Under the flight path

Saturday 29 January 2022, Crawley Green 0 MK Irish 1 - Spartan South Midlands League, Premier Division, The Brache

Crawley Green are a club with reputation for producing good young footballers, however they can't use their own base for games at this level, so have ended up playing at the Luton training ground., that sits under the Luton airport flightpath. A very friendly welcome but the crowds are so low it must be a struggle to compete in this league.

Football wise, they are currently bottom and from watching today they will struggle to stay up, MK Irish are now great shakes either. Hopefully Crawley will improve as a club this friendly deserves to see their just rewards on the pitch.

Cherry on the cake on Burns Night!

Tuesday 25 January 2022, AFC Wimbledon 0 Ipswich Town 2 - League One, Cherry Red Records Stadium

Not the greatest display and luck not fall behind early in the second half, however in the end two goals from Wes Burns, secure a vital away win 

Not pretty, but a win

 Saturday 22 January 2022, Ipswich Town 2 Accrington Stanley 1 - League One, Portman Road

Some great movement, two good goals, but at times we were lucky not to concede more, however, 3 points are the reward.

Fog clears, to let the goals in

Tuesday 18 January 2022, Ipswich Wanderers 5 Coggeshall United 0 - Easter Counties League, Division One South, Humber Doucy Lane

A foggy start to the game, not helped by Coggeshall in their army style desert combat football shirts- but the fog cleared and the goals came in- wanderers now top and dominated the game other than the last 10 minutes when the visitors actually had most of the play, but that did not stop wanderers adding a fifth goal in the last minute.

Scrappy on the slope

Saturday 15 January 2022, Tring Athletic 0 Harefield United 1 - Spartan South Midlands League, Premier Division, Cow Lane

Easy to get too as not far off M25, Large modern clubhouse, raised stand on one side - wooden and worth a look plus two other bits of cover both with seating in them, pitch has a distinct slope. Rugby club next door and also a bowls  and squash club in rural setting. A rugby game was going on on a far pitch, one what looked an even steeper slope.

Nice touch was the wooden walkway round the tree at the Rugby club end.

Scrappy game, with too many stupid stoppages, Harefield scored in the first half and both keepers made a few good saves, second half got even scrappier - and in the end the visitors probably just deserved the win.

 

Not been for a while - and welcomed back with a win

Tuesday 11 January 2022, Felixstowe and Walton United 2 Great Wakering Rovers 1 - Isthmian League, North Division

Always try and get down here one or twice a season, chance to catch up with close friends, see one of their sons play and just have a good chat about local football. So was nice to get this game in, rain stopped, warm evening and a good win for the home team

A raised view

Saturday 8 January 2022, Amersham Town 3 Langford 2 - Spartan South Midlands League, Division One, Spratleys Meadow

Raining in Ipswich, seemed to be raining everywhere, and as the Amersham twitter feed had not been updated, we left Ipswich hoping the game would be on. We arrived to find it would be on and glad we had made the effort as we saw 5 goals and plenty of goalmouth action and even if the pitch was getting heavy, both teams attempted to play football. in the end Amersham got a late winner from the spot, Langford were unlucky to not leave with out even a point.

Ground wise, down a small lane, very small car park, modern clubhouse and just one stand, however the ground is quirky, the stand on a higher level, the pitch below it and on the far side an even bigger drop. So in the end, glad i went even if the rain was a pain.

One League apart but it seemed further

Monday 3 January 2023 - 11am,  Eastbourne United 1 Little Common 1 - Southern Combination, Premier Division, The Oval - then;

3pm, Burgess Hill Town 3 Cray Valley PM 2 - Isthmian League, Division One SE, Leylands Park 

With my first two morning options being called off due to waterlogged pitches, it was drive down the noon kick off at Eastbourne, this would mean a quick dash to the second game at Burgess Hill.

The welcome at Eastbourne was great, all very friendly, all wanting to chat and a lovely little tea bar with tasty sausage or bacon baps.

However the football was dreadful, not helped by a very heavy pitch - hard to control the ball and with the wind added , it was never going to be a great game.

United did manage to eventually score but the visitors managed to level in injury time.

A quick dash west, slight delay as we had to overtake a horse! But made it with 6 minutes to spare.

Great game, Burgess Hill had plenty of the ball but league leaders, Cray were great on the break and went in two up at half time. Second half was similar with Burgess Hill huffing and puffing, but did get one back however Cray looked like they would still win - then the fun! Cray player sent off for a needless challenge on the keeper (second yellow) then Cray down to 9 after a player got injured with all subs used, injury time and two late Burgess Hill goals and a win for the home team, taht never looked possible for the first 85 minutes of the game.

Classic stand, basic ground

Saturday 1 January 2022, Haywards Heath Town 0 Whitehawk 0 - Isthmian League, Division One SE, Hanbury Park

Ended up in Mid Sussex as Haywards Heath had a good twitter feed, so we knew the game was on - a big worry with both rain but mainly Covid.

Found the ground on the edge of town, however well inside a small housing estate, the ground is very basic bar the one side where the main grandstand from 1952 still sits - still used with just a few plastic seats now screwed into the wooden benches. Well worth the visit just to sit in the stand.

Football wise, not sure how it ended up 0-0, plenty of chances in both halves - with the home side wasting the most, Whitehawk will leave thinking it was good point gained.