A 2-0 Victory, Reborn Playoff Hopes, and a Circus Tent

Bath City defeated St Albans City 2-0 yesterday in a decisive victory. This should not be a huge surprise to anyone: City are a better side than their record would indicate, and St Albans' have now lost four games on the trot. Perhaps it wasn't a surprise, but it sure was a relief to City supporters everywhere. Last Saturday's squandering of a two goal lead to Bishop's Stortford had been discouraging to say the least. A quick glance a City's fixture list will reveal several winnable matches coming up. After today's victory there is a real sense that City's playoff aspirations are back on track.

Really? If ever there was a need for evidence that football supporters aren't operating with all pistons firing, this is it. Just seven days ago the the talk on the Bath City forum was all about how the playoff chase was over and it was time to concentrate on next year. This was despite the fact that there were eighteen games left in the season and City were only eight points off the pace. The second half of the Bishop's Stortford game was so depressing the idea that City were playoff contenders seemed impossible, even though it should have been obvious to anyone with a little bit of perspective and a copy of the fixture list that it wasn't. Well, obvious to anyone except me or anyone I knew. I was feeling pretty down. Now after a win, even one I didn't see, I am looking forward to the beginning of a run of victories. Experiencing the entire gamut of human emotion over a week's time due to irrational mood-swings is one of the many benefits of being a football supporter.

So, how did our newly-rechristened, world-beating Bath City boys fare against their inevitably doomed opponents? Very well as a matter of fact. Initial reports began filtering through on the internet soon after kick-off. I was replacing the safety net on the family trampoline in the garden at the time, but I was able to think up a long list of excuses of why I needed to go into the house every few minutes. Mrs Nedved wasn't fooled, but since some of the excuses began with, 'would you like a cup of tea dear?' she turned a blind eye. If you've not replaced a trampoline safety net before, you'll just have to trust me that it is thirsty work.

On only my second visit inside I learned that City had taken a 1-0 lead. Lewis Hogg's corner was knocked away by St Alban's keeper Paul Bastock. Unfortunately for Bastock he knocked it near enough to Chris Holland that 'Dutch' was able to drive the ball home. I learned later that this had been the second Hogg corner followed by a shot from Holland. The first one was deflected over the crossbar by the veteran keeper.

I remember Bastock from St Albans' visit to Twerton Park last January. Even though he was playing for the opposition, he was a player I couldn't help but like. Not because he is a former Bath City player (playing in a single game on loan from Cambridge United in 1988 - 1988!). Not because at thirty-nine years of age he is the same age as me and still managing to play semi-pro football. No, I found him to be likable because he is one of those keepers who single-handedly keeps his side in a match even when the outfield players are going to sleep. He made a half-dozen quality saves in that match last year, keeping what should have been a runaway victory a nervy 1-0 affair for City. Every match report I've read for this Saturday's match cites Bastock as being the main reason Bath City did not win five or six. Let's hear it for thirty-nine year olds!

Things out in the garden were making me feel my thirty-nine years. Did you know that trampolines not only have safety nets now, but it is also possible to buy circus tents to go over them? Why? I don't know. One of the disadvantages to being thirty-nine is that many of the things that appeal to my children I now find baffling. Like Richard Hammond's Blast Lab, for instance. Is that really meant to be entertaining? Is it really so engrossing that when it comes on telly you need to stop whatever you are doing, slump into a nearby chair, drool and dilate your pupils until it is over? I digress. Mrs Nedved, who has a sixth sense for what is on-trend for the under-tens, purchased a circus tent that is designed to slip over our trampoline. She informed me, just as I was getting the new safety net in place and getting ready to settle down in front of the computer for some more Bath City updates, that it would be really nice for the Nedved Juniors if I put it up right away. 'The instructions say it only takes ten minutes,' she explained.

