Slightly more whinging…

Disclaimer – For the purpose of the Giant Killing Adventure (GKA) I am a neutral football fan.  As a qualified Psychotherapist, I understand the nature of unconscious bias, and I will try to keep aware of this always and not let my personal support affect any GKA posts.  I am only mentioning this because I feel it is relevant to my minor whinging in the previous blog, and then after that I’ll try not to whinge anymore.  I am a Manchester United Fan, the GKA isn’t.

I grew up in a small town, 22.4 miles from Old Trafford and my dad was a Man United Season ticket holder, so I’ve always supported them. When Manchester United re-started their Women’s Team last season I bought a season ticket for £39 (yes, that’s only £39). I had the intention of going to the odd game to have a look and give support.  However, I instantly ‘fell in love’ with the women’s game because the atmosphere was different to the men’s game. I am not saying it was better, I’m just saying it was different. There was far more positivity in the crowd, less complaining, more encouragement and a greater mix of men, women, girls, boys and family’s. On the pitch, the games seemed to be played with less diving and less ‘cheating,’ so I ended up enjoying the experience far more than I thought I would, and I ended up going to every home game, which was £39 well spent. This is the reason I am following the women’s’ FA Cup this season.

So, on the above point, Manchester United seem to be invested in their women’s team.  They’ve got a top manager in Casey Stoney and they’ve built a good, young team that dominated the Women’s Championship last season. On the website, they have pictures of the female players and there is an ‘appearance’ of full support.

However, like I mentioned last Friday it seems like a lot of aspects are still an afterthought.  For example, you can sync the men’s’ fixtures from their Website directly to your own personal on-line calendar and when fixture details change, it automatically updates – all is good, and everyone knows what’s going on. There is no such feature for the women’s’ fixtures.  If you want the games in your on-line calendar, then you’ve got to trawl through the list and input your own.  I know this is only a minor inconvenience but is another example of the inequality within the game, and this is from one of the richest clubs in the world. 

Last Friday’s League Cup fixtures still haven’t been published, even though the game dates and the groups have been announced. Another afterthought or does The FA still not know what order the games will be played?    

One final whinge is this… (final disclaimer as this is a second-hand story) Last season my friends (old blog guests Tim and Adam Webster) tried to buy me a United Shirt for Christmas with my favourite Women's player name on the back. Apparently, they couldn’t get this from the United Website. When they searched Women's kit on the United Website, all they found was a tight-fitting women’s fashion shirt (see below).  They had to buy me a plain men’s shirt and then go to a separate shop in Manchester to get the name added.  Another minor inconvenience for them, yet another example of an afterthought.

I’ve just checked the United Club Shop for this coming season 2019/20 and it seems that they now have a full range of Women’s Shirts with player names added – so well done United for rectifying this.

 

Next up… Mossley Hill Ladies FC (and hopefully more positivism).

 

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Minor whinging and melting…

As I type this I feel like I’m physically melting due to the heat (rather much like the Wicked Witch of the West at the end of The Wizard of Oz – 1939 version of course). 

When I wrote my last blog about the men’s FA Cup, I found it relatively easy to find information about the wonderful teams that I followed - in particular Stourbridge FC, as their fans really embraced me with various offers of free pints and Balti eggs. I’ve since learnt, from old blog companion Samantha Beddall, that Stourbridge also have a women’s team that has just turned semi-professional – another great leap for the women’s game I wish them great success in the forthcoming 2019/20 season.  

Back in 2014, Google provided me with up to date stats about teams, their history, where they stood in their leagues and their relative postilion in comparison to the big boys in the premiership.  However, having followed women’s football last season for a local Championship club, I already know that it can be harder to find real time scores and information – and this was for a team in the 2^nd tier of the sport.  The BBC website provides ‘instant’ score updates for the men’s game, but often the women’s scores would take hours to come through (this is also true for Official Club sites).  I would often have to rely on Twitter feeds and the help of other fans to keep up to date with live scores. 

The same issues above can be said for the fixtures.  This year’s men’s fixtures were released on 13^th June, but I had to wait until 1^st July for the WSL fixtures to be released!  However, on that day I was most surprised to find that they only announced the opening round of games, and I had to wait until 10^th July to get the rest of the season’s fixtures.  What where they doing for those 10 days? I understand that many fans now support the men’s’ and women’s’ teams together, so fixtures cannot clash (this happened in last year’s Women’s FA Cup final as many West Ham fans could not watch the whole of the women’s FA Cup final due to the men playing at home on the same day).  

