The Football tourist

Sunday 27th March 2022: WSL: Old Trafford: Manchester United vs Everton

It was Mother’s day for this match and so I thought it only to head to Manchester to witness history being made in Women’s football as Manchester United’s Women’s team played in front of fans at Old Trafford for the first time ever. They had played at ‘the theatre of dreams’ back in 2021 but that match against West Ham United was played behind closed doors due to the worldwide situation.

Well now, you didn’t seriously think I’d go to a Men’s match at Old Trafford did you, I’ve been a Liverpool fan since the age of 5 after all so supporting the enemy in their home stadium is one thing I’ll never do. I have no such deep-rooted allegiances in the Women’s game though so this match was the perfect opportunity for me to visit the stadium and experience what it feels like to watch a match here, without making the childhood version of me disgusted by the Man I’ve become.

I was if anything way too overprepared for this match as the hosts sent out an email 48 hours before kick-off. In this email is everything you need to know for a trip to the stadium, plus loads you don’t. It tells you what the pre-match entertainment is going to be and how to get to the stadium, neither of which I payed the slightest bit of attention too. Lets you know that the stadium itself is run on a cashless basis and when the club shop is open; how much the matchday programme will be and that it is only available from kiosks inside the stadium.

For those driving to the stadium for the match there was a link on the email to book a parking space, as well as a link to download your e-ticket to your phone as they had done away with paper tickets for this one. The most important message for me of this long and winding email was the revelation that Old Trafford is a bag free stadium, but they do provide bag drops for those you bring with you on the journey. I have never had an email this detailed before a match before so, much as I hate to say it, cheers Man U.

With the kick-off at 12:30pm I still had to be up at 8:30, despite how prepared I now was, to get to the stadium on time to ensure I got in before the match started. The crowds expected at the match meant that I was being extra careful to build wriggle room into my schedule. This turned out to be a great call on my part as on arrival at Manchester Piccadilly station a quick look at google maps told me that my original plan to simply hop on a tram to the Old Trafford stop would not work. That stop is for the cricket ground and not the football stadium, which is a 15 minute walk from it. The closest stop to the stadium is Wharfside, but for that one you have to change at either Pomona or Cornbrook stop.

I changed at Pomona and when I arrived at Wharfside I was glad I had chosen to choose that stop. Wharfside is set beautifully beside the Manchester Ship canal as it fans out into the distance. You can see the stadium as you disembark the tram and to get to it all you need to do is walk out the stop in the direction of travel, then turn left onto Sir Alex Ferguson Way and the stadium looms large in-front of you. Missing that is on you.

The last step before you reach the stadium is to cross the busy road in-front of you, which is easily done when you wait for the lights. When I reached the stadium the stewards directed me to the bag drop where I left my bag for the bargain price of £5. Handbags seemed to fit within the A4 size limit that the hosts have set for bags they will allow inside.

Despite turning up to the ground early I knew I would miss the arrival of the player’s coaches, so I spent a little extra time enjoying a lap of the stadium and enjoying all the things on offer as I lapped it. The bag drop was in the car park opposite the Sir Matt Busby stand and between the two was a large paved area that hosted many media teams following the historic event of the day, as well as a life-size version of the throne that 6 of the team we were all about to see in action were leaning against in a gigantic banner on the side of the stand under which a bronze stature of Mr. Busby hovered.

This gigantic banner was complimented by smaller A3 banners on the rails of the car park wall opposite, with each player given her own banner along the length of the wall. Children were having their pictures taken on the throne as their parents admired the triple statue next to it. The statue in question was dedicated to the so called ‘United trilogy’ of Denis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton from the first glory period in the club’s history.

I turned my back on them and headed inside the shop or ‘megastore’ to explore what it had to offer, once I had passed the airport security guarding the entrance. That was only a small taste of how over-the-top the shop was. They had hair curlers and straighteners for sale as well as their own branded coffee blend!!

I confined myself to just my traditional keyring, which has been shoved in a desk draw and will never see the light of day again, and got out of there. I popped across to the individual banners to take a picture of Lucy Staniforth’s one as she is my favourite player in the host’s squad. It turned out that she was not actually included in the matchday squad when the teams were read out later on, but I like the way she plays nonetheless.

This accomplished I decided to take the long way round to the away turnstile in the Bobby Charlton Stand. The first stand you come to when heading in this anti-clockwise direction around the stadium is the Sir Alex Ferguson (SAF) stand, in-front of which there were rows of food vans and I took this chance to buy lunch. Whilst in the queue I turned round to take a view of the stand and spotted a hovering statue of the stand’s namesake hovering above me, just as Busby’s had on his stand.

As I continued my walk around this stand I came across artificial pitches to my right that were being used by youngsters to practice their penalty technique. Escaping the hive of activity on this side of the stadium I emerged on the Stretford End of the ground and into a sea of eerie silence, that was only punctuated by the beep of mobile tickets being scanned on distant turnstiles.

I then moved past the coach park and took a stroll down the ‘Munich Tunnel’. I call it this because you head into a covered area and to your left there are a set of frames outlining the Munich Train Crash Disaster of February 6th 1958, when the Busby Babes’ plane crashed on take-off at it attempted to take off from Munich in bad weather. I do not pretend to be an expert on the disaster and I wholeheartedly recommend you doing your own research into it to understand it better.

My walk down this tunnel started in the rebuilding stage after the disaster and moved through the disaster itself to the build up and context of the disaster and ends at a memorial flame to those who lost their lives on that day. It was the first time in my life that I have ever felt bad for Man United and it definitively helps you connect with the human stories around the disaster that you may never have heard before.

Today promised to be a much happier day for the home fans though as they came into the match fully expecting to win. They were 3rd in the WSL table on goal difference before kick-off, with 32 points from their 17 games so far this season, 2 wins in their last 3 games and an chance to boost their already impressive goal difference of 19 against a team struggling to score let alone win. That team is Everton and the have lost their last 3 games without scoring. The first of those losses was detailed in my last blog, but since then they have managed back-to-back 4-0 losses against Man City at the Academy stadium and I was fully expecting them to continue their losing streak today. They had at least managed to maintain the same manager from the last time I saw them in action though, so that might work in their favour.

I scanned my ticket and headed inside, up the single set of stairs to my left, picked up a drink from the single food kiosk and then up the stairs behind me and into the stand. The away stand is the only part of the stadium that is single tier and the part of it that my ticket was in was the area in which they are holding a safe standing trial. It worked fine for me throughout the match, but there were many empty seats in the area so how it will work at full capacity I don’t know. The whole of the top tiers on the other 3 stands were completely empty as the hosts had focused on filling out the lower tiers and in this they had done an excellent job. It’s an impressive stadium, but no Anfield or Wembley in my book.

The away fans had the benefit of the shaded side of the stadium, whilst the home fans opposite were bathed in sunlight. This was made even better when the teams emerged from the far left corner on my side of the ground and the visitors came all the way down to my end to warm-up. I had to head back down to the concourse at one point of the warm-up as I had forgotten to buy a programme for the match and when I returned with it the visiting players were dragging each other around for 6-8 yard each. They were sprinting at full power with a teammate hanging like lead to a resistance band lopped round their waists. What the point of this exercise is I have no idea, but at this point anything that might help them perform better is welcome.

Just as this weird warm-up was coming to an end the tannoy sparked into life and rushed through the starting 11’s at such breakneck speed that I missed the names of 2 of the visiting team. He didn’t even bother with the substitutes and I only found these out when they were displayed on the miniature screens squashed into the banner between the tiers behind each goal. These were the only screens in the whole stadium and they also had to show the score and the match clock which, unlike every other match clock across the country, counts down how long is left in the half instead of how much of it has elapsed. It meant that I had to do maths on the fly to work out which minute things happened in throughout the match and this was extremely unhelpful when I’m making sure I don’t miss anything.

I picked up the final 2 Everton starters when the teams emerged for kick-off and the tannoy re-announced the teams at the same ridiculous speed. I was listening extra intently this time though and managed to pick up both Megan Finnigan and Poppy Pattinson’s names from the team sheet and ensure I had both full teams noted down just in time for kick-off.

This was a very lucky turn of events for me as the match kicked-off at 100mph and within 4 minutes the deadlock had already been broken. Though, in a shock to everyone inside the stadium it was not the hosts who had taken the lead. Everton whipped the ball down the right to Clare Emslie, who advanced into the wide open spaces in-front of her. She cut into the box and bore down on goal, with only Mary Earps to beat between the sticks she rifled the ball across Earps’ body and off the left post before watching it settle in the back of the net.

I was grinning from ear-to-ear when I saw Emslie slot this chance away to put Everton 1-0 up against their illustrious hopes but it had the opposite effect on the rest of the stadium, which fell into a shocked silence. The home team players may have dreamt of playing in-front of a packed Old Trafford, but I doubt they imagined their dreams going so badly early-on. To be losing to an Everton team that had been struggling to score in recent matches was not what any of them would’ve wanted from this day as their dream was beginning to transform into a nightmare.

Going behind so early on in the match seemed to jerk the home team awake and it spurred Alessia Russo into trying to turn the match around all by herself. She first tried to bamboozle Megan Finnigan whilst attempting to create space for a shot from the right. Then when that didn’t work she pounced on a mistake by George in the Everton defence to pick up the ball and shoot goalward. Unfortunately she was caught so by surprise by the mistake that she was unable to compose herself and snatched at the shot to such an extent that it rolled through to Sandy MacIver in the Everton Goal.

Russo had the bit between her teeth now and was causing problems all over the pitch now as she tried her hardest to drag her team back into the match. The rest of her team was not being over helpful to her in achieving that target though as Maria Thorisdottir picked up the first yellow card of the match by needlessly blocking off Emslie as she attempts to connect with a searching ball over the top. The resulting free-kick was easily collected by Earps just beyond the back post until she hurt herself that is and required treatment from the physios. The host’s substitute keeper went straight into her warm-up, as the rest of the team took the chance to take on some hydration, only to have to cut it short when it became clear that Earps would be able to continue.

In the 19th minute Emslie tried again for the visitors as she let rip from 20yards out, forcing Earps to spring down to her right to pouch the ball that looked like it was dribbling wide anyway. Then Russo took her turn at propelling her team forward as a corner from the right landed at her feet 10yards from goal. Her first shot from this distance hit Nathalie Bjorn who then smashed her clearance into the back of George from which the ball rebounded to Russo once again. This time her shot was pushed away by MacIver who got down smartly to her right to keep it out.

Everton were hanging onto their lead by their fingernails at this point as Leah Galton came rushing through the centre before laying the ball off to the left. The teasing cross through the corridor of uncertainty evaded everyone in the middle though and George was able to tap it behind for a corner. The corner in the 25th minute was punted out of the 6yard mixer before being deliciously chipped back into the path of Martha Thomas, but she was only able to toe-poke her shot into the stomach of MacIver and the ball bounced harmlessly away.

Seeing her teammates fail in their attempts to bring the hosts level in the match Russo once again went about creating a chance again herself as the game tipped over the half-hour mark. She broke into the box with George and Christiansen on her heels and it was their synchronised slides that blocked Russo’s first shot, before she tried to tap the ball past them and then clambered all over Christiansen in an attempt to reach the ball. Russo called for a penalty, but the ref was never going to give the decision that way and instead it was Everton who came away with a freekick.

United had been on top in the midfield battle since conceding so early on and having created so many chances so far they finally got the equaliser that their play deserved in the 35th minute. Ona Batlle was released in acres of space down the right for the first time all match and she placed the ball on a sixpence 6yards out where Russo was waiting to steer it home with a brilliant header over the head of MacIver, who had been too late in rushing off the line to punch clear. Having hung onto their lead for more than half an hour they had finally conceded and now they just had to survive to half-time.

They almost shot themselves in the foot 2 minutes later as Bjorn barged into Hannah Blundell deep into her own half attacking on the right. The free kick was curled into the box and it took all her skill for MacIver to punch it clear with Russo lurking behind her waiting for to complete her brace of headers. The score remained equal for now though as Duggan dithered away the momentum of the break allowing the hosts to reorganise and snuff out the threat.

In the 42nd minute both teams created their final chances of the half. First Ona Batlle waltzed past Poppy Pattinson on the right, but her cross was hoofed clear and some excellent interplay by the visitors saw the ball reach Kenza Dali on the edge of the box. She aimed her shop for top bins and only missed by millimetres. This bought an excellent half of women’s football to an end still all square.

The visitors played the best half of football I have seen from them in all season (four visits) and the credit for getting them playing like a proper team has to go to their current interim manager Chris Roberts, who has stamped his claim for the full-time job. The defence had been excellent all half, with Danielle Turner, Nathalie Bjorn, Gabi George and Poppy Pattinson all deserving praise for their brilliant work this half. Izzy Christiansen and Claire Emslie were causing trouble for the host’s defence when they broke out of the dogged defence they were having to put up all half.

Manchester United’s U21 Women’s team paraded their academy cup trophy on the pitch at half time, but as they had forgotten to turn up the captain’s microphone for the interview I decided to go and get a drink instead. Roberts took the chance to make the first half-time substitution that I have seen at a football match for a while. He obviously had not been as impressed with his team’s performance as I had been in the first half as he replaced Nathalie Bjorn with Lucy Graham for the second half.

United were shooting towards the Stretford end in the second half and it took them less than a minute to create their first chance in front of those fans. Galton advanced easily through midfield before slotting a ball down the channel to Russo but her inviting cross was punched clear by MacIver in the centre. Everton seemed to be attempting to dig-in and settle for the draw for the whole of the second half, which felt risky in the extreme though and was essentially a way of asking to be beaten.

The hosts broke down the right in the 50th and whipped a cross into the centre for Russo to turn home and finally clinch her brace. It didn’t work out that way though as she managed to scoop it over the bar from 8yards out whilst completely unmarked. Where her marker was I have no idea, but of all the players to leave unsupervised in your own box Russo was the worse one for Everton to choose. The incredible Russo proved this point once more 2 minutes later when she was set free onto a ball down the left channel, but this time Turner was on the ball enough to scramble across and she timed her tackle perfectly to block the ball behind for a corner.

That corner was wasted by the hosts but they were back on the attack in the next minute and this time Batlle was able to skin Pattinson on the right. She cut inside before laying off the ball to Thomas in support who turned and was caught by Graham, who was the first Everton player all match to mis-time a defensive tackle. It took seconds for the ref to give the penalty and Graham was lucky to escape without a card to her name. Katie Zelem’s penalty was hit without any power at all and if she hadn’t managed to send MacIver the wrong way it would have been one of the simplest saves of the match. As it was though she slotted it to the keeper’s right as MacIver dived the wrong way and the Red Devil’s took the lead in-front of fans at Old Trafford for the first time in their history, in the 55th minute of the match.

Graham attempted to make amends for this gratuitous mistake 3 minutes later when she nabbed the ball on the edge of the box and fed Duggan outside her. Instead of shooting though she tapped it inside to George who could only hack it miles over the bar. Why the team’s main striker decided to give the final shot to a centre back I’m not sure but, as anyone could have predicted, it did not work.

In the 61st minute Russo once again came close to her brace as a curved ball in from the right fell to her 8 yards from the target. She shaped to shoot and just at the crucial moment Turner nipped in to steal the ball off her toes and behind for a corner. United had the ball in the net from the resultant corner, but Ella Toone was adjudged to have drifted offside as she followed up the rebound from Galton’s stinging effort that MacIver had palmed into her path.

Everton were unable to take advantage of this humongous let off though as United were now determined to add to their margin of victory and were attacking with pace at every opportunity they had. They were looking likely to score every time they ventured forward now. This torture for the visitors was only broken up when Duggan went down needing treatment before being able to carry on after a few minutes.

A few minutes later though she was unable to continue and had to be replaced by Simone Magill for the final 22 minutes of the match. Then Everton made another change 2 minutes later with Kenza Dali being replaced by Hannah Bennison. United responded in the 72nd minute as Kirsty Hanson replaced Martha Thomas to finish off the match.

Bennison slipped a 30 yard ball upto Emslie on the left who then wiggled inside Blundell before sending her curved shot just wide of the far post. This set the last 15 minutes of the match into action and it was the high point of Everton’s attacking play until the match poured out into injury time. First though they would try and throw away the game twice with simple errors in the next 2 minutes. Magill sold Pattinson down the river with a weak back pass that allowed United to break on them and they were only able to prevent the hosts scoring a third goal thanks to a mis-control by Toone that allowed Turner to nip the ball off her toes. Then another weak back pass, this time from Bennison, allowed Russo to nip in but her shot was straight down MacIver’s throat and she barely had to move a muscle to make the save.

Earps went down holding her right foot with 10minutes of the match to go and, whilst her teammates once again used this opportunity to re-hydrate themselves, MacIver took the chance to lay on her back in the goal-mouth and do some stretching during this break in play. Before play got underway again the hosts made a substitution with Jackie Groenen trudging off the pitch, at the speed of a snail moving through golden syrup, to be replaced by Jade Moore.

Russo would finally secure the second goal she had deserved for almost 50minutes of play now when she headed home a corner from point blank range, after it was whipped into the 6 yard box. The corner had been conceded by Everton as Pattinson timed an excellent tackle to block a cross from the United left, but the corner was awfully defending with Russo once again able to find space for a free header and this time she made them pay.

The excellent all-round display from Alessia Russo would be justly rewarded with the Player of the Match award when she was withdrawn from the action 2 minutes from time by her manager, Marc Skinner. This late substitution prevented her from completing her hat-trick, but allowed her to soak in a richly deserved standing ovation from all corners of the stadium. She was the difference between the teams today and will be a key figure in Man U’s push to finish in the top 3 and secure a Champion’s League spot for next season.

Back to matters on the pitch and Kirsty Hanson had burst into the box in the 87th minute searching for a fourth goal for the host. Her efforts were cut short by some excellent combined defensive work by George and Pattinson to wrestle the ball away from her. Hanson went down looking for a penalty but to the ref’s credit she wasted no time in waving away these protests. It was a great piece of defensive work from the Ladies in blue and further illustrated just how far they had come in the short break since their midweek 4-0 loss to the blue side of Manchester.

There were only 2 notable chances in the 5 minutes of injury time that were tacked on to the end of the regulation 90 in this one. First the visitors were sent free on the right by Pattinson, but her flicked cut-back to the penalty spot could only be chest passed into Earp’s waiting arms by Aurora Galli, who looked as though she was not expecting the ball to come to her. Then, with the added minutes slipping away, Galton went for the sensation in front of her home fans as she attempted to chip MacIver from 40yards out. The keeper was off her line when the shot began it’s journey towards goal, but was able to recover well enough to get finger-tips too it and help it over the bar.

This was the last chance of an incredible match that ended 3-1 to Man U in-front of their delighted home fans. As an away fan I left the match full of hope for the rest of the season after witnessing a much more cohesive team performance from Everton than I had seen from them so far this season. Though they will not be finishing high up the WSL table when the season ends in a few short weeks time; They showed the green roots of recovery here that will stand them in great stead for next season when they will be fighting for citywide dominance against the red half of Merseyside, how are strutting to promotion from the Women’s Championship.

I will look to get to one of those matches next season if I am still based in the city, but for my next blog I return once more to the nation’s capital city. London is my destination now I am completely caught up on my blog backlog. I am returning to the city of my birth to take in 2 matches in 2 days, as I first visit Stamford Bridge to see how Brentford fair in that derby match. Then I headed to the far south of the city to pop-into Kingsmeadow and see how the Women’s team play on their home turf against Reading. See you for those blogs soon.

Wednesday 16th March: Walton Hall Park: WSL: Everton vs Chelsea

Supporting the blue side of Merseyside is always something I swore I would never do and in the men’s game I’ll stick to that. However, for this match I was firmly on the side of Everton women as they hosted Chelsea ladies in the WSL. Chelsea are challenging for the title against my first women’s team, Arsenal, and I also know one of the players on the Everton team so I could hardly cheer against her.

Getting to the ground was easy as I just had to get the 19 bus from Queen Square, which is opposite Lime Street station. The bus ride was not long but on it I faced a difficult decision. There was a tout on the bus separating each of the paper tickets that he had prepared to sell at the ground and having a fault with my email ticket I was forced to choose, between trusting the screenshot I’d taken of the email to be enough to get me in or taking a ticket from the tout. I chose to trust my screenshot as I can’t stand touts, ripping off other fans for the sole purpose of making their wallets bigger.

