Brid 0 – Bradford Park Avenue 5 (five) (h)

I always remember as a kid the anticipation of sitting in front of the telly at 4.45 on a Saturday afternoon when the results would start trickling through on the Beebs vidiprinter, it was state of the art. You knew a team was in for some stick when the opponents score was repeated in words. It’s a bit like that for us at the moment.

BPA came on the back of a 9 (nine) -0 win the previous Saturday, and us on the back of a 2-1 defeat, so the omens were pretty poor. The weather on the night depicted the typical autumnal show that had been on offer for the past few days. There were quite a few in the ground for this one, perhaps it was down to the Bradford/Halifax connections of our players and them…I don’t know.

BPA came out of the blocks and looked like they were really up for this. They did have some excellent chances, with our keeper making some excellent saves and a couple of goal line clearances. We had one or two good chances before half time and made the break at 0-0, with everyone buoyed by the good half. However, it was all soon to go belly up.  The visitors soon showed their superior speed and finishing with a couple of quick goals, the second resulting in our keeper having to go off injured not so long after. Uh Oh no substitute goalie. Young lad from the bench goes in, but unfortunately, his lack of experience showed up soon after. Was a shame really.

I suppose bar the BPA peeps, everyone was gutted, because it was a really spirited 1st half performance. We’ve now played the expected leaders of the division (those with the £££) and not done too well. However, if we get beat by the teams around us in the same manner, then the alarm bells will definitely be ringing.

As I write this, i’m sat at home with Soccer Saturday on Sky in the background, it’s taken me a full 4 days to get over the shock of Tuesday. The first team are away at Wakefield….heres hoping the news in a few minutes is good.

The purpose of a forum ?

As the title suggests, what for some is the idea of a forum (even a blog)? Technologically, as the last few years have evolved, you can now share your passion or hobby with similar or like minded people. Lets be right, as i’ve said before, supporting a football team can always bring out the dark side to some people’s personalities, be it on the pitch, down the pub, i nthe local/national papers or on-line.

Most teams don’t want to be seen to be associated with such “places,” due to the potentially slanderous nature within, but my guess is, senior managers, owners and chairman all read and post on these sites to spur the natives on or gauge public reactions.

These same  senior managers, owners and chairman will also moan when the levels of negativity “start affecting” the club or the team. But what happens when your team doesn’t do well ? Sit back and take it (some will) – I doubt it. In this age of instant success and less tolerable society, peoples dark sides tend to rear their ugly heads more frequently and perhaps harsher than ever before – but above all, most of the time, they are expressing their views.

It should never be personal, but can descend or be misconstrued as such – for example, you may have gathered that our team has not been doing well, you can pick out individuals and  criticize their performances, but some on our forum say not to do this as “the lads get upset” “doesn’t help to motivate” “we must back them…” etc etc etc but when you’ve only won 4 league games in 1.15 seasons, discontentment creeps in -and the only other place than the terraces on a Saturday to express your view is via The Forum.

On other forums that I subscribe too, the moderators can be a little eager to modify / delete / ban a member for what they think is an offensive or abusive or personal post, perhaps because that poster has  not thought through his reply (heat of the moment), understood the mechanics of something or the target audience he / she is writing within.

Food for thought……

Brid 1 Bamber Bridge 2 (a)

I get a bit fed up on days like this, when i read some of the forums and blogs from some of the southern non-league clubs, where the writer or forum member bemoans the tube trains not working or they have to get the tube AND a bus. For us today, it was 131 miles from Queensgate to Bamber Bridge – do I go ? do I spend all day driving from one side of the country to the other ? There was no official team coach (rarely is due to lack of interest) to consider as an alternative. For many fans across the country, these sorts of choices may be easy ones to make, but when you have some job commitments and a small family to consider, there is little or no choice. Especially when Scarborough were at “home”!

SO off to the Scarborough game we went. I arrived with the lad bang on 3, because we had been playing around with the internet to watch the Liverpool Birmingham game (quality not great) and flicking between the Englands womens world cup game and Cardiff Preston. I was astounded when I got in, it was packed, and surprised to see quite a number of Brid fans there as well. (so is it the “football” that spur us on to go at this level, an affiliation with the club, the ambiance and atmosphere at a ground, or a way of getting out going shopping ?) There were 441 in the house yesterday, Brids last home game attracted 136 – why ?

