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27 Oct 2016

Reflections On An Away Day At Queens Park Rangers

For fans not so familiar with London, Queens Park Rangers play at Loftus Road in West London, which is about 1.5 miles from Hammersmith and near to Shepherds Bush. The area is a curious area and on the good side with many “expensive” cafes thats serve excellent food and a plethora of oddly named hotels. Take the New Century Inn. Not entirely clear which century it was new in but a good guess might be the 19th century and not much has changed since then. There also seems to be a desire to dig up every piece of ground nearby and the building works and roadworks are numerous.

The cafes are good though and it may be better to feed in one of these than chance the dubious food on offer in the ground at also very extortionate prices.

Highlight of QPR v Brentford

A strong recommendation is to travel by underground as there are many underground stations in the vicinity , Wood Lane, White City, Shepherds Bush Market and Goldhawk road. Parking will be 7 kinds of nightmare and I do not recall seeing anywhere to park like a reasonable car park at all.

As with all ex-premiership clubs, habits die hard and there is overkill with hundreds of stewards and police horses. The local fans however seemed in general terms pleasant enough. A number of barricades are in place mostly to stop cars but expect a little interest from the stewards at any barrier for any reason.

Expect to be searched going into the away end and expect confusion as the entry for the Upper Tier stand behind the goal for away fans is on the opposite side of the ground for that of the Lower Tier Stand. The searches are friendly enough but on the excessive side.

The walk from the nearest tube stations takes maybe 10 minutes maximum. Almost all the local pubs are home supporters only, so anyone in search of alcohol may need to head a little way away from the ground. If you have time to visit the dentist then the curiously named Batman Dental Surgery is an option opposite the ground.

The away fans are given the stand behind one goal and if you are in the front few rows as I was you are hardly 5 yards away from being on top of the goal. A very tight ground, that generates a good atmosphere.

Entry to away end

Having said all that the views are excellent for the away fans. However another remnant of premiership football is the high cost of tickets, £32 for mine and the £3.50 programme.

A few curious signs and pieces of information emerge on the walls of the away end. Not entirely sure what they add to the spectacle but interesting anyway.

This is a good day out for away fans and a trip to be encouraged but it would be good if the club realised that most fans do not create trouble and an excessive degree of policing and stewarding is a negative and expensive and unnecessary phenomenon.

04 May 2016

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Reindeer Hotdogs and Football Catering

Maybe they could be the way in for football clubs to enhance their culinary range? Many have tried such delicacies as Chilli and balti pies, but where in UK have any reindeer hotdogs been seen?

Seems Reindeer oddly may be the alternative to fish. Reindeer meat is one of the leanest meats. It compares favourably with fish when it comes to omega-3 and essential fatty acids. If you want your diet to be low in fat and high in B-12, omega-3, omega-6 and essential fatty acids, you might think your only choice is a trip to the fish market but perhaps a few Reindeer hotdogs might be the answer. The Arctic University of Norway has also done its research and reindeer meat may have more than twice as much vitamin B12 than veal or lamb.

So come on football clubs, be adventurous and keep your fans healthy.

Could Reindeer hotdogs catch on at football?

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Posted in food photos, football, Uncategorized and tagged food photo, foot long hot dogs, football, football catering, football club, football crowds, football food, football photos, football stewards, reindeer hotdog, reindeer hotdog photo

24 Feb 2016

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The Clouds Lift Over Griffin Park. Brentford 3 Wolves 0

There is no doubt that Brentford have been a spiral of disaster the last 2 months, and this is reflected in the win ratio of 1 win in the previous 9 games, and in the plethora of negativity that followed the Derby debacle on saturday. Something had to change.

Clouds over Brentford seen while flying in for the game

Fans arrived late as often they do for an evening fixture giving the impression till almost the last minute that there would be no crowd. In fact almost 9000 hardy souls braved a bitter and literally freezing evening to watch an entertaining game.

