Author: Harry Clark

Groundhop: Wrexham

| Harry Clark

After twice crossing the border last week, I thought I will make it a hat trick and visit Wrexham as they faced Ayr United in the Scottish Challenge Cup. I wasn’t originally planning on visiting the North Wales based side, but it came up for Opta and I took the job on shortly after visiting Cardiff.

I was looking forward to my trip to the Racecourse Ground as I had never been before and it looks like a lovely ground from pictures and videos etc. The match itself was an interesting one.

Wrexham made 10 changes and scored first through Jake Bickerstaff in the second half. Sam Roscoe of Ayr equalised late on so the match went to penalties. A different Jake, this time Lawlor, scored the winning penalty for Wrexham who go through to the fourth round. So how was the experience?

Atmosphere:

Going in to the game, I wasn’t sure how serious the Wrexham faithful were going to treat this game. I knew the Scots would be eager to get one on the English/Welsh and boy did they show it.

The 421 Ayr fans that made the journey were brilliant throughout. Their vast amount of noise was helped by a loud drum that they smuggled in. The Wrexham fans on the other hand, barely batted an eyelid all game.

It was disappointing but understandable to hear the lack of noise, but I bet the stadium gets a good atmosphere for games they care a bit more about.

I will rate the atmosphere 3/5

Cost:

As I was working on the day I didn’t have to pay for a ticket but if I wanted to it would’ve been £10 which is what I what I would’ve expected. The train to and from the stadium was £50 which sounds a lot but I am coming from Bristol so that is a 7 hour round trip. Luckily it was covered by Opta so I didn’t have to fork it out.

For the cost I will rate Wrexham 3/5

Entertainment:

By the introduction you may not have thought it was the best of game, given it was 1-1, but that’s only half the story. The game was end to end for the majority of it, and even though there may not been a chance at the end of it, it was still exciting.

A penalty shootout is always exciting, no matter who is playing and I saw 12 penalties taken, with just one missed. The fans would’ve certainly got there moneys worth and enjoyed an entertaining encounter.

For entertainment I will rate it 3.5/5

Facilities:

As I said, I was looking forward to seeing the Racecourse Ground and I wasn’t let down. The ground is known as the official oldest international ground in the world, which is quite a feat. Unfortunately, the huge terrace behind one end is permanently shut barring any renovations but I won’t let that cloud my judgement.

Facilites I will rate 3/5.

Food:

Breaking News: I didn’t actually consume any food or drink inside the ground. I actually grabbed a meal deal from a nearby Sainsburys. There were some complimentary hot beverages in the media room and I did take a look at the food that Wrexham provide and it did look nice and reasonably priced. I can’t offer a stronger opinion than that so will have to rate the the food based solely on looks

For food I will rate Wrexham 3/5

Man of the Match:

There were a few decent looking players out there for both sides that could definitely do a job at a higher level but I am going to pick Dawid Szczepaniak as my man of the match. The young keeper was making his senior debut and made some good saves during the 90. He ultimately won the game for them with the penalty save and impressed on his first outing.

So what does this mean?

Wrexham score 15.5 which ties them with a couple of other clubs and sits them in mid table. It also puts them in between the two Welsh clubs, being ahead of Newport but well below Cardiff. Overall I enjoyed my time in Wales for the three matches but we will almost certainly be going closer to home for our next games.

Gameweek 5 update

| Harry Clark

With our move to Southampton beckoning, we thought we’d start the week going across the border for some League Cup action. Newport was the destination as they faced West Ham. Newport have played many Premier League teams at Rodney Parade lately and have more than matched some of them so we thought we could be in for some goals at either end.

After a number of missed chances by Newport, most notably from Padraig Amond, Jack Wilshere opened the scoring for the Hammers. We both already had a ‘W’ with Andreas Weimann scoring against Leeds on the first weekend of the season, which was disappointing.

West Ham were mostly dominant in the second half and Pablo Fornals pretty much sealed the win and despite being a Tottenham fan, just a small part of Luke would’ve been somewhat happy as he picked up his ‘F’ for the season. Harry got his earlier on in the season with Roberto Firmino so Luke has shortened the deficit.

