Monday Night Football is Back: Live Football Not a TV Show: Barkingside FC v Redbridge FC 15 August 2016

Its great to see Monday night football is back. Its a Monday night, so its Barkingside FC that is my destination.

Both these sides were relegated from the Step 4 Ryman Isthmian League Div 1 North last season to the step 5 Essex Senior League. That is to say they are 5 divisions below the Essex Senior League.

This is a local derby and a game between the former tenants and landlords. Originally, Barkingside were resident at Oakside Stadium in Barkingside. Then Redbridge moved in as tenants. This situation swapped with Redbridge becoming the senior side. Then Barkingside moved out and now play their home games at Cricklefield Stadium in Ilford. This they ground share with Ilford, another Essex Senior League side.

I saw Redbridge play 9 days ago in the FA Cup when they were hammered at home by Waltham Forest. Barkingside won their FA Cup game the same weekend.

Before tonight's game, Barkingside had six points from three games and Redbridge one point from three games. The odds were therefore in Barkingside's favour, especially with home advantage.

Going to Cricklefield is rather easy for me. 20 minutes before kick off, I was at home having a shower. I still had time to get to ground, get in and meet my fellow ground hoppers before kick off. There was a good turn out of ground hoppers there tonight. This is one of the reasons why Barkingside play home games on a Monday night. The extra money from the dozen or so ground hoppers makes a huge difference to clubs at this level. The crowd tonight was 95. That means 12.5% of crowd were ground hoppers. A big boost to the income of a club.

I do like Barkingside as a club. They are a friendly club and the chairman greets fans with a cheery hello and makes you feel welcome. Some of you will remember my tweets last year or year before when I whinged repeatedly about not being able to get a cup of tea. The club contacted me via twitter the next day and offered me a free ticket to next game and an apology (catering difficulties). 

Things like that are what is the difference between football at this level and the professional game. Here, you are valued and are not just a wallet. I should say I refused the offer of a free ticket. Barkingside need my money more than I need a free ticket. Indeed, last night I tweeted that I was going to game today. Today, I got a tweet from the club inviting me to blog about the game. Go to a professional game and you are threatened with ejection for taking photographs to support a blog post. What a difference in attitude.  The Admission and a programme here costs £7. Compare this to League 2 Leyton Orient where admission and a programme would cost around £27. 

The game itself tonight was a competitive affair with Barkingside starting slowly, but as the game went on they became stronger. They were awarded a soft penalty after 40 minutes. The decision was right, but the Redbridge player deserves a slap for bringing down a player running away from the goal and who did not have the ball under control.

Barkingside missed the penalty , well it was saved by the Redbridge goalkeeper who had a great night and kept Redbridge in the game.

It was not until the second half that Barkingside finally got the goal their pressure deserved. A simple header from a corner made it 1-0. Barkingside and Redbridge players contrived to miss numerous chances to keep the score at 1-0.

A deserved win in the end for Barkingside. I look forward to my next visit to Barkingside.

Looking through the programme, the Chairman asks for fund raising ideas for the club. I live less than a mile from the ground, but have never seen a poster advertising games in any of the local shops. Many people do not even know there is a football ground here. I know it is a matter of time, but a bit of publicity of the existence of the club, the dates of the games and the excellent value for money the admission price is would help. There is a school academy right outside the ground. Could some form of promotion of the club via free / reduced priced tickets for school pupils increase the attendances?

Blyth Town v Ryton and Crawcrook Albion

No Spartans Here: Ground Hopping Blyth Town FC v Ryton & Crawcrook Albion FC: EBAC Northern League Div 2: 10 August 2016

My 5 the game in 7 days saw me make a trip to Blyth, but not to see the famous Blyth Spartans, but instead their upcoming neighbours Blyth Town.

Tonight was only their second game in the Northern League for Blyth. I took advantage of a chance to meet up with Tom and take in a game.

Getting to the ground is easy. It's only a couple of miles off the main road and there is no need to go through the town centre. There is a large car park at the ground, that is free. I already had a favourable impression of the club and I had not got out of the car!

That impression improved when I reached the wooden hut that doubled as payment booth (no turnstiles here). The admission price was only £5 and then I was told that included a free drink at the bar. I like this club.

into The ground and the first thing i noticed as the fences. The fence around the ground was such that you could see through it from outside the ground. 

