Latest Updates etc...

While you've been watching the F1 GP and Last Of The Summer Wine, I've added several photos to the EGAIC Gallery...still more old & new to follow.

I've noticed that many pictures have 'gone missing' from the blog, it appears that moving pics in my Picasa set-up causes them to be deleted from the blog. As it happens I have several pics and reports which need to be added over the summer, so if some photos are not showing, try clicking on the EGAIC Pictures Link in the top left hand corner, below the picture of the concrete cow. Hopefully all will be back to normal by the time 2009/10 kicks off.

As it happens, the season is still not over, there's a good chance I'll be attending the U-21 game here in MK on June 8th. Not so keen on taking in the routine England victory over Andorra on the 10th. Then it'll be 3 or 4 weeks of cricket and back into the football loop. I say this every season but next year I plan to do less matches, but better venues. 2 games a week is more than enough.

Anyway thanks for popping in, wishing all of you a great summer!

Atlas United v Madeley Sports

16:00 Saturday 30th. May 2009
Bank Way
Telford Combination

Admission / Programme / Food etc. n/a

Colours Atlas (white with red trim), Madeley (all blue)

How To Get There from A442 Queensway follow signs for Ketley Bank. The recreation ground is on the main road through the estate. To be perfectly honest I followed PJ from Denso, but had no problems finding my way out of Telford!


The second instalment of the Telford Combination double-header. Again, blisteringly hot. The home side arrived for kick-off a man short. Pretty much a typical end of season game. Madeley could have mathmatically finished in second place with a heavy victory, but only managed a solitary goal, a penalty struck low but not too firmly.


As a venue nothing much of note. A car-park, a modern dressing room building and that's it. 2 pitches side by side, not roped and not too clearly marked out either. Daisies and clover growing on the pitch surface. The crowd almost entirely made up of hoppers who attended the earlier Denso game.


Final Score Atlas United 0 Madeley Sports 1
Attendance 15 (h/c-not mine)

Southam United v Loughborough University

15:00 Saturday 9th. May 2009
Banbury Road
Midland Combination Premier

Admission £5
Programme £1 (22 pages, colour photos)

With the majority of league and cup competitions done and dusted for 2008/09 I decided to venture back into the Midland Combination to watch third place Southam United take on confirmed champions Loughborough University. As is often the case I arrived far too early so took a wander around the town centre. A couple of pubs looked enticing, one in particular 'The Old Mint', so called because way back in medieval times Southam produced it's own coinage. Also in the distant pas, 1540 to be precise, John Leland was quoted as picturing Southam as "a modest market town of a single street". In the 469 years since it appears little has changed, the locals thankfully so far managing to fight off the infestation of your everyday Tesco's and Asdas.

United's Banbury Road ground can be found on the southern outskirts of town, just off the A423 heading in the direction of Banbury surprisingly enough. The nearest station is Leamington Spa, all of 7 miles away. Other slightly further rail options include Banbury & Rugby.



The ground appeared to be a case of work in progress, but I mean that in a positive way! There is plenty room for parking on the main road side of the ground, close to the turnstiled entrance, which is situated next to a section of corrugated iron cover. To the left the far end was fenced off with some messy chain fencing, detering those of us who like to do a full 360 of the pitch. Beyond this there are a couple of training/youth team pitches. To the right behind the near goal there is a bowling green, the players car park and a shared clubhouse. Within hot drinks and sausage rolls were available.

The best part is to be found on the far side, a new seated stand which has clearly been built with the thought of the fans who will use it. A disabled ramp leads to a seperate section of seating, and approximately 8 seats complete with workrests for the local press. All told a step 6 ground which is of a far better standard than those closer to home.


Befitting a side nicknamed 'the Saints', Southam treated Loughborough to a guard of honour. The pleasantries ended there and then. Southam (yellow & blue) opened the scoring through Jimmy Graham's half-volley on 18 minutes, University (all maroon, white trim) were level on 31 via a Moulds tap-in. Both sides shared possession without creating any serious clear cut chances.

