Blades Out! JPT:Sheff. Utd. (home)

A little digression before we begin. The weekend passed while I was in Tallinn. Walsall crept a replay against Shrewsbury and Walsall Football Club paid a fitting tribute to Stewart Staples, long-time fan of the club – and a good friend to my family and I.

It was also Remembrance Sunday weekend. A hundred years since the beginning of a war which surprised everyone by its duration and the damage, loss of life and injury caused. Alrewas, just up the A38 from me is the proud home of the Memorial Arboretum. Funded by voluntary contributions the site has risen from quarried land to become a fine establishment and, this year one of the key sites for remembrance. Ironically during the war years Alrewas had a fine women’s football team, but at the end of hostilities the F.A. banned women from playing in public apparently. Imagine how the world might have been different if this decision had not been made.

 

Sheffield United suddenly became newsworthy at the start of the week. A former player, Ched Evans (a Welsh international) has been released from prison following serving a sentence for rape. His contract with the Blades ran out while he was inside.

Upon leaving prison he wanted a chance to “go back to work” (play professional football and his case was, it seems taken up by the Professional Footballer’s Association. He has been allowed to train at Sheffield United (managed by Nigel Clough). There has been a tremendous uproar from all quarters. From those connected with the club, from the shirt sponsors, from Jessica Ennis-Hill (Olympic athlete) who has a stand at Bramall Lane named for her, from TV presenter “Charlie” Webster (A club patron apparently) to name but a few.

 

 

While I confess to being mildly surprised I can, of course, understand the furore. However, given that the courts found him guilty he has served his time and deserves a chance to return to life. He will never be able to do it without stigma – inevitably – and, should he ever play professionally again, he will find that football fans have a unique way of dragging players’ histories up, again and again. But courts do not dispense justice: they dispense decisions according to the law. Evans is still claiming that he did nothing wrong is upsetting his detractors who feel, rightly that as a potential “role model” he should take responsibility for his actions. So … Sheffield United were due to play is in the regional quarter final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Wednesday night. But it is entirely possible that their minds were on other matters, not least a realistic promotion challenge this season.

On my own at the kick off, part of a disappointing two thousand plus crowd I find that a TV camera station has been set up blocking the view from my season ticket seat. The match, evidenced by the plethora of grey-not-quite-silver vans on the car park is being broadcast on Sky TV. I move along a couple of seats, dodge about as genuine seat owners claim their rightful places – and settle up between a trio of professional scouts and another regular. We were soon talking and a man, sort of familiar, tried to walk the narrow space between the back of our chairs and the windows of the windows of the lounge. I helped him past as he stumbled and looked like falling. Kenny Jackett (Wolves manager).

Good support from a couple of coach loads from up north.

Kick off and a bright start. To and fro football; Saddlers probably just edging it. Bradshaw, brave as always up front. Sawyers, Cain and Forde in midfield attacking roles. Ben Purkiss having another excellent game. So are the Chambers twins. Some fairly innocuous challenges seeing players yellow carded and a severe one which took Bradshaw down not even getting a free kick. Consistency please?

Good saves by O’Donnell – left exposed a couple of times.

 

Second half started without Bradshaw, replaced by Manset. I find out later he has “stretched a hamstring”. Quick forward work and we win a corner. Purkiss would say later in a radio interview that the set piece was “one of ten or so we rotate …” but Sawyers ran to the ball, got a neat flicked header which the defender at the far post, under pressure from Jordan Cook helped into the net. I am not a statistician by any means but cannot remember the last time we scored from a corner.

  

 

We were then on top for a long spell. Nigel Clough had many a number of changes, while Dean Smith is keeping to his word and playing his “strongest team”. Whatever, despite a late flurry from Blades, and after five minutes added time we are into the regional semi-final.

A lot has been made by local media about the fact we have never played at Wembley in our entire history. This evening we are a step closer, in this competition than Sheffield United are going to be.

It was a good result. TV audiences would have switched sides long before the end I think: not enough action or drama! But sometimes a result is the only thing that counts. We are hearing the buzz word “momentum” around our club now. If that means the motivation/inspiration you get from putting a run together I’ll take it.