With Luke being busy on the Friday night, Harry headed to Cardiff v Fulham without him, so he had the chance to make up for earlier in the week. There were only two goals in the game and they both came in the last five minutes of the first half. Firstly, Josh Murphy slotted home for Cardiff but with Sadio Mane’s goal against Southampton earlier in the month there was no new letter.

The Fulham equaliser was shortly after and it came from their talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic who looked dangerous all night. Another ‘M’ meant another frustrating non new letter. There weren’t any more clear cut chances in the rest of the game, but the best fell to Sean Morrison who headed wide.

So at the end of this week, Luke cuts the gap even though he watched one less match and that match also being attended by Harry. Next week will be interesting as Harry has a very interesting Opta match to attend.

VAR- what is the point?

| Harry Clark

After four rounds of Premier League matches we are now heading into the first international break of the season. It isn’t the stuff on the pitch that is getting all the attention though. VAR was introduced into the competition this summer and to say it has been a resounding success, would be a straight up lie.

To be honest, I was all for VAR after the World Cup as they seemingly worked it a lot better than the Premier League are, but now I can’t wait for the back of it. I think it causes more problems that it solves and overall lowers the entertainment and enjoyment of the league.

VAR does have potential but the Premier League have said they will on intervene with decisions if it is ‘Clear and Obvious.’ I have never despised two words more than those as it is so subjective and confusing that it just doesn’t help anybody.

There have been instances where VAR has stepped in this season and done well. Aymeric Laporte’s handball against Tottenham was correctly ruled out, abiding by the new handball rule which is barbaric in itself but thats a whole other story. Similarly, Willy Boly’s handball against Leicester rightly chalked off Leander Dendoncker’s goal, so after those decisions were made I was happy VAR intervened.

However.

In gameweek 4, pointless Watford had a big game at St James’ Park where points would be at a premium for both clubs. After taking the lead, Watford found themselves defending a set piece the ball eventually hits Isaac Hayden’s arm and falls to Fabian Schar who slots home.

Now, looking at the footage you can clearly see the ball hits Hayden’s arm/hand so you’d think it would be ruled out in similar fashion to Dendoncker’s and Gabriel Jesus’.

EVERY goal is checked by VAR, and with an experienced referee like Craig Pawson in the room at Stockley Park, you would stake your house that he would notice the clear violation of a BRAND NEW rule, but no!

In gameweek four alone there were several dodgy decisions by the men at Stockley Park which are inexcusable. Youri Tielemans got away with a potential ankle breaker and Sebastien Haller deserved a penalty to name a couple. The decision by Kevin Friend at Selhurst Park could also be a story in itself but for me VAR has nothing to do with it.

So what is the point of VAR?

VAR was brought in to help the referees and yet it is seemingly putting them in a worser light. After a month of the technology being in the best league in the world I cannot wait for it to go. As well as killing the enjoyment of a goal, it just dominates the headlines every week as it isn’t being used properly.

I don’t know the exact statistics but if referees get 90% of their decisions right and VAR brings that figure up to 95% is there really point using it. It slows down the game, kills the celebrations after the goal and the people at Stockley Park are too scared to overturn a decision that isn’t factual.

We’ve seen an abundance of penalty shouts which aren’t being given, that were rightly given in the World Cup just two years ago. Lamela on Laporte, Lascelles on Kane and Ceballos on All spring to mind but there will be plenty more I’ve missed and plenty more in the future which will be bottled.

In conclusion, I would take drastic action and abandon VAR if it continues to be used wrongly. The referees in the VAR room have to grow a pair and be prepared to overrule their mates for the integrity of the match. In the World Cup, the VAR officials would usually be from a different country than the match officials which I think is the way to go about it.

It takes that emotion out of it as these referees would have spent a lot of time together and made good friendships so it must be that little bit more difficult to overturn their decision. It sounds outlandish but this could be the case.

I’ve always been an advocate for foreign referees to come in to the Premier League as several high class managers and players have said that England has some of the worst referees in the world. It would be refreshing to have some new faces in the official’s department as the sights of Martin Atkinson and Mike Dean every week is slowly giving me depression.

