Quiet week

Looks like it's going to be a quiet week for me.

There are no midweek games to cover in my geographic region and so barring any major breaking news from the local clubs, I just thought I'd stare at my navel and mull over some of their efforts so far.

Bristol City:

Certainly not where anyone at Ashton Gate would have expected them to be at this point in the season - or where I thought they would be following the replacement of Keith Millen at the helm. New manager Derek McInnes saw an initial improvement, but this was then followed by a slump which has seen City drop into the relegation scrap. Personally I think they have too much in their locker to go down, but they need to pick up a couple of quick wins to dump more pressure on the only three teams below them - Coventry, Doncaster and Pompey.

Wycombe Wanderers

Wycombe have picked up in recent games, although they slipped up against fellow relegation strugglers Scunthorpe. The next two games will probably determine whether they have a chance of getting out of trouble and surviving - Bury and Exeter. Unfortunately for Wnaderers, it looks as though there is going to be one almighty fight to stay up with the bottom eight or nine clubs still candidates for the drop. The Chairboys big advantage is that they have been fighting for their lives from day one and already have the tenacious mindset needed. Some of the other clubs have hit poor runs of form and may start to panic as confidence at Adams Park continues to grow.

Swindon Town

It looks as though the Robins will go up. Aside from a defeat to local rivals Oxford, the form of the County Ground boys has been excellent and they just appear to be getting stronger and stronger as the season wears on. Champions elect.

Cheltenham Town

The best football I've seen this season in League Two has been played by the Robins and so I'd love to see them go up automatically. Realistically though, it's going to be a tricky run-in and Mark Yates is really going to earn his corn if they manage to finish in the top three.

Oxford United

A play-off spot would have been acceptable at the beginning of the season and I think that's where they will end up. From that point on it's going to be a lottery, but the U's have players of experience in the squad as well as recent experience of a successful play-off campaign - so it might just suit them.

Bristol Rovers

This has been a wasted season for the Gas. Twelve points off the play-offs, but a club of this size should be challenging for the title. Since coach Shaun North took over following Paul Buckle's sacking - and then Mark McGhee's subsequent arrival as the new manager - Rovers have started to look the part. McGhee already has one eye on re-building for next season and each player is currently under-going one long job interview.

Hereford United

The Bulls have under-achieved this season. Harsh words? I don't think so. They haven't got a lot of money, don't attract big crowds and don't have a large squad, but the players the club do have possess enough quality to steer it to safety. I don't think anyone expected a promotion push this season, but I personally felt they were good enough to reach mid-table. Maybe if they put a little run together now, this can still be achieved.

Wycombe Wanderers 0 Colchester United 0

Nikki Bull went from zero to hero in seconds to earn relegation candidates Wycombe a valuable point.

Steven Gillespie should have sealed a win for play-off hopefuls Colchester in the 53rd minute when he charged down Bull's clearance, but the Wycombe stopper made amends by blocking the striker's follow up shot with his chest.

But Wycombe cranked up the pressure as the game wore on.

In the 53rd minute, midfielder Stuart Lewis had keeper Ben Williams scrambling across his goal to save a 25 yard shot.

And central defenders Dave Winfield and Charlton loanee Gary Doherty both came close with headers in the dying stages.

Colchester's leading marksman Anthony Wordsworth saw action at both ends before the break.

In the 16th minute eleven goal winger Wordsworth chested a header from Winfield off his own line, but then seven minutes later saw his shot come off Doherty and hit the Wycombe post.

Colchester chief John Ward was pleased with the point and his team's fourth clean sheet in five games. He joked:

"The Chairman can go off and enjoy his skiing holiday now.

Whilst we haven't been able to win this game, we're looking very strong. We've hit a spell at the moment where everyone's prepared to put in a good shift and the guys are enjoying it. We're in a good position. My back four and my goalkeeper were once again very strong and very solid. I think that’s one goal conceded in the last five games and we’re really pleased about that."

Gary Waddock, boss of relegation candidates Wycombe, was encouraged by his team's first scoreless draw of the campaign and said: 

"I played under John (at Bristol Rovers) and so know how well organised his teams an be.

I thought we might snatch a win, but it wasn't to be and it was probably a fair result. The players have dug in and showed everybody how much they want to put the situation right. We now need to transfer what we are doing here a home into our away fixtures.


