On Ticket Prices

Last year, I travelled to Craven Cottage with thousands of other Reading fans. Despite being one of the first to book because of the priority system in place, I had quite possibly the worst view in the house. If I looked directly in front of me (which, you know, you’re meant to do) I could see the end of the Riverside stand, and I had a better view of boats rowing down the Thames than I did of the actual pitch. What did I pay for that pleasure? £25. And that was with a student discount. If it was sold half price as a restricted view seat, perhaps I wouldn’t have minded, but with a captive audience they were selling tickets for seats from which it was near impossible to watch the actual match at a premium price – adult tickets were £30 for the exact same “view”.

And I’m not alone in this. Every few months there are stories floating around Twitter about fans being stuck in the corner at QPR and having a TV gantry in the way, or supporters being shoved into the back row at Anfield and only seeing their own half if they’re lucky. But in many cases these problems can be put down to bad design, and will only affect a small number of all supporters. But rising prices affect everyone.

There are probably hundreds of articles on ticket pricing already, but it’s something that really needs talking about. Most protests focus on prices at the very top level of the English game; Arsenal charging visiting fans £62, Man City charging the majority of teams over £50 and even West Ham trying to get visitors to pay up to £60 for the biggest games. Manchester United used to be reasonably affordable to watch, but now it will cost you £46 to go to Old Trafford for an away game, even if you’re bottom of the league. Part of me understands why the highest prices are charged though – Arsenal V Chelsea, for instance, is probably the biggest sporting event in the world that day, and is worth the premium for most. You can use a similar logic for most “Category A” games in the Premier League, and in all fairness there are some decent ideas being bandied about to get the rest of it down, most notably Swansea’s “True to 22” campaign.

My biggest gripe with ticket prices nowadays, however, are further down the league system. It’s horrible to see fans being priced out of the game at any level, but when Northampton Town in League Two charge someone £22 at the gate to watch a League Two match then you know that it has gone way too far. At the fourth tier of the game the cheapest adult ticket you’ll get is £15, but that’s the same price you’ll have to pay for admission to watch St Albans, playing at the sixth division of the game. Quite frankly, anyone can see that the top level has gone corporate, but when it starts to become expensive for a day out in the regional divisions then something needs to change.

The ticket that prompted me to write this was also from St Albans. On Saturday they’re playing in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup against Deal Town from the ninth division, who get attendances of less than 100. It’s a great chance for the Saints to get into the next stage, and a big crowd would be a big boost. Surely this game, therefore, would have been an excellent opportunity to reduce ticket prices to reflect the underwhelming opposition and get some new fans, but they’re once again charging £15, and not even offering a discount to season ticket holders as a gesture of goodwill. £15 to watch two sides who play in local leagues. Is there any wonder that extortionate ticket prices are endemic?

Similarly, it’s creeping up to silly levels in the Championship. Last season was reasonably affordable (admittedly partly because I got a student discount for some matches), but already this year I’m noticing some games becoming expensive. The standard for away games seems to have crept up to £30. That’s what Sheffield Wednesday charged us for a midweek trip up there, despite a Saturday game there last year being only a tenner, and even Bristol City managed to get us to cough it up. Perhaps worse though is what Wednesday will be charging – Leeds fans will be paying £45 to support their team there. In addition, Ipswich charge away fans the best part of £40 to watch a match there, despite playing in that division for over a decade and being a long trip for nearly every team in the league. As I said above, I can understand charging a fortune for massive matches which are global events, but for meaningless matches in the Championship where most teams will only bring about 1,000 fans it’s absolutely crazy.

A lot of fans are suggesting the “Twenty’s plenty” campaign, which for me is a little flawed for a number of reasons. Not only can travel costs be reduced a lot by booking in advance and often reduced to what the home fans would be paying, but also big games where home fans would pay a lot may result in them entering the away end to get cheaper tickets. Likewise it doesn’t take into account away fans living near the home ground, or exiled home fans having to also make a long journey but pay a fortune.

Instead, I’d like to see all tickets capped. The FA cup has got the idea in reverse, with minimum ticket prices instead of maximum ones, but there’s nothing to stop it happening. Something like £30 for the Premier League (maybe £40 maximum for all matches between sides who finished in the top 8 the previous season), £25 for the Championship, and £20 for Leagues One and Two (with £15 for the Conference and £10 for all divisions below) would keep it affordable for most fans, but would also make allow most clubs to make some money. Let’s face it, with the new TV deal most Premier League clubs could give away every ticket for free and still make more money than before, so charging £30 a head would see income raise even more.

