Daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
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Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
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The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
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For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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by William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850)
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Thursday 1st February 2024
Northants Senior Youth League North
Rothwell Corinthians u18 1
Preston Prins
AFC Rushden & Diamonds u18 6
Cian Shea 2, 29, 68, Jack Kuspert 14, Connor Buswell 42, Tomas Oliveria 86,
Referee: Chris Walton. Attendance: 64
Admission: OMGDS £1.50 (£3). Programme: NONE
Corinthians’ youngsters were undone this evening by a Rushden side who have won every match this season. Four first half strikes put Diamonds firmly in control, but Corinthians fought gamely after the interval and scored one whilst only conceding a further two. Good game on a chilly evening.
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The results for the South division were:
Bugbrooke St Michaels White 2 ON Chenecks 1
Wellingborough Whitworth 0 Bugbrooke St Michaels Black 2
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Friday 2nd February 2024
Premier League 2 Cup Group G
Leicester City u21 3
Wanya Marcal 18, Silko Thomas 45+3, Oliver Ewing 75,
Brentford u21 2
Iwan Morgan 48 (pen) Kyreece Lisbie 86,
Referee: Alan Dale Attendance: 348
Admission: OMGDS £3.00 Programme: Free team sheet
After months of watching Leicester City u21s struggling and being regularly well beaten at Seagrave, tonight’s match was a welcome change. The young Foxes were well worthy of their victory and the margin of victory would have been even wider were it not for a careless defensive error some four minutes from time.
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Saturday 3rd February 2024
Velocity Wessex League Division 1
Verwood Town 0
Millbrook 3
Archie Greenhough 35, Jamie White 61, 90+2,
Referee: Omid Farjadpour. Official Attendance: 43
Admission: OAP £3.00 (£5). Programme: £2.00
We weren’t expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised both by the friendliness of the welcome and the picturesque, rusticity of the ground. There were two covered areas down one side (one with a hundred seats) and hardstanding on three sides, but the ground was fairly open and you could easily watch the match without paying! Top of the table Millbrook eventually achieved a convincing victory, but the hosts competed well throughout and belied their lowly position in the table. The attendance conflicted with our head count of 77. With John Main.
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There were a lot of power cables overhanging the ground!
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Sunday 4th February 2024
FA Premier League
Manchester United 3
Rasmus Højlund 24, Alejandro Garnacho 49, 84,
West Ham United 0
Referee: Andrew Madley. Attendance: 73,612
Admission: £39.00. Programme: £4.00
Only my twenty second visit to Old Trafford since my first in January 1962, but a lot has changed, yet despite it being an all seater ground, we stood for the entire match! The Hammers showed little appetite for the fight and meekly succumbed in an otherwise entertaining encounter. With son, Jim and grandsons, Sonny and Kingsley.
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I still have the programme from my first visit to Old Trafford in January 1962. Then, it cost 4d, today it cost £4
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Jim, Sonny, Kingsley
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Kingsley, Sonny and Jim
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Tuesday 6th February 2024
EFL League One
Cambridge United 0
Bolton Wanderers 0
Referee: David Rock. Attendance: c6,000
Admission: OMGDS £19 (£23). Programme: £3.50
Quite how this match got started is questionable. It had rained all afternoon and evening and from the start the ball was held up by puddles and areas of waterlogged turf on the pitch. Nine minutes elapsed before the referee bowed to the inevitable and took the players off the pitch. He returned, briefly, with his colleague, but very soon appreciated that no further play would be possible!
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A very soggy Ed, Freddie and Mike!
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The massed banks of Bolton Wanderers fans behind the goal to our left – and the waterlogged goal area!
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Wednesday 7th February 2024
Lincolnshire League Premier Division
Crowle Colts 4
Joe Hare 7, 39, 76, Liam Snow 48,
Keelby United 4
Daniel Scrimshaw 6, Ben Cousins 50, Matthew Darwood 66, Coby Kavanagh 88,
Referee: Robert Elliott. Attendance: 68
Admission: £2.00. Programme: £1.50
This was ambitious Crowle Colts second game under floodlights and more improvements are planned – hard standing around the pitch (with an avenue of silver birch behind one goal) and even plans for a large seated stand. In tonight’s crazy hotch-potch of a match, The Colts went behind after six minutes but regained parity a minute later, then took a 3-1 lead a couple of minutes into the second period, only to be pulled back to 3-3, taking the lead again with ten to go and then right at the death conceding the equaliser to an own goal! Good match, several ‘hoppers’ in attendance!
