The tone for this afternoon’s game between Stockport County and Cardiff City at Edgely Park was set after about forty five seconds when home centreback Brad Hills shoved Yousef Salech into advertising hoardings out by the corner flag as they both chased a ball which went out for a goal kick.
With memories of OllieTanner’s accident at Wimbledon when his collision with advertising hoardings put him out of action for four months still fresh in the mind, you feared the worst for our centre forward. However, after ignoring Hills’ offer of a helping hand to get to his feet, Salech carried on.
To my mind, Hills deserved a strong lecture from the referee at the very least and a yellow card would have been an appropriate response from, but, sorry for bringing this up again, League One officials have, by and large, shown themselves to be utterly hopeless in the seven matches we’ve played at this level in the last six weeks or so and Simon Mather proved to be no exception this afternoon.
Mr Mather chose to just get on with the game with barely a word said to Hills and so the die was cast. Stockport knew that they had a ref who would let an awful lot when it came to their defender’s “physicality” and so we saw all manner of blocks off the ball, fouls on the man in possession and what has become known as “shithousery” these days go unpunished.
Mr Mather was entirely inconsistent in his application of the laws in the opening stages in particular. In one farcical passage of play, two or three blatant fouls by the home side were ignored, while Salech was penalised for an innocuous foul as soon as he tried to “fight fire with fire”.
Salech has been given no protection by officials all season long and I wouldn’t be surprised if, ludicrously, he’s conceded more free kicks than he’s been given in his favour this season. League One officials seem to think that all benefit of the doubt should be given to defenders- a policy which strikes me as downright odd.
The thing was though that Stockport’s physical approach was working. Salech began to look dispirited and a little sorry for himself. Cian Ashford, someone who can be surprisingly good at tracking back and tackling, was having one of those afternoon’s where his head looks to be down from the first minute and only Chris Willock was offering any hope of coming up with something that might constitute an attacking threat.
Rubin Colwill did some really nice things, but to no great effect and began to take too much on himself, his brother was anonymous (partly because when ever he tried to make a forward run, there was an “accidental” collision with a home player, and Ryan Wintle was finding the going tough. At the back, the inclusion of Perry Ng and Calum Chambers brought back unhappy memories of last season and, although I didn’t think either of them were terrible, we didn’t look as secure at the back as we have done in most of our games.
The useless Mr Mather saw fit to book one player (Ng I believe for dissent!) and so Stockport kept on being physical until the very end, but, to be fair to them, the fouls weren’t so blatant after the first twenty minutes or so and they were also able to get the ball down and play some nice stuff – it wasn’t just all physicality, there was also a lot of good football played by Dave Challinor’s side as they took a firm grip on proceedings in the game’s second quarter..
Although we ended up winning the possession figures by something like 53/47, it was Stockport who were around 55/45 ahead at half time and you got the feeling that things only really changed back in our favour in the last fifteen to twenty minutes when they were prepared to sit back and protect their lead.
Stockport’s physical domination began to be reflected territorially and in terms of goalmouth incidents from about the twenty minute mark. First, a long boot upfield by home keeper Corey Addai was nodded on by Kyle Wootton into the path of young Icelandic forward Benony Breki Andresson whose shot beat Nathan Trott and came back off an upright. Andresson was then denied by a great Trott save, although you couldn’t help but think that he should have buried his close range header.
Andresson was involved again on thirty four minutes when Chambers might have been fouled out by the corner flag. Of course, the ref waved play on and when the striker went down under a challenge from Ng from the resultant cross he pointed to the spot. Now the fact that it was Ng involved makes me think it probably was a penalty, the pictures I’ve seen don’t really prove anything either way, but if any member of our squad was going to commit a foul in that position, it was Ng wasn’t it..
Ollie Norwood, still good enough to be a major influence at this level at thirty four, sent Trott the wrong way from the spot for the first league goal he’s conceded for us and only the second we;ve conceded in League One all season – both of them being penalties.
Stockport’s superiority continued with a couple of half chances falling to defender Joseph Olowu from corners and Will Fish, my City man of the match, came to the rescue when he denied Wootton after Wintle had lost possession.
City could not offer even an attempt on goal at the end of a one sided first half – Rubin Colwill’s long range free kick being blocked by the wall. Rubin did open up the home defence, but his passes were wasted by a poor final ball from the likes of Ashford and Joel Bagan.
