Leyton Orient 2-0 AFC Fylde, Tuesday 26th March 2019

Leyton Orient 2-0 AFC Fylde, National League, att. 4,696

Welcome to ....

Tonite is a bit off the beaten track for me, a cheeky midweek match on schoolnite.  But what brings me to my old stomping ground of Leyton?  Well, my mate Loko actually knows one of the linesmen through his work and so he’s procured free tickets.  Brilliant!  Guests of the referee’s assistant.  This is a new one on me.

Oi!  Linesman!  Keep up.

Of course, the linesman is too professional to meet us pre-match for beers.  Initially we went to the Leyton Technical, basically a pub in the old town hall (where I used to live; long story).  Leyton was crying out for a decent pub when I lived in a flat around the corner, but as soon as I move out…(well, as I say, I lived in the town hall…they could hardly turn it into a pub while I lived there).  But it’s quality, and actually only takes up part of the downstairs. 

Not the Leyton Technical, but the West Stand exec bar.  For us execs.

We leave early for the ground though.  Loko wants to see Orient’s social club, pick up a few tips for Oakwell (Barnsley) and the certificates behind the bar tell the story.  The social club has won more awards than Leyton Orient!  A quid or two to get in, then a range of real ales, all in the ground floor of the towering West Stand.  It appeared to be open to anyone, though it was doubtful there were any away fans in there, AFC Fylde barely brought a dozen to the game.

Leyton Orient's award-winning social club.

Then it was into the West Stand to bag our freebies, behind none other than Barry Fry in the queue.  I bet he gets about a bit.  The lower division Harry Redknapp, if ever there was one.  Another treat was a teamsheet.  I presume your name doesn't have to begin with 'J' to play for the Orient...but it helps.  Joe, Josh, Jobi, James, another Josh, Jamie...with James, another James and Jay on the bench.  This must be some sort of record.  It must be working too: Orient are marching to the title.

Sign welcoming us big knobs into the West Stand.

Fylde, in amongst the leading pack and contenders for the play-offs, put up little resistance against a team on the cusp.  A goal down after 15, the match was effectively all over after 24 minutes when Bonne scored a penalty.  Otherwise, all that was left was giving our linesman some ‘advice’ during the game, probably to the bemusement of the home support, as no-one else was giving him grief.  We were only teasing.  And he got his beer later (but only one; he’s professional!)

The Damage:
free ent
beers?  Can’t remember, but only had one in the ground.


The Tunes:
none

I remember when that was a large terrace.

The penalty for 2-0.

Looking towards the (main) home end.

The Fylde hordes.

The old main stand.

Match action.

A personal fave; the social club carpet.

A blurred panorama.  Sorry, best my camera can do at night.

Dulwich Hamlet 3-2 Truro City, Saturday 16th March 2019

Dulwich Hamlet 3-2 Truro City, National League South, att. 1,960

Welcome to ...

With my team, Barnsley, having been picked for Sky game last nite (and who didn’t want to see Doncaster Rovers versus Barnsley in League 1?) I had a free weekend, so was able to pootle down to my local team, Dulwich Hamlet. In their first season at National League (south) level, they were comfortably holding their own and today faced Truro City in an effort to cement next season’s place at this level.

The teams line up.

On a windy day, Hamlet registered their first sub-2000 crowd since returning to Champion Hill, 1,960 turning out. This was a shame, since the game was a relative classic. Hamlet took the lead half an hour or so in, with a tap-in on the backpost. So far, so ordinary. But the game spun on an injury-time sending off for the Truro midfielder Herve. Tintin would not have been proud. Twice he arrived late and thus his second yellow mirrored the first. Perhaps he’s a victim of overestimating his ability/speed.  Anyway, I missed the second challenge, as I was in the clubhouse.

The view from the clubhouse.  Herve's victim lies prostrate.

