The Football tourist

Saturday 9th April: Bramall Lane: EFL Championship: Sheffield United vs AFC Bournemouth

After being treated to such an unexpectedly brilliant game last week it was only fair that this time out I would expect so much and instead end up suffering through one of the worst games of football it has ever been my misfortune to bear witness too.

I thought that by picking a match between 2 of the top 6 in the championship, who both have aspirations to be playing Premier League football next season and who both have so much to play for as they enter the final 6 games of the season, that I would get treated to an exhibition of just how good Championship football can be. What I got instead was 2 teams who contrived to play out one of the least entertaining spectacles of drossball that has ever darkened a football pitch.

The hosts of this dreadful match were Sheffield United who sat in 6th at kick-off and had a 2 point gap to Middlesbrough below them in 7th and were looking to bounce straight back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking. They came into this one in indifferent for though with 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses in their last 5, though they came into this off the back of beating QPR 1-0 at this very ground in midweek.

To keep their place in the play-offs United will be relying on their home form as they have not lost a league game at Bramall Lane since a 1-0 reversal by Blackpool all the way back on 30th November. A record like that is crucial if hopes of play-off football are to be fulfilled, particularly given the game in hand that Middlesbrough have on them.

AFC Bournemouth made their way up from the Hampshire coast for this one far more assured of their return to the top flight after 2 seasons away. They sat second at kick-of with a 6 point buffer and 2 games in hand over a 3rd placed Huddersfield team that was not in action till Monday 11th. Their haul of 72 points from 38 games so far is excellent, but any hopes of winning the league are long gone by this point as runaway leaders Fulham have a gargantuan cushion of 11 points over them and that should prove decisive with so few games left.

Those travelling Cherrie’s fans who made the long journey up to Yorkshire for this 12:45 kick-off could be bullish about their team’s chances though as they had won 3 of their last 5 matches before this one. Plus they were bound to be looking to respond after a 2-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion in midweek.

I can only imagine how early they must have had to wake-up to complete the journey in time for kick-off as even my relatively short journey across the Pennines required a 9am start. The train only takes 1hour and 40minutes but as it’s the direct train all the way to Norwich, the same one that got me to the Nottingham Forest game a few weeks back, there are only a couple per day and you have to ensure you make it as the alternative options are limited. So as thousands of people were pouring into the city for both the Grand National at Aintree and the visit of Man United to Goodison Park I was on a train going the other way out to God’s County, Yorkshire.

When you step out of Sheffield station the stadium is an easy 15 minute walk, the first step of which is to head up the steps in front of you and past all the water features that flank your route. Then follow the road round to the right at the fork until you clear the one way system at which point you can either head straight down over the main road or turn right and cross at the next set of lights down. The first option brings you straight onto the Kop Stand side of the stadium but as I was unaware of this I went right and then took the next left to find myself on the Bramall Lane side of the stadium.

Bramall Lane is not an attractive stadium from the outside. It is just a blank white building, with a few tiny flecks of red in a couple of places and hotels on each corner of the side that backs onto Bramall Lane itself. Once you turn the corner onto Cherry Street the view does start to improve. On the far side of a huge car park you see the stadium again and on this side it actually does look like a football stadium. I headed into the car park to have a butchers at the twin statues standing like sentinels dead in the centre. The first of these was for a man called Joe Shaw who had made 714 appearances for the Blades between 1945 and 1966, auspicious years for the whole nation. Whilst the second was for Derek Dooley MBE who served as club chairman between 1974 and 2006. I had never heard of either of them before myself, but they are clearly important in the history of the hosts.

Past theses I found the club shop from where I only needed to buy my traditional keyring, having picked up the £3.50 programme on my way down the Bramall Lane side of the ground. Finding the keyring was far easier said than done however, as they were hidden right up against the tills. Having found them then returned to the back of the queue and got back to the till to pay for them I decided it was high time for me to get into the ground and find my seat, despite there being half an hour to kick-odd at this point. Oh and just so you’re aware, the programme sellers are cash only whilst the shop is card only just to make things delightfully difficult for you.

I was in the Kop stand and the way I lapped the stadium it was the last one I came too. The turnstiles on my ticket were at the far end of the stand, but having made it all the way down there and making it easily through the slim turnstiles I then had to head all the way back along the floating walking to the far end again to find my gangway down to my seat. To prepare for that long walk the turnstiles open straight onto 5 sets of staircases for you to clamber your way up, but at the top there are at least food kiosks when you can buy recharge materials. Fully recharges I located my gangway and galloped down the steep stairs to my seat in the front row, just left of the goal and with a huge screen away at the far end.

That screen was a complete waste of time though as it was plastered with adverts the whole match and I had to track the match time on a tiny banner dot-matrix screen between the tiers at the way end. The fact that it was the away end only became clear after kick-off as I was too busy trying to ensure I had the teams taken down right. They were announced at top speed as the teams emerged for kick-off and I only missed 2 of the Cherrie’s starting 11. I was able to grab the numbers off their backs after the match got underway and luckily for me they were both on the programme squad lists. Zamora in the starting line-up wasn’t on the programme, but thankfully I caught this early and was able to jot his name down without missing any of the match.

Bournemouth were playing in forest green tops and within 2 minutes they were on the back foot. The hosts were on the attack through Ben Davies on the right when Adam Smith came in late on him near the corner flag and cleared Davies out. This resulted in the first freekick of the half, but not the card that the home fans all expected. Nevermind though as the Blades were attacking on the left and then slid a ball through the corridor of uncertainty that was begging to be turned home, but captain John Egan couldn’t get the necessary touch.

This was the only clear cut chance of a first 20 minutes that was robbed of any flow by the ref blowing up every few seconds for even the slightest infringement, severely damaging the match as a spectacle. That spectacle was damaged even more for the home fans by the perception that the ref was seriously favouring the visitors. Such a perception was not helped by some of the incredibly soft calls that were going in the visitors favour.

As the match pushed past the 20minute mark there was finally some more goalmouth action for the home fans to witness. This time they flicked a cross over from the left that was almost turned past his own keeper by a defender. An own goal would have been a fitting way for the deadlock to be broken, but instead it rolled past the post for a corner that would be wasted.

It took another 3 minutes for the blades to be back on the attack as Mark Travers in the host’s goal sprayed a 60yard ball forward to set them free on the left. The resultant cross was awful and easily turned behind for a corner. United wasted the corner with a volley that flashed all the way across goal and behind for another corner. This was easily cleared too and resulted in the first yellow card of the match when one of the host’s players picked one up for cutting out the visitor’s break.