The fence around most of the pitch was a rather high wooden fence. This appears to be a new addition to comply with FA ground grading rules about having enclosed fences around the pitch. Oddly enough the section in front of the seats and covered standing was not enclosed. this was presumably so as not to obstruct the view of people in those stands. It seems to defeat the logic of requiring an enclosed fence if part of it is not enclosed.

the ground is very simple, a small seated stand and a small covered terracestraddle the halfway lin on  one side of the ground. The rest of the ground is open to the elements and consists of a concrete walkway roud the pitch. There are 3 floodlight pylons on either side of the pitch. I understand that planning permission for these lights was controversial as residents objected. I am not sure why as the housing is not very near the pitch at all.

The clubhouse is a modern pavillion which also houses the catering and toilet facilities.The layout of the bar is something I suspect will be looked at in future as bar did get crowded. It was great tosee the club staff all turned out in smart Blyth Town kit. Everyone was incredibly friendly and with beer  at £2.50 per pint, it was great value.

There was a good crowd of 219 for the game.The football was the one downside of the night, a scrappy 0-0 with few decent chances.

I think Blyth Town have made fantastic strides to get intothe Northern League and with the fantastic set up they have there, they will thrive.

Knees Up Mother Brown? West Ham United v Juventus 7 August 2016 Betway Cup

Today was the opening game of the London Stadium, the new home of West Ham United. Hang on a minute you say, what about the blog post you made for the game at the London Stadium 4 days ago ? Yes, I did watch West Ham at the London Stadium  4 days ago, but this game with Juventus was arranged as the big pre-season friendly to open the new ground before the draw was made for the Europa Cup.

I had a chance today to reflect a little bit more on West Ham and their move to the new stadium and what it means for football in general. I went to this game once again courtesy of my friends Tony & Lisa. As I have said before they both have mobility issues and were gracious enough to let me have one of their carer tickets for today's game.

The London Stadium is on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and is designed to be accessed by public transport with most people going via Stratford Station. From there it is about a mile walk to the ground. There are only 229 parking spaces at the ground for 60,000 people. There is no public transport from the station to the ground. The only option realistically is to walk from the station to the ground. 

West Ham have realised this is a problem and have arranged shuttle buses from the station to the ground and back. A fleet of busses operated by the most friendly staff you will come across take you to outside the clubshop and cafe. From there, there are 2 lifts to take you up to the main concourse level of the ground.

Stewards dealing with the queues for the club shop etc are all alert to the needs of people with mobility problems and barriers were moved etc to let us through. At each block of turnstiles, there were separate entrances for us rather than the turnstiles. A lot of thought had gone into this. 

Once inside the ground, we had the only problem to resolve. The tickets provided for Tony & Lisa and their carers were not accessible to them. This is a mistake and I am sure will be recognised. After speaking to a couple of stewards we were moved into wheelchair accessible view seats at the opposite end of the ground to last Thursday's view. These seats are in the area that will be used for visiting fans. The view from the seats like on last Thursday was excellent. The seats are situated at the rear of the lower tier, but are high enough up that if people stand in the lower tier they do not affect the view.

One thing that puzzles me slightly is that immediately outside this part of the ground is the clubshop and ticket office. This seems a strange place to put visiting fans, especially for big games where there is a risk of trouble. It will make it harder to keep fans seperated outside the ground. Is this naive, lacking forethought or is it foreward looking? I will revert to this topic later in this blog post.

Once in our seats, we had the chance to watch the pre match entertainment, a brass band, lots of teenage girls performing some sort of synchronised routine that seemed to consist of them bent over for ages. Not quite sure what it was. Then lots of fireworks. The teams came out and lined up for the British National Anthem, but not the Italian one. Not sure why only one anthem was played.

The game started with Juventus going 2 nil up before Andy Carrol pulled one back for West Ham. Half time and West Ham were still 1-2 down. They got back on level terms in the second half when that Geordie, Andy Carrol scored again.

All square and neither side doing more than going through the motions. It was a typical pre season game with odd flashes of brilliance amongst the routine play. Eventually, late on Juventus scored a third and won the game 3-2. Strangely not many people stayed to watch the presentation of the trophy.

There was a small contingent of Juventus supporters in the ground. When I say small, I mean small. See those standing up in the photograph below

Leaving the ground we were taken by the shuttle bus back to Stratford station and avoided the queues outside the station. 