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Photograph, courtesy of Crowle Colts Twitter feed.
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The atmospheric avenue of silver birch behind the left hand goal.
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Saturday 10th February 2024
EFL Championship
Hull City 0
Swansea City 1
Liam Cullen 11,
Referee: Geoff Eltingham. Attendance: 21,017
Admission: Hospitality (£154.80). Programme: incl. (£3.50)
Excellent hospitality. We were very well looked after and, of course, we all drank far too much! The game was pretty entertaining, but after the visitors scored in the eleventh minute, there was no way back for the hosts, try as they might.
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from left: Freddie (in grey), Kingsley, Jim, Jonny Crane, Liam, Aman Singh, Gary Miller, Rory Clarke, Sonny
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from the top: John Lord, Phil Evans and Mike
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Sonny to the front, then, Freddie, Kingsley and Jim.
From top left: Jim, Jonny Crane, Liam, Aman Singh
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Gary Miller and Rory Clarke
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Sonny, Freddie and Kingsley
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Tuesday 13th February 2024
EFL Championship
Leicester City 2
Abdul Fatawu 4, Jamie Vardy 36,
Sheffield Wednesday 0
Referee: Tom Nield. Attendance: 31,550
Admission: OMGDS £32.00 (£40). Programme: £3.50
A night out with two of my sons and three grandsons at a very wet King Power Stadium. The Owls were very poor in the first half, conceded after only four minutes and then again after 36 minutes, an exquisite strike by Jamie Vardy. The second half was much more even and there were times when the Foxes’ defence was rattled, but there was no question of where the points and the victory were going.
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Ed, Jim and Mike
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Sonny
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Freddie and Kingsley
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Wednesday 14th February 2024
Inter Services Triangular Tournament
British Army u23 1
Owen James 90+8
Royal Navy u23 1
Matthew Iceton 58
Referee: George Salloway. Attendance: 70
Admission: F.O.C. Programme: F.O.C. Free team sheet.
The Military Stadium is, really, a one sided arena with a running track around the football pitch and viewing from a fifteen hundred seater stand down one side. The Army lost their opening fixture to The RAF and when The Navy opened the scoring just before the hour mark, it looked like a second defeat looming, in spite of the constant pressure exerted by the hosts. As the game wore on, so the pressure increased, until, eventually, in the eighth minute of added time, The Army clawed back a last gasp goal to draw the match!
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Saturday 17th February 2024, 3.30pm
Bundesliga
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 0
Stanley Nsoki s/o 45+4
FC Union Berlin 1
Kevin Volland s/o 45+6 Brenden Aaronsson 84,
Referee: Robert Hartman. Attendance: 19,050
Admission: OMGDS €42 (€44). Programme: NONE
A fine stadium barely two thirds full and a poor match punctuated by a tennis ball protest which added twelve minutes onto the first half, during which petulant period two players were dismissed (one from each side). The only goal came four minutes from time. The protest was over the increasing influence of money over football in Bundesliga, and it was the away contingent throwing the tennis balls. The walk up to the stadium gives a fine view of a couple of supersonic Concords high over The Sinsheim Technical Museum.
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The Sinsheim Technical Museum, on the way to the ground.
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Gary, Kevin Rory, Daz, Mike, and Adam on the right.
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Saturday 17th February 2024, 8.30pm
(German) Bundesliga 2
Karlsruher SC 2
Igor Matanovic 49, David Herold 64,
Fortuna Düsseldorf 2
Christos Tzolis 37, 51,
Referee: Karl Fritz. Attendance: 26,563
Admission: OMGDS €24 (€26). Programme: NONE
A thoroughly rumbustious, raucous, and rowdy match! Brilliant entertainment! Flares, flags and choir masters perched precariously conducting the away fans. The BBBank Wildpark is an impressive stadium with free transport to and from the station. These two teams are perched just above mid-table, with the visitors in the higher position. Twice they took the lead and each time they were pegged back in a match that ebbed and flowed in tune with the enthusiasm of both sets of fans. Wonderful atmosphere.
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The smoke behind the far goal was the result of numerous flares being set off!
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The man in grey top and black trousers is precariously perched to conduct the away fans!
