BFC 0-2 Dirty Leeds, Sunday 15th September 2019

‘My real name’s Jason.’

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Three of my least favourite things in life, South Yorkshire Police, train franchises and Dirty Leeds all came together in a beautiful late summer Sunday at t’well.  Firstly, SYP.  The fixtures come out, the Londontykes give it 3 weeks for Sky to announce their fixtures…we buy our train tickets…and the very next day SYP switches Dirty Leeds to a Sunday.  Some rubbish about lacking the resources to police both the St. Ledger and a football match at the same time.  Fine – re-schedule the football.  But why wait 3 weeks?  The date of the St. Ledger is more or less cast in stone; SYP could have moved this fixture to Sunday in JUNE when they were first announced.  So there was £30 down the drain (actually, £210 of rail tickets, there were 7 of us).  Also, as well as SYP’s ability to write themselves a blank cheque with regards to football policing (the Sheffield derby was Britain’s most expensive game to police last year, outstripping Rangers-Celtic, Man U-Liverpool, etc), they also get to tell us we can only sell 4,200 tickets to away fans.  There’s 1,800 potential £39s we’ve missed out on.  (I don’t know how much we robbed Leeds today; presumably what they’re robbing us of later this season.)  Oh, and after a pint in the Old #7 after the game, I got the train back…which was full of Washday coming back from Huddersfield.  Superb timing all round.  And SSW had scored (tw*t).

Redfearn's new location...the Fanzone.

Rail companies.  How do we, the gullible public, allow them to get away with it?  Tickets bought a considerable time in advance are all either non or part-refundable.  With the fees charged for changing our tickets, it wasn’t worth doing.  Criminal.  So 3 of the boys faced driving up early Sunday (one of whom looked very ill after a Quireboys gig; was it the music?), a couple didn’t make it at all, Loko arranged to be up in Yorkshire….and I took advantage of one of the tickets to go up Saturday (returning to London in style on a Megabus).  Can’t the government do something about this?  Oh, they’re busy with something else…

The teams line up.

Dirty Leeds.  They came, they saw, they beat us.  Ba5tards.  In brief, a very decent performance from us saw us lose to a free kick and a (debatable) penalty.  But DL look a quality side (in this division).  Attacking at pace, they destroyed our fullbacks time and time again (not that Cavare was ever there; a give and go and he was lost.)  There were some tremendous individual performances from the boys in red, but Leeds’ rapier attacks down the flanks were always going to cost us.  So it was such a shame to concede on our own mistake…

Dirty Leeds score...and still their fans manage to have a fight.

Another away attack was half-cleared to (Magic) Mamadou.  He’s facing our goal and ‘controls’ the ball 10 yards, losing possession and fouling their player on the apex of the box.  Brilliant.  Still, it’s nice to see a substitute make his mark.  It’s ok tho – as long as Leeds punt it into the middle, our centre halves will do what they’ve done all day long, power it away.  The danger was if the ball was put elsewhere; a bit of movement and DL would be in, as they were at the end of the 1^st half, when they lost our man at the front post, flicked it on, and a geezer at the backpost cannoned it off the post when he should have done better.  Yes, we’re ok as long as the opposition don’t move.  They did.  Ball to back post, tap-in, 0-1.  Dunno who lost his man, but Sibbick appeared closest.

Those Dirty Leeds in full.

So we had 7 mins plus injury time to get back in, and fair dues, we went straight down the right wing with a promising attack.  Story of the match, really, the game going one way then the other, with Leeds looking likeliest.  But we had our moments.  Wilks surged from the halfway line, stripped 2 players for pace and ended up clean through on the keeper from an angle, the effort smothered.  We had a couple of free headers from corners (missed) and Cauley had a long-ranger tipped around the post.  We certainly deserved a goal from our efforts. 

Match action in front of the Ponty.

Then, the most controversial, I think at 0-1.  A scramble from a corner and we turn it goalwards.  The keeper twists and turns and pulls off an amazing save.  Linesman tho calls it offside – photos I’ve seen appear to prove otherwise.  Earlier in the second half, they gave it to us in their half, the keeper was 12 yards off his line…but Wilks elected to run in and blast it into the sidenetting; intelligence and vision and the lob was on.  Still, the best chance of all fell to us early in the match, Thomas, clean through, put the ball too close to the keeper from 10 yards.  If only these chances had fallen to Cauley…

Media darling Bielsa...and his bucket.

