football rambles

 Well, fortunately the real football for the lower divisions of the football league and higher levels of nonleague starts next Saturday, as the last couple of friendlies have been pretty dire.  This game was short on incident and the main action came from Lynn hitting the crossbar and some handbag waving in the middle of the field. Lynn clearly had an experimental team out and I can't see many of the trialists featuring at this level again. Highlight of the day was probably confusing the locals with my FK Sarajevo shirt in the Fenman after the game.

 On Saturday we went to London for what was a dreary day and unfortunately we witnessed a fairly dreary game. It was good to get to the Wimbledon stadium though, as it is one that I have planned to go to for a while but has always alluded me. At least it seemed quite a friendly place. Lyndon Dykes opened the scoring for the visitors after a defensive error and at this point it looked like the Rs could run riot. It was not to be the case though and all in all there was very little goal mouth action. After the break Josh Neufville equalised for the Dons. 1-1 was probably a fair result as QPR looked the better team in the first half and Wimbledon were better in the second.  Other highlights were the good - QPR almost scoring from a move that was reminiscent of Brazil 1970 and the bad - Gareth Ainsworth's (the QPR boss) having the record he has made for the Wimbledon ground sponsors record  label- twice! .... and the ugly a head butt from a tiny QPR defender on  one of the Dons who was

 The pre-season continued yesterday with a local derby between Peterborough Sports and Peterborough United.  Posh came with a young team of academy players, but it was clear that they had more footballing vision than their lower league counterparts, although it was a decent performance by both teams, especially as there was a monsoon for most of the first half. A secret trialist gave Posh the lead on 17 minutes and Gabe Overton -on as sub and coming back from a long-term injury scored the second after the break. Posh also had a somewhat dubious penalty and the type of one that is never usually given in friendlies, but former Posh Academy keeper, Lewis Elson saved from Lewis Darlington. Sports also had shout for a penalty, but it was waved away despite looking more of a penalty than the one that Posh were given. They also created a few chances, but Posh were deservedly the winners.

 We also went on the tour of the stadium. It was great to see the stadium at pitch level and see trophies and memorabilia from times gone by, however it did feel a bit rushed and something just for tourists rather than proper football fans. Worth a visit, but given Hajduk's rich history it could have been a lot better, although that might not exactly have been appreciated by the more casual fans on the tour. Hajduk lettering from outside the stadium Hero Bernard Vukas Bado, who played for Hajduk from 1947 to 1957 renowned for his dribbling skills. Shop entrance at Hajduk Split. Souvenirs from the Under 21's run to the Champion League final earlier in the year. a plate presented to Hajduk by Aston Villa The permanent trophy for champions of Croatia In the centre at the front is the final trophy for the champions of Yugoslavia. View when players enter the pitch (without the fans here though obviously) The seashell shape of the stadium. Where the stadium meets the sea. Where the s

 When you go to Split one of the things that you notice is the amount of well executed graffiti there is for Hajduk. Hajduk are almost like a religion here and perhaps one of the best ways of avoiding poor graffiti is by getting some good graffiti in support of Hajduk done on your property. Most of it either has 1911 - the year that the team were formed or 1950 when Torcida - the first ultras in Europe came into being.