SO it finished in a draw. I guess that was the way it was always meant to be. But football was the real winner on the day and that was the best result we could have hoped for.
It was quite simply a great game of football. Ironically, given the hype surrounding it, it was like a boxing match. Two teams standing toe-to-toe, trading blows, ultimately decided on a split points decision.
But it was not just on the pitch where credit was due. The Willington fans travelled south in great numbers to support their team and it led to one of the best atmospheres ever witnessed at a Northern League Division Two match.
The chants and banter between both sets of fans was terrific and it was all done in the best possible taste. No animosity at all and a friendly drink in the bar afterwards.
To be honest, I was not sure what to expect. I knew some Willington fans still looked on me as public enemy number one, and with very good reason, so I thought it best to keep a low profile.
I had a nice chat with the Willington secretary Geoff Siddle in the clubhouse before the match but I thought it best to keep a distance from the fans so as not to cause any unnecessary bad feeling.
To be fair most were fine. Yes, I did get the odd dirty look thrown in my direction, understandable really, but some came over to say hello and there was no hint of trouble.
The game itself certainly lived up to all the pre-match hype. It looked like being a long day for me when the visitors scored first after just 16 minutes but it was an open game as expected so it was clear that would not be the only goal.
It developed into an absorbing contest, the type you cannot take your eyes off for a second. It seemed something was always happening. And Town scored twice before the break to make that half time cuppa taste a little bit sweeter.
The second half was just as exciting and the atmosphere, which had been bubbling all afternoon, reached a crescendo when Willington scored twice in a minute midway through the half. They couldn't beat us again, could they?
For a long period it looked as though they would. But Town are nothing if not resilient and there are few better feelings in football than a last minute equaliser. It was not a goal of any real beauty; forced home from a yard by the shoulder of Kokesy - redemption after his red card at their place in the cup - but the celebrations were certainly of supermodel proportions.
We could even have nicked it at the death too but I think the draw was probably the only fitting result on the day. Both sets of fans deserved to have something to cheer about at the end.
I have to say I was very dismissive of the Willington team after that FA Vase meeting in September. I thought they were a poor side that day and was upset that we had managed to lose to them, even with 9 men. But what a turn around. Despite having pretty much the same group of players they looked a completely different side.
In David (or is it Adam?) Pinkney and Corey Nicholson they had two of the outstanding performers on the day. In fact young Nicholson is the best right back that I have seen this season, our own Banksy apart of course.
Then you have the Willington fans. They are a passionate bunch. They want their team to win and we can all relate to that. But I let one idiot; not even a Willington fan as it turned out, cloud my judgement on the people and the place as a whole after our last meeting, and that was completely wrong.
It was during the second half, with Willington 3-2 ahead, that it really hit home to me. Their fans were cheering on their team and I saw exactly how much it meant to them. All they wanted was to see their boys win.
I took a few minutes for reflection. The sweeping comments I made were not fair. I wanted to approach the vocal section of the Willington fans and tell them personally but we had a game to win and I soon became far too absorbed in that.
Unfortunately I was unable to do so afterwards either. I am always busy immediately after a home game; phoning in the result to the league, recording a match report for BBC Radio York and doing the post-match interviews. So I am doing it now. Somehow it seems appropriate this way.
So a day I was both excited about and dreading at the same time turned out it to be one of the best days I have ever witnessed at football. Faith restored.
Of course there will always be some residents of Willington who will never forgive me. But I hope that this weekend has shown we are not that much different, them and I. We all love our team and want to see them win.
But on the day, football was the real winner. The Northern League is one big football community and I would like to think that the part of that community that was separated in the aftermath of my last blog piece has now been re-joined.
Perhaps a stronger bond between the clubs has been formed. I certainly hope so.
Last time I called Willington the land that time forgot but I am singing to a different tune this time. Redemption Song. Amen to that.
