A Bit of Nostalgia

YEOVIL TOWN

 - V - 

DONCASTER ROVERS

Its a nostalgic weekend for Yeovil and Doncaster, meeting once again 10 years on from when they were both at the beginning of the end of their lives as non-league teams.  For Rovers it was a season to get back where they belonged and for Yeovil, a season to take them to new heights.  Yeovil, of course were promoted as champions from that Conference class of 2002/03, where as Rovers were inaugural play-off winners.  Since promotion, neither club has looked back.  Indeed, Yeovil succeeded Doncaster as champions of the football league's bottom tier and like Rovers, have never returned.

So, we see that the two star performers of the conference that year have done the conference proud since leaving.  But what of the rest of our class.  Where are they now?

1	Yeovil Town		League 1
2	Morecambe		League 2
3	Doncaster Rovers		League 1
4	Chester City		Conference North
5	Dagenham & Redbridge		League 2
6	Hereford United		Blue Square Prem
7	Scarborough		Humber Premier League Prem Division
8	Halifax Town		Conference North
9	Forest Green Rovers		Blue Square Prem
10	Margate		Ryman League Premier Division
11	Barnet		League 2
12	Stevenage Borough		League 1
13	Farnborough Town		Blue Square South
14	Northwich Victoria		Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Prem Division
15	Telford United		Blue Square Prem
16	Burton Albion		League 2
17	Gravesend & Northfleet		Blue Square Prem (Now Ebbsfleet Utd FC)
18	Leigh RMI		Wound Up 2011 (as Leigh Genesis FC)
19	Woking		Blue Square Prem
20	Nuneaton Borough		Blue Square Prem
21	Southport		Blue Square Prem
22	Kettering Town		Evo-Stik Southern Premier League Prem Division

Seven of us enjoy football league status these days where as another seven are still at Conference level.  The remaining eight now frequent some of the more forgotten leagues down the pyramid system.  We also know that many of our classmates have suffered folding and reincarnation and in the case of poor Leigh, folding again.  Quite sobering really.

YEOVIL TOWN

Its our first proper cup final - Gary Johnson

Wow - you get some respect around these parts!  I fell in love with the people of Yeovil many years ago when a potentially boring evening at a hotel the night before a job interview was averted by a bunch of Yokels.  I will never forget my double-take when one of them referred to me as "Shag" or "Shaarg" as he put it.  

"What did you call me?" I asked.

"Well oy calls you Shaarg cors oy don't roightly know your name!" come the reply.  Wonderful people and a great evening.  Indeed, had the evening not been so good, I might have got the job!

To football and Yeovil have made a great start, blazing a trail for the rest of us to follow.  The first thing I noticed, going onto Yeovil's player site was how PremiumTV have decided that the Glovers would be far more interested in QPR's defeat of Walsall than their own Capital One Cup exit at West Brom.  And we were moaning that our highlights didn't work!  I think this also shows that its often not the club cocking up the websites.  Premium TV can do that too!

Stech - Impressive Shot-Stopper

The last two games for the Glovers have yielded two impressive away wins with 7 goals being scored at the cost of only one in reply.  Looking at the highlights, the star-man of these games was none other than James Hayter.  Neither Brentford nor Scunthorpe could cope with his positional play or his reading of the game.  Against Brentford he scored two by bursting in from deep, unmarked.  Against Scunthorpe he was the provider, first seeing when defenders were hesitating and being the pick-pocket and then by again being in front of the defence to play a clever ball around the corner.  Hayter will be a very good player in this league.  The good news is that Donny of course know exactly how he plays.  The bad news is that how he plays is very intelligently indeed.  

The other player to catch my eye was 'keeper Marek Stech, a free transfer from West Ham United who looks like no money well spent.  In both games, Stech made some impressive stops.  He's got quick reactions and is very agile.  But Yeovil did need him in both games.  The defence needs polishing more than major surgery.  They looked a bit hesitant at times and didn't stick the boot behind it when they should at others.  I also saw players coming from wide shown the inside on a couple of occasions.  Not that anyone at Donny can take advantage of that sort of thing!

DONCASTER ROVERS

It’s a long journey down there and it’s a tough place to go - Rob Jones

What a week of contrasting emotion in Doncaster.  First of all we get one of those games that make all football supporters angry.  The one where you know your team can beat the opposition before them, but on the day it just doesn't happen.  It was boring with Crawley and ourselves managing just 5 shots on target between us.  It was annoying, especially when the best of the shots, one of theirs crept in at the far post with 3 minutes remaining.  Jim of Barnby Dun decided Eastenders offered more entertainment than Rovers would on Tuesday night.

As Jim glanced at the Internet, on his I-Phone, just 1 minute after Rovers kicked off, he would have grimaced at the fact Rovers were one behind.  10 minutes later he would certainly have congratulated himself over watching Phil and Roxy rather than watching Jay Simpson tap in Hull's second.

