Saturday Predictions

Today is the first weekend where all 24 clubs in the Blue Square Premier will play, following the news that Chester can start the season on -25 points.

So here we go for my predictions for today’s games: -

Barrow vs Stevernage (H) 2-1 Barrow had that great result last weekend and stevernage have had 2 draws but home advantage should see them get the points.

Chester vs Cambridge United (A) 0-2 with Chester having played very few pre-season games and with all the turmoil going on they will be overrun by Cambridge.

Crawley vs Wrexham (A) 1-3 Wrexham will be looking to continue the strong start of last weekend

Eastbourne vs Rushden (H) 2-1 having seen Eastbourne in midweek I think they will be strong at home and edge this one.

Ebbsfleet vs Kiddiminster (A) 0-2 Ebbsfleet seem to be having big problems so Kiddimister should get all the points.

Hayes & Yeading vs Altrincham (D) 1-1 Hayes will be looking to get as many points as possible when playing at home so this maybe a game where they try to shut up shop.

Histon vs Oxford (A) 1-3 Oxford are one of my candidates for top 5 side and will be to strong for Histon.

Kettering vs AFC Wimbledon (D) 1-1 This will be a real test for us Kettering traditionally one of the strong teams in the league bringing a point back will be a good result.

Luton vs Gateshead (H) 4-1 Luton at home this year will be even harder than on the road and thats going to be hard enough they should win this fairly straight forwardly.

Salisbury vs Mansfield (D) 2-2 The first two leaders of the season meet and will share the points.

Tamworth vs Grays (H) 2-0  Grays another team having big problems so Tamworth here.

York vs Forest Green (H) 3-1 Although they only have a point between them I think York will be to strong for Forest Green.

I will post the results of these and the midweek games that took place earlier in the week tomorrow morning.

Bits and Bobs

A few bits that I have seen round the web, some of them you may have seen others you might not have.

Kettering Chairman explains prices. – The chairman of Kettering has explained why they have 3 prices of admission Read here.

A neutral report on last nights game – Apart from the last line of the first paragraph a good report. Read here.

Martin Ling has been re-appointed as Cambridge United Manager.

On Thursday the FA and the conference apparently meet to discuss the Chester situation, after apparently the 23 other conference clubs all said they were happy for chester to be part of the league.

Almost a lovely evening by the seaside

The first away game of the season saw us head down to the south coast on a lovely summer evening, who says we never get nice trips to the coast, ok 3 mile from the coast.

The team saw changes with Sam Hatton dropping to the bench and Join Main starting on the bench Jay conroy came in for Ricky Wellard.

The first half was an open game with action moving from one end of the pitch to the other we seemed to have the better chances but were unable to convert any of them.

Four minutes into the second half Eastbourne had an attack and the ball was played across to the left hand side of the pitch as they attacked the player hit the ball and it fizzed into the top corner leaving James Pullen little chance to stop it.

With 30 minutes left in the half we made a couple of changes Luke Moore came on for Derek Duncan & Hatton came on for Godfrey.

With Eastbourne having the advantage of a 1 goal lead they were able to not chase the game as much as we did and although we had a number of efforts we lacked the clinical finish that we needed.

As you would expext as the game drew to a close the team leading started to time waste even to the extent that one of the players was booked when they won a throw, Lewis Taylor throw him the ball and he let it bounce off him and roll behind Lewis.

One thing that was very noticable today from previous season was the speed of the game how quick the ball is passed around.

The difference today was one excellent goal but maybe the real difference was the fact that Eastbourne have had a full season in the Blue Square premier.

The partial dissapointment of a defeat tonight was made better when you consider we are new to this league, will take a little while to find our feet and it’s nicer to lose to a team like eastbourne in Blue Square Premier than to a team in the Blue Square south or Ryman Premier!

Next stop Kettering on Saturday

Eastbourne Preview

Tonight we make our first Blue Square Premier road trip when we travel down to Eastbourne, why is it whenever we have the possibility of a league game against a team on the coast it’s either, midweek, middle of january or if the fixture computer can manage it midweek in January.

