WFFW6 DAY THREE

20/04/2013 by borderroamer

Rochester Castle

DAY THREE: The walk began this morning at Strood station in Kent. Today’s section of the 43-mile route went for about nine miles. A nice section of it was along the River Medway and past Rochester as far as Gillingham, where AFC Wimbledon played Gillingham FC at Priestlands at 3pm. The match ended in a 2-2 draw. I was leaving just as the Dons scored the vital equaliser. Now it’s down to the wire next Saturday at Kingsmeadow if we are to avoid relegation back to the non-league Conference. The Gills took the League 2 title and are promoted to division one (the old division 3) next season.

Gillingham v AFC Wimbledon

My chosen charity apart from the AFCW Community fund is Diabetes UK and details of how to donate can be found in my JustGiving page or click the Sponsor me button at the top of the page. Or Text WFFW67 £5 to 70070 on your mobile. Thank you for your sponsorship. Michael Fisher, Belfast Lions Club.

WFFW6 DAY TWO

19/04/2013 by borderroamer

DAY TWO: The walk began this morning at Petts Wood station near Croydon. Today’s section of the 43-mile route goes for about fifteen miles as far as Erith. My chosen charity apart from the AFCW Community fund is Diabetes UK and details of how to donate can be found in my JustGiving page or click the Sponsor me button at the top of the page. Or Text WFFW67 £5 to 70070 on your mobile.

WFFW6 STARTS

18/04/2013 by borderroamer

DAY ONE: The walk began this morning in South West London. The main group started off from the AFC Wimbledon stadium at Kingsmeadow at 9am. I started two miles along the route at Malden Manor station so that I would not delay their start and was able to catch up with them at a convenient location near the Hogsmill River. Today’s section of the 43-mile route goes for about nineteen miles as far as Whytleafe where there are a number of hills. My chosen charity apart from the AFCW Community fund is Diabetes UK and details of how to donate can be found in my JustGiving page or click the Sponsor me button at the top of the page. Or Text WFFW67 £5 to 70070 on your mobile.

WALK FOR WIMBLEDON 6

17/04/2013 by borderroamer

WFFW5 at Barnet April 2012

Setting off tomorrow (Thursday) on a fundraising 40+ miles walk in the greater London area. It’s called Walk Further for Wimbledon 6 as it is the sixth year such a trek has been undertaken. For me, it is my third year of involvement, having started in April 2011. The idea is to raise funds for our supporter-owned football club AFC Wimbledon and a charity of the walker’s choice. This time any funds for the soccer club will be channelled into a new Community Fund.

My choice of a separate charity is Diabetes UK (NI) via Belfast Lions Club. In February the Club heard from a representative of the group at its monthly meeting in the Wellington Park Hotel. Nearly 76,000 people in Northern Ireland have a health problem related to diabetes. If you wish to make a donation, please do so through my JustGiving page and if you are a UK taxpayer you can add Gift Aid automatically.

WFFW5 leaving Kingsmeadow

I am flying from Belfast International early in the morning and hoped to join the group of walkers about two miles into the walk near Malden Manor station. They will be setting off from the AFC Wimbledon ground at Kingsmeadow, Norbiton but I will not be able to join them in time for a 9am start, so will pick up the trail about half an hour later, as I did at the O2 in Greenwich two years ago.

Some of the walk is along the London Loop, part of which we walked last year on the way to the match at Underhill in Barnet. This year’s destination is Gillingham FC. A full house of around 11,500 is expected at Priestfield, including 1133 Dons’ fans. Gillingham have already won the title but AFC Wimbledon are dangerously close to the relegation zone as their first season (back) in the Football League comes to an end, with only this game and one home game on Saturday week remaining. Last year I raised £442 and £72 Gift Aid for the Lions International Korle Bu eyesight project in Ghana and I would like to thank once again those who donated so generously. In 2011 my participation in the same walk (which took me past HMS Belfast on the River Thames) raised over £200 for another charity supported by Lions, St Dunstan’s, now known as Blind Veterans UK.

WFFW4 at Kingsmeadow 2011

DAY ONE of the walk (Thursday) is the longest section from Kingsmeadow to Whyteleafe, around 19 miles, ending with a hilly section around Kenley airfield. Created by dwarfer77

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 1 19.2 miles / 30.9 km

DAY TWO begins at Pett’s Wood station and covers 15 miles as far as Erith, near Dartford.

