POTTERS BAR TOWN (Parkfield)

SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL, POTTERS BAR TOWN 0-3 LEIGHTON TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 129

When I departed my hotel this morning, this was certainly not my intended destination!

I had set out with the intention of doing an Isthmian League 'double header' of Carshalton v Guernsey followed by Tooting & Mitcham v Sittingbourne. Sadly this went belly up when Guernsey missed their flight to Gatwick and the game was postponed. Unfortunately for me this probability never even entered my head and it was only upon arrival at the ground that I found out it was off.

I could have stuck with visiting Tooting and Mitcham but out of courtesy to my fellow passengers I decided to try and get further North (i.e closer to home) but the Sat Nav decided the quickest route (sic) was through London. I eventually made it to Potters Bar with about 10 minutes to spare.

The ground is tucked in off the High Street, behind a row of flats. The club was founded in 1960 as Mount Grace Old Scholars when PE teacher Ken Barrett formed a football club for former scholars. The club won the Hertfordshire County League in 1991 and took the promotion to the South Midlands League, changing their name to Potters Bar Town in the process.

In 2004 the club won promotion to the Southern League before being moved across to the Isthmian League before being placed back in the Southern League in 2013.

The Scholars have had a great start to the current campaign and at the start of play sat second in the table. The visitors, Leighton Town, were hovering just above the drop zone so on paper it looked a home banker.

Form went out of the window as Leighton Town cruised to a 3-0 victory. Potters Bar had the majority of possession but Leighton Town were happy to sit back and play on the counter and boy did that work a treat.

Once Phil Draycott's long range effort crashed in off the far post after 40 minutes, Leighton never really looked in trouble.

With only 4 minutes gone of the second half gone Claude Senla slotted home to double the vistors lead and after 67 minutes a corner kick was headed home by Robbie Goodman to clinch the points.

There was a scary moment at half time when a call was put over the tannoy for a replacement official as the referee was injured. After the morning postponement an abandonment at the break would have been the cherry on the cake! Luckily a replacement was found and the game was played to a finish, much to my relief, and no doubt the rest of the crowd.

LILLE OLYMPIC SPORTING CLUB (Stade Pierre Mauroy)

EUROPA LEAGUE GROUP H, LILLE OLYMPIC SPORTING CLUB 0-0 EVERTON, ATTENDANCE: 42,000

When the draw was made back in August this was one of the two trips I decided to target, VfL Wolfsburg being the other one, for a European jaunt.

I along with a couple of others decided to have a road trip and make the 800 mile round journey by car. This involved my first ever ride through the Channel Tunnel.

We left for Lille around 4am, amid reports that some Everton fans in an Australian bar had been targeted the previous evening by some Lille "fans" where the inevitable then happened.

There was a slight delay going through the Channel Tunnel as many other Blues were making the same journey to France. It is reported that over 10,000 Everton supporters crossed the channel.

 We arrived at our hotel around 3pm local time where I switched my phone on to be bombarded with text messages about avoiding the main square as it was all going off, with tear gas and rubber bullets being used by the police.

Anyone expecting some Kate Adie frontline reporting then I'm afraid you will be disappointed as I clearly missed the fun and games. Nontheless, here are some links to an Everton forum that may offer a better insight to events that I can;

http://www.grandoldteam.com/2014/10/24/actually-happened-lille/

http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/got-world-exclusive-video-footage-of-the-lille-police-incident-contains-bad-language.70733/

Naturally curiosity led me to the main square but by the time I had strolled into the town the situation was calm and most of the fans were making their way to the stadium, though it was chaos  trying to get on the Metro.

The 50,000 capacity Stade Pierre-Mauroy, named after the former Mayor of Lille and French Prime Minister, was opened in 2012. Lille’s original home was Stade Grimonprez-Jooris, which they left in 2004 in the hope that they could redevelop the ground, but the plans went nowhere and instead they ended up building a new stadium. A rather impressive stadium it is too and it will the one of the grounds used during Euro 2016.

Tonight I was one of the thousands of Evertonians in the home end and I happy to report, from my end, there was no hint of trouble and the Lille fans sat around us were friendly toward us.