Groundhop: Cardiff City

| Harry Clark

After making the trip over the border with Luke on Tuesday, I thought that would be me done for the week as I planned for a relaxing weekend. However, on the Wednesday morning my brother said there was some Friday night football we could attend at Cardiff v Fulham. We checked the train and football tickets and before you know it, we were at the train station.

This match was a Premier League game last season so I was expecting an exciting encounter between the two sides. The game didn’t have the most goals I’ve seen this season but it didn’t lack drama. Cardiff’s Josh Murphy opened the scoring late in the first half before Aleksandar Mitrovic equalised even later in the half, which was the end of the scoring.

Harry Arter was sent off in the second half for the visitors and plenty of other Fulham players were carded for time wasting which built up for a fiery game. So on the pitch it was entertaining but how did I rate the experience, let’s find out…

Atmosphere:

With the match being on a Friday night I was expecting a decent atmosphere. I didn’t really have any preconceptions about the Cardiff faithful so I went into it with a clear mind, unlike the times like Leeds and Liverpool where they have a internationally known atmosphere.

Despite this, I think the Cardiff fans should certainly be put in the same bracket. They were unbelievable throughout the night and deserved a late winner for all their support. Where I was sitting I couldn’t hear the Fulham fans as much but I they were still vocal throughout.

The atmosphere I will rate 4.5/5

Cost:

For a Championship I was expecting the tickets to be near £20 but I managed to get a ticket in the Ninian Stand for just £11, without having to pretend to be a year or two younger. With the train ticket being touch under £9, I managed to get there and in the stadium for under £20 which is quite brilliant. It could have been 5/5 if I didn’t have to take out a mortgage if I wanted a burger.

For the cost I will rate Cardiff 4.5/5

Entertainment:

I touched on it at the start of the piece but the game was a lot more entertaining than your average 1-1 draw. The atmosphere helped with that as there was a lot more hype around every corner and tackle. There was an abundance of chances at either end, and I was literally on the edge of my seat for a lot of the game.

For entertainment I will rate it 3.5/5

Facilities:

The facilities are similar to my local club Bristol City. They have a similar capacity and the concourses are also almost identical, although I think Ashton Gate edges it in that aspect. There are plenty of food stands around the concourse and the stadium itself looks fantastic from inside and outside. The leg room is surprisingly good at the Cardiff City Stadium which is rare for a football stadium.

Facilites I will rate 3.5/5.

Food:

As I’ve said there were plenty of choice when it came to what I was going to eat and in the end I went for a portion of chips which put me back £3.50. I went for that for the reason that it was the cheapest hot food on the menu as the burgers or pies would have cost a couple of quid more on top.

The chips were more like fries but nonetheless they were still decent and there were a good amount of them. If it wasn’t for the price of other things it would have been a solid 4/5 but I can’t ignore the other prices.

For food I will rate Cardiff 3/5

Man of the Match:

I can’t look any further than Fulham talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic. He was a handful for Aden Flint and Sean Morrison all game and deservedly got his goal just before the break. You can tell he is Premier League quality and I don’t doubt that if Fulham don’t get promoted, Mitrovic will make his way up to the Premier League another way.

So what does this mean?

These ratings put Cardiff in a very respectable 3rd place. It was one of my brother’s best ideas to head across to Cardiff on a Friday night and I am so glad I took him up on his offer. It was a great game and a great night out.

Groundhop: Newport County

| Harry Clark

With Newport being a short train journey over the border away, Luke and I were surprised to find out that neither of us had ever visited Rodney Parade. The perfect time to do so came up as the second round of the Crabao Cup was made and Newport had drawn West Ham at home.

This was particularly good for Luke as there were genuine feelings against West Ham and for Newport before and during the game so if Newport could do the unthinkable, then it would be a well worth journey for more than one reason.

It wasn’t meant to be as goals from Jack Wilshere and Pablo Fornals condemned Newport to a round two exit to Premier League opposition. So how was our experience?

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere was actually better before the game than during the game. Before kick-off it was looking likely to be a loud encounter with a brilliant atmosphere but that wasn’t really the case. There were some funny chants throughout the night which made me laugh, which included calling West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna a “BALD C*NT” which lead to team mate Declan Rice, shining his head.