This is obviously to ignore all of their chances.  And as we piled men forward, they hit us on the break again, a ball through ending with their bloke falling to the floor.  The away fans appeal.  The ref looks at it.  The ref looks at it some more.  The linesman gives nothing.  So the ref eventually points to the spot.  The crushing inevitability of it all.  It didn’t matter that it looked like there was no contact; the Dirty Leeds fella had gone down.  But that delay.  What does he think it is?  Cricket?  Halme, given out (LBW).  The penalty is calmly stroked low into the bottom corner while Collins goes the other way.  0-2 in the 90^th minute, our ‘loyal’ fans stream to the exits.  Embarrassing.

Loyal to the end...fans stream out.

So, it was all about what-might-have-beens, but make no mistake, we lost to a good team.  Leeds’ pace on the counter is frightening and they could have had 4 or 5 were it not for a mixture of good goalkeeping, good defending (in the centre) and good fortune.  But all was to come to nought, thanks to one bit of ‘magic’ from Mamadou.  Dammit.

*** Halme.  Stood out at centre half, winning everything, finding players with passes. 

** Sibbick.  Outstanding 1^st half, winning tackle after tackle, breaking up away attacks, and having the coolness and composure to look up and find his man (even when in his own box).  A bit quieter 2^nd half, possibly cos of the cheap booking he received – their guy cut inside him on the halfway line and he tripped him.  If that’s a booking, I’d love the ref to explain why their right winger avoided being carded with his fouls.

* Collins.  Safe hands on crosses, safe feet on kicking and a couple of excellent saves, including a one-on-one.

Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Sibbick  2. Halme  3. Brown

Oh well - onwards and upwards!

The pen awaits despatch.

Despatches:
Dmitri Cavare.  My God.  From being MOTM at Wigan, he was ABYSMAL today.  I appreciate Leeds are pacey, but if all you have to do is play a one-two and run past him…Christ.  That’s when he wasn’t simply stood still while a ball gets played behind him.  One of the worst fullback performances I’ve EVER seen.  Course, with Jordan Williams back, we could play him – and we do, at LEFT back.  He had similar problems, but at least didn’t give the ball away as much as Cavare (I forgot to mention that.  His distribution was bloody awful too.)  How does this make Penniless feel?  3^rd choice left back to Ben Williams and a right back.  Though he was brought on later, to save Jordan further pain.  Mads was excellent at centre half, but he had to be.  In midfield, the big story was the return of Jacob Brown, and he too was outstanding in the 1^st half before tiring and being subbed.  Mowatt played well, generally finding his own man, while Wilks impressed me too.  Maybe a point to prove against his previous employers?  Let’s hope it’s the start of something, cos he was poor at Wigan and I’ve not heard anyone say anything positive about him yet.  Thomas allegedly played, but I never saw him.  Did anyone?  Brought off for Thiam.  That worked.  Woodrow put the hard yards in, held it up and was always looking for the shot, but, really, he needs some support.  Subs Penniless and Bahre made no difference.  Indeed, it was still scoreless till our subs came on – and their sub, Eddie Nketiah of Arsenal.

One advantage of limiting the seating...DL can put their flags out.

What do I think of our chances this season?  It’s a difficult one.  We played well at Wigan (0-0) and well today (0-2).  But poor teams do play well (and lose).  If I was a betting man, I’d say we’re in big, big trouble.  We have one centre forward and not one with a track record of completing a season.  Also, cheers to Nozzer for putting me up (putting up with me?)  We had a pootle into the countryside Satdy, to see Penistone Church (FC – I’m not going anywhere to see a church!)  Entertaining it was too, 2-1 v Goole, the woodwork hit 3 times and a fat balding centre forward scoring a goal.  If he’s a footballer, I’m not retiring yet.
We went down early to Oakwell, and it was great to sample the fanzone.  Well done to Hicksy, Gally, Loko, et al.  Possibly not too busy this week due to the early start, but I wasn’t complaining – we could get served!

The view from inside the Fanzone.

Drink du jour: Punk IPA at the Fanzone.  The advantage of it being run by lads who actually know summat about beer.

Away: 4,200.  They were a bit subdued compared to norm as well.  Good.

