Friday Ground Stack - I'm Back
The summer has swung into soccer season faster than an Anthony Elanga sprint, I'm only eight games deep but there's plenty to talk about.
Starting with… GRIMSBY!!!
They beat Manchester United on penalties to reach round three of the Football League Cup (is it still sponsored by Carabao??) and create ‘history’ as the first fourth tier team in the land to beat the Red Devils in this 65 year old competition.
Amorim OUT?? Most certainly for me, playing 3-4-3 at Blundell Park, hiding behind staff during the shootout, tinkering with tactics boards in magnetic since meme like fashion, allowing his star striker Sesko to take the tenth penalty and not one before then… HE HAS TO GO!!! OUT OF HIS DEPTH!!! ONE DIMENSIONAL, DILLUSIONAL, TOO STUBBORN, THE JOB CLEARLY TOO BIG!!!
Anyway… That’s enough of the first month of football review… Back to me… my journey… my travels from ground to ground, which as you’ll have noticed before, if you’ve ever bothered reading, I try to cover my matches monthly (here’s what I said in May) with links back to my website www.theheadscout.com which has more in-depth analysis (or burbling) about each game I attend.
Barnet are a football league side again, after promotion from the National League which they won last season during a campaign to remember. Dean Brennan’s Bees are fifteenth in the League Two table after a tricky start, but they opened their pre-season campaign back on the 1st July with a 3-0 win against Southern League Division One Central minnows… Hitchin Town.
And what a lovely place Top Field is.
On a beautiful bright summers evening in Hertfordshire the ground reminisced myself of the good ol’ days when football was pure, simple, imperfect, but perfect in its way, just the way football should be.
Wooden flooring, tin roofs, terraced standing on the bank, crap seating with restricted view, fluffy grass that has been down and trod on for probably 100 years and more. This stunning setting offered a simple but pleasurable experience as Barnet cantered to a 3-0 victory in bright dusking sunshine over their part-time hosts.
I highly recommend a visit to this ground, my first, which certainly won’t be my last. You can even get a team-sheet from the wooden shed-like club shop for just 20p More
As well as scouting & analysing across country at various football matches I also work in cricket, during the summer, so this scuppers, somewhat, my full fixture potential, as I have to map around those County Championship fixtures and sometimes cram in games of soccer stuff, along the way.
As I headed down to Taunton in Somerset for a cricket match mid-summer, I decided to stop off in Oxford, as United were hosting Leganes of Spain, in an unusual fixture that allowed me to tick off the Kassam Stadium.
Oxford, these days of the EFL Championship, are in serious talks of moving to the other side of town, the Kassam was only built in 2001, but United were only granted a 25 year lease, and now that is running low, the club are looking to find somewhere more permanent than this three sided monstrosity on the edge of an underwhelming industrial estate in the south suburb of Littlemore.
Inside looks marginally better than outside.. Even if this friendly against two second tier teams wasn’t the most enthralling on offer, it gave Oxford a good looking over, as players like Brannagan and De Keersmaeker impressed, Gary Rowett’s side looked to be well-coached at least, but since the start of the season, they have played three, in the league, lost three, and have just been knocked out of the League Cup, losing 6-0 against Brighton. Rowett’s job, already on the line.
As for Leganes, technical and tactical, they drew this game 1-1, and have since opened their Spanish second division season with two draws. Keep your eye on Carlos Guirao who looks a really talented player, at the moment on the fringe of first team starting places, he’ll surely break through at some point aged just 22, as he has some ‘Isco’ vibes that may have been taught to him whilst on loan at Real Betis? More
More random action was to see Derby County play Greek Super League outfit Atromitos, in a game I chose solely because it was close to home.
The biggest issue I had was finding somewhere to park, for free, these ‘urban’ venues in retailtopia don’t make it easy for fans who have cars, I managed to park outside Sports Direct which had a two hour curfew, I even brought some adidas trainers and kept the receipt just in case they tried to fine me for parking on a matchday too long.
In brief… Derby County actually looked ok. Going forward they are good, but defensively they are bad, which if you read the Championship table and see 5 goals scored, 9 conceded, after 3 games, tells you as much as I can in much less words.
Derby have Ebou Adams who’s a cult hero… Sounds of ‘Eboooooo’ every time he gets the ball. Whilst I think Carlton Morris is a savvy acquisition. Midfielder Liam Thompson, little, diminutive, irritating, is excellent and is one that I think can go on to forge a top career.
As for Atromitos, nice and neat, they have limitations despite some tricky talented players and were physically inferior to their English Championship opponents.