We both played teams who are expected to be in the promotion hunt come the end of the season and whilst we drew 1-1 with Luton, Eastbourne had a tough trip to north wales and a 3-0 defeat at Wrexham.

In 2007/08 Eastbournre were a Blue Square South team and won the playoff final to get promoted to the Blue Square premier and last season they had a solid season ending in 13th place and got 60 points.

Looking at their line up on Saturday two players of note will  jump off the page the first being the goalkeeper in Danny Knowles, Danny only played for us in 9 games in total in November 2007 to January 2008 but cam in at a time when we were going through goalkeepers at an incredbile rate remember the Tonbridge angles game?

Also in their like up us Jamie Taylor who scored 10 goals in 24 appearances during 2003/04 & 2004/05 before he left for Horsham, he then progressed to a spell at Dagenham & Redbridge where he played league football. In the second half of 2007/08 he played for Grays Athletic and ended second top scorer finishing behind called Danny Kedwell.

So it’s clear both sides have a good attack and defence could play a major part in a tight game or will after a big defeat for Eastbourne will they be pushing forward and make the game a lot more open?

Dont forget if you cant get to the game tonight the virtual stadium will be up and running with updates, commentary and pictures direct to you.

Predictions for Tuesday

Once again Chester have had there match called off this time when they were due to host Gateshead and therefore we only have 10 games being played tomorrow. So here goes with my predictions

• Barrow vs Altrincham H H 2-1 Good result for Barrow at the weekend and home advantage should be enough.
• Crawley Town vs Forest Green D 1-1 Both teams Lost at the weekend and so a point here.
• Eastbourne vs AFC Wimbledon D 1-1 Still finding out what this league is like so playing safe with this one.
• Ebbsfleet vs Cambridge A 1-2 Bad result for Cambridge and they will be desprate to get points on the board
• Hayes & Yeading vs Stevernage A 1-2 Think Stevernage’s experience will tell on this one.
• Histon vs Grays H 2-0 Histon usually strong at home and Grays first game of the season after lots of changes.
• Kettering vs Oxford H 1-1 Two strong teams in this one difficult to split.
• Luton vs Mansfield H 2-1 Cant see Luton going two games without a win but with Mansfield getting a good result at the weekend this could be close.
• Salisbury vs Kiddiminster H 1-0 Home advantage to see Salisburys good start continue.
• York vs Rushden & Diamonds H 2-0 York to get a result after the close defeat at Oxford on Saturday.

The Tamworth vs Wrexham match has been moved to another date.

I wonder how I will do this week.

Now the real part starts

So the season has started now but to be honest Saturday was a bit like the end of last season Sold out games in an environment we were well used.

But starting Tuesday we have our first Away game and straight away we have a match that is currently All-Ticket. I say currently I’m not suggesting that this status will change but if you are planning to go to the game it would be recommended that you have a ticket before you travel so contact the club today.

If you purchased a copy of Saturday’s programme you may have read the excellent article on the cost of this season for supporters that are going away and the difference in prices for Adults, Concessions and Children. Another thing to consider is the mode of transport that you are going to be using to get to away games.

The club coach is still going to be good value if you don’t mind being on a coach but one thing you should consider if your traveling by train is plan your journey well in advance and book as soon as you can. It used to be a case of just turn up buy a ticket and get on the train, unfortunately it’s not as easy as that now.

To give you an idea next weekend I need to go to Kettering by Train so know someone who was getting some tickets as they had a group they were quoted a fare of £20 return not to bad I thought but they had to wait to have the times that they could travel on confirmed, this took a few days. The train they have been booked on is an hour later than the one I need to be on so I had to book my own individual ticket and by the time I booked all the cheap tickets had gone and I have now had to pay £38.50 for the return trip. Kettering is fairly local so you can imagine what the cost for the further trips will be like.

It’s important to point out that Kettering next weekend is also All-Ticket so make sure that you have both the travel ticket as well as the match ticket.

