Close Season? Pre-Season? No Such Thing As No Football

So, if you believe my blog the 2014/15 season ended for me in late August with the excitement of a late Europa League qualifier at Spurs and an early FA Cup game between Cray Wanderers and Molesey. This isn't quite true. My intention had been to spend the season watching as many different teams and competitions as possible and write about that. Variety is after all the spice of life. Orient wise I was pretty drained after the play off defeat and was wary of what the new owners would bring. But my surprise acquisition of a pair of season tickets (damn your eyes internet competitions!) meant that inevitably my season ended up being one Orient game after another. And golly gosh, what fun that turned out to be. I have never felt the urge to be one team blogger so my inspiration flew out of the window. In retrospect, if ever there was a season to provide material for an Orient blog it was the one that has just finished. Oh well.

So, I embraced the close season firmly and vowed not to think about football until, ooh, at least the middle of July. Without the distraction of a World Cup or European Championship there would be nothing to grab me. But my relationship with football like many people's doesn't follow logical paths. International week you say? Feeds of CONCACAF qualifiers? An England game? Those'll do nicely. Followed by snippets of the Women's World Cup and Copa America as allowed by my pathetic ability to stay up until the late kick off times. A football free summer? Don't believe a word of it. My eye turned to fixture lists. I started making elaborate plans for July and August and all the pre-season games I would take in. I even ignored the fact that I don't generally do friendlies.

It occurs to me that my enthusiasm for football increases the less football there is within reach of me actually attending. It's all very well getting excited by a stream of Belize vs Dominican Republic but it isn't a substitute for going to games. But when all you have is faraway exotic stuff on a buffering and glitchy screen and lists of friendlies and league constitutions to pore over it is east to forget about the annoying crap that gets under my skin during the season itself. The stupid stuff people say at games,.in the pub, on the telly, in the office and most of all on the bloody internet. All of that is far less intrusive. Football is enjoyable again in the abstract. Just like it was when there was barely any on the telly and most of my football fix was coming from hours spent going through Rothmans, World Soccer and Non league directories. Football is as much the lists and numbers on the pages of these esteemed publications as it is a game played on grass. I am only half joking here.

I often bang on about how the vitriol surrounding the game, especially online, gets my goat. So, I decided to put myself to the test. The joys of summer Europa League football were due to arrive in East London thanks to West Ham's impeccable disciplinary record. A tie against giants of the Andorran game FC Lusitans was right up my alley as was the tenner all in ticket price. I hadn't been to Upton Park for nigh on a quarter of a century so it felt like a good opportunity to have a last look at the place too. I often burble on, like Orient fans do, about hating West Ham. After all, we are the West Ham haters. But that's slightly hypocritical isn't it. A bit vitriolic. My overriding memory of late 80s and early 90s West Ham games I attended was of seas of brown leather jacket clad men swarming around Upton Park tube and down Green Street. I didn't spot a single one this time. In the event a very young West Ham did enough to comfortably beat a predictably poor and bus parking Lusitans team in front of a newsworthy sellout crowd. What did surprise me was that I felt none of the dislocation at the Boleyn Ground that I have in previous years watching Europa League games at White Hart Lane. As an Orient fan my feelings regarding the Olympic Stadium are understandably a little complicated but it will be a great shame for London football when West Ham vacate their current home.

It is unlikely that England will ever switch to a summer season. But, if they do there is a lot to be said for 6PM kick-offs on a July Saturday. I popped down to Dulwich Hamlet to see their friendly against German lower league side Altona 93. A friendship between the 2 clubs and fans due in part to a shared year of foundation had led to this friendly and hopefully a rematch in Germany in 2 years time. A below strength Hamlet side shipped goals every time Altona attacked in the first half to go in 5 down at the break. Respectability was restored in the second half once a first choice eleven was on the pitch for the final 30 minutes. In the end Altona won 5-3. A game that was worth every penny of the £10 entrance unlike the match at West Ham. Over 700 were there including lots of away fans. A really enjoyable football evening in many ways.

