Walsall 0-2 West Bromwich Albion: The Black Country Derby

This was something of a “bonus” game for me, as although it was in my plans for a long time, the weather forecast building up to the match (and the endless roadworks on the M1 and M6 making the journey longer than I would want to do midweek) made me cross it off my list. However, on the day, the forecast had changed and it looked like it would be a bit nicer, and I worked out I would still be back at a reasonable time, so it was back on the agenda. I had done a trip to Walsall with a friend last season and really enjoyed it, so when I saw that they were playing Premier League opposition again it was always an attractive option – whilst the journey isn’t the shortest, it is right off the motorway and so it is generally quite easy to make a quick getaway afterwards.

Having only got in at midnight from Crawley the night before, it was a late morning for me, meaning I only had a few hours to decide whether or not I was going to go. Eventually I opted to make the trip, and after a quick breakfast and stop off at the petrol station I was on the road. As usual, progress was slow with nearly 30 miles of roadworks from Northampton to a few miles into the M6, but once I had cleared that I was able to make a big of progress. However, as soon as I had passed the Toll road junction traffic reached a standstill, and I spent the best part of half an hour sitting in a queue moving less than a mile. It was a good thing that I had left plenty of time for the journey, and whilst we eventually got back to a reasonable speed I still arrived later than I would have liked.

After parking up for free next to the ground, I headed round to pick up a programme for £2 and a match ticket. At my age it’s really inconsistent as to whether I can get a concession ticket or not, and at Walsall I had to buy a full adult ticket. £12 is a little bit steep for pre-season, but with a big crowd expected for what may well be the club’s most local derby (and, of course, the visit of a Premier League side) I didn’t mind too much. As it was, West Brom had sold out their initial allocation of 1,500, and were given one of the side stands as well for matchday sales – overall, they may well have brought nearly 3,000 supporters, and I think they outnumbered the home fans. Even though there were just over 2 hours until kick-off, it was already very busy around the stadium and it felt like it could be a good game.

My friend and I saw the West Brom team coach arrive, and it was certainly a strong team for the match. Saido Berahino, the target of a £15 million bid from Tottenham Hotspur after a 20-goal season for the Baggies, was involved, as were the two big signings from the previous campaign Joleon Lescott and Darren Fletcher. Also included was controversial new signing James McClean, who would start the evening at left-back, making the whole team look like a very stern test for a Walsall side who only finished mid-table in the league the previous season. On the plus side, the home team did still have Tom Bradshaw, who, like Berahino, had bagged 20 goals in the season just gone, and the team had added international experience in Neil Etheridge (the Filipino goalkeeper having gained more senior appearances representing his country than any club!)

As the turnstiles weren’t to open until 50 minutes before kick-off, we went to see the small memorial at the ground to the three Walsall fans who were tragically killed in the Tunisia beach shootings. It really did bring home the human element of the attack, and in addition to flowers left outside the main stand the fans had minutes of applause at three separate points during the game to represent the ages of the fans killed.

We took our seats in a very crowded main stand (which was a bit of a shock, considering at the Leicester game last season it was nearly empty), and after a quick trip to the food kiosk for some dinner it was nearly time for kick-off. Walsall looked like they were going to get a good crowd for the game, as the aforementioned away fans took over nearly half the stadium and the other side being close to capacity. The larger end stand, which is the one that is clearly visible from the M6 motorway, was a bit emptier, but as the capacity of the stadium is over 11,000 is still meant there could be a good turnout.

When the game started, Walsall looked like the better side. They were playing some fantastic one-touch football and moved the ball around with some great fluency, and some prolonged spells of attacking pressure really did make West Brom look nervous. Whilst the away side did get some moves forward (mainly through McClean, who got booed every time he got the ball after turning away from the English flag during a trip to America in the club’s pre-season tour), they were few and far between compared to the home side’s attacks. However, the Saddlers couldn’t really make it count, and whilst they continually put some good balls into the box and played some decisive balls, they never got any meaningful shots off and Boaz Myhill managed a quiet match between the sticks.

At half time, Tony Pulis showed his tactical nous and made some key tactical changes, allowing West Brom to push forward with some more urgency and grow into the game to make themselves the stronger side. Just after the hour mark, James McClean played a great low cross into the box, and Berahino found it impossible to miss from a yard and put the visitors ahead. With Walsall making a number of changes throughout the half, West Brom capitalised on their consistency and strength and 20 minutes later doubled their lead – once again a ball from the left flank was played in, and Brown Ideye slotted home from slightly further out. Going off the second half display, Albion deserved their win, but Walsall definitely deserved something from their brave display and first half dominance. However, that’s the difference between Premier League and League 1 teams – the sides from the top flight can make their pressure count, and can grind out games even when they’re not at their best.

As with last season, it took a while to get out onto the main road, but the short journey to the motorway meant after that it was a quick journey home. For the second year in a row I had spent an enjoyable evening down at the Bescot, and with some of the nice football the home side were playing it looks like they could have a successful season.

Crawley Town 1-0 Reading: A dull defeat

With less than two weeks left to go until the season started, and only two more friendlies to be played, pre-season was starting to get serious for Reading. The new signings had been with the squad for nearly four weeks and had begun to integrate with the squad, and in all the other matches I had been to recently the intensity and desire had started to ramp up to prepare the players for competitive football. The Royals were due to make a reasonably short trip to Crawley, which despite its proximity proved to be a slightly frustrating journey for most fans due to it being on an unconventional Monday night and having to travel round part of the constantly gridlocked M25.

I opted against driving for what would have been nearly two hours given the traffic (from where I was, it would have involved using half of the road, including some of the busiest sections during rush hour) and instead chose to take the train. From me, Crawley was a simply journey, with Three Bridges taking just over 80 minutes to reach on a direct service, before changing for a three minute hop to the Sussex town. Despite it being the first full week of the summer holidays, the trains were empty and it was a smooth journey down, even taking in a great view across London when we passed through Blackfriars. As I had set off early, I spent a bit of time exploring Crawley’s wholly uninteresting town centre before heading to the obligatory Wetherspoons for a quick lunch.