To give you an idea the cost of an adult day return

• to Altrinham on 22nd August is about £66 but if you play about getting two singles it’s about £53
• to Tamworth on 5 September is about £38.20 but if you play about getting two singles it’s about £24

I wonder if that’s one of the things they teach kids at school now train timetables and decent fare’s dont forget if you have a child or travel with a child a Friends & Family Railcard in short as long as 1 child age 5-15 is with you 3 a total of 4 adults can travel each getting 33% off adult fares and 66% off child fares the initial cost is £26 for a year but for a trip like Altrincham it will pay for itself in one go.

Sunday Media Round Up

I thought I would do a round up of various media reports, Pictures and interviews that I have found online since yesterday’s game.

Sky Sports News – Had a feature and showed both goals Thanks to REPD over at SW19-Army we now have the clip on you tube click here to view. And REPD has now also uploaded the London Tonight feature from Friday night so you can watch that as well.

BBC Sport – Has a short report as well as post match audio comments from both Terry Brown & Mick Harford gave post match audio interviews.

The Surrey Comment report can be seen here.

Lots of nice pictures going round one advantage this year is that for the big games the main agencies will be present the last three pictures on the BBC site are from the match I cant find a direct link but if you click here and then scroll to the end you will see them.

A number of photo’s from Getty Images can be seen here

A combined video clip of each penalty has been posted onto YouTube also gives a good idea of how packed the ground was and can be seen here

The Non-League Paper has a good write up, a mention on the letters page, one of our players gets in Team of The Week and also some news that Erik Samuelson is part of a team to look into the possibility of the Blue Square Premier having a wage cap.

I will keep an eye out for any other articles that may appear over the next few days.

Predictions

Lets have a look back at our team selection and the predictions that I did for the games yesterday.

First up the Team Selection.

Of the starting line up we had 8 of the 11 right the players we included who didn’t start were Jay Conroy, who wasn’t involved at all. Ben Judge who was sitting on the bench and finally Jon Main who was also on the bench.

On the bench we had 2 players who started rather than being on the bench in Sam Hatton & Luke Garrard the other players we had were all on the bench. So the only player we missed wasBrett Johnson who started in defence.

My result predictions.

Yesterday 11 matches were played and out of these I had the following sucess: -

I only managed to get one scoreline correct yesterday and that was our 1-1 draw against Luton.

Of results I predicted right I had 5 results correct they were the following games AFC Wimbledon vs Luton, Forest Green vs Kettering, Gateshead vs Histon, Kiddiminster vs Hayes & Yeading, Wrexham vs Eastbourne. To see my list of predictions in full please click here.

A full fixture list is scheduled for Tuesday night allthough at this stage it’snot clear if Chester will be able to start their season but I will publish my predictions for these games on monday evening.

Welcome to the Conference

So without a doubt we are a conference team now, and on that showing we have already learnt a real lot.

Terry said at the meet the manager night that he would challenge anyone to name the starting line up that he would pick for the first game of the season and seeing it today not many people Would of matched it.

From early in the afternoon their was a special atmosphere building and with the weather being nice for us it meant people could take advantage of catching up with people who they haven’t seen at football for a few months.

When the teams came out they were greeted by a near capacity Kingsmeadow with the Luton fans packed into the Kingston road end. The Tempest end was well decorated by the fleydon collection of flags as well as other flags so was a great site, before the game both teams observed a minutes applause in memory of Bobby Robson and a number of AFC Wimbledon fans who has died during the close season.

The game started and fairly early on although not many clear cut chances Luton were having a lot of pressure and it was looking like it was a case of a team going for promotion against a very young team.

Luton took the lead when they were awarded a 14 minute penalty after Paul Lorraine was ruled to have fouled the striker, possibly for holding and the penalty was converted.

At Half time the score was AFC Wimbledon 0 Luton Town 1 but the general opinion was that as their was only 1 goal in it we still had a chance and it was importnat that we continued to battle away.