The Damage:
£30 train
£6.53 Megabus
£3 programme
£45 3rd shirt
£45 away shirt
£10  home socks
= £139.53 (!!)

The Tunes:
Ma’at Mama (Ursula Rucker)
Supa Sister (Ursula Rucker)
Silver or Lead (Ursula Rucker)
Barbed Wire Kisses (Jesus and Mary Chain)

East Stand panorama v Dirty Leeds

Ponty panorama v Dirty Leeds (cheers Jonesy)

One of the Redfearns team in his new anti-fascist Clapton CCFC shirt

Penistone Church 2-1 Goole Town, Saturday 14th September 2019

Penistone Church 2-1 Goole Town, Northern Counties East League Premier Division (att. 211)

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Thanks to the infamous trinity of Leeds United, rail companies and South Yorkshire Police (SYP), I find myself at Penistone Church FC on a Saturday.  Why so?  Well, it seems SYP are unable to police Barnsley’s derby with Dirty Leeds, as well as provide safety to the good denizens of horseracing/drinking at the St. Ledger in Doncaster, so BFC are forced to move their game to the Sunday.  Fair enough one might say – except SYP wait over 3 weeks to announce the measure, despite the date of the St. Ledger being known to all and sundry months ahead.  Plod could have moved this the day after the football fixtures were announced in June.  No, instead, wait till over 3 weeks later, the day after we Londontykes bought our train tickets, having given time for the game to be re-arranged anyway for Leeds TV (Sky).  Result?  Well, 7 returns at £30 a pop going to waste, the rail franchises ensuring that even a part rebate on our tickets didn’t make buying rail tickets for the Sunday worthwhile (ticket prices also now being extortionate).  So, while others drove up to the game, or just didn’t go at all, I used one of the singles up and stayed overnite at a mate’s.  Thus, rather than waste a Satdy, we hopped on a bus from Barnsley to Penistone to see the Church.

The entrance.

We arrived around midday.  The sun shone, the old stone buildings of Penistone looked resplendent…and the local pub was full of…Bolton fans.  Eh?  Turned out a coachload of some very clever Lancastrian folk (they do exist) had stopped off at Penis Town for some ales on their way to Rotherham.  As we sat outside on a picnic table, I chatted to one of them.  Yes, they’re grateful to still have a team to support, and yes, he’d bet they’d stay up this season.  ‘I’ll take that bet’ I said.  ‘See you same place next season so I can collect.’  They later lost 6-1.  Staying up with a 12 point deduction will be some achievement.

The Main / only Stand

Church hoped for a decent turnout today, but that was unlikely – it was also Penistone Show, where farm animals come from far and wide to be judged how great they are.  We might have popped in, were it not for a 12 quid entry fee.  I’m not paying that to see a few cows and have the chance to buy some homemade jam.  I, and 210 others, decided we’d rather see a match amongst the 9^th tier of English football.  Still technically semi-pro, with floodlights and everything.  Though the little tubby bald bloke up front made me think I still had hope.  (Obviously, he opened the scoring.)

Home fans behind the goal, 2nd half.

It was an exciting match, full of goalmouth action, goals, and the woodwork hit 3 times.  Penistone scraped it 2-1, going two up in the first 13 mins, then hanging on in the second half as Goole (with a 100% record thus far) pulled one back and had two headers hit the bar, as well as missing a simple chance on the backpost late on.  All par for the course.

A Londontyke sports his Clapton CFC shirt.

The ground is about a 10 minute walk from the high street, through an estate.  The ground had a very open feel.  There’s a small stand by the touchline, with two rows of not-very-many-seats-at-all, with a standing area beside.  Behind the goal is the clubhouse and changing rooms, while the other two sides of the pitch are simply bordered by a railing.  The clubhouse was pretty sizeable and I bought a pint to enjoy while I watched proceedings.

Inside the clubhouse.

Nozzer and I were also joined by Wadd, a former Londontyke now living in Penistone and an occasional visitor to Church.  As I said, today was a glorious day – but what about the rest of the year?  ‘Ah’, he said.  ‘The wind is the problem.  It’s so open around here’ (there were more football fields behind the far side).  I’m not all that sure I want to come back in winter, but as an end of summer experience, fabulous!

I like the addition of the club colours.