Monday 18 November 2013
Monday 11 November 2013
Unbeaten runs and Old Trafford - a match made in hell
ONE thing you can guarantee about being an Arsenal fan is that if you travel to Old Trafford with a long unbeaten record to defend you will inevitably lose. It has happened in 1987, 2004 and now in 2013.
Usually it is a controversial penalty or a harsh red card, the type of which only befalls an away side at Old Trafford. Often it has been the result of being bullied off the park. But this one had none of the above ingredients although the end result was still the same; an unfortunate defeat.
I stupidly believed that with Fergie no longer at the helm, the curse would be broken. But no. Apparently it goes much deeper than that. The virus which had swept through the squad, robbing us of the services of Mertesacker and Rosicky - both outstanding in midweek in Dortmund - showed there was an even darker force at work.
My previous visit to Salford had been for the 8-2 in August 2011 so the exorcising of demons was the order of the day. And I was confident too. Our recent form coupled with United's shaky start under Moyes meant I felt we would never have a better chance of winning here.
Perhaps we deserved little from the first half performance; as poor as we have played all season. But let's get it right, United were no better. Szczesny did not have a save to make and the goal, when it arrived, was a simple set piece inevitably scored by van Persie.
I must have been the only one in the away end not too upset that Robin had scored. Right from the start I have never joined in with the 'She said no...' chants and I have never wished any ill on the man. I respected his decision to leave and his title medal certainly justifies it.
My pre-match wish had been to see us win, obviously, but also to see van Persie score. In fact just seeing him play again live - having missed both meetings last season - was a privilege. Whatever you think about him now the guy was an Arsenal legend and is still a world class footballer.
I was not too concerned at half time. I knew we would play better in the second half and so we did. Right from the start we showed the urgency so sadly lacking before and the game was played out almost entirely in their half.
But something was missing. Ozil was off the pace, Ramsey not firing. Giroud lacked support. Despite that, we still should have come away with something.
The introduction of Jack on the hour at last gave us someone willing to run at defenders and slowly the chances came. Ozil fired into the side netting while two quality deliveries from Sagna on the right should have brought the equaliser - Gibbs and Bendtner both unable to get anything on the ball inside the 6-yard box when any touch would have seen us level.
Inevitably they had one or two opportunities on the break; Rooney firing wide after doing well to create space on the edge of the box and Smalling completely missing a far post header, but again Szczesny was virtually unemployed (unusual for a Pole in Manchester).
So while not the result we were hoping for, this defeat at Old Trafford did not hurt nearly as much as most of the others. I left with a weird sense of pride at having seen us dominate a half of football here. Not even in the glory days of Vieira and Henry did we manage that.
Despite a tough week and a weakened squad due to illness we gave a good account of ourselves. On another day we might even have won. United mustered just 2 efforts at goal. I wonder when the last time that happened at Old Trafford.
A week or so ago many were predicting three defeats, so to have come out of it with 2 wins and a narrow defeat is a good effort. We have faced strikers of the quality of Suarez, Lewandoski, Rooney and van Persie and conceded just one goal; not bad for a side who cannot defend.
On top of that we need to remember that the international break will see some key players return from injury; Walcott, Podolski, Ox. Imagine if any of those had been fit to come off the bench yesterday?
So it is not a time to panic. We are still top of the league and look like staying there for the foreseeable future. It is never nice losing, especially against them, but did we honestly expect any other outcome? After all we never win here, especially on the back of a long unbeaten run.
Now we must hope that unlike in 1987 and 2004, defeat here does not lead to a collapse. I do not believe it will as we appear to have a strong inner belief about us now, but I guess only time will tell.
Usually it is a controversial penalty or a harsh red card, the type of which only befalls an away side at Old Trafford. Often it has been the result of being bullied off the park. But this one had none of the above ingredients although the end result was still the same; an unfortunate defeat.
I stupidly believed that with Fergie no longer at the helm, the curse would be broken. But no. Apparently it goes much deeper than that. The virus which had swept through the squad, robbing us of the services of Mertesacker and Rosicky - both outstanding in midweek in Dortmund - showed there was an even darker force at work.
