The Round Ball Game - II

[johncorrigan]

p26 w0 d2 l24 gf16 ga187 gd -171 pts -7


Guess who? - what I need to know is how I missed the draws, though I did notice last week that they drew P-P. By the way, 0-11 this evening v Brora Rangers.

[teamsaint]

Third bottom against second bottom at SMS tonight. That had all changed by the end,by which time it was fourth bottom against second bottom.

Mediocre fare, but Saints really put a shift in , and deserved a comfortable win against a team that look relegation certs. Its a step in the right direction at least. Good to see James Ward Prowse flourishing under the new boss , and another big plus is Bednarek, who is proving a real bargain. He will make the big time IMO.

[cloughie]

Third bottom against second bottom at SMS tonight. That had all changed by the end,by which time it was fourth bottom against second bottom.

Mediocre fare, but Saints really put a shift in , and deserved a comfortable win against a team that look relegation certs. Its a step in the right direction at least. Good to see James Ward Prowse flourishing under the new boss , and another big plus is Bednarek, who is proving a real bargain. He will make the big time IMO.

The battle to avoid the 18th place getting interesting - a few sides now in the mix. Alison very quiet on the Foxes management change!

[johncorrigan]

The battle to avoid the 18th place getting interesting - a few sides now in the mix. Alison very quiet on the Foxes management change!

Wee Neily Lennon kicked off his second stint in the Celtic dug-out last night with a late, late win, following the call to come in as an intern following Brendan's departure - Rogers could be a good appointment for the Foxes though he did only have Celtic playing one way, no matter the opposition.

[Edgy 2]

Tuesday

Maidstone United 0 Stockport County 3 FA Trophy replay,2 leg semi final v Fylde to come,the treble is on
League,FA Trophy and Cheshire Senior Cup

[Alison]

The battle to avoid the 18th place getting interesting - a few sides now in the mix. Alison very quiet on the Foxes management change!

I’m happy Cloughers, he just could suit us, apparently good at developing younger players and at ease with PR.

He might just be about as good as we could get.

[johncorrigan]

I’m happy Cloughers, he just could suit us, apparently good at developing younger players and at ease with PR.

He might just be about as good as we could get.

Quite a lot of venom being expressed by disgruntled Celtic fans this last couple of days towards Mr Rogers - some rather unpleasant vids turned up on the TV news. Hard to understand their take. By all accounts Celtic received £6m compensation and no way they could afford to hold onto him, no matter what the green side of the Old Firm think. I reckon he just got fed up with the ever-growing sectarianism that has re-emerged with the resurgent blue bit of the firm - pretty horrible. I was talking to a Rangers' season ticket holder the other day - otherwise a normally sort of rational guy - who told me about going to a Manchester derby that someone got him a ticket for - said the game was really dull without the sectarianism...and unfortunately I believe he meant it. He's not capable of irony!

[johncorrigan]

Last minute winner for the Buddies - one point behind 2nd bottom. A wee bit hope at last.

[Alison]

Last minute winner for the Buddies - one point behind 2nd bottom. A wee bit hope at last.

Yes I noticed that one. Lines up a potentially thrilling ride for rest of season.

[antongould]

Sutton 2 Hangers 2
Hammers 2 Toon 0

A fight back from 2 down ...... !!!!!
Toon are going to have to rely on home form I think ......

[johncorrigan]

Fort William got an A-A draw today v Wick Academy today.

[LMcD]

Fort William got an A-A draw today v Wick Academy today.

Pleased to see that FW's Great Recovery has begun - perhaps they can give the Tractor Boys some tips on How To Flourish In League 1 next season.

[Lat-Literal]

Saturday 2 March 2019 - Football Visit to the West Midlands - Part 1

My back and my neck are not what they were. I am unlikely to be spending much time in the future on the computer. It is also difficult sometimes to get out of the house. Consequently, I opted yesterday for a kill or cure approach as I have been known to do on occasions in recent times. It was a day to explore another part of England which I didn't know at all. It incorporated football but only as something which encouraged motivation while there was still time to travel. Following Exeter City, Ipswich Town, Newcastle Utd and Charlton Athletic earlier in the season, it involved what was for me a new football ground. At 6.30am, I walked to the local bus stop and got a bus to the nearest station. Next, a train from Coulsdon South to East Croydon and another from there to London St Pancras. I walked from St Pancras to Euston and then took a train to Birmingham New Street via Rugby and Coventry which I had previously visited. They were the birth place of a mate of mine who had died suddenly at 40 in 2004 and the place of his team. I was in Birmingham by 1030am. Four hours.

