The following article appeared in the programme for Racing Club Warwick v Barwell on 23rd February 2008.
Welcome
to today’s match and the latest instalment of the season’s diary by your
favourite Racing Club correspondent.
Saturday 9th February – Derby
County v Tottenham Hotspur, Premier League
Regular
sufferers of this column will recall my disillusionment with the level of
entertainment on offer at my only previous Premier League game this season at Stamford Bridge (and no Chief, it wasn’t just
because Spurs lost!). Happily this game restored my faith in top flight
football. It was competitive and passionate and a credit to the top end of our
game. It came hot on the heels of the announcement by the Premier League
Chairmen that they were actively considering exporting their “product” to their
fans in the Far East and the United
States. I think that if I measure the
reception of the proposals for a 39 game season in terms of media
comment and fans phone-ins then it’s probably about 99:1 in favour of staying
the way we are thank you very much. Does that mean that the top flight of the
people’s game will be left alone? Well there are no guarantees there because,
as the Chairmen are quick to point out, a number of innovations to our game
were not initially approved of by the masses and the media. Consider if you
will the concept of Play-offs, European Competition, the League Cup, the
transfer window, red and yellow cards etc. I’m sure that if you go back far
enough there will have been strong lobbies against crossbars, shin pads and
corner flags. But does that make it OK to try it? In my view it doesn’t. I see
it as a short step away from out and out franchise football and the loss of our
top clubs to other countries altogether. I thought that Gordon Brown’s choice
of words when questioned on the subject was very careful – he said he felt that
“the fans” should be fully consulted. Which fans did he mean though? The fans
in the catchment area of the club concerned (or Devon in the case of Manchester
United) or the ones in the Far East who are also apparently “stakeholders” in
English clubs by virtue of their buying club shirts and satellite TV
subscriptions? Our game seems destined to be saved by an unlikely hero: Sepp
Blatter and his laden-with-menace comment that the Premier League’s proposals
would “not help the World Cup bid” awoke the FA from its slumbers into an
overdue expression of their own concerns. Thank you Uncle Sepp!
Back
at Pride Park there was a match on. Derby are now long-term
residents at their “new” ground having been in their new stadium for 10 seasons
in total. Did you ever visit their former home, The Baseball Ground? I recall
The Baseball Ground as having a shocking pitch but also for being the home of
one of England’s
strongest sides in the 1970’s. It does seem like a million years ago since Derby won their pair of
League Titles. But if that was a million years ago then it must be a trillion
years since Spurs last reigned supreme. 1961 wasn’t even in the lifetime of yours
truly (yes really!) and nearly fifty years of hurt represent an unacceptable
return for one of England’s
bigger clubs. Happily, under Juande Ramos, they appear to be playing with
considerable promise and things are looking brighter. Wembley is looming for
Spurs in the form of the Carling Cup Final and the opportunity to secure a
first trophy of the new millennium.
Pride Park is a smart affair holding a
sell out 33,058 for today’s match against Spurs. The Rams are well clear at the
bottom of the table but the fans are buoyant after a series of signings by Paul
Jewell during the transfer window and Pride Park
is rocking by kick-off time. The atmosphere transfers itself to the pitch and Derby belie their position
to take the game to Spurs. For the first hour it is impossible to tell which of
the two sides is in trouble and the Rams certainly don’t look like relegation
certainties. But as the game moved into its final phase Spurs seized control
and goals from Robbie Keane, Younis Kaboul and a rather unjust last minute
penalty despatched by Dmitar Berbatov would have given the public, reading
their Sunday papers the next day, a misleading impression as to the actual tale
of the match, Sadly, as Derby were succumbing so too were Racing Club, away to
Boldmere St Michaels. The Courier’s match report was full of chances not taken
by Warwick but
with games beginning to run out, we need to generate a few maximum point hauls.
Tuesday 12th February –
Godalming Town v Burnham, Southern League Division 1 South & West
Did
you ever see one of those black and white movies set in London in the early part of the last century?