The ref decided to intervene for the visitors in the 28th minute when he gave them a freekick as their keeper grabbed the ball off a blades’ striker as he shaped to shoot. How that worked out as a freekick I have no idea and nor did anyone around me, but the visitors broke from it which resulted in their first chance of the match as Ryan Christie messed up an attempted chip of Travers, who barely had to move to catch the ball.

That experience for the hosts seemed to make them scared of trying at all as they decided not to whip in a simple cross from the right in the next minute and chose instead to overplay the ball till the defence could readjust and clear it. My next door neighbour in the stands turned to her son and said the line that would sum up the match from now until half time ‘They’re just to scared to have shot’ (sic). It really did feel this way as the host’s limped their way to half time.

This petrified play allowed the visitors to finally get the ball upfield in the 33rd minute. Christie tried an ambitious volley from 20yards out and given the pattern of play so far it seemed fitting to see the ball balloon way over the top of the bar. It seemed neither team had packed their shooting boots for this one. Dembele joined the awful shots party for the visitors in the 37th minute by screwing a shot wide of the left hand post from the edge of the box.

By this point of the half both teams were trying to simply walk the ball all the way through the opposition and roll it into the back of the net. Christie tried this when free through the centre and when he refused to shoot from 8 yards out the combination of Travers and Uremovic helped salvage the situation for the hosts and keep the scores at 0-0. If he had just had the confidence to shoot he would have fired the Cherries into the lead.

It got even worse for those visiting fans who had made the long journey north as Bournemouth refused to even swing a freekick into the box in the 44th minute. To make such a long journey to watch your team not even be willing to try must have been galling for those fans after all the effort they had made to make it to the match. It was no better for the home fans a minute later when the host’s John Fleck made a driving run through the centre then laid it on a plate for Morgan Gibbs-White to slide home with only the keeper to beat. He refused to shoot though and instead insisted on playing it back inside to Fleck. A hesitation which allowed the visitors to recover and snuff out the danger.

This was the last action of a half that ended goalless and left me and all the fans around me just hoping for a few decent shots after the restart. A goal would obviously be a plus as this point, but to score first you must shoot so we all agreed that this would be a good place to start. Some of the other fans around me also felt that a new ref would be an excellent boost to the hosts chances of getting anything out of the match, especially after a couple of questionable calls in the 30’s. First by giving Fleck a yellow card for a perfectly times tackle and then by not showing a cad to the visitors Dominic Solanke for kicking Travers in the head whilst challenging for the ball a few minutes later. To say that the home fans felt the ref was extremely biased in his decision making would be to undersell their feelings immensely.

At half time the hail started bucketing down and I decided to move several rows back in a vain effort to find some cover from this sudden April shower. Whilst I was attempting to pull of this doomed move there exploded around me a spontaneous round of applause for one of the home fans who was celebrating both his 99th birthday and 75th wedding anniversary at this match. Just a shame the action on the pitch was not giving him much to enjoy. Both managers seemed satisfied with what they were seeing though as neither decided to make any changes at half-time.

The first chance of the second half came in only the third minute, but not in the conventional way of a team attacking the goal they’re shooting towards. The hosts decided to switch it up and whip a tempting cross across their own 6 yard box that was begging for a simple tap-in to be applied. In keeping with the game so far though the cherries were unable to find the touch needed to give themselves the lead.

Just after 2pm in the afternoon and with the match clock heading into minute 52 the Yorkshire weather had deteriorated so far that the floodlights kicked into gear. Illuminating the pitch in light, but any hope that the new pitch lighting would improve the spectacle on the pitch was short lived though. The ref torpedoed the hope within a minute of the floodlights turning on by missing the ball going out of play for a throw to the hosts on the left touchline. He allowed play to go on and at the end of that phase of play the Cherries wasted the corner they managed to create. Then 2 minutes later the ref made the same mistake on the other side of the pitch.

Perhaps this angered the clouds that had gathered over head as they then unleashed a biblical hailstorm onto the pitch. I was not covered from this in the front row, but nor could I move far enough back to get completely out of the way either. Dealing with the rain was not helping the players improve their play either or the ref to make decent decisions. First he gave the Cherries a freekick for what appeared to be a simple slip on the now extremely slick pitch surface, then failed to give the hosts a freekick when Oli McBurnie was wrestled to the floor on halfway.

This was the start of the start of a period of play where the ref made so many abysmal decisions in a row that they became so ubiquitous to the experience that I stopped making notes of them. These dreadful decisions by the ref took any last vestige of enjoyment or momentum out of the match for either team or set of supporters.

The play on the pitch only started to improve a little in the 69th minute, but not much. A simple slide rule pass through the visiting defence was mis-kicked by Cherries captain Lloyd Kelly allowing Gibbs-White to rush onto it. All he had to do was chip the ball over Travers in the Cherries’ goal but his attempt to do so was too weak and the keeper barely had to do anything to catch and save the ball.

This was a blessed break from the awful decisions from the ref but he was back on form in the 70th minute when he punished an expertly timed tackle by the host’s defence with a yellow card that was never deserved. He had yet to give any yellow cards to the visitors, but this changed in the 74th minute when Billing came in like a heat seeking missile on one of the hosts in the centre circle. The ref had to react to this one and he finally dished out a yellow to a visiting player, with Billing now having to be on his best behaviour for the final 15 minutes of the match.

Between these two cards the managers of each team finally made a move each to try and alter the trajectory of a match that was so clearly ending 0-0 at this point. One goal was all it would need to win this one and the hosts tried to get that deciding goal by removing John Fleck from the action and bringing on Ben Osborn in his place. The visitors responded by taking off Siriki Dembele and replacing him with Jaidon Anthony.

A corner for the visitors that was easily cleared upfield that was then wasted on the break by the hosts, with an awful cross from the left that failed to beat the first man, provided the proof to Paul Heckingbottom in the Blade’s dugout that his previous substitution had not been enough, prompting a second change for the hosts. Conor Hourihane was bought on to replace Sander Berge as the hosts looked for the breakthrough that would win the match.

The visitors were lucky to finish the match with a full compliment of players on the pitch as Billing really wasn’t on his best behaviour in the 84th minute. He came clattering into a United midfielder on the touchline right next to the dugouts and cleared out the man. The ref decided against a card this time, but why he did so when a similar challenge 10 minutes earlier had earned him his first yellow card.

