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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Bristol Rovers

One To Do

29 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Antoine Semenyo, Bath City, Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Football, groundhopping, ryan clarke, sean rigg, Team Bath, Twerton Park

Saturday 14th July 2018 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

BATH CITY 2 (Rigg 45 89)

BRISTOL CITY U23 1 (T Richards 68) M Richards missed penalty 85

Att 187

Entry £8

Programme 50p

Between booking a wedding venue and meeting friends for a meal what should an engaged couple do? The answer in Robyn and I’s case was to visit one of the great British football grounds.  Continue reading →

His and Hers

29 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by laurencereade in B

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Tags

Bristol Academy, Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Football, groundhopping, oxford united., stadium, Stoke Gifford, Women, women's football, Women's Super League

Saturday 25th June 2016 ko 18.00

FA Women’s Super League Division 2

BRISTOL CITY WOMEN 4 (Farrow 18 43 Emslie 28 42)

OXFORD UNITED WOMEN 1 (Umotong 25)

Att 475

Entry £8

Programme £2

Part of the fun of being one half a footballing relationship is when your two favourite sides meet, or in this case the women’s versions! Pondering that last phrase that is rather a British sounding statement, in the UK there’s only Glasgow City that plays high-level football without having an equivalent men’s team. That wasn’t always the case though and I do wonder how many home fans realised that the roots of their women’s team are rather unusual to put it mildly? Continue reading →

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Gas Panic

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by laurencereade in B, G

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bristol Rovers, Conference, Conference Premier, Football, Football League, Grimsby Town, groundhopping, John-Lewis, Playoff final, Wembley Stadium

Sunday 17th May 2015 ko 14.00

Conference Promotion Final

BRISTOL ROVERS 1 (Harrison 30)

GRIMSBY TOWN 1 (John-Lewis 2)

AET Bristol Rovers won 5-3 on penalties

Att 47,0229 at Wembley Stadium

Entry £10 (Member clubs’ allocation- “Neutral Zone”)

Programme £5

Now I know the Conference Premier is pretty much League 3 these days. I know it’s almost entirely full-time and I know there are many former Football League clubs in its ranks. The vital word here is “Former” though, and take it from me, a fan of a club that did lose its place in the League, it hurts a lot it when you get relegated. You get used to the comments like “How on earth did you end up there?” and every time you go to a game you cheer your club on straining every mental sinew to get back to whence you came. There’s nothing wrong with the Conference, but believe me the fans of at least half of the clubs in its top flight hate being there.

Continue reading →

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Empathy

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by laurencereade in N

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Tags

Bristol Rovers, chris wilder, League 2, Northampton, northampton town, Oxford, oxford united., Sixfields, Town

Saturday 3rd May 2014 ko 15.00

League 2

NORTHAMPTON TOWN 3 (Marquis 29 Toney 33 Kouo-Doumbe 50)

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Williams 6) Williams sent off 19 (violent conduct)

Att 7,529 (1,358 away)

Entry £19

Programme £3

I’ve watched my team lose their league status, and its a perfectly horrible experience, and one I wouldn’t wish on any fan (well perhaps Swindon, but that’s tribal!). The Conference may well be a quasi-League 3 but the process of falling into it still hurts a lot. 6 months ago, Northampton were racing favourites to take that drop, sacked manager Aidy Boothroyd, recruited Oxford United’s Chris Wilder more here, and went into this game out of the relegation zone for the first time this year, needing a point to guarantee League football.

In contrast Oxford had been in the play-off positions virtually all season, but since Wilder’s departure form had slumped with the club destined to finish 8th whatever the result. They had nothing but pride to play for, but the Cobblers’ conundrum was as follows. If they lost and either Wycombe or Bristol Rovers won, they were down, so how the club decided to stage the game surprised me.

Continue reading →

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Backlash

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by laurencereade in O

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Tags

Alfie Potter, Bristol Rovers, Dave Kitson, James Constable, John Joe O'Toole, Mark Brown, oxford united., Radio Oxford, Referee

Saturday 2nd November 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 0

BRISTOL ROVERS 1 (O’Toole 71p)

Att 6,374 (862 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (incl’ Oxford Mail)

I’ve got used to professional footballers’ interviews with radio stations, the media training tends to remove anything of interest. So OUFC’s Dave Kitson’s interview on Radio Oxford was a welcome breath of fresh air even if, in time the FA disrepute charge will cost him in one form or another.

He described referee Mark Brown as, Continue reading →

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The Sweetener

03 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bristol Rovers, Bury St Edmunds, Bury Town, Dulwich Hamlet, Erhun Oztumer, isthmian league, oxford united., Phil Brown, Phil Wilson, Pillar of Salt, Ram Meadow

Tuesday 1st October 2013 ko 19.45

Isthmian League Premier Division

BURY TOWN 0

DULWICH HAMLET 4 (Oztumer 35 75p Walker 35 57)

Att 273

Entry £10

Programme £2

Badge £3

On the way home from Bungay I’d actually stopped for petrol in Bury-St-Edmunds without realising I was less than a mile from Ram Meadow. Nevertheless, regular readers will know that if I pass by a town, the chances of me returning to watch their football team increase dramatically!