In my recollection it was always foggy then. Not simply a bit misty you
understand but “a real pea-souper guv’nor”. Tonight’s game at Godalming was
reminiscent of that. Sitting like a cloud in the field right next to
Godalming’s Weycourt home was a big bank of fog and from time to time it
spilled over the perimeter fence and started to seep across the pitch. I was
convinced that the game was going to go the same way as my previous week’s
midweek escapade involving Burnham and be abandoned. Fortunately however, and
for reasons that I cannot explain, the fog was kind enough to keep its distance
and our match concluded without an early curtailment.
For
those of you that are not well travelled, Godalming is in the depths of leafy
Surrey, not far off the A3 near Guildford. The
club are new to the Southern League having been switched across from the
Isthmian (Ryman) league in the summer. The ground is bordered by what appears
to be a residential care home and certainly any old folks who cared to twitch
their curtains to one side would have had an excellent view of proceedings.
Tonight’s visitors were Burnham (near Slough)
whose game plan was, shall we say, a little crude. Long ball is crude but can
also be deadly effective particularly at this level and, despite falling behind
to a cracker early on, Burnham clung on gamely and then asserted themselves in
the second half. It finished 1-2 in favour of the visitors but don’t expect to
see either side either promoted or relegated this season based on the evidence
of tonight’s foggy encounter.
Sunday 17th February – RSC
Anderlecht v Royal Excelsior Mouscron, Belgian League
Thanks
to my wonderful wife, this game was my late and long-awaited Christmas present.
Tickets on the Eurostar, hotel reservations and match tickets to a top flight
game in Belgium.
Excellent! I would recommend the Stade Constant Vandenstock to any football
lover. With a limited capacity of around 26,000 it seems that it is pretty well
full for most matches. My brother-in-law and I strolled up to the box office on
the afternoon of the game however and secured two seats behind the goal for a
bargain 20 Euros each although I did wonder my pre-ordered tickets to be
delivered to the hotel had not arrived!. The Eurostar across also represented
something of a bargain at only £59 for the return trip which takes a little
over two hours from Kings Cross St Pancras. Saturday night was spent perusing
the historic Grand Place
and choosing which one of seemingly dozens of Moules et Frites restaurants we
would make use of. The Belgian beers partaken in the Irish bar whilst watching
Manchester United murder Arsenal on the big screen were most enjoyable too I
might add.
Match
day itself started with a visit to the Atomium. Have you ever seen it?
Basically it’s a 102 metres high steel model of an iron molecule magnified 165
Billion times (roughly speaking I guess!). Bizarre? Certainly. Apparently it
was built for the 1958 Expo and, a little like the Eiffel Tower, this temporary
attraction was preserved for much longer than was originally planned. The
Atomium is situated right next to the King Boudouin Stadium, more infamously
known to British football fans as Heysel. Heysel has been pretty well rebuilt
since the dark days of the 1980’s. In all other respects Belgium appears to be
stuck in a bit of a 1980’s time warp as we were confronted by the hits of the
1980’s music scene at every turn throughout our time in Brussels even down to
the piped music on the Metro station platforms. Life on Mars must have stolen
its plot from Brussels
I reckon.
RSCA
(Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht) are the only club that I can recollect whose
colours are purple and white. They’re not having a fantastic season having
drawn far too many matches and sat fifth in the table going into this game. I
had never heard of Excelsior Mouscron before this match and fully expected the
hosts to make short work of them. At 2-0 after just 20 minutes my prediction
was being borne out. The quality of football was, I would say, the equivalent
of watching Newcastle United play Coventry
City. Lots of pretty
passing moves but none of the blood and thunder that you tend to see much more
of in England.
Entertaining though nonetheless and when Mouscron
had the temerity to stuff one into the onion bag (sac des oignons?) in stoppage
time it was a case of panic stations for the last couple of minutes before Anderlecht could claim the points. Time for more Moules
Tin Tin!
Keep the faith!
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