I am still waiting to find information for my local women’s team, as League Cup fixture dates where released weeks ago but I still don’t know who my team will be playing in their group stage (the Women’s League Cup, or Continental Cup, has an initial group stage in which all 23 teams of the WSL and Championship are divided into 3 groups of 6, and 1 of 5, and then the top 2 from each group goes into the quarter final stage).    

I stand corrected as the above groups were released this morning - it still took a long time! 

I understand that things take time and we live a world in which our expectations have been raised for convenience and instant results! Perhaps I need to be more patient?  I remember when I was a kid, my dad would go and watch the football and then wait until the next day to buy a newspaper to read about it (for those of you under age 25, a newspaper is kind of like a webpage, but written on this stuff called paper – it’s too hard to explain). In those days I would have to look at Teletext for scores and that would sometimes take days – don’t get me started on the Ceefax cinema listings! For those of you under 30, ‘telly text’ or Ceefax where like a slow rolling webpage that you accessed through a telly – once again, it’s too hard to explain! 

My point is, that if the women’s game is going to improve, get more investment, get more fans, then the clubs and the media need to up their game as well when it comes to coverage and information. The BBC did a brilliant job with the 2019 Women’s World Cup coverage, so let’s see that as an excellent starting point to improve on.  

In my next post I’ll attempt to uncover the puzzle box of trying to figure out what tier our Extra Preliminary Round teams Mossley Hill and Burnley Belvedere play in… Enjoy the weekend! 

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Who is up first in the Extra Preliminary Round?

As mentioned earlier, the women’s trophy resides currently in the Blue half of Manchester, at the City Academy Stadium.

The 7,000 Capacity Academy Stadium is located directly next to Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and it will be the starting point for our journey. At this current moment, the FA Cup belongs to Manchester City women’s team (and men’s team). This is where the Cup sleeps and therefore our opening encounter will be the closest game to its current resting place.  

The history of Manchester is vast and far too complicated for this blog, so I’ll just mention a few things!  Industry, Textiles, Canals (including a big one that ships go down), Coronation Street, Cracker (showing me age), The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, Oasis (this list could go on and once again, showing my age) and of course two massive football teams in Manchester City and Manchester United.

Manchester City Women’s team were founded in 1988 and they won the Women’s Super League in 2016. Other honours include 3 League Cups (2014, 2016 and 2019) and of course 2 FA Cups (2017 and 2019). England Lionesses captain Steph Houghton is their solid figure at the back and new addition Ellen White (of 2019 World Cup fame due to her Bronze Boot and glasses celebration) will surely score more goals for them up front… However, we are not here to talk about Manchester City Women (yet), because we are here to see which opening FA cup game is the closet to Manchester.

Drum roll please…

The Extra Preliminary Round has 20 teams and the closet tie to the current home of the FA cup is draw number 3.  Mossley Hill V Burnley Belvedere.  

V

This game is in Liverpool and it is 36.4 miles from the FA Cup’s current home.  Join me later for more information on both teams… and the unbelievably difficult task of trying to figure out which level in the football pyramid they are from.  

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The last time we took this journey was during the 2013/14 season

And a lot has happened since the 2014 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Hull City.

My first ever Blog Guest, Beverley Rogerson, visited my flat in 2014 and suggested that it needed a female touch.  I didn’t take any notice of that suggestion, so instead, I’ve added a female touch to The Giant Killing Adventure.

Following the success of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, in which 28.1 Million people watched the BBC footage, we’ve decided to follow the Women’s FA Cup, in homage to the excellent football and sportsmanship (or is that sportswomanship?/sportspersonship?) that was on display throughout the tournament.

I had first-hand experience, as regular blog guest, Tim Webster, and I spent a week in Nice, supporting England V Japan and Thailand V Sweden. The atmosphere was amazing, the fans were fantastic, and I felt a real family vibe in which everyone seemed welcome. The week in Nice was very nice, although it felt like a niche trip!         