Griffin Park By Night

There was little agreement before the game on what the outcome might be and even less agreement on the team selection other than something had to change to bring back the fighting spirit and work rate that we saw earlier in the season. In reality the summoning of two of the best players in the club, John Swift and Sergi Canos gave the side width and skill, and Nico Yennaris recovered from a hideous performance in central midfield on saturday to have an excellent game at right back. The work rate in midfield was probably double that of saturday and from the start the elevated work rate and the chances created got the crowd going. In the end a 3-0 victory did not flatter Brentford and it should have been greater. We must not however lose site of how abject Wolves were. Watching the game it was difficult to believe that they had 40 points this season and sitting seemingly in mid-table security. They were poor, very poor. Never the less a good performance that should keep the crowds interested for the remainder of the season. Yet margins are thin in this league, with Brentford comfortably winning 1-0 in the second half, only a superb save from David Button kept the Bees ahead. Conceding a goal then might have led to one of the many Brentford collapses we have seen this season.

Were there any downsides to the game? Only one for me. No cornish pasties. What kind of football catering does not have cornish pasties, forcing me to sample a Chicken Balti pie, which I can sum up as saying could be a vegetarian option lacking anything I could find that resembled chicken. Edible none the less.

Lastly a strange emerging feature of watching Brentford lately. As the crowd streams out of the New Road stand, a group of 2-3 steward looking characters in cheerful fashion thank the crowd for coming and have a safe trip home. Brentford are emerging into the customer service era and will achieve that for me when cornish pasties return.

So the gleaming clouds were an omen and indeed the sun was truly shining on Brentford and their fans at 10 pm last night.

The Skies above Brentford before kick off

Clouds Gleaming over Brentford

Floodlights over Brentford

A final thought. I will miss this old ground when it goes. We know it has to and understand why but the character and atmosphere is what sums up real football , even in the absence of cornish pasties.

Posted in brentford, Uncategorized and tagged brentford, brentford 3 wolves 0, brentford 3 wolves o, brentford fc, brentford floodlights, Brentford Football Club, brentford new ground, brentford new stadium, brentford promotion, brentford v wolves, championship, championship relegation contenders, cloud photo, clouds, clouds over brentford, cornish pasties, cornish pasty, david button, derby county, derby fc, football, football catering, football club, football crowds, football fans, football floodlights, football food, football grounds, football photos, football stewards, griffin park, griffin park photo, griffin park photo lights, john swift, london, molineaux, nico yennaris, peter gelson, sergi canos, sunset brentford, wolves manager sacked, wolves relegation

24 Jan 2016

Woking 1 Halifax 1 . Photos from the game.

An excellent opening goal for Woking from Bruno Andrade 00000027 The game was fairly end to end and both goalkeepers were kept busy.

00000032 00000009 00000025 Maybe the linesman also wanted a piece of the action? And a little maybe of Halifax rugby league also?

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00000008 And finally other action shots

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Posted in football, nonleague football, Uncategorized and tagged adam hopkins, adam hopkins referee, afc halifax, brentford, bruno andrade, bruno andrade goal woking v halifax, chris arthur, chris arthur sending off, cole woking, conference, conference photos, conference promotion, football, football crowds, football photos, football stewards, garry hill, halifax, halifax afc, halifax fc, halifax manager, kingfield, kingfield stadium, non league football, non-league, nonleague, nonleague catering, nonleague football, nonleague football photos, photos woking v halifax, sam johnson, shaymen, stewards, surrey, vanarama, vanarama national league, woking, woking 1 halifax 1, woking crowds, woking fc, woking football club, woking ground, woking kingfield stadium, woking manager, yorkshire football | Leave a comment

14 Dec 2015

A visit to Craven Cottage. Reflections on Fulham Football Club and Brentford

The West London Derby between Fulham and Brentford is always a feisty affair . Two local tesm, one very much on the way up and the other on the way down and currently without a manager. There is no need to go over the events of the game. An entertaining 2-2 draw where both the score and the result were a fair reflection of events on the field.

A visit to Craven Cottage though is always a pleasant affair. A few verbals but no fighting among fans and Fulham fans generally, though deluded about their place in the football hierarchy are not such a bad lot.

