BFC 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion, Saturday 18th February 2017

‘If we knock 'art Knockaert....’

Grove Street school, soon to be R.I.P.

Just been looking at our results this season, and since beating Rovrum 4-0 we have won 3 and lost 7 at home.  Thank goodness for away games!  This week, it was Brighton’s turn to do us over, but what can you do, when you match them toe to toe and you get done with lethal finishing, the like of which we haven’t got?  To be honest, it looked like a nil-nil all the way to me, till someone (MacDonald?) lost his man, Baldock, who flicked it up and hammered it on the half volley over the keeper from 20 yards.  Class.  Their second goal wasn’t bad either, if you ignore the bit where Hamill loses it on the halfway line.  They broke down our right, Yiadom was bamboozled by Knockaert, and a simple inside ball was tapped home.  Game over.

The view from pitchside.

We rarely threatened however. Marley hit a couple of efforts on target, but, otherwise, the best we could come up with was Hamill, on as sub.  He blazed over within a minute of coming on, then hit a 20 yarder into the chest of the keeper.  Later, he dribbled round 3 players and fizzed one just over the bar with his left.  Oh, and the ref certainly missed a chance to put us ahead.  Their left back definitely handled it, his arm even came up to knock the ball in the air.  Good job the ref has a linesman to help him.  Do they EVER award penalties these days?
Oh well, we tried.

Moncur dragged off, thank Christ.

*** James.  Confident on the ball and defensively solid.  A couple of times he put his foot on the ball, dragged it back, turned, and put us on the attack.  The very opposite of what Moncur was doing (more on him later).  Twitter MOTM.
** Roberts.  Another one who had to up his game to make up for his partner.  
* Watkins.  Started out wide, before put in the middle once Bradshaw got the curly finger.  Had our best 2 shots. 

Londontykes' MOTM:1. James  2. Roberts  3. Watkins

The Ponty

Despatches:
Davies had nowt to do, but caught a few crosses and kicked accurately.  Caught off his line for their 1^st, but what keeper wouldn’t have been?  Yiadom and Jones didn’t get forward as much as I’d hoped, adding to the lack of supply from Moncur in centre-mid.  Beckenham Chris thought we were all a bit harsh on Moncur, but he seemed the 1^st person on the lips of the Londontykes, who all agreed he looks p*** poor.  (Mind, Chris was less supportive once he’d heard Moncur was of a biblical-bent).  Only seems to go backwards.  I thought he was an ATTACKING player?  He even TURNS towards his own goal, before giving the slide rule 10 yard square pass.  He’s like a s*** Mitch Ward.  (And the original wasn’t very good.)  Bradshaw was anonymous, and while I accept the one Hamill missed was from a range Bradshaw normally bags from, I’m not sure he’d have been there to miss it.  Mowatt looked lively as a sub, and I presume he’ll be in the team soon.  And there was nothing to suggest Scowen won’t walk straight back in either, once he’s fit.  Oh, and I nearly forgot Kent.  No wonder.  And I’m sure Armstrong was in the team too.  It’s just a pity we can’t blame our lack of attacking thrust on a team content to stay in their own half.  Brighton came for the victory and just had that little bit of extra quality.

The Albion 1400.  At least they had fun.

Drink du jour: 4 pints pre-match, Brooklyn and Erdinger.  Enough to have me dozing off a few times 1^st half.  Or was it the football?  Vodka and orange and/or bourbon and coke later.  The bourbon wot killed Charles Bukowski, I was reliably told.  We are made of sterner stuff, however.

Away: 1,396.  The Andies slated Brighton for their lack of turn out (top of the league and all) but I thought it was a decent amount.  Woulda been 1,397 if the bloke we met on the train hadn’t spent the afternoon in Chennells (true).  'Sh'nells' he promounced it.

The Damage:
21 travel

Programmes?  You must be joking.  Had sold out before any of us got there.

Match action.

Reading 0-0 BFC, Saturday 11th February 2017

‘Jesus was born in 3000 BC’

Berkshire's new literacy policy is going well.

In summary, not as boring as Preston and better than Rovrum.  4 games in, post-Hourihane, and we’ve scored 2 goals (conceded 3).  And we really don’t look like we’ll score…and neither do we look like we’ll concede.  Keith Hill’s dream!  But we can be more than pleased with ourselves this week, as we really limited a side away who're gunning for automatic promotion.  Though if you read the press, you’d think we’d stifled THEM rather than vice versa.  Listen kids, we weren’t penned in our own half.  Far from it.  And perhaps if the Royals had thrown more men forward to break us down, we’d have been more adventurous ourselves.  Thus, our 2^nd goalless game in 2.  And last week I couldn’t remember when we’d last had a nil-nil!  (I worked it out….Wigan home, Burton away).  But we’ve gone from 2^nd top scorers in the league to 5^th in a handful of games.  Oh well – it was good while it lasted.

This is what the outside of a football stadium looks like.

Despite having to catch a ba5tard bus to the stadium, I always enjoy a trip to Reading.  Even better, the big pub by the station (Three Guineas?) has been refurbished, ready for our arrival.  So, naturally, they won’t let me, Reedy and Selwood in.  Something about no football colours, but if we’re willing to sit there with our coats on the whole time…no ta.  We quickly elect to part with our money at a hostelry who will appreciate us for what we are: yobs.  (We did wonder whether those wandering around the town centre in rugby shirts would be similarly accorded short shrift).  So we went across the road to…The Social (?) where football shirts were also barred, but there was no-one else there, so we had a warmer-upper while the technologically gifted looked up ‘craft pubs Reading’ on their whatchamacallit.  Greyfriars it was, and a cracking pub too.  The bus to the ground left from outside an’ all.  So why we left it to go to the appalling ‘paddy pub’ (that’s what the taxi driver called it) I’ll never know.  Something about food, but no-one ate and several pints couldn’t be finished, such was their awfulness.  