Luckily for me my screenshot was enough to get me through the turnstiles at the ground from where I picked up my free programme. Then I made my way off the wide avenues of the beautifully leafy suburb of Walton and inside the stadium which boasts a single stand down the dugout side of the pitch. The side opposite the dugouts hosts the camera tower and a load of scaffolding which is going to become another stand in the future, but behind the goals are standing room only.

I decided to take a seat for the first half and with it being unreserved seating I chose to sit in the second row back from the pitch right on the halfway line. I was just resting into my seat as the teams appeared on the pitch for their warm-up, out of the building behind the goal far away to my right. The visitors decided to stop in the near half to their entrance, whilst the hosts traversed the length of the pitch to warm-up away to my left beneath a gorgeous sunset that proved too distracting for me to care about what warm-up exercises either team had chosen to use.

One thing I did notice in the warm-up though was that the Chelsea away kit consists of a Yellow top, Black shorts and Yellow socks. This combination when scanned from top to bottom gave them the appearance of a rotting banana skin and was perhaps appropriate as they were facing a potential banana skin in this match.

The visitors from London are chasing the WSL title and came into this one in 2nd place in the table and just 5 points behind their rivals Arsenal with the advantage of having 2 games in hand over them. Chelsea are also in brilliant form coming into this having only lost twice all season and not once in their last 5 matches. They have only conceded 7 goals in their 15 matches so far this season and had not lost since 11th December when they were shocked by Reading in a narrow 1-0 loss.

Their hosts for their part have had such an inconsistent season with more changes of management than I have been able to keep track of. This lack of consistency in leadership has effected performances on the pitch with 8 losses in their 15 matches before this one and averaging less than a goal scored a match. This is despite their squad including the excellent Toni Duggan, Claire Emslie and captain Izzy Christiansen. Adding to that the defensive abilities of Danielle Turner and Poppy Pattinson and they have the quality to be far higher in the table. Combine this quality on paper and the recent upturn in form coming into this one as they have won their last 2 matches and I was interested in seeing if they could banana skin the high flying Chelsea and complete a hattrick of wins under their current manager Chris Roberts.

Mr. Roberts is on the programme as the Interim Manager though so I had no faith that he would be around 11 days after this one when I followed up the advert on the inside front cover of the programme and followed Everton to their match against Man U at Old Trafford on Mother’s day (see the next blog). Everton Women have truly become the Watford of the Women’s game as they rack up the managerial changes this season, but unlike the Hornets they can be assured of avoiding relegation this season as only 1 team goes down and Birmingham City have monopolised that spot.

Everton did not help their chances in this match though when Roberts saw fit to send his team out for the start with Toni Duggan only on the bench. The teams were announced just 9 minutes before kick-off and that Everton omission was not the only shock awaiting me as Chelsea left much of their attacking firepower on the bench. They had Bethany England, Lauren James and Drew Spence all on bench warming duties and Fran Kirby was only spared this fate as she was not even included in the matchday squad. Was this simply Emma Hayes resting her biggest threats for more difficult games on the run-in or was it overconfidence that would come back to bite her team in the ass? Only action on the pitch would tell, but my read was that it was more of a resting situation as they still had Sam Kerr in the starting 11.

When the teams emerged they followed the WSL tradition of lining up with their backs to the fans and this is something that really needs sorting out as it really breaks the immersion and enjoyment of the fans when the players they have come to see won’t even look at them. It was also unhelpful on a personal level that Walton Hall Park contains neither a screen nor a match clock and as such all the timings in this blog will be extremely approximate.

Chelsea started as they meant to continue by grabbing hold of the ball and just not letting it go. Everton for their half were unable to get anywhere near the ball in the first 10 minutes and their defensive play was that of a group of people who had only met 5 minutes ago and not of a team of pro footballers who have played together all season. The home support became as silent as a group of strict librarians, but luckily for them the visitors were unable to make use of their monopoly of possession to create any chances of note in the first 10 minutes. All they managed was a couple of weak shots straight into the waiting arms of Courtney Brosnan in the Everton goal.

By the 10th minute though the visitors had finally worked out how scoring works and took the lead that they absolutely deserved from their dominance so far in the match. Their opener came via a cross from deep on the right that was dropped on a sixpence for the onrushing Kerr to nod home from 6 yards out completely unmarked. It was an incredible cross for sure but to anyone familiar with Women’s football, which the Everton team certainly are, leaving a player of Kerr’s undoubted quality unmarked in the box is so foolish that most school teams wouldn’t make that mistake. Everton were so poor at this point that all I was wondering just how many goals Chelsea would get to pump up their goal difference.

The visitors were being given the run of Walton Hall Park at this point to the point that they could’ve taken a quick nap every time they received the ball such was the time they were being given by the hosts. It was as though the Everton ladies had never heard of the concept of closing your opponents down. The Chelsea players were getting at least 5 yards of space around them and were then able to waltz their way to anywhere they wanted when they had the ball, with none of the hosts players making even the weakest attempt possible to stop them. They were leaving it to any one else around them to track players and close them down and as such no-one was doing it.

This lack of willingness to take personal responsibility for keeping Chelsea at bay I was amazed that it took till the 17th minute for the visitors to double their lead. This one came from a simple throw by Millie Bright on the right that her teammate was allowed to drive forward with, as the two Everton players nearby left it to each other to track the run and thus predictably neither did. The ball was then laid back to Bright and her cross to the left side of the box was thumped home on the volley by Guro Reiten. To her credit Brosnan was able to get a hand to it, but there was simply too much power on the shot to give her a chance of keeping it out and less than 20minutes into the match Chelsea were already 2-0 up.

Everton were playing like a bunch of jokers at this point and they added to their comical display when Brosnan cleared the ball straight into the face of her teammate Gabrielle George from point blank range. Gabi George to her credit seemed to be unaffected by this ball to the face and carried on without complaint. The hosts almost went further behind in the 25th minute when a cross from the left this time was headed into the keeper’s arms from 10 yards out.

Then Everton did something half decent for once in the match by closing down Bright in her own box and forcing her to toe-poke her clearance into the stands. That clearance whizzed by my left ear and I was extremely grateful Bright was unable to get more distance on the ball. This moment was not enough to gain Everton any momentum in the match though as in the 29th minute they conceded another free header in the box that the hosts were grateful to see fizz past the right hand post off the head of Niamh Charles.

Missing that gilt-edged chance did not delay Chelsea’s 3rd goal for long though as they got it in the minute of all the 3’s (the 33rd). This one came from a rare cleared cross that bounced out to the feet of Erin Cuthbert 25yards out with no Everton player within 10 yards of her. She has far too much quality to be left in all that space and she punished the hosts by volleying the ball into the top right postage stamp of the net. It was an incredible show of Skill by Cuthbert, but also an awful error from Everton to grant her the freedom of the Park to pick her spot.

With Chelsea now 3 goals to the good and barely half an hour of the match played I was seriously considering the possibility that they could return to London with a double digit victory in their back pockets. Everton are threatened with relegation in the Men’s game, but having seen both of the Toffee’s teams in action this season it is unquestionably the Women who have played the worse football. I have never seen a team this unsure of how to complete basic skills and simple passes in my life, it was insane just how awful they ere this half.

They were given a respite from the torture in the 35th minute as Cuthbert required treatment after being caught by a stray boot in midfield. She was fine to continue after her physio appointment, but I’m sure the hosts would’ve preferred a longer break than the couple of minutes they got.

The hosts night almost got even worse in the 37th minute when Chelsea had 4 players running free in the centre with just 2 of the host’s defenders back covering. The cross those Chelsea players needed never came though as the winger who was looking to send in the cross was flagged off for offside in the build-up. That was a huge let off for the hosts and they would get another one just 2 minutes later when a point back tap-in at the back post, off a tempting corner whipped in from the left, could only be turned behind by Charles.

The rampant visitors were just shooting from everywhere now and although none of these resulted in a deserved 4th for them it was clear to everyone in the stadium that their 4th was coming. Everton were clinging on and praying to holy relics to make it to half-time without suffering further damage. The hosts did manage their first chance of the match in the final minute of the half though to give themselves something to hang onto at half-time. This chance fell to Hanna Bennison on the edge of the box, but she was only able to send it soaring over the bar.

Leading 3-0 at half-time is normally a great position to be in and leaves the team in that position grinning from ear to ear as they head down the tunnel, but I doubt that was the case this time. The visitors had been so dominant all half that they should have been disappointed to only have the paltry 3-0 advantage, it could easily have been double that.

Half-time lasted 30 minutes in all as the restart was delayed by an injury in the team of officials. It was originally announced to delay the restart by 5 minutes but things clearly took more time to sort out than they originally anticipated. I spent the extra time moving to my left and eventually ending up behind the goal at the far end of the pitch from the exit. Chelsea were shooting towards that end in the second half and I wanted the best view of the avalanche of goals I was expecting.

Roberts had seen how awful his team had been in the and launched into action to try and fix it with a long overdue change of personnel. He removed Nathalie Bjorn from the fray and sent on Lucy Graham to try and change the game and provide his interim charges with a foothold of a way back into the match. Graham almost provided that foothold in the first minute of the second half as she took a pot-shot from 18 yards out, but could only screw it wide of the right-hand post.

That was at least a signal of intent from the hosts though and they seemed to be seeing the ball a bit early on in this half, as they had finally found a way to gain possession for the first prolonged period of the match. They were asking questions of the visitor’s defence now at least but they then tried to shoot themselves in their feet. This foot shooting situation occurred in the 50th minute when a deep cross from the Chelsea right was sitting up for an easy clearance by Megan Finnigan. Instead of clearing it she slipped and the ball was able to sneak through to Kerr with her back to goal. Luckily for the hosts Kerr was unable to turn and shoot or lay it off before Finnigan can recover and clear the ball to save her blushes.

Chelsea used this incident as an initiative gainer in the grand scale of the match and were back threatening the Everton net in the 53rd minute. Goal scorers Reiten and Kerr looked to combine, but the former’s cross was agonisingly behind her teammate. The ball was then recycled by the visitors before the shot from 15 yards was deflected behind for a corner that was thumped over the bar from the same distance as the previous shot with Brosnan in no man’s land.

The match devolved into a midfield battle at this point and Emma Hayes decided that this wouldn’t do for her Chelsea team, who had spent so much of the game on top, and decided to switch things up with a double substitution. She removed Charles and Cuthbert from the action to rest them for tougher challenges coming up in the run-in for the title. The replacements were Drew Spence and Magdalena Eriksson, so hardly much of a step down in quality for the visitors despite the undoubted quality of those coming off.

These changes from the visitors didn’t seem to be the smartest calls soon after that though as Everton went on the attack, in the 63rd minute, for the first time in a while. A powerful shot from the Everton left was punched out by Zecira Musovic in the Chelsea goal, taking this long to mention the Chelsea keeper hopefully tells you how little the hosts had offered in the match so far. The punch was not the best example of the technique though as it landed at Emslie’s feet 20 yards from goal. Thankfully for the visitor’s clean sheet the resultant shot was nothing less than abysmal and it missed the goal by at least twice the width of the goal to the left of it.

In the next minute there was an audible comment from one of the player’s calling an opponent a “fucking dickhead”. I was not able to work out which player made that comment, but I know it was someone on the host’s side as it occurred just after Chelsea had been given a freekick in the middle of the pitch. The ref mentioned to Christiansen that there was “no need for that comment”, but this may just have been as a warning to get her teammates to watch their language in her role as Everton’s captain for the match.

The 65th minute brought a gilt-edged chance for the embattled hosts as they curled in a freekick from the right that was begging to be headed home from just 6 yards out, but none of the Everton players could get the decisive touch to nab the goal they never looked like deserving. This lack of ability to turn home such a simple chance triggered a double change from Roberts on the host’s bench. He went about adding a cutting edge to his team in a strange manner though, with Bennison and Magill being taken off (a midfielder and a striker) and replaced by Leonie Maier and Valerie Gauvin (a defender and a striker).

These changes by the hosts triggered changes by the visitors. Hayes shuffled her pack by resting the goal-scoring Reiten and Pernille Harder and bringing on Alsu Abdullina and Bethany England in their place. Both of these new arrivals on the pitch combined with Kerr in a gorgeous team move down the right to bamboozle the Everton defenders facing them. They advanced a little too far up the pitch though as the angle had closed down too much for England to unleash a shot and her cut back was blocked behind for a corner. Abdullina’s corner missed everyone in the centre and the game continued with the score unchanged into the final 10 minutes of the match.

Both managers made further changes to their team as the final 10 minutes got underway. Roberts made a double change for the hosts, replacing Aurora Galli and his captain Izzy Christiansen with Kenza Dali and the long overdue introduction of Toni Duggan. The captaincy of the team was passed from Christiansen to Danielle Turner, who had done the captain’s programme notes anyway. Hayes only made 1 change to her Chelsea team replacing Aniek Nouwen with Maren Mjelde. The announcer on the PA would have preferred other players to be involved in the visitor’s substitution though as he couldn’t pronounce the surname of either of the players being switched.

Chelsea got a little complacent in the 85th minute as they sauntered towards the victory. The gave Turner way too much space on the right hand side and she was able to whip the ball right across the face of goal from 25 yards out. Fading towards the goal it looked like it was going to sneak inside the post for a consolation goal, but it didn’t fade quite enough and flew inches wide of the left post. It was the closest the hosts had come to scoring a goal all match.

By this point of the match Chelsea had taken their foot completely off the gas and looked to be settling for the 3-0 win that they had more than earnt by now. Everton faded more towards the final few minutes though as the visitors created 3 more presentable chances before the end of the match. The first of these was a cross from the right that was headed back across the 12 yard line by Kerr, but none of her teammates were following up to stroke it home. The second was a skied shot from the boot of Spence in the 90th minute.

Then Kerr took it on herself to create the visitor’s final chance as the 3 minutes of injury times elapsed. She collected the ball 25 yards from goal and proceeded to weave her way through the home defence to get into a 1on1 position against Brosnan. Rather than simply slotting in Chelsea’s 4th she attempted to get sweaty with it and roll it across for her supporting teammate to tap home. This was a step too far though as an Everton defender was able to intercept this pass and hoof the ball upfield.

The ref took this clearance as the cue to whistle up for fulltime and Chelsea had to settle for just a 3-0 victory over their hapless hosts. It really should have been even more emphatic for the visitors, but they’ll still be satisfied with the 3 points and perhaps I cursed them by moving into position behind the goal in the second half ready to celebrate the expected deluge that never arrived.

The hosts for their part posted a truly disgraceful performance in the first half and though they improved massively in the second half they never looked like creating enough to deserve anything from the match. They had two matches against Man City between this match and my next game watching them, which they lost by 4-0 each time so they didn’t appear to have improved much as I made my way to Old Trafford this past weekend to see them take on the Red team of that City.

My experiences at that game, including whether Everton had improved at all in the intervening 11 days is a story for my next blog, but heading to that one I was sure of one thing. At the very least they can’t get any worse that they were at this Chelsea match.

Saturday 12th March 2022: The City Ground: EFL Championship:
Nottingham Forest vs Reading

Ever since I visited Nottingham for the first ever mixed-gender Triathlon Relay Cup on the banks of the Trent and taking in a T20 Cricket match at Trent Bridge I have always wanted to return to the city for a football game and now my dream is coming true.

With Notts County having dropped into Non-League in recent seasons there was only one choice for where to go to make this football dream a reality, Nottingham Forrest. I had read of their success in the late 1970’s and the 1980’s under the legendary manager Brian Clough and now I am finally visiting the stadium of this historic team, sitting in the stand named after their greatest manager. It was surreal.

Getting to Nottingham was a direct train from Lime Street, that only stopped in Manchester, Stockport, Sheffield and Chesterfield on the way. As a result of all these stops it took 2 and a half hours to get to my destination, it’s quicker for me to get a train to Central London. The train continued on to Norwich though so perhaps I got off easy on the journey and I have the greatest empathy and respect for those who made the full journey, having made that exact journey to visit family at the end of last year.

Thankfully the journey from stadium to station is a lot shorter. You head left out of the station and then just keep going till you meet the main road where you cross the road and turn right. From there you head towards the River Trent and the stadium will appear to your left. The weather was perfect, blue skies and sun as far as the eye could see, on match day so the stadium was doused in sunbeams and completely unmissable.

The City ground is a beautiful stadium from the outside, with the Trent End squeezed onto the edge of the river bank and if it takes even a tiny step back it will fall in. There were Canoeists and Kayakers practising on the Trent as I made my way down the bank road and it was just a gorgeous view. I thought this was a good omen for the hosts at the time and if you’ve read the title of the blog you’ll know this was a good hunch.

Despite arriving in Nottingham with 3 hours till kick-off and with the walk being just a 20minute jaunt, I didn’t actually arrive at the stadium till 90minutes before kick-off. This was because I had to get to Lime Street early in the morning and hadn’t had time for a proper breakfast, so I headed into the city centre to find some food. It was whilst tracking down some much needed lunch that I stumbled upon Nottingham’s best kept secret. Like Manchester, Sheffield and Croydon it is a city with a tram network. Unfortunately the trams are more on the Croydon level of sophistication than the fully developed networks of the other two and as such the network does not extend to the football area of town.

Having found lunch and then completed the 45 minute walk from my lunch spot to the stadium, I picked up a programme from the cash only programme seller as I turned off the bridge and down the bank to the stadium. Next to the programme seller was a scarf merchant, but none of the scarfs (except the obligatory dreadful half and half scarves for the match) were highlighting their recent history as they all depicted the successes of the club’s European glory days in the late70’s under Brian Clough. Having bought my programme I then sneaked round the Trent End, which was plastered top to bottom with memorial plaques to the fans who had witnessed the club’s glory days and are now no longer with us.

The stadium becomes far less picturesque as you turn the corner onto the Brian Clough stand as it backs onto a vast car park. In this car park is where you will find the club shop in a converted shipping container. From the shop I bought two keyrings, one with the club crest and the other with the City Ground street sign on it, out of respect for a team with such an illustrious history and a ground that I had always wanted to visit.

I was unable to make my customary lap of the stadium as the Bridgford Stand, in which the away fans are located was fenced off so I made a 180-spin and headed back down to the Trent with the intent to head round to the Peter Taylor stand side of the stadium in search of the coaches arrival point. The Trent was just too distracting though and I decided instead to grab a burger from one of the many burger vans on the bank road and enjoy it whilst relaxing on the river bank.

Enjoying my burger a little too much I lost complete track of time and, thinking it was close to kick-off, I headed straight inside once I finished my burger. The steward at the turnstiles was unfailingly helpful and I was glad he was fast with his job as I was rushing to find the loos once I made it inside. Just a quick heads up if you find yourself needing to use the City Ground’s facilities, the cubicles are miniscule so I would advise against using them if you suffer from any level of claustrophobia.

My experience at the food kiosk was a little more stress-free but not necessarily better. I went to the till closest to me and ordered a drink from the lovely young Indian lady manning it. She was not allowed to fullfill my request however as the young Indian lad at the till butted in at this point and insisted on finishing the transaction himself. I apologised to the young lady for her colleagues rudeness before heading into the stand to find my seat.

That seat was spectacularly placed, just 3 rows back from the pitch and smack bang on the halfway line too so I had a great view of the whole pitch. The only problem with it was that it was direct in the path of the sunlight pouring into the stadium and I really wish I had bought my sunglasses with me to the match. This awesome seat was tarnished significantly when my neighbour turned up as he could talk a deaf person into thumping him. He simply would not stop talking all the way upto kick-off when he was mercifully distracted by goings-on on the pitch.

The seat itself was still excellently placed though as I also had excellent views of the stadium’s 2 screens, one down at the Trent End of my stand and the other directly opposite it between the Peter Taylor and Bridgford stands. Above my head between the tiers of the Brian Clough stand was a banner that charted every trophy the club has won in it’s history. The last of those being their League Cup triumph in 1990, though it did have space on it to include future honours and it would have required smaller gaps between the text if they included promotions won on it.

