GLOUCESTER CITY (Whaddon Road)

CONFERENCE NORTH, GLOUCESTER CITY 0-1 CHESTER FC, ATTENDANCE: 852.



Can you spot the mistake?



A Sunday bonus game for me as, due to a race meeting on the Saturday, this game was re-arranged for Sunday.

Gloucester groundshare at Cheltenham Town's Whaddon Road after their own ground was damaged by flooding in 2007. They have been in exile ever since, previously sharing at Cirencester Town and Forest Green Rovers.

This was my first visit to Whaddon Road since 2000, when Chester City lost 1-0 to Cheltenham.

I remember standing on an open terrace behind the goal, so it's safe to assume that today I sat in it's replacement, an all seated covered stand (below left) and I'm pretty sure the all seated stand along one side of the pitch (below right) was not there in 2000.

Otherwise the ground was unchanged with the Main Stand (below left) still in place and the home terrace behind the opposite goal.

It was a hard fought win for the blues as a solitary strike, in the 65th minute, from Nathan Jarman secured the points for Chester. Gloucester's cause was not helped by Lewis Hogg being red-carded for two bookable offences in the space of two minutes. The result lifted Chester to within 2 points of league leaders Brackley Town.

There are plans to try and bring Gloucester back to their city, but the initial application was rejected back in September (click here). I wish them all the luck in eventually returning 'home'

LLANFAIR UNITED (Mount Field)

FAW WELSH TROPHY 4th ROUND, LLANFAIR UNITED 2-3 LLANBERIS (AET), ATTENDANCE: 92

After the exertions of last week, travelling 4,500 miles around Europe, I kept it a little bit closer to home this week with a trip into Mid-Wales. Llanfair Caereinion is the home of Llanfair United and today they were taking on Llanberis in the 4th round of the FAW Welsh Trophy.

Llanfair Caereinion is a small village in Powys, around 8 miles from Welshpool and is famous for being a terminus of the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway.

Many readers of this blog will have travelled on this when attending Llanfair's game versus Abermule back in August. This was a 'groundhop' game but due to work commitments I was unable to attend, so today was a great opportunity to put that right.

Entrance to the ground Llanfair style!



The game was an absolute corker, but to be honest the first 45 minutes gave little indication of the excitement that was going to follow. It was a scrappy first period on a heavy, heavy pitch and chances were at an absolute premium. The visitors took the lead after 25 minutes, Dylan Parry bundling home, but it was a pretty even contest.

The hosts were deservedly level on the hour when Steve Andrew headed home. The game ebbed and flowed and either team could have snatched a winner. With 7 minutes remaining, Llanberis looked like they had done just that when skipper Gethin Wakeham scored at the back stick.

To their credit, Llanfair didn't cave in and two minutes later they were level when Richard Astley headed home. As the game entered stoppage time, Llanberis had Nidian Huws sent off for a second bookable offence, leaving them to play extra time with 10 men.

Unfortunately for United this proved to be no hindrance to the visitors as they grabbed what proved to be the winner with a superb 30 yard pile driver from Dylan Parry, bagging his second of the game. Despite late pressure from United, they could not find that elusive equaliser.

     

   



FC INGOLSTADT (Audi Sportpark)

BUNDESLIGA 2, FC INGLOSTADT 4-2 JAHN REGENSBURG, ATTENDANCE: 9,473

FC Ingolstadt was formed in 2004 by a merger of the football sides of two other clubs, ESV Ingolstadt and MTV Ingolstadt. The out of town ground, the Audi Sportpark was opened in 2010. It is a typical new build stadium.

Speaking to a local, they said Ice Hockey was the predominant sport in the town, which would probably go some way to explaining why the ground was just over half full.

After a sluggish start, the game turned out to be an absolute cracker.

A defensive howler allowed Regensburg to take the lead when Ramon Machado fired home after 17 minutes. It was 'Der Schanzer' though who had the better of the play and the better chances but they could not force and equaliser and they went into the break 0-1 down.

What followed in the second half was a fine advert for Bundesliga 2 football. A push in the box resulted in a penalty for Ingolstadt. Stefan Leitl brought the hosts level firing home the rebound after his initial kick was saved.

Manuel Schäffler headed the home side in front after 71 minutes but just 9 minutes later Keng Amachiabou brought the visitors level.

The game could have swung either way but it was Ingolstadt who clinched the points in the dying minutes with two goals in quick succession.

After 85 minutes they were awarded another penalty, for handball, resulting in Regensburg defender Wilson Kamavuaka (above, left) receiving his second yellow card. This time though Christian Eigler made no mistake to make it 3-2 (above, right).

With the game approaching stoppage time Brazillian striker Caiuby sealed the win with Ingolstadt's fourth goal.

All that was left was to get the replacement bus service to Munich and get our flight home, after a couple of halves in a beer house though. A great 7 days was at an end. Roll on next year!!

 

SC FREIBURG 1904 (Dreisamstadion)

BUNDESLIGA, SC FREIBURG 0-0 HAMBURG SV, ATTENDANCE: 24,000

A train south took us to from Frankfurt to Freiburg im Breisgau. Freiburg is one of the most southerly cities in Germany, being very close to the Swiss border.

Sport Club Freiburg were taking on Hamburg in a Bundesliga encounter.

We met some Hamburg fans on the train south and enjoyed a good laugh whilst polishing off a few pre-match beers.

The game, played in persistent rain, was a drab affair.

Hamburg had former Spurs player Rafael van der Vaart and ex-Wigan player Paul Scharner in their starting line up, but Scharner's afternoon only lasted 35 minutes when he received a second yellow card. This led to Hamburg effectively shutting up shop and settling for a point.

 The closest there was to a goal was right at the death when Freiburg's Jan Rosenthal's effort hit the post.

Freiburg's  Dreisamstadion, named after the River Dreisam which flows through the city, was built in 1953 and was apparently Germany's first solar powered stadium. Sadly there was nothing illuminating about this game today.

    

 

1.FSV MAINZ 05 (Coface Arena)

BUNDESLIGA, FSV MAINZ 2-1 NURNBURG, ATTENDANCE: 31, 390

Friday took us from Romania to Germany. The only direct flight, at a convenient time, was to Dortmund. The fixture arrangements were not kind as the Friday night Bundesliga game was 250KM away in Mainz.

With a risk of not making the 4pm train on time the only other option was to hire a car. It was great fun driving down the Autobahn's to the Coface Arena on the edge of Mainz. The roads were very busy but we made it to the ground with about 30 mins to spare, allowing plenty of time to pick up our tickets and scoff a Bratwurst!

The stadium was opened in 2011 and replaced the club's old Stadion am Bruchweg. Mainz were taking on Nuremburg. I have to confess to a soft spot for Nuremburg after we were so well looked after when Everton played there in the 2007 UEFA Cup group stage.

'Die Nullfünfer' have had a decent start to the season and are well placed inside the top half of the table. After a delay to kick off, thanks to said traffic, Nicolai Muller ran through after 12 minutes to give Mainz the lead before Andreas Ivanschitz rounded Nuremberg 'keeper Patrick Rakovsky to put the home side 2-0 up.

 

Nuremburg got themselves back into the game just before half time when Per Nilsson (40) headed home.

Nuremburg did their best to force and equaliser in the second but they were vulnerable on the break and Mainz could have added to their tally.

The score remained the same and the win lifted Mainz up into 5th place in the Bundesliga but I thought 'Der Club' deserved a share of the spoils.