Failing to get outraged by Raheem Sterling or even Fabian Delph I continue through the summer trying to ignore as best I can the circus of rumour, hearsay and downright lies surrounding the various transfer manoeuvres in the Premier League. I cannot help but be a bit distracted by the same goings on in E10 but as Orient's pre-season is either not very interesting or in Spain I can't be bothered to get too involved even as I toyed with the idea of Braintree on Friday. If I were going to go to Woking in the summer it would have been for their sadly cancelled game against Seychelles rather than our upcoming friendly there. Children's birthday parties have put paid to me getting to another Saturday game before the season begins but although I couldn't quite get the logistics to work to get to tomorrow's QPR vs Dundee United game at Barnet's still new ground at the other end of the Jubilee Line I certainly could get to one of Clapton's 2 games this week. The Old Spotted Dog isn't to everyone's taste but I love it. Neither are the renowned Clapton Ultras but they know how to watch a friendly. In spite of the pitch managing to be both an arid dust bowl and have the longest grass I have ever paid to see a game played on Clapton and Croydon played out a pretty entertaining game. Croydon won 2-0 in the end but Clapton looked a far more convincing proposition than the last time I saw them almost a year ago in another pre-season game against the short-lived Ealing Town. Hopefully I;ll get to a few competitive Clapton games this season. The potential that surrounds Clapton is huge. If the ownership of the club could be sorted out by the fans things could really take off. As it is it does look as though there are some tiny incremental moves towards improving the ground. Tonight was low key but it was a proper game of football, something lacking in a great deal of pre-season games nowadays.

Onwards and upwards to the beginning of the season. I might even manage to blog beyond the early knocking of September this time around.

The Cray Wins - FA Cup Odyssey Part 3

Crikey. The early rounds of the FA Cup creep up on you quickly. Yesterday was Preliminary Round day. The Essex Senior league teams in general had had a mare in the previous round so my choice was pretty limited locally. Without a car my options further afield were dictated by public transport. I don't have any specific idea where Cray is or indeed where the Crays are but I do know that Cray Wanderers are long standing tenants of Bromley; whose ground I've wanted to visit for a while. Cray were at home to Molesey who are currently tearing up the Combined Counties Premier division and had scored 11 in the last round. A glance at the Isthmian Division 1 North table told me that Cray were propping it up. Higher division strugglers against free scoring lower division form side. This had cup magic written all over it!

This & they are cool. (no pisstake)

I've seen Bromley's Hayes Lane ground described as one of London's must do non-league grounds. It's great, loads of terraces and barriers; a blast from the past. Bromley doesn't really feel like London though. It feels like a place with a town centre and really its existence as a London borough feels like some sort of administrative oversight. Anyway, HG Wells & Siouxsie Sioux are what Bromley brings to my mind; the reality is a little more quotidian if opulent. London it is though. A little far south of the river for my comfort but the journey is an easy one now that Blackfriars is open again. I'm even less a trainspotter than a groundhopper but catching a train from Blackfriars bridge should be on a to do list for tourists in London.

Unfortunately, while the tie may have had cup magic written all over it the shock I had expected didn't materialise. The opening exchanges were pretty even and you could see the attacking threat that Molesey undoubtedly possess. However, they imploded somewhat when they went behind slightly against the run of play. From then on the referee was in the spotlight. Molesey felt with some justification that they were being pulled up on everything while Cray were getting away with a bunch of stuff. Ironically the dismissal of the Molesey left back for 2 yellows wasn't really disputed (much) but everything else was. The Molesey fans felt hard done by while the Cray massive enjoyed winding them up. For a 15 minute spell the team went to pieces and ended up two down by the time the half time whistle was blown. For my part I didn't think that the ref had a bad game but Cray were the cannier side when it came to the rough stuff.

The match wasn't played at the highest pace...