When Dave Syers did that on the half hour, Jim in Barnby Dun was unmoved.  He didn't know it had happened because Jonny was finally going to crack it with Mo on Holby City.  

Rovers then put in a cracking performance in the second half.  Rob Jones nodded in Coppinger's cross and the match was level.  Now came the crescendo to fortissimo.  A red card for Hull's Paul McKenna after his petulant trip of Rob Jones; Hull being forced to clear their lines by means of a bicycle kick and then beating the Rovers defence and 'keeper but not their far post.  Rover's then did it.  Spurr into Syers and it was 3:2-  Just enough time on the clock for Hull to stop a few hearts by heading into the side-netting.

Barnby Dun Jim was at this point struggling with Horizon telling him just how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big the universe was so he decided to check something else similarly large.  Hull's final scoreline against the Rovers.  On went the I-Phone and "HOW THE BLOODY HELL DID THAT HAPPEN".  He'd check it out on Sky Sports who promised him every goal in the Capital One Cup.  Ah...didn't read the small-print there Jim.  Goals that are scored between Sheffield and Leeds excepting those in Barnsley don't count.  Jim went to bed with the curious feeling that he may have missed something.

Off the pitch and on deadline day, Rovers have added to their numbers in the form of Ian Hume signed on a six month loan from Preston.  That could be interesting.  The battering ram of Chris Brown and Billy Paynter could produce holes just big enough for Hume to nip into.  Whatever, the Rovers' squad is starting to look like one with goal potential all the way through.

But sadly a ace provider of such goals moves on.  After much speculation, longest serving player, James Coppinger joins ex-boss Sean O'Driscoll at Nottingham Forest for the next 6-months.  Coppinger has more capacity than any other Doncaster player to drop fans' jaws with brilliant, intricate skills.  With the exception of the Hull game, where he was close to his brilliant best, its been sad to see him this season, warming the bench and having little impact when called upon.  However I am sure fans will never forget the best hat-trick I have ever seen as Coppinger destroyed Southend in that play-off semi-final.  Good luck Copps! 

Enjoy the match everyone.

First Trip to Donny for Crawley

DONCASTER ROVERS

 - V - 

CRAWLEY TOWN

Crawley Town today become Doncaster Rovers' 116th opponents in league football.  We  have  also never met in the Conference so this match is a rather rare occasion for Donny these days.  Crawley probably get a lot of this being relatively new to the league, but its unusual for Donny, especially as we have done some time in non-league and are familiar with some off-road places in English football.

So Crawley - Donny, Donny -  Crawley.  That's the introductions over, now lets have a good game of football!

DONCASTER ROVERS

If Kyle gets 20 goals, I think two things are likely to happen - he’ll be worth about £2m to £3m in the transfer market and we’re more than likely to be in the Championship, which is worth about £5m to £6m - John Ryan

Everything on the pitch is on course for Donny at the moment.  They looked imperious against Walsall last weekend, but were made to work a little harder by a resilient Bury side, who to be fair, took me a little by surprise.

When I write these blogs in early season, there's more reading about players' achievements to be done and less looking at videos.  For my money, in defence, Adam Lockwood was likely to be partnered by Andrai Jones.  I felt the pair was in for a tough evening at the hands of Billy Paynter and Chris Brown.  Bury fan forums were concerned about Kyle Bennett exposing their full-backs and at the other end of the field, I saw no threat at all in the Bury forward line.  It looked an easy win.  Looking back now, well we got the win but probably needed Bury being reduced to 10-men to achieve it.

First of all, after just 4 minutes the twin-towers, Rob Jones and Jamie McCoombe, came crashing to earth when Bury took the lead from a corner.  Adam Lockwood got in front of Jones and his header was helped in at the near post by Joe Skarz.  Rovers, were losing, and the goal came from a set-piece.  Memories of last-season flashed back briefly.

Bentley in the Bag for Bennett?

Parity was restored with a great move around the Bury area being ended by Kyle Bennett smashing through the middle of the Bury defence to get on the end of Tommy Spurr's return pass.  Rovers deserved that but had been made to work as Bury had had a couple of chances to extend their lead.

Eye-brows are quite rightly being raised about Bennet's abilities, not least from John Ryan.  The Doncaster Chairman has apparently offered Bennett his Bentley should Ryan net 20 goals this season.  With the attention he's already receiving, I would think if he hits this total, the move he could get would enable him to buy his own!

The battle continued in the second half, but with Rovers gradually getting the better of things.  Bury were still holding out though but when Steven Schumacher saw red for a 2nd bookable offence, Rovers simply held too many good cards not to win the game.  Chris Brown ended up with time and space in the Bury area and with 12 minutes remaining, picked his spot perfectly.  A win, but hard work for the Rovers.

Other gossip around the club - James Coppinger, will he stay or will he go.  Well he rejected a loan deal with Barnsley out of hand.  Quite right too.  As Dean Saunders told us when reacting to Copps' decision, just 2 months loan with no guarantees as to what would happen afterwards.  Not a deal to take with the transfer-window still open.