The second half was not as uncomfortable as the first for City, but Trott still had to make another good save to deny winger Jack Diamond early on and Stockport might well have been given a second penalty when Joel Colwill sent Wootton I think it was tumbling.
City might not have been living as dangerously, but there was very little suggestion that they had an equaliser in them. Isaak Davies and the fit again David Turnbull replaced Ashford and Joel Colwill and they were quickly followed by Dylan Lawlor, Ronan Kpakio and Callum Robinson coming on for Ng, Chambers and Wintle.
An over zealous linesman kept on raising his flag to deny Fish’s diagonal passes to Willock (a still photo which I’ve not seen apparently shows his decision to disallow a Salech finish from a Willock case was borderline) which appeared to be our best hope of finding an equaliser.
However, with all of the substitutes helping to provide a slight improvement and Willock and Davies switching wings, City began to force the issue with a few corners – Lawlor’s introduction improved the team’s passing and although Kpakio had a testing time of it for Wales on Tuesday, here he made City’s right side far more energetic as he combined effectively with Willock.
Nevertheless, the seven minutes of added time were almost up when Willock swung in what at first looked an innocuous cross, but as it dropped into a central area six yards from goal, the home back three, who had all played so well and won their individual duals with City forwards hands down, seemed to suffer a collective brain fade as Salech was left in isolation to score with an easy header. You also had to wonder why Addai stayed on his line for a cross which was swinging towards him.
Some of the Stockport players fell to their knees in disappointment as three points that seemed there’s were snatched from them in a game they really should have won. As for City, they had not played well, but can take tremendous heart from scoring late on in another away game to pick up very valuable points. I also saw Luton and Stockport being selected as automatic promotion winners in at least one pre season pundit’s table and it’s heartening to note that we’ve visited both of them already and taken four points.
Nevertheless, Stockport must have been so frustrated by the outcome. Given that a run of one win in five, including a 4-2 defeat at Plymouth in their last match, had put the promotion favourites under a degree of early season pressure, theu probably couldn’t have played much better than they did – their game plan worked out a treat and, by any objective analysis, they deserved three points.
Yet, just like Port Vale in the other game where we’ve been dominated this season, they’d missed chances they should have punished us from and, while Vale didn’t have that lapse in defence to cost them, Stockport certainly did. Their three dominant centrebacks and a goalkeeper who’d barely had a serious save to make all went missing in action deep into added time when a good ball, but one put into an area that has to be defended by at least two of the four I mentioned, caused such consternation that our big tall centre forward was left with a headed chance he just could not miss.
We’ve won two and drawn two of our four away games with just yesterday’s Stockport penalty conceded and yet fans of Port Vale, AFC Wimbledon, Luton and Stockport could all claim with varying degrees of justification that they could have won as we’ve had uncomfortable spells in all of those four games in which we could have wilted.
At Wimbledon and Luton, I’d say our overall play merited our victories, but the other two games were different in that our dodgy spells lasted almost the entire ninety minutes!
All four teams we’ve played away from home have been let down to varying degrees by shortcomings at both ends of the pitch and I would suggest that this is the biggest single playing difference between the Championship and League One. In the Championship, you lose if you’re second best for the majority of a game, but in League One that doesn’t always happen – you can get completely outplayed, but many of the teams you’ll play give you a chance by missing pretty straightforward chances at one end and having the occasional defensive cock up at the other to give you hope when there shouldn’t be any.
City play in the whatever it’s called cup on Tuesday at Exeter before a first v second encounter at Cardiff City Stadium next Saturday against Bradford City who inflicted Huddersfield’s third three goal away defeat of the season on them this afternoon.
There’s still some age group international football being played – Wales under 18s are in Japan playing in a four team tournament and they got off to a great start by beating the host nation 1-0 thanks to a goal by City’s Jack Sykes. Not such good news this time though as they were beaten 2-0 by Australia early this morning – Sykes, Tiger Tobin and Oliver Reynolds were the City players in the starting line up today.
In local football, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club are still struggling at the bottom of the Ardal Leagues South West division after a 6-2 loss at Cefn Cribbwr. In the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Championship, Ton Pentre played out a 0-0 draw at Dinas Powys to remain top of their league, but they have played more games than nearly all of the other teams in the division.