The occasional chants of “sheep-shagging b*stards we know what we are” also brought a confused smile to my face but the chant of “AMBER ARMY’ brought some atmosphere. The West Ham fans also tried weighing in throughout the game but couldn’t quite create the kind of atmosphere I was expecting.

The atmosphere I will rate 2.5/5

Cost:

The travel to the ground cost us just £8 on the train as the station was just two stops away so for the transport part of the cost we were pretty content. The match ticket itself however was £14 pound which I believe to be a tad steep. It is a good price to watch Premier League opposition but this is their going rate for League Two.

For the cost I will rate Newport 2.5/5

Entertainment:

It wasn’t a bad game to watch from a Newport perspective despite the scoreline. They should have been ahead at half time, and I think even West Ham fans would agree with me there. Padraig Amond missed a sitter and Issa Diop could easily have put through is own net.

What did ruin my entertainment of the game was one fan that was behind us in the Hazel Terrace. To be fair to this guy he tried creating an atmosphere, he just went completely the wrong way about it. A fellow Newport fan, finally snapped late in the second half which sparked an entertaining argument which fizzled out at the final whistle.

For entertainment I will rate it 3/5

Facilities:

We managed to take in most of the facilities at Rodney Parade just looking for the ticket office. The ticket office ended up being a couple hundred yards away from the ground which was slightly annoying but it was easy to locate everything after.

Newport is a different stadium and is certainly one I will remember as the terraces and seating arrangements are unique. The main stand seems to be a very cozy area for the passionate fans to voice their chants and I quite like it.

Facilites I will rate 3/5.

Food:

After all the kerfuffle of getting into the stadium all I wanted was some food so I grabbed a hot dog and a bottle of water. I wasn’t in the greatest of moods before ordering the food as I had just spent half an hour trying to get into the ground, but the food didn’t improve my mood at all.

The hot dog for me was quite frankly vile. I did break off a bit for Luke who didn’t think it was too bad but I couldn’t finish even half of it, which if you know me well, is very much unlike me. Peculiarly the bottle of water which was given to me had no lid which I felt was weird but I guessed had something to do with the environment in some way or another.

I did have a packet of Pombears to clear my hunger which was bought from outside the ground in order to use the facilities of the shop, if you know what I mean.

For food I will rate Newport 1/5

Man of the Match:

Given the scoreline you’d think I would opt for a West Ham player but as I said, Newport put up more than a good fight. A player I was impressed with was their left back Ryan Haynes. He had the likes of Felipe Anderson and Robert Snodgrass to keep quiet and he succeeded for the vast majority of the game.

So what does this mean?

These ratings put Newport firmly to the bottom of the leaderboard. After I got back from the match I firmly believed that this could be the case and it has been proven. It wasn’t a bad game to watch but my time there certainly could have been a lot better.

Gameweek 4 Update

| Harry Clark

Going into this week, there was a huge chance for Harry to extend his lead as Luke would be spending the latter part of the week at the Reading festival, whilst Harry would be attending two Southampton youth matches.

The week started early for us with a trip to The Johnny Rocks Stadium for Carlisle’s visit to Cheltenham. Despite living within an hour of the ground, neither of us had ever watched a game there, so we were looking forward to it.

The game itself was decent, especially the first half. Gavin Reilly opened the scoring for the hosts giving both of us our first ‘R’ of the season. We wouldn’t have to wait much longer for Cheltenham an our second.

Former Premier League striker Luke Varney calmly slotted home later on in the half as we picked up our first and probably last ‘V’ of the campaign. The rest of the game remained goaless as we traveled back to Bristol very happy.

As mentioned above, Luke spent the following days at Reading which gave Harry a great opportunity to grab a couple more. He spent the Saturday at Southampton u18s v Chelsea u18s. It was a tight match that ended 1-0 to the visitors with Lewis Bates grabbing a brilliant winner. Harry and Luke for the matter, both already have ‘B’s with Patrick Bamford’s goal against Bristol City.

The week didn’t end there. Harry had another game working for Opta but this time the Southampton u23s as they faced a strong Liverpool u23s side. This match had quite a few more goals as Liverpool came out 4-2 winners at Staplewood Training Ground.