So, 1-0 against 10 men, the second half will be a procession, surely. Even more so when, within 3 minutes of the restart, Nathan Ferguson drove a 20 yarder into the bottom corner. Easy, easy! But this is Dulwich Hamlet. This is Division 6. Akinyemi, scorer of the first, but also guilty of a poor miss 1st half, goes clear, rounds the keeper….and sidefoots it wide from 20 yards. This is no ‘from an angle’ – he is the edge of the box, the whole goal to aim at…and misses. You cannot be paid to be a footballer and not score this. (He is paid to be a footballer.)

Check out that corner flag in the wind.

Hamlet pay for that miss. Truro score a 30 yard screamer (did keeper Edwards lose the flight of the ball?) but Akinemi again has the chance to put the game to bed. He breaks clear again, identical chance to his earlier one, but instead of rounding the keeper, he shoots this time, forcing a decent save from the keeper. This lad is simply not up to standard. But just when you think you’ve seen it all, the Truro captain is redcarded for arguing a Dulwich corner with the ref’s assistant. Stupidity. Truro are now down to 9 players.

The Rabble behind the goal.

As if the game isn’t farce enough, the home side miss another couple of easy chances (not Akinyemi this time) before the Hamlet defence getting in on the act. Some slap-stick defending as passes go AWOL, clearances mishit, before a shove in the back leads to a Truro pen. This was all in the same move, but credit Truro for getting men up. And with no clear effort to get the ball, the Dulwich defender is sent off too (harsh on him, considering his are not the earlier mistakes leading to his desperate challenge).

Truro about to slam home the penalty.

The penalty is driven in, 2-2, and there’s still 10 minutes left. Who would bet against Truro nicking it, especially down the sides have been evened-up (though not ‘even’)? Well, it wasn’t to be. Dulwich win it in thrilling circumstances in the 85th minute, as Wanadio brings the ball down on the edge of the box, shrugs off a couple of challenges and drills it into the bottom left. A goal befitting of winning any game and the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake today. It had it all.

More carping to the ref.

The Damage:
£12 ent
£3 prog
£5 beer x 2 (Camden Pale Ale)
= £25

The Tunes:
Greatest Hits (Goldie Lookin’ Chain)

Champion Hill panorama v Truro City.

Match action

    

BFC 2-0 Accrington Stanley, Saturday 9th March 2019

‘The last time we lost at home, gravity hadn’t been invented.’

The barriers lift at Jumble Lane

I’ve not got much time, apologies.  We rocked up to Barnsley, but no Nozzer.  He’d gone to Redfearns ‘to pick up my Donny match ticket’ AKA take advantage of the club’s £2 a pint pre-match offer.  A nice reciprocal touch, considering the hospitality offered at their place.  So we came out of the station to be met by a sign for a new bar, promising craft beer.  Why not!?  It may or may not have been called Roubelle’s, but I do know it had a welcoming owner, free peanuts (or ‘p1ssnuts’ as Slacki called them; I haven’t seen free peanuts on a bar since 1991.)  Oh, and popcorn, and summat else.  Bottomless tea too, for Mrs Reed (but that may have been a one-off to satiate the rest of us who were on the beer).  We also had a nice big roundtable for the 6 of us, which was nice.  And we could hear each other…cos we were the only ones in there.  So a distinct lack of atmosphere and a place I can’t see us returning to until it does.  But it won’t, cos people like us won’t return. 

Ahhhh, there she is.  

The match?  We controlled it from the outset, and Stanley struggled to get out of their own third as they foolishly (I thought) tried to play their way out instead of going for the hoof. Unfortunately, we appeared incapable of breaking through, missing someone who could unlock a defence (George Moncur, anyone?  Only kidding!)  That was till about the 41^st minute when Cauley put through a sublime throughball which Cavare, of all people, ran onto to sidefoot past the keeper.  

Arrive late.  Beat the queues.  

Then I went to the toilet and, while queuing for a tea (for someone else; I’m not one to stand in queues at football matches for myself) I heard a cheer.  Hurrah!  2-0.  Then word got round…Stanley had scored.  ‘That’s a lot of noise for 80 people’ said the bloke behind me.  Indeed.  Though that away end DOES have good acoustics.  Turned out it was true – Stanley HAD scored….in their own net, a defender bundling the ball across the line from Thiam’s cross, with Jordan Green somewhere in there making a nuisance of himself.