I think its clear though that Dean would like somebody to leave the club to enable him to increase the size of the squad.  I also think that Coppinger is his preferred choice, probably because he is the most likely to command a fee and because he is confident in the abilities of Kyle Bennett and David Cotterill.  Its sad for Copps though.  The longest-serving and most gifted player Rovers have being reduced to barely a supporting role for the greater good of the club.  I hope something good eventually comes of this for him.

CRAWLEY TOWN 

So who are Crawley Town, this team we've never met before?  Crawley's rise has some parallels with Doncaster's.  They had an ex-chairman jailed, so did we; they achieved double-promotion from Conference to League 1, so did we.  But Crawley's rise has been quicker and somewhat perversely, less smooth.

Crawley made it to a national league for the first time in 2004 and their first season went well.  12th place made them the highest ranked part-time team in the country, but then things started to go wrong.

After being bought out, the club's new owner turned the team into a full-time outfit.  It didn't go well.  They dropped to 3rd from bottom of the Conference and went out of the FA Cup in the qualifying round.  The downturn was accompanied by fans staying away and lack of funds required the wage-bill to be halved,  Now doesn't that sound familiar!  A good run to the end of the season, preserved their conference status for the season, but Crawley were forced into administration.

A rescue package was made with the club within an hour of folding.  In the next season, 2006/07 the ship was steadied and Crawley, with their 10-point penalty just avoided relegation on the last day.   2007/08 saw Victor Marley take the position of Chairman at the club.  Marley has found significant investors in the form of Prospect Estate Holdings Ltd. and the financial worries were over.

Well not quite.  Another winding up order was served by HMRC in 2010 due to an allegedly unpaid tax bill.  There had been issues over taxes.  One of them resulting in the imprisonment of former chairman, Azwar Majeed for fraud.  

But this action proved to be an embarrassment for HMRC as the case was dismissed due to Crawley proving the bill had been paid and co-owner, Susan Carter, stating that the club's efforts to be honest and up front about their finances were not being helped by the Inland Revenue's inability to get their admin right.

Since then, double promotion from the conference to league 1 and we meet today!

So far this season, its a very symmetrical record for the red devils.  A 3:0 win against Scunthorpe on opening day, followed by being on the wrong end of the same scoreline on Tuesday.

The goals against Scunthorpe came from a set-piece free-kick, with Hope Akpan nodding down for Gary Alexander to tap in.  The second was Alexander again, this time from the spot after he was hauled down in the box and Jonathan Forte finished things off, latching onto a long ball and rounding the keeper.  

Against Swindon, the goals in the opposite direction were firstly a piece of luck when a cross from Matt Ritchie somehow looped over Paul Jones straight into the net.  The second was poor from a Crawley point of view.  After allowing Rafaelle De Vita to get the first header in the box, the ball should have been cleared.  It went instead to Tommy Miller to drive in.  The third goal again started with a bit of poor defending.  Ball-watching allowed Swindon to continue to press and after some patient build-up work, in came the cross.  Craig McFadzean got a head to the cross but only enough to help it on to De Vita who had an easy finish.

All in all, I though Crawley mainly rely on getting high balls into the box to score their goals, a tactic that would suit the Rovers, so today, I would think they will be trying play Jonathan Forte in behind the twin-towers.  Height and strength should not concern the Rovers defence at the moment, but pace could be terrifying for them.

At the back, I think Craig McFadzean and Gary Alexander will provide the hardest test for the Rovers' front-pairing to date.  It should be a fascinating contest of brains and brawn.

From when I first saw the fixture list, I saw this one as a test for the Rovers.  After reading a bit and watching a bit of Crawley, my opinion has not changed.

Enjoy the match everyone!

The Swiss 36 No. 7 Swissporarena - FC Luzern

FC Luzern v Grasshoppers Club Zürich

Beautiful Luzern

Lucerne is first of all much better spelt the German way rather than the English way so get used to the above spelling!  Its also one of my favourite cities in Switzerland.  The city itself is beautiful. Situated on a tip of one of the arms of Lake Lucerne, or as we prefer to call it, the Vierwaldstättersee.  So you have a lovely city, a gorgeous and huge lake surrounded by fabulous mountains.  What's not to like?

But can the football experience in Luzern match everything else the city has going for it?  Well frankly, yes it can.

The story of this Swiss 36 visit starts before the game with my wife looking to buy tickets.  She couldn't find any agents selling tickets online so she left a message on You Just Can't beat that.com asking how to get hold of tickets.  A reply came telling us that match-tickets were available on the day and recommending the best parts of the stadium for our visit.   How nice!

On the way, we were as ever in search of something to drink.  A bottle of original Fucking Hell seemed a good option.  I mean, you'd have to wouldn't you?  Sadly, we couldn't find the stuff in the store but rest assured., sampling this brew has now become a mission that I will undertake on behalf of pissheads everywhere.  I will report soon!