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 2 15.4 miles / 24.8 km

DAY THREE will see the group walking 9 miles from Strood alongside the River Thames via Rochester to the Priestfield stadium of Gillingham FC. Follow it here:

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 3 9.2 miles / 14.8 km

DONATE HERE: http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-FisherAFCW

MONAGHAN GO UP!

07/04/2013 by borderroamer

Dick Clerkin: A Helping Hand

Monaghan 3-16 Antrim 0-13

This was a convincing performance by Monaghan at St Tiarnach’s Park in Clones, which earned the Farneymen promotion to division two of the Allianz National Football League next season. But they were up against an Antrim side which at times lacked in conviction and was too reliant on Paddy Cunningham. The Lámh Dhearg man scored eight of their points, half of them from frees.

The visitors had a great chance in the first minute, but Cunningham’s shot at goal from close range was blocked by an effective Monaghan defence. The ball was cleared up the field and a pass found Christopher McGuinness in the perfect spot to rattle the Antrim net, giving substitute keeper Chris Kerr little chance.

Job well done

Monaghan added two points in the next four minutes, then Cunningham got the first of his frees, making it 1-2 to 0-1. Both sides exchanged further scores then Monaghan started to apply the pressure, adding four points, one of them a beautifully taken one from long range by Dick Clerkin. Two more Cunningham frees for the visitors had made it 1-7 to 0-03 after 25 minutes, when Antrim got their first score from play through Michael Pollock, then each side added a further point. Then with the break approaching Kieran Hughes scored Monaghan’s second goal, 2-8 to 0-5. Cunningham and Paul Finlay for Monaghan were both on target with frees and a neatly-taken point by St Gall’s half forward Kevin Niblock rounded off the first half and meant that Antrim still had a slim chance of turning things round in the second, although trailing by eight points,

Monaghan 2-9 Antrim 0-7 Half Time

Antrim got off to a good start in the second half, but Monaghan were more than capable of dealing with any of their attacks and McGuinness almost grabbed his second goal but was penalised for over-carrying. It was left to his colleague Darren Hughes to assure a Monaghan win with a nice three-pointer in the 49th minute, 3-11 to 0-9.

Conor McManus point

Eoin Duffy added a good point at the end of an attack involving Conor McManus, Owen Lennon and Clerkin, but Antrim hit back with three in a row – two from Cunningham and one by Michael Pollock. McManus kicked a couple of points from frees after fouls on Kieran Hughes and Stephen Gollogly. Andy McClean rounded off the scoring for the Saffrons, but Monaghan were deserving winners. Hughes though received a second yellow and therefore a red card before the final whistle, so Monaghan ended the game with fourteen players.

The two teams will face each other again in the Ulster senior football championship in June. Monaghan boss Malachy O’Rourke said afterwards he thought the game at Casement Park will not be as easy:-

“We are delighted to get the win and secure promotion. We knew Antrim would be tricky opponents but we got a good start and kept the lead. Antrim battled hard but we got the goal at the right time – they had a lot of players missing and it will be a completely different team when we meet them in the championship”, he said.

Monaghan boss Malachy O’Rourke

Before then, the Farneymen will take on Meath in the division three final at Croke Park in Dublin on April 27th. One thing that annoyed me about the Antrim side this afternoon (which did not include any players from my Belfast parish of St Brigid’s). As Amhrán na bhFiann was being sung before the throw-in, some of the Saffron players were jumping up and down, doing their stretching exercises. One of them broke away from the bunch before the national anthem had even ended. Very disrespectful, in my opinion, and not something the Tyrone management or I’m sure any other county would encourage.

OLYMPIC HAMMERS

22/03/2013 by borderroamer

Olympic Stadium (2012)

So the deal is done and West Ham FC have got the keys for the London Olympic Stadium at Stratford. But beware the Ides of March! (well I am only a week out!). As I wrote recently in my article on the Price of Football, I heard in Dagenham that the Hammers had got the contract they wanted and will be the new anchor tenants. The deal was unwrapped at a news conference at what is being developed as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Starting next Friday 29th March you can get a preview of progress at the Park, which is due to open to the public in the summer. Tours are £7 and can be booked here. But the first three days are already booked out so you will have to wait until at least Easter Monday 1st April to get the chance to see round.

