Rain has certainly been a feature of the last couple of days. On Friday it came down mostly continuously, while today, Saturday, offered more of the ‘heavy shower’ pattern — as with what came over about 13 minutes into Halifax v Brackley, and a couple more times during the game, too. At least football is a sport (unlike tennis and cricket, say) which plays on through this kind of thing.
Two minutes to go before kick-off and someone, somewhere lets off a flare to add to the atmosphere. The two guys in the centre look pretty tense about it all. And considering their team are about to concede three soft goals in the first 12 minutes of the game that is to come, they were justified — not that they knew that at this point. Final score, Oldham Athletic 4, Halifax Town 0. This lot all go home now and wait for next season.
Joe and I made one of our occasional trips to the Shay today to see Halifax v. Woking. Had never previously seen Halifax lose a match in 12 games spread over the last 18 years or so, but today they lived up to their league position and were comprehensively stuffed 3-0. Hence, the title of this post is somewhat ironic. Perhaps they would have done better had the furry bloke at the back been on from the start.
Halifax Town’s number 7 trots over to do his duty, while the substitutes of Aldershot Town look on. The home team (that is, Halifax) won 1-0. I’ve been to quite a few football matches during the course of this blog and don’t think I’ve ever managed a decent action shot — it’s not an easy genre of photography to master, particularly not when you’re up in the stands and limited to a single vantage point. This one isn’t an ‘action’ shot at all of course, but I kind of like it for its feel of being a pause, a moment of transition between one bit of the game and another.
With no top- or second-level football matches on in England today because of the international games, fans were encouraged to go and support their local lower-division teams through an initiative known as ‘Non-League Day’ — whether this added much to the crowd at my local non-league team, Halifax Town, I cannot tell but it did get Joe & I down there. They enjoyed a 2-1 win over Barnet FC.
Interest was added for the neutrals by the appearance on the touchline of Barnet’s manager, Edgar Davids, who played 74 times for the Netherlands, mostly in his trademark glasses; having graced World Cup Finals he now plies his trade in the fifth tier of English football, which I find amazing really, as if Wayne Rooney were to end his career coaching in the Dutch third division. But here he is, giving advice with his assistant; Barnet were 2-0 down at this point and on their way to a first defeat of the season.
Being 42 