One to watch? Ismahila Ouédraogo is a Burkina Faso international, a central defensive midfielder who breaks up play and gives it simple. He won’t set your earth alight, but as a footballer is one that keeps his side ticking and one that does the doggy-like stuff that only dog lovers love. More
I had a women’s cricket match between Middlesex & Derbyshire at Merchant Taylor School in Northwood, but Derbyshire were so bad, they got bowled out in an hour, and Middlesex wrapped up their 50 over win by 1pm, which allowed me to spend a free afternoon in Hertfordshire, at either the Harry Potter Museum, Warner Bros Studios? Whipsnade Zoo? or watching Hemel Hempstead Town against Maidstone United? Of course, I chose the latter.
Off the cuff, this was pleasure, not business, so was nice to enjoy a beer at the game, blessed in sunshine, the first match of the season in the National League South.
Hemel Hempstead Town’s Vauxhall Road Ground is a really quirky venue, ruined only by the installation of fake turf, this would have once seen a huge slope top to bottom which is evened out somewhat, but still noticeable as players play raised above the concourses giving you a sometimes frightening perspective of the pace of the game at the level.
Kick and rush a plenty, this fast, frantic, fight out between two southern sides with ambition went the way of Maidstone early doors, before Hemel hit back late on for a share of the spoils. Well worth the entrance fee of £17 it’s another ground I would recommend to visit at least once in your life, that’s if you like things like dark and dingy club houses with great beer on tap, the smell of greasy food frying and random sheds like the Pigeon hut, which I still don’t entirely know the reasons behind? More
A first trip to Redditch offered me some Monday night football in August as ‘United’ beat local rivals Stratford Town 1-0.
The town wasn’t appealing, but the ground is certainly one that had charm, ruined like Hemel above, by the installation of a plastic pitch. Some of that charm filters away when the smell of grass dies, but the perfect playing surface bordered by boring green mesh fences is at least surrounded by loveable old stands, the red roofed main stand pretty iconic amongst West Midland non league football homes, Redditch has passionate locals who follow their team, their town, home and away, slightly uncomfortable for us ‘foreigners’ sitting nearby, but a home which I bet on a big night, under the lights, can give off a real buzz and atmosphere. More
Unlike Redditch, Market Harborough is actually a lovely bloody town.
This new club, with new playing facilities, is doing new things, like riding the crest of a wave on a new shiny surf board, after their impressive FA Cup run last season, in ‘nearly’ beating Reading.
That cup run has no doubt bolstered the coiffeurs and Harborough Town produced a cracking encounter with another big spending Spalding United side, in this Southern League Central Premier Division clash which had non-league stars a plenty on show.
Harborough are my tip for the top, Spalding I think will do well too, both teams played really good football and although Bowden Park is a pretty bland, brand new sporting complex on the outskirts of town, it does have some charm, is intimate and well designed, so that fans through seating or standing, can enjoy their stay.
Big plus was the beer tent doing craft booze straight from the barrel. I didn’t have a pint, as I was working, but if I wasn’t, I would have, and was certainly jealous of those that did. More
A ground that you may have noted I’ve been before, is the Jakemans Stadium in Boston, which is often a go to scouting mission of mine, being a ninety minute drive East away.
One of the biggest reasons I like coming here is because they do a great pie, chips and gravy…
And on my return to Jakemans, my first trip to Boston this season, for the visit of FC Halifax Town… Well I just had to indulge in a spot to eat.
Changes a plenty for the Pilgrims, some good new players, some bad, whilst Halifax looked solid under Adam Lakeland, without being enthralling. Good workers in the Shaymen makeup are led by Cody Johnson, a midfielder who reminds me of former WBA, Nottingham Forest & Norwich City midfielder Andy Johnson of years gone past. Nice hair, hard working, likes a tackle and can pass a bit. Watch out for him just twenty years of age. More
Finally… Saturday gone, I went to Brackley, to St James Park (not that one) where recently promoted to the National League, Brackley Town faced Rochdale, a team tipped perhaps, for promotion to the Football League this season.
Brackley are a decent club, doing decent things, and will certainly surprise a few in the fifth tier this season, but Rochdale despite defeat, should certainly be up there in the mix come May. A neat footballing side are James McNulty’s Dale. They have a good back line with goalscoring not an issue, and in Jake Burger, they have a young midfielder who also looks to be a top prospect with talent too, a player who can prosper onwards for a top football league career if he continues to play like he did all be it in vain last Saturday afternoon. Rochdale have since beat Sutton United and are second in the table a point behind Forest Green, Robbie Savage’s side may be favourites, but I don’t think they’ll have it all their own way!! More
I’ll be back next month, to review September’s stadiums & games visited.
theHEADscout.
I’m a sports DATA Analyst and PFSA associate scout with level two qualifications in talent identification and level one certificates in technical scouting & opposition analysis.