We’ve all paid too much for football tickets at least once before in our lives, and it really needs to change.

Reading 0-1 Derby: A Frustrating Defeat

Following Friday night’s massive win over Ipswich, there was suddenly an air of confidence over the Madejski Stadium. I don’t think anybody expected us to win the league or anything, but we hadn’t lost in a while, and we were finally able to add a threat up front to our solid defence so we knew we could head into most games with some real confidence. However, as usual, the next game would be a tough test – Derby County were coming to town. The Rams had, like Ipswich, been a team that had spent the last few years at the top end of the table after some great work by Steve McClaren. Despite us destroying their season with a 3-0 victory at the very end of last season, everyone knew they would once again be challenging for promotion this season and so it would be a good benchmark to test ourselves against.

Derby County were formed in 1884, mainly to keep the local cricket club active over the winter when they otherwise wouldn’t be playing. As they weren’t a southern team, they joined the football league earlier than most sides, making their debut in the first division in the 1888-89 season. Despite finishing 10^th in a league with 12 teams, they went on to become a moderately successful team at that level for a number of years and weren’t relegated to the second tier until 1907. This spell was brief however, with promotion coming in 1911, and after the suspension of football with the outbreak of war they started the inter-war years with another relegation in 1921. Again it wasn’t for long, with the Rams getting promoted back in 1926, when they entered a reasonably decent spell in their history. Two second-placed finishes preceded the Second World War, when football was again suspended, and there were two more top four finishes before the end of the 1940s.

However, two relegations in 3 seasons led to them joining the third tier in 1953, and despite two years later winning promotion they became a middle-of-the-table Division Two team for much of the 1960s – that is, until they made a masterstroke of a managerial appointment. Step forward Brian Clough.

Within two years of appointment, Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor (forming a legendary double act) won the second division and dragged the club back into the top flight, and finished fourth in their first season back at that level. Two years later, still only their third season in Division One, they won the title, and had a successful journey in Europe the following season, losing in the semi-finals in an infamous match against Juventus. Soon after this, in 1973, Clough and Taylor left after falling out with the chairman (these years were well-documented as part of the excellent film The Damned United), with their star signing Dave Mackay taking over and leading County once again to the league title in 1975. However, a decline set in, with relegation in 1980, and the club fell back to the third division in 1984.

An instant revival followed, with successive promotions in 1986 and 1987, saw them return to the top flight, but another spell in the second tier between 1992 and 1996 further damaged the club, and they were again relegated from the Premier League in 2002, five years after moving into their new stadium in Pride Park. Inconsistent campaigns plagued their spell in the Championship, and despite a promotion in 2007 they took the unwanted record of the worst team in Premier League history with just 11 points and suffered relegation again in 2008. After more difficult years back in the Championship, the club went through a number of managers, eventually settling on former England manager Steve McClaren in 2013. After his first season saw them reach the play-offs, they spent most of the following season again at the top of the table before falling out of the top 6 on the final day after a 3-0 defeat to Reading.

Over the summer they had become the highest spenders in the division, spending well over £20 million on talent such as Tom Ince, Bradley Johnson and Jason Shackell, in addition to snapping up Darren Bent and former Royals Alex Pearce and Chris Baird on free transfers. The Rams also appointed former Chelsea and Real Madrid coach Paul Clement as their manager, which seemed a bit of a strange appointment, not least because he had no experience as a number one at any club. They have endured a difficult start to the season, but they still came to Reading as a team that could cause problems to anyone.

Quite simply, they did a job on us. Learning from Ipswich’s mistakes, they played nowhere near as openly, defending a lot more tightly and being more cautious going forward. Whilst Reading had chances to see the game out, their strategy was compromised just before half-time when Orlando Sa (who had scored a hat-trick on Friday night) reacted to gamesmanship from Shackell and headbutted him, earning himself a red card.

With ten men for the second half, the game slightly shifted, with Reading forced to sit back and not risk leaving themselves open going forward, meaning Derby gained more momentum. It still took them 25 minutes to get a goal though, with Paul McShane and Michael Hector solid in defence. In the end, a great pass from Chris Martin found Tom Ince who slotted home, and in reality from that point the game was over. Chris Gunter missed a difficult chance to equalise in injury time, but few could complain about how the team had actually played despite the result when the full time whistle came.