So down to 10 and 2 down. No cup magic here. Except, nearly, so nearly. A couple of minutes into the second half Molesey had a penalty as their centre back was manhandled from a corner. It was a weak penalty and the Cray keeper made easy work of it. He boasted afterwards to a crowd member that the penalty taker had been watched and his kick predicted. Preparation is key at all levels. Within minutes the keeper had almost given Molesey another way back into the game but he easily dealt with the one on one his error had created. 

Penalty about to be smothered

Molesey plugged away but with 7 minutes left they fell 3 behind. They really went for it after that and scored a great little goal to set up a surprisingly tense finish as they looked for the 2 goals they needed for the draw. It wasn't to be and the real shame was that what was an engaging tussle was overshadowed by the moaning and whinging by both sides. I would wager though that the Molesey players will probably have more to celebrate come the season's end.

Politely querying the ref's decision

Only in non-league pt 1: The voluble away supporter loudly berating the ref's impartiality while pushing a buggy up and down the touchline.

Only in non-league pt 2 The Cray supporters amusingly referring to one of their players as Cesc due to his resemblance to Sr Fabregas. Except that Cesc was his name.

Lost in N17 - The Europa League and Other Adventures

White Hart Lane is where it all started for me. When I moved to London, Walthamstow to be  precise, at the age of 8 I wasn't particularly interested in football. However, within minutes of starting primary school it was obvious that football was my way in. I entered a world of Panini stickers and playground kickabouts. That school in Walthamstow was overwhelmingly Spurs. 1982 was a good time to be a Tottenham fan too. The previous season they had beaten Manchester City in the FA Cup final and they would again lift the trophy at the end of the season in which I arrived in London. I very quickly became a Spurs fan. A couple of years later I was considered old enough to be taken to a real match. An early season game against Leicester City that ended in a 2-2 all was my first taste of live football. By the time I went to my third Tottenham match 3 years later (against Liverpool in their opening 29 game unbeaten salvo) I was already an Orient fan; I never looked back. Before this week I had been back twice though.

Walsall the Fuss About?

I wasn't planning on going to watch Leyton Orient play Walsall yesterday. It's a not a fixture to get the pulse racing. I say that as an Orient fan and I expect the feeling on the Walsall side is mutual. However, having not planned to be at a huge number of Orient games this season I suddenly find myself in possession of a season ticket. So there you go and there I went. Faced with attending a game I realised that I possibly wasn't as over the play off final defeat as I had thought. But seeing your team for the first time each season is always an enticing prospect and I looked forward to it. I hadn't gone to the first game of the season. The idea of the hubris that was likely to be present in the stands turned me right off. From the online reaction to the defeat against I felt I had made the right decision. So for me this was the first of the season. New players to size up, changes to check and all the rest. So it was a real shame that the game itself was such a dud.

The Road to Wembley (and Beyond)

The road beyond Wembley leads, in this instance, to Kettering. But more of that later. Looking at the early rounds of the FA Cup through the prism of Wembley FC is now an enduring cliche. Like many clubs in greater London Wembley eke out an existence on attendances that rarely reach 3 figures. Like no others they do so sharing one of the most iconic monikers in football with the national stadium just up the road. I imagine that this fact seems far more relevant the further away you are from either Wembley. 

The Magic of the Cup is About to Commence

The FA Cup's Here! Here Being Waltham Forest

Ah, the magic of the cup. I got myself keener than normal for the start of this season's FA Cup. I particularly enjoyed the contrast between the first knocking of the FA Cup and the overblown extravaganza that is the Premier League cranking itself into action on the same weekend.

The main stand positioned behind the floodlights

That's Abbot Your Lot

No social media experiments last night. I went to pick my mate up with options open but with a hankering for Thurrock. By the time I got to Loughton the sensible thing was to head to Waltham Abbey. It also gave my mate an opportunity for a cash point run followed by a quick fire trip to McDonald's. What these errands meant was getting there about 30 seconds before kick off and missing out on a programme. I'm far from obsessed with programmes but I'd rather have one than not (though have long since given up on buying them at Orient in spite of the quality having improved significantly in recent times). I did politely decline the offer of one in the post. I'm not THAT bothered.