Artist’s impressions of the transformed stadium have been published by the London Legacy Development Corporation LLDC. When converted from an athletics arena, the ground will be able to hold 54,000 spectators (UEFA Catgory 4) and the Hammers are due to move in at the start of the 2016/17 season. The first match will be a Bobby Moore Cup friendly fixture, ensuring a link with the Club’s most famous player, who captained England in the 1966 World Cup at Wembley.

New Stadium: © LLDC

Wembley Stadium has undergone a complete transformation since then, making it a stadium that can seat 90,000. West Ham are promising that no seat will be further away from the pitch than at Wembley. One of the questions still to be resolved is what happens to Leyton Orient, a League One side which is the closest to the Olympic site. The club’s owner Barry Hearn has said he will press on with his attempt to get a judicial review of the process, claiming it will “crush” his club if it is not allowed to share the stadium with West Ham.

The future of the Boleyn Ground at Upton Park which has been the home of the Hammers since 1904 will be decided later. There’s speculation it could be sold off to a developer to provide badly-needed social housing in the Borough of Newham. The ground can accommodate 35,000 fans but has limited room for expansion and this is one of the reasons the Hammers have been searching for a new stadium.

West Ham FC Entrance Alpari Stand

I was only in Upton Park once (and that’s the name it has always been for people of my generation) on August 7th 2011 for the opening match of the Championship season when the Hammers, just relegated from the Premiership, lost 0-1 to Cardiff City. I had no trouble booking a seat in the East Stand. This retained some of the atmosphere of previous years, with old-fashioned turnstiles which had also been modernised with a digital reader to record the entrance of supporters. I was impressed with the view from the stand and I enjoyed the atmosphere at the ground.

View from East Stand

Trevor Brooking Stand with away fans

My worry would be that a lot of this atmosphere and the sense of a glorious history linked with players such as Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Trevor Brooking will be lost in the vast spaces of the Olympic Park. This is what happens when commercialism reigns, but ultimately the move will succeed only if West Ham maintain their regained Premiership status.

I wish the Hammers and their supporters well, in what will be a time of transition. Some are not too happy that £25m of taxpayers’ money has been earmarked for installing a new roof, retractable seats along with permanent toilets and catering facilities for a Premiership football club.

The Champions sculpture: Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore (all West Ham) & Ray Wilson (Huddersfield): England 1966

OPERATION SOUTHEND

12/03/2013 by borderroamer

Operation Southend

Southend FC 1 AFC Wimbledon 3
Three well deserved points for the Dons. The win takes them up to 18th in League 2. The work I helped to do clearing snow from the pitch this morning paid dividends! Flying into Southend airport on Tuesday morning, all I could see from the plane window was a blanket of snow covering streets, gardens and playing pitches. A quick phone call to Southend FC established that they were still hopeful the match against my club AFC Wimbledon would go ahead, but expected there would not be any definite news until lunchtime.

I asked if the pitch was being cleared and the receptionist confirmed that an operation was underway and that volunteers had been called in to help. She confirmed that an AFC Wimbledon helper would be welcome, when I offered my services. I had booked my match ticket in advance via the Dons’ online service, so I was hoping my flight over to England would not be wasted. A three minutes journey on the train from the airport to the next stop along the line brought me to Prittlewell, and I could see the floodlights of the Club in the distance. On arrival at Roots Hall, this was the scene that greeted me in the car park and inside the stadium:-

Roots Hall Stadium

Roots Hall Pitch 11am

One of the first people I met outside the main entrance was the chief executive of the club, Steve Kavanagh, who acknowledged my offer of help. I was the first to add my name to the list of volunteers. On entering the pitch, the first person I spoke to turned out to be a fellow Dub, assistant manager Graham Coughlan from Clondalkin. He started playing soccer as a youth for Cherry Orchard and his first senior club was Bray Wanderers in the League of Ireland. He also plays in the team as a central defender, but did not line out last night.