We've been Jekyll and Hyde, but we've turned up again today and put in a performance. If they continue to perform like that, it gives us a chance to pick up points." 
 
Meanwhile John White is looking forward to mixing clean sheets and dirty nappies for the rest of the season.

U's defender White, 25, helped shut out the opposition for the fourth time in five games before rushing off to hospital to pick up new born son Jacob.

And the new dad revealed:

"It's been a bizarre couple of days. We had to get to hospital early on Friday morning and spent the day having cuddles. As soon as the warm up started I was in football mode, but I'm back in baby mode now. I'm in a happy daze now the game's over and can't wait to pick him up, get him home and be put on nappy duty."

And White hopes that Colchester can still make a push for the play-offs. He said:

"It's nice to be seen as the underdogs in the run in. It takes the pressure off and so we'll take each game as it comes and see where it takes us."

Midfielder Matt Bloomfield believes that Wycombe should build on the draw as the club attempts to beat the drop. He said:

"Confidence should be building in the squad now on the back of two good results. We should take a lot of self belief from of this result and target four points at least from our next two games."

My clipping from yesterday's edition

My clipping from this morning's paper

Wycombe v Colchester

I’m in Wycombe again tomorrow for the second game in one week to see whether the Chairboys can repeat the performance they gave against Orient.

Colchester are the visitors this time and they will also be in high spirits following an excellent 2-0 win at league leaders Charlton.

In fact the Us have only lost once in seven games and won the last couple so confidence will be high.

After Tuesday night’s game I asked Gary Waddock how he managed to get his players to perform as they did - in the first half especially – on the back of what was 'apparently' a real shocker at Scunthorpe. The Wycombe manager told me he had just asked his players to sit down and remember how they were feeling and what they were thinking before the 5-0 win against Hartlepool ... and then approach Orient in the same frame of mind. It obviously worked.

It would be easy to criticise and ask why Wycombe didn’t pick up where they left off at the break on Tuesday, but there were also eleven other pros on that pitch who had just been given the rollicking of their lives by Russell Slade ... and were in danger of being made to walk back to East London.

Personal pride will also have kicked in. I’ve known very few professional footballers in my time who have not tried to salvage some when they’re in that situation.

And so the second half was never going to be as easy, but credit to Wycombe, they showed they were going to scrap and battle to win that one.

It would also be easy for the club to panic and get shot of Waddock, but in my opinion that would be short-sighted and Chairman Ivor Beeks  obviously feels the same and has told the Bucks Free Press:

"He continues to have our respect and support. There is no issue, he’s got a job to do."

When a football Chairman backs his manager these days it's often time to start checking the Situations Vacant columns in the League Managers Association newsletter, but traditonally, Wycombe are made of sterner stuff.

Beeks - and most fans - were aware that this was going to be a backs-to-the-wall season from day one. 

Wycombe midfielder Bloomfield made a big point of highlighting the importance of the home support when he told the Bucks Free Press:

"The players care about the fans and the club. We want to win first and foremost for our points tally, but we want to give our fans something to cheer about on Saturday against Colchester."

Bloomfield is obviously one of those players who is very aware of the debt owed by players to fans as he also took time out to talk about them on Tuesday night (there's a sneaky clip below, but the full interview is probably on the cub's website). It seems as though some players pay lip service to their followers, but even off camera and off the record, I can assure you that Bloomfield cares.

In John Ward, Colchester have one of the lower leagues’ top football brains and so it will be an intriguing tussle between the two coaches.

Colchester’s leading scorer is midfielder Anthony Wordsworth who has found the net eleven times this season and he has certainly not given up on a play-off place – even if the boss is playing it cool.Wordsworth has said: 

“I don’t see why we can’t make the play-offs. When you look back on the points that we’ve dropped in the past, it’s a bit frustrating. But after taking six points from our last two games, it’s definitely doable.”

I spoke to Ward a few times when he was managing Cheltenham and he is a likable and knowledgeable football man. Interesting to see that he also has a few old Robins players on the staff including Steven Gillespie who has made a reputation for himself as a dangerous lower league goal scorer.

It should be a cracking encounter tomorrow. A home win and maybe everyone in Adams Park will start to believe. An away win and maybe the visiting Essex boys (and girls) will, er, start to believe!

Are you Messi in disguise?