Promising young striker Rhian Brewster opened the scoring early on but that lead was wiped out within minutes by Will Smallbone. They regained the lead ten minutes later through Curtis Jones and extended their lead just after half time through Pedro Chirivella. Dan N’lundulu halved the deficit but Louie Longstaff completed the win after good work by Harvey Elliot.

From this, Harry gained two new alphabet scorers letter. ‘J’ for Curtis Jones and ‘L’ for Louie Longstaff. This gives Harry a lead of four now heading into to next month. We will both be heading to university in a matter of weeks so matches may dry up for a month, but next week will be jam packed once again so stay tuned.

Harry- Alphabet Scorers

| Harry Clark
ScorerGame
A
BPatrick BAMFORDBristol City v LEEDS UNITED
CBen CLOSEPORTSMOUTH v Tranmere Rovers
DCourtney DUFFUSYEOVIL TOWN v Eastleigh
E
FRoberto FIRMINOSouthampton v LIVERPOOL
GSerge GNABRYTottenham Hotspur v BAYERN MUNICH
HPablo HERNANDEZBristol City v LEEDS UNITED
IDanny INGSSOUTHAMPTON v Liverpool
JCurtis JONESSouthampton u23 v LIVERPOOL U23
KSandro KULENOVICDINAMO ZAGREB U23 v Villarreal U23
LLouie LONGSTAFFSouthampton u23 v LIVERPOOL U23
MSadio MANESouthampton v LIVERPOOL
NTom NAYLORPORTSMOUTH v Tranmere Rovers
OJordan OBITAREADING v Millwall
PAyoze PEREZSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
Q
RGavin REILLYCHELTENHAM TOWN v Carlisle United
SRoss STEARNBATH CITY v Braintree Town
TYouri TIELEMANSSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
U
VLuke VARNEY CHELTENHAM TOWN v Carlisle United
WAndreas WEIMANNBRISTOL CITY v Leeds United
X
YJerry YATESCrawley v SWINDON TOWN
Z

Number of goals: 18

Gameweek 3 Update

| Harry Clark

It was a quieter week this week after a quick start to the season. With Luke taking a break and playing football rather than watching it, this week allowed Harry to possibly gain a lead in the alphabet scorers race. St Mary’s was the destination for his first match and he got his fair share of action. A first half stoppage time goal from Sadio Mane gave Harry his first ‘M’ of the season.

The next new letter wasn’t far away at all with Roberto Firmino adding a second of the day for Liverpool and a second new letter of the day for Harry. A hat-trick of new letter was achieved when Adrian gifted Danny Ings a goal against his former club.

This wouldn’t be the end for Harry’s weekend as he headed down to Southampton once again but this time for their u23 team face up against Derby. The rules of the competition allow some over age players to feature and Derby took advantage of that by playing Chris Martin, Graeme Shinnie and Duane Holmes.

Derby won the match 1-0 with a goal from exciting youngster Jayden Mitchell-Lawson. A good goal for him but not so for Harry as he already had the letter ‘M’ with the above mentioned Mane goal two days prior.

So this means after the third week, Harry gains a lead of two over Luke. Despite the season being just a couple weeks in, the lead has changed twice already so it looks like it should be an exciting season both on and off the pitch.

Next week begins quickly with both of us heading to Cheltenham v Carlisle on the Tuesday. The likes of Luke Varney we’ll have a special eye on.

Groundhop: Southampton

| Harry Clark

With my new job as an Opta Analyst, I will spend every other Saturday morning and Monday evening watching the Southampton u18s and u23s. However one of the perks of the job is that I am first reserve for the first team matches. The first home match of the Saints’ Premier League campaign was against Liverpool and when I got the email saying I will be covering it, I was over the moon.

It would be just my second match working for Opta, but I had already made it to the Premier League and I could not wait. I have been to St Mary’s previously with my team Yeovil, but that experience is best left in the past. I genuinely can’t remember whether I have been there once or twice before but I do know we would have lost 100% of the games.

The game didn’t go as I thought but still entertained me none the less. Sadio Mane scored in second half stoppage time to give Jurgen Klopp’s side the lead before Roberto Firmino doubled it with 20 minutes to go. Danny Ings pulled one back after an Adrian howler and should have doubled his tally late on but missed a glaring opportunity to equalise.