Driving home I notice how dark the skies are.

Somewhere out there, around three hundred million miles away the European Space Agency has landed an unmanned probe on a comet. How amazing is that? The rocket carrying it was launched ten years ago in a planned rendezvous. Called Rosetta the mission has the lander on the surface returning signals and data back to Darmstadt, Germany. It’s where science gets exciting.

 

In a script a little like The Martian, things are not quite as planned and the batteries of the lander may not be able to re-charge. But we’ll learn a little more from the information we get back.

A little closer to home David Moyes has taken up the manager’s job at Real Sociedad. Good luck to him.

Outrage and the Robins: Bristol City at Bescot.

The Wyrley Outrages!

In short a series of attacks on sheep, cattle and horses discovered in 1903 for which George Edalji, son of mixed-race parents arrested. The attacks were said to be extremely brutal and included maiming and “ripping”. Police received letters from the “Wyrley Gang” and investigated (or not).

Mr Clark, final teacher in primary school was the first person I remember mentioning these – and it changed my world. Something extremely noteworthy had happened in the very place I now lived. History and fame knew where I lived. I went to the very church that the accused-convicted-cleared George Edalji’s father had been vicar!

Mr (Albert) Tomkinson, history teacher at the Secondary Modern school I went to added more – and more grisly – detail.

A couple of years ago I read a book (George and Arthur, by Julian Barnes), thinking I had learned more. It is a well-written book, but may well be guiding readers down a number of wrong, but interesting paths. For sure Arthur Conan-Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories certainly visited Great Wyrley and is reputed to have stayed at the Star Inn – a couple of hundred yards from my own home and now being renovated (rumour has it to become a gastro pub) – while trying to find the evidence to clear the convicted man.

Now I read – in the erstwhile Express and Star – that there is a TV mini-series being made based on the book to star martin Clunes, Art Malik and Emma Fielding. It is being filmed in locations which include, it is said, Staffordshire.

There is a lot of interest in local history at the moment. A new series of Peaky Blinders started on Thursday. Peaky Blinders is stunning in its portrayal of conditions in Birmingham and the surrounding area (the Peaky Blinders on which this drama is based were a Small Heath gang who sewed razor blades into the peaks of their caps to use in fights). I suspect, however that the writers took liberties with the real history to come up with this tense, gritty period piece which involves politics, gambling, the lives of the working class – and, in this new one life in the 1920s as the gang, having become “respectable” and rather rich seek to expand their activities.

It is interesting to note the way society treats “gangsters” of the past. In the case of Peaky Blinders adding a dark glamour.

Following an item on the Making of peaky Blinders on the local news programme was an ironic reminder of the realities of gangsterism: the drive-by shooting of a couple of teenagers, Letitia Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis in 2003 in Aston. Apparently some part of a “retaliation killing” gang plan. Things in Birmingham at the time, perhaps even now revolving around hardened gangs. Is it possible things don’t change?

I cannot help thinking about the way the media, so quick to get to a story these days, impacts on our lives: our actions, thinking, opinions. A massive influence, no doubt.

Meanwhile western politicians and some of their counterparts in the Middle east are struggling to come to terms with the barbarism of “Islamic State” (I put the name into inverted commas here for a number of reasons; not least because I find it hard to link their stated beliefs with the Islam I know. Also because the media refers to them by a number of acronyms (ISIS, ISIL) and it is hard to pin down who they actually are. Whatever the case may be they are altering politics in the Arab world in seeming to be trying to set up a separate state run on lines they believe are sacred. They have ruthlessly executed U.S., U.K. and French nationals who, it seems were where they were to supply aid to local communities. It is also reported that Europeans are joining their ranks in Syria, fighting against the national armies and Kurds who live there.

The United States has called for a coalition to stand against this “threat” and is actively bombing the Islamic State forces on the ground. Britain and other countries are joining them.

From that international news to the small matter of the Walsall home game. Bristol City, unbeaten so far this season and riding high and confident at the top of our league arrived with a massive support: busy, vocal and getting behind their team. The attendance was somewhere around five and a half thousand. Wish we could get that many every week!