So, after 2 visits to the new ground what are my observations:

• West Ham seem only to have one song - if its not bubbles, there is no singing ( well until Payet came on at the end.)
• The facilities for those less mobile are the best I have come across, with the possible exception of Wembley. The wheelchair accessible view seats give a fantastic view. There are lifts where needed and the surface in the ground and outside is flat, even and smooth.
• The stewards are doing a great job. The supervisors in particular dealt with all problems with a smile, despite the fact they were probably feeling sick of complaints.
• The make up of the crowd was interesting. I saw several muslim women there . There were also quite a few mothers there with children without a male partner there. This to me was a very interesting development. It shows that West Ham as a club has a reach out into the community far beyond the traditional football market. 
• Linked to the above, the atmosphere at the 2 games was very different to a visit to Upton Park. It was far less intimidating and far more relaxed than Upton Park (or many other grounds). The converse side of that is that the London Stadium is less likely to as intimidating a place for visiting teams to play at. That may affect results on the pitch.
• Watching football at the London Stadium is relaxing and very enjoyable, certainly from the wheelchair accessible seats. I could easily be persuaded to go again (hint hint Tony and Lisa if you are reading this).
• One oddity is seeing seating beneath or behind the football seating. This is seating for the athletics. It is not something you see at many grounds.

All in all , I have enjoyed my visits to the London Stadium and see it as part of the future of football. The days of the 1980s when the ICF were the most famous thing about West Ham and football hooliganism was the norm are in the past apart from the young wanabees who wouldn't know what real football violence was. I was chatting last weekend whilst taking part in the UK Police Unity Tour cycling event, with a police officer who is a former Football Intelligence Officer, and still polices football. He was of the view, as I was that with all the cameras and police intelligence that anyone taking part in organised violence at football these days is asking for arrest. The intelligence and CCTV evidence available to police means that its a mugs game these day to get involved. What happened in the 1980s is history and will never be repeated.

Football Fans–Their Own Worst Enemies?

From the title, you could be forgiven for thinking that I am going to be writing about the rivalry between football fans. Not this time though. I am talking about the goings on at Newcastle United.

The recent history of Newcastle United has been more like a soap opera than the history of one of the best supported football clubs in England. In brief, Mike Ashley, then a relatively unknown businessman bought Newcastle United in the summer of 2007. Initially it all started well, with him appointing Kevin Keegan as manager. The future looked bright, then Ashley seemingly set about sabotaging his own business. He effectively constructively dismissed Kevin Keegan by undermining him by various acts including appointing the inexperienced Dennis Wise as the Director of Football. The club appointed Joe Kinnear as manager and eventually after Kinnear had a heart attack, the club were relegated.

Ashley tried unsuccessfully to sell the club and after being unable to find a full time manager he appointed caretaker manager Chris Hughton as full time manager. The club sold most of its big name players. Despite all this Hughton steered Newcastle to an immediate return to the Premiership.

A good start to the first season back in the Premiership saw Hughton sacked. Yes, you read that right. Instead Alan Pardew who had failed at Charlton, West Ham and Southampton was appointed as manager. Then after Pardew, an unpopular appointment, had started to win over the fans, he had the ignominy of having Joe Kinnear appointed as Director of FA, sorry, Director of Football. Kinnear proceeded to tell lie after lie about his contacts, his history. In fact Kinnear is someone who has never been introduced to the truth. He could not lie straight in bed. To say these appointments were not popular with the fans is an understatement.

Ashley re named the ground the Sports Direct Stadium or some other such abomination that upset the fans, the local council etc.

Ashley managed to get rid of Virgin Money as club sponsor by not even offering them the chance to renew their sponsorship. Instead he signed a sponsorship deal with loan sharks Wonga.

There are so many other things that Ashley has done that he regularly faces abusive chants at games. There is a group called “Time 4 Change” who before a recent home match organised a protest march through the town calling for Ashley to go. The local media covered the march. The result was the football club have banned the local media from the ground. The press ban prompted the following

So, why do I say that football fans are their own worst enemies? Firstly, its not just Newcastle United who have banned the press. Other clubs have as well. However, Newcastle have excelled in that as well as banning the press, they have banned the supporters representative group from liaison meetings for daring to liaise with the fans. Yes, you read that correctly. The details are here.

So despite all this, 51674 turned up on Saturday to watch them play Chelsea. Some of those will be season ticket holders and have paid in advance. however all those who have paid for that particular game have simply made Mike Ashley more money. He is a business man and his interest is in making money. His success with Sports Direct and his other business dealings show this.

Even those who are season ticket holders will have spent money on programmes and refreshments within the ground. Thus providing money to Ashley.

Those who think he will listen to protests are mistaken. Ashley couldn’t care less what people think as long as he is making money. Pay your money to go into the ground and you are boosting his bank balance.

Many Newcastle fans that I have known for many years have stopped going to games. They gave up their season tickets and refuse to pay their money to Ashley. Sadly there are thousands of others to take their place, so the ground remains full, the cash keeps flowing into Ashley’s pocket and nothing will change.