An unpleasantly breezy second half continued in the same vein until a delicately placed Harvey free-kick off the underside of the bar put Loughborough in front midway through the second half. Not to be outdone Southam, chasing runners-up spot leveled 5 minutes later, Proctor with an outstretched back heel, as the University defence made a shambles of getting the ball clear. It seemed as if the game would end up as a draw, right at the death a 'blink and you'll miss it' right foot lash from substitute Hale gave the champions all 3 points. I stayed to watch the students receive their league shield and then it was on southwards to Abingdon and the North Berks League Cup Final.

Final Score Southam United 2 Loughborough University 3 (h/t 1-1)
Attendance 109 (h/c)

Olney Town 0 AFC Kempston Rovers 4

United Counties League Division 1
19:30 @ East Street

What a difference a week makes. Only last Wednesday Olney recorded a deserved victory over certain champions Peterborough Northern Star, but were second best last night against an in-form Kempston.

The visitors were 2 up within just 12 minutes, hit the woodwork twice and forced the Olney keeper into 2 further full stretch sides using the blustery conditions to their advantage. Draycott opened the scoring for Kempston with a excellent low drive which cannoned off the post, and MOM Kofi Schulz added 5 minutes later with a powerful blast which wrongfooted the keeper.

The second half was more even but a couple of defensive errors lead to a couple of additional scrappy goals, Bunker early in the second half capitalising on a poor attempt at a clearance and Schulz doing likewise when he ran into the Olney keeper's attempt at a punt upfield and the ball ricocheted into the net.

A good game played in the right spirit.

Attendance 32

Photos Added

It's been a while since I've updated, but photos from this weekend's 4 games visited can be found in the EGAIC Photo Gallery. Particularly recommend you take a look at Cambridge University's ,Grange Road, a very pleasant surprise for me.

671. MSV Duisburg v Rot-Weiss Ahlen

Kick Off / Date 14:00 Sunday 9th. November 2008

Competition Bundesliga 2

Venue - (#259) MSV-Arena

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Admission terracing 9 euros, seats 15-33 euros (we paid 15 euros)
Matchday Magazine Zebra Magazine, 1 euro, 60 pages, A4 full colour.

Also In Attendance Sid

Food Surely that can't be more currywurst?

Drink Konig 3 euros



After comically missing a couple of trains at Koln HBF, followed with signalling problems in the Leverkusen area we arrived in Duisburg HBF pushed for time. Seeing the MSV Arena fly past us too our right as the train slowed to a halt didn't help the mood. With the tourist office closed, and no tickets in hand we had no choice but to grab a cab. It turned out we panicked for no reason, yet again tickets were readily available, even with just 30 minutes to kick off. We chose the 15 euro tickets for the seated RWE Tribune, not knowing until we wandered around the perimeter that there were 9 euro tickets available in the Konig Pilsener Fankurve, the home terracing section. We took the time to browse inside the clubshop, I had to hone some inner strength to resist purchasing the away kit, purple with thin white hoops.(below)

The MSV-Arena was built in 2005, replacing the Wedaustadion which stood on the same site. Behind the RWE Tribune, out of sight from the fans inside the ground stands one last remnant of the old venue, a seventies electronic scoreboard (below). The Arena has a maximum capacity of 31,500.

Twinned with Portsmouth, Duisburg is a steel producing city (pop. 495,000) in the Ruhr area of the North-Rhine-Westphalia. It's an important venue for commerce, due to the proximity of Dusseldorf Airport. Duisburg has the largest inland harbour in Europe. There have been people living here since the first century, both the Romans and the Normans settled here in the past. Duisburg profited during the Industrial Revolution, the city specialising in tobacco and textiles. Duisburg is the German equivalent of Coventry, considered to be the most bombed city by the Allies during World War II. Almost 100,000 people were made homeless and virtually 80% of the city had to be rebuilt from scratch once the fighting was over.

MSV were one of the original members of the Bundesliga (1963). The club were formed in 1902 under the name Meidericher SportVerein. They added the Duisburg part to the name in 1967. The club's best league finish was 2nd. in the Bundesliga, in more recent years they have become a yo-yo team, too good for Liga 2 but not strong enough in the top flight. They hold the record for the best away victory in the Bundesliga, a 9-0 victory away at Tasmania 1900 Berlin. MSV's nickname is the zebras, due to the stripes, not the colours!