After some fish and chips, and having heard my friends were on their way down, I set off on my way to the ground. It’s just over a mile from the town centre to the stadium, but the journey was all down the same road, meaning it was impossible for even me to get lost finding it. If even walking in a straight line is confusing, you can’t miss the giant red football on the roundabout for the stadium at the end of the road, or the football artwork on the underpass leading straight to the away end. It was a nice walk through leafy Sussex neighbourhoods in the end though, which is a welcome change from some of the more grim inner-city routes or out-of-town retail parks which a lot of grounds are based in nowadays.

It was a little disconcerting to see the ground so quiet when I arrived, with even most of the club offices looking closed. Eventually I found the club shop was actually open, and after buying a programme I did another walk around the ground and managed to find a Crawley fan to talk to. Within an hour, my friends had also arrived, meaning there would be at least 5 of us there that night. Before long, the Reading team coach arrived – or so we thought. It had turned out that the coach had broken down during the day and so after repairs it had headed up to the ground to take the team home, but for one reason or another the side would arrive on a different bus. They eventually arrived after this confusion, and as usual it looked like a strong team had travelled down for the game. Most exciting for the Crawley fans was the return of their former midfielder Hope Akpan, who we had signed just after we played the Reds in a cup game a few years ago. Simon Cox had also recovered from injury to make his first appearance of pre-season, and Orlando Sa had done likewise and would use this game to mark his Reading debut.

Eventually we headed into the away end, and we had a wide range of spots to choose from. Reading had been allocated the entire end terrace (which we had filled in the cup game a few years back) and had also been given about a third of the side stand, which had temporary seating and had a roof like a tent. After picking one of the few seats that weren’t completely obstructed by pillars, we popped round to the food kiosk to get some dinner. This is one area which Crawley seem to excel at – all their food is locally sourced and it was one of the best hot dogs I have had at a match, and at £5.50 for a hot dog and chips seemed like decent value as well. We also got some free comedy too as we watched the till attendant take about 5 minutes to work out how to put money through the till.

Before we knew it, kick off was just minutes away and there was just about time to check the team sheets. Reading had ended up playing a bit more of an experimental side, with Sean Long partnering Anton Ferdinand at centre half and Shane Griffin playing left back. Orlando Sa started up top alongside Dominic Samuel, with Pavel Pogrebnyak injured and Simon Cox on the bench. Crawley, on the other hand, made use of a number of trialists (before the game they only had 16 registered players), meaning there were 6 former Stevenage players involved. One of their substitute trialists was Ryan Edwards, who everybody (including the Reading press) assumed to be our former Australian winger, but during the game he tweeted “Don’t believe everything you read!” which proved us wrong.

When the game started, Reading made a half decent start and pushed forward with a bit of urgency, but ultimately struggled to make too much of an impact. Orlando Sa looked quite useful up front doing a lot of the hard work, and put some good balls in to Danny Williams a few times, but never really looked like scoring himself. The two young defenders seemed to be coping with most of Crawley’s attacks, which was a real positive, especially as they may be called upon to provide cover in the coming season.

However, the second half was completely different. With the temperature dropping, the quality of football took a downwards turn and Reading lost control of the game. To be fair, a lot of younger players did come on and we finished with a large number of players being from the U21 team, but it was still disappointing to see. On the plus side, Ali Al-Habsi made a number of good saves and looks like he could be useful for us as a first choice, but he lived up to his reputation by letting in a goal with what could well have been his easiest save of the evening. The game eventually fizzled out as a 1-0 defeat, which was frustrating to see. The getaway was easy, however, after a friend gave me a lift to Three Bridges and I was able to get straight on a train which took me home in just over an hour.

It was definitely a game to forget, but hopefully the season coming up is much better than our display against the Sussex club.

Mansfield Town 1-1 Leicester City: Stags battle the Foxes

Despite it being a Saturday and one of the major dates in pre-season, I was struggling to find a good game to go to on July 25^th. There were a few sides local to me playing half-decent sides, but having visited most of those grounds a number of times they all looked a bit underwhelming. In addition, with most Premier League clubs still abroad on money-spinning tours, only 6 of their clubs were playing in England that day. I had already ruled out West Ham’s trip to Charlton as a ground I had been to almost every season, Aston Villa’s trip to Walsall as I was planning to go there in a few days, and the Emirates Cup as it just seems an absurd contest, meaning I was down to three. Two of those sides were playing at Championship grounds, meaning the most appealing fixture I could see was Leicester’s short trip to League 2 Mansfield Town, and so I ended up making the trip up to the Midlands.

I had only visited Mansfield’s Field Mill stadium once before – last season’s game against York City – as part of my quest to visit all 92 football league stadia. It was a tidy ground, and with there being no stand down one side it had a bit of character, and its proximity to the town centre made it an easy trip by train. With tickets being only £7 for the fixture, a big crowd was expected (Leicester had sold out their allocation of nearly 2,000 before the day of the game itself), so it was a fixture I was looking forward to. It would also be a good chance to see how the home side had managed in the transfer market, having released 17 players after their disappointing league campaign the previous season, and signed up 14 new faces to help them this time round, including former Stevenage striker Chris Beardsley and experienced goalkeeper Brian “beast” Jensen.

On the other hand, Leicester had been quiet in the transfer market, but had made a high-profile managerial change. After sacking Nigel Pearson (who had a few screws loose, going from the many previous incidents he was involved in last season, most notably calling a journalist an ostrich and giving abuse to his own fans, not to mention strangling James McArthur during a Premier League match), the side had appointed Claudio Ranieri, who Chelsea fans might like to know had managed their team before they started to support them. The Tinkerman had just finished a disappointing spell in charge of Greece, but had a wealth of experience at the top level in a number of countries, and could well take the Foxes to the next level. Their transfer dealings so far had included making Robert Huth’s loan deal permanent (the German defender having come through the Chelsea ranks under Ranieri) as well as bringing in Christian Fuchs and Shinji Okazaki from German sides.

As usual, because I had booked train tickets in advance to get a good deal, I had to set off earlier than I would have liked, boarding an 8:25 train which got me to Mansfield at 11. A quick stop off at Wetherspoons for breakfast preceded my journey down to the ground, as the home side had tweeted advising fans to get there early to book a ticket due to large queues expected from walk-up fans. Even just after midday the area was busy, and with it being something of a local derby it made the match feel even more exciting. I was able to secure a seat in a good location, in the upper tier right by the halfway line meaning I got a good view of the action later on that day, and at £7 it seemed excellent value.

