Tuesday 29th January 2008

Nottm Forest v Swansea City Coca Cola League One

My third and final visit to the City Ground for this season. Many thanks must go to my Employers for allowing us to use their corporate tickets to the Legends Lounge.

Kev was accompanied by his son Dale, while my son Chris also came along.

It was a miserable, dark wet night Trentside - we were hoping the football would make things a little better, and for a while it looked like it might. Forest had a couple of decent chances, both Holt and

Thornhill having efforts well saved by Dorus De Vries in the Swansea goal.

Swansea showed at times why they are 10 points clear at the top of the table - neat, slick passing football, with every player looking collected on the ball. Best player ? Leon Britton -- he is only about 2' 6", but he can play, can this lad!!

H-T 0-0

Forest tried to breakdown the Swansea backline, but at the opposite end of the height scale, 6' 7" Dennis Lawrence calmly headed away everything that came at him.

Apart from a flurry of activity in injury time, Forest were fairly ineffective most of the game, and without Agago up top, they will struggle to score.

F-T 0-0

We stayed in the Lounge for a while after the game to try and miss the traffic, but with Kev driving in a "go-for-it" mood, we were home well before 11 o'clock!

I personally won't miss going to the city Ground again this season -- over 21,000 in attendance -- I'm used to 50 or 60 plus a couple of dogs!!!

Saturday -- spoilt for choice yet again !

Arnold Tn v Lincoln Moorlands / Glapwell v Glasshoughton / Teversal v Staveley / Eastwood Tn v Kendal Tn / Ilkeston Tn v Whitby Tn / Carlton Tn v Colwyn Bay / Gedling MW v Phoenix Sports / Calverton v Armthorpe / Heanor v Clipstone / Hucknall Tn v Harrogate Tn / Sutton Tn v Radcliffe Olympic -- none of these game stand out, so it will be a difficult choice ....

Saturday 26th January 2008

Rainworth MW v Dinnington Town NCEL Division One

After watching my Beloved Stags give Middlesbrough a bit of a game, there were only two games we could realistically make for a 3pm KO -- Sutton v Kinsley or Rainworth v Dinnington... opted for Rainworth - we've not been there for a while.

Walked through the famous gates, to find they had moved the turnstile... work is still on-going at Kirklington Road, and improvements being made all the time.

The "Wrens" played some really good neat passing football and for the 1st half-hour were the better team. Then when Rainworth skipper Lee Wilkinson gave away a needless free kick, Michael Blythen beat Rainworth keeper Hales for the corner of the box to give the visitors the lead.

H-T0-1

5 minutes into the second half, Rainworth commited suicide - a corner met by an unmarked Blythen 12 yards out - the striker duly hammered the ball past Hales. The hat-trick goal came on 57, again a ball in finding Blythen unmarked allowing him to slot home.

3-0 down and Rainworth were not going to get anything out of the game - but as Dinnington took their foot off the gas, the Wrens fought back and looked the more likely to score. Unfortunately it took until the 86th minute for the home team to break their duck, Richard Smith firing home.

On the whole, a very entertaining game. As soon as Dinnington took the lead, their class showed, and it is not hard to see why they are top of the league...

Supposed to be off to the City Ground again on Tuesday..... big game between the top 2 in League 1....

Wednesday 23rd January 2008

CML -- Phoenix Trophies Floodlit Cup-South --
Rolls Royce Leisure v Sutton Town

After staying in to watch the Arsenal debacle on Tuesday night, finding this game on was something of a bonus - a chance to see CML Supreme Division (step 7) strugglers take on CML Premier ( step 8) promotion hopefuls Sutton Town, managed of course our old buddy Danny Bryant.

Very muddy at Rolls, and it was £3 to get in -- still about 50 brave souls turned out to watch -- not too cold but blimey it was windy.......difficult conditions to play in, but both teams did us proud, knocking the ball about nicely and displaying some half-decent stuff.

The Rolls team looks like an Academy side, all their players look so young - usually there are one or two old-stagers mixed in with ther youngsters, but this team is full of very young players.

As it happened after the Rolls' keeper had made a couple of great saves, the home team took the lead after 15 minutes, their no. 9 latching onto a through ball before slotting the ball past the Sutton keeper. The lead didn't last more than about 5 minutes though, the Sutton no. 9 curling a beauty into the top corner from about 25 yards - Kev reckoned the striker used the wind to help the ball hold up, but I'm not sure !!

H-T 1-1

Up to the club for a quick drink, then the long trek back to catch the second half, both of us dreading extra-time and penalties !! Thankfully the fears were washed away as Sutton took the lead half way through

the second period, Daniel O'Donnell firing home from the corner of the box after a neat move down the right. It was 3-1 to the visitors soon after, their no. 8 slotting home from close range. Game over.

Excellent fayre though on a very difficult surface and in very difficult conditions. Made a change to go out on a Wednesday -- spoilt a little for Kev though with the Forest result....

Saturday -- spoilt for choice again -- Dunkirk v Southwell / Sutton Tn v Kinsley Boys / Shepshed Dynamo v Grantham Tn / Arnold Tn v Winterton Rangers / Gedling Tn v Barton Town Old Boys / Rainworth MW v Dinninton Tn

Saturday 19th January 2008 pt II

Eastwood Town v Hednesford Town UniBond League Premier Division

Opted for the Badgers game - the only other games to survive the weather were the ones at Ilson and Hucknall -- but going to Coronation Park gives me a chance to catch up with my big brother Ron......

The first thing noticable was the full car-park! This meant parking behind the Chewton Street stand, and although this puts the car in danger of being hit by balls flying over the stand, it does reduce the walk to the turnstiles!

