View from the Cemetery

Well, I thought that was overall a decent start to the season. A tough and competitive game against our old friends from across the cemetery, which we won deservedly, but not by much. Wednesday night was a bit of a disappointment with, according to my on the spot spies, the game turning on two first half penalty incidents, the first being rightly awarded to us for a trip, and then unfortunately poked just wide of the post, and the second twenty minutes later being a pretty poor decision by the ref when our new and excellent centre half, Simon, recovered his own mistake with a superb tackle, which the ref unexpectedly saw as a foul and a pen. More than a bit unlucky. Having said that Guisborough won well in the end and looked very decent, a young, hard working and very mobile side. Apart from the keeper of course, the redoubtable Deano, who could have been sent off before half time for one of his trademark lunging challenges outside the box but got away with a booking. He couldn’t believe it either. Anyway, enough sour grapes.

Plenty to build on, and be very nice to win today and maybe have a little cup run, with the next round away to Frickley Athletic. Nice ride out.

Bishops always seem to come with a weight of expectation, which sometimes they embrace and sometimes weighs heavy. They seem to be putting their faith in youth and home grown development nowadays, which is very wise in my opinion, best to build new history every year. Their time will come again.

Been a good long while, hasn’t it? Anyway welcome back, and as usual we play the lads from the CW very early on. Why? Nobody knows, but it's just about always the case, and anyway it's a good start and a decent football attraction, something which most of us have been really looking forward to. All change at LGV Park, with lots of old stalwarts leaving the club over the summer, and we wish them all well wherever they go and whatever they do, and a new managerial team in place bringing in a lot of new lads. Pre season has been disrupted, with some mediocre results, and one outstanding performance in the win against a pretty full strength Shildon team, which promised much for the season ahead. Not that friendlies count for much, and are rarely much of a guide. So fingers crossed we can start on the front foot over the first few fixtures.

And what has been happening this summer? The Euros were eventually a failure with Gareth Southgate’s ultra cautious approach letting him down at the final hurdle. Hard to criticise, he has done better so far than any England manager since Sir H’Alf, but hoping to defend with six, seven and occasionally eight men, pinch the odd goal, and if all else fails win on pens is rarely enough, and so it proved. A simple question Gareth might very well ask himself is this, if Jack Grealish goes to Man City, Man Utd or Chelsea, who will be Man City, Man Utd or Chelsea’s best player?

Still, always the Qatar World Cup to look forward to, which is not something you will hear very often, and certainly not from any of the players, it could easily be far too hot even in the winter. And any of the daft lads who disgraced themselves at Wembley might be wise to give Qatar a miss, with likely very little in the way of drink to be had, and the security will not be in the hands of spotty youths in Hi Viz jackets two sizes too big, more like big blokes with guns and itchy fingers. On second thoughts, on you go lads…

This below is the View that is in the programme for the Shildon game, but not many people have seen that…

Bear in mind it was written on Thursday night/Friday morning. Hope you enjoy and hopefully we will be back at some time. I will try and post something to the website every now and then anyway. Be lucky.

This weekend we have two Northern League teams playing in the first leg of the semi finals of the FA Vase, both favourites in their respective ties and with every chance of getting through to give us another all Northern League Final and a fun day out at Wembley. But when will that final be? Or even, when will the second legs of the semis be played? My guess is August.

The news this morning, Friday, that coronavirus Covid-19 has reached the Premier League with both Arsenal and Chelsea reporting cases, and with football in Ireland, France, Span and others already in shut down, makes it seem inevitable that we will have to go down the same path, with professional games being postponed or played behind closed doors, and sooner rather than later. It maybe that those games and clubs at levels where they can be confident of not attracting more than 500 spectators will be allowed to continue, or maybe not, but big games in non league stadia and a Wembley Final?  Nobody wants to play behind closed doors and it makes little sense anyway, financial or sporting, so if things are postponed for a few weeks then where is the leeway to fit games in? Like I say, August…

So, when does a bit of a slump become a crisis? Must be getting close. I know you can make a fair few excuses, with various disruptions but even so, we need to start picking up a few more points from somewhere soon. Five league defeats in a row and a loss in a cup tie as well makes for fairly grim reading. Last Wednesday night up at Whickham was disappointing mainly because we started so well, and pretty much controlled the first half. But, as is our downfall at the moment, we only had a one goal lead to show for it, and as soon as we turned round for the second half it was clear, if we needed reminding, that Whickham know how to play their pitch. Everything went down their left and eventually they made hay from a series of opportunities to level things up and then win the game in the last ten minutes. We had a couple of chances and a Dylan Elliott effort rules out for offside but by the end Whickham were well worth their win, their first at home since August. Worrying, very worrying.