F
Once again I agree with much of what you say Paul. Stockport were the better team for all except the last quarter of the game, with some sparkling one touch passing.
In addition their high press put us under even more pressure than Plymouth did for the first 25 minutes in our recent home encounter with them.
As you said the ref was one of the worst ‘Homer’ refs I’ve seen.
Talking about the difference between Championship and League 1 players, I can’t believe that our League 1 opponents are going to continue to be so poor at finishing the chances they’re being presented with.
I know Nathan Trott has made some excellent saves this season, but he’s not been called upon as often as he should have been, due to some wayward finishing by the opposition.
As I was watching the end of the game, which I, along with most others, thought was going to produce our first league defeat, I looked in astonishment as a Stockport defence which had been brilliant throughout the game (with some help from the ref admittedly), just allowed Salech free on the centre of the six yard box, to rise unchallenged for a free header. If anything though, it was justice for the treatment that had been meted out to him all game.
After the game I don’t know if you saw the comments from Stockport manager Dave Challinor. I know he was unhappy conceding so late, but I thought his comments were disgraceful and were promoting thuggery.
Lamenting about the Salech goal, he said any attacker going for a header in that position should be leaving the pitch with fewer teeth than he had before, or at least the shape of his face should be changed.
No wonder his defenders play the way they do!
Or maybe I’m just over-reacting? What do you think if you haven’t heard them – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB_kuPKVN-o
Thanks Paul for the report, and BB for the link.
Re the latter incidentally… not surprised with Challinor. He of the ‘gloriously long throw in’, but also it would seem, he of the ‘hankering for a return to the much less-than-glorious thuggery’ of yesteryear.
As for yesterday’s result: I was pleasantly surprised, as before the game I was expecting a defeat when I saw the teamsheet and noted that BBM had perversely selected Chambers as a central defender… a position where he is a total liability. I was not too upset at him selecting NG, though I am still mad at our Thai boy for that crazily irresponsible yellow he got against Cheltenham for casually flicking the ball out of play to delay a free kick awarded against him.
He knew what he was doing there… and it momentarily made me wonder whether he was related to Paqueta’s friends and relations in Brazil who had been alleged to be betting on the times of yellow cards…!! (But later I sobered up when charges were dropped against him.)
But, as I say, I expected defeat. I just knew in my bones – nay, not in my bones but in my very WATER – that their press would unsettle our some say ‘scientific’ build up from the back approach.
And so it proved. And will prove again and again in away games this season, so we may as well get used to it.
But the past 24 hours have been encouraging on the ‘sensible football’ front.
What a gorgeous 50 yard pass from Jordan Henderson last night for Brentford’s first… and in the same game, their two long throw merchants positively made me purr… especially the boy on the right, who I’d back in a distance competition against anyone. And is it not great to see a proper winger again like Chelsea’s Pedro Neto who can go past his full back either way and take the ball to the byline and CROSS it. (When did we last have a winger who played that way? Do I have to go back to Chris Burke… or is my fading memory making me forget someone? I hope it is… but I fear it’s not.)
Goal KICKS are now starting to return to the EPL… and filter down to the three tiers below.
We are awaking from a nightmare, based on snobbery. Pure snobbery.
People who think like me are regarded as primitives at worst and philistines at best. Well, I will happily accept your label… I have no desire to join the footballing pseudo intelligentsia.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition of long throws, FORWARD passes (especially 50 yard ones into space to run on to), goal kicks… but stop short on thuggery. BB is right in his comments on Challinor.
Sad to see my favourite player in my favourite EPL team yesterday gratuitously barge that boy into the advertising boards near the corner flag at Bournemouth… and injure him.
He should have had an immediate yellow, but I would love it if we started dishing out reds for this cowardly behaviour. And yes, it was a ridiculously powerful application of his shoulder when the ball was clearly going out (and not the even more despicable sneaky violent push in the back) but the end result is the same. Totally unacceptable.
Finally, let me blow my own trumpet (well methinks nobody else will in MAYA land)… and ask readers to go back 2 posts to Paul’s fine report on the Canada game.
You will read this posting from me. Note the date and time I posted it… a full 35 minutes before this class German act stepped out for the first time in a Newcastle shirt. They will love him as much as their granddads loved Ivor Allchurch.
