Seagulls at the Banks’?

Crowds were gathered at Shoreham for the annual Shoreham Air Show last weekend. Something went wrong. Dreadfully wrong – and as is the norm now there were so many cameras on it to record the Hawker Hunter (one of my personal aviation icons) topping out of a loop in blazing sunshine and – somehow, time will perhaps reveal – bottoming out too low and crashing into the nearby A27. Fireball!

Latest death toll yesterday was eleven and set to rise. So sad. And I am a great fan of air shows (though on holiday in Bideford I missed the one at Cosford this year) but this is real tragedy. People and families affected.

Shoreham: close to Brighton. Brighton our visitors this evening in the Capital One Cup. And one of the people who lost their lives in the disaster was a member of the Brighton hospitality staff as well as playing for Worthing F.C. as a genuinely rightful mark of respect before kick-off there was a minute’s silence. Enormously respectful – the whole crowd in harmony for a minute, between referee’s whistles.

 

Then applause and the game began.

Credit to the four hundred and some fans of Brighton who made the long journey; these are real supporters. Travelling the distances for away games in mid-week. As an experiment Walsall have moved away fans into the pitch-side stand, with both “ends” being allocated for Walsall fans. The idea, as best I understand it (and maybe I don’t) is that our team gets vocal support from both ends. This is fairly common at other away grounds. Let’s see what comes of it.

Certainly there were chants from both ends – and enough noise from the Brighton travelling masses.

Now Brighton began the game unbeaten: second in the Championship ( league above us) and started brightly enough. Our defence passing the ball smartly and accurately, but Brighton stronger and appearing fitter (as one might expect from a higher league side). Don’t get me wrong; I am constantly impressed by the levels of fitness shown by the Saddlers team: Jon Whitney has a lot to be proud of. But they also appeared more tactically savvy, changing and adapting and sharper.

Downing guilty of misplacing some passes and giving the ball away.

Referee was also sharp: we got a high number of free kicks in the first fifteen minutes. But then he slacked off, feeling, perhaps that he had established his authority.

Bradshaw playing a lone man up front, busy as ever, but getting nothing from the Brighton defenders. Credit to the striker – he never gave up chasing and harrying. Kieron Morris again supporting brilliantly: some wonderful close control as he ventured on long runs.

The corner score board screen surreally showed the pitch action. Smaller than real life. At rock concerts it is the very opposite: the stage screens show large images. Here we wondered at the point of the exercise. Really necessary?

But a few minutes before half time Brighton player Forster Caskey, after riding a challenge for a defender, decided to throw himself to the ground. Rather than book the blatant diver the referee pointed to the spot and the penalty was scored.

Half time – one of the access doors to the savoy Lounge being jammed we nipped inside for a coffee. Back out again afterwards Walsall’s attitude this season kicked in. they’ re from a higher league? Well, let’s get among ‘em then. Lalkovic, eager in the first half became more of a threat, jinking, turning, her one moment, somewhere different later.

Young, muscular centre half Matt Preston made his season’s debut (was that his parents next to me taking so many photos?) to replace Downing. Sawyers on for Flanagan. A long, perhaps hopeful ball down the line saw Tom Bradshaw, head down getting to it first, bustling past a defender and knocking it into the ox. Sawyers? No, he let it run: Lalkovic, steaming in hammered it home. He is very passionate, this twenty two year old and celebrated long and too hard, earning a yellow card. Such antic s (scoring and heart) have already made his return popular.

Now we were rampant!

But, another Brighton penalty at least as dubious as the first. Blazed high, wide and not terribly handsomely over the bar. To the delight of the Walsall fans ensconced behind the end where, normally Brighton fans would have been. Is this the desired effect?

Game ticking in to last ten minutes, we are well on top, pushing hard. Sawyers, having a much better game against this classier side, swung a ball into the path of raiding forward defender Rico henry: the tiniest player on the pitch. Tiny? But massive hearted; he’d run himself all over the pitch to that point. A great finish – and we hung on for the additional five minutes. Thanks ref!

Who would we like in the next round? I wondered aloud if Milan Lalkovic might like to have a crack at Chelsea the team that let him go.

Whaddaya know? Looking at the draw on the internet: Chelsea at home

The original Mourinho versus the “ginger Mourinho”

Meanwhile in the Athletics World Championships Jessica Ennis-Hill amazed herself and not a few aficionados by blasting her way to a gold medal. Modesty personified she is gritty, committed and gracious, she was uncertain about even competing in these games having given birth to a son just a year ago. Alf Tupper, are you looking in on this? And Greg Rutherford also claimed a gold in the long jump.

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.