They came into this match looking in good shape to secure another promotion this season as they sat 10th in the table at kick-off just 5 points behind Luton Town in 6th place and they had a game in hand over that rival too. Their goal difference of plus 12, before kick-off, stands them in good stead on this front as does their excellent form. Forest had not lost a single home match in 2022 and had not lost at all since a 2-1 loss to Cardiff on the 31st of January. Steve Cooper’s charges were looking good coming into this match and look a great shout to be playing in the Premier League next season.

The visitors are looking far more likely to be playing in League One next season than anywhere else as Paul Ince’s Reading team come into this match in 21st place in the table. Any visiting fans in denial over how precarious their teams position is only need to look at the fact that they came into this one 8 points adrift of Hull just a place above them and although they are 5 points clear of Derby County that is only due to the 21 point deduction that has been hanging round Derby’s neck all season. Without Derby being in the financial position they are Reading would be nailed on certainties to head down alongside Barnsley and Peterborough.

The visitors form is also abysmal heading into kick off losing their last two matches, one home and one way, to Millwall and Blackpool respectively and a shambolic goal difference of minus 26 for the season. Any of the away fans who had made the trip north in high spirits must have had other things on their mind than the match they were coming to see.

In further bad news for the visitors their hosts came into this one flying high off an FA Cup win against Huddersfield in their previous match that set up a quarter-final tie with their old glory day rivals Liverpool. With this win in their last match Forest named an unchanged team for this match, much to the chagrin of a lady in the row in-front of me who wanted to see her favourite Sam Surridge brought into the starting 11. For the visitors the main talking point among the fans around me was the manager’s inclusion of his son Paul Ince to lead the Royal’s line in this one.

The team sheet for the visitors was put up on a single slide and on it I was glad to see the return of a tradition of my travels, the players in the squad that are missing from the programme. This time it was 2 of the Reading substitutes that had been omitted from the programme squad lists, including their substitute keeper. They had two keepers on the squad list who didn’t make the matchday squad so this felt like a huge oversight for him to be missed off it, even if he is their 4th choice between the sticks.

Forest’s starters all got the screen to themselves as they were announced to rapturous applause from the home supporters. Once the tannoy had finished it’s announcement of the home team’s starting 11 the home fans broke into a chant that reverberated around the stadium like a prayer proclaimed in an ancient church. I could not make out the words of this prayer though as there were thousands of voices and I couldn’t understand the accent of any of them.

That unintelligible chant was the last action before the game kicked off and 17seconds after the match got underway the scores were no longer level. A whipped ball up the right straight from kick-off released Djed Spence into acres of space and his cross into the area landed at the feet of Keinan Davies with his back to goal 6 yards out. He let the ball run across his body then turned and slapped the ball under the despairing dive of Luke Southwood in the Royal’s goal. The fans had barely finished their pre-match chant when the goal went in and the rolling sound from that to the celebrations made it sound like a wave from the Trent had breached the top of the Trent End and flowed onto the pitch and into the stands.

With it having worked so well already for them Forest tried attacking down the right again, but this time the cross by Brennan Johnson evaded the slide of Ryan Yates by inches to deny Forest a second goal in the first 5 minutes. Reading had barely touched the ball early on and looked completely out of their depths in this one, they were wilting in the gorgeous early spring sunlight.

Having it so easy early on made Forest cocky to the point when one of their defenders, I took down the number 24 but he wasn’t even in the squad as it turns out. Whoever it was fluffed a simple defensive pass and dropped it to the feet of the Royal’s Andy Yiadom, but even then the visitors couldn’t work it out. Yiadom was eased off the ball by Davies and Forest cleared. Reading were back again a minute later when they secured a free-kick 35 yards from goal. Tom Ince got a yellow card for complaining to the ref about another incident that had happened seconds earlier. To get a yellow when the ref has just given your team a free-kick is quite the trick and I’m sure the visiting manager was impressed by his son’s exceptional achievement. The freekick was wasted and Forest regained control.

It wasn’t till the 20th minute that they created their next presentable chance. They whipped a freekick from the right straight through the corridor of uncertainty which was just begging to tapped home, but none of the host’s attackers could get the decisive touch. Having wasted this glorious chance Forest finally had to do some defending and in the 26th minute Ethan Horvath in the Forest goal had to finally make a save. It was a corner from the right that forced the save as it was poked goalward from 8 yards out. Horvath got down quickly to his right to stop the ball in it’s tracks and maintain the host’s lead.

Two minutes later Reading gave away another freekick on the right and this one was once again whipped in by the hosts and just begging to be tapped home, but yet again there was no-one there to tap it home and double their lead. Yiadom followed Ince into the book for complaining about the freekick being given to the hosts. It took until the 31st minute for Forest to pick up a booking of their own and it went to Jack Colback for passing the ball to himself off the advertising hoardings after the ref had given a foul against him.

In the 33rd and 34th Ince had two chances. The first after Forest were once again too casual in defence that was curving wide, but Horvath scuttled across to pouch it anyway. The second came after Ince muscled his way into the box before attempting to chip the keeper from wide left of the box at a 6 yard distance. Horvath was able to leap to palm the ball away though and keep things at 1-0 to Forest.

Reading made it a hat-trick of yellows in the 38th minute when Danny Drinkwater joined his teammates for a two-footed tackle on the host’s Brennan Johnson that caught him on the ankles. Drinkwater was lucky to get away with just a yellow, especially when he started complaining to the ref about the yellow. It was the most nailed on yellow I’ve seen for a while so why he was complaining I have not a scoobies.

The visitors took this let-off and the foothold they had managed to create another chance a minute later. Scott Dann cut in from the right hand side and takes a shot at beating Horvath at his near post but the keeper was equal to it and shoved it behind for a corner which the visitors wasted. This corner achieved one thing though as it left the host’s Max Lowe down on the turf unable to move. The physio’s checked him over and decided that he would be unable to finish the game forcing Steve Copper, in the host’s dugout, to make his first decision of the match . He decided to replace Lowe with a midfielder simply known as Cafu, though unfortunately he is not related to the Brazilian Cafu who terrorised opposition teams in Europe from the late 90’s to mid noughties (winning 2 world cups along the way).

Back to today’s match and Reading got in again in the 42nd minute. Once again it came through Ince who tied the defence in knots on the left before serving up a high cross into the centre for Dann to head home for the equaliser. Unfortunately it was just a few inches too high for Dann to get a decent connection with and his header went spiralling over the top.

The match limped from there to half-time as the game had settled far too much after it’s thrilling opening. The hosts had allowed complacency to flood into their play and allowed a listless Reading grow into the half. They had managed to make it the break with a one goal advantage though and with the sun beating down on the pitch it seemed that the football gods were still smiling on Forest. It appeared that Cooper had gone into them at half-time as they emerged long in advance of their visitors for the second half as I moved seat to my right to have a better view of the Trent End to which they were now shooting. I was confident that Forest would be geed up for this half and really turn on the afterburners. I would turn out to be right.

Forest went straight on the attack from kick-off and having wrested control of the ball from their visitors they earnt themselves a corner in the first minute. The delivery dropped to Steve Cook on the edge of the area and he volleyed it agonisingly over the bar. This was a great sign of intent from the hosts though as they looked to turn the screw on their relegation threatened visitors.

That twisted screw seemed to get to Tom Ince in the 48th minute as he started rolling around after being knocked down by the lightest touch from his marker. The host’s captain Joe Worrall was so infuriated by this that he threw the ball straight at Ince’s head to take the freekick the ref had given him. The ref seemed to miss this act from Worrall as he escaped punishment for it. Given how much complaining Ince had been doing all match though it made me laugh. It was even funnier 2minutes later when the Royal’s Michael Morrison went into the book for a soft foul. The host’s resultant freekick was flicked over to the back post where Scott McKenna was millimetres away from heading it home.

The next way that Worrall expressed his frustration at the game was by slapping a volley towards goal in the 54th minute. It flew agonisingly close over the bar but it seemed to sort out Worrall’s frustration, so there’s a silver lining at least. Free of his frustration Worrall arrowed a 60 yard pass up the right touchline to set Cafu in behind the defence and free to close-in on goal, until Morrison recovered to slide in and knock the ball behind. A minute after this it was Spence who got in behind on the right, but his cross was pushed off the line by Southwood.

At this point the game had become so hectic that everytime I looked down to take a note I missed some action on the pitch. I did note down though the point blank shot from Davis that Southwood cleared off the line in the 57th minute. Forest were getting closer though and soon they would reap their rewards for this. Before that though Reading made a change to their personnel as Ovie Ejaria on for Andy Rinomhota. Then Tom Ince tried twice to get himself sent off just after the hour mark as he first tried complaining to the ref again and then he committed a foul just seconds later. Neither worked though and he had to continue playing the game.

The game got a lot harder for Reading to get anything out of in the 62nd minute when Davies scored his second of the match through a beautiful solo move. He picked up the ball on the right side of the box then twisted and turned inside, shook off the attentions of the defenders and wrapped his shot around the forest of legs and in off the left hand post. It was a finish of beauty and the Forest lead was doubled. He would not be given the chance to complete his hat-trick though as he was hooked from action in the 69th minute, to be replaced by Sam Surridge.

The new man on the pitch was soon at the centre of the action as he twisted inside on the left side of the box and went down under contact, but the ref decided that it was a fair challenge and waved play on. The visitors were spooked enough by this and so desperate to get back in the game now they were 2 behind that they made another substitution in the 71st minute. Lucas Joao was the man brought on to replace the departing Drinkwater and the formation was changed to a 4-2-4.

Even this drastic re-jig was no use for the visitors though as the hosts were now in full flow and gained their 3rd goal in the 75th minute, when the ball dropped to Yates on the edge of the box and he rifled it into the top right postage stamp. The Royal’s keeper had no chance with that one, but that wouldn’t stop a couple of his teammates rounding on him for not saving it though.

This was game over for the match as a contest and it got even worse for Reading just 5 minutes later as the host’s netted their 4th of the match. They were threatening everytime they came forward now and were finding so much space on the right that you could park a fleet of Limo’s in it. Xande Silva, who had only been on the pitch for 2 minutes having replaced Johnson, exploited this space to advance on the Reading goal and then flick in a cross that landed on a sixpence and left Surridge with the simplest of tap-ins from 8 yards. It would’ve been the miss of the season if he had messed it up from there, but thankfully for him it was finished with consummate ease.

At this point Reading were struggling to assert any pressure on their hosts who looked like adding their 5th with every attack. Many fans witnessing their team be ripped apart like this would leave before the final whistle, but to their eternal credit the Reading supporters stuck around to cheer their team till the end.

Luckily for those travelling fans their team’s humiliation got no worse in the final 10 minutes as the hosts were unable to add any more goals to the 4 they had already scored. This was partly due to the fact that Forest had to finish the match off a man short after Steve Cook went down in considerable pain in his own area with a minute to go. The attention of the physios was not enough to get him back on his feet, so it was left to the St. John’s ambulance crew at the ground to tend to him and there was even a stretcher brought round to carry him round the pitch and down the tunnel. To the great relief of the home fans he was able to manage without the stretcher and instead was able to hobble round the pitch with the help of a medic either side of him for support. It’s never nice to see a player leave the pitch in this way, but much better than seeing them leave on a stretcher.

Little of note occurred in the 5 added minutes at the end of the match, other than Keinan Davies deservedly being named Man of the Match for his brace that set Forest on their way to a simple win. A win that set them up very well for the run-in to the end of the season and a potential play-off run after the regular season is over. It also left the home fans feeling very good about their upcoming match against Liverpool in the FA Cup.

In the time between the game and me writing this blog they have lost that game to Liverpool and accrued a number of games in hand over the teams above them and now sit just 3 points off the playoffs with 3 games in hand over Blackburn Rovers in 6th place as they enter the international break. Blackburn and their fellow Championship playoff dwellers Sheffield United are both teams that I will be looking to visit before the end of the season. With only a little over a month left in the season and other pressures in my life precluding the possibility of attending more midweek matches anytime soon whether I will manage to make games at Ewood Park and Bramall Lane before time beats me is a major unknown.

What I do know though is that I will not get to either of them before the 9th of April as I have other games planned for both this weekend and the 2nd of April at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge respectively. Before I blog those experiences though I have one last catch up blog to write as I squeezed in one midweek match last week when I visited Everton Women’s Walton Hall Park home for the visit of Chelsea. I had visited the ground twice already, but other circumstances around those days meant I was not in the right headspace to blog them. Third time lucky it is though and my next blog will bring you the story of how it’s not just Everton’s Men’s team that is currently a shambles.

Saturday 5th March 2022: DW Stadium: League One: Wigan Athletic vs AFC Wimbledon

To open up my football travels for March I headed back to football at Wigan for the second time this season. The first time I went to the DW was back on September 11th 2021 for the visit of Doncaster Rovers and that was the match that inspired me to begin writing this blog. It’s a good thing that game was inspiring as the match I went too this time was anything but.

The match I headed to the DW this time was the visit of relegation threatened AFC Wimbledon. The visitors came into the match in 20th place, just 2 points above the drop zone and having not won a match in 3 months. They had an up-turn in form last weekend though as they came into this match off the back of a 2-2 draw with Doncaster Rovers. They had come back from 2-0 down at the hour mark to draw in that one so there were green shoots of recovery in their season but how would it go today.

Their hosts are riding high coming into this one placed 2nd in the league and just 7 points behind league leaders Rotherham with 2 games in hand over them. They beat Fleetwood 2-0 in midweek to start their March off on a winning note. The end of the match didn’t go quite the way they would’ve hoped as James McClean got himself sent off in the 97th minute. Even without him available though I had no doubt that the home side would waltz their way to winning this one.

Despite my feelings on how this game was obviously going to go I headed off to the match in a good mood. My mood was even sustained despite the fact that a faster train to Wigan than mine left minutes earlier from the platform opposite me. I couldn’t use that train because of the way my ticket was booked and then my train got delayed by 5 minutes too. My mood remained excellent though despite these issues.

To get to the DW you can head to either Wigan Wallgate or Wigan Northwestern stations if you’re coming in by train as they’re on opposite sides of the street from each other. From either you head under the bridge and just follow the road round till you reach the huge roundabout with the Fire Station. At the fire station roundabout you need to take the Asda exit and 2 minutes down that road you turn into the retail park and head diagonally across the park in the direction of the double arches of the DW. The whole walk takes just 15 minutes from the station and if you’re driving you can find a parking spot no problem. The retail park and the attached leisure centre provide so much parking that no matter how late you get there you will always be able to find a space.

For my part I had given myself so much time to get to the stadium that even with the delay on my journey I arrived at the ground an hour before the match. I headed straight to the ticket office round the left side of the stadium and picked up my £20 ticket to the Springfield stand, skipping past the club shop and a programme seller on my way that I doubled back too. The ticket office is cash or card but the programmes are cash only, so just bear that in mind if you’re heading to matches here.

I grabbed a burger before taking a lap of the stadium trying to find the right turnstile to head inside. On this lap I stopped by the statue of Dave Whelan outside the reception, this man was the owner when the Latics won the FA Cup back in 2008. That was also the season they got relegated from the Premier League, but it’s still their most recent success and it’s awesome to see them celebrating it. Finding the turnstile wasn’t easy though as there was no turnstile mentioned on the ticket, so I just found a turnstile into the Springfield stand and headed inside. There were no bag checks on the home turnstiles, but it was a squeeze getting through with one on my back.

The concourse was a wide tunnel with no way out. To the left there are pre-order machines that you can use to buy food and drinks for anytime in the match upto the end of half time. Wigan still have some work to do on getting the word out about these though as they were marooned in a sea of isolation. For the food kiosks themselves you will need your card with you as they do not accept cash. I grabbed a drink then careered down the stairs to my seat in the stands, just a couple of seats to the left of the dugouts, almost directly on halfway and a mere 5 rows back from the pitch. Thank you to Declan at the ticket office for such a great seat.

The DW stadium is a classic modern bowl stadium, but here you enter half way down the bowl and have to know where your seat is in order to get to it. Unlike other bowl stadium’s it is not linked up all the way round, with gaps between each stand. On the pitch the visiting Dons were warming up directly in front of me in their all red away strip, with Wigan warming up away to my right in their blue and white kit.

Away fans at the DW are given free reign of the stand away to the left side of me, in the springfield stand, but the Dons were not making much use of it for this match with barely a quarter of the seats actually in use. To my intense joy, after my experience at Prenton Park recently, the DW has two huge screens in opposite corners of the stadium that can be seen by all the fans inside. There was even a large rectangular dot-matrix screen at the back of the stand opposite me that showed both the match clock and match score throughout the match.

The announcement of the teams a strange one on me as they announced the starting 11’s of both teams at a whisper but also extremely slowly, which gave me time to figure out who they were talking about. Wigan also take their loyalty to sponsors a step further than I have seen from any other team in the country by announcing the sponsor for each player before the name of the player themselves. Most teams stick to just having the player’s sponsors written next to their names in the get to know the team section of the programme, it was surreal. There was one good thing in the announcement though as they announced both of the team’s captains, an honour usually reserved for the home side.

In the Dons’ starting line-up was Sam Cosgrove, one of those introduced to the crowd when I visited Plough Lane back at the beginning of the year. Having been intrigued by this new striker when he was unveiled at that match I was now looking forward to seeing him in action against the Latics, who he had once been of the books of without actually appearing in a competitive match for them.

Leam Richardson in the home dugout emerged before the teams to accept a standing ovation from all 4 stands. I could not understand why the away fans were applauding him at the time and my research after the match has been no more illuminating. He only played a single season outside the north-west during his career on the pitch and this was on loan at Notts County. Whilst his management credits encompass only his ex-team Accrington Stanley before he took the job in the Wigan dugout. If anyone out there understands why the away fans were applauding him then congrats as I still have no idea.

That was the last act before the match kicked off, but it would also be the high point of the action for a while as it quickly became clear that this was not going to be a high quality affair. Wigan were on top early but lacked the quality in the final third to threaten the Don’s goal and the Don’s simply could not find an out ball to get themselves a foothold in the game.

Despite this early possession it took till the 10th minute for the latics to have their first decent shot on goal and even then it didn’t come from open play. The visitors conceded a free-kick 12 yards from goal near the left touchline and once Wigan had laid it off to the right to get a better angle they thumped the shot into the side netting. Now all the match needed was a shot from open play.

Just before that chance for the hosts they had something a little less enjoyable to deal with as Glen Rea went down on halfway. The physios rushed on to attend to him and the home fans breathed a sigh of relief when they passed him as able to continue. Why he went down I do not know, but that was because the match itself had not gripped me yet and unfortunately it never would.

The visitors did create a chance of their own in the 13th minute, but it was completely against the run of play as they had barely touched the ball upto this point. Their chance wasn’t very threatening though and I think it only made my notes as it was the first time they had made it past the halfway line in the game. Paul Osew was the Man with the chance and it was a cross from the left that flew straight into the arms of Jamie Jones in the Wigan goal. It was the best that Don’s had created so far though so it caught my attention.

The attention of the home fans will have been caught instead by Glen Rea hitting the turf as Jones caught the ball and this time there was no relief. Rea was unable to continue this time and in just the 14th minute of the match Wigan were forced into their first change of the match. The replacement that Richardson went for was Tom Bayliss and we will see if he had any effect on the match as this blog continues on its merry way.

Wigan created their next chance from a corner in the 18th minute. They swung the ball in from the right to the back post, once there it was tapped back across the box and with the visitors defence in disarray all Stephen Humphrys had to do was slot it home from point blank range in the centre of the 6 yard box. He couldn’t do it and instead sent the ball cannoning off the post and back into the forest of legs in the area, from where the reconstituted Don’s defence was eventually able to hack it clear.

The hosts were back in the Don’s area just 2 minutes later though a defence splitter by Will Keane was collected by Humphrys, only for it to be picked off his toes seconds later by a well timed tackle by a visiting defender. If that tackle had been mistimed I would have noted who made it as they would likely have been collecting a red card for Denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, but it was well timed and thus I made no note of who made it.

