February 2019

Touchline shouting, that’s all I ever hear,

I’m so confused and filled with fear.

I’m only ten years old and football should be fun,

But with all this noise I don’t know which way to run.

“Get back in defence!” my manager shouts.

Dad shouts, “Get up front and deal with these louts!”

Loud mouth supporter, who knows all the rules.

(He takes the rest of us for fools)

Shouts, “What are you doing lad? Your head’s in a spin!”

Is it any surprise, with all this din?

I am only a boy, so why do you all try to destroy, what I’d love to enjoy?

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by Simon Icke

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Saturday 2nd February 2019
Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Division 1 West

Widnes 0

Trafford 1

Declan Rydings 28,
Admission:- OMGDS £3.00 (£7)                                          Attendance:- 255
Programme:- £2.00. Pin badge:- £3.50                 Referee:- Christian Silcock
On a very cold and sharp day, The Widnes return to Halton Park was not a happy one! They had spent the season so far at Barnton whilst the Widnes Vikings RL re-surfaced the 3G pitch at their home ground. It is a huge stadium – probably able to hold more than 10,000 spectators comfortably seated. The parent Rugby League side were shortly to go into administration and their future looks uncertain, which throws into doubt the football teams position! It is more than fifty years since my last visit – for a Rugby League match – and I remember not one jot of it! The visitors were wasteful. This was probably the most one sided 1-0 victory I have ever seen! They should have been at least four goals to the good by half time. In the end they staggered over the line after five added minutes! With Graeme Askham and John Main

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Graeme Askham at the Halton Park main entrance.

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Sunday 3rd February 2019
Buildbase FA Vase 5th Round

Biggleswade 6

Ryan Inskip 47, 64,

Lee Northfield 72, 82,

Alex Marsh 79,

Nick Henebery 87,

Windsor 1

Matthew Stockill 90+3
Referee:- Jack Packman.                                          Attendance:- 557
Admission:- OMGDS £4.00 (£6).                          Programme:- £2.00
Barely a month since my last visit for a rugged encounter with Stowmarket Town in the 4th Round of The Vase and today, yet another attendance record was set! Windsor looked fine in the first half in their eccentric red shirts with a green and white Union Jack emblazoned front and back. 0-0 at half-time. The second half was a very different kettle of fish as the hosts ripped into Windsor and tore them apart. They were well worth their victory and progress to the last eight in the competition. Windsor’s consolation goal came right at the end! With grand-son, Freddie.

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Grandson, Freddie enjoys an FA Vase tie at Biggleswade Town’s ground.

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Friday 15th February 2019
SC Paderborn 3 1st FC Koln 2

Really brassed off that I missed this match. I could have got there, but only for the second half. Flew from Stansted to Dortmund and the plane landed like a ton of bricks and bounced right back up into the air again only to come down a second time, hard onto the runway! Enjoyed a really excellent Indian meal in Dortmund in the evening and very reasonably priced. Tomorrow? Schalke – and on Sunday, Beyer Leverkusen!!!

Saturday 16th February 2019
German Bundesliga

Schalke 04 0

SC Freiburg 0
Referee:- F. Willenborg.                                            Attendance:- 58,271
Admission:- €31.00.                                                  Programme:- NONE
Breathtaking stadium with an emotional atmosphere to match and entertainment and refreshments for best part of a mile leading up to the ground. Sadly, the game itself was pretty turgid. Two sendings off in a match without spark and a huge crowd singing non-stop, trying to get their team going – without success! With sons, Mike and Liam and also, Gary Miller and Daz Bibby (but they all went and stood and jumped up and down all match!).

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Mike and Liam and Gary and Daz were all behind this goal jumping up and down for all they were worth!

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The legend reads:- “North Bank Gelsenkirchen”

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Sunday 17th February 2019
German Regionalliga West (4th tier)

Viktoria Koln 0

Rot-Weiss Oberhausen 0
Referee:- Jorn Schafer.                                             Attendance:- 1,814
Admission:- €17.00.                                Programme:- free teamsheet
On a balmy, warm and bright afternoon, we took a couple of tram rides out of Cologne to Sportpark Hohenberg where League leaders, Viktoria Koln took on the fourth placed visitors and the result was fairly predictable from the first ten minutes! The ground was pretty basic with no spectators behind either goal and a pen for the 500 or so visiting fans on the opposite side to the main stand which housed the home support! The match did spring to life briefly in the last quarter of an hour, but, at the end, both sides were relieved to earn a point!