Given the lack of anything serious to write today, I thought I'd mention a chat I had with Chairboys fan last night during the Barca game. Following Matt Bloomfield's fine goal against Orient on Tuesday, this supporter pointed out that it was Messi-esque in its execution and followed up by pointing out: "Of course no-one's ever seen Lionel and Matt on the same pitch at the same time. Makes you wonder doesn't it?"
At this point my friend slumped into a unconscious, drunken stupor on the bar, but it stirred my investigative juices and so after hours searching on the Interweb, I found the following:

Matt Bloomfield celebrates his first of the season ... well for Wycombe anyway!

Source: Footy-shop Pictures, Inc.

Perhaps things aren't as bad as they seem at Adams Park after all!

When words aren’t enough ...

... or when you can’t use enough words!

As anyone with half a brain is probably aware, newspapers tend to focus on the bigger games, the bigger clubs and the largest potential readership. All of which makes sense.

So when there is a fairly full midweek fixture list and limited space available, the order for copy from the sports desk can be fairly small. You would think that the fewer words required, the easier the job. Yeah, you’d think.

Before last night’s game I was asked for a mere one hundred words. Not a great deal, but once you throw six goals into the mix, it becomes a little tougher to tell the full story.

After Stuart Beavon’s opener last night I had a comfortable piece arranged in my head focusing on the prolific Wycombe hit man - and maybe a little something about Orient keeper Paul Rachuka’s debut following a loan move from Leeds earlier that day.

Paul Hayes second didn’t trouble me too much either. I could just tag on something about his third goal in three games since arriving from Charlton and then add something about the superb threaded pass by fellow loanee Craig Eastmond – an impressive young midfielder  from Arsenal.

The star of the show though was Matt Bloomfield. He added a third with a little drop of the shoulder in the 33rd minute that left three defenders for dead before he slotted home his first goal of the season.

Great goal by him, great for the home support, but not too good for me – there was still about an hour to go.

Six minutes later Bloomfield – who I have a lot of time for on a personal level – twisted the knife by setting up Ben Strevens for the fourth.

As Orient left the pitch to a chorus of boos and cries of “we want our money back” from the travelling support, I was preparing myself for worse to come (as were most of the visiting back room staff I suspect).

Immediately after the break – and presumably with manager Russell Slade’s words of comfort ringing in their ears – the Os started with a bang ... and another bloody goal to write about.

Skipper Matt Spring buried a scorcher that left keeper Nikki Bull (who made several decent stops during the game that were all worth writing about) with no chance.

In the 74^th minute Marc Laird nodded in a long ball from Terrell Forbes as the confidence seemed to ebb from the home side.

It’s worth mentioning the funniest incident of the night at this point and with due respect to the travelling fans it wasn’t the chant of “we’re going to win 5-4” following Spring’s goal.

Seconds before Laird scored, midfielder Dean Cox was flattened about 20 yards from the Wycombe goal. He was furious with referee David Philips who had played advantage. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, Philips caught Cox’s eye and cupped his hand to his ear. The midfielder patted official on the back as he jogged to the half way line for the resumption.

As the Chairboys desperately clung on to their lead, the bookings started mounting up and I had visions of a red card or two needing to be described as well.

Veteran midfielder Gareth Ainsworth was sent on by manager Gary Waddock in the 79^th minute – presumably to use his experience to settle to team down – and was promptly scythed down by central defender Ben Chorley who was shown a yellow card.

It looked an awful challenge, but it was also a daft one with ten minutes (plus five minutes injury time as it turned out) to go.

I’m not for one minute saying Ainsworth did this, but if I had been around the block as often as him, I would have been lying on the turf thinking “well that’s worth more than the 30 seconds the ref is going to add on” and stayed where I was to run a little extra time down. As I say though, that’s what I would have done!

Having sent off the report you saw on my blog earlier today, I called the office to ensure they had received it and was greeted with “you could have added a more description”. The guy at the office was laughing as he said it ... and I hung up with as much joviality as I could muster!

So there you have it, an account of last night’s game at Adams Park – in 757 words.

Wycombe Wanderers 4 Leyton Orient 2

(more on this one later when I get the time!)
Stuart Beavon sparked a six goal thriller to edge Wycombe off the foot of the table.

Beavon nodded in his 17th of the campaign in the seventh minute and nine minutes later co-striker Paul Hayes slotted in the second from eight yards.

Midfielder Matt Bloomfield prodded in his first of the season in the 33rd minute before setting up substitute Ben Strevens's tap in six minutes later.