So we travelled from Zürich to Luzern with a combination of Feldshitschen premium (1st class Swiss shit) and some really sweet stuff that makes your teeth itch!

In Luzern a match-day bus, the first dedicated service we have found, takes you directly to the stadium taking about 10 minutes.

First impressions, well that doesn't look bad does it?  Theres some design expertise gone into that!  This post is starting to make me nervous as there is very little to complain about.  Time to be picky I think!

Luzern, what IS that colour all about?  Luzern play in a very nice Navy Blue kit so what's with the "Baby crap" yellow?  Its a very difficult colour to pull off.  My Skoda Estelle in the 80s completely failed, this stadium does better.  But its a bad colour.

Ticket purchase was as had been advised, no problem.  A wee bit expensive for Switzerland at 28 SFr (£18.50) for a place on the terrace behind a goal.  So, now time to test those security people.  

This time we'd done it.  Plastic cups that have not yet been refused entry, no glass bottles, not even plastic bottles.  Just two tetra-paks with ready mixed "orange juice" inside.

My security guy was happy and I was waved on after he'd throughly and politely checked my bag.  Unfortunately, Seona, my wife's security guard was just as polite but somewhat less tolerant of her very dangerous looking tetra-pak.  Its the inconsistency that drives you crazy.

Posh Concourse

So we had the now familiar ceremony of decanting  a 1 litre tetr-pak into two 0.5 litre plastic cups and having to carry them around, which is frankly a pain in the arse.

Next stop, fan shop.  Ouch!  our car pennant cost 14.90 SFr (£9.80).  Ragged, bagged and shagged once again on club souvenirs.

Inside the stadium and there's a posh concourse that runs all the way around the inside.  There's food bars and places to enjoy a beer all the way around too.  Very clean and really cool!

So what's it like to watch football?

No fences.  No athletic track just a net that stops the fans behind the goals getting a ball in the face, whilst preventing them from giving any player a beer in the face in return.  Its a very unobtrusive net too.  I can live with it.  I'd prefer it wasn't there but can understand why it is.

The stadium caters for 14500 seated fans with capacity for 3000 who prefer to stand behind one goal.  There also looks to be very good hospitality boxes for those who like to watch their football in style.

It all sets itself up nicely for a very enjoyable day!

During the match, we had probably the best reaction to the "strange English person" test. When the Grasshoppers 'keeper kicked out, we did the famous English chant "Yooooouuuuuurrrrrr SHIT!  Ha Ha Ha ha!"  The response - Laughter.  "Its English", I explained.  "I like it!" came the response.

Score time!

Getting There

9/10.  A match day bus service elevates Luzern above all scores so far.  A point was deducted because on the way back, we went to the place where the bus had left us.  Not quite correct, it picks-up a little closer to the stadium for the return journey.  Now if Luzern would indicate properly where the buses are to be found, they'd get the full mark.

Friendliness

 9/10.  Thanks you to "You can't beat that.com" for advising us well with regard to tickets.  They even offered to meet us on the day, but unfortunately we were at opposite corners of the standing area.  The point deducted is for inconsistent security.  

Safety

9/10.  The stadium is brand new, opened in 2011 so you'd expect it to be good, and it is.    The standing areas have crush barriers although I'd probably have a few more of them.  They are good to lean against and make for really safe standing spectator areas.  Other than that - no problem!

View

9/10.  You are not far from the action and there are no fences to either see over or through.  Just a slight complaint about the net.

Atmosphere

8/10.  First of all it was great to see nearly 16500 spectators in a 17500 capacity stadium.  A good, noisy kop.  They built the atmosphere well as the Luzern team was announced by being the only Swiss team that I have seen so far to adopt the German trick of shouting the players surname after the stadium announcer just says the christian name.  This was accompanied by a slow, rhythmic hand-clap throughout the announcement.  Quite effective.  There was some booing at half-time, which I thought was a bit harsh and the crowd seemed to run out of steam towards the end.  The scoreline wasn't helping though.

Refreshments

A PIE?  Could it b true?

7/10.  From my spot on the terrace, I could see this attractive advertising hoarding.  It couldn't be could it?  The PIE standard British Football fare at a Swiss match.  No, it couldn't be true.  On seeing what was on offer, I chose the only thing I didn't recognise in the hope it was a pie.  Sadly, a Schaublig is a Bockwurst, my least favourite sausage.  Oh well, so it's sausage, sausage sausage, hamburger, chips, a bretzel or a bun.  Not exactly inspiring and a shame since they have everything else so right.

Redeeming Feature

The Swissporarena doesn't need a redeeming feature as its a very good stadium.  If I was asked to state something, I'd say Luzern itself as its a great place!

Overall: 51/60 - Now that's what I'm talking about!