United had a huge shout for a penalty in the 86th minute when Gibbs-White had his legs swiped from under him in the box, but the ref waved away their appeals. This was the last questionable decision the ref would make in the match, but to be fair there were only 3 minutes of normal time left. There was one sour point in the match though and this one fell to the visitors.

Jordan Zemura pulled up with a hamstring injury as he chased a ball to the corner to clear it and after a long delay as he was tended too by the physios he had to be helped to limp off the pitch. Thankfully the stretcher which had been brought round for him was not needed, but it was still awful to witness a player having to leave the pitch due to injury. Robbie Brady came on in his place and he would pick up a yellow card in the four minutes of extra time that the 4th official decided to subject us all too.

In that added time United still managed to mess up one last chance and this one took skill to miss. The first truly gorgeous ball of the match was played into the back post from the right. All it needed was the simplest of headers home by Ben Davies to score the goal that would clinch them the match. Instead of simply guiding it into the open net though Davies tried instead to pit it on a plate for Filip Uremovic. With the whole goal to aim at he headed the ball straight back where it came from and then wide of the post by a gap you could fit the Humber Bridge into. It took some serious skill to miss such an open goal, but it was a fitting end to the match to see such a feat managed.

That was the last action of a match before the ref put us all out of our misery and brought the most incredibly dour game of football I have ever witnessed too an end. If either of these teams do manage to secure promotion to the Premier League for next season they will have to improve massively on the dreadful displays that they dished up today or they’ll come straight back down to the Championship. They even stand a chance of beating Derby’s record low haul of 11points from a Premier League season if they continue to play at the level they did in this match.

If I hadn’t done my research before the match I would’ve assumed that what I had just been forced to witness was a relegation battle between two teams fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table. If I was not an obsessive football fan, that can drive others mad by discussing the ins and outs of match tactics and the importance of many of the best matches of history, I’m not sure I would have even been able to mark out this match as a Championship one. The quality on display would have been too low even for most League 2 matches.

Next up I’m off into the Lancashire valleys on Easter Monday to visit Ewood Park and see how Blackburn Rovers, another Championship Play-off hopeful, perform against their visitors Stoker City. I just hope it’s a better spectacle than this match was.

2nd April 2022: EPL: Stamford Bridge: Chelsea vs Brentford

So straight off the bat I just have to say that I cannot believe how lucky I was to witness this incredible match and that’s not just because of the insanely awesome way the result turned out. I was lucky even to have a ticket as this match went on sale just as the sanctions against Abramovich, and by extension Chelsea, were enacted into law.

I had even bought myself a ticket to Derby County’s home match against Preston North End bought and paid for as a back up if I couldn’t buy a ticket to this match. Return train tickets to Derby had even been bought, by the time Chelsea’s special license was amended to allow them to sell tickets once more. Once Chelsea were cleared to sell tickets again I only able to secure myself a ticket to the match thanks to my uncle, who is a Brentford Season Ticket holder, who was able to secure one for me. I am never-endingly grateful to him for this as it was one hell of a match.

On the way to the match I had no real hopes for the match to be anywhere near as brilliant as it turned out. Chelsea came into this one sitting in splendid isolation in 3rd place in the table, with a 10point yawning chasm to the nearest of the top 2 above them but also a huge 7point lead over Arsenal in 4th and had a game in hand over them all. A haul of 59 points from 28 games so far this season is what leaves Chelsea in this spot and assured of Champions League football next season, barring a disastrous collapse in the final 11 games of the season. Even such a collapse may not see them drop out of the top 4 though with a healthy goal difference of 38 in their back pocket too.

No collapse was on the horizon either way as the hosts had not lost a league match since a narrow 1-0 loss away at the Etihad on 15th January. They had also not only lost a single home match all season and that was against Manchester City back on 25th September when they were still acquainting themselves with the new season and Tuchel was starting his first full season in charge of the team. He has done an excellent job at Chelsea with them only having lost 3 times all season at kick-off and having won the reverse fixture at the Brentford Community Stadium back on 16th October.

The Bees for their part were not in great form coming into this match, with a mid-season drop-off in form as other teams worked out how to counter their threats, Toney developed an allergy to the penalty area and both he and Mbuemo had injury problems taking them out of the team for periods of time. Since Eriksen has started getting minutes in the side though they have been rejuvenated.

Securing back-to-back wins first away against Norwich and then at home to Burnley, with Eriksen in the team, have helped subdue the relegation fears that were starting to creep into their supporter base. A loss away to Leicester City in their final match before the International break hit them with a dose of reality, but the previous two wins had pulled them up to 15th place and with an 8point cushion over the drop zone. Their minus 14 goal difference was also better than the teams below them too, despite it’s negative nature.

Eriksen had been truly incredible since joining the club in January helping to cure Toney’s penalty area allergy and providing much needed quality from set-pieces. He also provides the quality in midfield to spread 40 yard balls all over the pitch and the ability to provide assists from all over the pitch. His connection and chemistry with Toney will be vital for Brentford to secure the last few results they need during the run-in to maintain their Premier League status for another season.

Getting to the match is simple enough as all you have to do is get the tube to Fulham Broadway station on the District line. You head out of the special football exit at the back end of the platform, it’s like the secret exits they have at stations near the Notting Hill Carnival, then turn left and follow the road around the corner. The first 2 gates are for home fans, with the third gate being the away fans entrance to the stadium area, it’s a 5 minute walk to the away gate.

Changing at Earl’s court to get the Wimbledon train down to Fulham Broadway took longer than it normally should though as the train was delayed as we were ‘waiting for a relieving driver’. As I waited for the train to move I pointed a couple, one of who was wearing a Cambridge Rowing club jacket, towards the correct platform to get them to Hammersmith. I then spent the rest of the time chatting with other Bees’ fans on their way to the match and there was one thing on which we all agreed. Brentford’s chances of getting a positive result out of this match were not good at all though, as one of the blokes pointed out, ‘you never know’. A good point there.

One I reached my entry gate at the stadium I came across a protest against the proposed purchase of Chelsea by the Rickett’s family. I am vaguely aware of the reasons for this protest but I am absolutely not qualified to go into detail on the subject, so if you wish to find out more you are welcome to do research of your own into the matter. For my part I simply walked past them and up to the security stewards. They checked my plastic bag to ensure my books were safe to take inside and fitted within the A4 size limit.

My bag passed, as will most handbags, but for those which don’t pass the size test there are rudimentary bag drop facilities by the entry gates. Nothing on the scale of the bag drop facilities at the Etihad and Old Trafford though. I bypassed these and was proceeding to weave my way between the 2 hotels on one side of the road and the bar and restaurant for the prawn sandwich brigade on the other when the away coaches turned up requiring use of the road.