When the Leicester team arrived, it was clear that they had brought an exceptionally strong side down given that they were playing a team three divisions below them. With Matty James and Paul Konchesky injured, the only other absence was Wes Morgan, who was away with the Jamaica team who will imminently contest the Gold Cup final. It was great to see a Premier League side show such respect to the opposition, especially the day after Swansea only bothered to bring a reserve team down to play Reading. Some of the most major players were on the bench to start with, but there was still an extremely good starting 11 and it would be a great test for a newly build Mansfield side.

When the match started, it felt like anything but a pre-season friendly fixture. Both sides went for it from the start, and there were some extremely strong challenges, not least when David Nugent lashed out following a tackle, leading to a brawl involving players from both sides early on in the game. In a competitive fixture, the referee booking both players would have been an astonishing result, but in pre-season it felt a little bit harsh on the Mansfield man. In addition, there was a pitch invader from the Leicester fans, who felt the need to streak on the pitch but mercifully opted to keep his boxers on. He managed to get hugs from Mark Schwarzer and a couple of the Foxes’ outfield players before the stewards could be bothered to go and clear him from the pitch. With all these distractions sorted, the game got back into swing. Leicester were already 1-0 up from before the incidents, when Nugent managed to score with an extremely tame shot that rolled past former Crewe and Burton goalkeeper Scott Shearer, but it wasn’t long before Mansfield drew level. 27 minutes in, Dean Hammond downed Mitch Rose, and Birmingham loanee Matt Green converted, prompting one of the biggest cheers that I’ve heard from any pre-season game so far.

The game settled a little after that and became a little more well-natured, although there was always the air of a match that neither side wanted to lose throughout the contest. Half time came and went, and on 60 minutes City made 10 changes, putting out a side which could well play most Premier League games. As a result of the players being stronger and having fresh legs, they began to press harder and dominate the match, but the Stags still looked extremely useful and were able to cope with everything the Foxes threw at them, as the game eventually finished 1-1.

It was good to see Mansfield look a bit more positive, as last season when I was down there they looked absolutely useless (my main memory of that trip was a fan shouting that the man of the match vote was “a toss-up between Null and Void”). It looks like they’ve got a bit more flair in their team, and were pushing forward with a lot more confidence. It helps that they’ve got experience in the back in Nicky Hunt, who was also able to put some good balls in and give the side a bit more impetus, and if they can get a bit of luck on their side they should stay well away from the relegation battle that threatened them towards the end of last season.

Reading 1-1 Swansea City: A wet night in Wycombe

Reading’s pre-season plans this season had been a little bit frustrating for me – they had started playing games in England later than nearly every other side in the football league (playing their first game on the 21^st, more than 2 weeks after some teams had started), only planned 2 away friendlies and were set to play Swansea for the third year in a row. I have nothing against the Swans, but playing the same team every season gets a little bit dull, and especially after they had beaten us in the play-off final 4 years ago and had since gone on to much better things, it did feel like the “here’s what you could have won” section from Bullseye. On the plus side, they now have Reading’s greatest ever academy product Gylfi Sigurdsson playing for them now, so it means there’s something worthwhile to look forward to from these games.

A few eyebrows were raised when this game was announced, as it was not going to be played at either club’s ground, despite our pitch having been sorted out and fresh for the new season. Instead, it was to be held at Wycombe Wanderers’ stadium Adams Park, as a sweetener in the deal for Reading to play their U21 matches at the Buckinghamshire stadium. However, with Wycombe only recently relaying their pitch as well it seemed even stranger to have two other sides potentially damage it before their season started, and it had guaranteed a very low attendance as Reading played away there the previous year meaning it wasn’t a new ground for the majority of fans. The forecast for that day was also for continual heavy rain, meaning it was hardly the most attractive proposition for supporters, even if it was only a short distance away.

Having had three late evenings following more midweek football in the three days leading up to this game, I was quite glad to be able to leave much later for this match. Despite this, I still tried to leave plenty of time, as I knew with summer fast approaching the roads would be horrendous, and with roadworks in Devizes, this would only be exacerbated. I was right to do this in the end, as what should have been a journey of just under two hours took the best part of three and a half, arriving at Wycombe just after 5. Despite the club website promising free parking when arriving before 6, the stewards were adamant it cost £5 to park, and with no other options around, I was forced to pay up. It would be really nice if the club were clearer about these charges, as they ignored my tweet questioning it and I would have made other plans if I knew about this.

With the heavy rain showing no sign of stopping, I took shelter in my car for the best part of an hour having phoned a number of friends during that time. Eventually, one of them arrived and told me he was in a coffee shop at the ground, so with an umbrella on hand I ventured down the hill and managed to take cover again and before long, most of the others had arrived. It was nice to meet up with everyone again after a long summer without football, and as we caught up the rain slowed down a little and allowed us to head outside. Not much later, the team coaches arrived and as usual we cheered the Reading team in.

Reading had brought along a very similar squad to the one that went down to Bristol on Tuesday, with youngster Tarique Fosu missing out after picking up a knock but the rest of the team staying pretty much the same. Swansea, on the other hand, took along what seemed to be a reserve squad – whilst Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jonjo Shelvey, Angel Rangel, Jefferson Montero and Nathan Dyer were all involved, the rest of the team was predominantly youth. It was disappointing to see, especially as the previous years we had always played against a full first-team squad and with only a one division difference between the two sides it seemed like a strong team would have provided a much better test for the Royals.

At this point, the turnstiles still weren’t open and they stayed closed until close to 7, and luckily the rain stayed away whilst we were standing around waiting. However, once we were inside the skies opened and we nearly had to sprint to our seats to avoid getting soaked in the downpour. The teams had just been announced at this point, and it looked like Reading had fielded a much stronger starting 11 than had played on Tuesday night, with only a couple of absences preventing it from looking like the team that should start the first league game against Birmingham. As expected, Swansea played a weaker side, with new goalkeeper Kristoffer Notdfeldt being the only other real name of note. I don’t expect to see him involved too much next season though, as even from the warm-up it was apparent that he couldn’t kick accurately to save his life.