There is no reason other than insanity to drive to Fulham as parking places are delusional and do not exist in reality, so arrival by train and then walking along the river gives an interesting perspective to the ground. The ground is set essentially at the end of a park and within curiously 300 yards of Fulham Palace. Which raises the first question. Why not the name Fulham Palace? Crystal Palace versus Fulham Palace has a nice ring to it. The Palace is actually quite a beautiful building.

Because of the local derby and a failure often in reality by the police and the club to establish a need for stewarding and policing it is a fair comment to say that things were overdone. This game did not not need police horses, who provided free manure for all fans walking back through the park after the game, and conveniently if one has no time to pick it up one can merely collect it on ones shoes. A fair question was raised as to why if fines are given to dog owners for failing to pick up their mess, why does not the same criterion apply to horses and in this case the police and their horses? The stewards were pleasant enough but this is the first time to my recollection that I have ever been asked to open my coat on entry to a football ground. Overkill might be the simplest way to describe things,and seemingly an ineffective overkill too as pyrotechnics were let off in the Brentford end on at least two occasions. For me this is stupidity and potentially dangerous but mostly unnecessary.

In the ground the views are good and the food a major improvement on years gone. I did vow many years ago never to eat Fulham burgers again however despite their extortionate price they were relatively harmless. The sausages however could have benefitted from cooking and there was no way raw sausage was going anywhere near my digestion.

The whole football experience though was a good one and one that any neutral might have enjoyed. Fulham football club is really though not a cheap place but harmless enough and can be enjoyed. And as an additional benefit the Fulham Burger never killed me nor injured me in any way.

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Posted in best football photos, brentford, championship, football, Photos, Uncategorized and tagged away fans fulham, bees, beesotted, brentford, brentford fc, Brentford Football Club, championship, craven cottage, football, football catering, football crowds, football fans, football fans behaved, football fans fighting, football food, football photos, football stewards, fulham 2 brentford 2, fulham burger, fulham fc, fulham football, fulham palace, fulham v brentford, good football stewards, griffin park, lionel road, london, naked football, neutral end fulham, photos craven cottage, photos football stewards, photos stewards, police horses, policing at football, putney bridge, putney bridge tube, surrey, vacation, west london, west london football | Leave a comment

29 Dec 2013

Spit Photo

One of the curious benefits of taking photos at 1/1000th of a second at football games is the ability to capture something totally unexpected. This photo comes from Carshalton v Bognor Regis and it shows a line of spit from the players mouth as the players collide accidentally.

Spit. copyright Chris Bushe

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged accidental spitting, bognor fc, bognor regis, carshalton fc, carshalton football, football, football crowds, football fan, football games, football photography, footballer spitting, kingsley, Kingsley Aikhionbare, player spit, players collide, ryman, ryman premier, spit, the rocks | Leave a comment

21 Dec 2013

Hereford United. Please read this and support . Great effort by fans

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:

2012-13 1793
2011-12 2553
2010-11 2516
2009-10 2138
2008-09 3421

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Cambridge United, conference, desperate straights, donations hereford, FA Cup, football, football crowds, giantkillers, hereford, hereford 1 cambridge und 0, hereford fc, hereford v cambridge, league 1, league club | Leave a comment

27 Jan 2013

Brentford 2 Chelsea 2

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.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged brentford, brentford fc, chelsea, chelsea fc, cup shocks, FA Cup, flares, flares at football, football, football crowds, league 1, london, surrey, uwe rosler | Leave a comment

26 Jan 2013

Carshalton 1 Kingstonian 3. Photos.

Not a good day for Carshalton who in the end were well beaten. Despite going in 1-0 down at half time the game could have gone either way until two quick kingstonian goals killed the game. A decent crowd today 391. Carshalton still do not look a bad side but are going to have get points out of tough games like this if they are going to stay up. Kingstonian look like play off contenders and with Paul Vines in their side could be dangerous for any team. A good game, lots of action and not too much niggle. a good day out.

Not a bad photography month for me either as a humble amateur, four programme front covers, photos in four programmes, photos in local papers, photos on Ryman League website and photos on Surrey FA website. Enjoying this. Makes it all worthwhile.