The Match

First of all congratulations to the match officials.  This game was played with the temperature at 38°C.  Sensibly, the referee was stopping the game every 15 minutes for one or two minutes to allow the players to take on some water.  I've never seen that done before and it did not detract from the game at all. 

The match was OK if a little too one-sided.  Grasshoppers took the lead after just 4 minutes, with a great strike from Steven Zuber.  Luzern simply did not close him down and his shot was perfectly placed.  It should have been 2:0 after 11 minutes when Toko Nzuzi was on the end of a cross from Ben Khalifa but miscued horribly. 

Grasshoppers were in control and in the first half, the home side simply made no impression.

After the break there was a slight improvement.  Luzern were holding te ball better but rarely getting out of midfield.  The game was over in the 79th minute.  Terrible marking from Luzern left Amir Abrashi in the middle of the penalty area, alone with a simple task of slotting the ball past David Zibung.  It was no more than the visitors and Luzern deserved,  Luzern finished the 90 minutes without a shot on goal.  They have dropped to 9th (out of 10) in the Super League table and for Luzern's board, it was enough.  Coach Murat Yakin was fired shortly after the game.

Keepmoat to Shake for the First Time

DONCASTER ROVERS

 - V - 

BURY

You know, I think Bury was my first ever away fixture.  I know, its not a typical first away fixture for a Rovers fan.  That would be Rotherham or Scunny.  But mine was Bury.  I remember very little about it other that Bury played in blue and we sat in the stand.  The major memory of the day was looking down on the Gigg Lane pitch having become used to Belle Vue.  

"Init small!", I said.

The mind plays funny tricks on you when you're a football fan.  I was convinced I witnessed a  0:0 draw back then.  When I look back, I see it could have only been the 1975 1st round FA Cup tie that Rovers lost 4:2.  Obviously I'd blanked it out.  Curse the internet!

DONCASTER ROVERS

The league 1 campaign kicked off for Donny with the best possible result.  In fact, its  their best opening day result for 29 years.  In 1983/84, Rovers opened with a 3:0 home win against Wrexham and, if you are one for omens, that season we went on to win promotion as runners-up in division 4.  For a season where we bettered that 3:0 scoreline, you actually have to go back to before I was born.  It was a 4:0 win over Lincoln 46 years ago.  That season we were promoted as champions.  So obviously the season is over!  Its clear what is going to happen.

Being about 800 miles away from the action and listening in, it not easy to gage how good/bad we were.  Walsall certainly had plenty of possession but were unable to break down the Rovers defence.  At the other end, it was another story as when we did attack Walsall, we had them in all sorts of problems.  In fact, we had them in some difficulties when we weren't attacking them, as David Cotterill's goal showed.  

It was announced on the commentary as being a 60 yarder.  On the Walsall commentary, they were talking about 40 yards.  C'Mon lads!  I'll give you a hand.  60 yards would mean the shot came from inside our own half on any pitch in the country.  40 yards is about level with the centre circle inside your opponents half.  It shouldn't be so difficult to distinguish between the two.  So lets have a look.

50 yards with the angle t is then!  Still, if all we argue about all season is whether goals are from 40 or 60 yards, long may we argue!

What was especially pleasing was to listen to the Walsall commentators speculating on what the result meant.  To them, Donny's intent in league 1 was quite clear and in 7 or 8 games time, they could be top of the league and unbeaten, in which case Walsall's result wouldn't seem so bad!  Nice to have them say such nice things about us.

The only negative?  We picked up 3 yellow cards.  Now we're a big side, which is unusual for us but at the moment, we have a small squad.  We could do with avoiding potential problems with suspensions toward the Christmas period.  It's a small point and hopefully, before the end of the month, more players will be in to make the suspensions issue less critical!

BURY

Welcome, Bury for your first visit to the Keepmoat.

Bury were promoted to League 1 as runners-up in 2010/11 and finished last season in 14th position.  60 goals were scored in their debut season, which is OK for mid-table, but 79 against, including shipping 4 goals on 6 occasions is not.

Ex-Rovers captain Adam Lockwood has been brought in to help bolster the defence.  Locky was a good servant for the Rovers and certainly has enough ability to hold his own in league one.  The only issue is his fitness, which let him down over his last two seasons with Donny.  If he is over those problems, then he is a good signing.  Partnering him?  Andrei Jones was given the shirt on Saturday but he is only 20 years-old.  I'm not sure caretaker Manager Peter Shirtliff will be keen to pit him against the experience of Chris Brown and Billy Paynter. 

At the other end of the pitch, the Gigg Lane Golden boot last season went to Andy Bishop, a Shakers veteran of over 200 appearance, with a very modest 8 league goals.  Rather tellingly, in second place came Ryan Lowe with 7 goals in 7 games.  Lowe had been a prolific scorer for Bury, scoring more than a goal every other game in his 90 appearances.  Unfortunately he was sold to Sheffield Wednesday early last season and it looks like Bury are still on the look out for his replacement.

