#GAME48 23/12/17 Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Middlesbrough

Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Middlesbrough

Boro take a deserved three points back up north but both gaffers are shown the exit door!

To kick the game into to life Boro saw their first chance stopped due to basic but great goalkeeping from young Joe Wildsmith. Downing sent Braithwaite through into the box, he ran to the byline and flashed a low and hard cross in the middle where Assombalonga would have surely tapped home but Wildsmith got down quickly and held onto the ball.

On the twenty minute mark Middlesbrough should have certainly took the lead when right-back Cyrus Christie crossed a ball into the middle for an unmarked Patrick Bamford who disappointingly headed wide.

Wednesday opened the scoring on the half hour mark through Scotsman Ross Wallace. Adam Reach latched onto Daniel Pudil’s forward pass. The Ex-Boro winger cut the ball back into the middle where Gary Hooper superbly rolled two defenders and laid the ball on a plate for Wallace to tuck home.

There was a goal mouth scramble five minutes before halftime. Firstly Martin Braithwaite took the ball around an outrushing Wildsmith, his pass was cleared by Pudil poorly into the path of the reds dangerman Assombalonga but Pudil made up for his mistake by putting his body on the line and threw himself in front of the shot.

Assombalonga had a host of chances to score on the day and again he failed to net when his run was picked out by Downing, he cut in on his left and curled his effort across goal.

The final action of a frantic first 45 went Wednesday’s way when Liam Palmer’s fierce volley was brilliantly kept out by Randolph the Red Nose Reindeer (I had to include a Christmas joke sorry!)

Wildsmith was stepping in again for the injured Keiren Westwood and he proved his quality on his chance when he made a tremendous save to keep out Braithwaite. Fabio’s cross was headed down to Bamford by Assombalonga. Bamford teed up Braithwaite who smashed a shot towards goal but the Wednesday keeper saved.

Middlesbrough thought they had equalised on the hour mark. Christie picked out Assombalonga at the back post, Britt slid and poached the ball into the net however the linesman raised his flag to put a stop to their celebrations.

Ten minutes later Boro were awarded a penalty when Butterfield brought down forward Patrick Bamford in the box. Grant Leadbitter stepped up to take the penalty but again Wildsmith pulled another great save off by saving the penalty heading for the bottom left corner. However a minute later things went badly for the Owls as Boro equalised. Howson hit an inviting ball on the edge of the box and saw his effort rifle through a load of bodies and into the net.

Things went from bad to worse for Wednesday as Boro scored to complete their second half turnaround. Ryan Shotton headed home Stewart Downing’s corner.

Wednesday showed little fight to conjure up an equaliser. Their only chance coming from Jordan Rhodes who skied his effort from outside the box meaning Middlesbrough took home all the points back to the Riverside Stadium.

FT: Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Middlesbrough; Both Gaffers gone by the morning!

However the win wasn’t enough as after the game Gary Monk was relieved of his duties. Then on Christmas Eve it was announced the Carlos Carvahal had left Sheffield Wednesday by mutual consent. I was saddened by this but also knew it was the right decision. He was a lovely bloke every time I had the pleasure of talking to him. His personal passion and love for Sheffield Wednesday was brilliant, it’s just a shame he couldn’t transfer it into his players this season and a lot of last season.

Thank you Carlos for the memories such as Brighton in the playoff semi-finals, a 3-0 victory of Arsenal in the League Cup, a two incredible victories over Newcastle United and many more.

So who’ll take over? The bookies favourite is Spaniard Aitor Karanka but there are also names such as Nigel Pearson, Gary Megson, Paulo Fonseca and Paul Hurst. We’ll see who’ll be the next to take over the reign of the club. I’m just hoping for someone who’ll instigate the passion in the players, use the players to their best (i.e. play to Jordan Rhodes’ strengths) and play exciting attacking football.

Come on Chansiri, choose carefully

SWFC: Joe Wildsmith; Liam Palmer, Joost van Aken, Frederico Venancio, Daniel Pudil (Lucas Joao); Ross Wallace (Jacob Butterfield), Sam Hutchinson, David Jones, Adam Reach; Atdhe Nuhiu (Jordan Rhodes), Gary Hooper
Unused Subs: Cameron Dawson, Marco Matias, Ash Baker, Almen Abdi

MFC: Darren Randolph; Cyrus Christie, Ryan Shotton, Ben Gibson, Fabio; Stewart Downing (Marcus Tavernier), Grant Leadbitter, Jonny Howson; Patrick Bamford (Rudy Gustede), Britt Assombalonga, Martin Braithwaite (Marvin Johnson
Unused Subs: Dimi Konstantopoulos, Daniel Ayala, George Friend, Ashley Fletcher

#GAME47 21/12/17 Worksop Town U19s 3-0 Retford United U19s

Worksop Town Under 19s 3-0 Retford United Under 19s

The Tigers claim the bragging rights in the Bassetlaw Derby after a dominant performance over the Badgers. 

