View from the Cemetery

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.

Well, a win or two to celebrate is good, yes? A very nice feeling. And good wins at that, against good opposition. All credit to the lads and the management team, a bit of a tweak to the system and a consistent selection, and hey presto! Things can and have got radically better.

There is no doubt however that the win over at North Shields last week was the one to make people sit up and take notice. Result or no result, North Shields are a big strong, committed and capable team, on a real good run of form and they will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, no question. But it didn’t help them much as we controlled their attacks in the first half when they had all the benefit of the conditions, and when the weather situation was reversed after half time we came on very, very strong.