To that end, Bury have brought in two young strikers, Lateef Elford-Alliyu, a Nigerian signed  from West Bromwich and Mark Cullen, on loan from Hull. 

So far this season the Shakers just lost out to Middlesbrough by the odd goal in 3 in the Capital One Cup before earning a point with a goaless draw at home to Brentford.

Looking around the t'interweb, it looks like a draw against Brentford was the right result and on Bury's forum boards, probably the best places to get summaries of games in League 1, they were certainly happy enough.  The main concern I picked up in the best of the reports that I found was concern over a static, flat back 4 and a lack of width when attacking.

According to the bookies, Bury may well have their work cut out this season and  I agree that things could prove difficult.  There are some good, experienced players in the squad, especially in midfield, but a lack of cutting edge and a defence with a potential to leak could make this a long season.

Donny Saddle up for the First Day

WALSALL

 - V -

DONCASTER ROVERS

I have nothing but happy memories of my time there. There are loads of nice people there but I have moved on and I am at Walsall now. - Walsall Assistant Manager, Richard O'Kelly

Football has always had the knack of producing stories that lie behind the matches and its been no exception at the start of this season for Donny.  After releagation we face the team of ex-assistant manager, Richard O'Kelly.  Also, had events in Nottingham not changed things, we would be facing Sean O'Driscoll in our third game.  What are the chances?  Well about 1.2% as it happens so were Rovers to have a chance of facing their ex-two-man managerial team in the first three games of every season, you'd expect it to happen once every 84 years!  Now I bet you're all glad I explained that!

In any case, its good to see Richard conducting himself in the same dignified manner over the departure as Sean, not that I expected anything else.  Certainly two of the gentlemen of football.

WALSALL

Dean Holden - Confident

The Popular Stand Guide to Walsall

When we go to the so-called bigger teams, with the way we move the ball and keep it, there will be a lot of pressure from their own fans and I’m sure that’s where we can exploit them - Saddlers defender, Dean Holden

That sounds like a bit of confidence from Dean and there are tones of good possesion football too.  Could we have expected anything else?

Walsall finished a disappointing 19th last season.  After dropping drown the league quite alarmingly at first .  But the ship was steadied in October and Walsall managed to keep out of the relegation places all season,  in the end finishing a reasonably comfortable 7 points clear of trouble.

Over the summer the Saddlers have been busy on the transfer market with 13 players leaving the Banks stadium and 9 arriving, including James Baxendale, who was with the Rovers last season.  

Perhaps unsurprisingly with the ROK connection, Hereford have been raided with big defender Ben Purkiss and midfielder, Nicky Featherstone coming from the Bulls.  Along with Purkiss, Dean Holden brings new and extensive experience to the squad.

In the Capital One cup, Walsall went through coutesy of a debut goal from Ashley Hemmings against Brentford.  Hemmings joined from Wolves after spending last season on loan at Cheltenham, Torquay and Plymouth. 

With ROK now installed as a permanent No.2 to Dean Smith, I see Walsall improving a little on last season.  I'd expect them to be mid-table.

....and from the Walsall perspective.

DONCASTER ROVERS 

Last weekend, the Rovers toiled to squeeze past York City in the Capital One Cup.  Chris Brown levelled from the penalty spot after a screamer from Michael Coulson had given the Minster-men the lead.  The deadlock remained through extra-time before Rovers converted 4 penalties from four to final end York's resistance.

Squeezing through on penalties against a side from the  division below isn't good enough but that is a statement of fact rather than fairness.  Donny named 4 of the seven substitutes they were allowed.  If ever there was a demonstration of how threadbare the squad is, that was it.  

A football squad is always a work in progress, a lesson that the Rovers board have now hopefully taken on board.  But I think at the moment, its fair to say that Dean Saunders has a project that is still not far from its very begining thanks in part to our dabbling in a transfer policy that would inevitably result in a squad lacking players should we end up being relegated.  One of my reasons for being vehermently opposed to the scheme.

But all that is now in the past and we are seeing a squad come together.  After saying goodbye to another outstanding professional in Brian Stock, recruitment has continued.

Billy Paynter - Signing of the season?

Billy Paynter is as good a player as we are going to sign in our current situation.  Yes, he had a nightmare at Leeds but I even noticed a non-Leeds fan pointing out on a forum that 14 of the 29 goals that he scored for Swindon in 2009/10 came from the penalty spot.  When footballers are down, it sometimes becomes "in vogue" to kick them a bit so I will set the record a little straighter.   I'll start by mentioning the additional 20 goals that strike-partner Charlie Austin netted that season with Billy partnering him up front.  He's also worked very effectively with other strikers, scoring 11 goals while Simon Cox netted 29 times for the Robins in 2008/09.  And besides, isn't a consistent penalty-taker also an asset?  

If he gets over his Leeds woes, Paynter could be the signing of the season in League 1 and I say this to his knockers.  They should take a look at what he's achieved at other clubs and not concentrate on what has happened at Leeds, who are at the moment, a very unsettled club due to their chairman's influence.