‘…
Dai Woosnam says:
September 13, 2025 at 2:25 pm
Paul,?On the international front…?Apropos of nowt…?I write this at 14.12 on Sat 13th…45 minutes before Newcastle kick off and give a debut to the German giant Nick Woltemade…?I want to say that I have seen enough of this boy as to be convinced that – before he has even kicked a ball for the Magpies – he has it in him to be a future Folk Hero amongst the fans at St James Park.?Fabulous football brain, and skills to match.
DW
…’
TTFN,
Dai.
Challinor’s after-match comments are a complete disgrace, and his team’s actions reflect the man , it would seem. A complete lack of class and grace.
As for the referee – just uselesss. I fear we will have many more like him this season.
Challinor’s after-match comments are a complete disgrace, and his team’s actions reflect the man , it would seem. A complete lack of class and grace.
Thanks for the replies all and aplogies for my absence from this part of the blog in recent days – I was unable to access it for a couple of days. I’ll answer Dai first and then end with Dave Challenor’s comments.
All I’ve seen of Nick Woltemade is the few minutes of highlights on Match of the Day which made it look like Wolves were unlucky to lose. I’d say that, more than any other club in the English Pyramid, there’s an affinity between Newcastle fans and whoever it is that plays centre forward for them – in my football supporting lifetime it stretches back to Wyn Davies and Malcolm McDonald, but it probably originated with Jackie Milburn. Newcastle fans worship a number nine and that’s why I think they must have been so disappointed with Alexander Isak’s antics over the summer. All of this gives Woltemade, someone who willingly joined Newcastle, an advantage right from the start – he’s replacing someone who’ll be seen as a traitor and there can have been no better way to introduce himself to that set of fans than with a classic centre forward’s far post headed goal to decide his debut.I want to see him play at least one full game before I say much more than that about him, but I think I know where Dai is coming from because it has the “feel” of a good signing.
As for City and their way of playing, I think Saturday will have only reemphasised what was apparent against Port Vale – that is that City struggle in the face of an aggressive press which does to us what we try to do to the opposition. However, I would point out that City played six matches in all competitions between Port Vale and Stockport and although I’d say Swindon, Wimbledon, luton and even Plymouth had spells where they made life difficult for us, we’ve come through all of the challenges posed by half a dozen opponents.
On Saturday, you can claim with some justiification that it was down to a combination of Stockport tiring and them sitting back to see out a win, City started to play like they have been doing in most games this season in the final quarter of an hour or so – that is, after Kpakio and Lawlor replaced Chambers and Ng. I mentioned in my blog piece that I didn’t think either of the more senior players were terrible, but we were playing ten yards higher up the pitch with Kpakio and Lawlor on which immediately made life easier for the likes of Turnbull and Rubin Colwill as he dropped deeper. Similarly, I bet Cian Ashford would have welcomed the amount of support Chris Willock had from our right back when he switched wings. Both Ng and Chambers struggle for pace when compared to Kpakio and Lawlor and, in the case of Ng, he has the disadvantage of having missed nearly all of our pre season with injury – I’ve often heard it said that players never fully recover during a season in which they miss out on the fitness work done before a competitive ball is kicked. So, I think we struggled to reproduce the type pf football which has characterised us this season because half of our back four were not best equipped to play that way.
Also, a big part of our play this season has been the ability of Lawlor and especially Fish to switch play with long diagonal passes out to the wings – we’ve used long passes when it suited us, but, on Saturday, that part of our game was stifled by a combination of Stockport’s good play and, as I said in my blog piece, an over zealous linesman.
This brings me on to the officials who helped Stockport play in the manner they did by ignoring or not punishing strongly enough frequent fouling by the home side on and off the ball – although I thought the ref against Port Vale wasn’t bad at all, Stockport’s game plan was helped greatly by a referee who let them get away with an awful lot, so, while it isn’t essential, our opponents will tend to hope for a referee that is sub standard and the early evidence is that there are plenty of those around at this level.