At the top level in the England, women’s football seems to be moving in the right direction.  The Women’s Super League (top division) has just received a multi-million sponsorship deal from Barclays and there has been recent discussion between the FA and the Premiership about the possibilities of the WSL being taken over by the Men’s top division.  Many of the top men’s teams now support a women’s team. This was shown last year by Manchester United investing in a successful team that won the Championship (2^nd division), after a gap of 15 years or so without having adult female representation. The 2019/20 season is also going to improve as some games are already being moved to the larger men’s stadiums and there is talk of possible double-headers to co-inside with the men’s game and bigger crowds.      

All the above seems fantastic but more needs to be done! I don’t want to be Mr Doom and Gloom but average attendances for the WSL last year were only 965 and clubs still need to be financially supported by their retrospective men’s teams. There are rules and regulations that can prevent good lower teams from moving up the divisions. All WSL Teams need to be fully professional and all Championship Teams need to be semi-professional – this is a great idea but only if the club in question can afford it. That is why I want to begin this journey with the FA cup. I want to go to the lower league clubs, I want to check out their standards and facilities and I want to shout about how good (or bad) they are… let’s support the sport at all levels!           

The Women’s FA Cup started in the 1970/71 season (then known as the Mitre Trophy). That year it had 71 entrants and it was won by Southampton.  In 1993 the FA took over the competition and Arsenal are the record holders with 14 Cup victories.     

The 2019/20 football season sees the 49^th Women’s FA Cup competition and this time 300 teams have entered. As in 2014, we will be diving into this river at the Extra Preliminary Round.  As before, the aim is to follow by picking one game in the beginning round and following the winner to each consecutive round until we reach the smooth surface of Wembley in May 2020. 

This journey will take you through women’s grass-roots football as we visit the villages, towns and cities of our great nation – all united in one goal... winning at football. Only 20 teams will be taking part in the Extra Preliminary Round (18^th August) and those 10 winners will move into the Preliminary Round on Sunday September 1^st – at that point 98 ties will be taking place as we edge closer to Wembley! 

Before we begin, let’s have a quick recap on last year’s 2018/19 final:

Last Year’s final was held on 4^th May 2019 between Manchester City and West Ham United.  It was City’s 2^nd ever appearance and West Ham’s first, but City were heavily favoured to win.  This turned out to be no Giant Killing, as City came away with a comfortable 3 – 0 Victory in front of 43,264 fans. One of the best things about women’s football is the price – tickets for the FA Cup final were only £15 for adults and kids could go for free!  There was even an early bird package in which you could purchase an adult ticket for £7.50!  Yes, that’s £7.50 and kids could still go for free – this is like 1980s prices so let’s get involved and support the women’s game.

1989 prices with a 2019 attitude!  

As you can see from the image, Manchester City Women  play at the City Academy Stadium, around 200 miles from Wembley Stadium.  Join me later in the week to see where our FA Cup journey begins...

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Well, Saturday’s day was what can only be described as a cracker, or even a sizzler – despite the cold weather. On the itinerary provided by the wonderful University of Cumbria our first port of call was to get to the ground for our 12.15 tour of the stadium. This was an 88.1 mile journey and according to a well know computer map system it was going to take 1 hour and 38 minutes. We decided to set off at 10am and try and to fit in a trip to Tebay Services on the M6 (featured previously in the 4^th qualifying round as Workington played Stourbridge when blog guest Frasier Sanderson drove up on 27^th October, 2013). The weather in Preston was horrendous as heavy rain and cold weather suggested that heading further North was nothing but a bad idea.  However, the further North we travelled, the nicer it got and some lovely snow topped scenery in this beautiful part of the country enhanced our pleasant journey.

 We arrived at around 12.10 midday and drove into the stadium car park.

 From left to right above Tim Webster, Russell Hogarth and Adam Webster.  I am behind the camera.

It would appear that we had driven to the supporters end and we had to walk all the way around the stadium to get the main reception and ground tour.

As we walked around on to the street, we passed the club shop and statue of Hughie Mcllmoyle, who had 77 appearances for Carlisle United between 1962 and 1965. He scored 44 goals for the club. 

Brunton Park main entrance – I apologise for the shaky camerawork…

We somehow joined the stadium tour and ended up in the Home Dressing room.

