Smiley Culture

Who?

My parents are both northern, including from Merseyside, my relatives are all northern. Aye, saying that Boreham Wood is not in Essex is hating on Tranmere. You do realise you're contradicting yourself, saying I hate the north (weird) when you're clearly having a pop at the South, don't you? Go to bed mate, beer isn't for you. Stick to lemonade.

Do I? What place would that be?

I'm not sure I did but good effort. I'll be sure to cry myself to sleep this evening though. I take it based on your bizarre behaviour here that you'll be cheering for Manchester United next week...

Not sure where he's got that I have any connection with Boreham Wood from either. Maybe it was that time I went there when they played Watford in a friendly about eight years ago.

Proper cut up that I'm resorting to being a tit on the Internet. Oh, wait...

Fosters is strong.

I remember my first beer, too.

Geography not you're strong point, I see. Boreham Wood is quite affluent and has a growing Jewish community. It's also North of London, between Barnet and Watford, not Essex.

If they’re promoted. The EFL are voting on fake pitches next month (I think) and if they vote no, Sutton, if they win promotion, either have to rip up a multi-million pound pitch or be relegated from the Conference.

Utterly daft. Wasnt broken, didn’t need changing.

Are they? There’s about 8 teams in the play-offs now and I have no idea how they work.

Don’t think there’s two sportsmen who are bigger bellends than David Haye and Tony Bellew.

Yeah, I know a lad who’s played at Conference South level and he had to sleep in his car on occasions when getting home from places like Truro and Gloucester in midweek. The Midlands got the short straw and teams were travelling to places like Cumbria, which is mad really.

This may be of interest to some, probably not mind, but there’s a restructuring taking place in Non-League Football this year at the 7th (the current Northern, Southern and Ryman Premier’s) and 8th tier (the regional leagues to the Northern, Southern and Ryman leagues), where new divisions in the Midlands area will be created. I imagine this is due to the amount of travelling some teams do currently and because of the number of games postponed, meaning a more regionalised League should cut down on travel times/costs/player unavailability. Bishop’s Stortford had rearranged midweek games in Merthyr Tydfil and Hereford this season, so in theory, it should stop that sort of thing. The new leagues are shown on the maps in the link https://www.evostikleaguesouthern.co.uk/step-3-and-4-league-boundaries-for-the-201819-seas-47185 When the provisional divisions are drawn up, I’m unsure

Ironically, it was mentioned on Sky last night that the London League is starting this weekend. I go to London Skolars, who play in League 1, semi-regular. They’re based in Wood Green. As for the amateur stuff, I tried a couple of years ago to watch Newham but it seemed that there game had been cancelled as the opponents failed to raise a team and they didn’t bother to update their social media so I ended up in a park in West Ham looking confused. Yeah, West Warriors are a team made up of Kiwis in London from what I gather, Hammersmith Hills Hoists (who play at Wasps I think) are the Australian equivalent. Both have played in the Challenge Cup but I don’t know what the standard is like.

Hereford won the title on Tuesday night with a win against Biggleswade, IIRC. They'll be in the Conference South next season.

Deep Heat is the Daddy of smells.

Not a fan of Johan Cruyff thus far. He’s come across as argumentive, ignorant and a bit of a bellend. If you’ve been to Tenerife, Cruyff has been to Elevenerife, that sort of self-righteous tool.

Yeah, them. Got as far as League One in about 2008/09. Had a serious of terrible owners, the club was liquidated and the fans started their own club. They’re about to win back-to-back promotions and will be in the Conference South next year. Brought a good few hundred fans but apparently two coaches got stuck in traffic and never made it so they’d have had a few more today.

Been to Bishop’s Stortford v Hereford today. Hereford have all but secured the Southern Premier League title with a 91st minute winner to win 1-0 today. The game was attack v defence with Hereford having double the amount of points Stortford had before kick-off and it got worse as a spectacle when one of Stortford’s centre-backs got sent-off for two bookings. He could have no complaints, he was booked for a foul, gave away a penalty and was then rightfully shown a second yellow and sent off. Hereford missed a penalty, drawing a good save from the Stortford keeper, who had an absolute blinder of a game. The second half was all Hereford, they threw everything at Stortford and only the Stortford keeper and some last gasp defending kept them at bay. It looked as though Stortford would battle to a point, for which their defensive performance deserved but a near post header from a corner in the first minute of four added on broke their hearts. I should mention that I was mightily impressed by Bishop’s Stortford, who are suffering a bit and have a pretty small budget which has led to them relying on youth, with a number of those coming through the system at the club and they fielded a very youthful side today and they all stood up and put in a performance against a side that have scored over 100 goals and now earnt over 100 points this season.

Just finished listening to the audiobook of ‘Moneyball’. Liked it. It was difficult at times because of my lack of knowledge of Baseball but still an interesting insight into how the game of Baseball and subsequently now Sport as a whole was changed by a few people. Just bought the Johan Cruyff audiobook.

I am sure it was being referred to as the Johan Cruyff Arena when England played their the other week.

Mansfield to get the most booking points today at Luton at 4/5 was good value. Had £7.50 on that, which returned £13.50. That’s all I did today.

I think there are some clubs in the Essex Senior that do pay, but not too many. Most teamsin the Essex Senior League are in East London, rather than Essex and if they are in Essex, they’re more in the West of the County so not far from London. I think the longest journeys are undertaken by Basildon and Southend Manor at that level. Theres a big overhaul of the leagues at that level and above this Summer, I’m not sure how exactly it’s going to happen but I believe there’s now a Midlands based Southern League to be brought in to prevent some of the crazy journeys you get at that level now as the league stretches down to the South West of England.