One minute after the break Orient skipper Matt Spring fired in a 22 yard scorcher and midfielder Marc Laird nodded in in the 74th minute, but the damage was done in the first half.


Wycombe manager Gary Waddock was delighted to see his team bounce back from a 4-1 weekend mauling at Scunthorpe and said:

"In the first half we were very, very good. It was an important three points and very pleasing on the eye. We needed to win the game and had enough goal scorers on the pitch to do it.

After the game on Saturday it was important we didn't lie down and die and we showed we  have players with character who are prepared to stand up and fight.

We're consistent at being inconsistent and that's frustrating. You pull your hair out sometimes, but they've shown what a good group of players they are."

Furious Orient boss Russell Slade said:

"I can't think when I've been as disappointed in any of my teams as I was in the first half. As a group we were so poor it was horrendous.

We needed to put some pride back into the shirt in the second half, but it was too late."

My clipping from this morning's paper

Wycombe Wanderers v Leyton Orient

Following Saturday's 4-1 reverse at Scunthorpe, it is vital that Wycombe start stringing some wins together and I will be at Adams Park tonight to see how they get on against Orient.

The Chairboys are now propping up League One and - if results are anything to go by - look like they have given up on survival. It will be interesting to see what the mood in the camp is like. I hope that I'm wrong.

Their task isn't going to be made any easier if they are missing striker Stuart Beavon who has a groin strain and whose goals have given the club any hope of staying in the division.

On a positive note, central defender Dave Winfield may return to the side tonight having been out since mid-February.

Following tonight's game, Wycombe have a home fixture against Colchester on Saturday and then two away trips to Bury and Exeter. Given the weekend's defeat, it would be daft to say that they are games Wycombe should win, but I'd suggest that this run of four games could prove to be the turning point in their season or the beginning of the end in League One.

Orient will be without loanees Marek Štěch and Ryan Dickson following juries they picked up in Saturday's draw at Walsall. Russell Slade may also be without David Mooney and Scott Cuthbert are also doubts, while the east London club are waiting to learn the result of their appeal against  Solomon Taiwo's red card from the weekend tie. Nigerian-born Taiwo is currently on loan from Cardiff.

Jamie Pitman, Richard O'Kelly and ... QPR

Sadly, Hereford United boss Jamie Pitman was 'relieved of his duties' this morning according to an official club e-mail to the media. At two o'clock the club announced that former first team coach Richard O'Kelly, 55, will be taking on the role.

Given the club's position in League Two, some fans might question the use of the word "sadly", but I speak as I find and on a personal level, I found Jamie to be a pleasant guy to deal with. He was also passionate about his role and the team, despite the fact that it is a club limited in financial resources.

O'Kelly was a player with Walsall, Port Vale and Grimsby Town and a coach with West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers and Hereford United, where he was assistant manager to Graham Turner for two years. He knows the club and learned from one of its legends and has a good reputation within the game.

It's good to see that the directors appear to have also noted Pitman's positive qualities and have asked him to stay on in a coaching capacity.

I suspect that a few Bulls fans will be glad to see the change made now while there is still time to secure their league status and, of course, they may well be right. However, I hope the supporters will always remember the job Pitman did last season when things looked to be going pear-shaped.

To be fair to the club's directors though, they haven't rushed into any knee-jerk decision and following last night's BBC programme " QPR: the Four Year Plan", it's obvious that there are plenty of people in football less qualified to run a club! If you haven't seen it, it's well worth 90 minutes of any football supporter's time.

The way  Flavio Briatore and Gianni Paladini treated people like Iain Dowie (f***ing stupid), Gareth Ainsworth (pr*ck in the dug-out), Paulo Sousa and Jim Magilton with utter disdain and a total lack of respect, was nothing short of a disgrace.

When you think that someone like Ainsworth has played for nearly one dozen clubs and is still well thought of - and respected - by fans of all of them, it just goes to show how little Briatore and Paladini know about the game.

Frankly, with people like this in charge of a club it's not always the manager's head the supporters should be calling for (as the QPR fans quickly identified). In my opinion, if these two jokers ever try to involve themselves with the sport again, the FA, should take a long hard look at the "fit and proper person" clause before agreeing to let anywhere near a football stadium.

Bristol Rovers 0 Macclesfield Town 0

Richard O'Donnell is already a big Macc hero, but has unfinished business with his boyhood idols.