The Damage: £5 ent
£3 pint (ish, I can’t remember)
£4.50 bus

£1.50 prog
= £14

The Tunes:
Ma’at Mama (Ursula Rucker)
Supa Sister (Ursula Rucker)

Penistone Church FC panorama (I said it was sunny)

Match action

A lone fan looks on.

The players' tunnel...ready to go.

Down the far side.

The tunnel in action.

Home time in the Main Stand.

Bye Bye!

Wigan Athletic 0-0 BFC, Saturday 31st August 2019

‘Dad.  Monkey Man’s got my horn.’

Welcome to ...

I’m back and the rot has stopped!  My debut manages to coincide with the Reds’ failure to lose a Championship away game for the 1^st time in 9.  Yee hah!  A goalless draw at fellow relegation favourites Wigan, but you take what you can get.  For a start, injuries and transfers mean it’s a very different team to my last game, at the end of last season.  Those left are who we WON’T sell (Mowatt, McGeehan, Woodrow, all injured today) and those we CAN’T (Ben Williams, Thiam, Bahre…Cavare).  It’s a truism that we’re facing opposition in a division higher with a weaker side than last year; Davies, Lindsay, Pinnock and Kiefer Moore taking the money and running.  No doubt they’ll all claim it’s to ‘further their career’, but Davies finds himself 3^rd choice keeper at Stoke (about right, he’s found his level quickly).  Lindsay is playing regularly in a side bottom of the table and Pinnock’s just been dropped at Brentford.  But most concerning to me is Kiefer Moore and his alleged idea that he’s ‘outgrown’ us….to move to Wigan Athletic.  Now, there aren’t many sides in the Championship we can legitimately say are ‘smaller’ than ourselves, but Wigan are one.  I guess tripling your wages to £16k a week helps.  He never got a kick today and barely lasted an hour before being dragged off.

Kiefer subbed off.  Thanks for coming!

In other controversy, without Mowatt and McGeehan, Stendel goes left field (way leftfield) and sets up with a central midfield of Bahre and Sibick, two players who’ve never played there in their BFC life.  This is a pity for me, as I’d been looking forward to settling the debate between Jonesy and Loko on how hapless Sibick the right back was.  Mind, on arriving into the stadium 10 minutes late (I’ve waited a month, what’s another 10 minutes?) the first thing I saw was one of our players needlessly giving the ball away.  ‘Who’s he?  He’s s***.’  ‘Sibick.’

A passionate home end (!)

Course, centre half Sibick’s move from right back allows Oakwell pariah Dmitri Cavare to return for (I think) his second game of the season, after Fulham home.  Notice owt about the Fulham and Wigan games?  Yes, clean sheets.  I know not what is happening behind the scenes, but if we’re to stay up (and we weren’t just talking about staying up till we sold that bundle of players) we need Cavare playing, and playing to his potential.  He was outstanding today, and was noticeably the only player whose name was being chanted by the fans.

Spotted some! 

We spurned an early chance (well, early for us, see previous notes).  One of them new little lads (Chaplin?  Thomas?) appeared to delay his close range shot, allowing it to be blocked, while our new reserve keeper palmed a free kick wide.  Dunno his name, but he looked solid.  One year contract from Chelsea reserves was he?  Anyway, from reports, he looks a better keeper than this Radlinger bloke who’s timely injury (another one!) allowed him his chance.  Half time, 0-0.
The second half was more of the same nothingness.  I pity the neutral.  Two weak teams with little going forward, then, out of nowhere, Bahre hits a low 25 yarder into the bottom corner, superbly saved.  Then the corner comes in, and one of our little white blokes (Chaplin?  Thomas?) is free at the back post.  The volley’s on target, but the keeper has got across and makes another superb save.  We are in danger of winning this…

Here's an idea...block off the 1st few rows with ads.  Make it look busier!

But that was it (for us).  The ex-Chelsea keeper makes an amazing save from a close range header before, in injury time, Ben Williams kicks one of their players into the stand and is sent off, which was a great shame, as, aside from Cavare, he’d been our best player, getting forward down the left and being solid in defence.  Thankfully, it was injury time and despite the ref finding 5 or 6 minutes from nowhere, we were never in danger.

