• About this humble little website

Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Daily Archives: October 27, 2011

Unpicked

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cup, Football, goals, groundhopping, Locks Heath, Money, Moneyfields, Portsmouth, Wessex

Wednesday 26th October 2011 ko. 7.15pm

Portsmouth Senior Cup 2nd Round

LOCKS HEATH 0

MONEYFIELDS 5 (Brown 12 Gregory 40 64 66 Buttwell 83)

Att 42 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

Tea 50p

A trip to Fareham to see a former Wessex League club who now play in the Hampshire Premier League, where lights are not needed. So, a slightly unnecessary cup game and and an early kick off to beat a curfew and, easy tickings!

So what’s there? Well there’s a clubhouse, and a seperate changing room block, but that belongs to the Sports and Social Club. That said, one window does give a pretty good view of the action when it rains. Which it did, and other than that window there is no cover. In fact what the football ground is, is simply a railed off pitch at one end of a cricket pitch in a pretty nondescript suburb. However there is one thing of note, and that’s the floodlights because they’re portable! Because of the cricket, the club can and do remove the lights out of season. I’ve not seen that before, although I do know of a club looking to install something similar.

The game was pretty much as the scoreline suggests and no, Wessex Premier Moneyfields didn’t put anything like a full first eleven out. They didn’t need to, as at no stage did Locks Heath look capable of mounting a serious challenge. And that dear reader is why the evening’s entertainment fell a little flat. There was nothing to inspire, although Lee West and former Wealdstone kitman Les Bull provided excellent company.

In the end we all got wet, the 3 of us collected a tick apiece but left feeling that we’d achieved nothing much more.


Someone’s reserved his seat by THAT window!
Those floodlights


Mixed Emotions

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Argyle, ball, Football, Goal, groundhopping, League, Oxford, Plymouth, United

Tuesday 25th October 2011 ko 7.45pm

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 5 (R Hall 15 67 Constable 71 90 Leven 77)

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 1 (Walton 55p)

Att 7,802 (722 away)

Entry Season Ticket

Programme £3 (including Oxford Mail)

This blog really isn’t about my regular trips to watch Oxford United home games, but this one really did give a lot to both write and think about.

Before the game flowers were laid behind the goal by the parents of Jack Hatton a fan who recently lost his battle with Leukaemia at the age of just 19. He was a brave lad, and as Peter Rhoades-Brown recalled, Jack told him that although he was in pain, had lost his hair, and felt lousy,it could be a lot worse; he could be a Swindon fan! The club, and the city are fortunate to have Peter, a great ambassador.

The vistors are in all kinds of trouble, with massive debts, unpaid staff and are rock bottom of the league. Non-League football looks almost inevitable. Yet over 700 made the long journey, and sang their hearts out. You could look at the score too and imagine this was an easy home win, it certainly wasn’t. You see Argyle aren’t the the quintessential basket case League 2 club. Yes, they are a team of unknowns with the odd journeyman thrown in for good measure, but they gave this game a real go.

In fact for a long time the difference was Oxford United wunderkind Rob Hall. A native of Aylesbury, he’s a West Ham asset on loan to gain experience. I suspect the experience is doing him good but Oxford a whole heap more! For me he’s the best finisher at the club since Dean Windass. His second, a stunning volley from a cross from the right will live long in the memory. In fact, it was that goal that really broke Plymouth’s resistance, and as the goals rained in I was pleased for my club but sad for my mate Mike Sampson a massive Argyle fan and the rest of their magnificent support.

I suspect that maintaining league status will be too much for Plymouth this season, but I would imagine that those connected with them will be pleased just to see them still in business this time next year.


722 Argyle fans


Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6,159 other followers

Look for stuff here folks!

Blogroll

  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

Your very own calendar!

October 2011
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  
« Sep   Nov »

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Join 6,159 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...