After six weeks without a game, Worksop opened the scoring four minutes in when Mlynarski ran along the edge of the box before passing the ball through the Retford backline for Josh Carpenter to latch on to, he finished his chance for his maiden goal for the Tigers on his debut. 

Shortly after the lead was doubled through Luke Smith. Smith dispossessed Dec Heath and then noticed goalkeeper Morgan Reach was off his line so the midfielder unleashed a sweet strike from thirty yards which nestled nicely into the back of the net. 

United had their first chance of the game when Zach Casburn managed the bust through a well set up Tigers defence. The number nine wrong footed Tigers skipper Blake Blythe and shot but the effort was tame and Fielding easily saved. 

Fielding and Blythe were called into action once again when Colley played Heath down the right hand side, Heath cut in and shot but Blythe and Fielding together thwarted Heath from pulling a goal back. 

Carpenter almost bagged his brace when he brilliantly brought down Jake Black’s cross, Josh shot sharply but the Badgers keeper rushed out to block the shot. That was it for the first half with the Tigers leading 2-0. 

It was one way traffic after that in the second half, especially when the Tigers added a third ten minutes after the restart. Substitute Mason Gee switched play from left to right where Mlynarski took the ball in his stride before picking up his second assist of the game by putting through Harry Dunbar to slot past the keeper, This was Harry’s sixth goal of the campaign. 

Igor almost was on the scoresheet himself as Alex Boyd dinked the ball over the Retford defence to the on rushing winger. Mlynarski cut in from the right and fired a shot towards the bottom corner, however the Retford keeper got down quickly and saved. 

There was a big worry for Retford as Morgan Reah went down out cold. Smith curled an effort towards goal from a set-piece. Reah dropped the ball as Carpenter looked to tap in a certain fourth but Carpenter and Reah collided with the Retford number one worse off. He was eventually carried off on a stretcher. 

Worksop were content with keeping possession for eleven minutes of added time to confirm all three points and implement their status as league leaders at Christmas. A brilliant achievement 

(Written for Worksop Town FC)

Attendance: 79

Goals: Carpenter (4’), Smith (12’), Dunbar (56’)

WTFC: Callum Fielding (Jake Woodward), Keiran Larder (Christian Beaumont), Niall Blakemore, Owen Stead (Sol Williams), Blake Blythe, Alex Boyd, Luke Black (Mason Gee), Luke Smith, Josh Carpenter, Harry Dunbar, Igor Mlynarski (Mitch Batty)

#GAME46 16/12/17 Bradford Park Avenue 3-4 Tamworth

Bradford Park Avenue 3-4 Tamworth

A trip myself, Doxey, Burkey and Cammy hadn’t planned but due to the postponement of our original game it’s where we ended. It all started in The Bankers Draft in Sheffield where I met Burkey and Cammy for a Large Breakfast, we met Doxey and then headed for
the Station. We got our tickets firstly to Leeds (which turned into a superb idea after the game at Harrogate was off). We found a local boozer that was open and eagerly waited until 11am to see if Harrogate Railway vs Worksop Town has survived the frost and, as expected, it didn’t. We then began searching around for games around the Leeds area but every game we mentioned seemed to get called off as we said the team like a domino effect. Eventually we saw that Bradford Park Avenue has survived the mass-postponement and decided we would travel there.

It was a nightmare though getting to Bradford and it was looking in doubt at times. We went to another pub closer to the Train Station and had a couple of drinks in there and then set off for the 1.35pm train to Low Moor. But as we got to the Station and got our tickets, we realised that we had three minutes to get through the ticket barriers and run to our stop and in our traditional fashion… we missed it. We looked when the next train was and noticed there was leaving in another 2-3 minutes so we ran for that and also missed it. Luckily for us there was a train to Bradford Interchange leaving in six minutes which would only mean us needing a taxi when we got there and we made that train and made it in time for kick off!