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Sunday 18th February 2024, 1.30pm
(German) Bundesliga 3
SV Waldhof Mannheim 0
FC Saarbrucken 2
Referee: Florian Lechner. Attendance: 19,210
Admission: OMGDS €26 (€30). Programme: €1 Team sheet: Free
Mannheim, where the first car was driven by Greta Benz, wife of Carl, after whom the stadium is named. However, in a more sinister memory, Mannheim, where Zyklon B was manufactured in WWII. Today’s match ticket came with a free transport pass to and from the town and free tram passage to and from The Carl Benz Stadion. It makes me ashamed to be British when I see how flexible public transport is in Germany. Every tinpot town has trams, buses and underground trains and much of it – certainly for the football fan – is free! We managed a pre-match drink in “Murphy’s Law”, an Irish pub in the town. These two teams are ninety miles apart, but the match – heavily policed – is regarded as a local derby and, today’s crowd was more than double their average for the season. The hosts are in deep relegation trouble. Regionaliga beckons, and on today’s evidence, they will do well to escape the drop. Lovely ground, great atmosphere!
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Before the match all the group met up in an Irish pub in Mannheim. From left (clockwise): Mike, Alan Eathorne, Gary Miller, Rory Clark, Jim, Daz, Adam Vallance and Kevin, with Dave missing with a sore foot and yours truly taking the picture.
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Monday 19th February 2024
U21 Premier League 2
Leicester City u21 1
Will Alves 39,
Crystal Palace u21 1
Luke Plange 26,
Match abandoned after 86 minutes after serious injury to Crystal Palace player. The referee was unable to continue the match because the required amount of medical support was not available having been used to treat the serious injury.
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Tuesday 20th February 2024
EFL League One
Cambridge United 1
Eoin Toal 8 (og), Lyle Taylor s/o 90+1
Bolton Wanderers 2
Paris Maghoma 52, Carlos Gomes 63,
Referee: David Rock. Attendance: 6,525
Admission: F.O.C. Programme: £3.50
Following the wash out of the abandoned game two weeks ago, tonight saw the match replayed and all tickets for the previous encounter were valid for tonight’s match. The Trotters had an appalling first half and were lucky to go in at the interval only one goal behind. Two second half goals in the space of ten minutes turned the game around, but Cambridge fought right to the end and looked the more likely, even after a dismissal for violent conduct. With son, Mike and grand son, Freddie.
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The massed ranks of over 900 Wanderers fans who had made the two hundred mile trip down to Cambridge.
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Son, Mike and Grandson, Freddie
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Wednesday 21st February 2024
Shropshire League: Tony Bywaters Cup Q/F
Dawley Town 3
Ross Jones 20, Reece Evans (og) 29, Sam Rigby 77,
Ellesmere Rangers 1
Max Jones 81,
Referee: Lewis Tomkins. Attendance: 56
Admission: F.O.C. Programme: NONE
Lilleshall, the former centre of excellence for the English FA (replaced in 2012 by St George’s Park in Staffordshire), provided the backdrop for this evening’s match in wet and muddy conditions. Dawley Town, nominally the hosts and in second place in The Salop League, are ambitious and currently raising funds for floodlights at their own ground. Ellesmere Rangers lie next to the foot of the division, but have played in The North-West Counties League. Dawley dominated throughout and were two goals to the good at the interval, they added a third, with fifteen minutes remaining, but Rangers had the last word with a goal of their own in the last five minutes. With John Main and a net full of hoppers!
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Saturday 24th February 2024
Cymru South
Abertillery Bluebirds 2
Carmarthen Town 0
Referee: Tegid Richards. Official attendance: 124
Admission: £5.00. Programme: ON LINE
Bluebirds play their home games in the Six Bells area of the town where a disastrous mining explosion in June 1960 cost 45 miners their lives. In 2010, a statue called “The Guardian” was unveiled to commemorate all miners who lost their lives. It is said to be Wales’ answer to “The Angel of the North”. The ground nestles in the fold of a valley with stunning views all round, and was included in the football magazine 4-4-2s top forty best grounds to visit. They were promoted last season, but this season, they are struggling in the bottom two. Carmarthen, relegated last season from the top table lie in fourth place. Two second half strikes were enough to ensure a very well deserved victory for the hosts, but the win is unlikely to save them from relegation. With John Main.
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This month:- Games: 17 New Grounds:8
This Season: Games: 112 New Grounds:- 65
Total: Games: 4,922 New Grounds: 1,985