Then we have Jamie McCoombe, another player who looks a very useful signing at this level. Clicking around for information on him, I came across a forum article on a Bristol City forum about him scoring with an overhead kick.  Not the sort of thing you expect from a 6'5" centre-back!  Oh I don't know.  I remember one Elliott Ward doing something like that for us a couple of years ago!  

In any case, McCoombe comes with over 170 appearances in League 1 and the championship, 20 of them coming last season for Huddersfield, who were of course promoted via the play-offs.  With Jamie at 6'5" and Rob Jones at 6'7", do Rovers now have potentially the tallest centre-back partnership in the league?  Its probably the tallest centre-bck partnership they've ever had!

Finally, another welcome wadge of experience comes in the form of ex-Reading and Hull City midfielder James Harper.  He's another important signing with the loss of Stocky and with the sharks starting to circle James Coppinger.  On googling Harper, I found a link etitled "The Greatest Goal I ever saw: James Harper v Liverpool".  I checked it out and it was OK but not so amazing.  Still, its a good combination of word to be associated with a Rovers player.  Other forum entries weren't so complimentary, particularly thse remembering him signing for Hungerford Town.  We will see. 

So good new signings and a defence that is starting to look robust to say the least.  What is this new feeling I'm getting?  Could it be optimism? 

No!  We'll have no soppy talk like that!  But we will say that I am slowly getting more interested in how this season turns out.  And I would also say, as more signings are muted to be on the horizon, early-season could be a good time to be playing the Rovers.

The Swiss 36 No. 6 Stade Olympique de la Pontaise - FC Lausanne Sport

FC Lausanne Sport v FC Sion 

With the success of London 2012 slowly coming to an end, what could be more appropriate than a visit to the Olympic Stadium in Lausanne to continue our review of Swiss football stadia?  The Olympics were held in Lausanne in....well I can't remember precisely when at the moment but they have an olympic stadium so I guess they must have been!

Of course, Lausanne is the home of the International Olympic Committee.  The city proudly announces itself as "Capitale Olympique" just outside the main station.  I guess then that makes Zürich the "Capital of Football" as FIFA's HQ is based there?  Perhaps not!

Lausanne is the fifth-largest city in Switzerland and sits on the North Bank of lake Geneva.  The country around it is beautiful (it's Switzerland) but after visiting a year or so ago, I've never really been a fan of the city.  That is probably unfair.  On the visit my good lady wife had to use a particularly disgusting toilet and I think that coloured the day.  Certainly, I would say looking out of the bus window on our way to the ground, it looked nice enough.

Hard-earned Olympic Rings

That brings me neatly on to travel to the ground.  Its no problem.  A No. 1 bus takes you from the main train station directly to the stadium.  We were hardly waiting at all for buses and the journey takes about 20 minutes.  

Those hard-earned Olympic Rings make the stadium look impressive from the front gate, but unfortunately this is where my good instant impression ended.

It wasn't helped by the most anally-retentive security on entering the ground that I have thus far experienced, and I was at the Zürich Derby, remember!

"Das ist verboten!, Das ist verboten!" chanted the security guard as he went through my rucksack.  I was really given a recollection of Douglas Adams' wonderful Vogons.  "Resistance is Useless!"  He had taken offence to an empty glass bottle that I had forgotten to throw away (fair enough), a small, plastic water-bottle and an orange-juice carton.  Obviously, there's serious damage that can be caused with an orange-juice carton!

Now the silly bit (and I have come across this before).  The contents of the carton and the water-bottle are not verboten so I was given two, half-litre plastic beakers in which to decant them.  Now, the empty glass bottle was a vodka bottle so the liquid in the water bottle was not the Evian water indicated.  I'd deliberately poured the vodka into the Evian bottle so as not to have problems with a glass bottle in the stadium.  The problem  now was that I had

• One extremely strong vodka and orange in the beaker from which I was planning to drink vodka orange during the match
• About 400 ml of vodka in an open plastic beaker 
• Half a litre of orange juice in another open plastic beaker
• An empty glass vodka bottle (still)
• An empty orange juice carton (still)
• An empty Evian bottle (still).

Drab, concrete montrosity

You see, you can put closed plastic bottles and cartons in bags.  Open plastic beakers, sadly don't work that way.

Fortunately though, my security guard did not insist that I drink the contents of my beaker.  I would have been totally rat-arsed had they done so!  My wife's security guard did make this demand of her - so her similarity to the Murodian anal state was accelerated!

Security-negotiated we had our first look at the stadium within the gates.  My first analogy was that it looked like Nazi architecture.  I have since revised that.  I've seen Nazi architecture in Berlin and Nuremburg, the Nazis were actually pretty serious about their architecture, wanting to look grandious and powerful.  This was communist architecture.  A great, ugly concrete monstrosity.