This failure did not deter the hosts as they were back again in the next minute, determined to give the visitors no rest. This proved to be an excellent tactic as I bring you the tale of how Wigan took the lead with this attack in the 21st minute of the match. The hosts unleased a powerful shot from the edge of the box and despite getting his body squarely behind it Nik Tzanev, the Don’s keeper, was unable to hold it. He dropped it to the feet of Keane, who had followed in the original shot, and he made no mistake from 4 yards out slotting it away to give Wigan the lead. If he had messed it up at least his nearest teammate was Humphrys, who would’ve had no leg to stand on after his earlier miss.

Having taken the lead Wigan seemed content to let the match limp towards the half hour mark, with the only actions of note being comical ones. First Wigan had a freekick on the edge of their own area that they dithered over taking. They must have changed the taker of it at least 6 times before the ref ordered them to get on with it and then they thumped it upfield, straight to the feet of a Don’s defender who sent it right back where it came from. Second a Wigan cross from the left was cleared from under the bar by Paul Kalambyi for the visitors only for his teammates to slam the clearance between the shoulder blades of the ref.

That clearance was indicative of the lack of quality offered by the visitors who had yet to create a single decent chance and were even struggling to retain possession of the ball for any prolonged period of the match. They only gained possession of the ball in the 35th minute when a shambolic pass between the host’s centre-backs landed at Cosgrove’s feet, but even the Dons dithered on the ball for long enough to allow Wigan to recover their defensive shape and block the resulting cross from the left and clear the ball.

Wigan continued their dominance of the ball from this point till the penultimate minute of the half, but in this time they only created one half -decent chance when Joe Bennet fired towards goal from the edge of the box. Though even this failed to hit the target as it was deflected off the visiting defenders for a corner that was poked goalwards but rebounded off the forest of legs to the edge of the area. From there sit was lashed back towards goal but that shot met the same fate as it’s predecessor.

When the Don’s got their next touch of the ball in the 44th minute and created their first truly decent opening of the match. A cross from the right landed on Cosgrove’s forehead just 8 yards out and whilst his header had the keeper beaten all ends up it failed to beat his marker who readjusted to send the ball clear of the box just 2 yards from the line. Having created this chance it seemed the Don’s though half-time had come early as they downed tools and let Wigan have another chance. Keane was given the freedom of the DW to advance down the centre of the pitch till he just had Tzanev to beat, but his contact on the shot was lighter than being tickled with a feather and the ball dribbled into Tzanev’s arms.

That was the last action of an abysmal first half of football that Wigan had still somehow managed to find a goal in. The ref had done little to help the flow of the game as he whistled up at every opportunity as though he was getting a bonus dependant on there being 50 freekick in each half. Given this it was shocking to me that he took no action at all against Cosgrove when he caught his marker in the face with his elbow in the 42nd minute, but that incident seemed to escape his notice.

I stepped out on the concourse at half-time and spent the time looking at the scores around the grounds at the rest of the days matches. The only one I remember is that MK were leading Rotherham 1-0 at half-time as they kept the pressure on Wigan for the automatic promotion places.

As the hosts emerged for the second half I was shocked to see that neither manager had made any changes during the break. Surely they couldn’t both be happy with the first half display? I certainly hadn’t been.

The Don’s emerged from a blind spot for the restart. I looked up at one point and they were just there on the field. Not that it mattered early on as Wigan attacked straight from kick-off, but that attack petered out before it could threaten the visitor’s goal. Neither team created any chances of note in the first 5 minutes of the new half, but Cosgrove did get away with making contact with his marker’s face once more though. This time it was the palm of his hand instead of his elbow, but in most games both would have merited at least a yellow card. Luckily for Cosgrove and the visitors though the ref was oblivious to both of them in this game.

It fell to the hosts to have the first chances of the second half and when they came they arrived as a pair in back to back minutes. The first of the pair arrived in the 52nd minute when Gwion Edwards won a battle to break free on the right and advanced into the box before thumping a shot towards goal. Tzanev was equal to it as it hurtled straight down his throat and although he couldn’t hold it he was able to punch it behind. The cannoned shot from the D that came from the corner deflected out off a Wigan Man for a goalkick.

The second chance of the pair came through Humphrys who came charging down the left hand side and failed to look up before unleashing a shot across goal that Tzanev was able to save with his legs. If Humphrys had taken a second to acquaint himself with his surroundings before taking a shot at glory he would have have seen a teammate unmarked in the box who had the simplest tap-in I have ever seen on my football travels ready to go. In keeping with the rest of the match though that moment of composure and quality was left missing in action.

This lack of awareness for teammates, the lack of quality passes all over the pitch and the dearth of a decent set of finishing boots from any of the players was infuriating me at this point to the extent that I started checking my emails. The officials had also begun to drift off and so they tackled this by whistling up for every tackle or misplaced pass. It added some hilarity to the match but it also risked turning the whole thing into a huge farce. This was not helped just before the hour mark by a soft freekick that was given to the hosts in their own box when they had Humphrys setting them on the break down the right. Just let the match flow ref please.

In the 66th minute Mark Robinson in the away dugout finally made a move to mix-up the action and perhaps even allow the Dons to establish a foothold in the match. The way that Robinson decided would accomplish this best was to replace Jack Rudoni with Daniel Csoka. Despite this it was the hosts who had the next attack,5 minutes later, and once again it came through Humphrys down the right hand side. This time he looked up and chipped the ball to Max Power at the back post who headed it straight down into the ground and into Tzanez’s arms.

This was the final goal-mouth action of the match as the match limped to its conclusion, but in the meantime both teams made 2 substitutes each. The visitors replaced George Marsh and Ayoub Assal with Anthony Hartigan and Terry Ablade. The hosts for their part removed Joe Bennett and Callum Lang, who trudged off the pitch moving like flowing trudge in the middle of a Siberian winter, and brought on Tom Pearce and Gavin Massey.

Entering the final 5 minutes neither team had looked like creating a decent opening for ages let alone actually scoring a goal as they both seemed to be begging for the final whistle to be blown as soon as possible. In the stands I wanted it to be blown sooner than that just to put me out of my misery. Max Power would not have to wait the final 5 minutes to escape this game as he went down holding his left arm in the 86th minute and he appeared to be in an awful lot of pain. The physios decided after a short burst of treatment that he would not be able to continue and the hosts lost their second player of the match to injury. This time though they could not bring on anyone to take his place as they had already used up their substitution quota. They didn’t seem to care about the numerical disadvantage they were left with and with the way this match was going they had no reason to.

The most interesting incident of the whole 90minutes occurred in the final one of those regulation minutes when Humphrys was once again running free towards goal. This time though he was blocked off by a frustrated Paul Kalambayi. This was the clearest freekick of the match and the ref did manage to give it. He then reached into his pocket and when his hand reappeared it was carrying a red card which was brandished to Kalambayi as the last man and for denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity. It appeared to me to be a stonewall red card and the first time the ref had been un-ambiguously correct in his decision making all match.

The lino had a different opinion though and after a 2 second chat with him so did the ref. After that chat he returned to the scene of the incident and rescinded the red card, then went one step further and reversed the freekick too. He eventually settled on giving a free kick to the Dons instead, but the reasons why the got the freekick are anyone’s guess. I still have no idea what the reason for this swift u-turn was but the ref was not about to explain it either. I have never been so confused about a turn of events on a football pitch.

I was still trying to decipher that turn of events as Wigan created the only change of the 3 tortuous minutes of injury time. They had the goal at their mercy just 3 yards out and with the keeper beaten, but instead of just tapping it home they went for the backheel instead and predictably it went comically wrong. Why they went for the theatrical there when they hadn’t managed to execute simple finishes throughout the rest of the game. The ball slowed to a snail’s pace allowing Tzanev to recover and scoop it up before it had covered a third of it’s required distance.

That was the last act of the match as the ref put the fans out of our misery, particularly the away fans who had travelled up from south London only to see their team fail to keep possession of the ball for any decent period of time let alone create a decent chance. That is an incredibly long journey for such an abysmal performance. My journey was much shorter than the away fans but I still felt that I had wasted my afternoon with this match.

My next blog comes from far further south than this one in the northern reaches of the midlands as I fullfill a childhood dream to see Nottingham Forest in action on the banks of the picturesque river Trent.

27th February 2022: Women’s FA Cup 5th Round: Prenton Park: Liverpool vs Arsenal

I have decided to leave my experiences at England’s final match of the Arnold Clark Cup for a blog that will form part of a series building up to the Women’s Euros in the summer. So we jump past that mid-week journey to Wolverhampton and land far closer to my abode on the final Sunday, as I popped across the Mersey to watch the leaders of the WSL take on their hosts who are soaring away from the rest of the Women’s Championship.

These two teams leading their respective leagues clashed in the final 16, also known as the 5th round, of the Women’s FA Cup. Arsenal lead the WSL by just 2 points coming into this match with Chelsea breathing down their necks with a game in hand. Their defence came into this match with an excellent record of conceding just 8 goals in 14 games in the league and they had only lost once in the league all season.

Liverpool for their part came into this one with a 10 point cushion over the chasing pack in the championship, with just the 5 goals conceded in 15 league game and just the 1 loss all season. They came into this match having won their last 5 on the bounce whilst their visitors have drawn 3 of their last 5 and only have 1 win in that time. The FA Cup is known for it’s shocks, so would it see another today?

With the match kicking off at midday I had to be up way too early for a Sunday and grab a bus to the stadium. Whilst on this bus ride I decided to use the free-wifi on board to check the team sheets, but I got a little distracted by the breaking news of Bielsa’s sacking by Leeds United. This was Leeds telling the man who had masterminded their return to the EPL to take a hike, it seemed unreal. That’s like Liverpool sacking Klopp because he won them the top division title for the first time in 30 years. Insane.

I had recovered from the shock of this news by the time I arrived at the stadium. There was still 45minutes till kick-off when I arrived, but I decided to head straight inside anyway. On the way in I passed the burger van in the carpark and the blue van from fans supporting foodbanks, it’s awful that foodbanks are still needed but good to see them being supported by those with the means to do so. I bought a programme, a cheeseburger and a drink on my way to my seat. There was a little mix up on the programme price though as one seller told me it was £2 but when her colleague served me the price was set a £2.50, now the programmes did say £2.50 in them so I paid it but I could’ve done without the confusion.

When I got into the stands it the teams were already warming up, with Liverpool in the shade at the fans end and Arsenal bathed in sunlight at the far end of the pitch. The back up Liverpool keeper was earning her keep with calls of “heads” in the warm up as the crosses the coaches thumped during catching practice were perhaps a little over zealous. I was certainly glad that the seat I had chosen to rest in was further back than I had first intended to be and that I was positioned just nicely behind the posts, in such a way that any crosses that were aimed towards me would bounce off the posts and away from where I was sitting.

The other thing that caught my eye in the warm-ups was the different way that the teams ran their cones drill. I don’t actually know if it’s technical name is the cone drill, but it’s what I know it as. This drill sees the starting outfield players split into 2 groups and tasked with maintaining possession of the ball whilst keeping it in a small coned off box area. The normal way of running this is that the groups consist of 4 players each and 2 designated neutral players, this duo tend to be the team’s playmakers who can see passes that most of their teammates can. They are the creative powerhouse of their team and as neutral players in this drill they have to be the most focused. This set up of 4,4 and 2 is the normal way because it forces the players to rely on each other. Liverpool had the drill set up differently, with 2 groups of 5 players and 2 coaches playing the neutral roles. Why they chose to do it this way is a private matter for them, but it seemed to defeat the object of the drill to me. Just one man’s opinion.

The team sheets were announced 10 minutes before kick-off and with no screens in Prenton Park it was difficult to ensure I had them down right. I know you’re in League 2 Tranmere and surviving at that level is difficult enough without spending money on stadium improvements, but a screen would make it so much nicer to attend matches and you are the best team the people of the Wirral have and you can only grow by enticing more of them to come to matches.

The team sheets themselves revealed a strong team for the hosts, with Melissa Lawley, Taylor Hinds, Missy Bo Kearns, Leanne Kiernan and captain Niamh Fahey all in the starting 11. However, there was no place in the squad for defender Meikayla Moore who had scored a perfect set of own goals over the international break the week before.

Arsenal for their part had not gone with nearly as strong a squad as their hosts. Beth Mead had been left back in London and Manuela Zinsberger, Jordan Nobbs, Tobin Heath, Stina Blackstenius and record goal scorer Vivianne Miedema were all on the bench for the start of the match. Arsenal had followed the tradition of teams naming someone in their squad who is not on the programme with Stenson on their bench being the player allotted for that role for this match.

Before kick-off there was a special presentation to Fahey for reaching 100 international caps for Northern Ireland over the international break. Congratulations to her for reaching this milestone and may she enjoy many more matches with her international teammates. Back to the game I had come to watch though and it was time to get it underway.

The hosts started the match with Katie Stengel the furthest player forward before reverting to their main striker Kiernan leading the line. For the visitors, without the talismanic Miedema had Caitlin Foord leading the line for them.

It only took 5 minutes for the first mistake of the game to come close to a goal. That mistake came from the home captain Fahey, who was getting a little too comfy at the back and under pressure from Foord she put a little too much on the back pass to Rachael Laws. Luckily for Fahey it looked to be heading just past the post, but Laws was able to recover and clear it.

Arsenal made a mistake of their own in the 8th minute, but this one was in midfield. Leah Williamson was a little too casual on the ball and this gave Lawley the chance to nick the ball off her and flick a ball in behind the visiting defence. Kiernan was onto this ball like a shot and managed to out-run the attentions of nearby defenders. Unfortunately for her and the home fans the ball managed to out-run her and it was easily scooped up by Lydia Williams in the Arsenal goal.

Liverpool used this chance to gather momentum behind them and they got on top in the match. They had the next chance of the match when Missy Bo Kearns fired a free-kick miles over the bar from 25yards out. It may not have threatened the goalmouth, but it was a symptom of the control of possession that the hosts had managed to cultivate so far. Perhaps it was this control that lulled Rhiannon Roberts in the hosts defence into a false sense of security. She got far too sloppy in clearing a searching ball over the top allowing Foord to ghost in behind her and beat her to the ball. Luckily for Roberts her blushes were saved by an offside flag.

The first proper threat from the visitors came in the 17th minute as a ball down the left set Katie McCabe running free in the box. She flashed the ball across the 6 yard box just begging her teammates to get on the end of it and tap it home for the opener. None of her teammates were there to tap it home. Roberts got there to slap it away from goal and towards the back post then cleared fully by Taylor Hinds. This was the first time Arsenal had shown any threat in this game.

Two minutes later Arsenal did more than just threaten as they took the lead. A searching ball through the hosts defence made it to Foord with just Laws to beat and she finished it across Laws and it nestled in the left corner of the net. Laws got fingertips too it as it whistled past her but not enough to keep it out. The quality Arsenal showed to go from under pressure and struggling to breaking out and scoring with their first shot on target was exceptional. Despite being in control for the first 15 minutes Liverpool were behind in the match just 4 minutes later and now it was all up to how they would respond.

The first signs of this response were extremely positive as Kiernan flashed a shot right across the face of goal in the 21st minute before a cross from the right hand side was inches too high to go straight in without another touch just a minute later. Then the signs became less positive as another back pass to Laws was once again closed down by Foord and this time there were mere nanoseconds between Laws successfully clearing the ball as Foord closed in. Laws was able to get the ball clear but it was not a great moment for the hosts as they tried to reassert themselves in this match.

Then things fell apart completely for the hosts as the match hit the half hour mark, they conceded 2 goals in just 4 minutes as the game was dragged out of their hands by their WSL visitors. The first of the brace for the visitors came exactly on the half hour mark. A beautiful 50 yarder out of defence by Williamson landed on the head of Kim Little at the left hand post and her header across goal was palmed towards the other post by Laws. At this post Foord was waiting to smuggle it home, but Fahey wasn’t waiting for the ball and got in front of Foord to tap it behind for a corner. The corner was taken short to Little and her cross was punched out to McCabe on the edge of the box who volleyed it straight back towards goal. It flew deliciously into the back of the net and past the despairing dive of Laws to double Arsenal’s lead.

The second of Arsenal’s 4 minute brace was a lot simpler for the visitors, a ball over the top by McCabe sent Foord running free and completely unmarked in the 6 yard box. The home defence had stopped like statues with their feet in concrete expecting an offside flag that never came. Even Laws took on statue form between the sticks and it was far too simple for Foord to knock it past her to increase the visitor’s lead to 3. The tiny score screen at the far end of the pitch showed 4-0 to the Gunners for a second before correcting itself, but even at 3-0 a comeback looked beyond the hosts.

The visitors had a penalty appeal waved away in the 38th minute as McCabe went over a leg in the area. It would’ve been soft in my opinion, but it goes in the category of ‘seen them given’. Seconds after waving this appeal away the ref gave the hosts a freekick on the edge of their own box, which did nothing to placate the Arsenal players still appealing for the penalty.

In the 40th minute Hinds attempted to take kick-start Liverpool’s comeback singlehandedly. Her shot from 40 yards out skimmed past the right hand post of the visitors goal. The ambition was awesome to see and it would’ve been a gorgeous goal if it had come off, but the execution was just short of what it needed to be.

The match had reached the 42nd minute before either team picked up a card of any colour, but when it came it was a yellow and it went to the host’s Leighanne Robe. She got this questionable honour for hacking down the visitor’s Rafaelle Souza and ending her gut busting run from midfield up to the edge of the host’s box. Souza needed treatment after having her legs hacked from under her, but she was able to continue. The free-kick was comically wasted as little rolled it 10 yards to the grateful boots of Hinds, but the break she set the hosts on came to nothing.

This was the last noteworthy play of a half that had been competitive in parts but where the quality of the WSL showed itself in the crucial moments allowing the visitors to head down the tunnel with a 3-0 advantage in their pockets. I went to grab some food, but changed my mind when I saw the queues for the kiosks. Returning to my seat didn’t go to plan though as I picked the wrong stairs first time round and had to head back down before finding the right stairs on my second try. This may not seem like a huge inconvenience, but I had fallen off my bike the afternoon before the match and my knee could’ve done without the extra work.

The teams emerged piecemeal for the second half, but Liverpool were shooting towards the fan’s stand in this half so I was hopeful for a consolation goal at the very least. Both managers had faith in their respective teams after their first half performances as neither the hosts Matt Beard nor the visitors Jonas Eidevall made any changes to the personnel at half-time.

The first occurrence of note in the second period was a collision in midfield in the 49th minute that left Nikita Parris and Roberts down flat out. The match was stopped immediately as physios from both teams rushed onto the field to tend to their respective players. It was great to see that the medical procedures were being followed properly and even better when Roberts got quickly back to her feet. Parris was down for a little longer, but she was eventually cleared to continue with the match.

It took until the 54th minute for the first chance of the half to be created and it went to the hosts. They wrestled the ball free on the left and advanced, but with Kiernan on the overlap there was no-one in the box to connect with Stengel’s cross when it arrived and Noella Maritz was able to clear for the visitors. Her follow through on the clearance caught Hinds, but the only thing given by the ref was a throw in. Being caught left Hinds down needing treatment and in the lengthy stoppage Missy Bo Kearns and Roberts took to practising passing to keep warm. Hinds was able to continue and much to my surprise she was not one of those substituted when Beard made his first changes in the 62nd minute. Instead Ceri Holland and Leighanne Robe were the ones who made way for the hosts to be replaced by Megan Campbell and Rachel Furness.

Beard was not the first to shuffle his pack as Eidevall had blinked first 5 minutes earlier and he’d even gone bigger than the hosts double. He went for a triple replacing Rafaelle Souza, Leah Williamson and Noelle Maritz with Jennifer Beattie, Simone Boye Sorensen and Tobin Heath. For anyone who knows the women’s game the fact that Arsenal can consistently utilise Heath as a substitute is incredible. She is a world class winger and I have yet to see her start for the Gunners.

Back on the pitch it was Liverpool who created the first chances past the hour mark with back to back crosses from the right by Lawley. The first was a cross into the 6 yard box that was cleared away by Boye Sorensen with Missy Bo Kearns, Stengel and Furness lurking to turn it home. A minute later the second cross was just a little too high for Stengel to connect with properly and she could only help it past the post.

