Football recap - November 2023

A short round up of November's games... 

Game 27: Caldicot Town 0-0 Tredegar Town (Caldicot won 5-3 on penalties)

Reason for going: My friend Ben was playing for Caldicot and my friend Steve who also knows Ben was free to come with me. So off we went.

Point of interest: I had a run of 30 games without seeing a nil-nil until this game. Strangely the previous nil-nil was also with Steve and also went to penalties. This was the fourth penalty shoot out I've seen this season. (And Ben scored his penalty, which was fun to see.)

Ben waves hello

Game 28: Barry Town 1-0 Guilsfield

Reason for going: To support Barry. (Although this was the first time I'd seen them for about a month.)

Point of interest: This was apparently the 150th Welsh Cup tie played at Jenner Park. An extraordinary stat, really.

Game 29: Caernarfon Town 2-3 Barry Town

Reason for going: Caernarfon was one of the few remaining Cymru Premier grounds I hadn't seen a game at, so this was on my "hit list" at the start of the season.

Point of interest: I made my debut as a co-commentator on Bro Radio for this game, after answering a call out by Daley Chapman for whether anyone was going to the game. It was tremendous fun. We got a great view from the commentary position as well.

Game 30: Shrewsbury Town 2-1 Port Vale

Reason for going: we were on our way home from a week in North Wales, so this fitted into our travel plans nicely and I got to go with my brother and eldest nephew.

Point of interest: there was a sad memorial before the game for four local teenagers who died in a car accident the previous weekend. The 1,600 Port Vale fans in the sold out away end all joined in with the minute's applause. 

Game 31: Barry Town 1-1 Penybont

Reason for going: There wasn't a particular reason. It was a Barry home game and I tend to go to them even on cold Tuesday evenings in November!

Point of interest: Barry were wearing their special charity festive kit featuring a penguin and a reindeer. The kit is majority black and Penybont were playing in a mainly white kit. I don't think I've ever seen a black kit v white kit game before. 

And that's the five games for November, which equals my personal record for November games.

Why Shrewsbury Town struggle to attract new fans

It seems whenever I take someone new to see the mighty Shrews, the team don't live up to their 'mighty' name-tag and turn in a performance that can put you off football as a sport, let alone supporting Shrewsbury. It was thus when I went with a kid to his first ever football match last season. It was thus when I took my cousin for the first time in 26 years.

And it was thus today when I took my friend Connor to his first ever Town game, making him get up at an unearthly hour on a Saturday (well, unearthly for him seeing as he's a student), and drive 110 miles to see two teams struggle to do the basic things right. Like get shots on target. Or pass.

There were a few 'firsts' though. It was the first time I'd ever seen a matchball delivered by helicopter (from the local RAF station as it's poppy appeal time). I don't know how hard it is to land a helicopter in the centre circle, but they made it look easy.

It was also the first time I'd ever seen an opposing team's fans applauded when they were announced.

AFC Wimbledon were formed by fans after the terrible FA decision to allow the original Wimbledon to 'relocate' to Milton Keynes and become the MK Dons. As such, they are held in tremendous esteem by most fans who care about football as a whole, rather than the exercise-in-branding Premier League team they've chosen to support this year. (Yes, I support a real football team; so sue me.)

However, I will hold them in less esteem from now on. I can live with the stifling 'come-for-the-draw' tactics that killed the game from about 10 minutes in. We've seen that time and again, and it was understandable that after shipping several goals and losing three on the bounce, they played cautious tactics. It's boring and frustrating to watch, but really it's up to my team to pick the lock.

But what I can't forgive is a player falling to the floor and clutching his face, rolling in simulated agony after his shirt was tugged gently by an opponent. That is shameful play-acting to get another professional sent off. Okay, it was one player, but it sullied the AFC Wimbledon name in my eyes.

It ended 0-0. Not the greatest intro to the blue and amber for Conn as he sat there loyally wearing the scarf I'd leant him. Town were lucky Wimbledon hit the post after about 3 minutes, but the missed a few good chances and had a decent shout for a penalty turned down, so there were talking points. Just not many good ones.