My previous visit to Salford had been for the 8-2 in August 2011 so the exorcising of demons was the order of the day. And I was confident too. Our recent form coupled with United's shaky start under Moyes meant I felt we would never have a better chance of winning here.
Perhaps we deserved little from the first half performance; as poor as we have played all season. But let's get it right, United were no better. Szczesny did not have a save to make and the goal, when it arrived, was a simple set piece inevitably scored by van Persie.
I must have been the only one in the away end not too upset that Robin had scored. Right from the start I have never joined in with the 'She said no...' chants and I have never wished any ill on the man. I respected his decision to leave and his title medal certainly justifies it.
My pre-match wish had been to see us win, obviously, but also to see van Persie score. In fact just seeing him play again live - having missed both meetings last season - was a privilege. Whatever you think about him now the guy was an Arsenal legend and is still a world class footballer.
I was not too concerned at half time. I knew we would play better in the second half and so we did. Right from the start we showed the urgency so sadly lacking before and the game was played out almost entirely in their half.
But something was missing. Ozil was off the pace, Ramsey not firing. Giroud lacked support. Despite that, we still should have come away with something.
The introduction of Jack on the hour at last gave us someone willing to run at defenders and slowly the chances came. Ozil fired into the side netting while two quality deliveries from Sagna on the right should have brought the equaliser - Gibbs and Bendtner both unable to get anything on the ball inside the 6-yard box when any touch would have seen us level.
Inevitably they had one or two opportunities on the break; Rooney firing wide after doing well to create space on the edge of the box and Smalling completely missing a far post header, but again Szczesny was virtually unemployed (unusual for a Pole in Manchester).
So while not the result we were hoping for, this defeat at Old Trafford did not hurt nearly as much as most of the others. I left with a weird sense of pride at having seen us dominate a half of football here. Not even in the glory days of Vieira and Henry did we manage that.
Despite a tough week and a weakened squad due to illness we gave a good account of ourselves. On another day we might even have won. United mustered just 2 efforts at goal. I wonder when the last time that happened at Old Trafford.
A week or so ago many were predicting three defeats, so to have come out of it with 2 wins and a narrow defeat is a good effort. We have faced strikers of the quality of Suarez, Lewandoski, Rooney and van Persie and conceded just one goal; not bad for a side who cannot defend.
On top of that we need to remember that the international break will see some key players return from injury; Walcott, Podolski, Ox. Imagine if any of those had been fit to come off the bench yesterday?
So it is not a time to panic. We are still top of the league and look like staying there for the foreseeable future. It is never nice losing, especially against them, but did we honestly expect any other outcome? After all we never win here, especially on the back of a long unbeaten run.
Now we must hope that unlike in 1987 and 2004, defeat here does not lead to a collapse. I do not believe it will as we appear to have a strong inner belief about us now, but I guess only time will tell.
Thursday 7 November 2013
Ramsey on target again as Arsenal scale the Yellow Wall
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 0 ARSENAL 1
By Ricky Butler at Westfalenstadion
AARON RAMSEY'S second half header silenced the Yellow Wall as Arsenal secured a famous Champions League victory in Dortmund last night.
Having been beaten by Jurgen Klopp's side at the Emirates two weeks ago, the Gunners knew they needed a result at the Westfalenstadion to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last 16.
And cometh the hour, cometh the man as it was once again Ramsey who was in the right place at the right time to keep Arsenal on top of Group F.
To put this result into context, Dortmund had won all eight of their previous home matches in what has been their best ever start to a Bundesliga season. They certainly looked impressive in the victory in London a fortnight earlier but Wenger's men, it seemed, had learnt their lesson.
And it did not go unnoticed by Dortmund chief Klopp, who acknowledged the quality of Arsenal's performance. He said: "Yes, they could win it - as long as they don't play Bayern Munich. They are young, healthy and good technicians. They won a clever game."