Having not created anything of note in the first 20 minutes of the second half Arsenal finally sorted out a decent attack in the 68th minute and just like their first attack of the first half they scored with this one too. A beautiful team move was finished off by Little from 6 yards out as she stroked it under the despairing dive of Laws. That made it 4-0 to Arsenal and all without Miedema on the pitch. The gulf between the best team in the championship, who created tons of chances and couldn’t finish one and the best team in the WSL, who created very few chances and were still 4-0 up with 20mins of the match left, was clear for all to see.

As the match entered the final 20 minutes both teams dipped further into their resources on the bench. The hosts bought off the excellent Missy Bo Kearns and replaced her with Carla Humphrey and also replaced Rhiannon Roberts with Charlotte Wardlaw. The visitors removed Foord from the action, thus denying her the chance to complete her hat-trick. They still didn’t bring Miedema on though instead sending on Frida Maanum as the new player for the last 20.

The ref had been doing very well with her decisions so far in the match, but she then blotted her copybook with a howler in the 74th minute. It occurred as Lia Walti and Stengel were tussling for the ball in the Arsenal penalty area. Walti caught Stengel with a hand to the face which normally would have resulted in a penalty being given to Liverpool, but as both players went down the ref instead gave a free-kick to Arsenal. This infuriated the home fans around me so much that they broke into a chant of “you don’t know what you’re doing”. A little harsh on the ref perhaps, but understandable given the scale of the mistake.

This was forgotten a minute later though as Heath went on the attack for the visitors. She found space on the left of the box and unleashed a shot across the keeper that beat the Laws and had to be cleared behind off the line by a covering defender. Great last ditch defending to prevent Arsenal scoring their 5th goal, but I didn’t catch who managed this feat as it happened at the other end of the pitch.

Arsenal were on the attack again in the 77th minute as Heath set Maanum clean through the centre of the host’s defence and it looked like a simple tap in for Maanum. Until the lino’s flag stopped the attack in it’s tracks and saved the blushes of the Liverpool defenders who had been bypassed so simply.

Liverpool had the only attacks of the final 10 minutes of the regulation 90 and they spaced them excellently in the first and last minute of the 10. In the 81st minute a long throw into the box, over the leaping head of Maya Iwabuchi was punched clear to Humphrey on the edge of the box. She lashed a shot goalwards but Lydia Williams was equal to this too and then Hinds toe-poked her shot high over the bar from 6 yards out. Whilst not what Hinds had intended it was still rather impressive as an attempted finish. The host’s final chance of the match in the 90th minute was a fizzing shot from 25 yards by Yana Daniels that skimmed the top of the bar on it’s way behind and was the closest the hosts had come to finishing off one of their openings all match.

In between these chances for Liverpool the visitors took the chance to make their final substitution of the match, but by this point they had decided not to introduce Miedema and to instead save her for closer matches than this one had turned out to be. The substitution that they did make saw Lia Walti replaced by Jordan Nobbs who I always enjoyed watching when I visited Meadow Lane, during my time in London, as her first thought when she gets the ball is always forward.

There were 3 minutes added to the end of the match and in this time Arsenal had two presentable chances to add to their tally for the match. The first fell to Heath when Iwabuchi found her in space on the left side of the box. Heath was in the same position that she had been in when she scored Arsenal’s last minute equaliser against City in the WSL earlier in the season. This time the keeper was equal to her effort.

Heath then turned creator for her teammates as she found Nobbs in space just 20 yards from goal in the centre of the pitch. Her first time shot flew mere millimetres over the bar on it’s way behind and really should have been the gunners 5th of the match. They would never get that 5th though as the ref whistled for full time as soon as Laws had taken the goal-kick.

The match ended 4-0 to Arsenal and they progress to the quarter-finals of the Women’s FA Cup where they will face Coventry United at Meadow Lane on the 18th March. As for Liverpool they had just been subjected to a lesson in how good a football team can be and been given a warning of the level of quality play that they will be up against when they are back in the WSL next season. They will need to improve if they wish to be completing near the top of that league next season, but for now they can enjoy the rest of the league season as they romp to promotion.

For me it was a match with some excellent play but one that also exposed the gulf between the two professional leagues of women’s football in this country. I’m actually heading to another WSL game in midweek as I head to my third Everton women’s match of the season as they welcome Chelsea women to Walton Hall Park as the visitors compete for the WSL title during a testing time for their club as a whole.

That blog will have to wait a while though as I get back in chronological order mode and bring you my experience of visiting Wigan’s DW Stadium for the visit of AFC Wimbledon. Latics vs the Dons, who wins?

Sunday 13th February 2022: Manchester City Women vs Manchester City Women: Etihad Academy Stadium

Having already been to the Academy stadium for Arsenal’s WSL visit I thought I knew what to expect when I got off the Metrolink tram at the Velopark stop. I was wrong because the queues to get in were biblical!! I had never seen queues like that for a Women’s game and whilst I was impressed to see the awesome level of interest in Women’s football, but then the worry set in that I wouldn’t get in before kick-off. The queues for the North-West and South-West turnstiles were inches away from joining up back to back.

I had been delayed in getting to the stadium by a problem on the trams out of Piccadilly and as such I had to think on my feet to get inside before kick-off. I had bought my book on the train to Manchester in a plastic bag, but the no bag queue was moving an awful lot faster. So I joined it and the steward at the turnstiles was great to me as he realised there was just a book in there and he allowed me to stuff the bag in my pocket and carry the book inside. I was extremely grateful for this as the other option was being sent to the back of the queue, this would have been extremely annoying given the fact that there were no signs to let anyone know the reason for the two queues.

My show of initiative got me into the ground with 15minutes to go before kick-off, but I then had to cross all the way across the north stand to find a programme seller then back across the stand to join the food queue. A queue that, like the one to get into the stadium, moved at a glacial pace. The queue was so bad that I actually missed the first 3 minutes of the match and a pre-match presentation to Ellie Roebuck. I don’t even know what the presentation was for, but it was great to see her back between the sticks for City.

Whilst waiting in the queue I was able to take down the starting 11’s for both teams. I knew City’s team would be missing their injured captain Steph Houghton, but it was a surprise for me to hear that Chloe Kelly, Caroline Weir and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw (their goalscorer against Arsenal) were also missing from the City starting line-up. Only one of those three would enter the action in the match, but when she came on the impact she had was astronomical. The only players of note missing for United were Lucy Staniforth in midfield and Leah Galton, their greatest goal threat from the match I saw against Tottenham at Leigh.

My seat for the match was excellent, right on halfway and with the dugouts mere metres to my right. I could see Steph Houghton sitting just behind the dugouts, she may be injured and unable to play but she was still there to support her teammates and this was awesome to see. Another even better thing about my particular seat was the set of 5 amateur ex-players in the Women’s game. Their knowledgeable conversation kept me entertained during half-time and in the brief breaks in play throughout the match. It was from then that I found out that Kim Little has retired from international football. This seemed too convenient to me at the time, but on doing my own research after the game it turns out to be true.

Back to this game and United were the noisy neighbours in this derby, but going into this match they were 3 places and 5 points ahead of their hosts. Looking at their respective squads I couldn’t work out why the visitors were ahead in these metrics, but then I remembered all the injuries that City had been dealing with and it made more sense. City had such an awful start to the season that they were behind Reading and level on points with West Ham in the table coming into this one. City’s form had been improving coming into this one though and before the match I wrote in my notes that I was betting on a City win. Was I right? let’s find out.

Early on that bet was looking good as it took just 5 minutes for City to create their first chance of the match as Lucy Bronze got in down the right. Her cross was cleared by the home defence, but only as far as Jess Park who sent it straight back where it came from and this one fell to Vicky Losada on the edge of the box who let rip towards goal and succeeded in nestling the ball on the roof of the net. Mary Earps, between the sticks for United, appeared to have it covered either way but it was a sign of intent from the hosts.

It was a good thing for Alex Greenwood that her City team were on the attack early on because she was wearing a Zorro style mask and seeing that tested was not something anyone needed. Luckily for her and the home supporters City were on the attack again in the 7th minute with Park getting in down the wide open right-hand side and her pinpoint pass to the back post was screwed wide from a yard out by the unfortunate Lauren Hemp. The end result may not have been what the home fans had been hoping for, but the ease with which they got in behind the United defence was impressive and gave me a huge amount of confidence in City’s ability to turn dominance of the ball into goals in this match.

The 11th minute boosted my confidence in this even further as a beautiful 30 yard pas by Bronze dropped on a dime to Ellen White on the right side of the box. Instead of shooting herself she attempted to pull the ball back to Losada at which point the United defence was able to recover their shape and nip it off her toes as she was shaping to shoot. Worse new for City came just 3 minutes later as Georgia Stanway went down under a tackle in the middle of the pitch, but luckily she was able to continue after a quick stint of treatment from the physios.

United got their first chance of the derby in the 16th minute when Vilde Boe Risa shot straight down the Roebuck’s throat, when she had teammates in better positions to her left. The shot had enough power on it for it to squirm out of her hands, but she was able to recover in time to gather the ball before it could be turned home by the lurking Ella Toone.

This attack was a mere blip in City’s domination of the match to this point though as the hosts were back in down the ever leaky United right just 2 minutes later. This time it was Hemp who was in behind on that side this time round, but her cross into the centre was just an inch too close to the keeper and Earps was able to grab it off White’s outstretched toes. Any professional ballet dancer would have been proud of White’s form as she gave her all to connect with the cross but it came to nothing.

In the 24th minute City took to overplaying in the final third to keep the scores level. Losada had the ball in space on the edge of the box but rather than shooting she chose to play the ball out to Park on the right. This gave the home defence the time to organise to the point that when Park crossed the ball back into the box neither Losada or White were able to find the space to shoot through the forest of United legs. If Losada had shot first time there would have been a lot of pressure on Earps, but as it was the United keeper found herself with nothing to do at this point of the match.

United were getting so frustrated at this point in the match that they starting making crazy decisions in an attempt to create chances. A lunge on the half way line from Greenwood gave United a rare free-kick and they lumped it directly towards goal. To attempt to score direct from halfway could be seen as a ballsy move, but in this case it appeared to stem from sheer desperation to find some way back into the match. It was approaching the half hour mark by this point and United had barely had a sniff of the City goal.

A mere 3 minutes after half an hour of play had elapsed City were in behind again and yet again it was down the right that the found the space to create. Park, who had been United’s chief tormentor so far in the match, took the ball to the byline this time before delivering the ball on a silver platter to a teammate at the back post. This teammate managed to keep the score at nil-nil by heading the chance over the bar, till it nestled in it’s comfy spot on the roof of the net. The ball was getting far too used to landing in this spot for my liking.

This chance for City was followed a minute later by United’s best opening of the match so far, though that was not difficult as it was only their second significant chance from open play. Ella Toone had grown infuriated with her teammates lacklustre chance creating ability and so set off on a one-woman mission to create one for her team. She weaved past the City midfield and into space on the left. Her teammate had picked up on this mission and there were 4 of them running free in space in the box looking to connect with the cross that was bound to come, to give the visitors a lead they had no right too.

When Toone whipped in her cross it beat Roebuck but not Greenwood, who had raced back to cover for her bypassed teammates. Greenwood connected with the cross and headed it clear to the palpable relief of the majority of the fans in the stands and the excruciating disappointment of the waiting United players who would have had an empty net to turn the ball into without Greenwood’s intervention. I was amazed that the game remained 0-0.

Having survived this scare City were back on the attack with 5 minutes to go before halftime. Again they got in down the gaping hole that the right side of the pitch became every time they looked to go forwards. This time the City player on the attack was Bronze and her cross had a little too much on it for anyone to connect in the centre of the box. One of her teammates was able to sneak in at the back post, but her connection with the cross was too strong and the ball simply cannoned straight into the ground and then bounced harmlessly into Earp’s arms.

City were not done for the half yet though as Bronze got in down the right yet again. This time she advanced into the box before chipping the ball up for White to connect with just 6 yards from goal in the centre of the area. Once again though the ball found it’s comfy spot on the roof of the net from the resulting header, Another gilt-edged chance goes begging for City and the back of the net must have been starting to get at least a little bit jealous of the close relationship the ball was developing with it’s roof at this point.

The half ended on a sour note for City when Greenwood fell to the turf just as the board went up for 3 minutes of injury time. The City defender was down for ages and it certainly felt like it should have added to the injury time, but the ref blew the whistle to end the half seconds after the physios had finished with Greenwood and it was clear she would be able to continue after the break.

I had no idea how the half had come to a conclusion without a single goal being scored, but it had somehow managed to be so. I spent the half talking with the ex-players next to me and learning from their knowledge of Women’s football. Half-time passed swiftly for me, like a bullet train through the countryside of Japan. I was caught on the hop by the lack of substitutions from the visitors in the break. Given the ease with which City wandered into the space behind the left of their defence I thought that they would have bought on re-enforcements in that area, but they decided against it for reasons that I hoped would become clear during the course of the second half.

The second half took a while to get going and it wasn’t till the 54th that the first decent chance of the half presented itself. It went to City as they attempted to exploit the space on the right that had been so simple to find in the first half. This time though that space had been closed right up and the attack was going nowhere, till Katie Zelem slid in for no reason and took the player rather than the ball. She received the first yellow card of the match for this and give City a free chance at goal. The free-kick was launched towards goal by Greenwood but it just never stopped rising and ballooned harmlessly over the bar.

City were causing United problems again in the 58th minute, but this time they tried their luck down the left. They found the space for Demi Stokes to whip the ball into the centre but, like Greenwood before her, she put too much on the cross and it sailed over everyone in the centre of the box and it then came in too hot to Park at the back post for her to adjust in time, so all she could do was shin the ball behind for a goalkick.

It took till a minute after the hour mark for City to find that space down the right that they had been searching for all half. The insanely energetic Park was the one who found that space and she used it to embarrass the defender opposite her. She zigzagged inside, outside and then inside again to leave her marker dazed and confused on the turf. This done and with space in the box she toe-poked her shot past Earps for what was looking like the goal that City had deserved all match, till it rebounded off the left stick of the goal. The disappointment that I felt as the ball bounced off the post has only been beaten recently by my disappointment at England’s loss on penalties in last summer’s Euro’s final.

United’s first creditable threat to the City goal in this second half came in the 63rd minute and just to make up for lost time they squeezed two into the single minute. The first of these came from the left side of the box and once this one had been palmed off the line by Roebuck they tried again from the right side with the same result. It may not have been a goal for United, but forcing Roebuck to work for her living was certainly an improvement on their efforts so far this half. Just as the visitors were finding a foothold in the half their manager, Mark Skinner, decided to shuffle his pack, bringing on Martha Thomas for Vilde Boe Risa.

This shuffling almost backfired within a minute as a passage of silky interplay between Stanway and Park, including Stanway nutmegging Zelem in the build-up, resulted in Stanway 20 yards from goal slap-bang in the centre of the goal. Her shot was hit like a bullet out the barrel of a AK-47, there was no time for Earps to adjust and get anywhere near it. The aim on her bullet was every so slightly too high though and it whizzed mere millimetres over the bar.

The next 10 minutes died off a cliff as the match entered a mid-half lull, but in that lull City boss Gareth Taylor made his most important call of the match. He made his first substitution and in replacing Vicky Losada with Caroline Wier, who I had expected to start, he changed the course of the derby.

Before we get to Wier’s crowning moment there were two other moments of note in the dying minutes of the 70’s. Both of these moments fell to the visitors, with them first heading agonisingly wide of the back post from a floated corner from the right. Then United attempted to change the match in their favour with their second substitution, replacing Alessia Russo with Kirsty Hanson.

Wier’s crowning moment came in the 81st minute of the match, when she had only been on the pitch for 7 minutes. The ball was worked to her in the centre of the pitch 25 yards from goal, she advanced to the edge of the box and flicked the ball goalwards with exquisite nonchalance. The ball flew gracefully into the top right postage stamp of the goal before finally being able to nestle in the back of the net, as it had threatened to do so often. There is no keeper anywhere in world football that was saving this shot and there were many a jaw that needed to be scooped back up as the supporters processed what they had just seen. It was one of the best pieces of skill I have seen at a football match in a long time and well worth the entrance fee for the stadium record 5,317 fans that had made their way to the match.

The home fans day was almost ruined just a minute later though as a cross from the visitors right beat everyone in the home defence, but luckily it also beat the runs of the United players in the centre and the match remained 1-0 to City. This scare was enough to convince Taylor to shut-up shop though and in the 84th minute he removed the brilliant Jess Park from the action to a standing ovation and bought on Hayley Raso to help her teammates see the match out. The hosts also took to time-wasting on the ball, it’s a fair game management tactic but not especially exciting from the fan perspective.

It worked though as it took until the final minute of the match for United to create another chance. This came on the break down the centre as a ball over the top gave Thomas the chance to run clear, Roebuck wasn’t giving her it all her own way though as she engaged the United striker in a race to the ball. Roebuck won and hacked the ball out for a throw-in and it was a good job she did, as if she had lost then Thomas would have almost certainly equalised into an empty net and robbed the status of match winner from one of the truly great goals I have seen in all my years of attending football games.

As it was the match remained at 1-0 to the hosts and after a last minute substitution for the visitors, Signe Brun replaced by Ivana Fuso, this was how the match ended. A spectacular first-time finish sealing a derby win for City that was a lot more comfortable than the scoreline suggested.

There was a moment of confusion for me after the final whistle though as City’s Kiera Walsh was announced over the PA as the player of the match, for my money Jess Park would have been a much better choice for the accolade as she was a thorn in the side of the visitors right up until being substituted. Wier was also a good shout for the award simply for the quality of her match-winning goal, but I would still have chosen Park myself and I expect to see a lot more of her in years to come. Whether she will break through in the England set-up in time for the Euro’s this summer remains to be seen, but her quality is undeniable.

I took 10 days off after this match before heading down to Wolverhampton to see how England’s preparation for those upcoming Euro’s were going as they faced the old enemy Germany in the Arnold Clark cup. the tournament in which they faced top 10 ranked opposition for the first time under Sabrina Weigman. It was set to be a true test of their credentials as challengers in the Summer and I will bring my report on my experiences of that game in next blog.

February 9th 2022, Manchester City vs Brentford

Fresh on the back of a humiliation at the hands of Frank Lampard’s new Everton team Brentford stayed up in the north west for their next match against the runaway league leaders Manchester City. Brentford came into the match having not won in the league since beating Aston Villa on the 2nd January and having not managed to win in any competition since beating Port Vale of league 2 in the FA Cup 3rd round on January 8th. Between that 4-1 demolition of Port Vale and this match against Manchester City, Brentford had played 5 games across the Premier League and FA Cup losing every single one and not managing to score twice in any of them.

This abysmal form for the Bees has seen them slip to 14th in the league table and every team below them in the table at kick-off had at least one game in hand over them. They also had not beaten today’s opponents since a match on Christmas day in 1937, granted they haven’t played each other much since then but 85 years is still a long time to go without a win against a single opponent. The only positive omen for the Bees heading into this match was that they had not lost 5 league matches in a row since December 2007, when they were on their way to a mid-table finish in League 2, sandwiched between Bury and Lincoln City.

Their opponents for this midweek evening game were Manchester City, who lead the Premier League by 9 points at kick-off and had not lost in all competitions since being beaten 2-1 away at RB Leipzig on the 7th December. To find City’s last loss in the league you would have to go all the way back to the 30th October when they were defeated 2-0 at home by Crystal Palace. They had prevailed in every domestic match since, including defeating the Bees 1-0 in the reverse match at the Brentford Community Stadium, and this incredible run of form appears to have set them on a path to another simple stroll to the league title.

This was a match pitting the runaway league leaders against a newly promoted team in dreadful form and in freefall in the league table so there was only one winner looking likely. As such I made my way to this match with no expectations of a good result, after all only a fool would bet on the visitors winning this on, but I still made my way to the match looking forward to it. I had always wanted to visit the Etihad and having visited the Academy stadium across the road for a WSL match now I had the chance to visit the real thing in the Premier League. It was a dream come true and at least the journey was simple, just a direct train into Manchester Piccadilly and then a tram out towards Ashton-Under-Lyme and off at the Etihad campus stop and through the excessive barrier system out of the stop.