It was pretty easy to keep a lid on things as there was very little to get excited about as both teams fought out an insipid goalless draw. The only time I nearly jumped out of my seat was when Tony Hibbert had a chance in the second half and we were all thinking "this is it, this is the moment" (Hibbert has thus far failed to score in over 300 appearances for Everton) but a Lille defender managed to block his shot.

Top of the group, with 5 points, at the midway stage, with two home games to come, I will be hoping to look back on this result as a great away point.

Post match we drifted back into the centre of town but the vast majority of bars were shut up for the evening, probably on Police instruction, so it was a case of drifting back to the hotel for a nightcap. An anti-climatic end to the day.

CPD LLANFECHAIN FC (Recreation Field)

MONTGOMERYSHIRE CUP 1ST ROUND, LLANFECHAIN 1-7 LLANRHAEADR, ATTENDANCE: 62 (h/c)

It was a beautiful sunny October afternoon as I made my way down the A483 for some more Sunday Mid-Wales cup action. Last time out it was the Radnorshire Cup but today it was the Montgomeryshire Cup that was the big draw. There was also the bonus that the hosts, Llanfechain, would be producing a programme for the occasion. Who could possibly ignore that combination?

Llanfechain is a small village located in northern Powys between Llanfyllin and Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain. Both these names will be familiar to Welsh football followers, especially the latter at that was once the home of Welsh champions TNS.

The Recreation Field is a pitch in the centre of the village, on Maes Mechain. The ground is basic with only a brick dugout offering any shelter from the elements, however the surrounding views were very picturesque, as you would expect in Wales.

Llanfechain play in red shirts and there was a slight delay to proceedings when the visitors from Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant also turned up with red (away) kit, as their regular blue shirts were used 24 hours earlier.

After a quick phone call the blue shirts eventually arrived just after 2pm, but there was another delay as the referee had yet to show. Nobody had told him it was a 2pm kick off and he turned up for the usual Welsh default kick off of 2.30pm.

The programme notes were lamenting the homesters poor recent record in this competition that they last won in 1974 and today, once again, offered no joy to Llanfechain. 

When the game eventually started and it was effectively over within 16 minutes with Llanrhaeadr 3-0 up. Llanraheadr play two divisions above Llanfechain in the Mid Wales Division One, having come down from the Cymru Alliance. The visitors were 5-0 up by half time and in cruise control.

Llanfechain scored a penalty in the second half but finished up and the wrong end of a 7-1 defeat. In fairness they kept plugging away and created chances but lacked the composure when the opportunities did come along.

The Llanrhaeadr goals came courtesy of Michael Roberts (who scored four) a Gus Harris penalty, Hamish Clifton and Sam Sefton. Craig Scott replied for Llanfechain from the penalty spot.

Another grand afternoon out in God's country.

The club linesman has a well
deserved ciggie!

HARROW BOROUGH (Earlsmead)

FA CUP 3RD QUALIFYING ROUND, HARROW BOROUGH 2-1 WALTHAM ABBEY, ATTENDANCE: 182

It was another early start this Saturday as I joined the great and good of the hopping fraternity for the the first game of the Bedfordshire Hop. It was a 10:30 kick off at the Shefford Sports Centre as Shefford Town & Campton beat Pavenham by 4 goals to 2. 

After a quick slurp in the Shefford Brewery Tap, my accomplice and I made our way, slowly, down the A41 to Harrow. I have every sympathy for those that have to drive in London.

Earlsmead has been Harrow Borough's home since 1934, a year after the club was formed.

The seated main stand at Earlsmead was opened in 1995 and
replaced the old Champniss Stand, which was demolished after 57 years

Harrow Borough have had an indifferent start to their Isthmian League campaign and find themselves just above the drop zone after 15 games. Their opponents today, Waltham Abbey, are mid table in the division below. Maybe the FA Cup is a welcome distraction.

After a visit to the Harrow Borough social club, where the friendly guy on the door was most welcoming, we entered the ground and headed for the food bar. I was absolutely shocked that Harrow had pies for sale, as that is a rare thing at grounds around these parts. They must have known we were coming today and specially imported them in from the north.