Once the coaches had passed me, I found my way round a lap of the stadium as I normally do. I did try the doors to the shop but they were securely locked to comply with the sanctions and this also meant there were no programs on sale around the ground either, which was to prove a nuisance later on once the match was underway. What there was around the stadium was a wall down the shed end that was plastered with banners of important players from throughout the club’s history, both before and after the money came in.

Continuing around the stadium you come across the millennium reception area, above the entrance to which there was a statue to Peter Osgood. I didn’t recognise the name, but after further research in the course of writing this blog it turns out he was an excellent striker who played for the blues from 1964 to 1974 and even managed 4 caps for England during this time. Above this statue is a vertical banner detailing every trophy that Chelsea have won throughout their history.

Moving further round the stadium silence descended on the area, as I slowed to a stroll. I found the museum and tour start point around the back of the stadium, by the Matthew Harding Stand, from which protruded a floating bridge connecting it to the stadium. Round the corner from this and on the home stretch back to the away turnstiles the stadium runs up parallel to a railway. You can’t actually walk alongside it though as it’s a cordoned off area for press and player entry to the stadium. For fans you have to head up the stairs and through a covered tunnel back to the Shed end.

Once back at the Shed end I made my way round the makeshift barrier of stewards, past another round of bag checks and then a security pat-down airport style before heading through the turnstiles. It’s only up 2 storeys worth of stairs before you reach the concourse of the upper shed tier and I four one was very glad that this was less than I had to deal with on my visit to St. James’ Park earlier in the season.

What I was not glad of though was the prices of the food when I got to the kiosks, it was £8.10 for a hot dog and a cold drink! As the bloke buying drinks next to me asked ‘Does it come in 24carat gold bottles?’ Needless to say I didn’t go back for more at half-time.

I was up on the concourse with an hour till kick-off, so I watched the end of Liverpool’s victory over Watford at Anfield that sent them top of the table for a few hours before heading to my seat. Whilst watching the match on the screen I was able to take down the starting 11’s and subs bench for both teams when they appeared on the bottom of the screen. Without a programme to tick off the teams on I had to write out the names in my phone and being careful to ensure I spelt their names right made it so much more time-consuming than normal. I was pleased to see that Eriksen was starting for the Bees as this was my first chance to see him in action and I was insanely excited to see him in action.

The teams were also announced later on the stadium tannoy one-by-one and shown on the screen simultaneously, but by that point I was settled in and just waiting for kick-off. That screen was far away at the other end of the ground perched on the roof behind the opposite goal and the top of it was still lower than the roof of the stand down the edge of the pitch. In point of fact, Stamford Bridge looks hilarious from the inside as not a single stand is the same height as the one next to it. The stands behind the goal are both shrunken versions of the ones down the side of the pitch.

I had found my place in the stands by this point and there was still easily half an hour till kick-off. I say my place and not my seat because as it turns out the Shed upper tier is all safe-standing, the home fans too. I know this because my allocated space was just 3 across from the divider to the home fans’ area and I could see them sitting on the seats provided whilst the safe-standing barriers went unused throughout the 90 minutes.

This was my second time in 2 matches that I was placed in a safe-standing area and whilst I used the seat to rest up during the build-up to the match and at half-time, I was spared the frustration of the barrier impeding my view of the 6 yard box during the match itself by standing the whole time. Having now experienced this way of doing things at 2 separate stadium I can state categorically that it works as a system and personally I prefer it the purely seat-focused model.

There was a pleasing sign from the host that they are trying to do their bit to grow the following for the women’s game in the capital as they announced 25 minutes before kick-off that their women’s team were hosting Reading at Kingsmeadow the next day. You could either pick up tickets for that match online or at the turnstiles on the day of the match, so I did. I went to the stadium the next day and watched that whole match, but after what I was about to witness in this game at Stamford Bridge it felt that the match at Kingsmeadow was played at full throttle, with both teams in reverse. For that reason I will not be blogging that match but I will return to Kingsmeadow at some point in the future to find a game I will blog.

Back to the men’s match today and I was enjoying hearing London Calling by the Clash over the tannoy as it’s an awesome tune, such a shame to hear it cut short with Park Life by replacing it. It’s not that I dislike Park Life but one things for certain, as a Londoner living up north I will take any chance I have to hear a song about London and it felt particularly apt to hear it at a match being played in London too. Hearing it cut short was annoying and didn’t feel for a good sign for the Bees chances in the match to come. Brentford were shooting towards the away fans in the second half though, so that would give them a chance of scraping a result if they were still in with a chance at that point.

That was were my head was as the game got underway, but within 2 minutes the Bees had already secured a freekick 20yards from the Chelsea goal as they shocked everyone in the stadium by putting the pressure on their illustrious hosts from the first whistle. The freekick was sent in on the curl by Eriksen, it was struck so exquisitely that I was amazed to see it skimming over the top of the bar instead of nestling in the back of the net. To see the Bees taking the game to the hosts so early on was brilliant to see from my spot at the other end of the stadium, but I would be happy not to see the ball up close for the rest of the half.

No such luck though as Mason Mount broke out on the right in the 5th minute, but before he could get a cross into the box Rico Henry got across and was able to block it behind for a corner. Joyously though Brentford were able to break upfield from the corner and Mbuemo was able to get a cross in from the left. He was aiming for Toney at the back post, but it was overhit and this destroyed the momentum of the attack.

Timo Werner was able to advance on the left for the hosts in the 7th minute but his ball into the box was hilariously close to Raya, who caught it with supreme ease. Werner slipped as he slapped the ball into Raya’s arm and he felt that he had been caught so he went down before appealing to the ref for a penalty. Thankfully the ref was on the ball here and waved away the claims. From this point Bees were able to set-up an attack of their own. Eriksen sprayed a gorgeous 30 yard ball out to Roerslev on the right and to see that quality on the visitors side was lovely. Unfortunately the resultant cross was behind Mbuemo in the centre and though it ran through to Toney his shot from 10 yards out was palmed behind by Edouard Mendy in the Chelsea goal.

Brentford solidified their dominance of possession as the first 10minutes of the game ticked over into the teens and they were now making the most of it too. They created presentable chances in both the 11th and 12th minutes. First Rico stood a ball up for an unmarked Toney at the back post, but he put his header inches over the bar. Then, after Roerslev was taken out on the right touchline the freekick into the box was tapped across the box by Toney before being deflected behind for a corner. The corner was taken short and when Eriksen whipped the ball into the area it was theatrically punched clear by Mendy before it could be turned home.