Had a chat with physio Fred Kirk and caught a glimpse of the new Chairman before taking our seats in the Mabe-Allen stand.

The Badgers looked good from the start, and when Lindon Meikle lobbed Hednesford keeper Ben Scott in the 15th minute to put the home team in front, it was no more than they deserved.

Debutant Leon Wainman was gifted the Badgers second goal on 33, a supercool finish, firing into an empty net from 25 yards after an error by Scott. Not an easy chance, but the newcomer took his time before curling the ball home.
H-T 2-0

How things change!! Hednesford, lead by ex-Badger Chalkie White pressured constantly right from the get-go, and with Eastwood appearing to run out of ideas, it was no surprise when Hednesford scored, Chad Sheppard's low drive creeping just inside the post to halve the defecit on 73. With three minutes to play, Mario Pedro levelled the scores, firing home the rebound after a shot had cannoned off the post. The same player had previously missed two "sitters", but made no mistake this time.
F-T 2-2

Walked past the new Chairman as we were exiting the ground -- he was less than complimentary in his comments to the bloke with him, but I think "effing disaster " was a bit on the harsh side!!!

Attendance again over 300, and although the result was not what the home fans wanted, the game overall was a good 'un -- we have seen a lot worse!!

Can't see any games available for Tuesday, so it may be a case of a couple o' bottles o' beer and Spurs/Arsenal on the telly...

Saturday 19th January 2008

Borrowash game off
Teversal game off
Gedling MW game off
Rolls Royce game off

Glapwell game off

Arnold game off

Choice is now ETFC v Hednesford / Ilson v Kendal / Hucknall v Southport.

Ilson - would be second choice ....
Hucknall - too expensive at the end of January -- why is there so much month left at the end of the money ??
Leaves us with ETFC....... still expensive at £7.00, but that is all we will spend, apart from a quid on pop and Mars bars...should be a good game as well. Hednesford will be looking to avange their 0-3 defeat by the Badgers earlier this season, while Eastwood will want to bounce back from defeat last time out at Marine.

Eastwood Town forum

Eastwood Town FC have no official forum for their fans, so I have revived the old forum.... see link on the right side of the page......

If there is sufficient interest, I will change the URL to www.etfcforum.co.uk

Malc

Tuesday 15th January 2008

Both available games, Alfreton v Farsley Celtic and Rainworth v Glapwell were lost to the weather on Tuesday night.

Looking at the weather forecast, we may be lucky to get a game on Saturday, although there are quite a few to choose from:

Eastwood v Hednesford / Ilkeston v Kendal / Arnold v Glasshoughton / Glapwell v Parkgate / Borrowash v Scarborough / Teversal v Rossington / Gedling MW v Southwell City / Rolls Royce v Pinxton and Hucknall v Southport.

Choice may not be an issue, just finding a game that is on may be the problem!

Carlton Town v Warrington Town

Saturday 12th January 2007 UniBond League Div One South

1st game of the new year, and a cracker of a game it was... good choice by Mr. Goodman. Mind you my choice, Calverton MW v Kinsley Boys sounded alright as well, with the home team beating top of the league Kinsley 3-0.

Anyway, we had an event free journey to Stoke Lane, arriving 15 minutes before the kick off time.

We had a quick chat to Carlton player Dean Gent's dad. I've known Dean a long time ( since our Under 9 days with Hucknall Sports and Ruddington colts some 14 years ago). Dean has been a regular at Carlton for the past six seasons, but had to settle for a place on the bench for this game.

The game - it sort of went like this :-

2 minutes - free-kick to Warrington 25 yds out, the ball was fired towards the far post by Williams - no-one connected and the ball went in off the post 0-1.

6 minutes - corner to Warrington -- a great ball in headed powerfully home by Lamb 0-2.

28 minutes - Carlton's Bignall collects in box and fires home with the outside of his right foot 1-2.

28 minutes - a great run down the line by Carlton winger Smith - wonderful near post cross head in by Warringrton's unlucky full back Elder 2-2.

30 minutes - Bignall hammers home a penalty 3-2

H-T

56 minutes - Warrington's Spearritt headed home from a free-kick 3-3.

63 minutes - Warrington's 17 year old sub Taylor collected a superb 50 yard cross-field ball before firing home past the Carlton keeper 3-4.

80 minutes - Warrington's Rendell saw his effort deflected past the Carlton keeper 3-5.

90 minutes - Warrington's Brown ran through on goal and fired past the Carlton keeper 3-6.

The Warrington fans were hoarse -- (that lot will never be speechless) and were left pondering about the last time their team netted 6 away....they seemed to remember a 9-0 some years ago!

Anyway, back to the car - the heater on full --- did I mention -- IT WAS BLOODY FREEZING again!

Tuesday -- looks like only one game on at the moment -- Rainworth v Glapwell in the NCEL League Cup.

Saturday 5th January 2008

No footie again, unfortunately.

I found myself still too ill to venture out, while Kev is also still struggling.

I hope to be back to work on Monday, although that is not 100% certain. Never been off for so long before in 30 odd years working....... "man-flu" this wasn't !!

No idea if going out Tuesday will be a good idea, but Teversal v Rainworth is calling ......!!

New Years Day

Both me and Kev were not well enough to venture out on New Years Day. What did we miss?

Of the games listed in the previous post ----

Result of the day :- Eastwood beat top of the table Witton Albion 1-0 in front of over 300 spectators and move to 4th in the table.

Ilkeston came back from 3-1 down to draw with Worksop 3-3.

Forest came back from 0-1 down with 10 men to beat Huddersfield 2-1.

Alfreton beat Hucknall 2-1.

Belper and Goole drew 1-1 while Shepshed went down 1-2 at home to Gresley.