Whilst I was still staring in wonderment of a bit of pastry, gravy and offal, I missed the first goal of game!

If the Waltham Abbey manager gave the standard "keep it tight for the first twenty" team talk then I'm, afraid his side didn't heed the warning as they fell behind after 18....seconds!

Marc Charles-Smith, the Harrow skipper, was played through to slot home.  Michael Bryan could have doubled the homesters lead after 4 minutes but his header was well saved.

The game settled down after that and the rest of the first half was a pretty even affair.

The second half was a lot more feisty and a far more interesting watch. The catalyst was a couple of crunching tackles and a penalty to Waltham Abbey, which Tom Bruno (47) duly converted (pictured left).

The Waltham Abbey no2, Stef Swzarski, was lucky to only receive  a yellow card for grabbing Harrow's Steve Butterworth by the throat. Indirectly this led to the winning goal as Butterworth out paced Swazarski, who couldn't dive in to tackle him, to fire home the winning goal (62).

Waltham put Harrow under late pressure but couldn't force an equaliser. Harrow will now travel to Basingstoke Town in the next round.

EPPLETON COLLIERY WELFARE GROUND

WOMEN'S FA SUPER LEAGUE TWO, SUNDERLAND AFC LADIES 1-2 DONCASTER ROVERS BELLES, ATTENDANCE: 1,177

After the excitement of the Vase game at Alnwick Town, it was back down the A1 for the second part of today's double.

Sunderland Ladies play at the Hetton Centre, Hetton-le-Hole, which is the former home of Eppleton Colliery Welfare. Eppleton Colliery were formed in 1929 and were members of the Northern Alliance when they unfortunately folded in 2005. 

The ground was redeveloped when the club reached the Northern League in the early 1990's and received a further influx of cash when Sunderland Council relocated the villages community services to the Hetton Centre.

This building, which houses the community organisation ‘The Hetton Town Trust’ which rose from the former Eppleton Colliery Welfare,  overlooks the ground. The centre includes the Bob Paisley Bar, named after the former Liverpool manager who was born in Hetton-le-Hole and remains a legendary figure around these parts.

Tonight's game was being billed as the title shoot out between Sunderland Ladies and Doncaster Belles for the right to replace Everton Ladies (relegated after 20 years in the top division) in the Women's top flight. The kick off was put back to 7.30pm to allow Black Cat supporters who had been at the Sunderland v Stoke City game plenty of time if they also wanted to come along to this match. The club were rewarded with a 1,000+ crowd and it made for a fantastic atmosphere.

At the start of play Sunderland had 41 points with three to play and Doncaster had 33 points with four to play. A Sunderland win and the title is theirs. A Doncaster win and the fight continues, but the reality is that it is Sunderland's to lose whatever the result as Doncaster still need to win their all remaining games and hope Sunderland slip up somewhere.

Sunderland took the lead after 16 minutes when their top scorer Beth Mead headed home. The homesters had the best of the opening 45 minutes and had chances to extend their lead.

Whatever Belles manager Gordon Staniforth said at the interval certainly did the trick. Millie Bright hit the crossbar from a free kick before Jess Sigsworth (60) headed home a cross from Victoria Williams to level things up.

Sunderland did have a glorious chance to regain the lead but Abbey Joice fired wide with only Belles goalkeeper Nicola Hobbs to beat.

It was Williams who proved to be the match winner, with 7 minutes remaining, when she hit a superb curling effort into the top corner of Rachel Laws' net.

Some of the tackles were crunching as Doncaster battled to protect their lead and despite late pressure they held on to keep their title chances alive.

The Doncaster Belles had Sue Smith in their starting line up, someone who will be well known to lot of people through her punditry work on the BBC and Sky Sports, and I have to say she was superb. Everything seemed to go through her and she always kept the team going through her touch and movement. The only blot on her copybook was a booking for a dive.

Overall a very enjoyable evening and a really good game of football.

Highlights can be viewed by clicking here