The week that was.

Another actioned packed sporting week for me; viewing and reacting to various football matches while looking after an army of various rodents.

Tuesday 16th July

I didn't have the pleasure of viewing the Imp's first home match of the season and it sounds as if i didn't miss a great deal as we went down 0-1 to Kidderminster Harriers. Ho hum.

Wednesday 17th July

NCEL league cup 2nd round 

Tadcaster Albion 1-3 Retford United

This is more like it. So far this season Retford have won both of their opening league matches and they carried on their good form over into the League Cup.The journey up to Tadcaster was simple enough and spent in excellent company. The only downside came in actually finding the sodding ground; it is well hidden behind the John Smiths brewery, in fact the road you go down runs pretty much through the brewery. We did get to see a fair bit of Tadcaster and it seems a nice enough place it has to be said. Inspire Park is quite a scenic ground which looks great in the summer although I wouldn't fancy a midweek trip here in December, when all the surrounding trees have shed their leaves and the brewery behind the goal resembles an 80's Soviet power plant. The stand out feature in the ground for me is the unique stand behind the goal at the brewery end of the stadium. Behold and let me know if you have ever seen a stand like this one. Its things like this which makes non league great. In an age of identikit grounds in the Premiership/Football League its refreshing to see something different.

Entrance was the standard £5 with a smart programme selling at £1. Badges were also for sale at the new turnstiles for £3 so i bagged one of those. It always handy when clubs place the badges on the turnstiles where you can easily buy them without having to go hunting for them. A good number of fans/reprobates/desperado's from Retford had made the trip. Many of which were in the clubhouse which, unsurprisingly enough, given what's next to the club served a decent enough pint.

Tadcaster's home kit is yellow shirts with dark blue sleeves and dark blue shorts. Which gave Retford a bit of a problem as the badgers are sporting an all yellow number away from home this season, and as the home kit has black shorts this would also clash with Tadcasters strip. The answer? The yellow away shorts and socks teamed with the black and white home shirt. I can't quite see the outfit making the fashion pages on the independent but it did the job. It did look dreadful though.

The strip was the only dreadful thing though as this was quite a decent match. The first half was a little cagey with neither side able to create many clear cut chances. Retford began to gain the upper hand as the half wore on and drew a good save from the Tadcaster substitute goalkeeper just before the break.

As the second half wore on I got that horrible feeling you get when you are at a cup tie and realise that unless something happens soon it could well be extra time followed by kicks from the penalty spot. So we were delighted when Retford knocked it in from long range following a throw in. However Tadcaster roared back with an equally spectacular goal when a free kick from the left was volleyed in first time into the top right hand corner of the net. It was the first goal that Retford had conceded in the 2011/12 year and i doubt they will concede a better one.
Then a couple of minutes that changed the game.
Tadcaster had a great chance to take the lead but their centre forward fluffed a great one on one chance. Then from the following attack Retford grabbed their second and took charge of the tie. They added a third late on which made the 1-3 scoreline look a little harsh on Tadcaster if i am honest. The home side did build up a head of steam late on but the Badgers held firm to make it three wins from three games. Good show chaps. We also had the amusing incident of a home fan telling the linesman that he was " A bloody Biro" it must be a Yorkshire thing.

Thursday 17th July

Sat at home and watched Hearts v Spurs. After Celtic and Rangers also got poor results in Europe on the same night could we have witnessed Scottish football's darkest hour?

Friday 18th July

Lincoln City 1-2 Wrexham  

My first Lincoln home game of the season and our first live showing on Premier sports TV. Would the Imps put on a show for the hundreds of people watching on their TV sets at home? Well not quite.

With Baz still on his holidays it was just my good self and Joey Tribiani in the car for this one. It was good to see Captain Gaz and his motley crew of stewards and they were on great early season form as they dealt with a group of youths in the Stacey West who seemed more interested in acting up instead of watching the game.Well done chaps.
On the pitch it was a bright start from City. They did however go behind to yet another stunning free kick right into the top corner. The defensive wall wasn't the greatest but i doubt we would have stopped it if we had all ten outfield players in the wall. It was harsh on Lincoln as we had played well enough and in my view didn't deserve to be trailing. Just on the stroke of half time Lincoln deservedly drew level when Sam Smith notched his second goal of the season as he bumbled the ball home from close range. This was City's first home goal since the 12th of March!

GGGGOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

City really took the game to the Dragons in the second half and created several good chances and forced a couple of good saves from the Wrexham keeper. But after all this Wrexham hit us with a classic sucker punch with a great counter attacking goal. That really took the wind out of City after playing so well. We tried to get back into the match but Wrexham were just that bit too good in defence for us.
The result took Wrexham to the top of the League and handed Lincoln a club record 6th consecutive home defeat.