This brings me on to Dave Challinor’s post match comments. This is something for which I can see both sides of the argument. I wouldn’t be as critical of him as Blue Bayou and Paul are because it seems to me that what he is saying is that Salech probably couldn’t believe his luck in being able to score such a goal without having been involved in some sort of collision. To borrow from Geoff Boycott’s cricketing term, Willock’s cross was delivered right into Stockport’s “corridor of uncertainty” and their manager was expressing his annoyance that his back three and keeper all seemed to think that they could leave the defending to someone else. I still can’t figure out why a back three that had been all over the City attack like a rash for ninety six minutes during which they had been dominant collectively switched off to the extent that they did, while you have to question the goalkeeper’s contribution as I’m sure Salech must have been expecting a clattering from him as he went for the header.
I think that’s why Challinor spoke like he did, but, in doing so, he rather let the cat out of the bag in that he confirmed that Stockport’s plan included a policy of “roughing up’ their opponents.
In a way, that’s bit of a tribute to City and I think a lot of opposition team talks (and some City ones) this season will have references to things like getting your retaliation in first and, to be honest, I don’t blame the managers who say such things as much as I do the referees who indulge such behaviour.
Thank-you once again, Paul, for a restrained account of Saturday’s ref-fest at Stockport. Due to other commitments this morning my reply will be somewhat curtailed.
The pattern is clear this season. Rough Cardiff City up by any means and the ref will generally let you get away with it. The rugby league v netball analogy has applied more than once this season. Whilst listening to the stream on City’s website I lost count of the times exasperation was expressed by the commentary team over the handling of the game. One of the commentators was so appalled, I think that’s the correct word, that for a large chunk towards the end of the game he refused to speak about the ref so shocked was he by his handling of the game. The rough stuff was clearly to the fore of this game and it was dished out, it seems, with impunity. That Stockport lost both the yellow card count (0-1) and foul count (11-14) seemed surreal.
City, thankfully, got out of jail. That it was with virtually the last meaningful action of 7 added minutes had a bit of retribution about it for what had gone on before.
As I watch football today I am more concerned about the direction the game is going than in any of the near 70 yrs of watching it. Have things things gone too far or am I too much of a purist?
PS:
I’ve just watched the Stockport manager’s post match comments. Like BB & PO, I thought his words were disgraceful. The EFL should take up the matter and censure Challinor. There is no place for that in football and certainly no place for officials who facilitate that approach.
A few items at way past midnight (nearly 1am)… with my eyes closing…
First point to Steve: I see he tips his hat to BB and Paul O on Challinor, but makes no reference to me also expressing my distaste for those pro-thuggery comments. (I can only assume that Steve has become so accustomed to my often being in a ‘minority of one’ on MAYA that he automatically figured that I was in the Challinor camp…!! Please read my previous comments again, Steve.)
However reading in the past hour our MAYA leader’s interpretation of Challinor’s remarks, I am rather persuaded by Paul that all 4 of his contributors to date on this issue, may have been a trifle hasty to point an accusatory finger Challinor’s way.
Right… now an abrupt change of subject: I cannot find a neat segue.
Nick Woltemade.
First an apology for all those rogue question marks that appeared in my reference to him in my above posting. But no ‘mea culpa’: in my original posting (on the Canada international page) there were no such otiose exclamation points. So how come the difference?
That’s easily explained.
Having no record on my iPad of my words, I made the mistake of copying and pasting them above, from the earlier blog entry. And as Paul will remind us all… this blog’s software can be unpredictable, to say the least…!!
Now back to Woltemade… you might wonder how much I had seen of the player to form the opinion I had, before the man had kicked a ball for the Magpies.
I saw him play one Bundesliga game on my telly for Stuttgart, but it was really the two Euro Under 21 games in June (both 120+ minutes long… against Italy in I think the quarters, and England in the final…) that made me realise I was looking at what might be a generational talent. I purred with delight at his sheer genius.
In both those games he was positively stellar… and it was his equaliser in that epic game against Italy that helped turn events Germany’s way. Without having the time to google it (so don’t quote me)… I think he got the golden boot for top tournament goalscorer.
Not that goals has ever really been his thing… his total for Stuttgart was far from dazzling.
And I note Paul that you think that Eddie has signed him as a number 9. Not so.
True he was offered Isak’s shirt, but he was savvy enough to avoid having to bear the burden of that shirt number and instead chose another number (I recall hearing on TalkSport that it was his mam’s birthday number… so SPOILER ALERT… it will be below 32…!! Google the number if you want, I am too tired to check right now).