Paper talk is that we are getting over our injury list, that we have more players to pick from (that (Jordan Cook for example is almost ready to play a full game – he broke his ankle, after being our big summer signing during the friendlies trip to Devon).

And, sure enough we started the game better than any I have seen this season On the front foot, at times with four men pressing up: Sawyers, Bradshaw, Baxendale (another waspish display) and Forde looking strong.

On-emergency-loan Andy Butler again looking big and strong at the back and Paul Downing seeming happy to take a lead from our former skipper. A busy first half from Chambers and a super display from young Reece Flanagan (again) until he ran out of steam in the second half. And Romaine Sawyers seems to have his mojo back. Until last week lacking in confidence and off the pace he deservedly took the man-of-the-match award last week and is again busy and effective.

The Wyrley Outrages!

In short a series of attacks on sheep, cattle and horses discovered in 1903 for which George Edalji, son of mixed-race parents arrested. The attacks were said to be extremely brutal and included maiming and “ripping”. Police received letters from the “Wyrley Gang” and investigated (or not).

Mr Clark, final teacher in primary school was the first person I remember mentioning these – and it changed my world. Something extremely noteworthy had happened in the very place I now lived. History and fame knew where I lived. I went to the very church that the accused-convicted-cleared George Edalji’s father had been vicar!

Mr (Albert) Tomkinson, history teacher at the Secondary Modern school I went to added more – and more grisly – detail.

A couple of years ago I read a book (George and Arthur, by Julian Barnes), thinking I had learned more. It is a well-written book, but may well be guiding readers down a number of wrong, but interesting paths. For sure Arthur Conan-Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories certainly visited Great Wyrley and is reputed to have stayed at the Star Inn – a couple of hundred yards from my own home and now being renovated (rumour has it to become a gastro pub) – while trying to find the evidence to clear the convicted man.

Now I read – in the erstwhile Express and Star – that there is a TV mini-series being made based on the book to star Martin Clunes, Art Malik and Emma Fielding. It is being filmed in locations which include, it is said, Staffordshire.

There is a lot of interest in local history at the moment. A new series of Peaky Blinders started on Thursday. Peaky Blinders is stunning in its portrayal of conditions in Birmingham and the surrounding area (the Peaky Blinders on which this drama is based were a Small Heath gang who sewed razor blades into the peaks of their caps to use in fights). I suspect, however that the writers took liberties with the real history to come up with this tense, gritty period piece which involves politics, gambling, the lives of the working class – and, in this new one life in the 1920s as the gang, having become “respectable” and rather rich seek to expand their activities.

It is interesting to note the way society treats “gangsters” of the past. In the case of Peaky Blinders adding a dark glamour.

Following an item on the Making of peaky Blinders on the local news programme was an ironic reminder of the realities of gangsterism: the drive-by shooting of a couple of teenagers, Letitia Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis in 2003 in Aston. Apparently some part of a “retaliation killing” gang plan. Things in Birmingham at the time, perhaps even now revolving around hardened gangs. Is it possible things don’t change?

I cannot help thinking about the way the media, so quick to get to a story these days, impacts on our lives: our actions, thinking, opinions. A massive influence, no doubt.

Meanwhile western politicians and some of their counterparts in the Middle East are struggling to come to terms with the barbarism of “Islamic State” (I put the name into inverted commas here for a number of reasons; not least because I find it hard to link their stated beliefs with the Islam I know. Also because the media refers to them by a number of acronyms (ISIS, ISIL) and it is hard to pin down who they actually are. Whatever the case may be they are altering politics in the Arab world in seeming to be trying to set up a separate state run on lines they believe are sacred. They have ruthlessly executed U.S., U.K. and French nationals who, it seems were where they were to supply aid to local communities. It is also reported that Europeans are joining their ranks in Syria, fighting against the national armies and Kurds who live there.

The United States has called for a coalition to stand against this “threat” and is actively bombing the Islamic State forces on the ground. Britain and other countries are joining them.

From that international news to the small matter of the Walsall home game. Bristol City, unbeaten so far this season and riding high and confident at the top of our league arrived with a massive support: busy, vocal and getting behind their team. The attendance was somewhere around five and a half thousand. Wish we could get that many every week!