It was hear that I noticed the secret to Carlisle’s recent success - Jaffa cakes and Wine Gums. 

We entered the away dressing room to a slight smell of sweat and we were informed that their shower facilities included an old style giant bath for all the players.

The tour took us through the tunnel and onto the pitch.

As we entered the pitch one thought came into my mind ‘wow, this is amazing,’ and as I thought it, the 10 year boy next to me said it aloud. I suppose there is a young child inside all of us and it was great to connect to my former self.

  

 However, as you can see – this was amazing and the pitch looked incredible.  I wanted to go and lie on it, but perhaps that would not have been a great idea as there is no working undersoil heating at Carlisle. This fantastic surface was down to the great ground staff that mow the surface every day and the incredible work of pump Desmond (it took away all the surface water from Thursday’s flooding). Michael Knighton built the stand in his brief stint as club owner in the 1990s.

We got to sit on the bench that was designed for Kenny Baker. I think that players must have been a lot smaller in the olden days – either that or they had incredibly flexible spines.

We managed to straighten backup and move to Foxy’s Restaurant for part two of our itinerary list. 

It was here that we were given our match tickets and game programme.  Most exciting news was that it was a free bar!

Food options were either a Steak Pie and Potatoes or Chilli and Rice.  Blog guest Tim Webster had three helpings….

And I continued with the free drinks… A former player gave a speech about his hatred of Michael Kington and then we moved to the pitch – ready for kick off.

  

Our view was slightly restricted by the giant pillar but that is the magic of old school football stadia. 

This was an ‘interesting’ turn of events before kick-off and once again I apologise for the shacky camera work.  In the centre of the pitch is a taxidermined fox know as Olga. She is brought out before kick-off in all home games and this tradition dates back to the 1950s and represents Cumbrian huntsman John Peel.

Above are pictures of Foxy and Olga.

The game itself was entertaining and in the balance as Carlisle seemed to have the bulk of the possession and chances but they did look vulnerable to Morecambe’s counter attack on various occasions.  As the Cumbria University Cheerleaders started to arrive in the opposite stand around 5 minutes before half time, I felt sorry for them in thier skimpy outfits – it was not the warmest of days.  However us VIPs rushed back to foxes for our pre-ordered half time drinks.  I had mini cakes and two free pints waiting for me, but only managed to neck one pint before heading back to the stand for the second half.  By the time our Prawn Sandwich Brigade got back to our seats it was already 1-0 to Carlisle – we had missed the goal.

Morecambe seemed to have much more possession in the 2^nd half and equalised. With around 10 minutes to go they got a penalty and the loudest cheer of the day was when penalty taker Adam Campbell hit the cross bar and the game finished 1-1.  I had predicted 4–1to Carlisle so this proves that I know nothing!

    

We headed back into Foxy’s Restaurant for the final part of the itinerary list - Man of the Match awards and prize giving. Before kick off the VIPs had been given the opportunity to guess the First Goal Score, the Attendance and the Man of the Match. 

Nobody got the attendance or the first goal scorer correct, so a random draw took palce and blog guest Tim Webster went and won himself a Carlisle United Shirt.

                                                                                                                              

Next came the Man of the Match award and once again Tim Webster won himself a crate of Heineken Beer presented by Man of the Match Kelvin Etuhu.

After all these awards and VIP treatments, we set off back to Preston after a thoroughly enjoyable day. I need to once again thank Cumbria University for their VIP invite and congratulate them on their 10-year anniversary.  Thank you to Foxy’s for all the free food and beer and thanks to Adam for driving. Thanks to Russell and Tim for their blog guest appearances.

This whole day cost me £10….. £5 for a half time raffle and £5 for petrol.  By far the cheapest ever outing for the Giant Killing Adventure and I hope you all enjoyed this one off VIP special…

However, there is no such thing as VIPS, just Ps…

Take Care, Nigel.   

x

The Giant Killing Adventure is back, by popular demand for a VIP one off special. By popular demand I mean, myself. How have we been tempted back into this life of travel and adventure you may be thinking?  Well it is because Cumbria University has invited us for a VIP day out and of course, we could not say no…. this is no FA cup game.  This is a league game and a local derby that should bring all the intensity, pace and excitement of English football right to your computer.