It was a first defeat in 7, which was a massive disappointment, but once again the performance was encouraging. We could still have a good season ahead!

Tottenham U21 1-4 Reading U21: The Future’s Bright

When you talk about teams with a successful youth policy, a number of sides come to mind. Perhaps the most famous youth team in history was Manchester United’s class of ’92, many of whom (including Beckham, Giggs and the Neville brothers) went on to star in the first team for many a year. Others may think of Southampton, who have given us stars such as Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott, or a West Ham academy who brought Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand into the game. Football purists may prefer to consider Crewe Alexandra, who recently fielded an entire starting 11 of youth products, and frequently bring youngsters into the first team and continue to succeed, but as a Reading fan I always find our own academy is a little ignored at times.

Sure, we may not produce world-class players like some teams, but we were able to bring Gylfi Sigurdsson through our academy, who went on to sell for a record fee and is now an established player at Premier League level. Other players who joined us at a young age and spent time in our youth system include Shane Long and Adam Federici, whilst we have also briefly had Charlie Austin, Ji Dong-Won and Connor Wickham in our youth teams in the past as well. At the start of last season a great number of our youngsters got their chance in the first team, and after winning the Premier League U21 cup two years ago a large portion of our fan base are keen to take an interest in some of our brightest prospects too. Even this season we have seen Tarique Fosu and Aaron Tshibola become first-team players, and we know there could well be more on the way.

I try and get to the occasional U21 game, partly because with so many players breaking in to the first team it’s always good to know a little about the prospects who progress through the system. We’re now in the top flight of the academy system, meaning we’re playing against the top sides, and with us due to play away against Tottenham at Stevenage it seemed like a perfect opportunity to go and watch us again. My dad was away for the week on a business trip, so my mum and I headed up with a friend for what would turn out to be an enjoyable evening.

Despite some predictably heavy traffic on the A1M, we managed to reach Stevenage and park up in Fairlands at about 6, with an hour to go until kick-off. Even at that point the gates weren’t open, and so about ten minutes later we paid our £5 to enter and decided to mark out an away fans’ section in the main stand. In the end there were only five Reading supporters there, but it was still quite nice to have a little area, and it turned out that we were next to where all the scouts and other VIPs were sitting. During the game we saw former Spurs legend Pat Jennings, Southend manager Phil Brown (who had taken Tottenham youngsters on loan a fair bit recently) and former Reading boss Brian McDermott. Brian is one of only two men to have taken Reading up to the top flight, and nobody who has anything to do with the club has a single bad word to say about him, so it was fantastic to see him at the match, and when we spoke to him later that evening it was a brilliant bonus.

Neither side had named any recovering players from the senior squads, meaning there were two young line-ups featuring. A number of the Reading squad had been in the U21 team since they were much younger, meaning they had more experience at this level, and Sean Long and Shane Griffin at full back in particular had been playing against this calibre of player for years. On the right wing we featured Lisandro Semedo, a new signing from Sporting Lisbon’s academy who would have played in the same youth team as Eric Dier, and up front we started Rowan Liburd, who we signed from Billericay in the summer and had scored 3 goals in as many games at U21 level this season.

Early in the game Reading started to look the better side, and it only took eight minutes before the visitors took the leads. A good run down the right flank from Semedo ended with a cross into th e box, and a defensive mix-up from Christian Maghoma led to him putting the ball into his own net, putting Spurs 1-0 down. With this early boost, Reading continued to push forward, creating more chances which was helped by Tottenham playing low-tempo football around their defensive line rather than trying to push forward. Eventually Reading were able to score again, with Novakovich (who made his debut for the first team last season, and went on to make a handful of substitute appearances before the end of the campaign) crossing in for Liburd to head home for his fourth goal in four. When half time arrived, the Royals were firmly in the ascendancy and 2-0 looked a solid lead.

In the second half, we extended our lead further after a careless challenge in the box caused the referee to point to the spot, and Fosu made no mistake when he slotted home to make the lead even greater. However, the three-goal lead wasn’t to last for long, as almost instantly after the restart as substitute Anton Walkes scored almost instantly after coming on after a shot inside the box. Instantly Tottenham began to play with more urgency, almost scoring a second within minutes, and Gareth Bale lookalike Kenneth McEvoy shot just wide to really pile the pressure onto Reading.