Some fans complain that Ashley will not spend money on transfer fees or high wages for players. Why should he when he can fill the football ground with a team built on the cheap.

The only way that things will change at St James’ Park is if fans boycott games, and those who have paid in advance for season tickets refuse to spend money in the ground. That means not buying overpriced crap food or foul drinks. Not really a hardship is it? If the fans stood up to Ashley by hitting him in the wallet, he would have to either change his approach or else sell up the club. Either way – its job done.

Mike Ashley is to the fans what Michael O’Leary of Ryan Air is to air passengers! if today’s Daily Mail is to be believed, even Ryan Air are having to look again at their passenger treatment following passengers voting with their feet.

So Newcastle fans, if you want to bring about change, you need to vote with your feet and hit Ashley in the wallet. The same applies at many other clubs as well. Shout and complain all you like, but its not your club, it belongs to the shareholder( s ) and their interests are not the same as yours. The only way to have an effective voice is to hit the owner in the pocket.

Ground Hopping: Gateshead Leam Rangers FC v Spennymoor Town FC Durham Challenge Cup 2nd November 2013

For today’s trip I was up in the North East with my good lady. I had the choice of a couple of lunchtime kick offs. It had to be a lunchtime kick off if I was to get to a game as I had to go out in the evening to a bonfire function.

So, the options were to go to St James’ Park to watch Newcastle v Chelsea in the Premiership or go to Gateshead Leam Rangers FC for the 2nd round of the Durham Challenge Cup between them and Spennymoor Town FC. I should add that Leam Rangers are currently 2nd bottom of the Wearside League which is at Level 11 of the Football Pyramid. No contest really was it?

So, off to Leam Rangers it was. A miserable day weather-wise. Torrential rain and probably the coldest day of the autumn so far.Leam Rangers play at the Hilltop Ground. That should have been a clue as to the conditions to be found.

Today was the biggest day in the history of Leam Rangers. Admission to the ground was only £5. A bargain compared to the £28 Peterborough were charging for their League 1 game against Leyton Orient today. (That is a level 3 game). No turnstiles here, the money is paid to the gatekeeper at the entrance to the car park. For today’s game, the club had made arrangements for an overflow car park in the local school. A club having consideration for its neighbouring residents and avoiding parking problems? That’s clearly not a professional club.

The club has only been in existence for some 20 years, most of these as a youth team. They run numerous youth teams these days and have a great set up. There is a large club house and changing rooms, a first team pitch and a 2nd pitch on the site along with all weather 5 a side pitches.

The club house is large and serves alcohol, has sky TV and pool, darts etc.It is a well appointed facility and is far better than many clubs much further up the pyramid. It is for example several times bigger than the bar at Trafford FC who are in the Northern Premier League Premier Division (level 7). game).

The pitch itself was surprisingly good. It is far better than many of the pitches at level 8 and below. What was immediately noticeable was that there was no seating or covered standing. Indeed there was only hard standing along

one side of the pitch. Behind both goals and along the far side of the pitch it was simply grass. For the level they play at, it is not necessary to have these facilities. Similarly, there are no floodlights at the ground. There was one unusual feature at the ground. High Voltage power lines run above the length of the pitch! This is not something you see at many grounds.

I never did get to find out what happened if the ball hit the power lines.

 

At this level, the facilities are rather different from the Premiership. The teams have to walk across a car park to get from the changing rooms to the pitch? Can you imagine Chelsea and Newcastle walking across a car park to get onto St James’ Park

 

The catering at the ground was very good value, with tea and coffee only 50p a cup. Chips at £1 a tray and burgers only £1.50. It was interesting to note the catering facilities are open every weekday night from 5pm – 8pm. This gives some idea of the number of children using the facilities each evening.

 

The team at the top of the Northern League against a team 2nd bottom of a league 2 steps below. Surely the game would be a one sided affair. The score line at 4-0 to Spennymoor would suggest it was, but that is unfair on Leam Rangers. They battled well throughout the game and did not make it easy for Spennymoor.  It was always a game where Spennymoor’s extra class was likely to show, and if it wasn’t for some hard work from Leam Rangers, it could have been double figures.

The Leam Rangers goalkeeper deserves a word of praise, he produced some great saves to keep Leam in the game.

The weather may have been foul, but I hope the future is bright for this go ahead club who provide lots for the local community.

 

So, a day when Spennymoor progress comfortably in the Durham Challenge Cup, Newcastle turned over Chelsea, Sunderland humiliate themselves again and Leyton Orient win the top of League 1 clash at Peterborough. The weather fails to dampen a great day. Especially when one adds into the equation wins for the England Rugby Union and Rugby League teams as well.