COLCHESTER UNITED (Community Stadium)

Sunday 28th December 2008
Football League One
Colchester United 1-0 Leyton Orient
Attendance: 6,290

As I was in the southern parts of our septic isle and being Sunday, with nothing else on offer, it was time to bring my 92 up-to-date and dip into league football. Colchester United vactated Layer Road in the summer and moved to a purpose built brand new stadium on the outskirts of town.

A quite staggering £26 secured my ticket and entrance to the Weston Homes Community Stadium, the new home of Colchester United. Like most new stadiums it offers all the comforts you would expect in a brand new ground, but like all the others it is soulless and looks exactly the same, with nothing unique to determine it as "their" ground, apart from the colour of the seats.

The game was a pretty drab affair which was settled by a Gillespie penalty after 39 minutes. The award for handball was a little harsh, more ball to hand, as the cross was blasted in and the defender could do nothing to get out of the way. Orient had a chance to level but Walker saved Boyd's penalty. The narky orient midfielder Thornton was dismissed for a second yellow, before Perkins hit the bar for Colchester which would have prevented a nervy last few minutes.
















Gillespie scores the winner from the penalty spot






RAMSGATE (Southwood Stadium)

Saturday 27th December 2008
Isthmian Premier League
Ramsgate 2-0 Margate
Attendance: 1,082

After yesterday afternoon's fayre I was thinking surely it couldn't be as bad today could it? Sadly it was. Considering it was the big Thanet derby with over a 1000 people present, it was a damp squib of a match played at a very slow tempo with hardly any passion. It was bloody freezing so you thought the players would have moved a bit quicker to keep warm!

The highlights of the game were both the Ramsgate goals, both were stunning 25 yard volleys which gave the Margate keeper no chance. These were worth the admission on their own and if the were scored in the "Premier" league then both would be contenders for MotD's goal of the month. So hats off to Steffan Ball, who hit the first after 21 minutes, and Jay May, who got the second after 68 minutes.

The closest Margate came was when an open goal was missed with 5 minutes to go, which would have made things interesting but after this I think there was the realisation the game was up.




















BOXING DAY "SUSSEX DOUBLE HEADER"

THREE BRIDGES & EASTBOURNE BOROUGH


11.00am, Friday 26th December 2008
Sussex County League
Three Bridges 1-2 Horsham YMCA
Attendance: 100

My first ever dip into the Sussex County League and an early start to get to the Jubilee Field for this kick off. Three Bridges, for those that don't know, is a suburb of Crawley.

I think the home side were still asleep as YMCA took control of this game. The only surprise was that it took until the 39th minute for Horsham to score through Tom Manton, but then a second quickly followed, a Tom Lawley penalty, to give the scoreline a truer reflection of the first half.

Three Bridges upped their tempo in the second half and Elliot Romain got a goal back on 65 minutes but Horsham always seemed to have the home side at arms lengths and the equaliser proved elusive.










Tom Lawley nets his penalty to put YMCA 2-0 up







3pm, Friday 26th December 2008
Conference Premier
Eastbourne Borough 1-0 Lewes
Attendance: 2,216

Next up was a trip to Priory Lane and the Langney Sports Club, which was Eastbourne's previous name, for a Conference clash.

It was an absolutely turgid affair with no entertainment whatsoever. A dreadful advert for Conference football. Eastbourne won by virtue of a penalty which only the Referee seen. I was behind the goal and couldn't see any foul. If it had been at Anfield, where you expect these type of dodgy penalties fine...even then they missed from twelve yards but the Lewes keeper never got his reward for a fine save when the rebound was tucked home.

Other than that it was just a lot of huff and puff which came to nothing and neither keeper had a meaningful save to make. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.




















The scoreboard shows full time...and the crowd is finally put out of it's misery!

PRE-XMAS 'DOUBLE HEADER"

GLAPWELL (Hall Corner) &
TEVERSAL (Carnarvon Street)


1pm, Saturday 20th December 2008
Northern Premier league
Division One South
Glapwell 4-0 Belper Town
Attendance: 128

As an early Christmas present, there was a tasty double header on the Derby/Notts border.  First up was a visit to Hall Corner, the home of Glapwell.

An entertaining match in which the home side came out of the blocks at lightning speed and with pace, power and some great crosses being whipped in, courtesy of ex-palace/boro player Dean Gordon, they raced into a 2-0 lead after only twenty minutes. Poor Belper never knew what had hit them. The rest of the half continued in similar vein but Glapwell could not add to their tally and Belper could consider themselves lucky to be only two down at the break.

Belper looked a different side at the beginning of the second half and were slowly playing themselves back into the game until their No10 was sent off for elbowing. Within a minute Glapwell added a third and it was game over. Neil Grayson added a fourth towards the very end to conclude the scoring.









 

It was a quick dart down the road to....................

 
3pm, Saturday 20th December 2008
Northern Counties East League
Division One
Teversal 3-1 Grimsby Borough
Attendance: 75

On paper this didn't look a promising fixture as both teams were languishing near the bottom of the table and both on a dreadful run of games without a win. As it turned out it was a decent game, which had it's moments, but ultimately it was a routine home win for Teversal.

Tevie were two up in the first 10 minutes, the first a cross from the left which was despatched home by Short and the second a free kick from the edge of the box from Cockerill. Grimsby got a goal back through Creer after a goalmouth scramble, though it did look as if the final touch came of a Tevie player. The game was effectively over after 55 minutes when Freestone burst through from midfield, played a one-two , which was flicked back to him and he volleyed it home. A great goal.

Must mention the warm welcome that was received at Carnarvon Street, the club officials were very friendly and pleased to see some new faces at the ground. Finally the pie, peas, chips & gravy were awesome :)



 






A Tevie supporter underneath the 'covered terrace' behind the goal!