visit some of these grounds as well, maybe to visit teams you’ve never thought about visiting before.