It took until the 17th minute for the hosts to manage a prolonged period of possession in the Brentford half but they made nothing from it and it was brought to a premature end by the host’s Marcus Alonso, who hooked it out from under a teammates foot and for a Bees throw-in. There was a break in play for everyone to catch their breath in the 19th minute as Ajer went down holding his ankle. Whilst he shrugged this off without physio aide, the delay was mainly to allow him to re-tie his laces. The delay was then extended as Mendy was down on halfway. I have no idea why he was on the halfway line, let alone why he was down on the turf and I was even more mystified by this incident as he was able to continue moments later without a physio ever going within 10 yards of him.

Having recently worked out how to keep hold for the ball Chelsea finally created their first notable chance in the 21st minute. First Werner tried to run straight through Christian Noorgaard in the visiting defence and when he went down screaming for a penalty no-one took any notice. His teammates went on with the match and eventually worked the ball out to Mason Mount 18yards out, but he smashed it high and wide of the left post. Not the result he would have been looking for, but it was at least a note of positivity for the home fans to hold onto.

That was the end of the Chelsea positivity for now though as Raya unleashed a 60yard ball out to Rico on the left and he played it off to Noorgaard inside him. Unfortunately there was no shot for the visitors here though as when he was fouled the freekick from Eriksen was easily cleared by the home defence.

The 26th minute began a period of the match that I have dubbed the whistle festival. The referee in his infinite wisdom began gives free kicks for even the slightest contact all over the pitch during this 5minute period. Starting with a freekick to Chelsea on halfway when a brilliantly timed sliding tackle from Ethan Pinnock nabbed the ball back for the Bees. He got all of the ball and none of the player, but when the Chelsea man slipped as he turned round in an attempt to get back on the cover the ref blew up for a freekick. This game him a taste for it as he proceeded to destroy any flow the game had from then until he got bored of this power-hungry nonsense at the match drifted past the half hour mark.

Chelsea almost took an utterly undeserved lead in the 32nd minute as Toney switched off whilst helping out the defence and Ruben Loftus-Cheek took full advantage of this to amble past him to the edge of the box. Thankfully his shot was one of the weakest I have ever seen and Raya was able to catch it without breaking a sweat but it provided a timely reminder to the visitors that, despite their dominance of the match so far, the hosts were not going away.

Having dominated the match to this point and only being unable to take the lead due to a lack of finesse on the finishing touches, Brentford seemed to feel that a goal would inevitably arrive soon and proceeded to switch off. Mbuemo and Toney were particularly guilty of this as they stopped making runs up front or closing down the Chelsea defenders as the visitors got sloppy in the final 10 minutes of the half.

During this time period Chelsea created a couple of chances of note, as well as putting a few corners straight into the first man and letting the Bees clear them unmolested. The first of these chances came from centre-back Antonio Rudiger who let one rip from 25 yards out. He shanked it 3 goals wide of the left hand post but it at least showed the home fans that he cared. It was not enough to get the home fans interested in cheering their team on though.

The home fans didn’t even offer any encouragement to their team when they actually managed their first shot on target with 5minutes of the half left. Loftus-Cheek gut inside on the right and flashed a shot towards goal with the visiting defence all at sea. Raya was paying attention though and threw himself at it just in time to get fingertips too it and send it over the bar.

This was the first time that either team had shown enough quality this half to threaten the opposition goal. Brentford had been on top for most of the half but were lacking that final spot of quality needed to take the lead and going into half time I couldn’t help but fear that the hosts would make them pay for their profligacy. Checking the screens on the concourse helped me relax though as I saw that my back up game at Pride Park was goalless too, so at least I wasn’t missing anything there.

The quality in front of goal could only improve in the second half though as not only would Tuchel get into his players at half time to improve, but I hoped Thomas Frank would be doing the same with Mbuemo and Toney to tighten up their finishing. Tuchel’s team talk seemed to be the easier to give of the two as the hosts were first out for the second half. The home fans weren’t too pleased to see them though as you could have heard a pin drop from 5 miles away at this point, that was until the visitors emerged though and the away stand erupted into an ear-splitting cacophony of noise. Whatever the content of the team talks though, neither manager felt the need to shuffle their personnel at half-time and we will see how this works out for them both as the second half gets underway.

Tuchel’s team talk did the trick as Chelsea started the half at 500mph and they got their reward for this new approach when they took an unexpected lead in the 47th minute. Rudiger had learnt from his sighter shot at the end of the first half and he made his shot from 25yards count this time round. He rifled as straight as a die off his foot and it beat the despairing dive of Raya to nestle in the top left corner of the net. It was an effort of such beauty to give the hosts the lead, but even this was not enough to stir more than a smattering of applause from the home fans. What it did do was give me a sinking feeling as Chelsea had started this half so well and now had a goal to show for it that I was worried Brentford had passed their peak in the match and would now go on to lose, despite dominating the first half.

I need not have worried at all because it took just 4 minutes for the Bees to level things up. The first thing I knew of the goal was the cheers all around me as I was busy making a note of a simple sweep home a minute earlier that Mbuemo saw blocked from the penalty spot. I worked out quite quickly that it was Vitaly Janelt who scored the equaliser as the fans all around me broke out into his chant ‘He comes from Germany and now he is a Bee, Vitaly woah, Vitaly woah!’ and I was so happy that the Bees were level mintues after conceding what I thought would be Chelsea’s winner that I became one of those chanting the loudest.

Vitaly’s equaliser sparked the home fans into life too as the shock of losing their lead so quickly after taking it shocked many of them out of their previous slumber. The stadium now finally had a proper match atmosphere. That atmosphere in the home fans was deflated rather quickly though as the Bees capitalised on the momentum of their equaliser to take the lead just 2 minutes later. This second goal for the visitors came from a Chelsea corner that was easily cleared out of the box and set the Bees on the break. The ball was fired upfield to Mbuemo on the left and with the choice of Toney or Erkisen to choose from in the box he decided to be a gentleman. Instead of going for goal himself he rolled it to his right instead and put it on a plate for Eriksen to slap home in acres of space a mere 6 yards from goal. Eriksen needed no second invitation and with the freedom of London he smashed it straight into the centre of the net.