MSV fans have 3 chants unique to them, this to my mind was the best one. Before kick-off we were treated to three sides of the ground holding up a red card, we later found out why. As you can see the ground is completely modern, two tiers all the way around, no gaps. At the far end from where we sat is the area of home terracing in the lower tier, and immediately to our right was a small corner of away terracing in the 'Duisport Logport Ecke'.

From the off MSV had a lot of posession but their final attacking play was extremely poor. Ahlen took the lead within six minutes, a fierce strike from #11 Lars Toborg from the edge of the area. With a goal lead Rot-Weiss were happy to sit back and use clever passing to catch the Zebras on the break. Duisburg continued to waste good opportunities and the home fans voiced their displeasure with a loud chorus of boos as the referee blew for half-time.

Under-pressure MSV boss Rudi Bommer brought sub Ibrahim Salou on for the second half, who had a shocker. His touch and passing on the day were atrocious. Duisburg's passing continued to let them down and the crowd were becoming more restless. On 70 minutes a Duisburg player went down injured, but Ahlen refused to put the ball out. This sparked the fury in the Zebra's Gregory Christ, upon winning a free-kick he struck out at the Rot-Weiss player who had tackled him. He received a straight red, pretty much ending Duisburg's interest in this game.

Minutes from the end, a middle-aged man sat in front of us with his family decided it would be a good idea to chuck his pint glass over the border at the away contingent (above). Not content with that he spat over the barrier, to their credit the Ahlen faithful didn't react with anger, just looked at him with a mixture of pity and contempt. What his teenage daughter must of thought of 'the old man' acting a prat who knows? What was even more surprising was that the steward who came over didn't throw him out of the ground, but sat with him and his delinquent son, making sure they didn't get up to anymore low-key hooliganism.

The walk back to the centre of Duisburg took about half an hour. As we left we heard the angry home fans gathered behind the Kurve chanting for the head of trainer Rudi Bommer. They got their wish, the news being announced 3 hours later on the Bundesliga Live channel.

Final Score MSV Duisburg 0 Rot -Weiss Ahlen 1 (Toborg 6)

Attendance 12,027

Colours Duisburg - Blue and white hoops, Ahlen - all black

Links

Europlan - pictures of virtually every German ground. Click on D-Informer for the list.

Diary of Some Groundhopping - the original Wedaustadion.

Diary of Some Groundhopping - and more recently at the MSV-Arena.

677. Langford v Hertford Town

Kick Off / Date 19:45 Tuesday 18th. November 2008

Competition Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division Cup 2nd. round

Venue (#262) Forde Park

“I can't help smiling away and putting that showbiz face on. But behind the smile, I'll be absolutely terrified.”

v

Admission £5

Programme free with entry, 40 pages, pretty good bar one glaring error!

A dry November Tuesday evening, perfect for a night game. I stop off to get some chips from the Henlow Fish Bar, a couple of minutes walk from Forde Park. I won't go into too much detail about the village, as this has been done expertly by Pie & Mushy Peas.

The old chaps and chappesses running the club were all jolly friendly, I'd arrived early so had time to watch Sky Sports in the clubhouse with a mug of tea (50p). Outside it's par for the course, 2 stands of the modern variety, 1 with seats and 1 without. Hard standing all the way round which was just as well because although it hadn't rained for a couple of days and the grass surrounds were quite soft.

This is Langford's centenary season, they have apparently reverted to playing in red and white. I must have missed a trick because I thought they have always played in those colours. The club have produced a book to celebrate their anniversary, aptly entitled 'A Book Of Two Halves' . At a cost of just £5 I could have bought a copy, had I not wasted my cash on dinner minutes earlier.