Snow clearance

At this stage (11am), most of the snow had been removed from the covers in the penalty box area at one goalmouth, so over three-quarters of the pitch was still covered with a layer of white. Using snow shovels and wheelbarrows, the snow was removed section by section and more volunteers arrived to help. By noon, almost half the pitch had been cleared and I was able to send a photo to AFC Wimbledon and keep them updated via twitter. The sun was shining and the white of the snow was being gradually replaced by the green of the pitch, which remained soft underneath.

Another two hours’ work ensured that the remaining areas of the pitch were cleared and work began to ensure that the stand on one side of the ground where the snow had drifted in was cleared and made safe for spectators. As a “thank you” for their work, each volunteer was offered a free ticket for the game (although there seemed to be more interest in the tickets for the Johnstones Paint FA Trophy final against Crewe at Wembley next month: Southend have sold their allocation of 20,000 seats). I was given a refund for my ticket and the gesture was appreciated.

PRICE OF FOOTBALL

27/02/2013 by borderroamer

Olympic Stadium 2012

“Economically, it (English football) is heading for a big fall“. I agree. I paid £19 to see Dagenham & Redbridge v AFC Wimbledon on Saturday. Worth the pleasure of watching the Dons come away with three points. If West Ham ever get to the Olympic Stadium, in my view it will be the ruination of the club, not to mention Leyton Orient. I was in a pub in Dagenham on Saturday that had a picture of Bobby Moore on the wall and a West Ham/England flag in front of one of the televisions. The landlord told me he thought the Hammers had done a deal and I think this is the news he was referring to: “Long Olympic Stadium wait almost over for West Ham after ‘positive’ talks, says Mayor (of London)”, an article in the Daily Mail. However the news in the Guardian two days earlier had been less positive: “West Ham’s move to Olympic Stadium stalls again over approval process“. All this coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the death from cancer of former Hammers and England captain, Bobby Moore.

Bobby Moore Statue, Upton Park

This England

The BBC Sport Price of Football 2012 survey makes interesting, eyebrow-raising and depressing reading, and confirms what fans have long known, anecdotally, that it now costs an arm, a leg and an internal organ to attend a football match. I stopped seeing the team I’ve supported since childhood two seasons ago, due to the sheer cost in money and time going to their matches. As an exile from the club’s town I had to travel to see them, up to 200 miles round trip for a ‘home’ game and perhaps 50-100 miles for away games nearer to where I lived. So that’s many gallons of petrol and hours of travel time, but at least the match tickets weren’t too pricey. No longer – I would now have to pay a minimum of £25 to watch 90 minutes of mediocre Division 2 (Championship my arse) football, during which time I have…

View original post 1,335 more words

DONS DELIVER IN DAGGERS’ DEN

24/02/2013 by borderroamer

Home of the Daggers

A weekend visit to London gave me the opportunity to see a part of it I had never seen before: Dagenham. Once it was a village in Essex and I manged to find the original village green around the Anglican church. It’s quite close to Dagenham East tube station, which in turn is only a short hop from West Ham. So it’s not surprising that in the pub, I saw a West Ham flag and a picture of Bobby Moore on the wall. I was there to see the local football team play Dagenham & Redbridge in league 2 against AFC Wimbledon. Known as the Daggers, the club was formed in 1992 when two sides merged. Their ground at Victoria Road opened in 1955, where Dagenham FC played.

The Traditional Builders & Contractors Ltd Stand at the West end of the ground is for the awy fans and was built during the close season of 2009. It has a capacity of 1,240 and is all-seated. Access to this stand is via gates at the far end of the ground from the entrance via Victoria Road. The stand has disabled facilities, and incorporates a bar, snack bar, and new club office and changing facilities. The ground now has a capacity of 6078.

AFC Wimbledon pre-match

The players emerge onto the pitch from a tunnel in this stand rather than the old tunnel in the middle of the Carling Stand, on the right of the picture. The floodlights were replaced in summer last year, bringing the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium fully up to the new Football League regulations. The view from the stand was excellent, particularly for any action in the goalmouth, but obviously more difficult to watch anything at the other end of the pitch! It meant that the 873 travelling Dons fand including myself in the crowd of 2265 got an opportunity to greet the team as they finished their pre-match warm-up.

