Glossop was handily beaten 3-0 by Bootle.

Glossop and Bootle played a hard fought first half performance but no real chances occurred. Bootle had a surefire penalty waved away, whilst at the end of the first half Glossop had a penalty saved.

Bootle came out the brighter of the two teams and scored an easy goal to give away from Glossops perspective within 30 seconds. Then proceeded to score from a poor Glossop clearance and that really took the game away from Glossop.

Glossop had a chance cleared off the line and lost Sek to injury but wouldn’t score as Bootle ended a stellar second half scoring a 3rd to finish the game off and win 3-0. 

Covid-19, that damn word. For the past 20 months we’ve been ravaged by Covid-19 and with the new Omicron variant on the rise and new restrictions in place it’s yet again looking bleak for the United Kingdom. With this in mind there is a small chance the country could be placed in another lockdown and that may mean another suspension for the non league football clubs. 

And with another potential lockdown on the way, those of us who support our local non league club may be devastated that they can’t watch and support the club at a live game, while those of us who support a league club; especially Premier League and Championship teams may be able to watch their clubs games on television, and while it seems unfair to us who’ll be unable to watch the non league games and may even see a suspension to a third successive season, the clubs and those employed by the clubs would certainly suffer from games being forced to be behind doors or completely stopped altogether which certainly benefits no one, even those in the Premier League struggle without fans in grounds and with 11 clubs performing better away from home it is clear the lack of hostility away teams faced during last season definitely made it easier for teams to perform away from home. 

With many non league clubs relying on money from tickets and sponsorships with a complete stoppage of another season would be devastating for many clubs, one club in particular; Droylsden was unavailable to field a team this season due to financial difficulty however they did host halloween parties so this leads to hope for fans to be able to play again next season; Speaking to Redditch United coach Josh Wright he stated that it’s obviously a great thing for fans to be back as it not only provides a great atmosphere it also provides a nice financial boost for the club. The Redditch United players also agreed that it is great to have fans back in the ground as it creates a great atmosphere around the club and makes the players want to push harder to perform better in front of a crowd. 

While it obviously wasn’t fun for us to be locked down and not have our local non league cubs play, Wright said the small break allowed him to revitalise himself and his love for coaching and football as a whole which makes his whole job of coaching a lot more enjoyable and fun to do when stepping onto the pitch with players which is a sentiment shared amongst the players to be able to enjoy the small things as it doesn’t settle in how much of your day to day life is actually taken up by football when you play/coach at a non league club as you have to balance it with a full time job to support yourself so it becomes just another thing in your weekly routine which can eventually sap the love for the sport out of you. 

With the closure of training facilities for everyone around the country it was obviously hard for the average person to stay fit and in shape and get into a slump, which made it harder for Wright and the players to stay match fit and match sharp for an eventual return even if cut slightly short due to another lockdown in November 2020. Wright stated it was hard for him personally to motivate players to do cardio work or ball work over Zoom due to a lack of games for the players to work towards, and connections with the players and the players within themselves as a team dropped as they were off site so they chose not to attend the zoom lessons and sessions to try and stay sharp and fit. 

Wright also stated that with a shutdown to the season last year certainly “favoured” the men’s side of the club as they were on a poor run and stopped them having to worry about any sort of relegation that season which would certainly help financially, however the women’s side of the club were top of the league and when that got cancelled were rightfully annoyed as they were gunning for promotion. Players were also annoyed when the season got cancelled as they had worked hard over the previous months to get back into playing regular football and when it got cancelled were also rightfully annoyed with it. 

With Covid cases soaring and more and more press conferences from Boris himself it’s looking bleak for those of us who support our non league local clubs. The Premier League have postponed games, The EFL have postponed games, covid outbreaks within clubs especially Tottenham, a small break of two weeks is looming over but will it be done is the real question? I certainly think not as the leagues and big clubs will miss out on too much money over the festive games, and the players are unlikely to self isolate if we have a 2 week breaker to try and slow the spread of the new Omicron variant between the clubs. 

All in all, another lockdown may devastate certain clubs and would certainly make it again harder for players and coaches to try and refind the love for the sport if it got shut down for a 3rd successive season. 

Photos courtesy of; Redditch United, RUFC Academy Twitter pages and the Financial Times.

West Brom vs Luton Town 

18 Months later and a whole new season finally see’s The Hawthorns opening its doors to full capacity and letting everyone back for the first home game in a new season. A lot has changed since West Brom were last allowing fans with a promotion, 3 managers a relegation, but most importantly seeing them not lose to the Wolves again. 

But a fresh new face and background staff with Valerian Ismael, formerly of Barnsley, now the Head coach of West Brom take Luton on in his first Home game of the season. New addition Matt Clarke will be fit and available to play as well as Grady Diangana after coming off injured in the game against Bournemouth, which finished 2-2. 