Paper talk is that we are getting over our injury list, that we have more players to pick from (that (Jordan Cook for example is almost ready to play a full game – he broke his ankle, after being our big summer signing during the friendlies trip to Devon).

And, sure enough we started the game better than any I have seen this season On the front foot, at times with four men pressing up: Sawyers, Bradshaw, Baxendale (another waspish display) and Forde looking strong.

On-emergency-loan Andy Butler again looking big and strong at the back and Paul Downing seeming happy to take a lead from our former skipper. A busy first half from Chambers and a super display from young Reece Flanagan (again) until he ran out of steam in the second half. And Romaine Sawyers seems to have his mojo back. Until last week lacking in confidence and off the pace he deservedly took the man-of-the-match award last week and is again busy and effective.

 

Bristol City wearing an unusual strip: purple shirts and green shorts. Not sure if this is an away strip, but I am used to associating The Robins with red and white. My favourite colour is purple, so, while this is an unfashionable combination, especially with the bright orange boots some of the team are wearing, I find myself liking the team. But it’s a league One Game, not a catwalk show, although it has a couple of pantomime moments. The first of which is a moment of comedy that became semi-tragedy (and could have gone terribly wrong!): keeper O’Donnell, keen to get on with the game took a free kick (simply too early and without thinking) which, poorly directed, came off the back of a walking away City striker. Fortunately for him – and Walsall – it didn’t rebound into the net. O’Donnell shouted furiously, gesticulated dramatically – and the ref booked the Bristol player for not being ten yards away when the kick was taken. Poor refereeing, but we smiled.

A little later, Wilbrahim, one of the taller Bristol players, stooping down to control the ball was touched by the boot of a Walsall defender. He went down dramatically – no call for such over acting – and the defender was booked. I am guessing it was for “foot up” but this was not the case. We stopped smiling!

 

Former Everton and Man.Utd. manager David Moyes was a the game apparently. He played for Bristol City once upon a time – or he has been invited to take over the youth team at Walsall (just a joke Mr Moyes, honest) – take your pick..

Although he wasn’t getting much of the ball, the Bristol winger, number 23 Joe Bryan looked useful and cut into the penalty box to score a neat goal after eleven minutes. We did not panic, even on the field, keeping up a steady stream towards the Bristol goal. Some fine passing movements, mixing short and long passes and good raiding by our full backs.

Some substitutions followed: Bradshaw off (perhaps injured) and Cook coming on and Flanagan off and Clifford on, finally Baxendale off and Manset on. Some more fine play, Walsall showing no lack of confidence now after good wins over the past few weeks and a great passing movement saw Romaine Sawyers (on duty again this week for St Kitts) hit a sweet and powerful drive into the net.

Also noteworthy was the substitution of the assistant referee, who went down in a tangle after a tussle between Jordan Cook and a Bristol defender. It took an embarrassingly long time for the substitute official to appear. And once he was on Bristol City decided to make a substitution. Why, so suddenly when they had just had something like six minutes to get it done?

 

Game finished one all. Satisfyingly good performances from the Saddlers; getting better. I expect Bristol City, with their attitude and professional play will be in the promotion race at the end of the season … but this is football.

A great afternoon’s entertainment.

I have been invited to join I.C.A.D. as a guest for the match they will perhaps sponsor (at home against Barnsley on December 13^th) and we also talked about going to Rochdale on Tuesday for the Johnson’s Paint Trophy game.

Watch this space!

Bristol City wearing an unusual strip: purple shirts and green shorts. Not sure if this is an away strip, but I am used to associating The Robins with red and white. My favourite colour is purple, so, while this is an unfashionable combination, especially with the bright orange boots some of the team are wearing, I find myself liking the team. But it’s a league One Game, not a catwalk show, although it has a couple of pantomime moments. The first of which is a moment of comedy that became semi-tragedy (and could have gone terribly wrong!): keeper O’Donnell, keen to get on with the game took a free kick (simply too early and without thinking) which, poorly directed, came off the back of a walking away City striker. Fortunately for him – and Walsall – it didn’t rebound into the net. O’Donnell shouted furiously, gesticulated dramatically – and the ref booked the Bristol player for not being ten yards away when the kick was taken. Poor refereeing, but we smiled!

