At the preliminary round stage of the FAcup today, MoleValley SCR v Carshalton Athletic played at Cobham FC, all the pitch markings were blue. I have never seen this before? Is this common? Is this allowed?
Blue lines football markings FA Cup
Hereford are famous for many things including FA cup wins when non-league. They have been a league club for many years and then fell into the conference a few years ago. They now find themselves in desperate straights. A decent club in an area with a small catchment so crowds rarely were over 3-4,000 even when gaining promotion to league one.
Today by voluntarily asking fans to pay extra and season ticket holders to pay 10£, they have raised £6,711 at the home game today and £3000 in the 24 hours before that from fans. They need to find 35K in the next 14 days to pay a PAYE bill. The good news though is that they beat Cambridge United 1-0 today in that game.
Donations can be made here
http://www.idsports.net/shop/Hereford-United-Club-Donation/
Average crowds have been falling also over the last few years:
I am not a fan of football stewards, and in many cases they often cause trouble that otherwise would not have been there. However today the stewarding at Chelsea was good, almost invisible and appropriate. End of story. What caught me eye though was the head gear worn by one steward who looked more like he should be with Bear Grylls out on an arctic expedition, rather than in the sunshine of Stamford Bridge. But my question is this. Could he actually hear and see anything? 
In this day and age of concern over horse meat and equine food accompaniments, on the way to Stamford Bridge this morning to see the might Brentford play, there was tucked away in the arches a burger van selling delicious burgers. The stone inscription above amused me and suggested some degree of bravery should apply to eat burgers there!
IN HONOUR OF ALL OUR BRAVE MEN- WHO ATE BURGERS?
It has been a long time since I have been so proud of my team. For those not familiar, Brentford are a small West London team averaging crowds of around 6,000. Chelsea are the current European champions. In the 4th round of the FA Cup today they drew 2-2.
A great day was had by all. It all started well by us meeting the Brentford manager Uwe Rosler on the way to the ground and he was kind enough to pose with my family for a photo. A good MCDonalds breakfast, and a great game of football in a packed stadium.
At no stage of the game were Brentford overawed by Chelsea and in reality came close to knocking Chelsea out.
A few photos as moments but sadly all I Phone photos and the camera on the phone underwhelms me totally.
The only negative might be those who thought it clever to let off flares in a packed terrace. 
In a few years remember the name Stuart Dallas. A young Northern Irish footballer who joined Brentford last summer. He played ostensibly his debut game tonight in the FA Cup win over Bradford 4-2. He had a great game, good skill, good effort and my humble prediction is that he will go far. You heard it here first!
Football is a strange game. Last week Bradford beat Arsenal and tonight they were playing Brentford in an FA Cup replay at Griffin Park. This is a game that in all honesty no-one really wanted. Brentford thought they were through to the third round as Bradford got expelled for playing an ineligible player. A minor crime but a crime all the same. For reasons that no-one in football understands the FA rolled over and reinstated them .A chilly night in front of a small crowd, with one side of the ground closed. A decent game which Brentford seemed to want to lose. They gave Bradford their opening goal with a bad defensive error, scored through a penalty on the stroke of half-time, then gave away a penalty in extra time ( though what for no-one in the ground knew), but then decided to score 3 goals in under 5 minutes to win the game. Bradford were actually quite poor in defence and if this is the standard at the top of League 2, then I never want to go back there.
Final score 4-2 to Brentford. The prize? A trip to Southend United on Jan 5th that will not be an easy game. So does this mean Brentford are better than Arsenal? Football is a funny game built on confidence and often some luck. This Brentford team might just be getting promoted this season.
The linesman on the far side was Sian Massey and she looked one of the best linesman we have had.
A rather atypical game. Crawley took a two goal lead shortly after half time, deserved, Met Police then battled away and controlled much of the second half, scoring a goal 10 minutes from time. In the last 10 minutes all hell broke loose. Met police hit the post with a shot, had shots cleared off the line, forced Paul Jones into two great saves, but just could not get the equalise they deserved. A very decent crowd too around 1500, compared to a normal crowd usually in the 120-150 region.
It has to be said that Met police are a good team and this is a nice club. I almost forgot to mention that 150 places separate these two sides, with Met Police playing in the Ryman Premier. Altogether a great day out and I will return.
Few photos from today. FA Cup round 1 Met Police v Crawley Town. Great game. Will post tomorrow about that but here is the mascot and we now know his name!! PC SO Steve. This has to be the most unusual mascot in the world. He goes around talking to the children and playing football with them!
Sad after losing
I posted a photo of an odd mascot, a policeman, at the South Park V Met Police FA Cup game last week. I have had an unbelievable amount of hits because of this so am adding a few photos! Dont just look at this stuff but come and read my blog more often!
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 