After an energetic game away to Bournemouth, Ismael and his Baggies look forward to welcoming fans and enticing them with a high pressing, attacking style of play with a 3-4-3 system and will be set to use it again Saturday against Luton. 

Ismael confirmed that Sam Johnstone will be starting in goal after missing out last week due to not having enough time training with the team after an extended holiday as England reached the finals of the Euros. He also confirmed that they have been having talks over signing a new contract to stay at the club.

What will surely be great game back for The Hawthorns, I have the Baggies being too much to handle for Luton and them coming away with a 3-1 win to start to push on and show the rest of the Championship they mean business. 

Football, it’s a beautiful game really. Anyone can rise to the highest of highs of sink to the lowest of lows all in a lifetime of a fan. I mean just look at Portsmouth and Bolton. Portsmouth in 2008 won the FA Cup and now in League 1 looking to work their way into the play-offs. While Bolton went from nearly winning the league cup in 2004 and then cementing themselves in the top half of the Premier League under Sam Allardyce to now being in league 2 due to the massive financial problems they’ve faced over the last few years.

And then you have the opposite in Leicester City, going from League 1 to winning the Premier league and now cementing themselves as a team able to compete for silverware and fight to be able to enter Europes elite competitions, and then West Ham fighting for a top 4 finish this season as well.

All this must have lead to “Europes elite” forming a Super League over the past few years and was announced on Sunday the 18th of April with Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid and Tottenham all deciding to join.

After this was announced the footballing world was STUNNED. With everyone all over coming together to announce their disdain towards the competition, first it was the fans, then players out of the ESL saying how bad of an idea it was, then players in the competition saying it was a terrible idea, with the first being Bruno Fernandes sharing Daniel Podences post on his Instagram story saying “Dreams can’t be buy” and then the first televised player to be against it was James Milner in his interview after the Liverpool Leeds game Monday night. Even politicians were getting involved and the British Royal Family all condemned it but it felt hopeless. It was going to happen.

Then a turning point, more and more reports came out with it said to be Chelsea and Man City were the last to join as they were on the fence but didn’t want to miss out, Other clubs from around Europe publicly showed they would not join with PSG and Bayern Munich the two best clubs in Europe right now not joining in. Boris Johnson said he’d impose sanctions to make it harder for the English clubs in the ESL to sign international players.

Tuesday Morning would see a meeting between the other 14 clubs outside of the so called “Big Six” to discuss what would happen were it to go ahead and the clubs unanimously and vigorously against it. Then Jordan Henderson called for a meeting between all captains. Shortly after we would see the entire Liverpool playing team post an image in complete denial of the ESL. More and more players came out against it and more media members were against it as well; for their own reasons (losing out on the rights to cover it most likely); with all this happening however it was announced that Mourinho and his coaching staff had been sacked at Tottenham and Ryan Mason was to be the caretaker.

Tuesday night when Brighton were set to travel to Chelsea, Chelsea fans were to protest the idea of joining the ESL and it would work to great affect as reports came out that Chelsea and Man City did end up pulling out of the ESL. After that it was like dominoes, all 6 of the English clubs were to pull out. Then clubs from Spain and Italy followed suit and then it were to collapse. A bleak period in footballs history, but a small win to be had.

Then another small victory for United fans would be had as Ed Woodward announced he would be stepping down from his position at the end of the calendar year from the backlash he and the other clubs faced for daring to destroy football.

Even now, Ilkay Gundogan and Pep Guardiola of Man City are wanting to fight the reforms to the new Champions League model as it is simply too many games for players to play in, but for now, we can rejoice momentarily in what we can do we unite together.

Its back and in full effect we have the Champions League quarter finals today and tomorrow night, with tonights fixtures being Man City vs Borrusia Dortmund and Real Madrid vs Liverpool. With tomorrows games being Bayern vs PSG and Chelsea vs Porto

Real Madrid vs Liverpool is set to be the fixture of the night, a replay of the 2018 final and a chance for Salah to show what he can do against the 13 time champions as last time out he was injured in the first half of the game. Liverpool will be looking to continue their great away form as of late with 3 wins from the last 3 and a win in Istanbul in their last Champions League game whereas Madrid will be looking to continue a good run of form themselves with 4 wins out of 5 in the last 5 including a 3-1 win vs Atalanta in the last round.

Man City vs Dortmund will also be a good fixture to watch as high flying City aim to continue their run of excellent form and give themselves a real good win tonight to coast on for the next game as they have a busy month ahead, whereas Dortmund and Haaland will be looking to stop their great run and give themselves a good showing as they aim to progress themselves.

Bayern vs PSG will be the game to watch in my opinion as we are set to get a two legged repeat of last years final. Bayern will be without Lewandowski but it seemed to not matter as they squeaked out a 1-0 win over Leipzig in the league whereas PSG are struggling in their league after losing 1-0 over the weekend with Neymar even being sent off in the league match. Either way a great game is set to be had.