With the rain now firmly set in, the game itself matched the conditions. The first half seemed pretty dull, without there being too many chances of note. Leon Britton made some very strong challenges for the Swans, eventually finding himself booked (which is surely a sign that you have gone too far for a pre-season friendly) but as half time approached neither team looked threatening, and I was starting to wonder why I had made the effort to go.

Luckily, that changed a little as the second half started – within a minute of the restart, Nick Blackman fired home a fantastic shot from long range, going in off the underside of the bar. He has now scored in all 3 of our friendlies this season, and if he can learn to pass to team-mates and not be so greedy he could become a key player this season. Within another two minutes, Swansea had equalised, with Jonathan Bond failing to hold onto a shot (a worrying trend that I’ve seen from both his appearances so far) allowing Kyle Bartley to tap home an easy finish. After this, Reading seemed to be slightly the better side but the match quickly deteriorated into the poor-quality display that the first half had been, and the match finished 1-1.

Tactically Reading looked a little bit different in this game – not only were there points when players seemed to be trying hard to stick to their positions rigidly, but they were pressing fairly high up the pitch, which at times left a big gap between the defence and the midfield. I’m not sure if this was just because it was against a weakened side, or whether this will be a new tactic for the season, but it was interesting to see Steve Clarke make a change to our playing style.

After battling through the rain back to the car (I was very glad I had the umbrella with me!), it was a short 45 minute drive back home, although there were parts of the town centre that were flooded making it an interesting journey. Overall it was another long day out for a very poor game of football, but after some of last season’s displays it was still a positive joy to watch!

Exeter City 1-2 Sheffield United: Blades blunt the Grecians

As they say, there is no rest for the wicked – after getting in at half past midnight on Thursday morning from Barnet, I was up early that day as well to sort out another trip, making it 3 in as many days. Again, I had been scouring various club websites to try and find matches that were on, as Thursday is obviously a day when football rarely takes place, but I eventually found a few that tempted me. Top of the list was Newtown V Copenhagen in the Europa League, but their capacity being reduced (as UEFA don’t allow terracing in their competitions) made it likely to sell out and make it difficult to get tickets, and it was a hell of a long drive with such a risk. There were rumours that it would be moved to the Cardiff City Stadium, but these proved to be untrue, so I ended up crossing it off my list and going for something a little easier.

The other match that night near to me was at Exeter City, and having done a little bit of searching I was able to secure a return train ticket for under £12. My match ticket was only £3 as well, meaning I could do a relatively cheap evening and still do something which I hadn’t done yet this season.

Exeter City is one of my favourite lower league clubs for a plethora of reasons – not least that their manager, Paul Tisdale, used to manage Team Bath, the side that represented my University. Having formed in 1999, the side quickly gained a number of promotions and Tisdale took to the helm in 2001 and led the team to the first round of the FA cup, making them the first University side to compete in the competition for over 120 years. Despite dissolving in 2009 due to league rules on ownership, the club is still celebrated at the University and every time I go into the exam hall I walk past a photo of the manager receiving an award.

In addition, Exeter seem to be one of the better run clubs in the lower leagues, preferring to operate with a smaller squad made up predominantly of youngsters rather than bringing in highly paid journeymen in order to stay within their modest budget. The supporters’ trust maintains an active role in this, and having so many fan fundraisers such as “cans for city” really does reinforce the community feel of the club. Similarly, they really do look after the student section of their fanbase, offering £5 tickets to every league game and, to my reckoning, are the only league club where a student can get a season ticket for under £100. Add to that the biggest terrace in the football league and you’ve got a winner!

I set off for the day just before 1 from Trowbridge, and with a short change at Bristol I had arrived at Exeter St Davids by half 3. Having to arrive far too early is one of the problems with cheap train tickets, but I had done some research beforehand and knew that there was a Wetherspoons within a 5 minute walk of the station. I’m not so sad that I was going to go and drink alcohol on my own, but I thought it would be a decent place to get a cheap meal, so I headed up there. To my surprise, it was probably the poshest pub in the country, with the main bar area looking more like the library of a country manor, and two of the patrons sitting in the corner discussing the works of Lord Byron! Most people were sitting outside in the massive garden, meaning I had a choice of tables to myself, and having got through a plate of fish and chips I headed back to the railway station.

St James Park is just over a mile away from the centre of Exeter, and being lazy I opted to get the local stopping train to the stadium’s halt station rather than walking it myself. I eventually arrived at the ground at about half 5, and as usual wandered around it to grab a few photos. It really is one of the best old-fashioned grounds left in the football league – whilst the old grandstand has barely been touched since it was rebuilt in 1926 and the away end must be one of the most traditional terraces left, the main stand is a fairly new structure and the Big Bank terrace at the other end is, as mentioned before, the largest one left in the football league, holding nearly 4,000 fans and being the tallest structure in the stadium. This is obviously the most popular stand with the fans, and is decked out in a number of Brazil flag’s to celebrate the club’s historical tour over there when they played the national side, and the number of friendlies they have had since then against Fluminense, who have become something of a sister club. In addition, some of the posts at the back had pictures of fans who had passed away, which allowed them to remain at the ground in spirit, which I thought was a fantastic touch.

Exeter had held three friendlies in quick succession, but as this was one of their last pre-season matches before the season started they named a strong side. Sheffield United had opted to travel down there, making the Devon club the next stop on Nigel Adkin’s positivity roadshow, as the clueless manager made the trip down for the second year in a row (he had taken Reading down there last season as well). The Yorkshire side named a mixed-strength team, but it could well be that Adkins genuinely thinks that’s their strongest 11, going off the evidence of his time at the Royals.

The Blades did play some nice tippy-tappy Adkins brand football, and opened the scoring fairly early with a header, but as I had expected from experience of watching his sides they looked very ineffective apart from that. Exeter managed to equalise not long after the start of the second half with a penalty from Tom Nichols, but as usual the 60^th minute bought a vast number of changes from the away side. Far from disrupting the flow of the game, however, this put Sheffield United on the front foot, as a number of big names were also on the bench and came on against the tiring legs of the Exeter youngsters. City countered this by making a number of changes of their own, but as they had started with their first choice team this didn’t help them in the match itself, and with 10 minutes to go a wide attack exploiting the Grecians’ left flank led promising youngster Che Adams to score what turned out to be the winning goal.