No… what the German brings to the club is truly great artistry. Not a potential for a great number of goals (methinks Wissa might net more than Nick).
Not for nothing did I steer clear of the Shearer/Wyn the Leap/Supermac/Milburn reference, and deliberately chose the peerless Ivor Allchurch.
Okay, Ivor may not have possessed great aerial skills and was never a striker despite have explosive shots in both feet, but in all other departments he was nonpareil in these islands in his day. They loved him on Tyneside.
And talking of loving a player on Tyneside… we come to the greatest centre forward the Magpies ever had. No, not ‘Wor Jackie’… but the first man to make the Newcastle number 9 shirt iconic… twenty years before Milburn.
I refer to the great Hughie Gallacher. I recall hearing a few years back that his goals-to-games ratio as a number 9 has never been matched by a Newcastle striker since. At 5 feet five, diminutive against Nick Woltemade… at least 12 inches taller.
I seem to recall (topical, as we mourn Ricky Hatton) that this diminutive Scotsman threw himself under a train in his mid fifties. Gee… where ‘depression’ can lead us, eh?
There but for fortune, go you or I.
And now a final link for you all…
… Like me, nearly 2 years his senior, John Toshack cannot stand up these days for very long unaided. So much more tragic in John’s case: after all, unlike me, he was such a true athlete.
I saw the 16 year old John make his City home debut. What a player…!! And maybe, an even better manager. Not long before he died, Shankly called him ‘the manager of the century’. And that was no hyperbole.
It sadly remains a terrible day of shame for the Welsh FA when they dispensed with his services as team manager. Retirements meant ‘Tosh’ was forced to blood all those callow teenagers that Gary Speed (another Gallacher/Hatton depression victim) was able to later work with so effectively as mature players.
John Toshack remains a giant in every sense, even having a giant intellect at his command.
https://tinyurl.com/2h387tuw
Gosh it is now past 2am and I have been typing away for one hour and ten minutes.
My eyelids are getting to resemble uncut buttonholes. Too tired to proofread. Apols in advance for any typos. Time to count some zeds.
TTFN,
Dai.
Sleep apnoea is an interesting condition. For the past 27 years I have slept with a CPAP breathing machine, and it often means that I sleep fitfully, and often for inconsistent periods.
Thus it was that I awoke seemingly (miraculously) fully refreshed at 07.00 and immediately decided to read what I had posted less than five hours previously… wondering what sort of embarrassing bolloxio might be contained, and with how many typos to boot…?
Well, it was blessedly typo free, but did contain the most startling inaccuracy re the German boy. I was claiming I saw him three times. Surely, I saw him more than three?
And here my diary came to my aid. Of COURSE I had seen him play more times than that this summer…!! I had seen him positively DAZZLE in his country’s group games against the Czechs and Slovenia, and really turn it on with a sparkling man of the march performance in the semis against a very strong Dutch team.
My short term memory is totally shot, alas… but I can still recall the school register that my teacher called out in Porth Junior School in 1955-56… in alphabetical order.
That was when I peaked academically… ending the year in #1 position of the 73 kids examined in my particular school year. My dad died at the start of the following ‘Eleven Plus’ year… and it was downhill all the way after that. Pop music, playing soccer, regular visits to watch Glamorgan play cricket, a growing interest in girls, and above all, CARDIFF blinking City saw to that. I fell head over heels in love with that club never then missing a home game from the ages of 10 to 17, including midweek games when there was no ‘football special’ train from Porth to Ninian Park Halt, and only 3,000 or so attended… games like Lugano, Lens, Zurich Grasshoppers, Knighton Town*… which we won 16-0). I even used to go see the annual pre-season Probables vs Possibles game (what my late brother Clive used to call the ‘Improbables vs Impossibles’…!!) always played at Ninian before a paying public.
[Gosh… there you are saying ‘we won’… c’mon Dai boy, admit it was a one-way affair. Grow up. Accept that it was totally unrequited… that years later and you were in the dole queue and the City players of the day drove past in their high end cars, they did not give you a second look, but instead concentrated on the pretty knees of their front seat companions.]
Yes I get it. I am ashamed now how totally a team gripped me as a kid. Having no dad, newspaper rounds were needed to fund my habit… and every season I would get the ‘Saturday special’ trains to such places as Bristol Stapleton Road halt (for the Rovers game), and the Hawthorns halt for the WBA fixture, where I particularly recall one trouncing 5 nil (?) and their left winger Clive (?) Clark running rampant.