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.Gary Miller, son, Liam, Daz Bibby and son, Mike

Sunday 17th February 2019
German Bundesliga

Bayer Leverkusen 2

Kai Havertz 18,

Leon Bailey 66,

Fortuna Dusseldorf 0
Referee:- Markus Schmidt.                                       Attendance:- 27,717
Admission:- €32.00.                                                 Programme:- NONE
At last a goal! Relief after a goalless first two games this weekend. The Bay Arena is similar in size to The King Power at Leicester City, but contains many refinements – some cosmetic like the additional ring of floodlighting and some functional like the standing area across the entire width behind one goal and exterior access to the upper tiers. Once again the atmosphere was magical and electric and even at the end with their side well beaten, the Fortuna fans sang as loudly as ever! With sons, Mike and Liam and also Daz Bibby and Garry Miller.

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The passionate home support hidden amongst a sea of flags!

The passionate away support were setting off flares!

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Tuesday 19th February 2019
Sky-Bet EFL League One

Accrington Stanley 4

Billy Kee 37,

Sean McConville 57,

Jordan Clark 73,

Luke Armstrong 90+3

Oxford United 2

Luke Garrett 63,

Curtis Nelson 89,
Referee:- Chris Sarginson.                                     Attendance:- 2,095
Admission:- OMGDS £15.00 (£20)                    Programme:- £3.00
On a filthy night in East Lancashire, you had to feel sorry for the hundred or so bedraggled away supporters behind the far end where there was no cover at all! Both sides started cagily, but it was the hosts who broke the deadlock before half time and doubled their lead early into the second period. The visitors reduced the arrears, but fell to a third home strike. With five minutes to go, Oxford pulled it back to 3-2 and a draw looked distinctly possible. A home strike four minutes into added time deservedly sealed the win and the points! Good match.

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Wednesday 20th February 2019
North West Counties League Division 1 North

Bacup Borough 0

AFC Liverpool 2

Jordan Foster 25,

Jonathan Croasdale 85,
Referee:- Niall Eaves.                                     Attendance:- 76
Admission:- £6.00.                                  Programme:- £2.00
This was only my second visit to West View Park – the first visit was on 14th March 1970 when Chorley visited and recorded a fine 5-1 victory! Not a lot appeared to have changed in the meantime. The ground had a faded, dilapidated feel to it and inside the club house the floor creaked and felt very unstable. Out on the pitch, which sloped quite substantially from one side to the other, there was cover on three sides and seating for maybe 150 souls. In a very evenly contested fixture, the hosts missed all their chances whilst the visitors took two of theirs and consolidated their position in second place in the table!

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Saturday 23rd February 2019
Total Motion Midland League Premier Division

Shepshed Dynamo 2

Matt Melbourne 32,

Jordan Wilson 90+7

Dunkirk 1

Ryan Ejezie 41,
Referee:- Darren Laska.                                     Attendance:- 172
Admission:- OMGDS £4.00 (£6)                  Programme:- £1.50
It was a warm day more suited to cricket than football, but the pitch was bare and uneven and for long periods, the game failed to flow. The visitors, deep in relegation trouble, looked the better side for much of the match and it wasn’t until the seventh minute of added time at the end of the game that the hosts finally, and a little unfairly, secured the victory and the points! Who remembers Shepshed Charterhouse and Shepshed Albion? With Graeme Askham and grandson, Freddie.

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Tuesday 26th February 2019
Evo-Stik Southern League Division 1 Central

Welwyn Garden City 2

Elliott Bailey 12, 20

Corby Town 5

Elliot Sandy 41, 71,

Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson 49,

Steve Diggin 67,

Joel Carta 73,
Referee:- Alan Cresswell.                               Attendance:- 157
Admission:- OMGDS £5.00 (£8)            Programme:- £1.00
Twenty minutes into this match, the visitors were two goals adrift against the rampant hosts! They managed to pull one goal back before the interval and whatever went into the half-time cuppa had the desired effect as they crashed four unanswered goals into the home net in the second half. With sons, Mike and Liam, grand son Freddie, Graeme Askham and the prospective Parliamentary candidate for Corby and East Northants, Beth Miller!

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Beth Miller, the prospective Parliamentary candidate for Corby and East Northants

Grandson, Freddie with his Dad, Mike

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