The North-Londoners had set out to contain the Germans from the start. In fact so concerned were they with they with their defensive duties, Arsenal failed to muster a single shot on goal during the first half.
They rode their luck at times, too. Defender Neven Subotic fired an early chance wide from close range while Henrikh Mkhitaryan, scorer at the Emirates, ought to have repeated the trick when presented with an even better chance midway through the first half. But with only Wojciech Szczesny to beat, he missed the target from 18 yards.
The Dortmund pressure intensified at the start of the second period. The Arsenal goalkeeper dived full-length to keep out a Marco Rues header, while the same man then saw a close range effort ruled out for offside.
Arsenal started to believe it might just be their night when the Germans had a second goal ruled out by the assistant's flag soon after - this one from Marcel Schmelzer - and so it proved.
There were 61 minutes on the clock when Tomas Rosicky worked hard to push the ball out to Mesut Ozil on the right. The Gunners record signing, born just down the road in Gelsenkirchen, stood up a cross to the far post which Olivier Giroud nodded into the path of the late arriving Ramsey.
The Welshman, with 10 goals already this season, was not about to pass up such an opportunity and his diving header nestled into the bottom corner of the net to send the 3,300 travelling Gooners behind the goal into ecstasy.
Suddenly the shackles were off and Ramsey was denied a second by a sprawling save from Roman Weidenfeller before Per Metersacker, immaculate at the back once again, headed onto the roof of the net.
The inevitable late Dortmund surge failed to bring any reward, although they felt they should have had a penalty at the death when Robert Lewandowski threw himself theatrically to ground under challenge from Mertersacker as he attempted an acrobatic finish. But Arsenal deserved their slice of luck.
Wenger, understandably, was delighted. He said: "We had a united, focused performance, especially defensively.
"It was a question of being focused and intelligent, and to wait for the moment to create openings in their defence.
"We had a difficult period at start of second half, but after we scored I felt we could have scored a second goal and we were less under pressure," he added.
"Overall it's a huge win here. If you look at the results they have made at home in the Champions League, not many teams have achieved that.
"Dortmund are especially dangerous when you lose the ball, and to counter that, you need maturity. If you have a very young team tonight you would be overrun and lose that game by a very high score. We look more stable defensively."
"I have a lot of respect for Dortmund because they are a very good side. Unfortunately this group is a very strong group, and one of the big teams will have to pay a heavy price. I hope it will not be us."
Despite now having to win their last two matches to qualify, Klopp remained upbeat. He said: “It is a very strong group and the positive news is that two wins and we will qualify.
"We created much more today up front but they scored with their first chance of the match and we could not come back. This defeat could have been avoided. It's definitely going to get exciting from now on.”
Arsenal could book their place in the last 16 with victory over Marseille at the Emirates in three weeks time. Meanwhile, Dortmund host Napoli, who beat the French side 3-2 last night to join Arsenal on nine points, knowing they cannot afford any more slip-ups.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND - Weidenfeller, Großkreutz, Schmelzer, Bender (Hofmann - 75' ), Subotic, Papastathopoulos, Blaszczykowski (Aubameyang - 74' ), Sahin, Lewandowski, Mkhitaryan, Reus (Schieber - 86' ).
ARSENAL - Szczesny, Sagna, Gibbs, Arteta, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Rosicky (Vermaelen - 91' ), Ramsey, Giroud (Bendtner - 90' ), Özil, Cazorla (Monreal - 75' ).
REFEREE - B Kuipers (Neth).
ATTENDANCE: 65,829.
By Ricky Butler at Westfalenstadion
Having been beaten by Jurgen Klopp's side at the Emirates two weeks ago, the Gunners knew they needed a result at the Westfalenstadion to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last 16.
And cometh the hour, cometh the man as it was once again Ramsey who was in the right place at the right time to keep Arsenal on top of Group F.