At half time we did a blanker collection for the cancer charity that John Hartson is being trated for, thanks to everybody who threw money into the blanket and I’m pleased to say that they vast majority went straight in and dindn’t hit any of the people also carrying it.

The second half started and where we had been penned back for a lot of the play we seemed to be pushing forward especially down the right hand side, the only problem seemed to be that Danny Kedwell was being pulled out wide and so on a few occasions he was crossing the ball into a position where he should of been standing to convert it.

At the other end of the pitch the defence was doing well in containg Luton and Paul Lorraine made a couple of clearances to keep the score at 1-0 to Luton. The Luton fans thought they had the victory sown up and started singing 0-1 in your cup final but without looking it up it was 2-1 in a Semi Final, some people have short memories!

Terry Brown made a couple of big substitutions replacing Duncan, Hatton & Godfrey for Wellard, Main & Moore and this was giving us more of an attacking look, maybe Main & Kedwell knowing how each other play helped but with Moore pushing forward we began to look like we could get back in the game, then with about 10 minutes left Main broke into the box on the right hand side and just as he was about to shoot a defender challenged him missing the ball and took main down, the ref pointed straight to the spot and showed the Luton defender a Red Card.

With a new season and new players its always interesting when you get the first penalty as to who will step up to take it do we stick with last years players or go for one of the new players. Well Jon Main stepped up and fired it to the keepers left and into the back of the net. Three quarters of the ground erupteed the Luton sectipn stood their in utter dissapointment with the reality that as well as being level now they had to face the remainder of the game with 10 men.

Straight away people suggested that a draw would be a good rrsult and that we should shut up shop and take the point. But on the pitch this was far from the case and the team could see that we could still claim all 3 points a few chances fell but nothing clear cut and so the game finished 1-1 and a nice way to get our season off and running.

So looking at the game we were playing the team that the vast majority of supporters expect to see win the league by a large margin we are a team who have either just got promoted or very young players in the first half it clearly looked like only oen side could win this match but definatley in the second half we got a lot more confident did Terry Brown install belief in the players or did we see a flaw in Luton’s system.

It will be interesting to see the stats from the game as it appeared that their were very few clear cut chances on goal so a draw was a fair result, as Terry has been saying for  a number of weeks our season isint going to be decided on this one game alone but it gives us an idea of what we may be up against this season.

But tonight we sit 9th in the league and it feels very nice being there.

If your not excited now I dont think you will be?

It’s matchday, and a special matchday the first day of the season is always a great day but when it’s tied in with a home game and a new division after gaining promotion and we can tick all these boxes when you think of who we have played in the opening day since August 2002 today’s game against Luton town is a real achievement.

• 17-Aug-02 Sandhurst Town (Away)
• 16-Aug-03 Feltham (Away)
• 14-Aug-04 Ashford Town Kent (Home)
• 20-Aug-05 Folkestone Invicta (Home)
• 19-Aug-06 Carshalton Athletic (Away)
• 18-Aug-07 Ramsgate (Home)
• 09-Aug-08 Newport County (Away)

And in the next month we play Luton & Oxford United as well as trips to different parts of the country. It’s clear from the articles on the official site that there is a real buzz around the club as we step into the unknown of a division that 7 years ago some people never thought that we would reach for many a year.

Already we are picking huge amounts of coverage Terry was on Talksport last night Erik will be on Talksport at around 11:15 this morning, both the ITV and BBC local news programmes on Friday had features on us and the list of TV and Radio media that will be at the game is something like this.

• Radio Wdon
• BBC Southern Counties
• Diversity FM (luton Station)
• Press Association
• BBC Final Score
• Sky Sports News

Plus throw in the various print journalists that will be present and you can see that their will be a lot of coverage this weekend. Not sure if this Daily Telegraph feature is a Friday or Saturday story but the first line that starts October 21 2006 really brings home what has happened to the two clubs.

So where ever you travel from as you arrive at Kingsmeadow tomorrow just stop, look around and think wow we really did it the top level of Non-League football as the sign says “proud member of the Blue Square Premier”

EXCITED NOW?