That goal was Eriksen’s first goal in domestic football since his return to action after his brush with death last summer. I felt honoured and extremely privileged to witness this goal and I’m in no doubt that it will be the first of many in the remaining 7 games of the season. What Eriksen will do when his contract with Brentford ends this summer is anyone’s guess but, whilst I personally hope that Brentford find a way to keep hold of him for next season, it is obvious that there will be many clubs competing for his signature. He has elevated the play of every Bees player since he came in and will be a huge factor if they manage to stay up after their mid-season slump.

Back to the match and with Eriksen putting the Bees 2-1 up just 6 minutes after they went behind the atmosphere in the away end was beyond words. The chants were constant now and all were gloriously ecstatic. A favourite one of mine that made an appearance at this point was ‘We’re just a bus stop in Hounslow, bus stop in Hounslow’. That moniker for the Bees was originally a jibe thrown at us by local rivals QPR, but when we beat them convincing in a derby match in the before time pre-pandemic the home stands broke out in choruses of the chant to show that the truly dreadful QPR side couldn’t even beat a bus stop that day. From there it just stuck as a chant for Bees fans to break out into when taking the lead of game and I was stupidly deliriously happy to be able to sing it here.

Edouard Mendy was actually down on the turf requiring physio attention in the aftermath of the Bees second goal. Whilst he was able to continue after treatment he may have wished not to be able to do so as the match ticked past the hour mark. This was the time that Brentford chose to score their third goal of the match!!

You read that right, 13 minutes after going 1-0 down Brentford took a 3-1 lead in the match. Vitaly was played in down the left channel and with just the keeper to beat he chipped the ball over Mendy’s splits dive and his reaching arms. The ball nestled in the back of the goal yards from me and the atmosphere around me ramped up another 50levels. It was incredible to see Vitaly complete his first brace for the club but to see the turnaround from going behind to leading by 2 left me and everyone around me in shock. There were more that a few of us doubting our sanity and whether what we were witnessing was real of if we were all just in some fantasy dreamland?

In the aftermath of Brentford’s second goal Tuchel made his first substitution of the match, with Reece James replacing Marcus Alonso, and in the aftermath of Brentford getting a 2 goal cushion Tuchel made further chances. This time it was a double change for the hosts as Timo Werner and N’golo Kante were hooked off by Tuchel and Mateo Kovacic joined Romelu Lukaku in coming on to try and save the day for the hosts.

Chelsea had actually got the ball in the net for the second time in the match a minute before that double substitution. They bundled the ball home at the back post off a searching cross from the right but it was ruled off for either offside or handball, I didn’t see which, and Brentford maintained their 2 goal cushion. The buoyant visitors has also yet to make any changes of their own and having just taken unchallenged control of the game with 3 goals in 10 minutes, why should they?

Brentford made the most of their control of the match to set out on the attack once more in the 67th minute. Eriksen sprayed a 50 yard pass upfield for Toney to run onto, but the striker was unable to connect properly with this glorious pass. He was only able to hook it out for a throw-in next to the corner flag. Chelsea were able to nick 12 yards on the throw-in though, so they won’t have minded having it over a free-kick. The ref decided that this was a fair move from the hosts, perhaps feeling sorry for them after seeing them have their lead ripped out of their hands in such spectacular fashion.

The hosts were trying everything to score now and Rudiger even tried to execute a carbon copy of his opener, but this time he was only able to dtop it straight into Raya’s lap. The other thing that Chelsea were trying to thwart Brentford’s attacks was throwing in as many meaty challenges in midfield to break up play and give themselves a moment’s respite from the onslaught. The most egregious of these challenges came in the 69th minute when Rudiger steamed in to clear out Mbuemo in the centre circle, but even for this the ref refused to reach into his pocket. He had yet to show a single card to anyone all match as though they were poisonous and with the type of tackles that were now flying in this was a mystifying stance for the ref to have taken.

With Chelsea now getting so desperate you could sense it in the air from the far side of the English Channel the game opened up with both teams able to create opportunities. The 74th minute saw the hosts try to whip in a shot from 19yards out on the left but it slipped inches wide of the right post. From the goal-kick Brentford broke forward at speed through Mbuemo on the left, but this promising break came to nothing when Mbuemo tried to feed it through to Vitaly at the near post instead of floating it over to Eriksen at the back post. It would have been the simplest of tap-ins for Eriksen’s brace and Brentford’s fourth goal but such was Brentford’s control of the match at this point that Mbuemo took the harder path to the goal. which would have allowed Vitaly to complete his first hat-trick for the club.

That the move wasn’t finished off for the hat-trick is unfortunate, but it did nothing to dampen the party that had now erupted in the away end. The party atmosphere did not extend to the home end however, which was now in funeral mode. Toney came close to adding to the dichotomy in the atmosphere in the 76th minute as he directed a header goalward from Eriksen’s corner on the right. Instead of nestling in the back of the net though the ball bounced off the back on Mount’s oblivious head and away from goal.

Bees were truly on top now though and they were able to create another chance just a minute later. This time a corner from the right forced a game of pinball in the area. The eventual shot from 15 yards out deflected away for a corner off the body of a prone Ziyech. He was back on his feet for the resultant corner, which was easily cleared away by his teammates.

As the match entered the final 10 minutes the result was no longer in any doubt. Brentford were on their way to a historic win over their hosts, who for their part were on their way to only their second home loss all season. What was in doubt however was just how emphatic the win would be for the Bees as both sides went in search of more goals.

Chelsea were the first team to create a presentable chance in the final 10 minutes as they flicked a cross into the box from deep on the left. It got helped across the box by an unmarked Mount in the centre, when it seemed so simple for him to turn it into the net and set up a grandstand end to the game. Instead the finish was indicative of the rest of Chelsea’s match, sloppy and haphazard. Loftus-Cheek then added his own effort to the host’s haphazard back catalogue, by whipping a cross harmlessly over the pitch and out near the left corner flag for a goal kick. This triggered a trickle of early exits in the home stands. It was only a trickle for now, but it would not stay that way for long.

Brentford took the opportunity to make 2 substitutions, with Thomas Frank first deciding to give Vitaly a deserved rest and a chance to soak in a raucous standing ovation from the away end. He was replaced by Mathias Jensen, playing with Eriksen for the first time in a long time. Jensen was the man who replaced Eriksen for Denmark last summer after the incident, so to see them now playing alongside each other on the day that Eriksen opened his Bees account felt extra poignant.