The centre, which I had only ever seen from the windows of a coach on the way to Ireland, was much as I had anticipated. The Bull Ring is an odd affair, seemingly in a bunker that was the consequence of heavy wartime bombing, but in truth equally linked to natural topography. Avoiding the heart of the shopping centre, I walked through the tunnel to have a look at Birmingham Moor Street station and the terrain immediately around it. From here, Britain's city seems oddly local compared with London. Anything of note seems to be in a very tiny space. The station is not what one would expect of Britain's second city but it does have charm. I then walked back through the tunnel and jumped on an 80A bus, having been told by the driver it would be 10-15 minutes to West Bromwich. It was more like three quarters of an hour which caused some stress as I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get there. I was hoping to see the outside of The Hawthorns, the ground of West Bromwich Albion but that never really occurred. At least, it didn't occur in a way that left me satisfied. More later.

Instead, not having set foot in the main part of the West Midlands before, it gave me a great opportunity to get a feeling of what it was really like. The timetable simply describes a journey via Smethwick but we went close to all sorts of places which had resonance. The Hagley Road (ex neighbours of mine), Handsworth (the reggae band Steel Pulse), Dudley (Lenny Henry), Warley and Sandwell (constituencies, local authorities). Much of the terrain was nebulous. Vast areas of factory buildings, industrial wasteland and non-descript urban roads. The bus made its way around various side streets with houses and tower blocks on the main drag were frequently observable. Still, it was difficult to comprehend how in this region there were sufficient numbers of dwellings to accommodate well over a million people. The people who got on and off the bus were white, South Asian, and Afro-Caribbean.

These are the long term English communities who are well bedded down and at ease with themselves and each other. As such, the atmosphere while being the usual mixture of friendly, unfriendly and indifferent, was to my mind pleasant, reassuring and reinforcing. There was confusion at the bus garage but ultimately I got myself into West Bromwich actual and found I was in a street market on its High Street. Asking for directions to The Hawthorns, I was told time and again by local residents that it was too long a walk or that they had no idea of its whereabouts. I sensed that many people simply never ventured beyond their immediate streets. Finally, I was helped by an elderly South Asian couple with whom I discussed not only the Hawthorns but Molyneux, the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers. They advised me to get a tram up to Wolverhampton to see the latter and then one back again towards Birmingham to the see the former from the tram windows. After what seemed like a very long journey - ones with a lot of stops always do - I was in Wolverhampton just before 1pm.

[Lat-Literal]

Saturday 2 March 2019 - Football Visit to the West Midlands - Part 2

Wolverhampton surprised me. It was the first place which seemed coherent in its architectural lay-out, with some impressive historical buildings, and an evident sense of civic pride. However, as with many places, getting across the busy roads just on the outskirts was very difficult. I am not sure just how far Andy Street's remit extends but I came away from the region with a long list of necessary improvements including better pedestrian crossings as well as better signposting almost everywhere and the provision of more toilets. Having believed that Molyneux was one of the easiest grounds to find and close to the city centre, it was upsetting that it was so difficult to find. I must have crossed one road of about six lanes four times before ultimately getting there and it wasn't as if I wasn't asking for directions. The people I spoke with were a mixture in terms of class background. One sensed that there was a significant element of middle class people, supporters and non supporters, as well as working class people there whereas West Bromwich was not completely unlike the area around the East Lane market in South London where my grandmother had lived. Very much "the people" and no better or worse for being so, although considerably poorer in the main.

As the gold shirted appeared in ever greater numbers, I followed the herd and managed to see the outside of the stadium. It was quite impressive and I did quite like the location of it in relation to the city once it had been found. But there was a very strange juxtaposition here in that actually I wasn't going to the match at Wolves. I had a ticket for another match and all of a sudden it felt like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Furthermore, time was running out. Getting back up to the trams was a pain. The hill felt unusually steep. To make matters worse, I already had blisters on my feet from ill-fitting footwear and my belt broke during my fast paced walk which required some elaborate makeshift fixing so as my trousers held up. Back on the tram, I eventually got back to West Bromwich and then noticed a couple of further stops on that we had stopped at a station called The Hawthorns. However, the only part of the stadium I was able to see from a window was what appeared to be a floodlight tower just behind the platform as this section of the tram is largely set in a ravine.

Coming into Birmingham after what seemed to be stop after stop, we stopped at the Jewellery Quarter which is supposed to be an area for the upwardly mobile although it didn't look like it. And then, the tram now packed with shoppers, it was the sharp descent towards New Street on which it was possible to observe one or two of the original streets of the city centre and some concept of an outline. Once inside New Street, it felt like walking into pandemonium. It was like all of Birmingham was there. A cross between an airport, a gigantic shopping mall and a disco, the lights, the crowds, the movement, the noise and the lack of signage almost overwhelmed. Having managed to find a desperately needed toilet after much trekking back and forth, I threw myself in to the ticket office and got a return ticket to Witton, being advised that if I ran like the clappers to Platform 6, I might just get the 2.25pm.