Continue reading →

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Desolation Row

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by laurencereade in O

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Tags

Bristol Rovers, Eliot Richards, James Constable, Justin Richards, League 2, Lee Brown, oxford united., Ryan Brunt, soccer, Tom Craddock

Saturday 9th February 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 0

BRISTOL ROVERS 2 (Brown 56p Richards 90)

Att 7,608 (1,932 away)

Entry S/T

Programme (including Oxford Mail) £3

Today a friend of mine sent me a text message. He’s just bought a book, ” Oxford United Who’s Who,” and remarked just how many poor players the club have employed over recent years. I’m not convinced how many of the current crop will be remembered with any fondness. Before kick-off I spotted Simon Heslop glumly looking out from the press box. He must have thought, “How could I fail to get into this squad?” Indeed Simon, indeed!

With the news that the creative midfielder Peter Leven is out injured for the long-term, and that a string of players were signed without undertaking medicals, there was pessimistic feel about the ground. It proved to be well founded as not only did Oxford look unlikely to score, but in an attempt to counteract the dreadful pitch, the tactic was to thump the ball in the direction of Justin Richards, but James Constable doesn’t deal in knock-downs, and with a 4-3-3 formation looking narrow the first half was non-event.

Oxford’s one player who looks worth a transfer fee is Jake Wright, yet it was his sliding challenge on Ryan Brunt that irrevokably swung the tie in the Gas’s favour. It looked a clean challenge from my seat, but few complained, as the retaken spot-kick easily beat the Oxford United keeper.

So with the clock running down, how do you change things? Put the out-of-favour striker Deane Smalley on? Or put the out of favour centre-half Harry Worley on?  When Worley joined the forward line, it didn’t take a psychic to imagine what Smalley was thinking. I wonder whether another loan out can be found for him, his stay at Oxford United clearly hasn’t worked out.

The tremendous away followimg masked another poor attendance, and that figleaf won’t be there on Tuesday night, when Fleetwood are the visitors. Will there be a short-term replacement for Leven? Will there be a 20 goal a season striker to replace Craddock? Somehow I doubt it.


 

Behind the Mic

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by laurencereade in H

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

AFC Bournemouth, Allsvenskan, Andreas Dahlén, Bristol Rovers, Daniel Nordmark's, Djurgårdens, Elfsborg, GAIS, Helsingborgs, James Keene, Kärnan, Kidderminster, Olympia, Ricardo Santos, Sofiero, swedish royal family, Tommi Vaiho

Wednesday 23 May 2012 ko 19.00

Allsvenskan

HELSINGBORGS 1F 1 (Nordmark 2)

DJURGÅRDENS IF 1 (Span 75)

Att 9,861

Entry 275 sek

Programme FREE

Badge 30 sek

Helsingborg is as close as you can get to Denmark and still be in Sweden. From the Kärnan tower near the waterfront, the views of the straits, and Danish territory are spectacular, and you can also see the Olympia stadium!

The town has been in both Swedish and Danish control (Kärnan was built by the Danes) but today is a hub for several companies. Both IKEA and Nicorette have bases here. Sofiero Castle, a mansion formerly owned by the Swedish royal family is situated 3 miles out of town, and is well worth a visit. Curiously there’s a “Royal Football Pitch,” there. I looked, but sadly saw no posts…

Olympia is very much the modern stadium, with its curved main stand rather reminding me on the new stand at Wrexham, and the huge two tiered edifice opposite. Behind each goal there’s open terracing which since Helsingborgs have qualified for Europe as Allsvenskan champions, will not be open for European nights.

It was oppressively hot and humid as Kim and I took our seats in the top tier of the stand. With the sun shining in our faces it was hard work watching a dull game. We’d had difficulty getting a programme, they were available only on one turnstile, the idea I think being that everyone else would use the centre page spread in the local newspaper! Watching from the top tier got a lot worse when the man sat to my left, woke up from his drunken stupor just long enough to be sick in his lap! He was swiftly ejected, what he left behind wasn’t… We watched the second half from the back of the lower tier.

We were fortunate to get an early goal Daniel Nordmark’s 25 yard free kick was swung in from the left, noone touched the ball but somehow Tommi Vaiho in the away goal failed to position himself properly and the ball trickled in at the back post.

The rest of the half was a poor scrappy affair, a tense midfield battle littered with errors. DIF were played with the the one attacker, and it was hard to see how they could get level. British midfielder James Keene worked hard to support loan striker Ricardo Santos, but they could make little leeway. The trouble for the neutral though was that HIF were doing precious little either.

The changing point for DIF was the replacing of Santos with Andreas Dahlén near the hour mark. Kaspar Hämäläinen saw his shot tipped over the bar, before Peter Nyman’s cross found Brian Span at the back post and he headed home to level the scores.

That sadly was the end of the meaningful action, but neither side deserved a winner in a game that gave no clue as to the host team’s championship status. A postscipt though was that Djurgårdens were staying at our hotel! We have a good chat to James Keene at breakfast next morning. He’s from the Bristol/Bath area and was a product of the Portsmouth youth set-up.  After loan spells at AFC Bournemouth, Kidderminster, and Bristol Rovers, he was tempted over by Gothenburg based GAIS, before signing a for Elfsborg for the next season. He’s on loan to Djurgårdens for this season.

Its a small world isn’t it!

View out towards Denmark from Kärnen
View of Olympia from Kärnen

Kalle Svensson, the player with most appearances for Helsingborgs- 639!



View from my seat
James Keene

 

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