Despite the Spurs push, Reading managed to add a fourth goal in the 70^th minute. Novakovich once again found Liburd, this time with a ball over the defence, and the striker again showed his quality with a fine finish to restore the three goal advantage. After the goal, both teams had a few chances but never really threatened the goal, and the game eventually fizzled out to end as a commanding win for Reading. With Liburd being taken off on 78 minutes, he has now scored 5 goals in as many hours, and the team are now top of the league. Can we now say we’re the best academy in England?

Reading 5-1 Ipswich Town: A Rout!

With the international break over, attentions had turned back to the domestic season, and with a flurry of deadline day signings adding to an extremely encouraging win in the last match against Brentford things were starting to look up for Reading. Nick Blackman and Orlando Sa had hit goalscoring form and they were joined up front by the loan signing of Matej Vydra, who had scored 36 goals over two seasons in the Championship with Watford. In addition, we had bought in some more attacking threat in the form of Lucas Piazon and Ola John, meaning expectations had been raised around the club. Failure was no longer an option.

However, Friday night bought with it the toughest test of the season so far, with the visit of an Ipswich Town side that had spent the last few years under Mick McCarthy challenging at the top end of the table and had started this season in a similar way. Whilst we do have a good record against them – we did the double over them last season, and had also beaten them at home the previous season – we knew they would be a big threat, especially with Daryl Murphy (the top scorer in the Championship last season) now joined by promising strikers Brett Pitman and Ryan Fraser, alongside last season’s dangerous players David McGoldrick and Freddie Sears.

Despite being one of the longest-serving Championship sides (they have stayed in the second tier since 2002), Ipswich Town are one of the biggest clubs at this level. Formed in 1878, like most southern sides they spent their early years in local leagues playing amateur football, before joining the Southern League in 1936. They finished third in their second season and were promptly elected into the Football League, entering into the third tier. After winning this league in 1953 they had a single year in Division Two before relegation, but in 1955 they appointed future World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey as their manager, embarking on a historic spell for the club. They won Division Three in 1957, sparking something of a meteoric rise as in 1961 they won Division Two taking them into the top flight for the first time in their history.

In their first season ever in the Division One, they shocked the footballing world by winning the league, with 33 goals coming from talisman Ray Crawford. The following season they reached the second round of the European Cup (before being knocked out by Milan), but after Ramsey left to become England manager the club struggled and in 1964 they conceded a whopping 121 goals during a season in which they were relegated back to the second tier. In 1968, however, they won promotion again and the following year another footballing legend – Sir Bobby Robson – took to the managerial helm. Initially struggling at the bottom end of the First Division, the club stuck with him and by 1973 he had led them to the top four, meaning they would once again enter European competition. The following season saw another 4^th place finish alongside a quarter-final in the UEFA Cup (having knocked out Real Madrid), with the side going one better to finish third in 1975.

Ipswich struggled to continue these good finishes, and despite winning the FA Cup in 1978 they finished 18^th in the league, with the team starting to become known as cup specialists. Despite this, they returned to the top six for a few years and in 1980-1 had a season to remember. Finishing second in the league (their highest finish since 1962), they managed to win the UEFA Cup, resulting in a double with Liverpool winning the European Cup as well. However, the following season they went out in the second round, meaning that despite another second placed finish the season was a little disappointing. Following this, Robson followed in Ramsey’s footsteps and became the manager of the national side, and by 1986 they suffered relegation to Division Two, from which they have never really recovered.

Ipswich have had brief spells in the Premier League since then – between 1992 and 1995, and again between 2000 and 2002 (in 2001 finishing fifth despite a remarkable slump saw them relegated the following season), but financial problems following their most recent relegation saw them settle into the Championship, where they have remained ever since. More recently they have been moderately successful under Mick McCarthy, reaching the play-offs last season, but for now they seem to have become a club that are good at this level but not quite good enough to reach the Premier League.

The Tractor Boys came into the match off the back of a good start, but having lost their last game to league leaders Brighton, and started the game looking quite dangerous. However, seven minutes in a wonderful cross from Nick Blackman following some good work from Matej Vydra led to Orlando Sa heading home for his second goal in two games. A few minutes later some trickery from Ryan Fraser allowed him to breach Reading’s tight defence, and his shot was parried by Jonathan Bond right on to Sears’ shin, and I’m not sure he even needed to kick the ball to score the equaliser. In the past this might have caused a problem for Reading, but with Steve Clarke at the helm we seemed to be unaffected by this.