The second substitution for Brentford saw Mbuemo replaced with Yoane Wissa to provide fresh legs up front for the final 5minutes. This worked out brilliantly for the visitors as Wissa scored their fourth of the match with his first touch. A cross was floated into the box from the left that looked at first like it would be a simple clearance for the hosts. However, one of their centre backs ricocheted it off the back of his partner and when the ball dropped to the feet of Wissa he needed no second invitation to slide it home under the dive of Mendy. Cue euphoria and cries of ‘we want 5!’ and ‘We’re just a bus stop in Hounslow’ in the away end and the earlier trickle of exits turning into a tidal wave in the home stands.

Brentford had taken what could have been a crushing blow of going behind in the second minute of the half and turned it into motivation to crush and humiliate Chelsea on their home turf. It is without a doubt the greatest performance of Brentford’s season and certainly the most incredible I have felt in a long time. I was so far away in dreamland after seeing Wissa slot away the Bees fourth that I didn’t even realise that Rico walking off the pitch was because he was being substituted and I certainly had no clue that Sergi Canos was the man replacing him. I only found this out after the match.

I was so in shock with the score and the incredible way that Brentford had turned the match around that I have no recollection of anything that happened on the pitch between Wissa’s goal and the tannoy announcing that there would be 4 minutes of added time at the end of the 90. The shock and jubilation that I was feeling was mirrored in the faces of my fellow Bees supporters around me.

Brentford came millimetres away from scoring their 5th of the match in added time. First a chip into the box by Roerslev from the left flew agonisingly high over the head of Toney at the back post and then the resultant corner was headed onto the roof of the net by Ajer. These were the final chances of the match for the rampant, swarming Bees before the ref blew for the final whistle and put Chelsea out of their misery.

Not only were Brentford incredible all match, but Chelsea were truly abysmal too and the home stands were completely deserted within seconds of the final whistle. The was no such mass exodus in the away end as we were all in shocked ecstasy and unable to leave the party. I even took the chance to break out into a little jig of happiness and then joined the rest of the stand in a ear-splitting standing ovation for the players as they came down to the Shed End to celebrate with us all.

At this point all I was aware of were the chants of my fellow fans and the fact that I hadn’t felt this high in my life. The chants were many and varied, but a few highlights include ‘4-1 in your own backyard’, ‘We’re just too good for you’, ‘ Champions of Europe, you’re having a laugh’, ‘We’re just a bus stop in Hounslow’ and for the brace man ‘He comes from Germany and now he is a Bee, Vitaly Woah oh ooh’. There did not seem to be a consensus chant for Eriksen as the chant that had filled the Goodison concourse at half-time of that FA Cup tie seems not to have caught on.

The rest of the chants continued on as us visiting fans poured out of the stadium and onto the trains at Fulham Broadway. I have never felt an atmosphere like it at the end of the football match, it just blinded me to anything going on around me to the point that I didn’t realise I had left the books I’d brought with me to the match under my seat in the away ends. An hour later I sat down for dinner in the Victoria area and only they did I realise that my books were missing, that’s how delirious the match had made me. I’ll tell you one thing four nothing though, the match was definitely worth travelling back down from the north for.

My next blog will not be nearly as joyous as this one was as I am heading to a match where I have no personal connection to either of the teams involved. The teams in question are Sheffield United and AFC Bournemouth and the stadium is Bramall Lane, see you next week for that one

Right so today is April Fools day, but this is not a joke. FIFA have decided to keep the World Cup in Qatar and it will take place in November for the first time ever too. The exact dates are 21st November 2022- 18th December 2022.

I wish that was a joke, but it is fact instead and today the draw for the group stage took place with some interesting results that could lead to some brilliant games and a few old grudges being played out on the biggest stage of all. I say could because the draw has taken place, for the first time ever, before all of the 32 qualified teams are known. There are still 3 places to be filled in the World Cup roster and 8 teams who are still in the running to fill them. This has been factored into the draw and I come back to who they are and why their qualification has been delayed later on, but for now here are the groups.

Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal the Netherlands
Group B: ENGLAND, Iran, USA, Wales or Scotland or Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, Peru or Australia or UAE, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica or New Zealand, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea.

I will come back to Group A later because you read Group B right and I want to get straight on to talking about the possibility of England playing either Wales or Scotland for the first time ever at the World Cup.

England are not definite to have a derby against either of their Celtic neighbours just yet because those neighbours still have to win playoff matches in June to get to the World Cup first. That UEFA play-off path has been delayed from it’s original March finish date because of the current situation in Ukraine. Wales are already in the play-off final, as they attempt to reach their first World Cup since 1958, whilst Scotland have to win a semi-final against Ukraine to face Wales in that final in Cardiff, as they attempt to reach their first World Cup since 1998.

Whoever wins that play-off final will reach the World Cup and face England in their final group game. The prospect of a derby against either with both teams needed a result to qualify is mouth-watering, but particularly so in the case of Scotland qualifying as they have a deep-rooted hatred of England. Their meeting in the group stages at last summer’s Euro 2020 ended in a disappointing 0-0 draw and both teams would head into that match wanting to make up for that result against their local rivals. This possible showdown will take place on 29th November if it goes ahead.

The chances of such a match having anything riding on it for England is a true worst-case scenario though as they should already have amassed enough point from their first 2 games against Iran and the USA respectively. Neither team constitutes a true test for Southgate’s Men at their best and failure to collect all 3 points against either would signal a return to the dark days of 2010 and 2014 for a team that had reached at least the Semi-finals in each of their last 2 International tournaments.

The Iran-USA match will be hotly contested by 2 teams with no love for each other after decades of political tension between their governments over Iran’s nuclear programme. With it being the best chance for either team to collect a win I expect it to be a fiery match with many agricultural tackles flying in from both sides that will be settled by a single goal. The UEFA playoff qualifier for their part should sneak through the group in 2nd place behind a rampant England. If Wales make it into this group they even have the tools to win it if they can produce a shock against England. that is well within their capabilities with Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale and Harry Wilson (seriously underrated) in their squad.

The 2 teams that advance from Group B will face the 2 teams that advance from Group A and this will provide England’s first big test of the tournament. Group A includes the hosts Qatar, who will be group whipping boys at their first ever World Cup, Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands.

If Qatar are going to win a match at their first World Cup it is most likely to come against an Ecuador team that did a brilliant job of nabbing one of the 4 automatic Conmebol qualification spots. They will not make it out of the group though as the final 2 teams in the group are AFCON champions Senegal and constant World Cup threats the Netherlands.
Which of those 2 will win the group will be decided by their opening day clash on November 21st, whoever gets the better of their opponents in that match will go on to win the group and face the runners up of England’s group in the round of 16. The runners up will await England in that first knockout round.

