Damage in the Box!

MELKSHAM TOWN (The Conigre)

Monday 9th March 2009
Western Premier League
Melksham Town 1-2 Frome Town
Attendance: 173

A visit to The Conigre for a tasty looking derby. Tasty turned out to be a polite way of describing events as Frome came from behind to win a very bad tempered game. Beasley gave Melksham the lead with a header before Allison levelled, after rounding the keeper and then a Cheeseman header gave Frome the lead right on half time. Loads of fouls and bad tackles, the worst being a dreadful two footed lunge by Daviole, who was given a straight red and saw Melksham down to 10 men. The home side kept plugging away but couldn't find an equaliser. They were reduced to nine men in stoppage time when Phillimore was sent off for giving verbals to the linesman.

BARCELONA (Nou Camp)

At last the time had come to finally go and pay a visit to one of the most iconic football grounds in world football, the Estadi Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona. I'd be pretty safe in the assumption that this ground doesn't need any description, nor do the team itself, so I won't insult anyone's intelligence by doing so.

The reason that this was the chosen game boiled down to two simple factors...I was on a holiday from work and the game was an all Basque affair, so it should, on paper, be quite an occasion.

The reality was somewhat different. Barcelona won at an absolute canter wasting numerous chances, as Bilbao offered nothing. It is no exaggeration to say that Barca should have scored at least 10 goals such was their domination. Their play at times was breathtaking and they always seemed to have a man spare.

In the end it was only the two goals they scored, the first by Busquets on 18 minutes then a Messi penalty on 32 minutes. The crowd was a whopping 75,074 but the atmosphere was strangely quiet...wonder if that was because of the Spanish prawn sandwich brigade?

The loudest cheer of the night was when the Real result came through and the fact that Athletico had held their city rivals. This meant Barca were now 6 points clear at the top of La liga.

A visit to this fantastic stadium is highly recommended and, providing its not Real Madrid or Espanyol, getting tickets is relatively straight forward, I just booked on line a month before the game...jobs a good un!

Saturday 7th March 2009
La Liga
Barcelona 2-0 Athletic Bilbao
Attendance: 75,074

SOLIHULL MOORS (Damson Park)

Today it was a visit to the West Midlands, as my quest to complete a visit to all the grounds in the Conference North continued with a trip to Damson Park, the home of Solihull Moors. The fact that it was a local derby against Tamworth only whetted the appetite further. It was also a game in which the points were vital to both sides but for differing reasons. At the start of play Solihull sat only four points above the relegation zone, whilst Tamworth sat one point off the top of the table.

Just to give you a bit a background, Sollihull Moors FC was formed by the merger of two teams. Moor Green were left homeless in 2005 when an arson attack on their Moorlands ground destroyed their main stand and clubhouse. As a consequence they became tenants at Damson Park, the home of Solihull Borough. In 2007 it was decided to pool resources and merge as one club. Whether this has been successful, or was indeed the correct thing to do, is open to conjecture.

Onto the game and it turned out to be pretty uninspiring stuff. It was a game of lots of endeavour but very little quality in the final third. Solihull had plenty of the early possession but failed to really trouble the Tamworth 'keeper. It was somewhat against the run of play that Tamworth scored in the 28th minute through a shot from just inside the area by Matt Birley.

From this moment on Tamworth looked very comfortable and easily dealt with everything Solihull could throw at them. That was until the last minute when they needlessly conceded a free kick on the edge of the box and Jake Sedgemore curled the ball into the top corner to grab a share of the spoils.

On the balance of play I suppose it was a fair result.

Can I also point out that Solihull have a cracking social club...hic :)

Solihull (in white) put pressure on the Tamworth goal

Saturday 28th February 2009

Conference North

Solihull Moors 1-1 Tamworth

Attendance: 546

THURROCK (Ship Lane)

Today it was a visit to Ship Lane, the home of Thurrock as they took on the "real" Wimbledon, who continue their remarkable rise up the pyramid. At the start of play Wimbledon sat top of the Conference South and needed the three points to maintain their promotion push, whilst Thurrock were third bottom and needed the points just as badly, for different (obvious) reasons.

Sadly for the paying punters, of which there were over 1,000 the game turned out to be a pretty drab affair, which Wimbledon won by virtue of a free kick six or five minutes from time, depending on who you believe! (More on that later).

In the first half The Dons had most of the possession but did little to threaten the Thurrock 'keeper. However despite the away teams dominance the best chances fell to Thurrock, during a six minute spell before half time. David Bryant beat the offside trap but lobbed his shot over the bar, Craig Hughes shot tamely in the arms of 'keeper with the goal at his mercy and the final chance was a shot by Sam Lechmere which was brilliantly saved by James Pullen. Thurrock should have been in front at the interval and how those missed chances would come back and haunt them.

The second half continued in similar fashion with Wimbledon dominating proceedings but Thurrock held firm, with centre back Rob Swaine absolutely outstanding. However in the 84th or 85th minute Thurrock conceded a needless free kick and Sam Hatton fired it home via a wicked bounce in front of the keeper, which gave him no chance, to give Wimbledon an undeserved win. Thurrock were good value for a point but sadly for them it wasn't to be. The victory put Wimbledon 9 points clear at the top and they look nailed on certainties to clinch promotion to the top tier of the non-league football.

Anyhow the reason for the ambiguity of the goal time is that muggins here bought three "golden goal" tickets and guess what? One of them was 85 minutes! Thank you very much and I hearby claim my £20...or so I thought. Obviously a mate of whoever the organiser was must have had 84 minutes as that what Thurrock officials insisted the goal time was. Every other media outlet the following day had the goal listed as 85 minutes. Oh well another hard luck tale in the life of a groundhopper...moral of the tale don't buy a golden goal ticket off f****n' mockneys!!