Well, Leeds didn’t beat Kettering as I was ‘convinced’ they would. Don’t blame Saint Simon Grayson though – even God makes mistakes.
At least Leeds didn’t lose and have another chance against the butchers and bakers, when they replay at The Church of Saint Grayson – Elland Road.
The winners of this tie will precede into the 3rd Round, where they will meet one of the minnows of the FA Cup, Manchester United.
Yesterday afternoon, Bath City’s FA Cup dream was shattered after being beaten 2-1 by Forest Green Rovers. Over 3,000 fans packed into Twerton Park, the queue at the turnstiles stretching down the high street. It was like being in the Football League.
I don’t think the performance was as good as that of the Grimsby game. The spirit was not there. Saying that, the City players performed very well and bowed out gracefully. Still disappointed a day on, but we now have to look to the league.
My other team, Leeds United, are still in the cup and play their game this afternoon (as I type, they kick off in 25 minutes). Their match against non-league Kettering Town is televised, which will bring back memories of the defeat to Histon last season, where the Not-so Mighty Whites lost to a goal scored by a postman (remember this).
With his holiness, Saint Simon Grayson in charge, Leeds are a different team this season, who I am convinced will win, no matter how many butchers, bakers and candlestick makers Kettering may have in their ranks.
After a series of nagging emails, begging letters and even death threats, I have finally persuaded my landlord to fit a new fan to my bathroom.
The old fan was about as powerful as the battery powered, handheld ones you buy from the pound shop.
I haven’t had time to test the new one, but am hoping it will improve ventilation and reduce condensation, which has been causing mould to build upon the wall. If not, it’s time for another upgrade – the ones used on the engines of the Boeing 747 look sufficient…
Looks like yesterday’s blog nearly jinxed the Leeds result tonight!
As was explained yesterday, though, Simon Grayson is the God of football, so it was never a doubt Leeds would win.
I’ve just realised what John and Edward’s final X Factor performance reminded me of!
Here are the Irish lads in the sing off…
Which bares many similarities to this…
(Sorry, I couldn’t find the original video clip!)
Most of my readers who know me personally will have heard already, so this blog will contain about as much ‘breaking news’ as a report on the sinking of the Titanic or the death of Princess Diana.
At the start of next year, I am leaving my current employer to join another local IT department (in fact it’s about 10 minutes closer to my flat, cutting my journey time by over fifty percent).
Due to the move, I have already (jokingly) been compared to football Judases, Joleon Lescott and Gareth Barry. A tad unfair, seeing as my job change is all about career progression, and is a massivly positive move for me, where as there’s was simply for ££££.
Like a Premiership football player, however, I have been tempted to kiss the badge of my current employer and commit my career to them… before leaving two weeks later.
Those readers of my blog who take interest in the football related posts, may remember last December, when I blogged on the news that Leeds United were about to poach Blackpool’s manager, Simon Grayson.
At the time, I was very excited about this and highly optimistic about the success Mr. Grayson would bring to Leeds. 11 months on, and while failing in the play offs at the end of last season, ‘Larry’ has been nothing short of suburb.
Leeds currently sit top of League One. 6 points clear of second place Charlton and 9 points ahead of Huddersfield, who are third in the dreaded play off positions. Leeds even have a game in hand on these two teams.
The season so far has been more or less perfect – a statement that every Leeds fan will no doubt agree upon, yet will have not have been able to make for a long time. There was the disappointing defeat to Millwall, a slight hiccup against Carlisle, Charlton and Southend (which resulted in 3 draws) and, of course, the Carling Cup exit to Liverpool. Besides that, Leeds have won every single one of their games and are scoring for fun – their four most recent results being 4-0, 4-0, 3-0 and 3-0.
Every week seems to be a turning point in the ever improving season. Take this weekend – Leeds away to Brighton at Withdean Stadium. Despite being a much smaller club in terms of fanbase and history, Brighton have caused Leeds a lot of problems in recent years, especially at their home ground. With a resurgence of form under new manager and ex-Leeds coach, Gus Poyet, Brighton looked good and I had my worries. Therefore, at 4pm on Saturday, I was delighted to see Leeds were winning 2-0. I was even more happy an hour later to see the fulltime score of 3-0.