The game was a good one, with some nice football being played by both sides, and Exeter can ultimately take some heart in the fact that they pushed a side from a higher division very close and were unlucky not to get at least a draw out of it. I had a walk of about 30 seconds back to the halt station, where there was only a short wait for a train before a couple of quick changes at St David’s and Bristol means I was back home on the stroke of midnight. It may have been a long few days, but they were capped off by an entertaining match and an enjoyable day out.

QPR 2-1 Dundee United: The most random game ever?

Pre-season is good at throwing up a huge bunch of fixtures, most of them between local sides and half of them are usually entirely predictable. However, every year there seem to be a handful of games that seem simply inexplicable on a number of counts. A few years ago a number of Romanian top-flight sides spent the summer in Manchester playing non-league sides, and last season Cambridge United managed to attract Espanyol and Shakhtar for a mini tournament. Because of this, I was keeping an eye out for anything strange to pop up, and whilst I wasn’t able to find anything that bizarre I noticed that QPR had agreed a game against Dundee United…at Barnet’s ground. No, I don’t know the full story behind it either. A friend of mine also thought this was interesting, so we planned the trip for my third visit this month to one of my favourite lower league grounds.

I was spending the week in my student flat in the West Country as a base for a number of games that week, so that afternoon I drove the short distance to Swindon to meet up with my friend, where he gave me a lift down to North London. It was a good thing that we had left plenty of time, as traffic was as bad as ever in London, but we still managed to arrive at The Hive with 2 hours to spare. Once we were there, I had a quick look in the shop, where I was very tempted by former Stevenage striker Dani Lopez’s old shirt for £25, but decided not to as apart from his hat-trick against Sheffield United he never really did too much at the Boro. I did, however, pick up a Barnet FC jumper for the massive sum of £2, mainly so I had some kind of souvenir from a club that is fast becoming one of my favourites in that league.

We then saw the team coaches arriving – I was quite surprised to see QPR bring a near-enough full squad down to the game, with England international Robert Green, in-demand striker Charlie Austin (I had to grab a selfie with him, given how big a star he could become, and the fact that he started at Reading’s academy!) and the new signings including Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Sebastian Polter all travelling down. Dundee United also took their first team down, which was even more surprising given that they had just come off a tour and were back at home in Scotland 3 days later, meaning they were just in England for this one-off game. The key name in their squad was Australian international Ryan McGowan, who made the World Cup squad the previous summer, and their new signing Darko Bodul was also involved having only joined a few days previously.

We then had a somewhat confusing moment – our tickets told us to enter via the hospitality entrance, but the man standing there struggled to understand our tickets. Eventually he let us through, leading us down a corridor with what looked like a closed fire exit at the end, which we opened to lead us out into the stand. The steward there, however, couldn’t understand why we had come in that way, and after examining our tickets again headed to the entrance to moan at the door staff. All very odd, but the tickets did tell us to go that way and the scanner did flash green to say it was right, but there we go. Our seats were in a good position at least, being near the back of the small stand but right by the Dundee United dugout, meaning we had a prime view of the match and could also see exactly what Jackie McNamara was doing on the touchline. We also noticed during the game that QPR Director of Football Les Ferdinand and Forest manager Dougie Freedman were sitting a few seats along from us, adding to the bizarre feeling of the evening.

The ground eventually filled up, and it was clear that QPR had bought a good number of fans across London to watch their first game in England of pre-season. They had been allocated the home sections of the stadium, and had nearly sold out the main stand and put a decent number in the terrace. Even more impressive, however, was the number of Dundee United fans that had made the round trip of over 900 miles to watch their side in a friendly – the terrace was by no means full but there were a fair few in the seats (apparently over 300 had made the trip down) and they made a fantastic atmosphere considering it was a non-competitive game. In addition to those in the away area, there were a few Scottish fans sitting behind us, having been given complimentary tickets (as one of them was the nephew of the Dundee United manager!). It was fantastic to be able to chat with them during the game and share some good banter, which to me is part of what pre-season is all about.

Despite this, when the game started it was clear that this was not going to be just another friendly kick-about to gain match fitness. There were some cracking challenges and real desire from both sides, and quite frankly Dundee United impressed me with their quality. I’ve always thought the Scottish Premiership was, with the exception of Celtic, about the standard of the lower end of the Championship or even that of League One, but the Lowlands side more than held their own against a team that had been in the Premier League last season. Whilst Charlie Austin clearly wasn’t at his best (I thought he was going through the motions after the flurry of teams linked with him for a £15 million move), he still wasn’t given a chance to meaningfully test United’s goalkeeper, and it took a well-worked move from Matt Phillips to break the deadlock.

It didn’t take the away side long to equalise though, as little more than 10 minutes later Mario Bilate finished after some good work from John Souttar and it was Dundee United that looked the better side up until the break. With both sides opting to keep the majority of players on for the second half, the match remained competitive and within 20 minutes of the restart new signing Massimo Luongo headed home to put QPR once again ahead. Within minutes of this there were a number of changes from the Scottish side but the home team only made a couple of substitutions, meaning with their stronger side they looked the better team for the remainder of the match. United didn’t disgrace themselves however, and remained in the match right until the end.

It was quite a long journey back compared to the usual short hops I’ve been doing in pre-season, but it was definitely worth it. Not only was it one of the most bizarre games I’ve seen in a while, it was also one of the most enjoyable and competitive so far. I think I might even have to adopt Dundee United as my Scottish team for the future!

Bristol Rovers 0-2 Reading: Royals roar once again

I had already done 9 matches so far this season, but this game was the first one that featured Reading and so it was the main one for me to look forward to from the start. Last season I managed to do 59 of the 60 first team games (only missing the 6-1 away defeat at Birmingham), and I was keen to start up another impressive record this season. This time round I was quite lucky with the pre-season games that had been announced, as Bristol Rovers was less than an hour’s drive from my student flat and the other matches were all based around the South East, making them easy enough to get to. I had obviously missed the match out in Thailand, but as it was not a domestic match it was easy to discount that from the total (and at any rate, I managed to watch the match live on the internet, as the club had provided a YouTube stream!).