Keeper O'Donnell's arrival on a 28 day emergency loan deal from Sheffield Wednesday ended an eight match losing streak that had left Macclesfield just outside the drop zone.

And O'Donnell, 23, hopes to catch the eye of new Owls boss Dave Jones so he can add to the fourteen games he has made for the League One promotion hopefuls.


In the 73rd minuted striker Mustapha Carayol drifted into the box and hit a blistering shot from 16 yards, but O'Donnell, 23, dived to brilliantly beat the ball away.

And four minutes from time O'Donnell had to be at his best again to turn winger Lee Brown's low drive - from the same distance - past the post.

It was a dire affair on a poor pitch, but both teams could have broken the deadlock in the 58th minute and, again, O'Donnell was involved.


The 6' 1" keeper managed to claim an attempted lob from midfielder Matthew Lund and then immediately started a move that led to striker George Donnelly who flashed a shot just wide of the far post from a tight angle. After the game, Gas midfielder Lee Brown said that home keeper Scott Bevan had actually got a finger to the shot and so credit goes to him as well.

Wednesday sacked boss Gary Megson last week, but O'Donnell is fully focused on the Silkmen's survival bid to shut out in-form Rovers. He said:

"I'm from Sheffield lad and always been a Wednesday fan, so playing for them is living the dream. The manager's sacking was a shock, but it happens in football and so you just have to concentrate on the future. It's my club and so I obviously want to play for them, but I'm at Macclesfield at the moment.

That was the first clean sheet for quite a while and! on the back of three draws, we have something to build on."

And Brown told the media that the Rovers players were under no illusions that they could now sit back and see out the season. He pointed to the fact that the squad knew they were playing for their futures at the club. They now all have what amounts to a ten week job interview  and given the precarious nature of the profession these days with very little job security on offer in the lower leagues, I think Gasheads can be forgiven for expecting a barnstorming end to a disappointing campaign.


How much the Memorial Ground surface allows them to play passing football is going to be open to question though I'm afraid!

Macclesfield boss Gary Simpson compared league survival last season like swimming the Channel and admitted:

"This time it's a more like the Atlantic. We rode our luck a little bit, but there was some great defending. That's three unbeaten We've stopped the rot and now need to put a few wins together and buy some time to get some of our injured players back.""


Rovers have lost only one game in seven since manager Mark McGhee's arrival and he said:


"We did enough to break them down, but we did not do enough to beat their goalie, I thought he was terrific. We dominated the game and defended well and we passed the ball well on a difficult surface.
We played a very resolute opposition who were very well organised."

My clipping from this morning's paper

And a little bit more of a 'show' from yesterday's edition

Bristol Rovers v Macclesfield

I'm back to the Mem tomorrow for the fixture against Gary Simpson's Silkmen.

I remember that Simpson told me last season after a game at Hereford that survival in League Two would "like swimming the channel". We the club managed that and Simpson is now looking to build on last year's effort.

I noticed a few weeks ago that they also have a lad called George Donnelly playing for them now. Donnelly is a striker who was turfed out of Liverpool as a kid and told he wouldn't make the grade. After a period packing lorries in the rag trade, his dad persuaded him to get of the couch and go and get a game for Skelmersdale United where he went on to score something like 36 goals in forty-odd games.

Plymouth then picked him up, but in the financial turmoil that was Argyle at that time, he became a bit of a victim of their financial woes and was farmed out on loan to Luton and Stockport before finally signing for Fleetwood Town in January of last year. In September he signed for Macc and has now scored five goals in twenty outings.

I first saw Donnelly when he scored the winner for Stockport away to Oxford and remember thinking what a decent player he was. A bit of a poacher. It's good to see him back in the league and re-building his career and I'll bet he's glad his old man kicked him off that couch!

In the last two of games Macclesfield have picked up a couple of draws and stopped the rot following an eight game losing streak.

However, Donnelly and his mates will come up against a Rovers team that is starting to believe in itself under Mark McGhee and coach Shaun North and will be looking to continue the form that has seen them lose only one game in eight.

It appears that I'm in a minority of one when it comes the promotion chances of the home side this season - and understandably so given what has gone on there - but , you know, I can't shake off the memory of the amazing run that took them to promotion to League One under Paul Trollope a few seasons ago.

There are only fourteen games to go and the club are eleven points adrift of the play-offs, but a good run will unsettle a few of the clubs above them and so, who knows?