Author Archives: laurencereade

Continental Op

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

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Sunday 18th January 2015 ko 15.00

Greece Football League Notios (South)

APOLLON SMIRNIS 4 (Farionola 32 Kyvelidis 43 71 Wanderson 71)

ERMIONIDAS-ERMIS 2 (Papanikolaou 53 Koutsospiros 88)

Att c1500

Entry COMP

Club Newspaper FREE

Teamsheet FREE

The Athens metro train trundled north-east on the green M1 line, and we had a decision to make, which station was best for the Stadio Georgios Kamaras? We went for the shortest train ride, to Ano Patissia, and took a short taxi ride to the ground, only to find out the better option is Perissos one stop further north. All you have to from there is retrace the train’s route back for 300 metres along the adjacent road! Our arrival in a big yellow taxi did have one advantage though, it allowed club official Vangelis to spot us easily, and the welcome was as fulsome as it was unexpected.

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Bubble

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Saturday 17th January 2015 ko 19.30

Greece Superleague

PANIONIOS GSS 1 (Boumale 34) Kolovos missed penalty 86

PANATHINIAKOS 1 (Berg 78)

Att 1,849

Entry €25 (Main Stand)

No Programme

Badge €3

Here’s a tip for you. When you take the €8 metro trip from Athens airport into the capital, the metro platforms are the two in the middle, it is very easy to jump on a suburban train headed to…. !

After you’ve reached Athens itself it costs further €10 for a 5 day mass transit pass for the metro, buses and trams. That is easy enough to buy, the machines have an “English” button, but you do need to validate the ticket via one of the machines by virtually every escalator. There are plenty of warnings about failure to pay or validate, but I’m bound to say I saw no ticket checks during my 4 days here, and there are no barriers either!

Greece’s financial problems were manifest, and not just from the political posters and campaigners for the imminent general election. There seems to be a general attitude of make do and mend, but in no way shape or form has the Greek welcome I’d remembered from childhood holidays been diluted. Continue reading →

The Blairites

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Wednesday 14th January 2015 ko 19.45

Kent Invicta League Challenge Trophy Quarter-Final

HOLLANDS & BLAIR 6 (Greenfield 6p 54p Denness 21 40 87 West 44)

GRAVESHAM BOROUGH 1 (Heddon 60)

Att 52

Entry & Programme £5

If you were to have a flick through the 700 or so articles on this site, you’d find a common theme, I don’t watch much Step 6 football in the south-east. Part of it is that I clocked up a lot of my local grounds well before I started this, but it is also because Step 6 in this part of the world in many areas is close to not really existing. Continue reading →

Crossroads

11 Sunday Jan 2015

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Friday 9th January 2015 ko 19.00

FA U21 Premier League

WEST HAM UNITED 1 (Morrison 37)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Ward 21 90 Winks 55)

Att c500 at Rush Green Stadium, Romford

Entry £3

Programme FREE

As a writer I suspect if you want to find a football ground to write about, the easiest way of find some subject matter is to head to East London. The Rush Green Stadium is on the A124 at Romford’s edge. Its now home to West Ham’s academy, although the club’s training base is still at Chadwell Heath, a few miles away, and you do wonder when the club moves to the Olympic Stadium the season after next, whether one of those bases will lost.

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Mix & Match

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

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Tuesday 6th January 2015 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League Challenge Cup 2nd Round

STAFFORD RANGERS 2 (Curtis 71 90)

RUSHALL OLYMPIC 2 (Mugisha 35 Heath 88)

No extra time, Rushall won 6-5 on penalties

Att 192

Entry £5 (reduced from £9)

Programme £1 (reduced size)

Don’t you just love seeing a floodlit stadium come into view as you turn round a bend? If like me you do, then a trip to Marston Road is a must. That must for me was way overdue, perhaps that one season when in the Conference Premier, my club Oxford United played Rangers made me subconsciously procrastinate from going.

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Comfortable

05 Monday Jan 2015

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Sunday 4th January 2015 ko 17.30
FA Cup 3rd Round

ARSENAL 2 (Mertesacker 20 Alexis Sanchez 82)

HULL CITY 0

Att 59,439

Entry, programme and teamsheet £89 (Club Level)

Now I know what you’ve thinking, he was at the Emirates Stadium on a week or two ago! And you’d be right, here’s the report, but 3 more tickets became available, and when have you ever known me to turn down a football match! That clearly goes double for young Oscar, my cousin’s son, so I do have something of a confession to make.

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Suffolk Punch

02 Friday Jan 2015

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Thursday 1st January 2015 ko 15.00

Isthmian League Premier Division

LEISTON 1 (Godbold 78og)

WITHAM TOWN 1 (Wraight 21)

Att 210

Entry £10

Programme £2

Badge £3.50

As a carload of slightly hungover groundhoppers half clambered, half fell out the car at the Crown Inn, Leiston no one remembered just how close we all were to Sizewell Nuclear Power Station. Just the railway line with its old-fashioned level crossing gates gave a clue when we bumped over the line, waking my 3 passengers!

The Suffolk town grew in the 19th century through the production of steam tractors. At the Leiston Works, Garrett & Sons produced the vehicles together with a wide variety of metal products, munitions included. Continue reading →

Looking Back

31 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so with 2015 nearly upon us let’s cast a final glance on 2014, after all some exceptional places did get a visit! If you’d like to see more of the places featured, the links with take you to the original articles.

January saw a week’s visit to Malta, and between avoiding nervous British pensioners, and my attempts to source the biggest full English breakfast on the Island, we did manage to watch 9 games. For me there were two highlights, the games on Gozo, where there seemed to be more capacity in the Catholic Churches than residents!

SONY DSC

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Bells End

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Sunday 28th December 2014 ko 15.00

Conference North

LOWESTOFT TOWN 2 (Ainsley 14 Woods-Garness 81)

GAINSBOROUGH TRINITY 0

Att 534

Entry £12

Programme £2

Badge £3.50

The trains all terminate at Lowestoft, and one solitary piece of track strikes out towards the harbour 200 yards away before giving up, blocked by the crossroads. Yes this the most easterly town in the UK, unequivocally defined by fish, although I did wonder whilst having my lunch at the local Wetherspoon pub whether my scampi was locally sourced- I do have my doubts!

Of course Lowestoft is famous for being the hometown of the rock band, “The Darkness” rather overshadowing the fact that classical composer Benjamin Britten was born here! Darts fans will no doubt point out that shy, retiring Peter “Snakebite” Wright lives locally!

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