Mr Owen, boss of Morton’s newsagents in Porth, was a kind employer who allowed me unpaid ‘holiday days’ so I could take the train to ‘far off’ places like Huddersfield and Pompey. I recall seeing us ship six goals at Chelsea to a Jimmy Greaves inspired Chelsea… just about his last home game before going to Italy. I made many trips to Paddington to see City play the likes of the Spurs ‘double’ side at White Hart Lane, (where, at 14, I took three boys from school with me who had never been to London previously). Intrepid traveller me had already been to London travelling on my own to the capital aged 12 to see ‘our’ Peter Walker make his England debut vs South Africa at Lords in June 1960. I recall even mitching off school and travelling to Highbury to see ‘us’ lose to Man City in the second 3rd round FA Cup replay on neutral ground… and getting home to Porth on the last train to Treherbert… and still managing to get up at 5am to get back to Porth railway station to meet the newspapers off the milk train at 05.50.
Gee, I even delivered newspapers all the way from Porth Square up the precipitous hill to the Rickards Arms at the start of Trebanog… in the coldest three months in Britain since the Middle Ages (January-March 1963)
Now though those legs that served me so well as a kid, have gone on permanent strike. Unless I am driven to the door of a hotel, restaurant or caravan, I just cannot make it. Thus my football stadium visits are no more.
But, enough of my reminiscing… back to Newcastle United…
If 1927 was a year that is special to all Cardiff fans, then it was a special year on Tyneside also… the last time Newcastle were champions of all England.
Next season, will mark the centenary. With the acquisition of a few more players of approaching Nick’s quality, who can bet against them marking that centenary in spectacular fashion?
*though that I think was a Saturday game.
DW.
Profuse apologies wing their way to you, Dai. No slight was intended. Rather your weighty epistle left me with so much to grapple with, when 101 jobs called for my attention, that the obvious quietly slipped into the ether. Perhaps your paragraph starting, “However reading in the past hour our MAYA leader’s interpretation of Challinor’s remarks … ” seemed to temper your initial appraisal of said Stockport manager. Be that as it may, I still think that we both hanker for a more Corinthian approach to the, ‘beautiful game,’ rather than the assembled hod-carriers we are liable to see today in some teams.
Steve compadre,
Just to clarify… I loathe thugs, and detested the gratuitous fouls of the likes of Vinnie Jones, who interestingly enough started out his working life as a …
… hod carrier…!!
Regarding my ‘revisionist historian’ view on Challinor’s remarks: I just found our MAYA chief’s words made me stop and ponder somewhat, and made me think that Challinor’s comments may not have been as obviously black and white as I first interpreted them.
But my views on ‘football thuggery’ remained constant: I may not be a fan of tiki-taka, but by golly, I dislike ‘dirty players’ a whole lot more.
And dirty play does not always conform to the image summoned up by Michael Parkinson in his recollection of Barnsley’s Skinner Normanton: I am thinking of an incident in a friendly international in 2012.
It was England’s final warm-up game just days before the boys flew off to the Euro finals. And the Belgian winger Dries Martens seeing big Gary Cahill shepherding the ball back to Joe Hart, decided to push him in the back… knowing full well he was going to collide with his keeper at speed.
Which Cahill duly did… and broke his jaw in two places, thus missing the whole Euro 2012 trip… a place in the tour party that his performances for Chelsea all that season had truly warranted.
It was a ‘friendly’ international, and that fact surely made the shameful shove even more unpardonable… though Gary was magnanimous in his subsequent response to pressmen looking for intemperate words calling for the book to be thrown at Mertens. Had I been Cahill I would have wanted Mertens to have got a red card and to serve a long ban… but Gary said he thought it an accident and that his Belgian opponent had not sought to cause him injury.
And so it was that Mertens got away with (I think) a yellow card.
But back to your sweet note Steve: big thanks from me for your sentiments expressed, and I particularly applaud the eloquence of that final sentence.
Mind you – to impishly play Devil’s Advocate, as you might well expect me to do – whilst I share your views on thuggery, remember please that we’d have no beautiful buildings were it not for hod carriers…!!
TTFN,
Dai.