May 2022 - a month of bumpy beginnings

I had a week off after leaving my previous job before starting my new job. We did plenty of stuff, including a trip to Oxford to see a friend. We had some time to wander around Oxford includng a very brief look into the Ashmolean Museum.

We also saw the Bridge of Sighs. Here's Cathy stood under it to give an indication of its size.

We really liked the gargoyles on Brasenose College. This owl really caught my eye. He looks like he's pumped!

And there was some modern cultural artwork in the shopping centre.

Unfortunately, I came back from Oxford with a respiratory memento.

Yes, over three years into the pandemic I finally caught the 'rona. I felt pretty rough with it for a few days, with a raspy cough and feeling like I could not fully inhale air into my lungs. 

Unfortunately, the timing meant that I couldn't go into the office on my first day. I spent my first week and a bit logging into meetings virtually. It wasn't the way I wanted to meet my new team but everyone was kind about it. I am slowly getting a handle on the new ecosystem I am working in now. It's a slightly odd feeling, leaving behind a work context I really understood and having to learn a new one.

In football terms, I missed a few games while isolating. I still made it to four games either side of having covid. The month started with the Welsh Cup final, which had quite an exciting end as Penybont scored twice from 3-0 down and were pushing for an equaliser at the very end of the game. But TNS held on and were crowned 'pencampwyr'.

As a bonus, when I logged into Futbology, I got a badge for being at a cup final!

There was another cup final at the end of the month. I've been to see Cardiff Draconians a few times this year. After the league campaign ended, there were some league cup fixtures. The Dracs progressed through to the final, which was held up at the Bont in Penydarren. That was a new ground for me so I drove up after work.

The Dracs were posing in the goalmouth before the game.

But it was Trethomas Bluebirds who lifted the trophy.

Sadly, I was having a problem downloading the update for Futbology so no 'badge' for me at this cup final. I did, however, have the most marvellous chips from the New Dolphin fish bar in Caeharris, which is up the hill and then up again from the ground. 

And despite the enforced break from going outside for both me and Cathy (who tested positive a few days after I did), we still managed to see the Snoopy statues on the Dog's Trail. I'm going to post a load of selfies at some point, but for now, here we are outside a toy shop in the Queen's Arcade.

August 2021 - End of month review

August was a month of football for me. I went to 11 matches, which is more in a month than I have managed in some seasons. I started with a trip across to Tremorfa to watch Grange Albion play their local rivals, Bridgend Street. And I ended my footballing month on the 31st watching Barry Town come back from behind to snatch a win with a penalty in the very last minute aginst Haverfordwest County. 

Along the way I watched The New Saints play against a team from the Czech Republic in Cardiff, watched Barry play away in Aberystwyth and Cefn, near Wrexham, and managed a "twofer" with a Grange Albion game in the afternoon and a Barry game kicking off at tea-time. It was hectic.

The Barry fans made a lot of noise at Aberystwyth - there was an interchange on Twitter where a local said they "could hear you in the pet shop", which would make an excellent slogan to stick on a banner some time. My friend Matt came with me to Aberystwyth, and after the game we went down and had a look at the seafront. It was a long day out, but it was a fun day out. 

This past month we discovered a fast food franchise that does a decent vegetarian alternative. The KFC vegan burger just about meets Cathy's dietary requirements, and is a much better option than any of the meatless meals available at similar outlets. We have been restrained and not eaten too many of them.

I haven't had much free time inbetween a full work schedule and a full footballing schedule. However, I managed to finish reading a book! (One of the ones blogged about here.) My reading has taken a massive hit over the past year and a half. It's tempting to blame the pandemic because it seems to get blamed for every other disruption in life.

I found some time to build some Blood Bowl figures. I constructed half the team of lizardmen that I was given for my birthday back in 2020 (almost 18 months ago!) and I have high hopes to actually play a game this coming month!

My favourite player is the Chameleon Skink, who has a special ability to intercept passes, courtesy of his long tongue. Here he is, pictured in the act!

If the team gets a run-out in September, then I will let you know how he gets on!

July 2021 - End of month review

July started with us coming back from a week's holiday on the Lleyn Peninsular in North Wales (see blog posts here), and ended with us on holiday in Shropshire with family from Salop and from Edinburgh. 

There's a cheetah in this card game!

Inbetween these times away, we squeezed in quite a bit.