Minutes on from this, a wonderful counter-attacking move led to Reading taking the lead again. With Anton Ferdinand passing out from the back, Matej Vydra drove the ball down the pitch and found Orlando Sa, who turned well and went past a couple of Ipswich men to score a cracking shot. From winning back possession to scoring Reading had the ball for less than 15 seconds, and it was fantastic to see us playing with some urgency once again. Under Adkins we’d have knocked the ball about the defence for 5 minutes first and ended up creating nothing.

Ipswich created a few more chances before the break, but so did Reading, and in the second half there was still the danger of an equaliser. However, it was the home side that were to grab the next goal. With another ball into the box Orlando Sa scuffed the shot, and a mix-up between Cole Skuse and Dean Gerken allowed Vydra to knock the ball back to Nick Blackman, who needed no cue to smash home a powerful shot from a tough angle. Not that much later another glorious counter-attack meant Nick Blackman got yet another assist before Sa scored from close-range to complete his hat trick, putting the Royals in complete control.

With the match no longer in doubt, Clarke took the chance to take off our attacking stars to some standing ovations, introducing Piazon and John to the fans off the bench. The game looked in danger of fizzling out despite Ipswich hitting the bar, but with just a few minutes left on the clock Oliver Norwood scored the goal of the evening with an astounding 30 yard shot, completing the rout. With the game then ending, the crowd were up on their feet to celebrate at full-time. By the looks of it, Reading are back!

Wales 0-0 Israel: One More Point

The second part of my day of football would see me heading into my third country in as many days. It was only Friday morning when I flew back from Cyprus, and after recovering and going to the earlier match in England I was heading back into Wales once again for the biggest match of the lot.

As mentioned in the last post, as soon as the full time whistle blew at the Bristol Rovers game my friend and I rushed out of the ground, heading straight to the car parked on the main road and within minutes we were back on the motorway. It hadn’t even been 30 minutes since the end of the match before we had crossed the Severn Bridge, and despite some pretty bad traffic on the local road in Cardiff leading to the ground we still managed to park up at the Cardiff City Stadium in time to watch the Wales squad arrive for the match.

I had been to a number of Wales games at this stadium before, and whilst crowds have been good recently I have never seen an atmosphere outside the ground quite like this. With more than an hour until kick off the whole surrounding area was packed with red shirts, and the place had a real buzz around it, with everyone knowing that a win would secure qualification to their first tournament since 1958. Even sitting outside McDonalds you could tell something special was happening that day, and having met up with more friends we decided to head inside before queues started to form, especially with extra security checks in place as a Palestine protest was planned and any of the protesters inside the ground would have broken UEFA rules about separating politics from sport.

With Wales ranked 117^th in the world just four years ago, the news that a win in this game would have put them up to at least fourth had also really boosted the mood of the fans. The huddle at the end of the game in Cyprus had also epitomised the slogan of “Together Stronger” that the Welsh FA had coined for this campaign, and the stadium was decked in banners and posters to push this home. With Wales naming an unchanged line-up from the massive win on Thursday, confidence was at an all-time high and with the ground packed as the teams came out, the place was alive. The national anthem was belted out with gusto, and a few rounds of Zombie Nation later everyone was hyped up for the start of the match.

The passion seemed to spread to the players as well, with Wales absolutely pummelling Israel for the opening twenty minutes. Bale was cutting apart the defence at will, and some fantastic crosses into the box from Neil Taylor and Jazz Richards created a number of chances, but the visitors defended resolutely and were able to keep the Welsh out. Tal Ben-Haim added valuable experience for Israel, being a key rock at the back, although he was a key proponent in their time-wasting from early on, alongside their goalkeeper who managed to make every goal kick take about a minute.

However, after the opening spell, Israel grew into the game and made it a lot tougher for Wales. The game developed a little more into a midfield game, with the home side struggling to break through as much as they did in the early exchanges. Once again Aaron Ramsey didn’t have that good a game, as whenever he got to the halfway line he stopped and slowed the game down rather than push forward with attacks. However, this couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the Welsh faithful, and sitting in a corner of the Canton End I was in a prime position for the chants, including more counts of Zombie Nation, the song that has come to represent this campaign more than any other.