There is a long way to go until the end of the season and nothing should be taken for granted, but surely only a collapse of truly mammoth proportions will see Leeds not earn promotion to The Championship.
Who is responsible for all this success? Sure, it’s a team effort and the players are playing some excellent football, week in, week out; but the change in attitude and fortunes these last 11 months can only be down to one man – Simon Grayson.
To quote another Leeds fan, it has taken 10 years, but we finally have a decent manager.
Saying all this, we’ll probably lose to Leyton Orient tomorrow night!
and Grayson said, ‘let there be goals’; and there were goals
and Grayson saw the goals, and saw that they were good
and Grayson said, ‘let there be defence’; and there was defence
and Grayson saw very few goals conceded, and saw that this was good
and Grayson said ‘let there be promotion’; and …… (to be continued in May)
I came across this rather troubling story on the BBC website about a spider smuggler.
After some Googling, I found the offender’s online shop. My findings were even more disturbing than the news story itself. Apparently, you can order spiders and other creepy crawlies off the internet – they arrive in the post, courtesy of the Royal Mail!
Before any of you get any ideas, I will not be opening, or signing for, any unsuspected packages in the post – especially those marked ‘FRAGILE’. Any boxes that arrive at my flat will be treated as a terrorist attack, giving me no choice but to call the bomb disposal unit.
Yesterday was truly amazing. Heaving myself from the warmth of my bed in the early hours, before leaving Twerton Park at the hideous time of 7am to make a 9-hour round trip to North Lincolnshire, was more than worth it.
It was the FA Cup. Bath City from the Blue Square South against Grimsby Town, a professional outfit, two divisions higher in the football pyramid. A Grimsby win was inevitable, surely. But this is the FA Cup.
We arrived at Grimsby in the early afternoon after a long journey. After visiting a local fish & chip shop and pub, we made our way into the Blundell Park stadium, where we would witness one of the greatest games in Bath City’s history.
With the home side struggling in the league, talk of a cup upset by City had been rife for the last two weeks. Our faith was rewarded in the 1st half when defender Chris Holland headed in a well-delivered free kick to take the lead.
Holland had previously been 16/1 to score the first goal with many online bookmakers. With ‘Dutch’ being a regular scorer in league games, I was tempted to chuck a tenner on such an outcome, but chickened out for fear of jinxing the result or losing my money. Wish I had placed the bet now.
As the travelling 260 fans outsung the home crowd, City outplayed the home team and it wasn’t long into the second half when they scored again making it 2-0 – an outstanding goal from Darren Edwards.
There is not a word in the English language to describe the feeling I experienced when I saw the ball hit the back of the net. Ecstasy, elation, joy – none of these even come close.
After a nervy final few minutes, the referee blew for full time. Bath City had done it. They had beaten a football league team. A team comprised of fulltime, highly paid professionals. As the home fans left in the drones, booing and jeering their players, the travelling army celebrated in their masses with the players. It was a truly wonderful moment.
The long journey home seemed to fly by. I guess that’s what joy and adrenaline does to you. I finally made it home at 10pm – over 17 hours after I got out of bed. Still, I was able to summon enough energy to watch the highlights on ITV and enjoy a celebratory drink.
This afternoon I went to the Bath City clubhouse at Twerton Park. There we watched the DVD of yesterday’s game, reminisced about the match and congratulated some of the players who popped along. Then, in front of the BBC News cameras, we watched the FA Cup 2nd Round Draw live on television.
Dreams of Leeds, Norwich and Southampton away were high in most fans’ minds. Therefore, it was a little deflating when we were given a home tie against either Forest Green Rovers or Mansfield. Not the money-spinning tie I was hoping for, but a winnable game. Victory in the next round, however, will pave the path to the real big boys – Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal.
