Belper Town v Hucknall Town

Saturday 29th September 2007

F.A. Cup 2nd Qual Round

The choice was made, and the right one methinks, although the Glapwell 4-4 with Market Drayton looked a good game !

Always enjoy going to Christchurch Meadows, best snap ever and the setting is fantastic. Chips and peas for me, pie, chips, peas and gravy for Kev -- just the job !!...

With Hucknall struggling at the bottom of the Conference North, Belper had a great chance to cause a cup upset -- and they took it well.

Belper took the lead after just 14 minutes - a superb free-kick from the left volleyed home crisply at the far post by Anthony Wilson. It seemed that everything Hucknall did was laboured, and although the confidence must be low after their poor start to the season, they should be sweeping away UniBond Div One teams. The Watnall Road outfit managed to pull level just before the break, a corner from the left nodded on by Timmons and Akers was on hand to tap home from close range.

H-T 1-1 Roast pork, stuffing and apple sauce cob !! Heaven !!!!

From the re-start it looked like Hucknall had found a bit of a spark, but the spark never developed into a flame, and Belper came back strongly halfway through the half. On 69 minutes when Anthony Wilson was tripped in the box, Ross Hannah smashed the spot kick past Greg Smith in the Hucknall goal to give the Nailers the lead. Only a great save from Adam Ogden, the Belper keeper, in the 5th minute of stoppage time kept the home advantage, but truthfully Belper got the £3750 prize money, while Hucknall got what they deserved .. nowt !

Tuesday 2nd October -- Rainworth v Kidsgrove Athletic -- F.A. Cup 2nd Qual -- tough one for Rudy's lads......

Thursday 27th September

Supposed to go to Sutton -- err.. rain plus the fact that Real Madrid were live on TV at 9pm plus the fact the young keeper was not needed -- well, would you go to a Sutton Town U19 game in the rain or watch Real Madrid on TV?

Kev wants to go to Eastwood or Belper on Saturday....may be a coin toss.

Dunkirk v South Normanton Athletic

Tuesday 25th September 2007

F.A. Vase replay. Visit to the Ron Steel Ground to see Dunkirk from the CML Supreme Div take on NCEL Premier outfit South Normanton Athletic. Saw SNA last week at Long Eaton - this was not the team that gave LEU a hammering - they were awful.

4 minutes - Scott Pratt stroked the ball past Ross Whalin after latching onto a superb through ball from left back Danny Blanchard. 17 minutes - Neil Thompson's cracking 22 yard free-kick flew into the net. 41 minutes - Thompson fired home a scorching volley from 25 yards ...

H-T 3-0

Cup of tea in the clubhouse, and unusual for us, we missed the kick-off....still the second 45 minutes were fairly uneventful -- the most surprising thing was that the game finished 11 v 11 ..... lots of tough tackles and more than a few fouls saw 6 players booked, but it all calmed down as SN accepted the reality of losing the tie.

Thursday night sees Kev and me off up the M1 to see Danny Bryant at Sutton Town ( well, he wants a look at a young keeper we know - but it seemed a good excuse to catch up with the man...)

Saturday -- now we are spoiled for choice....

Glapwell v Market Drayton, Belper v Hucknall (FA Cup),

Arnold v Nostell, Borrowash v Rainworth ( NCEL),

Carlton v Retford ( NPL Div 1),

Heanor v Graham St Prims, Rolls v Greenwood Meadows, Sutton v Blidworth ( CML)

Ilkeston v Marine, Eastwood v Leek ( NPL Premier)....

My choice? If it was a bit easier to get out of the ground, Belper v Hucknall ....but may opt for Sutton v Blidworth -- then again Carlton seems a good choice,,,, HELP !!! where to go ??????

Saturday 22nd September

With Kev away at the coast with his family, I decided to have a "lazy day" --- a day spent watching the 20-20 semi-finals and the ladies World Cup 1/4 final USA v England -- followed this with Barcelona v Sevilla and then MOTD -- a day well spent !!

Typical though -- all the games I could have gone to, saw the local teams successful...
Rainworth won at Radcliffe, Sutton beat Highfield, Gedling Town beat Castle Vale, Gedling MW beat Atherstone, Hucknall Town finally won, 2-0 v Vauxhall Motors, but the best result has to be Eastwood 2-1 Fleetwood.. Fleetwood previously 6 unbeaten. Eastwood move up to 6th place in the UniBond Premier Division. I know ETFC are struggling for a top striker at the moment, but with full backs Chris Shaw and Ricky Hanson scoring regularly, I can't see Gaffer Paul Cox panicking just yet.

The 20-20 was superb, leaving us with a Pakistan v India final -- the previous meeting saw the first ever "bowl-out" -- which India won 3-0 ...The England ladies did well in the first half, but conceded three in the second period to bow out of the tournament.

This coming Tuesday night -- three choices only -- Dunkirk v South Normanton, Long Eaton v Nuneaton Griff or Rolls Royce v Hatfield Main...spoilt for choice.....we saw LEU v South Normanton last week, and Rolls the week before.....may opt for either the Dunkirk or Long Eaton games, although replays are to be avoided ....so it could be Rolls again....