I came back from our North Wales holiday with a sore throat and sneezing more than usual. Apparently that can be a sign of coronavirus infection in people who have been double-jabbed, so Cathy and I booked appointments at the drive-through test centre at the Cardiff City Stadium. I now feel I have lived the full pandemic experience, now that I have had to stick a swab up my nose! 

Our tests were negative. I was impressed with the organisation of the test centre. Everyone there really knew the drill. They knew we were coming, and processed us through very politely and quickly. We had the results texted to us in less than 24 hours. It was a good experience in a stressful moment.

We also watched the European Championships semi-finals and final. England blew it, is my verdict, with a terrible penalty shoot-out in the final that will potentially have scarred another generation of kids. I mentioned last month how this was the first international championship I have experienced since my Dad died, and after the final I have thought several times about how he would have rung me up to dissect the failure in detail. These are the unexpected moments when grief catches us.

In my other blogging project, I reached a new milstone - 700 baseball cards featuring Tony Gwynn. I feel I am starting to run out of steam a bit with the baseball cards and my blogging has been very gappy of late as the supply of new cards has run out.

It might continue to be gappy, as I have started going to football matches again. I've blogged about my trips to Bristol and Aberdare. I added a third match in the month of July as The New Saints were playing Kauna Zalgiris from Lithuania in a Europa Conference League Qualifying game during our week in Shropshire. As TNS play in Oswestry, just half an hour away, I went with my brother for a fun evening out.

TNS already had a 5-0 lead from the first leg in Lithuania, so I was hopeful we would see some goals. And we did. 

It was a very one-sided affair. Kauno Zalgiris played suicide football, trying to build from the back and repeatedly giving the ball away as TNS played a high press. Several moves broke down in their own half and resulted in TNS having chance after chance to score. There was a Lithuanian guy in front of us and his partner started laughing as me and my brother started shouting 'Nooooo!' as the Kauno defenders set up for another futile attempt to play out from the back. It was cringeworthy to watch. 

TNS won 5-1 on the night, with some superb goals, to cap a 10-1 aggregate win over the two legs.

Spending a week with family also meant there were opportunities for back garden football with an array of smaller people. My eldest nephew is getting pretty good these days - he graduated from his soccer course with three trophies a couple of weeks back. He also hits the ball harder than he used to and his Dad has had to reinforce the back fence, as you can see in this photo!

I will do a summary of our week in Shropshire in a future blog post, although our big days out were actually in Cheshire and Wales, so it will be photos from not-Shropshire in the main.

2018-19 Football Season Review - breaking records again

I feel embarrassed that I'm only publishing my 2018-19 review after my 2019-20 season has already started, thanks to Barry Town's appearance in the Europa League Preliminary Round on 27 June!

Last season I went to 30 matches and made much of that in my season review. But I went between 16.6% and 20% better this year, depending on whether we count the 15 minutes of an abandoned match as a game. I've been told that if you've turned up, paid for your ticket and seen the game kick off then it counts, although the goal that was scored doesn't officially count for anything. What an anomaly.

So, let's say it was 36 matches. As per previous seasons, here are the overall stats:
Season: 2018-19
Total games: 36 (includes one game abandoned after 15 minutes)
Most goals in a game: 7
Fewest goals in a game: 0
Total goals seen: 104
Number of football grounds visited: 12 (2 of which I’d never visited before)

So, what games did I go to?

15 of the games I saw featured Barry Town. I went to 12 at Jenner Park, two away games and the Welsh Cup Semi-final at Latham Park in Newtown.

Jenner Park - a magical place

All the way to Connah's Quay

Semi-final line ups

I loved following Barry this season. It's friendly, affordable football at a better standard than most people expect. They also have brilliant programme covers.

Barry's season went beyond expectations as they finished third and qualified for the Europa League. At the end of the Welsh Premier League first phase they were topping the table.

The team I saw the next most often were Cardiff City. My friend Sara is still trying to convert me. I saw City 8 times last season, including an away game at Arsenal. That worked out because I had a meeting in London that day and I saved £88.50 coming home on the supporters coach instead of getting a return train ticket. I should have put my match ticket on expenses really as my employer would still have been in pocket. But I didn't.

I love The Emirates as a stadium. I was very tempted to buy Cathy a Gunnersaurus Rex.

I think this is the first time Sara has featured on my blog. (It's also her photo)

Cardiff had a tough season, a long drawn-out relegation scrap limited their Premier League sojourn to a year. Given the hype there is some desperate football played in the Premier League. Newcastle United were abject in the extreme, and with Cardiff served up my only 0-0 of the year.