To put this result into context, Dortmund had won all eight of their previous home matches in what has been their best ever start to a Bundesliga season. They certainly looked impressive in the victory in London a fortnight earlier but Wenger's men, it seemed, had learnt their lesson.
And it did not go unnoticed by Dortmund chief Klopp, who acknowledged the quality of Arsenal's performance. He said: "Yes, they could win it - as long as they don't play Bayern Munich. They are young, healthy and good technicians. They won a clever game."
The North-Londoners had set out to contain the Germans from the start. In fact so concerned were they with they with their defensive duties, Arsenal failed to muster a single shot on goal during the first half.
They rode their luck at times, too. Defender Neven Subotic fired an early chance wide from close range while Henrikh Mkhitaryan, scorer at the Emirates, ought to have repeated the trick when presented with an even better chance midway through the first half. But with only Wojciech Szczesny to beat, he missed the target from 18 yards.
The Dortmund pressure intensified at the start of the second period. The Arsenal goalkeeper dived full-length to keep out a Marco Rues header, while the same man then saw a close range effort ruled out for offside.
Arsenal started to believe it might just be their night when the Germans had a second goal ruled out by the assistant's flag soon after - this one from Marcel Schmelzer - and so it proved.
There were 61 minutes on the clock when Tomas Rosicky worked hard to push the ball out to Mesut Ozil on the right. The Gunners record signing, born just down the road in Gelsenkirchen, stood up a cross to the far post which Olivier Giroud nodded into the path of the late arriving Ramsey.
The Welshman, with 10 goals already this season, was not about to pass up such an opportunity and his diving header nestled into the bottom corner of the net to send the 3,300 travelling Gooners behind the goal into ecstasy.
Suddenly the shackles were off and Ramsey was denied a second by a sprawling save from Roman Weidenfeller before Per Metersacker, immaculate at the back once again, headed onto the roof of the net.
The inevitable late Dortmund surge failed to bring any reward, although they felt they should have had a penalty at the death when Robert Lewandowski threw himself theatrically to ground under challenge from Mertersacker as he attempted an acrobatic finish. But Arsenal deserved their slice of luck.
Wenger, understandably, was delighted. He said: "We had a united, focused performance, especially defensively.
"It was a question of being focused and intelligent, and to wait for the moment to create openings in their defence.
"We had a difficult period at start of second half, but after we scored I felt we could have scored a second goal and we were less under pressure," he added.
"Overall it's a huge win here. If you look at the results they have made at home in the Champions League, not many teams have achieved that.
"Dortmund are especially dangerous when you lose the ball, and to counter that, you need maturity. If you have a very young team tonight you would be overrun and lose that game by a very high score. We look more stable defensively."
"I have a lot of respect for Dortmund because they are a very good side. Unfortunately this group is a very strong group, and one of the big teams will have to pay a heavy price. I hope it will not be us."
Despite now having to win their last two matches to qualify, Klopp remained upbeat. He said: “It is a very strong group and the positive news is that two wins and we will qualify.
"We created much more today up front but they scored with their first chance of the match and we could not come back. This defeat could have been avoided. It's definitely going to get exciting from now on.”
Arsenal could book their place in the last 16 with victory over Marseille at the Emirates in three weeks time. Meanwhile, Dortmund host Napoli, who beat the French side 3-2 last night to join Arsenal on nine points, knowing they cannot afford any more slip-ups.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND - Weidenfeller, Großkreutz, Schmelzer, Bender (Hofmann - 75' ), Subotic, Papastathopoulos, Blaszczykowski (Aubameyang - 74' ), Sahin, Lewandowski, Mkhitaryan, Reus (Schieber - 86' ).
ARSENAL - Szczesny, Sagna, Gibbs, Arteta, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Rosicky (Vermaelen - 91' ), Ramsey, Giroud (Bendtner - 90' ), Özil, Cazorla (Monreal - 75' ).
REFEREE - B Kuipers (Neth).
ATTENDANCE: 65,829.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)