The second half continued as the first ended, with Wales trying to push forward but Israel putting more men behind the ball and working hard to keep them out. There were more chances, but a lot of the play was restricted to crosses into the box which didn’t seem to have any impact, and corners, which are essentially just variations of crosses anyway. A particular highlight of the second spell was a ten minute song for Hal Robson-Kanu to the tune of Salt-n-Pepa’s “Shake It”, with the Reading front man looking ever a threat (if only he could do the same at club level).

With Sam Vokes and Simon Church coming on at the end of the game shifting the formation to 2 traditional strikers up front alongside Gareth Bale, it was clear that Chris Coleman was trying for the win that would have instantly qualified the side, but ultimately it wasn’t to be, despite a clear handball from Israel and the subsequent penalty appeal being ignored by the linesman (I’m not really sure what the 5^th official is meant to do, as he had a clear view of it and still didn’t give anything). However, there was still time for some late action, with the Israel goalkeeper rushing out and allowing Simon Church a free header. With the ball over the line and the net rippling, over 30,000 Welsh took to their feet to celebrate, with me smashing my knee against the seat in front in my euphoria before I realised how stupid I looked when I noticed the linesman’s flag up.

Within seconds of that incident, the referee blew for full time and with Wales sitting on 18 points they were made to wait until they qualified for France. I know from experience it’s a nightmare to get out of the car park after a match, so we headed round to the main entrance to see some of the team getting back on to the bus whilst the traffic cleared. We had a chat with Jazz Richards and our favourite Reading player Chris Gunter, and I was able to get a selfie with Ashley Williams, who for me has been Wales’ stand-out player of the qualification campaign so far (although Gareth Bale is the best-known player, Williams has marshalled a defence that has yet to concede from open play after eight games). After the bus left, we returned to the car, and after being dropped off at Bristol Parkway I headed back to my flat, arriving not long after 10 in the evening. It had been a very long day, but I had seen two enjoyable games and knew that just one point from the final two games (or Belgium beating Israel next month) would see Wales off to France.

We’re all hoping for history to be made, but for now it’s back to the domestic game, with Reading set to face Ipswich on Friday. As it stands, it could be an extremely good season at both club and country level!

Bristol Rovers 0-1 Oxford United: Derby Day

I think it’s fair to say I like football. A lot. However, I’d only ever done two matches in a single day before once, and that was a mini-tournament being held at a single place, so when the opportunity came up to cover two games in two different countries in one day it went straight into my plans. Having flown back from Cyprus on Friday afternoon, I had two days to make it to Cardiff for the late game against Israel, and having foregone a match on the Saturday as I needed at least some time to recover I spotted the convenient early match in Bristol on the same day as the international. A quick chat with my friend, and it was all sorted.

It was a bit of an early start, but I had everything already planned in advance so it was an easy journey to Bristol Parkway which took under an hour, where I parked up and met my friend. From there it was only a couple of miles to the Memorial Stadium, where we had been just over a month previously for Reading’s pre-season friendly. However, this was a bit of a bigger event, with a vast number of television crew already milling around several massive trucks, and hundreds of police arriving in dozens of riot vans. I know Rovers and Oxford have a bit of a reputation, but I thought it was a bit overkill for a match which was kicking off so early in the day that nobody could have had enough alcohol to have got drunk.

Bristol Rovers are the oldest professional football club in the West Country, having formed in 1883 as the Black Arabs, although within a year they had renamed themselves Eastville Rovers. Becoming a founder member of what would become the Western League in 1892, they spent a number of years, like most clubs in the south of England, playing in the Southern League from 1899, until the amalgamation of this into Division Three in 1920. They then spent a long period of time at this level, until eventually they won promotion to the second tier in 1953, where they spent nine moderately successful seasons before relegation took them back into Division Three. Two more spells (1974-81 and 1990-93) in Division Two followed before the club started the new millennium with a relegation to the fourth tier in 2000-01.

With the exception of a four-year spell between 2007 and 2011, when the club returned to League One, they spent thirteen years at this level, before another relegation in 2013-14 saw the Bristol club plunge to their lowest depths and suffer relegation to the Conference. After a difficult start to the 2014-15 season saw them struggle to adapt to life in non-league despite gaining the best crowds the division had ever seen, a strong run meant they narrowly missed out on the title, but play-off successes over Forest Green Rovers and Grimsby Town meant they were still able to bounce back to the Football League at the first time of asking. As a result, Rovers started this season back in League Two, and with crowds amongst the highest in the division expectations are for the club to have another successful season under promising young manager Darrell Clarke.