Long Eaton United v South Normanton

NCEL Presidents Cup Tuesday 18th September 2007

First trip to Long Eaton for a while - changed a bit since my last visit - a nice main stand has been built - the seats are bit small and my un-athletic frame took some lowering down !!
United's right back, Adam Holmes, has just joined the A.N. Wallis ( lightning protection and earthing equipment specialists) sales team and this was a great chance to catch him in action on the pitch.

Forget the game -- LEU began brightly enough but were soon a goal down, then pulled it back to 1-1, but a they defended poorly again from a set piece and Normanton went in at the break 2-1 up.

After conceding another three goals with just one in reply, the only thing left to do was wonder why Adam is playing at this level. Adam spent a couple of years with Mansfield Town and his calm approach, no panic, do your job attitude was very refreshing. Superb balls in from the wing were squandered by the LEU strikers. Some of the defending was dreadful and the keeper was not the best. Ross Whalin in the SN goal saved a few, but overall 2-5 did not flatter them.

Apart from Adam's namesake Jared in the South Normanton team, there were no players that really caught the eye. Nick Ghizlanzoni and Ian Wheat were known to me through my association with Eastwood Town, but again these players are not "star" quality.

Highlight of the night? Burger? -- no -- awful Coffee ? -- no awful Programme? -- never saw one ... no it was from some village idiot in the stand where we were sitting....Comment " Chelsea are now one-one" -- reply -- " they're drawing?" mmm .. been to the "school of stating the bleedin obvious" I think...

Any way ,, Saturday, Kev is taking his family to the coast so I will be on my own..

Vase weekend ..may just visit Danny Bryant at Sutton Town, or see Rainworth away at Radcliffe Olympic -- but I may be tempted to spend £7 to watch Eastwood take on Fleetwood in a UniBond Premier fixture.

Gedling Town v Mickleover Sports

Saturday 15th September 2007 -- F.A. Cup 1st Qual Round

Spoilt for choice really ,,, Carlton v Matlock, Arnold v Long Eaton or Gedling Town .... we chose Gedling because we saw them go through the last round, and thought it might be interesting to see them take on a side from a division higher.
( Gedling -- NCEL Div 1 v Mickleover -- NCEL Premier ).

Not a massive turn out, but there were a lot of folk taking a pleasant afternoon beside the river in the Ferryboat Inn backyard!!!!

Took 6 minutes for Alan Jeffries to capitalise on some poor defending - latching onto a loose ball before firing home to give Gedling the lead. More poor defending -- Sam Saunders fell over chasing a loose ball, then as the ball was played into the box, James Whitehead failed to clear and Mickleover levelled.
H-T 1-1
The game was a classic end to end F. A Cup slog, but the second Gedling goal was a gem. Ben Cobley collected the ball before slotting in Nick Kennerdale who fired the ball in to the far post where Jeffries was waiting to nod home.

Mickleover stormed forward looking for the equaliser, but with Lee Soar and Matt Millns supreme in centre of the Town defence, Sports never looked like beating Spriggs in the Town goal.

Right at the death, Whitehead netted the Town third goal -- and Gedling were safely into the "hat" for Monday's draw ( with a £2250 prize to boot!!). F-T 3-1

Tuesday may see us nip down the M1 to visit Long Eaton Utd -- they take on South Normanton in the NCEL Presidents cup...

ETFC webmaster

Seems I owe Andy an apology... sorry mate.....

Bit sensitive about the "recycled news" item...

Lost links....

It appears that link to my Eastwood Town website, so lovingly tended for 5 years has been disappeared from the new ETFC website. It also seems the link to this blog has has also vanished... something I said?

Rolls Royce Leisure v Grimsby Borough

Tuesday 11th September --- CML Supreme Division


Beacause I was very late leaving the office, the Rolls game was the only one we could get to in time for a 7:45pm kick off....mmmm...we got to the ground at 7:40pm just as the Grimsby lads were pulling up in their mini-bus...ko delayed! Had a scotch in the club -- the game actually started at 8:10pm

As it happens it was well worth waiting for!!

Excellent play from both teams, with the young Rolls outfit marginally on top early doors...Indeed it was they who took the lead halfway through the 1st period, then doubled that on the half hour only for Grimsby to net just before the break to make it 2-1.

Another scotch .....

Rolls' keeper limped off 15 minutes into the 2nd period, and we feared the worst, but the bloke who came on was steady enough and as big as a brick out-house ...

Rolls added a third right on full time -- much to the delight of Kev who knew the scorer and was singing his praises throughout....looks a good player does Kane Matthews.....


Next -- F.A. Cup Saturday 15th September -- Gedling Town v Mickleover Sports - should be a cracker.......

Rainworth MW v AFC Emley

Saturday 8th September NCEL Div 1

Needed to get to a ground close to home so I could get home to catch the England match. Rainworth is just 20 minutes away -- and I am pleased I DID chose this game, it ended 5-2 to Rainworth.