Scarborough were good and were much better than there opponents for most of the game, winning 4-0, I was a tad disappointed at that – it should have been 8 or 9 nil. They had a very young squad, some of which have played for Brid at some point, and looking like they will do very well this season – a big game for them next week, when they travel to Hull to play Hall Road Rangers (I am so sorely tempted to go, it will be an excellent game combining a number of  Brids outcasts).

News did reach us at half time that we were 1 down, but it wasn’t till i read the forums (ours and Bambers) that I realised we had lost 2-1, and by all accounts playing really well. Ash has bolstered the squad with a few people returning from suspension or injury and a couple of new signings. Next game is on Tuesday when we entertain Bradford Park Avenue.

Brid 0 Curzon Ashton 3 (h)

Had to work in Hull in the morning, but I have to admit, i’d been eagerly anticipating this game for a while, purely coz i’d seen no football in nearly a month. I had the added bonus of being able to listen to BBC Humberside to hear full match commentary of Hull taking on the mighty potters ! A bright sunny day and the omens were looking good.

For the first 15 or so minutes, we looked reasonably good, and it dawned on me that the ground was fairly empty (it seemed it – only 136, but reading other blogs and forums, Saturday was not a great day for attendances in the non-league, so we weren’t alone). A couple of gilt edged chances came our way, but i’m afraid apart form one or two other spells we never got into it, Curzon looked like a well drilled team that created plenty of opportunities for each other. I was only just buoyed by the fact that Stoke were winning 1-0 at Hull.

The sad thing is, I predicted 3-1 to them on current form, and so it turned out to be nearly right.

But, alas, after a game like this, there will always be an inquisition about the state of the team / club / pitch/ etc etc etc, we ALL do it. But why do we go home glum after a defeat (another heavy defeat), after all, we’re not out shopping or cleaning or cooking. The forum has had 1 or 2 bemoaning Saturdays performances (me being one), but everyone else is coming on in a solid show of strength to get behind the lads and the team – but we can’t keep enduring dire performances – can we? It aint personal, but when you pay hard earnt money to go and support your team, your hoping for a little something back (just once in a while).

Lots of glum news, star striker Tom Greaves is out for up to 6 weeks with a fracture, Tom Carter at least another 2 weeks, Harratt for 3 games – and Hull equalised as I was heading out into the car park at Full time….aaaggghhhh.

Hawksbee and Jacobs

Two of the funniest and most knowledgeable guys on sport I’ve ever come across. They’re not statto types, they have a more comprehensive knowledge of sports. Their success is built on a simple winning formula, keep it simple, talk to the masses at their level, encourage the masses to get involved and in general, keeping a daily routine with little or no deviation, oh and it helps to be funny.

It seems forever since i inadvertently tuned into these guys, broadcasting on Talksport radio site. Hawksbee used to be editor at a football magazine, 90 minutes, during the early 90’s (he was doing some of his stuff back then – the fools panel springs to mind) and Jacobs was a founder member of something like GQ.

Their show majors around football, but they feature all sorts of sports, every weekday 1-4pm

Ahh Its bonus time

Further to my rant about not seeing a game for 4 weeks, the footballing gods are smiling after all. We are at home tomorrow to play high flying Curzon Ashton, a re-arranged game as both teams lost in the FA Cup preliminary round. Gonna be another tough encounter, form book favours the away team by a scoreline of about 3-1

<christ almighty, i’m watching the England rugby game against the Springboks – they’ve just scored their second try and made it look so bloody easy- it must be the worst performance by an England side for a number of years, where has it all gone wrong ?>

Frustrating…

…not being able to watch a game over the past couple of weeks. I did get the opportunity to see an Eirecom League of Ireland game when we visited the Irish seaside resort of Bray on holiday, but after a four hour drive to get there with the family, i think I’d have been skinned alive if I took the lad to see the game (v’s Bohemians who won 3-0).

In this time Brid have played four games, won 1 drawn and lost 2 (a massive defeat against FC Utd 6-0), thi now leaves us 14th out of 18. It has all the makings of a tight league this year, Ossett are leading the way. We mustn’t rest on our laurels as we entertain Garforth on Tuesday, who have also made a steady start and are currently mid way in the league. I have just been reading up on one of their talismanic figures, Simon Clifford, an interesting read on a somewhat inspirational figure for British grassroots football.

A poxy addendum : I totally forgot, but I can’t make tomorrows game, because like the good son-in-law that i am, i’m picking the outlaws up from the airport tomorrow night – another bloody missed game. And with no game on Saturday that’ll be 4 weeks since i last saw a game, and then we’re away at Bamber Bridge…..aaaaagggghhhhh