Bacup (29-08-2015)

Bacup Borough 4 - 2 Northwich Manchester Villa (NWCFL), Saturday 29th August 2015

Train (Sheffield-Todmorden) = £15
Entry = £6
Programme = £2
Tea = £1
Water = £1-69
Total = £25-69

I can't believe it's now less than a week since watching South Melbourne FC! We are slowly getting back into the routine after our honeymoon 'Down Under', and today's game at Bacup represented my first competitive fixture in the UK this season. Bacup is in Lancashire, but I decided to travel via Leeds and Todmorden, which is about 5-6 miles away. After some careful scrutinising of OS maps, I identified a route across Todmorden Moor, which provided a scenic and stunning backdrop to a late summer walk. Having crossed the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary, I arrived at the ground at 2.45, and parted with £6 for entry and £2 for a programme. The ground was very sparsely populated, and seemed to be crumbling around the edges, with some sections fenced off. Nonetheless, there was a rather impressive stone wall around the perimeter, which showed the ground to be rough and robust in equal measure.

In their 'zebra' kit, Bacup made an immediate impact on 7 minutes, with Wager smashing into the top corner to make it 1-0. This was after the Northwich manager had been screaming 'pick up that number 5', which just shows the importance of listening to the bench. They were the better team, but Northwich somehow equalised when Milo Edwards - who resembled the Brazilian Socrates - wriggled free on the right of the box, and leathered the ball into the top corner. As the game wore on, crunching tackles started flying in and raucous battle began developing in midfield. First the Northwich number 8 was booked for a late challenge in his own half, and in an incident at the other end, the away attackers squared up to the goalkeeper. Bacup were still marginally the better team, and came close again when an unnumbered player on the right had a fine shot tipped away. Bizarrely Northwich then nearly took the lead when a cross from their right-back took a wicked dip, and came a couple of inches away from dropping inside the post.

The second half was packed full of incidents and goals. Kevin Trippier made it 2-1 to the home side after a speedy move from the right, before Barlow's far post header made it 3-1. There was then an angry exchange of words between the Northwich 6 and the home side's 9, who each clearly felt aggrieved about something. When the referee pulled them to one side, they acted like a couple of drama queens, angrily pointing at the other. The incident ended with the Northwich player head-butting his opponent - stupidly in front of the ref! - and getting a red card in the process. The game was halted for about 5 minutes while tempers flared and verbals unpleasantries were exchanged. There was actually a decent game in progress here, and O'Connor's low cross was turned in by Ben Boyne to make it 4-1. Northwich did salvage a further consolation, when a bullet header from 5 found the top corner, but it was too little too late. As I made my way out of the ground and up onto the track over the moor, I could hear more angry voices on the pitch below. Clearly some people had come to today's game determined to start a fight. I didn't have time to watch the ensuing handbags, and the voices became more distant as I made the climb up and over into Yorkshire.

South Melbourne (23-08-2015)

South Melbourne 3 - 0 Northcote City, National Premier Leagues Victoria (Sunday 23rd August 2015)

Ticket = AUS$19-30 (£10 approx.)
Water = AUS$3-50 (£1-75 approx.)
Total = £11-75 approx.

So I've finally made an honest woman of Mrs Groundhopper, and we've spent 3 weeks on honeymoon in Australia. I manage to sniff out a game almost anywhere, and managed to find this final game of the season in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. The added intrigue was twofold - South Melbourne actually played in the inaugural Club World Championship in the same group as Manchester United in 2000, and today they could win the league ahead of Bentleigh Greens.

The NPL Victoria league sits below the A-league, and is one of several regional leagues in Australia. The winners do not automatically gain promotion to the A-league, and in this respect the set-up resembles the previous set-up in Scotland (where there was previously no progression route for non-league teams). The league has 14 teams, including such wonderfully named teams as Dandenong Thunder, Werribee City and North Geelong.

The game was in an ideal location, being played at the Lakeside Stadium, which is about a half an hour walk from the city centre. The stadium is a multi-purpose stadium - clearly used for athletics amongst other things - located in Albert Park, which has several rugby pitches, a golf course and a lake. As I approached the stadium, the sky was clear, the sun was bright, and the paths were full of runners and dog-walkers. And this was winter in Melbourne!

After having my TicketMaster 'e-ticket' scanned at the entry gates, I surveyed the ground and sat down at the top left of the main stand. As expected there was only one stand open, and the pitch was bounded by a blue athletics track. There was a smaller stand opposite, with a white ziz-zagging roof - it reminded me of the design of the academy stadium at Manchester City. The scene was completed with Melbourne's impressive Central Business District towering in the background. There were maybe a few hundred, maybe a thousand, spectators in the stand, and a loud group of supporters near me started to build the noise as kick-off approached.

South Melbourne were clearly favourites today. Milos Lujic fired an early shot wide, before making it 1-0 on 27 minutes with a close-range effort (following a smart backheel from Minopoulos). Northcote's Calvin Mbarga was a real handful for the home side, and offered some hope that the away side might spring a shock today. They did have the odd chance, but couldn't quite convert - Obradovic's volley flew wide, and Kalifatidis' header was well-saved. South Melbourne settled a few nerves when they made it 2-0 with Lujic's 38th minute header. That was a very handy time to score again. They then very nearly made it 3 when a free-kick flew just over on the cusp of half-time.

At half-time, I found the gents, and have to say they were the most sweet-smelling toilets I've ever been to at a game! The weather was still hot and I enjoyed basking a little in the sun before the second-half got underway. Lujic was again at the centre of the action, firing over from close range. Then on 62 minutes Brad Norton hit a looping cross-cum-shot in from the left, and somehow it curved into the net. I'm not sure if it was deliberate but the home fans were not complaining. As the chant went, 'the championship we're gonna win...'

Northcote's first chance of the second period came when Mbarga couldn't quite direct his flicked header on target. There was a bizarre incident when the home keeper - Nikola Roganovic - handled ball outside the area, but for some reason escaped punishment. He made up for this later when he pulled off a terrific double save 10 minutes later. After this the game was all South Melbourne, with Lujic missing an excellent chance for a hat-trick, and Minopoulos having a goal disallowed for offside.The result meant that South Melbourne won the league on 58 points, pipping Bentleigh Greens on goal difference. The celebrations were a little muted, and several fans left on the final whistle. The group of chanting fans I'd sat near were delighted, and showed how much this meant when the trophy was lifted.

The standard of the game was tricky to assess in comparison to English football. The formation and shape of both sides was far better than your average Evostik side in the UK, but there were times when the game lacked a little pace and quality. Technically, I've seen comparable players in non-league games in England. I'd say that at best it was at League Two standard, and at worst it was probably Evostik Division 1.

The game represented the end of our Australian adventure, and the end of a fantastic holiday. This was also a beginning, the start of something new and exciting. 2015-16 has started!