I got talking to another Bees fan on the tram and we got chatting about the team’s recent form and their prospects for the rest of the season. His knowledge was a pleasure to imbibe, though our conclusions were less enjoyable as we both agreed that the current form was grim and unless something changed soon the Bee’s chances of staying up were very slim indeed. Our conversation continued as we walked round half of the stadium and only came to an end as we reached the barriers set out for the arrival of the coaches in-front of the main entrance to the Colin Bell stand. My tram companion decided not to stick around to see the home team arrive, but I could not miss the chance to see Pep Guardiola and his team of millionaires greet the fans as they arrived for the match. The only player I really wanted to see was Kevin DeBruyne, a world-class player whose skills would grace any pitch the world over.

DeBruyne and the rest of his teammates emerged from the two coaches that stopped just out of my view, whilst Pep and the coaching team had been on the second coach and thus stepped down mere metres from where I was standing. It was a surreal feeling to see the man who had transformed City from also-rans into the most feared club in domestic competitions that close to me, probably within touching distance though I did not try to find out. The stewards on the spiral ramps either side of the entrance would have had an excellent view of both players and managers as they disappeared into the bowels of the stadium.

This view may have made up for the elongated wait for the coaches to arrive. The announcer filled the gap by putting on a quiz for a couple of young fans, with the prize of an upgrade to hospitality for the match. The questions were on both the hosts and the visitors and even I learnt something, the names of the Brentford mascots. Whilst this was going on I snuck away to buy a programme for the match and I managed to sneak back to the barriers just in time for the arrival of the coaches.

There was a surprise waiting for me on the squad lists just inside the back cover of the programme, Benjamin Mendy’s name is still listed on there. Granted there is an asterisk linked to a footnote at the bottom stating that he is currently suspended, but given that he is currently under arrest on rape charges it feels wrong seeing his name on the programme at all.

Once I had seen the coaches arrive I decided to head straight inside and this was a very good call. The security you have to pass through to get to the turnstiles is belt and braces, just guards with sniffer dogs and a strict no bags at all rule. You can bring bags too the stadium, but you can’t take them inside. City are good enough to provide secure bag drops outside the security line for you to leave your bags at, but I didn’t trust these arrangements and so travelled to the match without my trusty backpack.

The turnstiles themselves are wide and easy to get through, but once you’re through prepare for a work out if you’re on the upper levels. There are no lifts to the Level 3 in the away area and whilst not exhausting on the Newcastle scale it was still a decent work-out that shows just where you are at fitness wise. When you get to the top of those stairs the huge food kiosk just to your right comes in very handy indeed. Less handy are the screens on the concourse which were showing a pop concert that had previously been staged at the stadium rather than anything remotely useful or football related.

With the screens being of no help whatsoever I decided to look online for the matchday squads and when I did I was in for a shock. Ivan Toney was nowhere to be seen for Brentford. The official line being that he was unavailable due to a calf knock picked up against Everton but given his performance in that game I would not be surprised if he had simply been dropped. In better news for the Bees, Bryan Mbuemo and Yoane Wissa were able to return to the bench after missing the Everton humiliation due to positive tests.

Despite these returnees Brentford still had to name 2 keepers on their bench to fill it out as their squad gets stretched wafer thin as we approach the crucial part of the season. For their part City only had 1 notable absentee from their squad with Gabriel Jesus rested for this match. Other than that it was a full strength City team that lined up against the newly promoted visitors with Sterling, Mahrez, Foden and DeBruyne all on from the start.

Having worked out the squads without the screens and bought a drink from the kiosk I headed into my seat and I’m glad I went in early. The view from the seat was both incredible and ass-clenchingly frightening for me as I’m not the best with heights. It wasn’t as high up as my seat at St. James’ Park for sure, but the stand was far steeper so if I slipped at all the trip downwards would be a lot more destructive. With this in mind I was glad to have the time to adjust to the view and there was no way I was looking over the bar 2 seats to my right.

There was no denying the stunning view I had of the pitch though and of the rest of the stadium too. The Etihad is vacuous beyond words and the sight-lines for every supporter are incredible, but the tannoy was far too quiet to fill the space before the announcing of the teams. So I thought that I would be relying on the huge screens behind each goal for the final announcement of the starting-11’s, just incase anything had changed in the warm-up. I was right on this for the Bee’s starting-11 and substitutes, which the announcer sped through as though he was driving on a motorway and needed to get home to stop his house burning down. For the City squad things were taken at a far more civilised speed.

The show that was made of the hosts starting-11 was a little much though. First there was a few smoke machines going off around the pitch perimeter. Then the light show started and as the tannoy was turned up by a factor of 50 the names of each of the player’s names was lit up around the centre circle with their shirt number accompanying this. The final touch was a row of huge flags with each of the starting player’s names and numbers on them being waved along along the touchline opposite the dugouts. I understand that this was all done to enhance the experience for the home fans, but as an away fan it really did feel like they were trying too hard.

This was the last act before kick-off and at this point I would have bitten your hand off for a draw but 10 seconds in Brentford came milliseconds away from taking the lead. A weak backpass left Ederson under huge pressure in the City goal and he was only just able to clear in time to scramble the ball away from the onrushing Samman Ghoddos.

Having survived that early scare City created their first chance of the match in the third minute as they find Raheem Sterling in space on the right. He cut inside Frank Onyeka and had a clear shot on goal with just David Raya to beat in the Brentford goal, so he shot right down the keeper’s throat and made it as easy as possible for Raya to save which he did with ease. City had another chance a minute late though as a mistake in the Bee’s defence gifted the ball to City in the box and it took the best of Raya to get down and keep the ball out with his legs.

The hosts had their next chance in the 5th minute as they had the Bee’s goal under early siege, this time they managed a diving header just past the right-hand post. It was the closest that City had come to taking the lead so early in the match. Brentford had their first attack a minute later as a delicious 40 yard crossfield ball from Raya set Sergi Canos running free down the left hand side, but he slipped as he attempted to turn inside and find support to help continue the attack and City were able to clear the ball.

The game had started at breakneck speed and it continued this way in the 8th minute as City created another attack through Sterling, he then fell over under the slightest of contact and, with his reputation preceding him a little, the ref waved away his protests. This incident annoyed the fans behind me so much that I heard them mutter that “you could blow him over with a feather”. I wish I could disagree with them.

Whatever his faults Sterling had been the most active and threatening player for the hosts so far and he was at it again in the 10th minute. A quick freekick caught the visitors off guard and set him free down the left channel. His cut back was just too close to the Bee’s centre backs and it got cleared just in time to stop the onrushing City midfielders from connecting with it.

City were running the show in midfield and choking the life out of Brentford at this point in the match and it had clearly had an effect on Thomas Frank as he was waving his arms like a madman on the touchline, doing anything he could to inspire his team to get back into the match. It was great to see this passion in a manager and it did appear to have the desired effect as the Bees managed to break upfield from a City corner in the 14th minute. They got the ball running in space on the left and had three players in space in the centre waiting for the cross that they would tap home into the net for a lead that they had done nothing to deserve. The cross that came in was not one to be tapped home as it was way too close to Ederson in the City goal, who pouches it without having to move at all.

City then regained control of the match and moved the ball into space on the right side of the box with no Bees defenders within 5 yards. They delay the shot long enough for the visitors to recover and get back in place in time to deflect the ball behind for a corner. The corner came to nothing, but the amount of space City were finding in the box was scary. It was only the 20th minute and City were already finding ways to cut the visiting defence to shreds.

Brentford were only able to create chances on the break at this point and they managed it in the 23rd minute. They tried to beat the keeper with a 20 yard dipping fizzer and they almost succeeded. Ederson had to scramble to adjust his feet and get in position to palm the ball over the bar. This incredible last second save was rendered moot seconds later as the linesman threw up an extremely late flag. It did at least keep Ederson on his toes though and show City that, despite their dominance the visitors were not going to roll over and gift City the win.

In the 29th minute City came inches away from taking the lead their dominance deserved. A teasing cross into the corridor of uncertainty snuck past 2 despairing Bees lunges and just needed the slightest touch in the centre, but no-one manages to connect. The ball bounced out to Joao Cancelo 12 yards out who smashed the ball over the bar with his first-time effort. City came right back on the attack in the 32nd minute as intricate play in midfield fed the ball to Kevin DeBruyne on the right side of the box. Before he could unleash a word-class shot Pontus Jansson got back and nipped the ball off his toes.

City were not letting up though and, just a minute later, a ball over the top found Raheem Sterling 7 yards out in the centre of the box with no defenders anywhere nearby and just the keeper to beat. Somehow he contrived to balloon the ball miles over the bar from this distance. It was a satisfying miss for me as an away fan, but City were getting closer and there would only be so many let-offs for the Bees before the hosts made one of their chances count. They would give Brentford at least one more let-off though and this one came in minute 35. A city freekick was threaded through to Aymeric Laporte 10 yards from goal and his shot on the turn was lashed just wide of the right hand post.

The visitors finally managed to fashion another chance of their own in the 37th minute as they grabbed the ball in midfield and allowed Mathias Jensen to unleash a shot from 25 yards out. It deflected through to Ederson, or it would have done if the defenders had been paying attention. They weren’t and instead tapped it behind from inches in front of his waiting arms. Brentford wasted the corner as has become their tradition in recent games.

City finally got the goal their control of the match so far deserved in the 40th minute, but they decided not to try and get it from open play. Sterling received the ball on the left hand side of the area and when Mads Roerslev slid in and took the ball off him, he proceeded to fall over and roll around. The ref saw this as a clear indication that he had been fouled and gave the hosts a penalty. Riyad Mahrez stepped up to slide the ball down low to the keeper’s right to put City 1-0 up and on the path to yet another league win. These penalty moments elicited the only cheers from the home fans all half.

Bees went up the other end and had 2 chances in 2 minutes before the end of the regulation 45. A cross from the left was headed out to 25yards by the host’s defence where Onyeka was waiting to flash it inches wide of the left post for their first chance. The second came down the other side as a cross into the box from the right was poked towards goal from point blank range only to be blocked away by Ederson, who then got back to his feet in time to grab the ball off the feet of the waiting strikers.

In the added minutes Sterling had a gilt-edged chance to double the host’s lead from 6yards out and instead of shooting he went to tap the ball past the keeper and then attempt to fall over his outstretched arms as he went for the ball. When Sterling realised that the keeper was not going to give him that opportunity he cut back inside to the penalty spot and saw his shot blocked by a recovering Brentford defender.

This was the last action of the half that City won 1-0 and as such I headed for halftime in a pretty dreadful mood. The long queue at half-time actually improved my mood as I still managed to get the last available pie, which tasted great, and whilst queueing I was able to have a long chat with an extremely knowledgeable fellow Bees fan from Hammersmith called Abigail. She was less pleased once we got to the kiosk though as she was vegan and they had nothing more substantial than a packet of crisps to offer her for sustenance.

Feeling lovely as I returned to my seat my mood then soured again as I saw that neither side had made any half-time substitutions. With the hosts so clearly on top throughout the first half I was amazed that Thomas Frank had decided to leave things as they were instead of bringing on reinforcements to try and change the direction of the match.

With no changes at half time it only took 5 minutes for City to create their first chance of the half as Laporte let fly from 30 yards out on the left-hand side of the pitch and it skimmed over the bar by inches. Then City created an even better chance in the 55th minute. The first of those chances saw Cancelo waltz past the entire defence with consummate ease then whip a shot across the keeper from just inside the left angle of the area. Raya got down to his left just in-time to save and keep the game at just 1-0 to City.

It took until the hour mark for Brentford to create a chance of their own in the second half. A looping cross from the left got slid back in to the penalty spot, once it had been collected on the right. The shot was powerful enough, but was also straight down Ederson’s throat and never looked like being the equaliser that Brentford badly needed to get themselves back into the match. This was enough to finally shake Thomas Frank from his slumber on the touchline as, two minutes later, he removed Canos and Ghoddos from the fray and replaced him with 2 of the best attacking players in the Bee’s squad, Byran Mbuemo and Josh DaSilva.

This change almost paid dividends as the Bee’s had a great chance to equalise on the break in the 64th minute. An awesome 40 yard ball up-field left Mbuemo in behind the host’s defence and running free with only Ederson to beat. That is till the City defence re-organised and forced him to cut inside before he could find the space to take a shot on goal and with this opportunity Kevin De-Bruyne was able to rush back and nip the ball off Mbuemo’s toes as he is shaping to shoot. This was too much like Brentford getting back into it for Guardiola’s liking and it pushed him to dip into his expensive bench resources. He pulled Jack Grealish from the pack and sent him on as fresh legs in attack to replace the goal-scorer Mahrez.

At this point it was only 1-0 to City and there had even been signs of Brentford getting a foothold in the match, so this was of-course the time City doubled their lead and it came from a dreadful mistake from Raya in the Bee’s goal. In the 69th minute he messed up a goal-kick and it ended up being passed straight to Sterling yards from goal and completely unmarked. Luckily it was Sterling and he proceeded to slam his shot into the keeper’s legs from point blank range. Unfortunately, the ball rebounded out to the feet of Kevin DeBruyne, whose killer instinct is far more refined, and he stroked the ball back where it came from until it nestled in the back of the net. That was 2-0 to City and the game was basically finished off as a contest. To say I was apoplectic at Raya at this point would be the greatest understatement of any of my blogs so far.

With this 2-0 buffer over their visitors now established Guardiola was able to substitute the attacking threat of Phil Foden and replace him with the steel in midfield of Ikay Gundogan to help City retain possession and ensure they didn’t give their visitors and easy way back into the match. In the 79th minute Brentford break from the back, just as a City player nearby went down and the ref then gave the hosts a freekick. From which the hosts were able to engineer a chance to shot from just outside the box that Raya had to get down to his right very quickly to palm it behind.

The visitors then created 2 chances in 2 minutes in the early minutes of the last 10. In the 82nd minute Rico Henry got in down the right and his cross into the box was blocked by the hand of City captain Ruben Dias. Perhaps his hand was in a natural position, I can’t remember now. Whatever the case it was only a corner that got given and the resultant shot from the left was deflected behind and the second corner amounted to nothing at all. The second chance came from an attempted assist by Raya than got headed down to Mbuemo on the edge of the box, but he fluffed his shot and it was far too simple for City to clear.

At this point City took total control of the ball and proceeded to just knock it about between themselves as the remainder of the 90minutes ebbed slowly away. The home fans decided not to wait for the inevitable final whistle to put a seal on their victory as they started trickling towards the exits in the 86th minute and by the 90th it had become a tidal wave. It seems when you get used to seeing your team win every match it gets far too boring as the home stands were almost fully deserted when the board went up for 3 added minutes.

Brentford created one final chance for a consolation goal in those added minutes. Rico Henry surged forward on the left and slipped an inviting cross across the 6yard box that Mbuemo came millimetres away from tapping home. The ball back across from the other side landed to the feet of Frank Onyeka who smashed it into the keeper’s body from point blank range, that sent the ball cannoning away from the box.

That was the final chance before the ref whistled for full-time and a 2-0 win to City. The only good news for the visitors was that this performance was a vast improvement on their humiliation by Everton at the weekend.

One the downside for the visitors, this loss brings up a month of losing for Brentford and without an improvement in results they will struggle to avoid relegation at the end of the season. It would be a huge disappointment for a season that started with a 2-0 home win over Arsenal to end with relegation and the improved performance in this match gives them hope of a turnaround.

The home stands were a wasteland seconds after the final whistle blew as the home fans are so used to seeing their team win that they didn’t feel the need to stick around to celebrate the victory with their team. If only all supporters were so lucky.

My next blog sees me return to Manchester and to the Manchester City complex, but I switch my attention back to the Academy Stadium for the Manchester derby in the WSL.

Having been back to London to pick up the tickets for this FA Cup match and taking the free evening to pop into Plough Lane, it was now time for me to head to the FA Cup showdown between the Franks of Thomas and Lampard. Thomas Frank is the manager of the visiting Brentford and for his first match Frank Lampard was taking charge of his new team, Everton. The blue side of Merseyside had finally taken the step of ending the ill-fated reign of Liverpool legend Rafa Benitez, who had lead them into a relegation battle in the league, and replacing him in the dugout with Chelsea legend Frank Lampard. Lampard’s reign as Everton manager began today with the visit of Brentford in the 4th round of the FA Cup.

Getting to the ground for me was one simple cycle, but for those coming in to Liverpool by train you can either head across the road from lime street and get the 19, 20, 21 or the matchday 919 bus from the Bus Station. To walk to Goodison Park from Lime street is simple you just head right out of the station and then follow the tourist road signs towards Anfield, there are no such signs for Goodison, until you see Anfield appear up the road to your right and you then carry on straight. You head down the side of Sefton Park and Goodison appears in front of you. The first thing I saw of Goodison were the large blue letters of the sign above the stadium, although I could only see the section spelling out Good from my viewpoint and that was one thing that Everton had not been till this point of the season.

They now had a new manager though, who had been confirmed on Transfer Deadline Day and had made a couple of marquee signings who should improve their squad no end. They bought in Dele Ali to give them more threat going forward and Donny Van De Beek to shore up their defence. Brentford had responded on the same day with a huge signing of their own in the incredible Christian Eriksen, returning to England and competitive football for the first time since the Euro’s last summer. None of these players were able to play for their club in this one though, Ali and Van De Beek are cup-tied whilst Eriksen will not be able to play for Brentford for “a few weeks” as he works to return to match fitness. Everton were also without their main striker of Dominic Calvert-Lewin who was still recovering from a knock.

I arrived at the ground with ages till kick off and having bought my programme from a Red lad on the walk to the ground, who had been hoping that Benitez would stay for the season and relegate the blues, I walked past the shop without heading inside. I then passed the statue of Dixie Dean on the main road and then proceeded down the Goodison road stand, where there were huge banners on the side of the stand of notable players from Everton’s past and underneath that was a timeline of Everton through the years. The timeline wraps round the Goodison Road, Sir Howard Kendall Gwladys Street and Bullens Road sides of the stadium and tracks the history of Everton from their 1878 founding right up to 2014, why it goes no further into modern times is anyone’s guess.

As I walked down Goodison Road it became clear why Everton are the known as ‘The People’s Club’ as the whole of L4 appeared to have turned out to greet their new manager. Lampard returned this show of passion for his appointment by giving a quick fist bump in the fans direction as he headed straight inside the stadium off the bus. Way to get the fans onside Mr. Lampard, but he would improve that welcome on the pitch.

Having seen this interaction between the new manager and his new fans I headed down to the far end of Goodison Road and found a three-sided statue that had Howard Kendall on one side, Colin Harvey on the second and Alan Ball (who joined after winning the 1966 World Cup) on the third side of the triangle statue. Each of them were legends for Everton in their own era, but they have to share a statue whilst Dixie Dean has one all to his own at the other end of Goodison Road.

I bought my lunch from a food stall near this triple statue, all the food stalls and programme sellers are cash only by the way, then headed past the Gwladys Street end of the stadium and the second club shop on the corner of the Gwladys and Bullens sides of Goodison. I then had to go past the barriers that separate the away fans turnstiles from the home areas and then inside the barriers and all the way back along Bullens Road to turnstile 46/47 , that then turned out to be outside the barriers anyway and I couldn’t get in through. The stewards had obviously dealt with this situation with other fans as they knew to send my back to turnstile 50 where the steward let me in without needing to scan my ticket.

Once inside the stadium you can feel the age of the place everywhere you look. The ceilings are low and the concourse is thin and claustrophobic, the away fans were packed like sardines into the tiny spaces and I can understand why Everton are moving to a new stadium in the docks. Goodison Park was the first custom-built, football only stadium back in 1882 and it’s all wood under your feet and the seats are tiny metal flip-down one with just a metal bar across the back for lumbar support. Not comfortable, but as an away fan I would be standing most of the match anyway if things went well. My seat was right by half way and though Everton had been generous in giving the away fans a full side of the stadium they had also put a pillar in the way of my view to the left so I could hardly see the penalty area, but I could see the goal though I would wish I could not as the game progressed.

