The football season is here again and, coincidentally, a
gaping chasm has opened up in my life. For the past 31 days, I’ve dutifully
recorded every one of the 171 goals scored in 64 matches by 32 teams on my
World Cup wall chart. This morning, having completed it by inscribing the
number 1 next to Germany and 0 next to Argentina, I’ve unpinned it from the
noticeboard in the kitchen, folded the A2 sheet down to A4 and put it in the
recycling ready for collection on Thursday, providing the Bolsheviks aren’t on
strike again. I mean, what else can you do now the competition is over to
satisfy the statistical urge? Well, I’ve started compiling a list of games I’ve
attended so far in the 2014/2015 season. Currently the total stands at 2;
Newcastle Benfield 2 Annan Athletic 2 on July 5th and Newcastle
Benfield 2 Darlington 1 on July 12th, which must have been an
important game as I missed carrying the UCU banner at Durham Big Meeting to go
to it, with Whitley Bay v Musselburgh Athletic on the horizon for Saturday 19th.
It feels good to be back among football at the truest level known to humanity;
The Northern League. First division.
Let’s be honest though, I did thoroughly enjoy the World Cup,
despite my natural cynicism and urge to sneer at the professional game. It was
made easier to enjoy by England’s rapid, deserved departure, with only
Strurridge in the opening two games displaying anything like top quality
performances. The less said about Rooney, Hart, Gerard and Jagielka the better.
In the end I’m glad Germany won; they
were the best team in a competition where many countries relied on the talents
of one outstanding individual, though having said that, both Neuer and
Schweinsteiger are the world’s best in their respective roles. The final itself
was blessed by outstanding performances by Mascherano for Argentina and Boateng
for Germany, even if the latter’s importance dwindled as Argentina’s
intermittent threat as an attacking force waned, once fatigue saw the game
recede almost imperceptibly from the intriguing to borderline sterile.
Consequently, Götze’s goal was a blessed relief on many levels; a great finish,
the right result and an avoidance of penalties. Messi had been quiet in the final,
but his efforts had carried Argentina to the final, though I disagreed with his
award of player of the tournament; surely James Rodríguez, scorer of the
competition’s best goal against Uruguay, deserved that honour. I do wish
Colombia had got further in the competition than they did; they were my second
favourite team in the whole World Cup and the vagaries of the draw would
probably have seen them finish third by beating Holland.
Elsewhere in the tournament, I enjoyed the team ethos of
both USA and Chile, both of whom relied as much on esprit de corps as flashes of brilliance. The USA’s bravery in
losing to Belgium should not be forgotten; it was akin to watching a
Championship side losing at home to a middle ranking Premier league club in a
televised cup tie and abandoning caution in the hope of glory. I was pleased to see Holland recover from the
appalling Bert van Marwijk era, characterised by his son-in-law Mark van Bommel’s
horrid influence on the last World Cup, with the demented genius van Gaal steering
them to a worthy third place, following Brazil’s disintegration after the
Neymar injury. Louis van Gaal will be worth watching at Old Trafford next
season; the intense self-belief he exudes will force Mourinho to up his press
conference games for a start.
Finally, there must be recognition for the outstanding
goalkeeping we’ve seen in this tournament. Neuer we’ve already talked about,
but Ospina of Colombia was another who deserved the utmost of plaudits. His
faultless handling in the Uruguay game was unfussy, unhurried and
eye-catchingly economical. Keylor Navas of Costa Rica was another technically
superb keeper, who came up against Tim Krul’s cameo for Holland. While Krul has
stagnated at Newcastle over the past two seasons, his ability to keep the ball
out the net when fired straight at him is not in doubt; hence while he does not
command the box in the way he should and is poor with his distribution, shot
stopping is his forte. I was not surprised with his 2 penalty saves, though the
sub Steven Taylor histrionics I could have done without. Tim Howard performance
versus Belgium was as memorable as any I’ve seen at a World Cup, though Mexico’s
Memo Ochoa’s outstanding reflexes against Brazil earned his country a notable
point. I would hesitate to call Ochoa a world class keeper, as his all round
game is not as impressive as Ospina or Navas for instance, but he did show incredible
reactions throughout the tournament. As a particularly hopeless keeper myself
(I got lobbed from 35 yards out on the touchline in Winstons’ first preseason
friendly; a 7-2 win over Blakelaw on Saturday morning), I am in awe to the
finest exponents of the goalie’s art.
At Northern League level, the outstanding keeper for most of
the past decade and beyond is Andrew Grainger of Newcastle Benfield. The
Walkergate Brazilians came into the league in 2003 and Andy has been the
regular keeper for all that time, winning 3 Northern League Cups and 1 Northern
League title; the 2009 League Cup win over Penrith and the 2011 over Spennymoor
were down to him. I missed the 2011 one, when Andy saved a penalty, as I was at
work, but the 2009 double winning game at West Allotment saw the absolute best
performance I’ve ever seen by a keeper at this level, beating the late Steve
Tierney’s singlehanded rebuttal of Ashington for Horden in an FA Vase game in
2002.
Andrew Grainger is an interesting character; a former pupil
of RGS, who was replaced as school keeper by Fraser Forster, he joined
Darlington on a one year contract after his A Levels instead of opting for
Higher Education. Sadly, he was released after a season, but he did then become
England’s beach football keeper, earning 63 caps and saving a penalty from Eric
Cantona no less. I found out all of these things when interviewing Andy for the
programme I edited that was on sale at his testimonial against Darlington. In the end, it was a great day; the sun shone,
Benfield won 2-1 and my programme was complimented by everyone at the club,
which augers well for my new role as Benfield’s programme editor.
Heaton Stannington may not have gained promotion to Northern
League Division 1, but I did. While at this point I’d prefer not to go into the
minutiae of my switch from Grounsell to Sam Smith’s Park, I’d like to wish
assistant manager Geoff Walker and all the players at Heaton Stannington the
very best for the coming season. I’ll be keeping an eye on their results; in
fact, they’re away to Team Northumbria in the big NE7 derby on my birthday, so
I may well be there. I enjoyed my time with The Stan and feel I’ve learned many
lessons from it, but Benfield were the team I watched almost exclusively from
2003 to 2009 when I joined Percy Main. Even then, I still saw as many Benfield
games as I could.
This season, my intention is to watch every Benfield home
game and as many of the away games as I can manage, as well as keeping my
largely ceremonial role as chair of the Tyneside Amateur League and co-editing
the new A5 old-school Newcastle United fanzine, “The Popular Side.” No adverts.
No merchandise. No website. Just wall to wall brilliant writing. Out for Man City.
Only £1.
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