With Kev busy organising his daughters 21st birthday party, I stood on my own for the first half, a half that saw Mark Shaw grab a 42 minute hat-trick - the first after 6 minutes was a 22 yard belter, the second a delicate lob and the third a well struck penalty. Adam Lillie also netted for the home team. another delicate lob that left the visiting keeper grasping at thin air .... there was a bit of strange kicking from the Emley keeper -- he seemed to be having a competition with himself to see how high he could kick the ball out of his hands !!!! Crick in the neck time for the supporters!!!!! H-T 4-1.

Emley made it 4-2 right on full-time, but Steve Shannon added the Rainworth 5th straight after.

I was joined at half time by former Eastwood favourite Richard Smith - along with Rainworth's injured skipper Lee Wilkinson, Robbie Clarke (also injured) and former Mansfield Town star Michael Sisson (probably out for the rest of the season).

Had a nice chat to Smudge, a real gent off the pitch..says he loves it at Rainworth -- Rudy is doing a really great job there -- may be a team to watch this season - trouble is they are in the same league as Gedling Town who look really special this season.....

Next game -- either Rolls Royce Leisure v Grimsby Borough or a first visit of the season to Dunkirk to see them take on Holbrook MW....

Eastwood programme

ETFC programme

I used to co-edit the Badgers' matchday programme -- I thought I did quite a good job .... obviously the new co-editor thinks not !!!!

From the Eastwood Town website:

"Having just had a look through the proof reads for Saturday's programme, I am confident that the recent silly mistake have been eradicated.
With the assistance of Terry Brumpton (who is the Managing Director of Hednesford), we have identified all the problems and with Terry acting as a go-between with the printers, dialogue has been on-going all week.
It would be nice to see a few more copies sold this week as there is a lot of work go into the writing of the material. Gone are the days when the programme contained re-cycled Unibond news stories."

"Gone are the days when the programme contained re-cycled Unibond news stories".. ?? !!!!!!!!

One reason I used to put the re-cycled news in the programme because a lot of the older supporters do not have Internet access and the programme at least kept them up to date with what was happening in the UniBond league. Another reason is because it was easy to use something already written!!

Gedling Town v Meir KA

Tuesday 4th September -- F.A. Cup replay !!

Now I know I said that cup replays should be avoided at all costs.... but Gedling have been doing so well it seemed a shame not to visit Stoke Bardolph again.

Last Tuesday I was unable to get to Gedling v Rossington Main - Kev went and saw Gedling romp home 10-0 -- although we were not expecting the same scoreline, it was hoped that we would see a few goals.

With an impressive back line that includes former Eastwood Town players James Whitehead, Lee Soar and Matt Millns, and a forward line of prolific Phil Massingham and free-scoring Alan Jeffries, Town look a very stable settled outfit this season.

Two minutes from kick off, Jeffries capitalised on a goalkeeper error to slot home and give Town the lead. Half an hour later, Jeffries added his second - Gedling's keeper launched a long punt upfield, Jeffries latched on to it and fired home from 18 yards. H-T 2-0
Ben Cobley increased the lead on the hour, a neat shot curling over the keeper in to the top corner. It was 4-0 with just a couple of minutes to go, former Eastwood striker Nick Kennerdale nodding home Heath's corner from close range. Right on full time, Carl Westcarr tapped home the fifth after Whitehead's corner had cannoned off the post causing all sorts of mayhem in the 6 yard box.
F-T 5-0

The Gedling team looked very impressive, the passing and general play was superb - a team on the up?,,, watch this space...

Saturday 8th September -- could be another trip to Gedling Town or another visit to Rainworth -- the only other local game is Long Eaton United v Selby....you never know...............

Rolls Royce Leisure v Blackwell MW

CML Supreme Division --- Saturday 1st September.

Well.... we got to the Rolls Royce ground 10 minutes before kick off and our first thoughts were that I had made a cock-up and there was no game scheduled...

However, come 2 minutes to three, out trooped the teams and match officials. It seemed there were more people were on the pitch than were watching!!! Just me and Kev and a dozen other daft sods!

Anyway, there was no-one on the gate to take any entrance fee, so we got a freebee. Good first half with, believe it or not, some really neat play from both teams -- poor finishing though meant that it ended 0-0. A quick walk up to the bar -- Kev's treat ( although I am still not convinced that 1/2 a lager and a mint Aero go together!!!!).

The second half saw Rolls take command for a spell, before the Blackwell Manager made a telling change! He subbed their right back and sent his 6' 3" centre-half up front. He duly scored with a 20 yarder! Then the Blackwell no.4 headed powerfully home from a great inswinging corner to make it 2-0. Just before the end, the Blackwell no. 9 slotted home the third to give the game an unrealistic scoreline.

After the last Rolls v Blackwell game, I was a bit dubious about this one, but both teams played some good stuff -- with the visitors probably deserving the three points, but the scoreline didn't really reflect the 90 minutes football .....

Next game -- Tuesday night -- FA Cup -- Gedling Town v Meir KA