Reading have had a very busy summer compared to the normal thrift shop transfer policy, but it was definitely needed after the abysmal league season suffered last time round. Whilst some of our better players and bedrocks of the team moved away on free transfers and long-serving members of coaching staff found that their contracts weren’t renewed, Steve Clarke had been proactive in getting new personnel in quickly. Dave Beasant joined as goalkeeping coach and Steven Reid became another first-team coach, whilst two new goalkeepers arrived in Jonathan Bond and Ali Al-Habsi. In addition, the club signed up former Fulham striker Orlando Sa and Hull players Paul McShane and Stephen Quinn. As a result, the squad is starting to look a bit stronger, and although there are still some holes to be plugged it’s looking a lot better than it did a few weeks ago.

Bristol Rovers, on the other hand, had just finished a successful campaign where they had won promotion back to the Football League through the play-offs at the first time of asking. It really is crucial nowadays to get out of the Conference as quickly as possible, as once you are down there it’s a very difficult league to win – you only have to look at how Luton struggled for years, and further inspection of the division reveals a vast number of former league sides, such as Aldershot, Lincoln, Southport and Tranmere Rovers. They hadn’t really bought many players in, having opted more to promote youth team players and making last season’s loan signing Chris Lines into permanent move. Billy Bodin, the son of former Royals defender Paul, was on trial there, but otherwise both teams were made up of contracted players.

I set off for the Memorial Stadium fairly early, as I knew traffic in Bristol (one of the most anti-car cities in the country) was horrendous at all hours. The journey, however, was relatively easy, although upon joining the M32 there were massive queues heading the other direction out of Bristol. I managed to get to the ground quickly though, and parked up on a side road having seen my friend parked up a few metres behind me whilst I was in traffic. We walked the last few hundred metres to the ground, and whilst we couldn’t do a full lap of the stadium due to various gated off areas we managed to see as much as possible before meeting some other friends we knew from Reading games. After applauding the team coach in and a quick trip to the local chippy, we were ready to go in past the very unwelcoming-looking away turnstiles and find a place on the terrace.

I had been to The Memorial Stadium once before – a 3-3 draw with York City in the FA Cup a couple of years ago – as part of my quest to visit all 92 football league grounds, and I remembered from then that it must be one of the strangest stadia in the country. With the West stand being a three-tier structure looking more like a cricket pavilion than a football stand and the South end only being half-used by scaffolding seating with a tent-style roof, it’s clear that this has always been a temporary solution whilst the club plan to find a new home (although with the recent court ruling in Sainsbury’s favour, it’s unclear what the future is for Rovers). However, it’s more than adequate for League Two, and is clearly a popular stadium with the amount of terracing on offer, so it should suffice for a few more years.

For the match, Bristol Rovers named near enough their strongest side (the only big name to miss out was Welsh wonderkid Ellis Harrison, who was on the bench), whilst Reading named a lot of second-choice players in the starting 11, opting to leave a lot of the key men on the bench for a shorter period of play in the second half. This meant we got a chance to see more of promising youth players Tarique Fosu and Dominic Samuel, and a first glimpse of new signings Stephen Quinn and Ali Al-Habsi. It was also good to see Anton Ferdinand get some more minutes under his belt, as although he only played about 48 minutes last season due to numerous injuries he did look a class above the rest of the side for that time, and could be a useful option if he gets himself back to full fitness for the season ahead.

Because we had a lot of young players out, we did give the ball away defensively a number of times, but Al-Habsi was on good form to keep Rovers out for the match. Stephen Quinn particularly impressed with a number of strong but well-timed challenges, and Fosu made another good impact by putting in a very good cross for Samuel to open the scoring. About an hour in to the game Steve Clarke decided to make a number of changes and put a lot of the stronger players out, and from that point Reading managed to control the game a lot more, with Fosu putting another good ball in for Nick Blackman to fire home from short range. It was good to see Blackman score, because he did have a number of good chances where he could have passed to players in space but instead opted to selfishly shoot from tough positions, which sums his game up really. There weren’t that many further chances, and the game ended 2-0.

Whilst pre-season is all about fitness and making sure everyone knows the strongest team to start the season with, it was pleasing to get a solid win and see the team play some nice football after some of the turgid displays we were subject to last season. Clarke says he’s aiming for promotion, but frankly I’d take mid-table this year.

Shrewsbury Town 2 – 2 Cardiff City: Back on track with a day out

I had been to a lot of football in the two weeks before this game, but most of it was local to me and featuring sides that I used to watch a lot. Even though it was only pre-season and so most of the matches were bonuses anyway, it had somewhat put a hold on my aim of visiting all 92 football league grounds. I had originally planned to use this time before the competitive games started to visit some new stadia in the football league, as I was down to my final 12 and chances to go to them were going to become quite limited when Reading were to start playing every week.

Most of the grounds I have left to visit are in the north, which is a bit of a pain when you’re trying to limit miles! I didn’t really fancy a 9 hour round trip to Hartlepool or a trek through Greater Manchester to get to any number of lower league stalwarts, especially after just 6 hours sleep having got back quite late from the Stevenage game the previous night. In the end, I settled for Shrewsbury’s home game against Cardiff, as fast train links meant I could be there in just over a couple of hours, and it was the closest new ground left.

I thought I’d been really good and booked my trains to give me plenty of contingency time in Shrewsbury on the day, but by sod’s law the kick off was moved an hour to 2PM at some point leading up to it, due to Cardiff needing to shoot off quickly for a flight abroad to their pre-season tour. Even then, arriving in Shrewsbury at about half 11 should have been fine, but I didn’t realise quite how difficult the stadium actually was to get to – the bus station was separate to the railway station, and the nearest service only dropped you off 10 minutes away from the ground and the other side of a dual carriageway.