The big screens in the stadium are diagonally opposite each other and the one I could see, between the Goodison Road and Gwladys Street stands, showed only the starting 11’s for the teams and no substitutes at all. Writing them on the programme was a nuisance though as the outsides of the programme are glossy paper which cannot be written on, I had to resort to writing the player’s numbers on the CEO’s and Captain’s pages of the programme.

Those numbers did show me one thing which had been whispered round the away fans before the match was actually true, David Raya was back in goal for the Bees for the first time in months after recovering from injury. This was both great and awful news as Raya is undoubtedly one of the best keepers I have seen for the bees in a long time it normally takes players returning from injury a few matches to bed back into the team. The last time the Bees were in this situation they lost their first game 3-2 to Burnley and had one of the worst first halves of football I have seen from any team in history. I was hopeful they would avoid a repeat performance.

Following current protocols the teams entered from different areas of the stadium, with the hosts entering through a tiny opening at the top of some stairs, that I think must lead to the changing rooms. The visitors entered from a huge tunnel far away to my left and as they entered from different areas they also entered at separate times and the stadium PA decided to sound an ear-splitting siren as the Bees entered. This infuriated me to the point where a comic version of me would have had flames coming out of his ears. It was in this mood that I watched the game get underway.

My mood did not immediately improve as Everton were the first team on the attack as they fed off the wave of positivity in the crowd. They got the ball up to Richarlison in the box and as he attempted to hold the ball up he lost his footing and ended up flat on the turf. He felt he had been tapped and thus turned to the ref screaming for a penalty that no ref would ever give. It may not have been the most successful attack from the hosts, but it was certainly a signal of intent and indicative of the control they had established in midfield early on.

Brentford had their first attack of the match in the 6th minute and it came from a throw in. The long throw on the left landed in the box and created pinball in the area. Kristoffer Ajer won this pinball but his tempting ball across the face of the 6 yard box was deflected behind by the home defence and then the visitors wasted the corner.

The first truly threatening attack of the match came in the last dry minute of it, the 9th minute. Everton worked the ball out to Ben Godfrey on the left and his pin-point ball to Richarlison gave him just one defender and the keeper to beat. He left the defender for dead with ease, but then shanked his shot far wide of the right-hand post. Then the clouds broke and the rain streamed down, it peppered the turf but luckily the stands were well under cover and I remained dry.

This change in conditions underfoot along with his attacking efforts had an effect on Godfrey as he fell to the turf in the 12th minute with little attention from the visiting players. He was unable to continue and with the help of the physio he was forced to limp off the pitch. Lampard’s first substitution as Everton boss saw the introduction of Yerry Mina to the action in place of his injured defensive colleague and it would turn out to be an excellent call.

This personnel change did nothing to halt the hosts attacks and they were back in down the right in the 14th minute, the cut back was dreadful though. It was straight to the feet of the defence who were able to clear it back towards the hosts goal. The visitors break came to nothing, but Pickford’s clearance from it was a little more coincidental. Richarlison and Pontus Jansson went up to challenge for the ball, but only found each others head’s to make contact with and they came back down far quicker than they went up. The break in play as they were checked over by the medics was a nervy one for both sets of fans but, much to the relief of everyone, both players were cleared to continue and the match continued.

Everton were nearly gifted a goal in the 17th minute as a throw from the left is then worked into the centre of the box where it looked to be heading straight to the feet of Mads Bech Sorensen to clear for the visitors. Except that he allowed the ball to bounce in front of him and the bounce took the ball past him and to Richarlison instead, who had been a menace for the visitors defence so far. Richarlison turned and volleyed towards goal, but the ball was always rising and it sailed over the bar.

Another mishit goal kick from Pickford provided Brentford with their best chance yet. This time the ball simply squirted from under Pickford’s feet and lay invitingly in the box, begging to be tapped in for a lead Brentford didn’t deserve. Luckily for the home keeper his defenders were on the ball seconds before the onrushing Mathias Jensen could turn it home for the visitors and the score remained at 0-0 for now.

Brentford used this mix up by the hosts to gain a foothold in the match and in the 24th minute Ivan Toney got the ball, by dropping all the way to halfway, and ran at the home defence. I hoped that having turned away from his marker and finally in space he would make something from this opportunity. He was pulled back by a recovering Demarai Gray and the attack was murdered in it’s crib. Gray went into the ref’s book for his foul but it was the right move for the team and he won’t have minded the yellow card too much, particularly when Brentford wasted the free kick.

These embryonic shoots of hope for the Bees seemed to sprout further in the 27th minute when Christian Norgaard wrestled the ball free in midfield and seeing Toney making a run in behind, he tried to drop the ball at his teammate’s feet. The ball had a little too much on it though and the aiming was off too as it drifted to the right of the pitch and the readjustment that Toney had to make allowed Pickford to beat him to the ball and sheppard the ball behind for a goal kick.

These shoots of visitor revival were cut off at the source in the 30th minute however, as the hosts took the lead their play so far deserved. The goal came from a corner after a shot from inside the penalty area had deflected behind off a defender. The corner that came in from the right was an in-swinger into the 6 yard box that was badly misjudged by the home defence, which allowed Yerry Mina to ghost into position and head home for the opening goal just 17 minutes after coming on as a substitute. 1-0 to Everton and the home fans responded by going wild in the stands, they had been rather quiet upto this point but now we heard their joy.

This joy was almost destroyed 5 minutes later though as Brentford fought back and came agonisingly close to equalising the match. Toney collected the ball on the edge of the box and laid it off to Canos who made hay down the left before laying on a perfect defence splitter for Toney to tap home. Unfortunately for visiting fans, like me, Toney had not moved after laying the ball off to Canos and thus was not in position to collect the return ball and tap home the simplest finish of his career.

No matter though as Brentford created another chance to equalise just 4 minutes later. This chance was created by a great passage of team work. First Mads Roerslev collected the ball on the left then he played the ball to Jensen who slipped it through to Ajer. They all had chances to cross the ball in, but declined to take them as Toney was their only teammate in the box and he was at the back post. So instead Ajer rolled the ball to the advancing Canos who unleashed a powerful shot that got deflected just over the bar. It was the closest Brentford has come to scoring and would be the last time they would threaten to do so this half.

Everton’s regained control of the match in the 42nd minute from a Brentford corner. Everton took control of the ball from the corner and broke upfield. This break was cut out in a slightly different way to the one Gray had chosen when the team’s roles were reversed earlier in the match. This time Richarlison’s threatening run through the centre was ended when Roerslev blocked him off with a simple body check that resulted in a yellow card for the Bees player and a freekick to Everton that they duly wasted. However, this break did smother Brentford’s momentum and put the initiative back in Everton’s hands.

Mina nearly added a second goal for the hosts in the final regulation minute of the first half as he glided through the centre of the visitors defence only to slip as he made contact with the ball, sending the ball spiralling harmlessly wide and keeping the match at 1-0 to Everton going into half time.

My half time was serenaded by my fellow visiting fans, who had created a chant for Christian Eriksen, the highest profile signing the Bees have ever made, that went like so ‘OOOH Christian Eriksen, he plays for Brentford in red and white, he passes with his left foot and he passes with his right foot, he plays with Christian Norgaard and he’s fucking dynamite’. It was so catchy that I couldn’t help but join in with it, to the point where I almost missed the start of the second half.

This would have been a mistake as the start of the second half was filled with action. My first feeling when I saw the teams lined up for kick-off for this half though was disappointment as it was clear that Canos and Toney had swapped positions. Brentford’s main striker was now out on the wing with a winger through the centre. Sure Toney had been seeming more allergic to the penalty area with every passing game since November but it felt like a backwards step to actually change his position like this.

Despite no changes for either team at the break it took just 3 minutes for Everton to double their lead. The worst thing for me as an away fan was how easy it was for the hosts. A simple ball over the top took out the whole of the Bee’s defence, Raya reacted just fractions of a second too late and the onrushing Richarlison beat him to the ball then poked it past him into the empty net. It was one of the simplest goals I have seen scored at a football match in a long time.

Brentford responded to going 2-0 down by going on the attack. They worked the ball through to Toney, finally in the penalty area, who went down with minimal contact and the ref waved away his protestations for a penalty. The Bees tried again in the next minute, the 51st, this time down the right but again they went through Toney and once he weaved his way from centre of the box to the right side of it he arrowed the ball back across the box nanometres out of reach of the despairing slide of Mathias Jensen.

Toney got his penalty in the 53rd minute when a ball by Vitaly Janelt splits the defence and finds him in space in the box 8 yards out. He taps it past Pickford, who clatters into him as he attempts to connect with the ball and it’s a clear penalty to Brentford. The first time Toney has had a threatening touch in the box all match and it gets a reward. The whole of the away stand was on tenterhooks as Toney stepped up to take the penalty he had won and the release that followed when he slotted it away, low to the keeper’s left, was biblical in proportion. Brentford had a goal, it was 2-1 and now the comeback was surely on.

The chance for the Bees to level the scores came on the hour mark as a deflected shot goes uncollected by Pickford and gifts Brentford a corner. The bees work the corner short before crossing into the box with a pinpoint effort that finds Toney in space just 8 yards from goal. Toney then contrives to somehow miss the target entirely and the hopes of a comeback began to fade.

Those hopes were completely snuffed out in the 61st minute as a defensive mistake gifted the ball to Richarlison on the right and his cross into the box confused the home defence so much, that all they could manage to do was deflect it just over the bar for a corner to the hosts. As Everton scored their first goal from a corner so that is how they got their third aswell. It was another simple inswinger whipped into the 6 yard box and this time Mason Holgate was the player in blue who was there to guide it home and make it 3-1 to Everton.

Brentford responded to conceding again by making a substitution with Vitaly Janelt making way for Shandon Baptiste a minute after that goal went in. Meanwhile, Everton celebrated retaking a 2 goal lead in the match with a couple of agricultural tackles on Toney in the 67th minute. The second of these tackles was after the ref had blown the whistle for a Bees free kick, but this didn’t mean the ref would do anything about it. The ref gave a yellow card for the first tackle, so then to see nothing given for a similarly rash challenge after the whistle had already been blown was both confusing and infuriating to me and the Bees fans around me. It became even more so 2 minutes later when Anthony Gordon went down whilst on the attack despite no-one appearing to be within 3 yards of him and still got a free kick for the hosts.

No matter though as both teams would make double substitutions in the 73rd minute and Gordon was one of those removed from the action by Frank Lampard. He was joined in his removal to the bench by Vitaly Mykolenko (who I hope is holding up okay with the current situation in his homeland) and they were replaced by Andros Townsend and Jonjoe Kenny respectively. The Bees substitutions at this point of the match saw Mads Roerslev being replaced by Josh Dasilva, on for his first appearance in months after recovering from injury, and Sergi Canos replaced by Samman Ghoddos in an attempt by Thomas Frank to salvage something from the remainder of the match. Lampard’s substitutions would turn out to be more successful.

Brentford almost gifted Everton a 4th goal in the 75th minute when Mads Bech Sorensen headed a clearance back towards his own goal instead and only the quick feet of Raya allowed the keeper to recover the situation before the onrushing Richarlison could finish the chance. So close to 4-1 to Everton with 15 minutes left of the match, but they would get their 4th before the final whistle.

First though Brentford had another chance to waste in the final 10 minutes. This came in the 81st minute after great play on the left by Mathias Jensen created the cross that was begging for a finishing touch. All it got was a punch clear by Pickford that skimmed over the head of Kristoffer Ajer who was unable to get the touch on it that it needed. Toney was nowhere to be seen in the box when this gilt-edged chance was playing out.

As the final 10 minutes of the match ebbed away both teams made further substitutions. First Brentford replaced Rico Henry with Finley Stevens in the 83rd minute, bringing on fresh legs in defence in an attempt to keep their hosts to just the 3 goals. Everton for their part made a double substitution in the 88th minute, the imperious Richarlison making way for Cenk Tosun to a standing ovation from the Everton fans and Demarai Gray being replaced by Alex Iwobi as Everton went looking for that 4th goal that would cap a great first game under Lampard.

In a moment indicative of his performance Toney missed the chance to intercept an Everton pass in the 90th minute and instead of tracking back to help out his teammates he instead chose to kneel down and whack the turf. It shows that he still cares about his football I suppose, but it wasn’t the most helpful action for his teammates at that point.

The 4th goal for Everton came in the 4 added minutes at the end of the 90 and it came through the substitute Andros Townsend, who had only been on the pitch 20 minutes. Everton broke free on the right hand side and advanced towards the Bees goal, the cross that came in was delicious and with Townsend in acres of space in the area he picked up the ball and rifled it home. There was no attempt to mark him of close him down by a visiting defence that had given up trying by this point. 4-1 to Everton was the final score and it was no more than their performance deserved. Congratulations to Lampard on his first win with his new team and if they perform like this in the league they’ll have no trouble staying up. Brentford on the other hand were embarrassing and I couldn’t wait for the full time whistle to blow to put me out of my misery in the second half.

Everton were on top all over the pitch and the only team looking likely to score for the whole of the first half then they took over the pitch in the second half and put the Bees to the sword, despite the penalty moment. I felt that a large part of the reason that the Bees were failing to credibly threaten for most of the match was the allergic reaction that Ivan Toney seemed to have to getting in the box. He spent most of this half coming as short as the halfway line for the ball and as he is the Bees main striker this left them with few options to get up the pitch and the few times they made progress on the wings their main striker was nowhere to be seen in the box when they looked to put in a cross. This personal belief led to a heated debate between and a fellow Bees fan the row behind me, in the 35th minute. He felt that Sergi Canos has been the main reason for the drop in the Bees form as he does not have the motivation to play well when he starts and is only any use when bought on as a second half substitute.

Whatever the truth truly is, Brentford’s form had begun to enter an alarming slide and the second half had been truly dreadful and as such I was not looking forward to my midweek game as I watched the Bees on their trip to the Etihad, attempting to prevent themselves going a month without a win in the league. That blog will be up soon as I attempt to catch up on a backlog of blogs that has built up as I have had to focus on other things this month.

As I’ve been writing this there has been excellent news for Brentford fans. Christian Eriksen has made his return to competitive football for the first time in 259 days and I am so glad to see him back in action. His return as a substitute lasted 38 minutes and I’m sure he will play the full 90 as soon as he reaches full match fitness. I hope to secure another Brentford match ticket soon to see Eriksen in action for the Bees. WELCOME BACK CHRISTIAN.

This match fell into my lap, to start February, whilst I was down in London to pick up tickets for my FA Cup team at the weekend. I had an evening to fill whilst in the Big Smoke and I have always had a soft spot for AFC Wimbledon so I took the chance to go and visit the south Londoners. They moved back to their home borough of Merton for the first time since the disaster of 2004, when the AFC had to be formed by the fans due to the Milton Keynes debacle. Milton Keynes was the successful option of those being considered at the time with one of the rejected ideas being a move to Dublin where the team would still play in the English divisions, so perhaps Milton Keynes was the best of a bunch of bad options.
To me AFC Wimbledon are the true Dons and as such I will be referring to them as the Dons for the rest of this blog.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the game that I saw from the Dons was their league 1 game against Cheltenham Town and it was back at Plough Lane. The Dons went into this game just one point above the relegation game and on an awful run of form. Their last win was on the 7th December away at Accrington in the league and their last home win was against today’s opponents on 4th December in the FA Cup. That game ended 4-3 to the Dons and having seen that I was hoping for another such high scoring game today. Then I saw that the Dons had only scored 2 goals across their 7 games in January and hadn’t scored 2 goals in a single match since a 2-2 draw against Wycombe Wanderers on December 11th and those hopes drifted away.

Their visitors were only 3 points above their hosts in the league having played a game more and came into this match in a similarly dreadful run of form. Cheltenham had not won since 23rd November when they got a 2-0 win away at Gillingham. That was the last of a run of 3 straight wins, but they haven’t won since and they hadn’t even manged to score in their last 2 games in the run up to this one. December 11th is also the last time they scored twice in a single match and, as with their hosts, it was also in a 2all draw though theirs was against Lincoln City. This run had really hurt their goal difference, to the point that a win for the Dons would see them leapfrog the visitors on that score.

With the teams so tightly matched in the league and their awful form coming into this one I was eager to get to the game. The journey was anything but straightforward though as there were delays and then a cancelled destination on the District line as I was travelling on it. Luckily the cancelled destination was Ealing Broadway, which would’ve destroyed my chances of getting to a Bees game, and I was just delayed by 15 minutes at Earl’s Court on my way to Wimbledon Park.

Yep that’s right, just like the famous Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, the best station to alight for Wimbledon FC is not Wimbledon itself but Wimbledon Park instead. It’s just a 20 minute walk from there. You turn right out of the station and then right again when you reach the T junction where ‘ahead’ isn’t an option and 15 minutes later Plough Lane appears on your left. The turn into Plough Lane is easy to spot as it’s marked by a monument to the old Wimbledon FC that the current AFC Wimbledon owes it’s existence too. Finding the stadium itself is a little more difficult as it’s tucked away on the left hand side of the road, just keep your eyes peeled that side as you pass between the Ford and Vauxhall showrooms and you’ll spot it though.

It’s not the most visually imposing stadium from the outside, but it is in the place of the old Wimbledon dog track so it at least has some history in the local community and now it’s making more history for the community with the return of Wimbledon football to Merton. As you step down into the stands you feel as though you are stepping into a Roman amphitheatre, a huge bowl of a stadium that you step into to watch gladiators of the pitch battle out to settle who is the best.

Before I headed inside I needed a ticket and unlike most stadiums this one had no clear ticket office. Collections were done from the till in the club shop, but to actually buy a ticket I had to head out of the shop and down the side of the stadium to a guy behind a rickety table. I was able to buy a ticket for the dugout stand and it was very useful that I was able to get a ticket for this stand as it was the only one I was able to locate the entry too. The rest of the stadium backs onto flats and whilst there must be entry points around those sides I was unable to spot them. I didn’t enter immediately after buying my ticket though as I hadn’t got my keyring or a programme yet, but having picked those up from the shop I was ready to head inside.

Getting inside would turn out not to be as easy as I hoped though as it turned out that my ticket would not scan on the turnstile. Luckily the steward was right there and, after checking with the security personnel waiting to get in behind me, he was able to tap his pass to let me inside. There are more programme sellers, cash or card your choice, just inside the turnstile line as you step into the cavernous concourse. There is so much space on the concourse that it felt like they could play the match in there. There was also space in there for two huge food kiosks, each with its own specialised fast track queue for those who order through the new swipe station app that they were advertising throughout the concourse. I did not try the app, but I did appreciate the free Wi-Fi that came with it.

I cannot eulogise about the concourse and facilities enough at Plough Lane, they were absolutely incredible and if the same quality was evident on the pitch the Dons would be back in the Premier League in no-time. The programme was more indicative of their current position in the league though as it is put together in what feels to be a very haphazard manner. As a seasoned football fan I am used to seeing the team’s player lists either on the back cover of the programme or on the page inside the cover, but AFC Wimbledon instead choose to hide theirs on page 23 of the programme. The coaching teams and match officials info was a page turn further in, with the league table another turn away and the season’s fixtures are two further turns on.

The screen in the stadium was as unhelpful as the programme. It was on the far side of the stadium to me and the writing on it was so small that it’s very lucky for the away fans that it was down their end or they’d never have been able to keep up with what was going on in the game. Not that there were many away fans at the match, though given the journey from Cheltenham and the fact that this was a midweek winter match the lack of travelling fans is perhaps understandable.

By the time I had located these pages I was already in my seat and unable to use the Wi-Fi to note down the starting 11’s and I’d already missed the visitors matchday squad so I had to read those numbers off the players back once play was underway. I did work out 3 of their substitutes though as they stayed out after the warmup to get a little more shooting practice, practice that on the evidence of the earlier warm up was badly needed. One of those Cheltenham subs was a Man named Aaron Ramsey. I knew it was unlikely to be a loan move for the Man who had just joined Rangers from Juventus, but with Robinho agreeing to turn out for a Sunday league team in Shropshire in March I figured anything was possible. It was not him.

The home team sheet was a simpler affair, though the only name I recognised on it was number 21, Luke McCormick. The only other player on the Dons programme that I recognised for the hosts was their designated captain Alex Woodyard, who was left out of their matchday squad with Ben Heneghan given captain’s duties for this match instead. I did recognise the iconic womble mascot for the Dons though, a great nod to the famous song.