We arrived at the Horsfall Stadium, the home of Bradford Park Avenue. This was the first time I had been to this ground and the first Conference game I’ve attended. It was weird, a football ground but not a football ground; it had a big stand on one side and a make shift stand behind the goal which, as we learned when we tried to stand in it, was only viable to BPA season ticket holders! It was the only bit where we could see/hear some atmosphere. It was the third ground I had been to with a running track around the pitch (the others being Don Valley Stadium formerly of Rotherham United and at AFC Mansfield) which made it seem that we were a long way away from the pitch which was unusual for Non-League and not being stood pitch-side. I was slightly confused how it passed as a Conference North ground however I will let it slide as it still provided us with a seven goal thriller and also a laugh with the lads.



Tamworth make it 1-0

We got a bite to eat and sat in the main stand ready for kick-off. Both teams were out; Bradford wearing their Green and White kit, where as Tamworth were in a yellow strip. The action sprung into life in the first ten minutes of the game as both teams scored. Tamworth took the lead with just over a minute on the stopwatch as Connor Taylor’s low driven shot bobbled over the keepers diving arm and nestled in the net for 1-0 to the visitors. Bradford didn’t drown in their sorrows for to long as Oli Johnson latched on to a through ball on the left and neatly slo
tted it past the keeper to equalise just before the tenth minute.
It didn’t take the away side long to regain the lead as shortly after the half hour mark, Callum Powell picked out the bottom corner from thirty yards to make it 2-1, although his cleanly hit shot should really of been saved by Drench but the ball went straight through his reach and Tamworth went into the break at halftime ahead. We decided to have a walk around the ground and go to the more traditional non-League stance of ‘pitch-side’ opposite of the ground. This is where I was again told off by a steward. No it wasn’t for being a hooligan but it was for taking a photo during play at the very start of the second half, ya what!? I’ve never come across something like this. I never would of thought I’d be told off for just taking a photo of their stand from afar… so here’s a photo ;).

BPA went very close to equalising when Adam Boyes was sent through one-on-one with the keeper by former Barnsley and Preston midfielder Nicky Wroe but the Bradford forward placed his shot the wrong side of the post. The Lambs’ lead was added to when Aman Verma flicked his header over an out rushing Steven Drench. Tamworth then extended the lead to 4-1 when Zack Kotwica received a clearance from the corner, Kotwica rifled a shot towards goal which seemed that Drench had it covered until it hit Tamworth U21 youth player Drew Ricketts and deflected in the opposite direction of which Drench was heading.

Tamworth took their foot off the gas after that goal thinking that the rest of the game was going to be an easy ride but Park Avenue made sure that it wasn’t. Firstly, substitute Adam Nowakowski connected finely with a deep freekick from the right to head and to half the deficit. Three minutes later Ricketts was judged to of handled in the box and allowed Oli Johnson to score his second of the game from the spot sending the keeper the wrong way. This put Bradford a goal behind Tamworth… would they get the all important equaliser?

There was four minutes of injury time for Bradford to cluster the goal that would draw them level, they almost did when Danny Boshell struck the ball from 25 yards out but the substitute saw his effort rise just over the bar. There was some more hope for BPA as a minute later Callum Powell was sent off for Tamworth as he made two bad challenges in the space of a minute, he received two yellows and was sent for an early bath. With everyone on the edge of their seats, Bradford messed up their final chance as again Boshell was played the ball on the edge of the box, he hit it first time but his shot blazed over the bar and Tamworth took all three points from West Yorkshire.

It was a good day out and another new ground ticked off my list. Hopefully if everything goes to plan then there should be some good games to attend and blogs to write… bye for now!

Attendance: 354
Goals: Johnson (9’, 81’), Nowakowski (77’); Taylor (2’), Powell (35’), Verma (51’), Ricketts (74’)

BPA: 1) Steven Drench, 2) Javan Vidal, 3) Matt Hill, 4) Nicky Wroe, 5) Shane Killock, 6) Gianluca Havern, 7) Wayne Brooksby, 8) Jamie Spencer, 9) Adam Boyes, 10) Oli Johnson, 11) Nicky Clee.
Subs: 12) Ryan Toulson, 13) Ed Hall, 14) Danny Boshell, 15) Adam Nowakowski, 16) Lee Knight

TFC: 1) Shaun Rowley, 2) Andy Burns, 3) Stephan Morley, 4) Ellis Deeney, 5) Luke Jones, 6) Sam Coulson, 7) Callum Powell, 8) Aman Verma, 9) Zack Kotwica, 10) Connor Taylor, 11) Darryl Knights.
Subs: 12)Bradley Reid, 14) Drew Ricketts, 15) Charlie Shaw, 16) Dexter Walters, 17) Chandler Penn

#GAME45 15/12/17 Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

It was a tale of two polar opposite teams on a Friday night at Hillsborough. Wolves were flying at the top of the Championship, where as Sheffield Wednesday were deprived of confidence and looking vulnerable.