Eventually I managed to stumble upon the ground, which was as out of town as you could possibly get for a new build. Reading’s Madejski Stadium and Colchester’s Community ground both get a lot of flak for their location, but at least they have direct buses from the station to make it easy to reach and a big on-site car park to allow access. Shrewsbury did have a car park, but you weren’t allowed to pay on the day, and a lack of anything whatsoever around made it an absolute pain to get to. Making it even more frustrating was that kick off had been pushed back 15 minutes as the Cardiff team coach got stuck on the M54 on their way from their hotel base, arriving close to 1:30.

I then made my way inside to what was evidently a very smart stadium, but one that was somewhat bland and lacking in character. It reminded me of Colchester’s stadium which was built at around the same time and had many flaws in its design. I know a lot of modern stadia get heavy criticism for lacking character, but I’ve always found the bowl designs to be excellent venues, which makes the new-build “four stand” grounds even more baffling. Furthermore, the low attendance for the friendly meant that only three stands were open, leaving the opposite side closed and giving the whole place a very empty feeling. I was told by the fan I was sitting next to that for the Chelsea game they installed temporary seating in the corners, which clearly would have improved the place, but I much prefer new grounds like Rotherham’s which have very steep bowl arrangements to make the place look much more impressive than the capacity would suggest.

However, the fans that did turn up had an exciting match in prospect; Shrewsbury had just been promoted back into the third tier of the English game, and had bought in a few new players with a lot of experience at that level, including promising Crewe full back Matt Tootle and lower league journeyman Junior Brown. Cardiff, on the other hand, were still under attack from their fans who were frustrated at the apparent lack of investment and management style of the team, despite the big signing of Sammy Ameobi on loan from Newcastle.

As usual, there were some Reading connections, with former centre half Sean Morrison captaining the away side, and Matthew Connolly also getting some game time for Cardiff. Connolly has the amazing record of winning the Championship 4 times with 4 different teams in 5 seasons, including one spell where he won it three times in a row with QPR, Reading and the Welsh side. I’m sure the visiting fans were hoping for his luck to strike again this season. Cardiff fans were also on form, bringing a decent number down to Shropshire and making a good noise – although 10 minutes before kick-off one of them let off a very loud firework which made half the stadium collectively shit themselves and prompted a vast number of stewards to spend the match watching the away end for any more problems.

The match was played at the standard pre-season low tempo, with Shrewsbury playing some nice stuff along the ground but Cardiff relying heavily on hoofing it up to the massive Ameobi up top. Town took the lead early on through a penalty but some poor defending throughout the game led to Cardiff equalising and taking the lead, before some fantastic play meant Shrewsbury looked threatening for the last quarter of the match. Eventually, the home side did as they had threatened to do all game and grab a second goal right in front of the away fans at the end of the match, securing a draw. It was probably a fair result, given that both sides looked very potent up front but struggled defensively, and I’m sure with a few final signings Shrewsbury fans will be very confident about the new season.

Stevenage 0 – 3 Nottingham Forest: Former Royals galore

This was a game that I had been looking forward to for a while. I have always closely followed Stevenage’s progress, as they are one of the nearest league clubs to me, and I had seen many fantastic games up there over the years, reaching back to their non-league days. Unfortunately, as I have been at University over 100 miles away during the last two years, my chances to go and watch Boro have been extremely limited, with most of my recent visits coming during various pre-season matches. It would be very nice to finally get another chance to go to the Lamex, and see a number of friends as well as watch a team that had been through a number of changes over the summer.

Perhaps the most notable change to Stevenage was their new manager. Whilst Graham Westley was in his third spell in charge of the club last season and took them to the League Two play-offs (where they narrowly lost to Southend), chairman Phil Wallace was concerned about attendances and progress and decided not to renew Westley’s contract. In his place was one of football’s all-time greats in Teddy Sheringham, who was taking on his first managerial job.

Sheringham had a glittering playing career, starting out at Millwall where he remains the club’s second highest goalscorer of all time behind Neil Harris. That spell attracted the attention of legendary manager Brian Clough, who signed him for Nottingham Forest, where he spent just one season (in which he scored the first ever televised goal in the Premier League) before a move to Tottenham Hotspur. 99 goals in 5 seasons followed, earning him another step up to giants Manchester United, where arguably his greatest moment occurred. Few fans will be unaware of the 1999 Champions League final, where he scored the equaliser in injury time before setting up Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer two minutes later to win United a famous treble. A return to Tottenham then preceded spells at Portsmouth, West Ham and Colchester, before he finally retired aged 42.

In addition, Sheringham had bought in former Reading midfielder Kevin Watson as his assistant, and Russia international and Olympic champion Dmitri Kharine as goalkeeper coach. Four players had also joined, with another former Royal in Brett Williams becoming the club’s number 9, joined by Steven Schumacher, Mark Hughes and Fraser Franks. Despite this, the club did look a little bit thin on the ground with most of last season’s squad being released. Injuries compounded this and the club were unable to name many senior pros on the bench, with it mostly being made up of academy prospects and trialists.

Nottingham Forest, being one of Sheringham’s old clubs, had agreed to bring a first team squad to Hertfordshire, and Dougie Freedman stuck to his promise. Whilst the side included trialists Nicky Maynard and Paul Taylor (both of whom have been around the Championship for a number of years, and may well improve the Forest side who will be missing Britt Assombalonga until Christmas at least), the team included the solid defensive pairing of Jack Hobbs and Matt Mills, alongside first team regulars such as Henri Lansbury and Eric Lichaj. This was the side’s first friendly in England, having played three matches without a win during their tour of Scandinavia, and so a decent number of fans had made the trip down.

After spending some time with my friends before the match, I went and met my dad and headed round to our usual spot on the East Terrace. However, there was a big queue on the turnstiles when we arrived, as they were still yet to open and didn’t do so until about 40 minutes before kick-off. We finally got in and got some food from the tea bar, before taking our place at the back of the terrace. During the warm-up we noticed that the pitch was in a terrible state, despite apparently having been re-laid during the off season, and the scoreboard was missing. Not really the greatest start to a new era, but there is still time to get it all sorted I suppose.

From the start of the game, Forest dominated, with former Reading winger Michail Antonio nearly scoring within a minute but just being offside, and the visiting side had many more chances early in the match. Brett Williams did hold the ball up well for Stevenage and was involved in a few good moves, but he didn’t get a great deal of support from the rest of the team and so had a difficult afternoon. Less than 15 minutes into the game, Boro failed to defend a corner and static defending meant that another former Reading player – Matt Mills – was able to poke home an easy ball and put Forest 1-0 up.

