Accrington Stanley 0-0 Aldershot Town
Aldershot’s record of winning every opening game of the League season came to an end yesterday. They do remain unbeaten in opening games… but this is only their third season in the League. It wasn’t the best game in the world but both clubs are officially on an unbeaten run. That’s pretty much all they can take from this game.
Darren Jones started for Aldershot and helped them to a clean sheet. Aaron Morris stayed on the bench but Aldershot manager Kevin Dillon only made one substitution. Who knows what would have happened if he’d made two?
Burton Albion 0-0 Oxford United
Burton remain the Football League’s newest recruit as the two teams that came up this season have played in the League before. And in the case of Oxford, they’ve played in the top division. They probably were the better side but not by as much as their history might suggest.
Burton manager Paul Peschisolido left Player of the Year Tony James on the bench.
Bury 0-1 Port Vale
Bury looked set for a play-off place at least last season while a late run from Port Vale meant that manager Micky Adams’ claim that Vale would make the play-offs didn’t seem so ridiculous after all. Neither made the play-offs but on this showing, Port Vale are more than capable of getting there this year. Bury looked less capable but it’s only the first week.
Gareth Owen played in defence for Port Vale. He did use his hand in a naughty sort of way like Thierry Henry but the referee didn’t see it and I’m sure he’ll never do anything like that again.
Chesterfield 2-1 Barnet
Chesterfield are another who just missed out on the play-offs but Barnet just missed out on something else entirely. They’ll be wanting to do much better this season but losing to Chesterfield probably doesn’t count as a disaster and Barnet played well and created chances.
It wasn’t a great debut match for Chesterfield’s Craig Davies. He got a straight red for a nasty tackle in the 83rd minute. Robert Page was on the bench but goalkeeper Mark Crossley wasn’t in the squad.
Crewe Alexandra 0-1 Hereford United
Crewe did surprisingly well in pre-season but this will make their opening-day result all the more disappoiuting as Hereford are one of the favourites to go down. Crewe didn’t play badly in this match either but they didn’t take their chances.
It wasn’t an ideal debut for loan keeper Rhys Taylor but he shouldn’t feel too discouraged. Without Rhys, it could have been much worse.
Ryan Green and Ryan Valentine played in defence for Hereford. Stuart Fleetwood made his second ‘debut’ for Hereford – actually his 45th appearance. He’ll be hoping to have doubled that by the end of the season and if he continues to play like this, he deserves it. He might be a striker but he defends. There are defenders who don’t do that.
After The Final Whistle At Leamington
5 hours ago
I don't think Hereford are one of the favourites to go down.
ReplyDeleteWith a new team in charge and a new manager, there is a lot of optimism at Edgar Street.
Like the blog - keep up the good work.
I've got to be more careful about saying 'favourites', everywhere you look the predictions are different and favourite can mean anything from relegation places to vaguely in a relegation battle!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised when I saw Hereford in the bottom two in a predicted league table, they really picked up towards the end of last season and now they've made further improvements like you said. I would have put them mid-table.
Thank you, I like your blog too. It's very balanced (something I admire as I'm not good at it!) and it looks very professional. You're sponsoring Stuart Fleetwood? I'd better make sure I'm nice about him then ;)