Bonatini was Wolves’ most attacking threat this season hitting the net twelve times in twenty games. He tried to conjure a chance when Cavaleiro held of Morgan Fox and then back heeled the ball to Bonatini who ran to the by-line to put in a cross into the middle, however Joost van Aken was there to block to ball which was then caught safely by back-up keeper Joe Wildsmith.

Wednesday got their first sight of goal when Liam Palmer crossed the ball into the box, Jordan Rhodes chested the ball down to Reach who was on the edge but he could only volley wide.

Shortly after Joost van Aken saw his shot saved by John Ruddy. Wallace crossed in from the right and van Aken redirected the ball towards the bottom left corner but the Wolves number one got down quickly and held on to the ball.

Wolves took the lead a few minutes after the half hour mark when the referee gave a questionable freekick to the Wanderers as it looked like Butterfield had won the ball. Subsequently Ivan Cavaleiro swung in the freekick. The ball was cleared out by David Jones to £20 million rated Ruben Neves who sweetly hit his shot cleanly into the bottom corner.

Wednesday looked for a response and should of done better with the chance they created. Butterfields corner was flicked on backwards by a Wolves player, van Aken tapped the ball back in to stop it going out but that was headed away, Jones smashed the ball into the air towards the edge of the box where keeper John Ruddy rushed out to punch. However the ex-England international misjudged his calculations and missed the ball completely. Reach stretched out a leg and passed it to Rhodes who, with his back to goal, hit his shot wide and out for a goalkick.

On the hour mark the Championship league leaders when close when Saiss rose highest to connect with Cavaleiro’s deep cross, however his header went agonisingly wide of the post.

Then two minutes later Wolves again could of doubled their lead when wing-back Doherty squared the ball from the right to Bonatini where he, despite slipping at his first attempt, got up, turned and fired his shot wide.

Wednesday were still looking for an equaliser and went close on two different occasions. Firstly, Reach’s cross from the left carried in the air for a while until dropping at the back post where Gary Hooper headed down in to the middle of the box. Unfortunately for Wednesday goalscorer Ruben Neves cleared away the set up. Then Liam Palmer took on his man and sent a very inviting ball into the middle where Lucas Joao beat Nuhiu to the cross and headed over.

Wednesday were reduced to ten men with five minutes to go. Helder Costa was using his skills to waste time in the corner, he turned Fox and started to head towards goal where Fox clipped his heels. He then received a second yellow and was given his marching orders.

In search of another goal to kill the game off, Wolves went close through danger man Ivan Cavaleiro as he received a pass from Jota who had dispossessed Glenn Loovens of the ball on halfway. The Portuguese winger rifled his shot again wide of the target.

FULLTIME: Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Wolves 
Many Wednesday fans were frustrated with the result. Boo’s cried out around the ground and three people collectively in front of me held a strip of wallpaper (in place of a banner) saying ‘CaRLOS OUT’, that’s right they forgot to put a capital A there, plus there’s probably a good bathroom out there that could’ve had that strip! It was very embarrassing for me as a fan, I never thought people would succumb to this, we are not Arsenal ;). The only thing I agree with about that banner is that it’s time for change…..on to Middlesbrough at home on Saturday 23rd of December

Attendance: 23,809
Goals: Neves (34’)
SWFC: Joe Wildsmith; Liam Palmer, Glenn Loovens, Joost van Aken, Morgan Fox; Ross Wallace, Jacob Butterfield (Lucas Joao), David Jones, Adam Reach; Jordan Rhodes (Atdhe Nuhiu), Gary Hooper
Unused Subs: Jake Kean, Marco Matias, Daniel Pudil, Almen Abdi, Frederico Venancio

WWFC: John Ruddy: Matt Doherty, Ryan Bennett, Conor Coady, Willy Boly, Ruben Vinagre (Danny Batth); Ivan Cavaleiro (Alfred N’Diaye), Romain Säiss, Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota; Leo Bonatini (Helder Costa)
Unused Subs: Will Norris, Morgan Gibbs-White, Roderick Miranda, Bright Eknobakhare

#GAME44 02/12/17 Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Hull City

Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Hull City

For Owls fans this was a massive grudge match. The last time the Owls met the Tigers was back in the 2015/16 playoff final where Hull beat Wednesday 1-0 thanks to a stunning goal from Mo Diame, a very heartbreaking moment indeed for me and 40,000+ Wednesdayites. It even caused me to cry at the fulltime whistle, the emotion was very high. In fact the only other time I’ve succumbed to tears was back in 2010 when Crystal Palace relegated us into league one.