Going into the game former E's Jamie Abbott, Owen Beale and David Hunt all started for Hertford, who are managed by one Pablo Ardiles. Langford are second and Hertford meandering in midtable but you wouldn't have known it to watch this game, Town created several chances and when having to defend were able to break out quickly and with purpose. Having survived one of those 'did it cross the line or didn't it moments' Langford's defence stepped up too far allowing Attila Korsovecski (there's a joke in there somewhere) time to bury his shot to make it 1-0. Some amazing one touch passing along the left-hand flank led to Roberts scoring the second goal shortly afterwards, much to the annoyance of the home dugout.

Second half was more in Langford's favour, and when Howell struck twelve minutes into the second half it seemed as if a comeback might be likely. Hertford held out and in fact added further to their lead through some more fine passing which finalised in Roberts netting his second of the game. Langford continued to press, but not quite good enough on the night.

Final Score Langford 1 (Howell 57) Hertford Town 3 (Korsovecski 36, Roberts 38,76)

Attendance 56

Colours Langford (red/white) Hertford (all blue)

Trip To Germany

You'll have to bear with me while I get the pics and words together, in the meantime here's some live youtube footage of the loyal 'Zebra's' singing the Duisburg hymn.

1. FC Koln - Rhein-Energie-Stadion

20:30 Friday 7th. November 2008

Bundesliga 1

1. FC Koln v Hannover '96

Admission 41 euros.

Match Magazine free

How To Get There The stadium is easy to find. Visible on the main line from Aachen, upon arrival take the U-Bahn south 2 stops from Koln HBF, change at Neumarkt and take line 1 westbound in direction of Wieden West. Stop is conveniently called 'Stadion'. Alternatively it is a 45 minute walk westbound from the Aldstadt along Aachener Strasse. You may need to remember this as the trams are absolutely rammed, we ended up walking all the way back to our hotel.

Food Curry wurst at 2.70 euros. Sausage in curry sauce, das ist wunderbar.

Drink Graffel 3.50 euros. The downside is that within the Rhein-Energie-Stadion you can't use cash to buy food or drink, you need to buy a card and on top of that it costs 1 euro per glass, which is refundable upon return.

Cologne - Pubs The Aldstadt is an old part of town where several drinking establishments can be found sitting next to each other in tight narrow alleyways. Nice safe drinking environment without the British chav style youths spoiling a night out. Kolsch is the lager of choice in the area.

Cologne - The City Cologne straddles the River Rhine and was first built by the Romans in 38BC , it is currently the 4th. largest city in Germany with a population count of just short of a million. Upon exiting the main station the first time visitor can't help but notice the imposing Kolner Dom (Cologne cathedral) which stands menacingly overlooking the station square. Cologne centre was heavily bombed during World War II, I took several random walks around the city, and was amazed to find old churches and castle-type structures intermingled with office blocks and houses.

FC Koln - Some Info FC Koln were formed in 1948 as a merger between SpVgg Sulz 1907 & Kolner Ballspiel Club 1901. Club colours are predominately red with white trim. FC Koln have won the German championship on 3 occasions, including in the Bundesliga's inaugural season. Their club mascot is Hennes the goat, in the back of the matchday mag there is a picture of a real-life goat on the pitch being hugged by a deranged fan. Around the city several club goats (available from the club shop) can be seen in windows, the clubs nickame is the Billy Goats.

Rhein-Energie-Stadion Info The stadium has a capacity of 50374. Rhein-Energie is a power supply company, fans call the stadium Mungersdorf, after the name of the 2 previous grounds that occupied the same site. There is no longer an athletics track, just tall stands all hemmed in close to the pitch.

Pre-Match We arrived in Cologne about half past 3 local time, with nowhere to stay and no tickets booked. Sid went to get the tickets in the tourist board, he came back saying there was just the 1 left. Undeterred we decided to chance upon just turning up, and we struck gold as all the ticket sales points opened at 18:00 on the dot. Of course this meant we had to waste 2 and a half hours drinking beer and looking through the club shop, which got so packed an hour before kick off that security guards refused to allow further entry. Inside all sorts of goodies could be found, advent calendars, chocolate, bedsheets and the like, but the weakness of the pound meant that everything seemed so expensive, 16.50 euros for a scarf seemed to be too much and replica tops started at 60 euros. (We later found this to be the norm, only St. Pauli shirts can be found at a reduced rate of 45 euros)