And finally we see Chelsea vs Porto. Tuchel and his men will be looking to set things right after an embarrassing 5-2 loss to relegation candidates West Brom over the weekend whereas Porto are aiming to knockout another favourite after previously knocking out Ronaldo and Juventus after the crazy game they had.

Predictions; Real Madrid 1:2 Liverpool Man City 3:1 Dortmund Bayern 2:2 PSG Chelsea 1:0 Porto

An unexpected but well deserved 5-2 West Brom win over the 10 men of Chelsea sees them move that tiny bit closer to Premier League safety with them now being 8 points behind 17th place Newcastle after Newcastle drew 2-2 with Tottenham in this weeks game of football.

West Brom certainly started bright in the opening ten minutes creating good chances with Periera going close in the 3rd minute and then hitting the wall with a free-kick after Thiago Silva brought him down on the edge of the box. Things however would go bad for West Brom after losing centre back Dara O’Shea to injury in the 24th minute and then conceding a goal from a Pulisic rebound after Alonso had his initial free-kick saved. 2 minutes later Thiago Silva was sent of for a late challenge on Albion’s Yokuslu, but the free-kick was wasted as it sailed harmlessly wide.

In the 37th minute West Brom would again lose a centre-back to injury with Ivanonvic, who had come on for O’Shea, had to be substituted himself after injuring himself in a 40 yard sprint with Werner to stop him from having a clear chance on goal. Chelsea then had 3 or 4 good chances to get a second and put the game in safe hands as Zouma, James, and Christensen would miss a flurry of chances in the space of 5 minutes.

Disaster would then strike for Chelsea as a long ball back up the pitch by Johnstone went past everyone except Periera who deftly lifted the ball over Mendy to equalise just before half time, but like London buses, another one came for Periera after a mistake in the back from Jorghino and James. Periera ran into the box with Phillips playing a lovely dummy to allow Periera to shift the ball onto his favoured left foot and place it superbly into the bottom corner to flip the game on its head with West Brom going in at halftime 2-1 up.

Things would then get even better for the Baggies as Robinson superbly volleyed the ball into the top corner after some nice build up play and a wonderful cross to him in by Furlong on the 63rd minute to put his side up 3-1. 5 minutes later and West Brom found themselves in dreamland when they broke from a Chelseas corner and Mbaye Diagne put the finishing touches on a wonderful counter to make it 4-1.

3 minutes after however Mount would pull one back for the hosts but it was not to be for Tuchels men as in the 91st minute Callum Robinson again scored against Chelsea to make it 5-2 with a neatly timed run and simple chip over Mendy to wrap it up and secure a vital 3 points for his side.

After an international break our attention now turns to back to the Premier League and Chelsea look to take on struggling West Brom on a Saturday lunch time kick off.

Chelsea’s recent form of 4 wins in the last 5 games played has them coming in red hot and clear favourites, whereas West Brom have 1 win in the last 5 games played and will be lucky to not lose heavily.

With a win Chelsea can move 5 points clear of 5th place West Ham and 2 points behind 3rd place Leicester City in the hunt for top 4. West Brom on the other hand will be looking to pick up a key 3 points in a slim chance of beating the drop, with a win taking them 7 points behind 17th place Newcastle.

Chelseas predicted team: Mendy; Christensen, Rudiger, Chilwell, James; Kovacic, Jorghino, Mount; Werner, Havertz, Ziyech. With a quarter final of the Champions League nearing for Chelsea it is likely for Tuchel to rotate the squad and I believe this will be the team he plays.

West Brom predicted team: Johnstone; Townsend, Bartley, Ajayi, Furlong; Yokuslu, Periera, Phillips, Maitland-Niles, Snodgrass; Diagne. With Sam Allardyce looking to get any sort of result against a well organised team like Chelsea he will play what I believe to be his strongest team as only wins now are good enough for West Brom to have any sort of chance of avoiding the drop.

After Lakers 128-99 win on the 13th against the Cavaliers, Dwight Howard shined yet again for the Lakers showing he is a key piece to a hopeful title challenge this season. Dwight’s stats for the game were an outstanding 21 points and 15 rebounds in only 20 minutes and went 9/11 from the field and even managed a 3 pointer.

Coming into the season Dwight Howard signed a non guaranteed contract due to concerns from Lakers officials he hasn’t changed his poor attitude from his last stint with them and from other teams, but after numerous monster performances and an attitude change that has seen him lead the bench unit for defence.

Averaging 7.7 points a game, 7.3 rebounds a game and at least a block per game he has shown he is more than capable of doing work in defence and scoring some valuable points down the stretch during close games.

Now signing a guaranteed contract for the lakers for the rest of the season the only thing left for Dwight and the Lakers for him to complete his redemption arc is winning the NBA playoff finals.