Oxford United were formed 10 years later than Rovers, in 1893, and have had moderately more success. Despite spending much longer in local leagues and the Southern League and only entering the Football League in 1962, it only took the Oxfordshire side three years to reach the third tier and by 1968 they had reached Division Two. They stayed there for eight seasons, during which they never really challenged for another promotion, before relegation to the third tier, but in 1984 they won promotion back up into the second division. During their spell in Division Three, however, they were plagued by proposals from controversial owner Robert Maxwell to merge them with local rivals Reading, which saw protests by both sets of fans. Despite this, the club went from strength to strength and in their first season back at the second level they won promotion to the top tier for the first time in their history (and only 23 years after joining the Football League).

They spent three years in the First Division before relegation in 1988, and since then a steady decline seems to have set in. In 1994 they were relegated back to the third tier, and despite another promotion two years later were once again back at the third level in 1999, and two years later finished bottom of that division, sending them into Division Three (at that point the fourth tier) alongside Bristol Rovers. They spent a short spell there before dropping back into non-league in 2006 (the same year local rivals Reading set the points record in the Championship, which must have hurt for United), and like so many sides struggled to adapt to non-league football, taking until 2011 to get promoted back into the Football League. Since then they have stayed in League Two, seemingly established as a mid-table side with no threat of another promotion.

The match was a typical lower-league local derby, with full blooded challenges flying in from all over and both sets of fans in fantastic voice (the crowd of over 7,000 is incredibly at this level). Early on, Rovers were reduced to ten men, after referee James Linington saw Ollie Clarke’s aerial battle with Danny Rose as an elbow and sent the home player off, but the visitors failed to capitalise on this, with much of the play being decided on midfield battles. In the second half Linington evened it up, dismissing United’s new signing Liam Sercombe for a second yellow card after another strong challenge, but like before this failed to strengthen the opposition. In fact, it was very shortly after this red card that Oxford went ahead, with former West Brom player Kemar Roofe continuing his goalscoring form with a spectacular curling finish from outside the box that deserved to settle the tie.

A late flurry of chances from Rovers saw men pushing into the box, and a strong penalty claim was turned down, but ultimately even goalkeeper Aaron Chapman going forward couldn’t make an impact, and the game finished as a controversial 1-0 win to Oxford.

As soon as the final whistle sounded, we rushed straight off, and with the car tactically parked on a particular nearby road we were on the M32 within minutes of the end of the match, and on our way to Cardiff for the second match of the day…

Cyprus 0-1 Wales: Together Stronger

With domestic football finished for a couple of weeks after a hectic start to the season, everybody’s focus was turned to the international scene. With only 2 double-header sets of fixtures left before qualifying for the European Championships had finished, all the games were starting to mean something, and Wales had two massive games coming up. If they won both of them, then regardless of other results they would have qualified for the tournament, their first one since 1958, so it was clear to see that this was an incredible opportunity. Israel away had the potential to live long in the memory of fans if they did win there, but first up was a very long trip to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Slightly worryingly, Cyprus were the side that scored one of only two goals that Wales had conceded so far in the campaign (the other was an extremely questionable penalty away at Andorra), but with three consecutive clean sheets following that game (only Romania have conceded fewer goals in the whole campaign so far) and a fantastic win over Belgium last time out, confidence was once again building. Over 3,000 Wales fans had decided to travel out to this game, with many combining it with a holiday (especially with kids on their last week of holidays before going back to school), and so it promised to be a fantastic atmosphere.

I had planned to fly out to Paphos on the Tuesday, spending a couple of days in the coastal town before getting organised coaches to the match and flying back on the Friday. Now, I don’t have the best of luck with EasyJet at all. Last year, I flew out to the Andorra away game via Barcelona, and had booked to fly out to Spain the day before the game before travelling to Andorra itself on match day. Upon arrival at Luton airport, there were massive crowds of people outside a cordon away from the terminal, as a security incident caused absolute mayhem. Once the airport was re-opened (an hour after my flight was due to leave), we all headed to the terminal, where it was revealed that all short-haul flights had been cancelled, leaving me a bit stranded. A quick bit of re-booking on my phone meant, however, that I was able to fly out the following day and made the match, but it was still a bit of a pain!