This was essential and I managed to do it although it was so full it was almost impossible to get on. Ten minutes later, I was outside the Witton Arms. While they were mainly in good humour, my sense was that the majority of Aston Villa fans on the train had been drinking since breakfast time. In contrast, I was stone cold sober. But I did manage to have quick pint in the pub before walking the length of the ground to the entrance to the Holte End. That was fine. To a large extent, I was there for the stadium architecture. And while the area in which Villa Park sits leaves something to be desired, what a fabulous stadium Villa Park turned out to be. I loved the steep steps up to the entrance and the park alongside. Once in the upper tier, the views are magnificent, both of the stadium itself which while old is so smart and to the park to the left where sight lines have wisely been left for wider connection. I have to say that from a doubtful sort of beginning, the fans were really very, very good. It was good spirited. It was atmospheric. And, of course, it was 4-0 against Frank Lampard which helped things along and has got to be good news in anyone's book. I do feel sorry for Derby County fans. First, they lost the Baseball Ground. Now, they have got him as their manager.

[Lat-Literal]

Saturday 2 March 2019 - Football Visit to the West Midlands - Part 3

There is a long queue for the train back to Birmingham after Aston Villa matches. I would say that you have to expect to wait for half an hour to get on the train but that the process is well stewarded, fair and reasonably efficient. Once back in New Street station, the shoppers were leaving and the night life people were arriving. I wasn't overly keen on the atmosphere there but had sensibly left myself an extra hour to prepare for the next train journey. That journey from New Street to Euston was pretty horrendous. Delayed in its start by half an hour because of a signal failure and then much slower in its speed than it should have been. Not enjoyable at all - and quite claustrophobic. The delay meant that the walk from Euston to St Pancras where there has only recently been stabbings was more nerve-wracking than anticipated. There were several dodgy characters in the area and then I just missed a train at St Pancras so had to sit there for a further half an hour. Early clubbers on the train from St Pancras to East Croydon. Again an uneasy atmosphere but I managed to get a train quickly from East Croydon to Purley and then got a taxi for the last three miles. I arrived home at 11pm so the round trip was 16 and a half hours. Exhausted but not at all a bad attempt at "doing" the West Midlands in a day. I felt that I could finally put pictures and atmospheres to the names I have known for over half a century. It feels like a crazy dream. Quite unreal.

Is Villa my team of choice in the West Midlands? Probably. If the slight difficulties on leaving the ground are reminiscent of those when heading back to Central London from the Valley, Villa Park has more than a few similarities with the old Highbury which I miss an awful lot. It is a traditional stadium with some character. The club has a lot of history. Without being massively keen, I had always preferred the idea of it to Birmingham City which I associate rightly or wrongly with yobs, a history of dubious management and a sort of nothingness generally. It has never appealed. Villa fans are a mixture. Middle class and working class. Racially quite diverse. Young families. A few couples. Blokes. The blokey end is probably a bit rougher than one might expect but, with the usual caveats, is of the salt of the earth variety and mainly means well. Wolves look quite good to me. However, the class distinctions there are probably more apparent. Some of the people I met were very well-to-do and I now have it in my head that it is the region's "posh" team but in the build up to their game there was also a parochial air of working class laddishness which seemed a little less centred and hence solid than at Villa. I could believe there might be regular problems there on the fringes.

West Brom remain an enigma. I had no idea of how different West Bromwich as a place is to Wolverhampton. I sense now that is the poorer person's team. It also has a fairly good reputation which is interesting of itself, given how often it is said that there is a link between deprivation and criminality. I am sorry that I was unable to see the stadium properly on this trip. Further afield, any personal links I have are with Coventry but sadly they have a modern stadium. And then back in the main conurbation, there is of course Walsall which is a much smaller club. Football wise, Villa played with character and purpose. The last ten minutes of the first half in which there were three goals was brilliant and the volley for the fourth goal was especially memorable. Lampard's team were Lampard in management. A clever-cleaver prissiness which belies a hard as nails approach - witness the brutal pettiness re Spygate - and which more often than not is lacking in effectiveness. As for the region, I wouldn't want to live there. For one thing, it is too far from the coast. Also, I don't have historical links to it. But as another angle on England and Englishness, I rather liked it and its people. Some of the main parts I missed are apparently greener or posher or a combination of these two things. Perhaps I will see them one day. Perhaps I will not. But I am happy that the areas I visited are the ones I chose to prioritise and that I was finally able to see what they are like.