The Dons did had a surprise for their fans before kick-off as they unveiled their deadline day signings to the home fans. They had a keeper and, perhaps more importantly, a striker to unveil and given their recent struggles in front of goal it is Sam Cosgrove who comes in with the bigger burden of expectation of the two. Time will tell whether he can live up to those expectations.

The first five minutes of the match set the tone for how this one would be played with a lot of physical tackles raining in from the visitors and the Don’s number 10, Ayoub Assal, bearing the brunt of them early on. Perhaps he used this treatment as motivation though as with the first attack of the match he swept the hosts into a 1-0 lead in the 9th minute.

The opening goal came from a Dons corner on the right that was cleared back to where it came from only for Assal to collect it and advance a couple of yards into the area before flashing the ball across Evans in the Cheltenham goal and in off the left hand post. It was a great finish by Assal and a case of first chance, first goal for the Dons.

Going behind seemed to wake up the visitors as they created their first chance of the match a minute later. They fired it just over the bar from 20 yards out, but it was a sure sign of intent from the visitors. The Dons would not let it go unanswered though and they took control of the match for the next 10 minutes.

The first Dons attack in this time of dominance came in the 12 minute as Assal nabbed the ball off Charlie Raglan and set the Dons forward through McCormick. He laid it off to Terry Ablade with his back to goal, he turned and shot low to the Keeper’s right to pouch the ball and keep things at 1-0. Ablade had a second chance just 2 minutes later, but he launched this effort high into the stands.

The Dons were even able to create opportunities on the break as they cut out a Cheltenham attack down the right in the 15th minute and Ablade was set free down the centre. This time though he was cut off at the knees before he could advance into the box by the hosts Alfie May. This was an extremely cynical tackle from May and many in the home stands were crying out for a red, but the distance from goal worked in his favour and the ref let him off with just a yellow. It would prove to be a very important decision for the match.

First though the Dons wasted another chance when an inviting cross from the right evaded all the waiting Dons players in the box and Cheltenham were able to clear once more. The first 20minutes had been a period dominated by the hosts and a one goal lead was no more than they deserved at this point.

They should have had a chance to double that lead from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute when Ablade’s chasing of a lost cause down the right resulted in a gorgeous cutback into the path of the onrushing Assal. He did up two visiting defenders like kippers before being tripped by another defender as he went to unleash his shot. The ref saw nothing in this though and gave nothing at all. The visitors thanked him for this by cannoning their clearance into the back of the ref’s head.

Another cynical tackle on Assal in the 25th minute left him flat on the turf requiring treatment, but once again it was only a yellow for the offending Cheltenham man. When Assal was back on his feet and able to continue there was yet another Cheltenham based problem as May refused to get 10 yards from the free-kick until the ref came over and dragged him back. This was a ballsy move from a player already on a yellow card, but once again the ref was in a lenient mood and he remained on the pitch.

These let-offs for Cheltenham inspired them to finally create some threatening attacks as the game reached the half hour mark. Their second chance of the whole match came bang on the half hour as they worked a ball down the right and then their striker, who I had down as number 9 despite him not being in the matchday squad, turned and flashed a shot just over the bar.

This sighter for the visitors prompted a chance of tack for their next attack a minute later and it paid dividends with the equalising goal. They picked up the ball on the right, but this time they switched it across the park to May. He advanced to just inside the left side angle of the penalty area and his driven shot has enough on it to beat Nik Tzanev in the Dons goal at his near post and draw Cheltenham level in the match.

In the 33rd minute things would get even better for May and worse for the Dons as May raced Tzanev onto a loose ball in the area. It looked to me as though Tzanev had won the race and May then went over his hands after the ball had been palmed away from danger. The ref disagreed feeling that May had won the race and Tzanev had taken the player instead of the ball. Since it’s the ref’s decision that matters this meant a penalty to Cheltenham and a chance for May to complete a quick fire brace and give the visitors the lead. May slotted the ball straight down the middle with Tzanev diving away to his left, 2-1 to Cheltenham and a brace for May who was lucky to still be on the pitch. He rode his luck again in the 35th minute as the ref gave him a talking too for an incident that I missed, but which had incensed the fans around me.

The rest of the regulation 45 of the first half descended into a midfield battle that the Dons continued to just about maintain the upper hand in, but they then had no-one to provide the out ball. Assal had the pace to trouble the visitors back line but had decided to consistently come short at this point of the match and this left the Dons with little threat in the final third.

The Dons did create one final first half chance in the four added minutes though as a freekick from their left was headed away by the visiting defence only to land at the feet of McCormick on the edge of the box. He volleyed goalward but it was always rising and ended up ballooning harmlessly high over the bar. The Dons were attacking wide down the right as the ref blew for half time and the frustration of the home fans at this timing was palpable.

The first half may have ended 2-1 to the visitors but I still felt lucky with the match I was witnessing, not only had the Dons managed to score but they had also dominated the majority of the half and only saw themselves behind due to a 3 minute spell visitors who had shown little threat the rest of the half.

The Dons were the first to emerge for the second half and I was certain that if they played as well as they had for the first 25 minutes of the first half they would create the chances to draw level and then win the match. Mark Robinson in the Don’s dugout was thinking down the same lines as he made no changes at half time but nor did Cheltenham’s Michael Duff though who had taken heart from those two quick fire goals.

After the Dons had two kick-offs for the second half, the ref making them retake the first for reasons that were not obvious to me, it appeared that Robinson had made the better call. It took all the way to the 47th minute for the Dons to create their first gilt-edged chance of the half. A cross from the left was headed back across goal from the back post and it looked to be sneaking in as an advancing Don’s striker was pushed over as he advanced to make sure of it’s final position. Nothing was given for this blatant push as Evans was able to shepherd the ball behind for the visitors.

A minute after this dubious decision there followed another. The ref gave Cheltenham a free-kick after a true 50/50 challenge from which neither team emerged with the ball. This turn of events further stoked the anger of the home fans, after the penalty decision that went against them, and they started chanting “2-1 to the referee” then moved on to the old classic “You don’t know what you’re doing”.

The game continued though and the Dons created another great chance in the 52nd minute, with a whipped cross from the right that presented Ablade with a free header from 6 yards out that he somehow managed to aim straight into the keeper’s grateful arms. Cheltenham then went straight on the attack themselves as Matty Blair advanced on the right before nutmegging the Don’s defender opposite him before trying to run through his opposite number. The ref gave him a freekick for this attempt that the visitors took an age to decide what to do with before sending it into the area, where it was pinballed around for far too long before the Dons eventually managed to clear it away.

In the 56th minute the Dons had a freekick of their own on the right hand touchline. They tried to take it quickly, but the ref pulled them back and when they did send it in it evaded all their players including one who ended up in a heap on the turf. Once again nothing going from the ref, third time wasn’t the charm it seems.

As the hour mark came and went Robinson decided it was time to shuffle his pack, taking off Ablade and sending on Aaron Cosgrave in his place. This would prove to be an excellent call by the Don’s Head Coach and having made it in the 63rd minute there was plenty of time for it to make a difference. It almost paid dividends in the 67th minute when a deep cross from the Don’s right was flashed agonisingly wide of the left hand post by Cosgrave.

A minute before that Don’s chance came one of the worst tackles of the match as Reece Hutchinson came flying in like a missile on a Don’s midfielder in centre field clearing him out and leaving him in a tangled mess on the turf. Once again it was just a yellow card from the ref, but it convinced Duff to make his first move of the match and he chose to remove Hutchinson from the field and replace him with Lewis Freestone. Robinson made a move of his own at the same time and took off the excellent Luke McCormick and bring on Ethan Chislett in his place. The match was on a knife’s edge as the match entered into it’s final 20 minutes.

The visitors would have the first chance of these final 20 and it came, once again through Alfie May. He collected the ball 20 yards from goal and weaved his way into the box before unleashing a shot from the left side of the area that squirms just wide of the left-hand post and denied May the hat-trick he so clearly wanted. The sides then traded tame shots into the keeper’s arms over the next three minutes. This convinced Duff to make his second move of the match, this time replacing Kion Etete with Aaron Ramsey.

The Dons created a chance to equalise in the 77th minute when Cheye Alexander had a pop at goal from the edge of the box. It managed to weave it’s way through the forest of legs in the box, but it was infuriatingly off target and the visitors retained their lead. The visitors then had a chance of their own to get the goal that would’ve killed the game off, but their cut back from the by-line on the right hand side sailed straight into the grateful arms of Tzanev in the Dons goal.

As the final 10 minutes of the match approached the Dons were definitely taking control of the game again and in the 80th minute they made use of this control by finally scoring the equaliser. I’m not quite sure how they did it as I missed the build up to the goal, but I saw the finish from Cosgrave. He rifled it across the keeper and into the back of the net, a great composed finish by the substitute to draw the Dons level with 10 minutes of normal time left to play. Enough time for a winner perhaps?

The first team to go close to that winner were the visitors and again it was May with the chance. The ball found him on the edge of the box with space, but his shot was tame and rolled harmlessly through to Tzanev. May would get one more chance before the final whistle. First though both teams made substitutions with the Dons replacing Alexander with Paul Osew in the 83rd minute, then Cheltenham replaced Callum Wright with Charlie Coikett in the penultimate minute of the match.

The rest of the final 10 passed without chances and then May had his second chance to win it in the last minute of the regulation 90. He was sent running after a ball in behind that had the whole of the hosts defence beaten. He reached the ball and sent a shot in to complete his hat-trick and win the game. Unfortunately for the travelling fans Tzanev was equal to the effort getting down to save with his legs and the scores level as the board went up for 5 minutes of added time.

The Dons had a chance a minute in the added period but every time the move broke down at the crucial moment and they didn’t give Evans a single save to make during this period. It began to rain as the ref whistled for full time and that change in the weather was mirrored by the reaction of many of the fans around me, as they saw their team only manage to draw a game that they had controlled almost from start to finish. I was just pleased to have seen goals from each team when their form coming into this one had been so abysmal. Sure it would’ve been great to see the Dons win on my first visit to their home back in Merton, but it was still a great spectacle and nice to see them back where they belong.

My next blog will be chronicling my experience at Frank Lampard’s first match in charge at Everton as he started his managerial reign with an FA Cup match against Brentford and their manager Thomas Frank. It was the battle of the Franks and next blog you’ll find out who won, amongst other things.

With the Premier League on their winter break over the last weekend of January, I took the chance to go to a Manchester derby. Not the big Manchester derby between City and United, but a derby down in the lower reaches of League 2 between Oldham Athletic and their local rivals Rochdale.

They are separated by 6 miles as the crow flies and also by 6 positions in the league. Oldham started the day bottom of the League and 7 points from safety, with Rochdale not fairing a whole lot better in just 18th place themselves at the start of the day just 9 points clear of the drop. The form of both teams was indicative of their league positions too. Rochdale had only managed 6 wins all season and the last of these had been on the 18th December, though to be fair to the Dale they had only played 2 games in the interim. Oldham’s form was even worse, as they only had 4 wins to their name all season and none since the 20th December, though they have played out a 5 all draw with high flying Forest Green since then and one of their four wins this season came in the reverse fixture against Rochdale back in September.

The hosts could also take encouragement from the return of John Sheridan to their dugout for the remainder of the season. He masterminded their successful survival pushes in both the 2015/16 and 2016/17 so now the Latics’ owners have turned to him to keep them up yet again. They call it a Shezurrection in this part of greater Manchester and they’re hoping he will make it a hat-trick this season.

First though there was the game today to play and for me it took longer to travel too and from than it actually lasted on the pitch. Having got a delayed train into Manchester Victoria there are two ways to get from there to Boundary Park. One way to do so is to get a train to Rochdale and then get the bus down to Oldham from there but, as I was going to be in the home end, I chose instead to get a tram from Victoria to central Oldham and then walk up to the stadium from there.

The trams are well signed at Victoria as Metrolink and once you get to the platforms you need to get a tram heading towards either Shaw and Crompton or to Rochdale as both head through Oldham. I got off at Oldham King’s Street tram stop, as it was a straight shot from there up a single road to the Royal Oldham Hospital when you turn left down Sheepfoot Lane. Boundary Park then appears on your right a minutes walk down the road. The whole walk from King’s Street takes about 30 minutes so for a quicker, but windier journey to the stadium you can get off one stop earlier at Westwood from where the walk is down as taking just 20 minutes.

However you get there the stadium is no much to look at from the outside. It looks like a bog standard brick walled block of flats as you approach it from the road, with the ticket office well hidden in an alcove in the wall. It is on the right hand side of the official entrance to the stadium and when I finally located it I was able to secure a ticket for the Jimmy Frizzell Stand, despite their being no such stand shown on the stadium map on the back of the ticket itself. I decided to take my normal lap of the stadium and locate the correct stand that way.

The lap of the stadium makes it seem no more impressive than the view from the road though as the two sides I was able to access were not in great shape. One of the sides backed onto a large carpark and the other backed onto what was essentially wasteland. The fourth side was the away end and with a large police presence at that end I decided not to head that way.

I did however head into the club shop and buy my traditional keyring before heading back round to my turnstile to head inside for the match. There were programme sellers everywhere around the ground and right by the turnstiles too, so it won’t be hard to find a programme before heading inside and you will also have lots of time to grab one if you wish because the queue to get inside that moved at a glacial pace.

Despite getting into the turnstile queue with an hour to go before kick-off those queues were already taking up the whole of the car park which was impressive for a team that is doing so badly at the moment. The queues took a long time to clear though with how slow they were moving though and whilst waiting to get inside I checked the team sheets on Twitter whilst in the queue. Getting inside once you reached the turnstiles was not easy either as the entrances were very thin indeed and it was a hip squashing experience to get onto the concourse.

Once through the turnstiles the food kiosks were easy to find though as they’re right in front of you as you enter the concourse. There was a drinks only kiosk to the left and a food kiosk to the right so I grabbed a pie, that was attached to the foil container, and headed to my seat. There were no screen or clock to see though so all my timings for the match will be approximate. What I also couldn’t see was the away fans who were seated far away at the other end of the ground. The tannoy was no help either as it was set at such a low volume that no-one could hear anything that was being said over it, this would become a particularly important shortcoming early in the first half.

Before that though I had to write in the squads on the back of my programme and, as has now become a running joke for me, this meant I had to write players on that their own teams had left off the programme. This time it was just the one substitute for the hosts and two of the visitors starting 11. I hope that at some point soon I get to go to a match where all the players are already on the programme.

Getting to and into the stadium was a nuisance for me, but it certainly hadn’t effected the home fans appetite for the match though as their chants were loud enough to be heard over the driving wind in the stadium. The wind could do nothing to drown out the noise of the drum that one of the home fans had brought into the ground and that drum itself did more to raise the atmosphere than any of the chants. With the away fans at the other end of the ground the normal atmosphere at a match was unable to build but that didn’t stop the home fans setting off the thing that I will remember most from the match, flares and lots of them.

The wind was doing it’s best to become the main feature of the match though after it kicked off. It was blowing towards the goal Rochdale were attacking in the first half and it had an effect on the Oldham keeper’s goal kicks early on. He put the ball straight out from them twice in the first 3 minutes of the match.

Rochdale were getting forward at will early on, but the only time they threatened early on the ref whistled them back for offside. The keeper managed to keep the freekick in play this time, but he was back to his normal method of putting the ball straight out of play from the next goal kick.

The most interesting thing happening on the pitch at this point were the truly old-style tackles that were going in all over the pitch and the ref was letting them all go too, which was helping build the atmosphere in a way that the layout of the stadium was not helping. Having the opposition fans at the opposite end of the stadium may have been a good call from a security stand point, but it left the atmosphere feeling flat throughout.

The pitch got a little more interesting in the 15th minute as the visitors got their first corner of the match, so I looked down to make a note of this incredible turn of events and when I looked up again the hosts were without a keeper. I thought he had been substituted for a moment and then 4 Rochdale players headed off down the tunnel. I had no idea what was going on at this point and with the tannoy at whispering level there was no way of finding out. The moment I knew something serious had happened was when the rest of the players and then the officials all headed off down the tunnel too.

The next thing I knew a stretcher was being taken down the tunnel and word filtered through the fans around me that there was a medical emergency in the crowd. I never had any clue how serious the medical situation was with this fan, but I hope they are okay now. I don’t even know if they were taken to hospital as the information for the fans in the stands was non-existent. This is exactly the kind of situation that a screen would be really useful for.

Play was suspended at this point and the delay lasted 25 minutes before the match got underway again. As the teams came back out after the delay the home fans released 4 flares and then they let off another one as the corner Dale restarted the game with was whipped straight into the keeper’s arms.

From this point on though I had not the faintest clue where we were on the match clock so the rest of the match was just a blur of mediocracy. Oldham put a 50 yard ball down the right at one point in the half but their striker had wandered offside. Apart from that one moment of wasted quality from the hosts it was the visitors dictating play in the first half, but they were seriously lacking with the final ball.

Every shot that Rochdale had was either sent straight into the keeper’s arms or harmlessly high and wide. They were being given a lot of chances by the home team too because they seemed completely allergic to closing their opposition down at any point. At one point in the first half an Oldham defender even managed to clear the ball into his teammate and set Rochdale running free in their attacking half. Rochdale had three chances to shoot and they didn’t take any of them, they took the fourth that they created seconds later but this was one of their high and wide efforts. I’m genuinely not even certain that either keeper had to make a save all half.

Just before the ref mercifully blew for half time there was a collision between opposition players at the far end of the ground from me. Neither player was seriously hurt, but the Rochdale player did require a lengthy treatment session before he was able to continue. Despite this delay and the earlier match suspension there was no added time at the end of the half, which has to go down as the most surprising thing about a half of football that could’ve put an insomniac into a coma.

After grabbing a drink at half time I returned too my seat just in time to see Oldham coming out for the second half. Each team was shooting towards the end with their fans behind the goal and I hoped that this would improve the quality of the attacking play. At the start of the half Rochdale had two excellent chances and they came inches away from scoring. The first of these chances came from a cross on the right that came close to going straight in but that ended up wrapping round the post rather than inside it. Then minutes later a mistake by Piergianni gifted Dale the ball on the right and once they had moved the ball across to the left they shot straight into the keeper’s grateful arms.

The visitors were finding so much joy down the right hand side that the amount of chances they were wasting was not even funny, it was ridiculous. What was also ridiculous was the wind that had got so bad that the ball wouldn’t even stay in the corner quadrant for the corners that Rochdale were consistently getting.

Oldham for their part were struggling to even get hold of the ball let alone attack and when the home fans released yet more flares later in the second half it made it more flares than home attacks in the match. Sheridan will have to improve his team immensely if they are to have any hope of staying in the league.

It really should have been 1-0 to the visitors at what felt like the 70minute mark as they had a cross form the left that they managed to knock goalwards, but somehow even this came to nothing as the final touch from yards out sent it just wide of the right-hand post.

In truth neither team had looked like scoring all match and for most of the second half the hosts hasn’t even looked like getting the ball. So it was a huge surprise to me when in the final 10 or so minutes they finally managed a sustained spell of possession and then actually did something with it too. They had a decent cross into the box from the left that was headed inches wide by Bahamboula, then Bahamboula created a chance all by himself. He weaved his was through the visitors defence and then, just as he should have shot, he tried to set the ball of to Missilou but his pass was cut out by the visitors and cleared up field.

Then in a barely justifiable four added minutes at the end of the 90 Oldham went close again and this time Missilou took the matter into his own hands entirely. He waltzed through the visiting defence and made it all the way to the by-line from where he attempted to chip the visiting keeper and he came extremely close to managing it too.

This was the most quality there had been in the entire match and it was also the final action of the match as the ref whistled for time on one of the most lacklustre games it has ever been my misfortune to experience. It was also a really long journey back to my flat and with the round trip it was one of the most wasted day of my life.

My next blog will come from a much better game and one that I hadn’t expected to go too but that fell into my lap midweek, when I was back in London picking up my ticket for the FA cup game I went too today. The midweek game in question took place at Plough Lane and the visitors were Cheltenham Town. See you once I have written that match up, it was a vast improvement on this one.