Damage in the Box!

FLACKWELL HEATH (Wilks Park)

Saturday 22nd November 2008
Hellenic Premier League
Flackwell Heath 3-0 Bicester Town
Attendance: 70

Reasonable enough game between two strugglers at the bottom of the table. Flackwell Heath took the lead through Ben Chadbone after four minutes but didn't add to the total, despite having plenty of possession, until the final twelve minutes when Chadbone netted his second (78) and Alan Akerman scored deep into stoppage time.

Bicester Town had their moments, but a combination of poor finishing and poor decision making was their undoing. To be honest Bicester looked a pretty poor side and it was easy to see why they are down the bottom and if Flackwell had been a more potent attacking force it could've been at least double what they did score

Wilks Park is a cracking little ground with a sloping pitch and the clubhouse served a belting pint of Rebellion. Despite the bitterly cold chill in the air a great day out.

THACKLEY (Dennyfield)

Saturday 15th November 2008
FA Vase 2nd Round
Thackley 0-1 Shildon
Attendance: 131

An early goal for Shildon, Warren Byrne scoring after 8 minutes, settled this tie. Thackley had plenty possession but rarely threatened. Shildon were quite happy to play on the break, and indeed if they'd took advantage of the three one-on-ones they had the game would've been over by half time.

Thackley did have the ball in the net but it was disallowed, why i'm not sure...could've been a foul on keeper, handball or offside...anyhow there didn't seem anything wrong with it from where I was standing. The second half continued in a similar vein to the first half but Shildon held on for the win.

AFC HORNCHURCH (Bridge Avenue Stadium)

Sunday 9th November 2008
FA Cup First Round
AFC Hornchurch 0-1 Peterborough United
Attendance: 3,000

Somehow I manage to keep my FA Cup run going when the Urchins' game with Peterborough was moved to the Sunday. The game wasn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination but Hornchurch more than held their own against their League opponents. Peterborough, naturally, had most of the play but rarelly threatened to do anything with it.

However, a goalkeeping error in the 90th minute allowed The Posh to sneak a 1-0 win, thanks to Craig Mackail-Smith, when The Urchins deserved a replay at London Road.

HOLYHEAD HOTSPURS (Holyhead Stadium)

As a consequence of work (boo!) my original plan of travelling down to South Wales to watch the mighty Flint Town United in welsh cup action went for a belly up. Work (double boo!) also put a limit on my options as most of the kick off times in wales change to 2pm in winter, which is another problem to contend with. This left me with only one real option and that was a visit to Holyhead’s “new” ground and their welsh cup tie with Pentwyn Dynamos, which also had the bonus of a 2.30 kick off.

I say “new” ground as where they now play their home games has always been in existence, it just that it was used by the adjacent Leisure centre as an all-weather pitch. The pitch was converted to grass last season and the Hotspurs now call it home. The ground is also around thirty yards from the old ground (which is still used for youth games) and the changing rooms and tea bar (serving you your nice cuppa in a proper mug for a bargain 60p) is still as they were as both are slap bang in the middle of both grounds

The ground is a basic set-up with one large stand along one side of the pitch, which is easily double the capacity of the old stand, and meets welsh premier criteria. Hard standing only, with no cover, is on the other three sides. There has also been a large clubhouse built, which provided some half time refreshment.

Holyhead currently sit second in the Cymru Alliance, which is the second tier of Welsh Football whilst Pentwyn Dynamos play at the level below in the south, the Welsh League Division 2, where they occupy a mid table position. The game was a crackin’ cup tie, especially in the first half, where all the goals were scored. Marc Evans gave Holyhead the lead before David Cachia equalised for Pentwyn. Evans restored the lead with his second, but it was a real end-to-end game and there were loads of chances. It could so easily been about 4-4 at the interval. Fantastic value for my £3 entrance fee.

The second half was not as frenetic, but there were chances, mainly for Holyhead as they should have put the game to bed, the pacy Kenleigh Owen was causing allsorts of problems. Petwyn had a couple of chances to level on the break, but were mainly on the defensive as they started to run out of steam.

Overall, Holyhead just about deserved to be in the next round in January where they will face last seasons surprise package Newport YMCA.