Luckily, there was no cancellation this time, and the inbound flight that would make up our departure to Paphos was on time, but with passengers taking a very long time to disembark and boarding being delayed and lengthened, we were still sitting at the gate after departure time. After push-back, the pilot came over the tannoy and told us we had missed our ATC slot, and after a 75 minute delay we finally took off. Overall, we spent over five hours on the plane and arrived in Cyprus at half 10, but my taxi was still waiting for me and before long I was checked into my hotel and off to sleep.

It was only when I woke up on Wednesday that I saw the great view from my hotel room, and the same day when I discovered how hot it could get on the island. A short walk to the main strip on Tomb of the Kings Avenue for breakfast preceded a bus journey to the water park, which seemed the best bet for coping with the heat. It was a good day out, and there was a lot to do there, although the poolside café was a little expensive. The lack of sleep the previous night was starting to catch up with me, however, and so after dinner at a nearby café I headed back to the hotel for some sleep. The following day saw a visit to the Tomb of the Kings, which was spectacular but very difficult to walk around with the hot sun beating down.

Later that afternoon, I had to get to the meeting pub in Chloraka to collect my coach ticket and travel to the game. With the buses due to depart at 6PM, I set off at around half 3 and within an hour the local bus dropped me just outside. There were already hundreds of Welsh fans there having some pre-match drinks and displaying flags, and I really don’t envy the job of Leigh James who had to organise 40 coaches across the entire island for the match. In Paphos alone there were 7 coaches, and after stocking up for supplies at the convenience store next door and a little bit of Zombie Nation from the DJ, we piled on and headed for Nicosia. We had a police escort, meaning we sailed through the town and straight on to the motorway, and within two hours we had arrived at the stadium. It was a bit manic after that though, with a massive traffic jam getting in to the car park and the original section reserved for Wales coaches already full after the ones from other resorts had arrived first, meaning it took nearly another half hour to park in the adjacent piece of land.

Once off the coach, it really did feel like something special. The Cypriot FA had arranged for there to be something of a fanzone in the car park, and with thousands of Welsh fans there and heading up to the stadium it really seemed like a big event. After a few checkpoints we were through the turnstiles into the packed concourse, and I headed straight into the stand which was already packed with supporters. It kept filling up until kick-off, and with around 3,200 Welsh fans there it really was incredible. A rousing rendition of the national anthem and some more chants set up a good atmosphere, and the match then started.

To be fair, it was one of Wales’ worst displays in a while. Whilst the referee didn’t help (after disallowing a perfectly good Bale goal early on and letting Cyprus away with a number of fouls, but at other times stopping play for the slightest infraction) and the pitch was cutting up, the team struggled to push forward, with Aaron Ramsey in particular misplacing a number of passes that could have set up good moves. Cyprus also did a job on Gareth Bale, doubling up on him so that whenever he managed to skip away from one man there was always somebody else there to dispossess him and break down a number of moves. On the plus side, the defence was once again strong, with Ashley Williams having another strong display and Jazz Richards once again looking like one of the best players on the pitch on the right flank.

In the second half, Wales seemed to tire a little as well, and I was expecting the game to end at 0-0, which wouldn’t have allowed qualification on Sunday but would have still been an acceptable result. However, as ever Gareth Bale managed to pop up and with 8 minutes to go headed home from a brilliant Jazz Richards cross to send the thousands of travelling fans wild and give Wales the three points. I’m surprised I didn’t end up going over into the row in front, and I know it will be a struggle to get my voice back for the Israel home game after celebrating that goal!

After a few late pushes by Cyprus, and a worrying spill from Wayne Hennessey, the match ended with Wales the victors. A team huddle in front of the fans summed up the “Together Stronger” motto for this qualifying campaign, and after a few more celebrations we were back on the coach. We departed just after midnight, and arrived back at the meeting pub at 2 in the morning, eventually getting in to my hotel about 20 minutes later. It’s fair to say I didn’t get much sleep after that!

The next morning (or should it be the same morning?) I got a taxi back to the airport, and after another 40 minute delay we were back in the air. 4 and a half hours later I was back in Britain, and a short train journey home meant I was finally back and able to prepare for Sunday. If they beat Israel now, not only will they qualify for the final tournament for the first time since 1958, but they will also rise to at least 4^th in the world rankings. It’s a massive opportunity, and one that everyone will be up for.