It didn’t take long for the visitors to double their lead either. With Michail Antonio once again driving forward and creating a dangerous chance, young Stevenage forward Dipo Akinyemi cut him down and gave away a penalty. I’m not sure why, but this season I’ve seen a lot of friendlies awarded in friendly matches which is a little bizarre, so seeing another one wasn’t entirely surprising. Forest captain Henri Lansbury stepped up, and despite Stevenage goalkeeper Chris Day getting a hand to it, it was converted to put the hosts 2-0 down.

For the first time this season, both clubs kept the majority of their sides the same after the break, meaning there was a bit more flow early in the second half. However, this was soon disrupted by a string of substitutions peppering the rest of the game, as various other players entered the fray to get crucial minutes under their belts. As a result, the game eventually petered out somewhat predictably, but there was still time for another goal, which would prove to be the pick of the bunch. I’m not sure what he was doing so far up the pitch, but Jack Hobbs found himself clean through and put a delightful chip over trial goalkeeper Peter Kurucz to put a gloss on the scoreline.

The result probably did reflect the match, as Forest were by far the better side, but it’s impossible to read into pre-season results too much so it’s hard to see whether Stevenage really are in trouble. A few new signings to help the depth of the squad wouldn’t go amiss, but Sheringham clearly knows his football and they should still have a decent season.

Hitchin Town 0 – 10 (TEN) Norwich City: They’d Have Settled for a Draw

Pre-season is always a good opportunity to see interesting matches, and whilst most of the games I had been to see in the last few weeks were a case of league teams warming up against local non-league sides, Hitchin Town had organised something a little more intriguing as they started their campaign. Although they were formed in 1928, the original club in Hitchin was created in 1865 and so this season would mark the 150^th anniversary of football in the North Hertfordshire town. As they play in yellow and green and call themselves the Canaries, there would only ever be one club they were going to play the celebration game against – Norwich City.

Even though it’s just under 100 miles from deepest Norfolk to rural Hertfordshire, the Premier League outfit had agreed to send a strong squad down to guarantee a large crowd and boost the coffers of Hitchin. This was a great boost to the 7^th division side, who have recently been embroiled in a legal battle over their historic Top Field stadium, where the landowners wished to sell the land to a supermarket, which would have seen the sad closure of one of the most traditional grounds in the county.

I had visited the ground a few times in the last few years, as they were regular opponents of St Albans City until the Saint’s promotion to the Conference South a couple of years ago. It’s also a convenient ground to get to for me, as it’s less than half an hour’s drive and within minutes of a main road. However, I had seen the club warning of a big attendance and lots of congestion for this game, so I still set off just before 6 to ensure I got parked near the ground and a good spot once inside.

I only had to pay £6 for entry, which seemed like excellent value considering it was one of the biggest games in the club’s history. It was another £3 for a programme, which seems steep for a non-league side in pre-season, but this was an excellent edition which most league sides would be proud of, being a souvenir copy to celebrate 150 years of football in Hitchin. There was also a good selection of special edition items for sale alongside the programme, which looked to be selling well, and it looked like the clubhouse was doing a roaring trade round the corner. Even though there was over an hour until kick-off, there was still a queue for food as well! I, as usual, made a point of buying something there, as Hitchin consistently have the best chips in football, and once again they didn’t disappoint.

Norwich soon announced their team for the match – as expected, there were different elevens in each half, but both sides were from the first team and it was an extremely strong squad. 14 of the players who were in the squad for the play-off final were involved, in addition to new signing Youssuf Mulumbu and highly-rated youngsters Louis Thompson and Harry Toffolo. I later found out that the number of players they bought with them was so great that they had to use both dressing rooms, and the Hitchin players had to get changed at the nearby swimming centre! Hitchin also had a decent squad for their level, including former Stevenage youth goalkeeper Charlie Horlock and St Albans striker Simon Martin.

When both sides came out for kick-off, they were sporting new kits. Whilst Norwich were unveiling their new away green strip that evening (with it going on sale at kick-off back in Norfolk), Hitchin had opted for a special edition one-off shirt to celebrate their 150^th anniversary. It was half-and-half in pink and white, supposedly to echo their first ever kits, but all I could think of when looking at it was that they looked like the erasers you’d have at school. However, it was John Ruddy I felt for – again in a new shirt, the former England goalkeeper was wearing a shocking pink kit that would probably have glowed in the dark.

Hitchin’s kit for the evening?

When the match started, Hitchin managed to cope with the early Norwich attacks, and had a couple of attacking moves themselves. Defensively, Horlock made some accomplished saves and the match seemed like it might have been a low-scoring affair. However, this wasn’t to be, as just 15 minutes in last season’s top scorer Cameron Jerome hit home from 20 yards, and just 12 minutes later bagged a brace from close range. In between these goals, John Ruddy was forced to make a top-drawer save from a Matt Lench shot, but it was already clear that there would only ever be one winner from the match.

At half-time it was only 2-0, and most Hitchin fans would have been happy with that, but there was no way to prepare them for what the second half would bring. A flurry of 5 goals in 13 minutes after the break might be a little harsh on the home side, but with 11 fresh Norwich players (including Champions’ League experience in Gary Hooper) against a semi-pro side who hadn’t played a game in months was always going to be a tad one-sided. The game eventually evolved into an attacking drill for Norwich, and it was only a string of saves from Horlock that kept the score down.

Eventually, Tony Andreu completed his 24 minute hat-trick on 75 minutes, before Gary O’Neil got a 9^th with 5 minutes left on the clock and full back Steven Whittaker put the score into double figures with the last kick of the game.

Whilst it was a massive scoreline, I’m not sure too many people involved with Hitchin will be that distraught – there are, after all, 6 divisions and a world of difference between the two sides, and the result held no meaning whatsoever. In addition, the match brought in a crowd of over 1,700, which is sure to have put a great deal of money back into the club and can only help them in the coming season. They can also definitely say that their 150^th anniversary celebration match was a night to remember!