Group C is Argentina’s for the taking as they fight off competition from both Mexico and Poland for the top spot. Saudi Arabia are the nailed-on whipping boys for this group as they failed to advance from a group including Russia, Uruguay and a Salah-less Egypt last time out, so the idea that they will advance against tougher competition this time is obvious nonsense. Poland and Mexico are likely to be fighting it out for 2nd place in the group and, like Group B before them, these rivals will face off for the upper hand in this battle on their first matchday (22nd November.

It will take a collapse of biblical proportions for Argentina to fail to advance from Group C and it is the same story for France in Group D. The French will once again face off against Denmark in this group stage and having beaten them to first place in the group stage last time out in 2018 they will be confident of doing so again. That previous meeting happened in that World Cup’s Group C and their group this time round will be almost a carbon copy of that one. The group was previously completed by both Peru and Australia, but this time only one will qualify as they are likely to face off in a Covid-delayed intercontinental play-off final in June if Australia win their Asian play-off against the UAE days earlier.

Peru beat Australia in their final group stage game last time out, but they both finished behind their group opponents in the last World Cup and with Denmark having improved massively since then I don’t see either making it out of the group once they qualify. I wouldn’t expect the UAE to beat France and Denmark to the qualification should they win their play-offs. Whoever wins that play-off can be expected to beat Tunisia in their match as the Africans have not performed well in their previous World Cup appearances, failing to make it out of a group with semi-finalists Belgium and England last time out.

Group E will be a nightmare group for whoever wins the OFC-Conmebol intercontinental playoff final. Neither New Zealand or Costa Rica will relish coming up against Spain, Germany and Japan if they qualify but they both have experience of getting results against more illustrious opponents in the group stage of a World Cup. Both of them did brilliantly in previous groups of death, with Costa Rica winning a group containing Uruguay, Italy and England in 2014 and New Zealand going unbeaten in 2010 despite coming up against both the experienced Paraguay and then Holders Italy.

I still expect neither to advance to the knockout round though as Germany are nailed-on to advance and Spain will battle with Japan for the second spot. If I had to make a bet on who will join Germany in advancing from the group I would go for Spain, but never underestimating their ability to choke at World Cup’s it is not beyond the realm of possibility for Japan to qualify either. Spain failed to make it out of their group in 2014 and with Germany’s failure to advance last time out in 2018 Japan will fancy their chances of springing a surprise in this one.

Group F features Canada appearing at their first World Cup since 1986 as they topped Concacaf qualification. They face last edition’s semi-finalists in Belgium and beaten finalists Croatia, which will make it hard for them to advance but in Morocco they have a team in their group that they should be able to collect a World Cup win against. For Morocco and Tunisia to make it to the World Cup from CAF qualification whilst Egypt and Nigeria both miss out is unfortunate as it greatly reduces the chances of us seeing the first ever African team in a World Cup semi-final.

I would not be surprised to see Canada join Belgium in advancing from this group, but it all depends on how they adapt to the heat and how much Croatia have improved from a disappointing showing at Euro 2020 last summer. They would be most likely to face Germany in the round of 16 though so that is probably as far as they will go even at their peak performance.

Group G is one of the more difficult ones to call from the draw as it includes the excellent Brazil, Switzerland, Serbia and Cameroon. Switzerland are excellent defensively and now have some decent options going forward too, whilst Serbia can call on the services of Aleksandar Mitrović to fire in the goals for them. Brazil’s World Cup pedigree is well known, whilst Cameroon have a history of getting results when they need them (most notably on a run to the 1990 quarter-finals). If I had to pick 2 to advance it would be Brazil and Switzerland because they have been most adept as managing it before, but counting out either Serbia or Cameroon at this point would be a mistake.

In Group H we are treated to the silky skills of Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes for Portugal, the wild cards who made a deep run when hosting in 2002 in South Korea, and a rematch of the 2010 Quarter-final between Ghana and Uruguay. We all know that Ghana were the better team on that day, but they weren’t the ones who won the match so they will head into the rematch on 2nd December with a score to settle. We could be treated to another grandstand finish if they both head into that final game of the group with something to play for.

Portugal would be the obvious choice to advance as group winners, but they stumbled in UEFA qualifying and only made it to the World Cup thanks to a play-off victory against North Macedonia so perhaps they are not the force they once were. Add to that the struggles they had in the group stage last time out, they only beat Morocco and were held to draws by Spain and Iran, and the other teams in the group may go into games against them fancying their chances of getting a result. I would still back them to advance and South Korea would be my pick to join them as both Ghana and Uruguay have headed downhill since that excellent match in 2010.

England’s route to the final becomes a lot harder after the group stage, with AFCON champions Senegal, holders France and Belgium, who beat us twice at the last World Cup, all probable opponents on the run to the final in Doha on 18th December. Put nothing past Southgate’s team though as they now have experience of what it takes to make a deep run in these tournaments. The main thing working against them as they look to win the title for the first time since 1966 will be the heat that is expected to reach highs of 30degrees centigrade. The air-conditioning systems in the stadium may alleviate the pain of this a little, but the heat will still favour the South-American teams who have more experience of playing in such temperatures and for this reason Brazil are my favourites to lift the trophy.

The heat should also improve the African teams chances of going far in the tournament and make Senegal a real threat to everyone they play. They are AFCON champions and had to defeat the excellent Egyptian team in that final as well as in the final games to secure qualification to the World Cup. In both of those matches they gained valuable experience in 3 areas that will be key to advancing at the World Cup.

First they learnt how to get a result against a team that takes the game to them and asks question of them on the defence as well as the offense. Secondly they learnt how to grind out results in extremely pressurised knock-out situations, which they will need to do to a make a deep run at the World Cup. Lastly but by no means least, as I’m sure all England fans can attest, they gained vital experience of winning penalty shoot-outs. This last skill was one that evaded England for so long and I’m sure Senegal will be happy to avoid that particular humiliation.

The Taranga Lions represent Africa’s best chance of finally securing a long overdue World Cup semi-final representative and I would love to see it, provided it doesn’t come at England’s expense of course. Despite the controversies surround the World Cup being hosting in Qatar I am looking forward to watching it and with the chances of England finally breaking their losing streak, a potential England-Wales/Scotland derby, Canada making a return after 36 years away and Senegal representing Africa’s best chance of a Semi-finalist at long last, I hope you’re looking forward to it too.

Normal blogging service will be resumed next-week as I bring you the tale of my experiences watching Brentford take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

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.