Atmosphere An eye-opener for a Euro football 'virgin'. It all started with the soft-rock FC Kolle hymn (live youtube footage here) (recorded version here) which had probably 45000 of the crowd singing along to and waving their scarves. It went on for about 5 verses and I half-expected the fans on the terraces to get their lighters out at one stage. Once the match started it was fascinating to see how much more 'fanatical' the Germans are about their football and their teams. Both sets of fans brought large (and I mean large) flags and banners, a Hannover fan jumped up onto the perimeter fencing to lead the chanting orchestration, there were sparklers alit and when either set of fans on the terracing jumped up and down in tandem it was a sight to behold, it seemed as if the whole stand was swaying. Another peculiarity which may be prevalent on the continent:- the tannoy announcer will read out just the first name of a player, and the home support fill in the rest. Here they didn't even bother to announce the away line up, or any fo their substitutions!

Team News Ex Birmingham City striker Mikel Forssel started the game for Hannover.

The Match To the delight of the travelling support Hannover took the lead just as we were being served our beer. I've no idea how the goal was scored, and they refused to replay the goal on the big screen, no such censorship on show later! The lead lasted until shortly before half-time when a classy back flick from Geramel put he home side level. The young chap next too me didn't stop shouting the whole game, when he wasn't cheering his own players on, he would give the nearest Hannover player within earshot some not so good natured abuse. Even with my limited grasp of the language I could tell he wasn't being overly complimentary. The second half was mostly Cologne, Hannover did hit the bar however. The winning goal came when substitute Salou lined up a low shot from distance, which took a wicked deflection.

Final Score 1. FC Koln 2 Hannover '96 1

Attendance 47000

Also In Attendance Sid

Fortuna Dusseldorf v Wuppertaler SV

14:00 Saturday 8th. November 2008

LTU-Arena

Liga 3

"Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo"...

Admission 18 € (tickets at 13 € available)
Club Newspaper Fortuna Aktuell, A4, fantastic value at just 1 €.

Colours Fortuna (all black), Wuppertaler (white, red trim)

Also In Attendance Sid

How To Get There Metro U78 tram direct from Dusseldorf HBF. The LTU Arena is the last stop. Probably about 3/4 miles walking distance northwest of Dusseldorf centre.

Food Much the same as FC Cologne within the arena:- brockwurst, currywurst and what looks like pizza with tuna.

Drink Warsteiner (apparently non-alcoholic, whatever it wasn't very nice).

Dusseldorf is the business capital of Germany, and the administrative capital of the federal state North Rhine Westphalia. The city hosts many fashion fairs. The small river Dussel flows off the Rhine, hence the city name. As with many other German cities, Dusseldorf suffered terrible bombing during WWII.

Fortuna Dusseldorf were formed as a gymnastics club (Turnverein Flingern) in 1895 in the village of Flingern, a village now swallowed up by the city. In 1919 as TV Flingern they merged with local side Dusseldorfer Fussball Club Fortuna 1911 to form the mouthful 'Dusseldorfer Turn -und Sportverein Fortuna'.

Fortuna were the first club from the Rhine industrial area to win a German championship, beating Schalke 04 in 1933. This is the only time that Dusseldorf have topped the national league. They weren't strong enough to enter the inaugural Bundesliga, although they have played several seasons in the top division since, with 2 third places finishes to their name. They have won the German national cup on 2 occasions, having been beaten finalists 5 times. Their best cup performance was probably reaching the European Cup Winners Cup final in 1979, losing 4-3 to Barcelona in extra-time. Fortuna are known as a yo-yo club, moving between the top 4 levels of German football over the last twenty years. They were invited to be members of the newly created 3. Liga (German 3rd. division) last season (2007/08).

From 1930-72 (plus 3 seasons 2002-05) Fortuna played at the 8,500 capacity Paul-Janes-Stadion, named after a former international player. They played for the next thirty years at the Rheinstadion, which has since been demolished. Nowadays Dusseldorf play at the colossal 51,500 capacity LTU Arena. It took 2 years to build at a staggering cost of 240 million euros. Fortuna share the optionally closed roof stadium with NFL (German NFL?) side Rhein Fire.