A little later, Wilbrahim, one of the taller Bristol players, stooping down to control the ball was touched by the boot of a Walsall defender. He went down dramatically – no call for such over acting – and the defender was booked. I am guessing it was for “foot up” but this was not the case. We stopped smiling!

Former Everton and Man.Utd. manager David Moyes was a the game apparently. He played for Bristol City once upon a time – or he has been invited to take over the youth team at Walsall (just a joke Mr Moyes, honest) – take your pick..

Although he wasn’t getting much of the ball, the Bristol winger, number 23 Joe Bryan looked useful and cut into the penalty box to score a neat goal after eleven minutes. We did not panic, even on the field, keeping up a steady stream towards the Bristol goal. Some fine passing movements, mixing short and long passes and good raiding by our full backs.

Some substitutions followed: Bradshaw off (perhaps injured) and Cook coming on and Flanagan off and Clifford on, finally Baxendale off and Manset on. Some more fine play, Walsall showing no lack of confidence now after good wins over the past few weeks and a great passing movement saw Romaine Sawyers (on duty again this week for St Kitts) hit a sweet and powerful drive into the net.

Also noteworthy was the substitution of the assistant referee, who went down in a tangle after a tussle between Jordan Cook and a Bristol defender. It took an embarrassingly long time for the substitute official to appear. And once he was on Bristol City decided to make a substitution. Why, so suddenly when they had just had something like six minutes to get it done?

Game finished one all. Satisfyingly good performances from the Saddlers; getting better. I expect Bristol City, with their attitude and professional play will be in the promotion race at the end of the season … but this is football.

A great afternoon’s entertainment.

I have been invited to join I.C.A.D. as a guest for the match they will perhaps sponsor (at home against Barnsley on December 13^th) and we also talked about going to Rochdale on Tuesday for the Johnson’s Paint Trophy game.

Watch this space!

Strikers … One Step Forward Please.

So, it was confirmed today. David Moyes, chosen by Sir Alex Ferguson among others as his successor is out of a job. The price of failure. The pressures of football management. Or maybe any kind of management when the stakes are financially or artificially high.

Seems a somehow disloyal decision to me, but then I support a local club that’s run, it would appear on completely different lines. They’re the “toffs”, we’re Alf Tupper on his way to training via Winton’s chippie and doin’ a paper round on the way.

Meanwhile Wolves are promoted as champions and Brentford also get promotion. The knock on effect of that is that Walsall get another slice of cash for Will Grigg (one of our key forwards last season).

He couldn’t agree a deal with Dean Smith and moved to Brentford in the close season, but we were due some money. The F.A. needed to set up a tribunal as the two clubs couldn’t agree on a figure. But the tribunal was (wickedly) late for we could have done with the money during the transfer window so as to be able to nab something that resembled a replacement. Not to be – and the authorities remain bullet-proof. Then eventually they got together and we were granted an initial £325,000 with additional clauses.

Now, with Brentford qualifying for promotion, we get an additional £50,000. Bonus. And we need a dyed in the wool striker! Dean Smith should get some of the money to spend. And he should be able to start looking soon (hint, hint!)

Craig Westcarr has been our season-long front man, but, with all due respect he is not an out-and-out striker. Sure, he can hit the ball, has vision, but lacks the aggression to get in where it might hurt and the killer instinct to put himself in the right places. Sawyers was worth keeping, but is inconsistent: a talented ball player but lacks application sometimes.

A year ago, losing the three doing-well strikers (Febian Brandy, to Sheffield Utd, Jamie Paterson – Notts Forest and Will Grigg, to Brentford), really knocked us back. But, after a surprisingly reasonable season, we need to be in the market. And we have money. Don’t we?

 

Gillingham: Home

Strange how days seem to merge and blur over the Easter break. With the game at Carlisle on Good Friday the day seemed like a Saturday with me typing on the computer, listening to the radio commentaries and actually expecting there to be a Match of the Day on TV (there wasn’t of course). Saturday seemed strange with Premiership matches going on (including Sunderland beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge handing Liverpool a good chance to establish a real challenge for the title in Sunday’s game (they took it, beating Norwich City fairly convincingly)).