The Stanley hordes.

In fact, Green made a nuisance of himself throughout.  The new JCR?  (Will Stendel make him centre-mid?)  He’s definitely lightning over 10-20 yards, though anything further and someone with longer legs outpaces him.  And little did we know when he hit his 20 yarder off the post, but that would be the closest we’d come for the rest of the match.  I don’t know how many 3-on-2 breaks we wasted, but waste them we did.  This was  a real chance to claw back the goal difference on Luton and really, this game shoulda seen us score 5 or 6.  Instead, Stanley came closest, when their top scorer Kee, on as sub, found himself clean through and he blazed wide.  That would have been an interesting last 20.

Onwards and upwards!

*** Cavare.  Twitter MOTM. Go on then.  Got upfield, made some excellent runs (WITH the ball) and popped up to break the deadlock. 

** Green.  Excited me for the hour he was on. 

* Lindsay.  MOTM 1^st half, winning everything.

Londontykes’ MOTM: 1. Cavare  2. Mowatt  3. Lindsay

Spot the ball.

Despatches:
Davies was faultless…if we don’t include kicking the ball off the pitch.  Penniless was solid, though didn’t get up in attack as much as Cavare.  Can’t say I noticed Pinnock much, but when I noticed Dougall it was when he gave the ball away (several times).  Bring back McGeehan!  Mowatt was his usual tidy self (do I ever describe him otherwise?)  Thiam…did he flatter to deceive?  Got our hopes up once or twice when shooting…but they were tame efforts.  Bahre had some good touches and flittered around Cauley, who led the line superbly.  So much so I toyed with the idea of giving him MOTM…but for that, I’d have hoped for a notch or 2 against this bunch.

Drink du jour: Birra Moretti, Pilsner Urquell, JD and coke (for the train), Sierra Nevada

Away: 281

The Damage:
£23 train
£33 tracksuit top
= £56

The Tunes:
Supernature (Goldfrapp)
Hacienda Classical (Graeme Park, Mike Pickering, Peter Hook and Manchester Camerata)

East Stand panorama.

Half time Ponty pano (cheers Jonesy!)

Looking towards the away end.

Midfield action in front of the old Main Stand.

The Ponty v Stanley.

Southend United 0-3 BFC, Saturday 2nd March 2019

‘Sky TV is f***ing s***, Sky TV is f***ing s***.’

Welcome to...Fenchurch St. Station, actually (no trains from Liv. St.)

A 12:30 kick-off for Southend United versus Barnsley?  Does the nation REALLY insist on seeing midtable league one be outclassed by highflying superstars (for that will surely happen)?  Very probably they do, but it does zero for the loyal travelling support, as a mere 475 come to witness the best team in the division, the lowest (league) away following of the season, ‘beating’ the midweek 657 who went to Oxford (and that’s hardly closely to Barnsley).  A week after we took 2,000 to Pompey.  I s’pose those who stayed up in Barnsley and watched on TV would have still felt good value, but twas a shame they missed one of the best performances of the season in the flesh…

4 likely looking Londontykes head towards Roots Hall

There was fight, there was no stone unturned, there was no backing down…and that was just half-time, as the stewards and some of our more ‘passionate’ and younger fans had a punch up with the stewards.  Rumour has it that it started cos stewards wanted someone to stop standing on a chair, which seems fair enough, and a bit of windmilling ensued.  Both sides ended up trading punches (and believe me, their stewards were big lads) but the weight of numbers brought a tactical retreat for the stewards, thankfully before things really got out of hand.  But where does that leave us?  Our support will be the first to whinge about coppers rather than stewards handling our contingent, but that’s where we’ll be heading.

No.