Apart from Kraftwerk, and arty bands such as Can & Faust, the only German musicians I've heard of that are actually any good are the rock band 'Die Toten Hosen'. They even sponsored Fortuna for a couple of seasons.

The second leg of our continental tour with the game that we had agreed would be the 'must do' on our trip, Sid had been here before for this year's pre-season friendly with FC. Koln. Whilst back home England was receiving a deluge, in western Germany it was pleasantly warm, temperatures were around the 16 degrees centigrade mark. Upon arrival at Dusseldorf BHF the first point of call was the tourist office, once our tickets were secured we could relax with brunch at 'Buttermaker' , an American diner situated close by.

From the outside the arena looks more akin to an office block, than a football ground. If it wasn't for the scores of polizei and security I wouldn't have known which direction to head in. Inside it reminded me most of Wigan's JJB, but on a much larger scale. Several food outlets and club merchandise stalls were open, but at 60 euros I had to forgo purchasing the Fortuna away kit, a black shirt with a white smudge which looks like someone has spilt paint on it. Like many German grounds it is a complete oval, a mixture of grey, red, yellow, white and blue seats, personally I think they should have gone for just red and white and picked out the clubs name.

Not being aware of lower level Bundesliga I was unaware that a) this was a local derby and b) both clubs had vociferous support. There was trouble outside the ground both before and after the game. Early on a flare was thrown onto the pitch , when Wuppertaler opened the scoring with a Reichwach penalty the travelling ultras threw 3 further flares onto the pitch. The referee took the players off, and the riot police were called in.

While the players were off the pitch whoever was in charge of the music over the tannoy decided it would be apt to play Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire'. When some scuffling took place over on the far side the record of choice was Lennon's 'Give Peace a Chance'. Whoever said that the Germans don't have a sense of humour?

It was end to end stuff, the Lions (Wuppertaler) should have added a second and were made to pay for wasting their chances when Marco Christ unleashed an almighty (see what I did there) shot from fully 40 yards out which despite travelling down the centre of the goal the Wuppertaler keeper couldn't stop. This got the home support back up and jumping, shortly after the interval we were treated to the Fortuna rendition of 'I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You', replacing the 'I Love You Baby' line with 'Fortuna Dusseldorf, fortuna dusseldorf...'.

Some good work down the right saw the 'second coming' of Christ as he finished on the turn to put the home side ahead. A red card shown to penalty scorer Reichwach on 57 minutes meant from here on in Wuppertaler were chasing the game, they were caught on the break once too often as a Fortuna forward waltzed past the keeper, squared and with the very last kick of the game Dusseldorf's no. 18 Deniz Kadah tapped into an empty net to secure all 3 points in front of Fortuna's best crowd of the season.

More fighting outside meant severe delays on the tram, we waited for about half an hour 1 stop on from the Arena as firms clashed with each other and the polizei. Once moving our tram was bottled on one occasion, and had to stop short at Nordstrasse. Although we had to make a 20 minute walk from here it never felt like we were in any serious danger. We reached the Aldstadt by the Rhine, where we found a couple of Irish bars, one of these had a number of club scarves from various countries attached to the ceiling, we supped in here while watching the FA Cup 1st. round scores come in.

Classy chaps that we are, Sid and I had to stop for more curry wurst at the stall outside Dusseldorf station. I had mine with frites (chips) and smothered with mayonnaise, the most appetising sausage and sauce combo yet. We'd seen 7 goals and 2 red cards, could the good fortune continue the following day at Duisburg?

Final Score Fortuna Dusseldorf 3 (Christ 45,76, Darim 90) Wuppertaler SV 1 (Reichwach pen 27)

Attendance 16,663

More Photos Here

Links

Europlan for pictures of virtually every German ground.

Groundhopper 2000 reports on the home game vs. Rot-Weiss Erfurt

This chap also has some crowd footage from the same game. Concentrates too much on the 'ultras' for my liking, but it gives you a jist of what the atmosphere was like on the day.