The best of customer service at Reading.

So, onwards to the arena.  4 quid return!  Christ on a bike.  In Germany, these things are free.  I’m sure it was £2.50 last time.  I mean, we only paid 12 quid for a return from London.  Not impressed.  Still, at least it gets you there.  And Reading really make the effort with away fans, signage everywhere making you feel at home in the stadium. 

Reading FC-embossed pie.  Very nice actually.

Did we win 3-1 last time we were here?  Fatboy Jennings and Noble-Lazarus bagging 25 yarders.  Well, it was very different this time as the only shot we had on target was a long range trickler from Marley.  He did, however, hit the post (and given how close he was, he’ll be kicking himself).  Later, Hamill blazed over with his left foot when he ought to have done better.  Them?  No idea.  I think Davies made one decent save, that was it.

Reading beach.

*** MacDonald.  I read in the programme he was on Reading’s books as a junior.  An added incentive to play out of his skin then.  Dominated. 

** Roberts.   Where there’s one, there’s the other one.  No wonder Reading barely had a shot.

* Hammill.  Go on then.  Wadd can’t argue, cos he wasn’t there!  Frustrated Reading.

Londontykes MOTM:1. MacDonald   2. Hamill   3. Roberts

Despatches:
Scowen was excellent, till he was subbed, injured.  This gave Moncur the best part of the 2^nd half to impress.  He didn’t.  Seems to specialise in taking too long to make a pass, and getting it nicked from under him.  Like ‘Dangerous’ Brian O’Callaghan used to do – ‘cept in midfield.  Bradshaw looked alright.  I feel sorry for him tho. Imagine what he’d do with a SUPPLY.  I was also impressed with Williams’ workrate, while it was great to see Yiadom back.  Jones also impressed at right back.

Flattening out the mud at full time.

Drink du jour: just beer.  Then another one back in Paddington, before falling asleep near the end of Mark Watson’s set at the Old Vic.  I can sleep anywhere…

Away: 700 and odd.  Poor atmosphere all round.  Seems those January transfers have really knocked the stuffing out of the fans.  And you needn’t bother waiting for the Royals to be roused.

Onwards and upwards!

The Damage:12 train4 bus20 ent3 prog3+ steak and ale pie, which was really rather good.= 42

The Tunes:
Mixmag June '15 - Jamie Jones
Mixmag Feb '15 - RL Grime

The teams line up.

Reading's hardcore.

Clever design.

Hecky.  Still one of our own.

Yours truly, courtesy of BFC twitter feed.

Full time.  Job well done.

BFC 0-0 Preston North End, Saturday 4th February 2017

‘Are you vegetarian as well?  Since you met Tara or before?'

Grove Street school facing demolition.

I’ve seen the future.  If by ‘future’ I mean ‘the rest of the season’.  We spend 90 minutes doing nothing much, with half a team of loanees, against another team who’re not doing much.  Well, it will be how games go at Oakwell against teams with limited ambition.  I expect we’ll get slammed by the rest.

The stadium of earthly delight.

As Wadd so wittingly said, these teams could have played for days and not eked out a goal.  True, Bradshaw had one cleared off the line on the backpost (he was dragged off seconds later; wonder what Hecky woulda done had he scored?) while Davies tipped over a Preston header late on.  A shame that Armstrong’s ingenuity wasn’t rewarded, a 35 yard lob went narrowly wide.  Just as it was a shame that Preston weren’t awarded a nailed-on penalty in the 1^st half, as one of our centre halves shoved their player over.  Perhaps if they’d have bagged from the resultant pen, we’d have seen something approaching a football match.

The Nobenders (they're alright, really)

As it was, both teams cancelled each out.  This was in no small part to the mop-haired little fella in their midfield, Ben Pearson, formerly of this parish.  Castigated by most other Londontykes, and I can understand why; no, not the moaning, the fouling…but the way he was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch.  Everywhere the ball dropped, it dropped to him.  Every pass he made, it went to Preston.  And I could but admire the way he won 2 tackles in quick succession, 2^nd half.  As the PNE fans in the pub said: opposition fans hate him, we love him.

MOTM Pearson gets a seeing to.

*** Pearson Davies.  Saved the day with a last minute save having had nought to do. 
** Scowen.  Twitter MOTM.  Ran around a bit.
* No-one.  Nobody else did owt.

Londontykes Top 3:
1. Scowen  2. James  3. Roberts

Despatches:
Kent’s deadball distribution was terrible early doors.  Then another in-swinger was so bad he nearly scored on the front post, the keeper scrambling across.  5 loanees played (6 inc Hedges, if he’s on loan).  Oh well.  ‘But we’ve had to sell…..’ blah blah.  Oh, and my dad’s bought a new car, so having missed a couple of home games he was back for THAT.  Then some pr*ck in the car park broke one of his wing mirrors, probably in the scramble for the gates (while he was in the club shop).  So I could have had a worse day.

Onwards and upwards!

Preston panorama (courtesy of P. Hicks esq.)

Drink du jour: Brooklyn in the Arcade, Erdinger in #7, wheat beer in Tap, vodka and orange on t’train, unfiltered something in St. Pancras.  Sounds like quite a pub crawl when I read it back…

Away: 1261.  They were almost as quiet as us.  But I did hear them ask ‘Is this a library?’ which summed up the mood entirely.

The Damage:23 train

The Tunes:
Total Life Forever (Foals)
Friendly Fires (Friendly Fires)

Some shadowy figures...

The programme seller.

Welcome to ....

The Ponty v Preston

Match action

Home time.