And today’s bank Holiday home game against Gillingham adding to the confusion.

Or was it only confusing for me?

The people at the booking office have been great this season, courteous, efficient and helpful. I will not be needing this service next season as I now have a season ticket (apart from advance buying away tickets and – ooo-er – tickets for our –we can but hope – Cup run). My thanks to them all.

Bright, sunny journey. Birds singing, my car freshly cleaned inside and flowers springing up everywhere. Gossip on BBC WM is that David Moyes will be sacked by Man United (this is the way that rumours start, I’m thinking, start, build up credibility and become fact). I am deeply jealous of the resources that man Utd have (or apparently command) but aware that behind that is the spiral-drive for success and then success-plus. I had hoped that a club like United would stand against the trends. Moyes was reasonably successful at Everton after all and, in my opinion deserves a longer bedding-in period. Sir Alex Ferguson was always going to be a tricky act to follow; he managed the football and commercial aspects of the job well – the pressures too!

Meanwhile – it could all be rumour and supposition a la radio – in local place and time I am parked and marching to the ground, past loitering supporters on mobile phones and deep in desultory conversations I head for the seat that will have my name on it next season.

Westcarr’s back from suspension, Lalkovic recovered from his hamstring strain and Gillingham, on paper, poor opposition.

We start strongly, rattle the Gills defence then settle back a little tamely. Febian Brandy is, typically, keen to do well, so too is Lalkovic. They might both be playing to attract attention from Championship scouts, hoping to get deals for next season. I hope we can keep Brandy, but also sensibly think he may cost too much for our means. Lalkovic too.

Paul Downing appears to lead a charmed life today, the referee not penalising what looked like fouls and at least one penalty, eventually and predictably getting booked for a fairly innocuous one later in the game. No appeals from the Gillingham players either, who are starting to look direct and capable. Mal Benning meanwhile, playing at left back is raiding up the wings like a good ‘un, full of pace and ambition and tricky ball skills taking him into some good positions. He rains crosses into the penalty area. Too bad no Walsall player can get on to the end of them.

There is a good following from Gillingham, it’s a long way to travel (a hundred and sixty something miles, translates as three hours or so of travel) at this stage of the season, so fair play to their faithful (a.k.a. noisy) supporters.

Not so many Walsall supporters here. Busy gardening? Decorating? Lost interest? Out of money?

We talk about the November stag night. Venue fixed. Tallin. Flights and hotel to be organised. Leaving Stansted at seven a.m. doesn’t sound too bright but gives us more time in the city I guess. I am looking forward to it – fly out on Friday, back on Sunday … but hope there isn’t a home match that weekend.

Half time. Inside for a coffee. Talk about families, work. Almost forget we are at a football game and kick off has been taken and play is under way as we saunter back out to our seats. Nearby a man is scribbling notes on to a paper. I guess he is a scout for one of the teams we have yet to play. What an interesting task and I wonder how they actually do it? Some pre-arranged format?

Good open play from both teams, but Westcarr tried a couple from long range (unusual for Walsall this season) and from one of them the ball came back off the keeper’s outstretched hand to Brandy, running in to blast into the back of the net.

Some minutes before the end Gillingham are level. The umpteenth team we have helped avoid relegation in the last few weeks … and we have won only two of the last sixteen games. Good job we put a shift in early on in the season.

Elsewhere, tensions are still going on between Russia, the Ukraine and the rest of the world.

It’s Queen Elizabeth’s eighty eighth birthday. She celebrates with a rare “private day” at home with the family, while all over London there are military gun-salutes. We do pageantry so well.

It is also the fiftieth birthday of BBC 2.

Across the pond Boston is extremely security conscious about its annual marathon, following the harrowing scenes at the finish line last year, when terrorists exploded a bomb as runners were finishing. Dreadful!

We were in Boston in October of last year. Having been on an escorted “leaf Peeper” tour of New England and out in the rural parts for many days, Boston seemed intimidatingly cityish as we drove in, but soon took on human proportions as we walked out across the Common.

match images; saddlers.co.uk and Walsall Advertiser