*** Cavare.  I’d heard the new (black) right back was a bit hopeless.  Looked alright to me – strong, good on the ball, never beaten.  Oh, it’s Cavare.  Speaking to a Wigan fan afterwards, he was saying their best player thus far had been their left winger.  True story.
** Ben Williams.  Comfortable in possession and helped support the attack down the left.  So he’s now out for 3 matches for that lump.  Careless.
* The ex-Chelsea keeper.  I hope he’s ex-Chelsea.  Loko said he was, anyway.  Safe hands, a couple of good saves and took no risks with his kicking (which landed on the pitch, by the way, a not-so-thinly-veiled dig at the last keeper we had)

Londontykes' MOTM:  1. Cavare  2. Ben Williams  3= Collins/Sibick

Onwards and upwards!

The players come to give thanks.

Despatches (1): 
Starting with the defence, I never noticed the centre halves.  Was one of them making his debut?  Either way, it felt like they didn’t have a lot to do.  They dealt with Kiefer (or rather Wigan did, by not playing him right) but, like us, Wigan had no presence in attack.  Bahre and Sibick deserve credit for filling in at centre-mid, the latter especially looked comfortable after his early aberration.  Then there’s Wilks, a player at least one national publication (I forget which) said could be one of the signings of the summer in this division.  Christ, he was poor.  When not diving or losing possession, I’m not sure what he was doing.  Has he been like this all season?  Booked for kicking the ball away after being given offside too.  Stupid.  As for Chaplin and Thomas, well, they were a long way away 1^st half (we kicked to the other end) and they were anonymous 2^nd.  I believe one of them ran around up front as the head of our ‘attack’.  Let’s just say Woodrow needn’t worry about getting his place back.  Schmidt tho came on with 10 mins left and nearly scored with his 1^st touch, putting it wide on the back post when he should have done better.  Oh, and I’ve missed Thiam.  Of course I’ve missed Thiam!  Flattered to deceive with an early thunderbolt from a short free kick, I never saw him again.  So he hasn’t changed any.

The away end.

Despatches (2):
As Loko has noticed, we seem down on Londontyke numbers thus far for these Championship away games.  Do Washday, Brum and Wigan not have the cache of Fleetwood, AFC Wimbledon and Gillingham at el?  Obviously not, and speaking for myself, I miss those 3^rd division away days (and not just cos we win them).  We shared the return with Nice Guy Chris, but he had no time for us pre-match, as he was hobnobbing it in the exec!  However, it was nice to see Loko’s excited little face as the beer officianado paid his 1^st visit to CAMRA temple Wigan Central, the best bit about visiting the JJB Stadium.  (If a stadium’s name ever sums up it’s dullness, this is it.) 
The second best thing about Wigan is the nice walk along the canal to the ground.  So Loko decides we must take a taxi.  It’s in 6 minutes, so I rush my pint.  I don’t like rushing my pint.  The taxi is not here in 15, so we start walking and meet the taxi part-way.  We drive towards the JJB, even seeing it at one point, before he drives further on into Wigan and eventually the countryside.  I have no idea which stadium he was taking us to (till we said something; we thought he knew a ‘secret’ back way!) but ‘I’m sorry, I’m from Bolton’.  So that’s alright then.

Beautiful! (The walk after the match)

Something else I noticed about Satdy.  There were far more 3^rd strip shirts in attendance than home shirts (and why not, we were playing in our 3^rd kit, red obviously clashing with blue).  But that home kit, close up, is abysmal.  Why do we have what looks like a pattern of bricks on it?  ‘Cos we have bricks at Oakwell’ said Loko.  Well, I look forward to next year’s design showing urinals.  At one point I was caught staring at the home strip.  When the woman wearing it asked what was up and I told her I was just telling my mate what an awful design the shirt was….well, she looked like a bulldog licking p*** off a nettle.  Why do people get upset when you answer their questions?

Can we go home now?

Drink du jour: Franziskaner, red wine

Away: 1600+.  Which means c8400 home fans.  There were NEVER 8,400 home fans.  Never.

The Damage:
£49 train (welcome back!)
£23 ent
= £72

Didn’t see any programmes on sale at 3:10pm.

The Tunes:
Debut (Bjork)
Fabriclive 100 (KODE9 & Burial)

JJB panorama 

I pity the man who has to whip the Wigan fans into a frenzy.

A rare forage into the box.

The big screen.

Match action, #WAFC.

Full-time.

Guess who!?  Oooooh Jeremy Corbyn, exiting our train at Euston.