Legend Jack Charlton

Hull started the brightest when Jared Bowen’s cross fell to Frazier Campbell but he snatched at the shot and smashed it over.

Ten minutes into the game Wednesday clustered a chance to take the lead, Palmer tackled Clark on the edge of the box, the ball trickled down the line for Adam Reach to cross the ball in first time with his weak foot but Steven Fletcher headed tamely wide.

Hull City opened the scoring through ex Manchester United Striker Frazier Campbell, who should of really be closed down and tackled by Joost van Aken. Campbell was played through by Henriksen and then calmly curled the ball into the bottom corner.

Wednesday thought they had equalised on two different occasions but both were disallowed. Firstly Reach volleyed into the back of the net from a van Aken header back across the box but was ruled out for a foul by van Aken. Then Morgan Fox was sent down the line by Adam Reach, he played Hooper through on goal and the Striker subsequently slotted past McGregor but the linesman raised his flag for offside.

Wednesday came out in full force for the second half in search of a possible equaliser and winner. Fletcher went close five minutes after the break when he volleyed Rhodes' pass into the hands of McGregor.

Nuhiu was introduced into the game on the hour mark and proved a big nuisance to the Hull City backline. He controlled van Aken’s cross forward into the path of Bannan. Bannan then played in Reach who skipped between two defenders and hit his shot against the frame of the goal, Rhodes’ rebound was blocked from going in by Max Clark.

The Owls equalised with twenty minutes to go through top scorer Gary Hooper. Bannan’s pass to Kieran Lee was tackled into the path of Hooper by Seb Larsson and the Owls number 14 rolled his marker and rifled his shot into the top corner of the goal. At first the linesman raised his flag for offside but after a chat with the referee the goal was given.

There was then a shout for handball as Nuhiu broke down the right hand side and drilled a ball into the box to Adam Reach who hit a shot first time, his shot was blocked by the arm of Michael Dawson who as described by Carlos to have ‘saved it like a goalkeeper’.

Hooper bagged his brace when Liam Palmer crossed from deep on to the head of Atdhe Nuhiu, the Kosovan international headed down into the path of Gary Hooper who superbly slotted past the keeper and put the home side ahead.

Hooper makes it 2-1

Wednesday could have confirmed all three points when scorer Hooper turned provider as he played through Nuhiu, the 6ft 5” striker hit his shot wide of the target from a tight angle.

This was costly as in the fifth minute of injury time Hull levelled when Henriksen beat Reach to the ball and scuffed a cross into the box, the ball went over the head of van Aken to Toral who couldn’t control it but took the pace off the ball, this fell comfortably to Michael Dawson at the back post who volleyed the ball with his knee past Westwood on to the post and in to break the hearts of the Wednesday fans.

A draw was probably a fair result with Hull being the better team in the first half and Wednesday enjoying the better of the chances in the second but falling short by conceding to a last minute goal. My man of the match was substitute Atdhe Nuhiu. Normally I wouldn’t give a man of the match to a sub that was only on the pitch 30 minutes (and the obvious choice may have been Gary Hooper for his double) however he had a hand in both goals and also changed the flow of the game by bullying the Tigers defence and creating chances.

The main point though is that Hull City will always be the second best Tigers out there ;)

Attendance: 25,412
Goals: Gary Hooper (70', 85'); Fraizer Campbell (21'), Michael Dawson (90+5')

SWFC: Keiren Westwood; Liam Palmer, Glenn Loovens, Joost van Aken, Morgan Fox; Marco Matias (Kieran Lee), Jacob Butterfield (Jordan Rhodes), Barry Bannan, Adam Reach; Gary Hooper, Steven Fletcher (Atdhe Nuhiu)

HULL: Allan McGregor; Fikayo Tomori, Michael Dawson, Max Clark,Ondrej Mazuch; Markus Henriksen (Kamil Grosiki), Kevin Stewart, Jackson Irvine, Seb Larsson, Jarrod Bowen (Jon Toral); Fraizer Campbell (Nouha Dicko)