Course, I had a decent view cos I was standing on a chair (!).  I can’t help but think it wouldn’t have happened had we a) been winning and b) had our full complement of 11 men, but things looked frosty by half time as, despite being the better side, it was 0-0 and Brown had been sent off for a dangerous lunge.  (I missed this, having nipped out for a pee; this after missing 2 of our goals in the cup game this season for same.)  Still, plenty of ‘yoofs’ had their phones out to record the fighting, so I expect one of them to be ‘intelligent’ enough to put it on youtube so the police can nick all of their mates.  No need to arrest the main man tho; when we went one-up, he was on the pitch having another to-do with stewards.  Only this time he didn’t have his mates to drag him to safety.  I expect he got some kicking off them stewards, cos they didn’t look the types to let bygones be bygones.

The 'other' half time entertainment; hit a penalty through the hole.  (What did you think???)

Oh yes, down to 10 men, we absolutely RAN the show, second half.  Like at Accrington.  Everyone stepped up to the mark, everyone had a good game and only one team ever looked like scoring (even if Davies did make a couple of saves and Pinnock and Lindsay cleared well).  Still, the luck was with us, as the ball hit McGeehan on the back before he reacted first to bury the ball into the bottom corner, right in front of us.  You Reds!!!!!!!!!!

The Super Reds celebrate another goal.

An injury-plagued Southend then had to come out and play and we simply picked them off.  A fast break down the left has Bahre rounding a defender and laying it off for Cauley to drill it across the keeper and into the far corner.  From one end to the other with 2 or 3 one-touch passes; if this was the Premiership, Wrighty and Shearer would be creaming themselves.  Bahre also runs out of legs when clean through and goes for the pass rather than have a shot, before the manager takes off our defensive midfielder for a winger.  With 10 men!  Absolutely mental, but I like his style – and Jordan Green bags his first goal for the Super Reds after McGeehan’s toe-poke is saved.  ‘EASY!  EASY!’ sang a crowing away end.  These are the performances of champions.  Imperious.

Onwards and upwards!

*** Pinnock.  Won headers, played it out and fabulous double-clearance at nil-nil. 

** Cavare.  Up and down that right wing and more than made up for losing Jacob.

* McGeehan.  Another cracking performance, putting us ahead and being key to counter-attacks.

Londontykes' MOTM: 1= McGeehan/Pinnock  3. Cavare

'I've got a shed...' etc

Despatches:Shame Brown got himself sent off.  Nothing like celebrating your EFL Young Player of the Month in style.  Davies made a couple of smart saves and had safe handling and kicking all match.  Penniless was solid, and in Lindsay and Pinnock surely we have the best central defensive partnership in the division.  Mowatt was tidy, while I never noticed Dougall (but he must have been doing something right).  Thiam threatened early (but the fans got out of the way) while Cauley is every inch a Championship striker playing in division 3.  Was it his 14^th of the season?  If he stays fit, he’ll bag 20.

Course, despite all my optimism, I can’t resist a bet AGAINST what my heart says, so pre-match, I had a tenner on with Loko that we WON’T go up.  By Satdy evening, he’d put his 60 quid against my 30.  I’ll start saving.  Jonesy’s tenner that we’ll get 85 or more points is looking good for him, but I can’t see Chris getting a tenner for Thiam scoring 13.  Not in this lifetime.

And talking of Nice Guy Chris, guess who told an anxious looking steward pre-match that he’d have ‘nothing to worry about today’!?  (The steward reminded him later of what he said.)

The Super Reds (pacifist branch).

Drink du jour: all sorts, inc 4 beers even before (12:30) KO.\

Away: 475 some.  Thanks, Sky.

The Damage:
£9 train
£22 ent
£3 prog
= £34

The Tunes:
An Awesome Wave (Alt-J)
Low (David Bowie)
Lunatico (Gotan Project)

Roots Hall panorama

Club car park and Main Stand.

Visitors turnstiles.

Action in front of the East Stand.

Sarfend Ultras.  'You can stick your f***ing drum....' etc

A most outstanding camera gantry.

The 'other' side of the away end.

Buxom cheerleaders.

BFC flags.

Down to 10 men and on comes a winger for a defensive midfielder.

Stop being so soft...

Homeward bound, past the Tower of London.  A rare treat.