Returning to your blog will be Tim Webster, who you may remember from the 2014 FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Hull City, but his first appearance was in 2013 for the thrilling 0-0 draw between Curzon Ashton and Lancaster City.  On that day, he did a lot of talk about the virtues of Walkers ready salted crisps.

Also returning is driver and blog favorite Adam Webster, Tim’s brother, who joined the Giant killing Adventure for the 2014 FA Cup Semifinal between Arsenal and Wigan.  On that day, blog favorite and troublemaker Lee Topping nearly had a fight with two Arsenal fans, but we do not talk about that. Adam Webster kindly drove all the way to Wembley and back and he is in the driving seat again on Saturday 25^th November, 2017.

Brand new to the Giant Killing Adventure will be University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) Honorary Fellow and Community Ambassador Russell Hogarth.  He is the real reason that we have been invited as VIPs, but he knows nothing about football… or sport in general (unless you count Motorsports). When Russell asked me how he should dress for the game, I told him to wear a suit, a flat cap and to bring a football rattle – I hope he knows I was joking.   

I would like to thank Cumbria University for their wonderful invite and provide you readers with a little history. The University of Cumbria has its main headquarters in Carlisle.  It was established in 2007 following the merger of St Martins College, the Cumbria institute and Cumbrian campuses of UCLan.  The University is sponsoring the match on Saturday 25^th November, 2017 as it celebrates its 10 year anniversary and they will also be providing cheerleaders for the half time show!

I haven’t even told you what game we’re watching…. Well, drum roll please… it is…. Carlisle United vs Morecambe.

                     

VS

Carlisle is an 88.1-mile trip from our base at the University of Central Lancashire. See below…

Carlisle is the top end of England and 10 miles south of the Scottish border.  It is the largest settlement in the county of Cumbria and has a population of over 100,000 living in the wider area.  Originally, Carlisle was a Roman settlement, established to serve the forts of Hadrian’s Wall and was always an important military stronghold through the middle ages.  Textile manufacture during the industrial revolution transformed Carlisle along with it having an important railway connection to the North and South.

We are heading to Brunton Park:-

Carlisle United was formed on 17^th May 1904 and they are a professional association football club playing in League Two, the forth tier of the English Football League System. Morecambe were only promoted into the Football League in 2007 and they are nicknamed the shrimps.

In the half way part of this season the shrimps are perched in 22^nd place, with 18 points from 19 games. Carlisle on the other hand are sitting mid table (in 12^th) with 26 points.  With better league form and home field advantage Carlisle should be favorites for this game – the Shrimps are yet to register a win at Brunton Park but you never know what will happen when it is a derby game. 

This game has the added excitement of a very watery pitch.

From initially looking at these pictures, I thought that the club has either left it’s flood lights on by accident or was trying to win the football pools ~.  However, apparently it was due to heavy rainfall.

At one point, the wet pitch was going to encourage too much diving ~ so the ground staff have done an amazing job and managed to drain the pitch in time for tomorrow’s game.

I am very excited about this encounter and cannot wait. Here is the itinerary I have received from Cumbria University.  

You will be one of 35 VIP guests attending with Professor Julie Mennell and Sandra Booth.  A 2 course hot buffet will be served pre-match in Foxy’s Restaurant.  Your match tickets for the main west stand, team sheet and match day programme will be given to you on the day.

There will be an optional tour of the Brunton Park ground available, if you would like to participate please meet at the main reception at 12.15pm.  Alternatively, if you would prefer not to take part in the ground tour please arrive at Foxy’s Restaurant at 1pm.

Itinerary

12.15pm      Meet at main reception for the ground tour (optional)

1pm             Arrive at Foxy’s restaurant

2pm             Food will be served in the Restaurant

2.15pm     Presentations to sponsors and Q & A Session with current or former CUFC player

3pm             Kick off

3.45pm        Half Time – back to restaurant for pre-ordered half time drinks

4.45pm        Game finishes - back into restaurant for match day competitions and man of the match presentations.

What is not to like and did I mention the Cheerleaders!  So, one sleep to go and we’ll be back with you tomorrow. 

~ ‘jokes’ proved by Tim Webster.  The Floodlights ‘joke’ was my own and I did chuckle in the office. Life is so much easier when you can amuse yourself!!!