Atmosphere:

I will mention this a lot during the season with my Opta games, but I wear noise cancelling headphones during the match so the crowd and other surrounding noises should be cut out. This wasn’t the case for the second match in a row as both Southampton and Liverpool were making noise throughout, especially the latter.

Liverpool fans are renowned for their atmosphere at Anfield, belting out You’ll Never Walk Alone before the match and they were on form on the South Coast as well. They kindly reminded everybody in the stadium that they are Champions of Europe on several occasions, but if you could, you would as well.

I am going to rate the atmosphere 4.5/5

Cost:

Once again, I din’t have to pay for this Premier League clash but if I wanted to go next time it would put me back £40. With the additional £15 train journey it equates to around £55, which sounds a lot, but for a day out watching Premier League football, that isn’t too bad.

There will be cheaper Premier League grounds to go to for sure and just a league below I have been to Bristol City that only cost £20 to get in, so value for money isn’t the greatest at St. Mary’s.

So for cost, I am going to rate it 3/5

Entertainment:

With the Saints coming up against the European Champions, I was expecting a one sided match which would see Liverpool come out comfortable winners, especially given the fact that Southampton shipped three against Burnley a week beforehand.

Well the first half was quite the opposite with Southampton having the better of the play and they could and probably should’ve gone ahead after a Maya Yoshida header from a corner was well saved by Adrian. He almost undid that good work almost immediately, playing the ball against James Ward-Prowse in his own box, only to see it squirt wide.

Ex- Southampton man, Sadio Mane scored in first half stoppage time against the run of play but I don’t think he or any of the Liverpool fans cared one bit. They doubled their lead after 70 minutes after a cool Roberto Firmino finish seemingly put the game away for Liverpool.

However Adrian tried one trick too many and rebounded the ball of former Liverpool striker Danny Ings who halved the deficit. He should have grabbed a point for Ralph Hassenhuttl’s side late on, but he couldn’t convert Yan Valery’s cross from only a few yards out.

For entertainment I wil rate it a 3.5/5

Facilities:

The stadium itself is your typical Premier League ground. It’s capacity of around 32,000 make for a great atmosphere throughout the match. What also helps the atmosphere and is a reason I especially like the ground is the fact that it is a bowl. There aren’t too many that come to mind that aren’t one of the top six sides, but I’m sure once Luke reads this he will come up with a list of 20 in a matter of minutes.

The facilities are also very nice. The ground on the inside and out is just stunning and I will definitely look forward to attending more games there as soon as I can.

For facilities I am going to rate St Mary’s 4/5

Food:

Immediately after I left the stadium I knew exactly what I was going to rate the food. In the press lounge there was a menu on offer but as I hadn’t heard of half the stuff on it I opted for a couple of slices of Naan bread pre-match. It was very nice but nothing spectacular so at that point I was expecting a 3/4 star rating.

However. Once the half time whistle went, the media flocked back into he lounge where we were greeted with a pile of sausage rolls accompanied with a pile of chocolate shortbreads. I was in heaven, and before I could check the half time scores, there were two of each on my plate. I demolished them in no time at all and they were the best sausage rolls and chocolate shortbreads I have ever had.

So I thought it would be rude not to grab a couple more during the break as there were still plenty on offer. I thought that would be the end of my devouring banquet but after the match I went back in to check the scores and there they still were. Another two more consumed before you could say “slow down fatty” and off I went to the train station.

For food I have to rate Southampton, 5/5.

Man of the Match:

Man of the match was a tough one for me as Liverpool weren’t exactly on their top form. Virgil Van Dijk for one wasn’t at his high standard and neither were the two full backs. I am going to give my man of the match to the final player in the back four, Joel Matip.

I think the Cameroonian centre back goes under the radar with all the other stars around him, but he just gets on and does his job well. He arguably played better than his partner Van Dijk which is a massive compliment considering the year the Dutchman has had.

Matip was a rock at the back all game and would’ve earned his clean sheet if it wasn’t for Adrian’s silly mistake.

So what does this mean?

This means Southampton fly to the top of the leaderboard with an overall score of 20, surpassing Spurs for top spot. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Southampton and I literally can’t wait until I am back there again. Also I met Tony Pulis after the match, no relevance here whatsoever but thought I’d share it anyway.