The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
A few pieces of football news just floated by on various media sources. All highly depressing.
The most depressing part of this story above is the cheating by Fraser Fyvie and the even more depressing part is that few saturdays go by where I do not visualise cheating in this guise in a game that I see. Sometimes total simulation and more commonly gross exaggeration of an injury, usually timed to help the team in a difficult or final moments of a game.
What occurs to me is that often the punishment does not fit the crime. Players, managers and fans all are quick to point out the failings of referees. Myself included. Keith Stroud in his performance in the Reading v Brentford game two days ago was exceptionally poor. However what chance do they have with the ” clever” feigning of injury by players like Fraser Fyvie? One also presumes this is the not first time he has attempted this party trick and presumably been successful before. His behaviour also means that if becomes more difficult for referees to stop a game for injury if in the back of their minds is a ” cry wolf” scenario. Why has he not been banned for three years? Why only two games?
Football is a game and is played both on and off the pitch with volatile emotions. But it is a game. Players should not cheat, fans should not try to harm players and racism in 2015 is simply moronic. 
There are plenty of eloquent match reports and informed opinions on the various blogs and message boards. So no need for a detailed match report. What does need saying though is that fine margins make results. Brentford were the better side but Reading gave the impression, certainly in the second half of working a bit harder.
The neutral would have enjoyed this game, with end to end movement, an awful referee and three truly excellent goals that would have graced any Champions league game never mind the premiership or championship.
Will Brentford fans see two better goals from their side this season? A 30 yard shot from Ryan Woods that gave the keeper no chance and came out of nowhere at a time that Brentford were not on top, was maybe bettered by the effort from Sergi Canos that he both made and scored. He took an excellent pass from Ryan Woods, and produced two sublime touches with his right foot then switching to his left foot to hit the ball home. The Reading goal from Garath McCleary was made by Matej Vydra, a player I would not mind in Brentford colours, with again a wonderful passing movement that one cannot criticise the Bees defence for conceding.
Those that say we should use our pitch to share with other teams, football or rugby, might like to take a look at the awful pitch at Reading especially in the penalty area and corner regions. It was fairly terrible.
The other point of note was the woeful performance, again , of referee Keith Stroud. He was without doubt the worst official I have witnessed in 2015. His decisions were error strewn, with both sides left in bemusement at times. Most bookings were incomprehensible, with the exception of the sensible decision to give two yellow cards to Michael Hector, both deserved. The first one for a crude and potentially dangerous challenge on Alan Judge might have been deserving of a red card and the second one for some poor simulation in an attempt to win a penalty was also well deserved. But otherwise Mr Stroud annoyed both sets of fans and players with odd and seemingly random decisions that defied the many rules of football that I am aware of. It would be a pleasure not to witness that charade again this season or ever maybe.
Brentford did not play to their best. The defence looked more solid. James Tarkowski started the game hobbling in the warm up and seemed to finish that way too, but was excellent. Ryan woods scored an amazing goal but gave the ball away so many times that this is an area of real concern for the team. However other than the goalscorers the Man of the Match for me was Maxime Colin. An imperious display.
Are Brentford play-off contenders? The mathematics say they are but they need to improve on their goal scoring records. They are playing well and have improved enormously since August but need a clinical striker.
Away fans have a few minimum expectations when travelling. Mostly that they will get there, be able to park and be able to find the ground. Reading football club make a great effort to ensure that these are met.
Their website gives good parking information and in fact on the presumption that unless one arrives at 2 am that the official car parks will be full, the two big car parks around the ground on a derelict piece of wasteland and on the greyhound stadium site together hold 1500 car parking spaces for 7£ each. Each well signposted from the motorway. The expected downside was an approximate 45 minute wait to escape after the final whistle.
The ground is situated just off Junction 11 of M4 and is surrounded by food outlets including KFC where I had the worst chips ever, and that includes school food. But in terms of availability there is a decent selection of fast food. The stewards were just normal stewards, if that term applies. The ground is maybe 10 minutes walk from the Reading Gate food outlets and shops.
The ground gives great views. There is not a bad view in the ground including from the penultimate row JJ in the away end. Maybe the only surprise was that the front seats in the lower tier of the away end were not available for use. Not everyone wants to sit perched in the sky.
Altogether a good away day for an away fan.
Always a photographic pleasure and never a photographic chore. Some days even the swans pose in a polite manner. The wind does not annoyingly blow the grapes around and the sun might shine. Not every day but just sometimes. Anyone with a camera should venture to Painshill Park in Cobham, Surrey.
Make your mind up Vines. Red or White Grapes? Painshill Vineyards Surrey
Vines growing in October 2015 at Painshill Park Cobham Surrey
Vines growing in October 2015 at Painshill Park Cobham Surrey
Posing swan
A piece of graffiti seen on boxing day 2016 suggests that office workers may be trapped inside their office since Xmas. Their only hope was to paint graffiti on their windows and demand supplies. An insider however informs the blog that there was only enough paint to produce a single word. The word agreed upon was painted on the window. LAGER. Visitors to Brentford football club for their boxing day fixture against Brighton however seem not to have been in generous mood and no lager donations were spotted being provided. Little movement was seen in the offices as of late last night.
An excellent fast paced championship game on Boxing day 2015 surprisingly resulted in no goals. There are enough match reports to mean little point me adding to the details. It is the bigger picture though which is interesting , simply is this a prequel to the play off game with these two sides involved again?
Brighton were either average or Brentford made them look average. Nico Yennaris proved again that he is not a full-back but could be a decent midfielder. David Button had a day off. Philip Hoffman should have won the game for Brentford in the final minutes.
The game was played in good spirit with few fouls and none of note. Darren Deadman as referee was better than usual and actually not too terrible, but would either side clamour to have him back again, unlikely. A capacity 12,200 crowd gave an excellent atmosphere for a 1 pm kick off, which traditionally seem unable to provide the same atmosphere and noise as 3 pm kick offs.
The game was end to end and what was clear is that neither side had a potent striker who could have provided the goals that the game deserved. A 2-2 draw would have been a good pre-match bet and probably a reasonable score. Both sides are clearly good but maybe with Brentford improving and Brighton on the decline?
For me the best teams in the championship are Middlesborough and Hull City and these teams may get the automatic places. Perennial play off contenders Derby, Burnley, Ipswich may again make the play offs. Brentford and Brighton are also contenders with Sheffield Wednesday an outsider too.
The big surprise of the day however was being able to get an easy parking space in the Watermans Centre car park where the graffiti on a window of an office either suggested folks trapped inside demanding Xmas supplies or a prequel to a Lager advert. Great graffiti.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 