Sion - Champions League Winners 1997

On our walk around we noticed some interesting things though.  

Sion's team bus for instance that commemorates their past glories.  Swiss league titles, Swiss cup wins, their champions league win.  Champions League win?  Yes, there it was, in 1997.  Remember it? It was when Lausanne held the Olympics!

A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,V,8...X, Y, Z?

We then found a worrying example of Swiss education standards as we tried to find our seats. Gate J, K, L, M, V....V?  Carry on walking around it will all explain itself.  The next gate was gate 8 (obviously) which happened to be ours!

Once inside the stadium, things did improve  The stadium is much nicer inside than it is outside, although as it name suggests, you do have an 8-lane running track plus all the additional space for athletic field events between you and the pitch.  I've seen much worse though. 

Score time!

Getting There

8/10.  No problem at all.  The stadium quite a distance from the main station in Lausanne so it takes about 20 minutes on the bus.  But the buses are regular and stop right outside.

Friendliness

What charming people some Sion fans are! 

2/10.  Harsh?  Well the security leaving me with that dangerous orange juice carton and no means of disposal didn't help.  My wife didn't appreciate being forced to get pissed.  She prefers to do that in her own good time so she also wasn't happy.  Then we had the experience of being ragged, bagged and shagged in Lausanne's merchandising stall.  Two Lausanne crests to hang in cars at 12 SFr each (about £8.50)!  Looking across at the Sion fans at the other end of the stadium we saw these charming banners!  Security - this is what you should be confiscating as there is no place for this kind of fan-provocation in football.

OK - we had no problems at all sitting in the Lausanne kop.  In fact we were barely acknowledged.

Safety

Fences where we were but not in the neighbouring stand - strange

4/10.  Fences again although there is some kind of prejudice regarding where the fences are.  The home kop get those high fences that bend over at the top; away fans get the same, plus netting all around them.  The rest of the fans look to be behind a perimeter fence of a much more sensible and safe height.  I'm not sure of the logic of that but am sure all the fences are completely unnecessary.

The stadium is an all-seater meaning that the terracing steps are quite high.  In the kop, the seats are very basic plastic seats with no back, resulting in many fans choosing to stand.  You then have that combination of relatively high terrace steps, standing fans and no crush barriers. 

Security, as I've said was over-done on entry but barely noticeable once in your seat.

Bearing in mind what we experienced, you have to wonder how it is that we bought our tickets and chose our seat, right in the middle of the Lausanne kop, from miles away in Winterthur.  Could Sion fans have purchased the same seats?  I'm sure they could.  So again we have a contradiction in the security activities.  Bags are being searched and ridiculously benign things are being removed and yet nothing prevents fans mixing within the stadium.

Its an OK view - as long as you stand.

View

6/10.  Difficult to mark in a way.  The stadium is an all-seater but as I have indicated, in our area the preference was to stand.  So if you are seated, you see very little.  Stand up and it was OK.  There was that athletics track that puts too much distance between the fans and the pitch but the view is OK.

Atmosphere

8/10.  The best atmosphere yet without Winterthur fans being involved so well done FC Lausanne and their fans.  The club, unlike others I have encountered, are smart enough to realise that if you are only going to half-fill a stadium (there were 8750 in attendance), then the atmosphere is improved if half the ground is closed.  Two large areas at either end of the stadium were completely empty, meaning the rest was quite full, so concentrating noise.  And speaking of noise, the FC Lausanne kop did not stop singing and chanting throughout the game, apart from two 20 second spells of incredulous silence when the Sion goals went in!  Great effort Lausanne!

Refreshments

5/10.  Feldschlösschen beer, which I don't particularly like and didn't sample so I cannot tell you a price.  On my search for something at half-time, I found a pizza restaurant inside the ground.  Unfortunately, it did not look like they were serving pizza to take-away, though I could have been mistaken so I settled for a sausage and bread,  3 different sausages were available but I didn't see much else apart from chips.  The score would have been better had I found the illusive pizza.

Another great setting for a stadium.

Redeeming Feature

Once again, one of those great Swiss backdrops for the stadium.

Overall 33/60

The Match

It was OK.  To start with FC Sion were in total control and when Kyle Lafferty's cross was headed in by Vilmos Vanczak on 12 minutes, it was no more than they deserved.  Lausanne did rally though and had two very presentable chances before half time.  Really they should have been level but for poor finishing.

In the second, Sion gradually regained the control that they had had in the first 20 minutes.  For the second goal, they broke through the Lausanne defence on a counter-attack and Xavier Margairaz finished well with a low shot on 84 minutes.

As a final word, I thought FC Lausanne's reaction to the fans at the end of the game was pretty poor.  Six of them managed to walk over to a spot just inside the half of the pitch at the kop end.  This to acknowledge home support that had backed them vocally from start to finish.  They may even have come within 50 yards of the kop!  What a shame that some sportsmen are not able to properly acknowledge those people who put them where they are.