Neil Sullivan AFCW goalkeeper

One of the biggest cheers was reserved for goalkeeper Neil Sullivan, who kept a clean sheet during the game. The decisive moment came 80 minutes in, when a 19 year-old Parisian recently signed by the Dons on loan from Cardiff City, Kevin Sainte-Luce, struck a beautiful shot through a crowd of players after the Daggers had failed to clear a corner properly. A tense ten minutes of normal time and four additional minutes followed, but the Dons held out for a deserved victory, giving them seven points from their last three matches and lifting them off the bottom of the table.

Overall, there was a very friendly atmosphere at the club, which reminded me a bit of the old Plough Lane ground where Wimbledon FC used to play. The social club (one of the sponsors is a firm of local undertakers!) sold a nice pint of ale from Cornwall and was worth the extra 50p admission for non-members. One other point of interest: I noticed a steward sporting a Southend FC woolly hat, who remarked to a Dons fan that the teams would be meeting each other at their ground next month in a midweek match. So perhaps another short trip via Southend airport (where the service on both days was very good) is on the cards!

SETANTA CUP 2nd LEG

19/02/2013 by borderroamer

Coleraine 0 (1) Shamrock Rovers 2 (0)
A great result for the Hoops tonight at the Showgrounds.

That’s as far as I got when my mobile phone battery ran out as I travelled on the train back to Belfast, making use of the excellent wi-fi facilities the new rolling stock has. Thanks Translink! Now that I am back home by midnight, I can complete the task and add my photos.

Jason McGuinness

This was a much better performance by Rovers than in the first leg at Tallaght, when they went down 1-0 just before half time. The visiting fans sang their way home to Coleraine, I expect, as they were cheering their team throughout and were still in fine voice when they left Dublin.

It was the other way round though at the Showgrounds in the second leg. Trailing by a single goal, Rovers were quick off the mark and showed a determination that had been lacking in the first leg. Jason McGuinness had the first chance from a free kick, but his effort went wide. Striker Mark Quigley gave them the goal they were looking for in the seventh minute, with a fine six-yard volley.

Coleraine took time to establish themselves and after 27 minutes had their first chance with a Stephen Lowry header. Shane Jennings then sent a shot just wide when a corner was flicked on by Lowry. Ruairi Harkin also came close.

Rovers wind down

Eight minutes into the second half, Gary McCabe became the first of three Rovers’ players to receive a yellow card. A James Chambers shot was tipped onto the bar by the Coleraine keeper Michael Doherty and the visitors had another chance within a minute, from the resulting corner.

Rovers kept up the pressure but it needed two substitutions by manager Trevor Croly before the right combination could be found. Strikers Ciarán Kilduff and Thomas Stewart were brought on in the 69th and 77th minutes respectively. With two minutes of additional time just called and just as it seemed the match was going into extra time, the decisive strike came, thanks to Kilduff whose shot found the bottom corner of the net after a scramble in the goalmouth. It marked the first win in a competitive match for the new Rovers’ manager, who was appointed in November last year before the start of the new Airtricity League season in March.

In the second round of the Setanta Sport Cup, Shamrock Rovers have been drawn against Linfield, with the first leg at Tallaght on March 4th and the return a week later at Windsor Park, not far away from me on the Lisburn Road. I hope that any true Rovers fans who travel North will be given as hospitable a welcome as they got at the Social Club in Coleraine, where politics was put to one side and sport reigned. This was a truly sporting occasion of cross-border significance and I was also pleased to witness the friendliness of the Coleraine fans who travelled to Tallaght last week. These two Rovers’ supporters arrived in a happy mood and went home to Dublin even happier!

Come on You Hoops!

Michael Fisher's News

Category Archives: SPORT

WFFW6 DAY THREE

WFFW6 DAY TWO

WFFW6 STARTS

WALK FOR WIMBLEDON 6

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 1 19.2 miles / 30.9 km

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 2 15.4 miles / 24.8 km

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 3 9.2 miles / 14.8 km

MONAGHAN GO UP!

OLYMPIC HAMMERS

OPERATION SOUTHEND

PRICE OF FOOTBALL

DONS DELIVER IN DAGGERS’ DEN

SETANTA CUP 2nd LEG

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Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 1 19.2 miles / 30.9 km

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 2 15.4 miles / 24.8 km

Walk further for Wimbledon 6, Day 3 9.2 miles / 14.8 km

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