Talking of abject, desperate football, Shrewsbury had a really disappointing season with several weeks in the relegation zone. I saw one game under manager John Askey, and they won. I saw 4 games under Askey's replacement, Sam Ricketts, and it was a real mixed bag. A good away draw in Bristol (as part of my failed attempt at a 'twofer'), a lucky home win against Wycombe, and a couple of pathetic losses.

I did get some photos of the Shrewsbury mascots having a dance off, though.

I also made it to three Newport County games, including their fabulous, famous win over Leicester City. Beforehand Spytty the Dog didn't look very optimistic.

Newport had a decent fist of a season with a cup run and a play-off final. I saw them three times and they won all three games. Shame I didn't make the effort to go to the play-off final, really.

And then there are the other games, that get collected up in the "randoms". My first game of the season was The New Saints versus Midtjylland of Denmark in a European game held at Cardiff City Stadium. I also went to see my friend Ben play for Goytre AFC, except at the last moment he was benched, which was disappointing for both of us. I saw Wales get beaten by Denmark in the UEFA Nation's League.

And then in January I went to see Telford versus Kidderminister Harriers in a game that has taken on poignant significance for me. It turned out to be the last game I went to see with my Dad before his unexpected death a few weeks later. Now I have mixed feelings seeing pictures of Benny the Buck.

Funny story. We'd parked up and were walking round to the turnstiles at the Buck's Head. As he always did, Dad felt the need to talk to anyone we met on the way and explain who we were and why we were there, so he loudly told a Telford fan that "Really, we're Shrewsbury fans, but we've just come over to watch the game..." He saw no reason at all why telling people we were fans of their local rivals could have been a problematic announcement to make. Bless 'im.

And then I finished the season with a rare June game. Wales women against New Zealand women at the Cardiff Athletics Stadium across the road from the Cardiff City Stadium. New Zealand had qualified for the World Cup and this was a warm up game for them. Wales won with a very late goal, having saved a penalty in the first half.

I really enjoyed going to the Women's international and it was a great way to round out the season.

Football review: Barry Town United v The New Saints (Welsh Cup round 4) - Saturday 6 February 2016

Ah, the romance of the cup. Feeling the need for a break from university work and wanting to watch a football match combined to take me and my match-going compadre, Connor, to Jenner Park to watch Barry Town United take on the undisputed kingpins of Welsh domestic football, The New Saints.

The Welsh Cup is one of the oldest cup competitions in the world. Barry, in their previous incarnation before they were resurrected by fans from the grip of a megalomaniac owner and added United to their name, had won it six times previously. TNS had won it five times. But this wasn't a battle of equals. In fact, it was probably Barry's biggest game since coming back from the brink of extinction. All this history was summed up nicely in the souvenir programme produced for the game.

Just £2. Bargain.

It was a cold night and the weather had been bad all day. There was a break in the rain as the teams came out to line up. The sky really was that blue #nofilter.

Just before kick off

TNS were 1-0 up soon after kick-off. But Barry equalised a minute later and after fifteen minutes were in the lead with a lovely header from a set piece.

Then some weather happened.

Stereotypical Welsh weather

TNS seemed to specialise in low passes across the box and tapped in two more to make it 3-2 at the break. This led to a chorus of "You only score shit goals" from the small singing section in the block along from us. Their other songs of note were an a capella version of 'I've got a fire in my heart for you' by the Super Furry Animals and 'God gave Barry Town to you' as alternate lyrics to a well-known Kiss tune.

Half time and we scrummed into the clubhouse along with several hundred other people. Sgorio were in there as the game was live on S4C. (Making this the second game in a row broadcast live on the Welsh language channel.) They were very professionally carrying on with the punditry as a mass of humanity shuffled past towards the bar.

Sgorio pundits talking pêl-droed

The draw for the next round was going to happen after the game. There was a large fishbowl ready for the occasion.

Ready for the draw

The Welsh Cup itself, meanwhile, was safely out of reach, if not out of sight, behind the bar.

Welsh Cup

We managed to get a cup of coffee and Conn even made it to the restroom during half time. We made our way back outside just as the players were arriving back on the field and the kids half-time kickabout was finishing.

Back for half time

TNS scored two more in the second half to finish as comfortable 5-2 winners. Their fourth goal was pretty good. They had more chances, and Barry could have got at least one back if their finishing had been better. All in all, it was quite a good game, played more on the floor than you'd think, lots of pass-and-move link-up play and played at pace. A good advert for Welsh football and a very enjoyable evening out.