Maybe the people who designed the darned thing, with a few weeks practice, might eventually manage to errect it in ten minutes. Considering that it is supposed to be a two-man job and I was doing it by myself, that said instructions had been misplaced and/or blown away by the time I got all of the poles assembled, and that by the time the second half kicked off twilight was fast approaching, there was no way I was going to get back to the computer in ten minutes. I rushed out the door into the garden dragging a long trail of multicoloured nylon behind me. I was so intent on getting the thing assembled that I never stopped to question why exactly my children would want to jump on a trampoline inside a tent. Am I alone in thinking that this is contrary to the free-spirited nature of the act of trampolining? Is the fact that I have asked a question beginning, 'Am I alone in thinking...' a sign that I'm getting really old? Does Paul Bostock ask this sort of question?

After a rushed job that would pass for complete in the approaching darkness, I ran back inside and refreshed my computer screen to find...nothing. Sean, our intrepid online match reporter, later confessed his hands were so cold he was strugling to send out texts about what was happening. There had been a light dusting of snow and ice the night before in the Bath area the night before, but St Albans had been hit harder. The match had only gone ahead due to the hard work of the St Albans' supporters. Even then one of the terraces had to be closed for health and safety issues. Considering how much bad luck Bath City has had with cancelled matches, we all owe the St Albans' volunteers a big thank you.

I later learned that City's dominence lasted through the second half. St Albans did manage the occasional raid on City's goal, especially a blistering shot at fifty-six mintues from Chris Sullivan. For the most part, though, City kept up an intense pressure, and Bastock managed just enough to keep out a second goal. It was not until there were only ten minutes left in the match that he finally relented and City put the game away.

It started with Darren Edwards. After being removed from the Bishop's Stortford match complaining of blurred vision, Edwards had suffered an excruciating headache which got so bad he ended up in Frenchay Hospital for two nights. He was cleared for release after a brain scan. He wasn't expected to travel Saturday, but he came along anyway. It was only fitting he be involved in the best play of the match. Edwards passed the ball to Kaid Mohamed on the right. Mohamed could have taken a shot on goal. Instead he crossed the ball to Lewis Hogg. For the second consecutive match Hogg scored City's second goal with a header. Hopefully it is a run he will extend for several more games.

I sat at the computer and waited for full time. A quick glance at the league table revealed that the three points had not lifted City above tenth place, but it had put them only only five points away from the playoffs. A win against free-falling Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday night could lift them as high as seventh. In fact, if you assume that City were to win its two games in hand (come on, we don't admit it but we do always count games in hand as three points when we look at the standings, don't we?), then City would be in an exilerating fourth! There is still a long way to go, but things are looking positive enough I wonder how anyone could have been discouraged by the draw against Bishop's Stortford. Right?

Little Nedved Junior loves his new circus tent. He thinks its the coolest thing ever. I took all the credit.

The Female Galacticos

Galácticos (or superstars) is a Spanish term used to describe expensive, world-famous football players, having either positive or negative connotations. This term came into use to describe the policy pursued in the first tenure of Florentino Pérez's presidency at Real Madrid, where he purchased at least one galáctico in the summer of every year.

Perhaps I'm overstating things slightly to say that my new home town team, the Atlanta Beat, are the WPS version of Real Madrid. After all, the Beat are so new they have yet to even hold a practice. So, I'll agree I'm overstating things. Slightly.

From where I'm sitting the Beat appear to be about to take over the world. As I described in my recent post, Atlanta Beat, or Umeåtlanta Beatrottsklub?, the Beat front office had successfully signed three players from the Swedish women's football giants, Umeå IK. Among these newly signed players is a nineteen-year-old with realistic ambitions of being the best player in the world: Ramona Bachmann.

Why be content with only one superstar, though? Why not have two? At the recent WPS main draft in Philadelphia, the Beat had the first overall draft pick. It was a surprise to no one that they selected three-time All-American Tobin Heath. Although only twenty-one years old, Heath has an impressive array of accomplishments. During her four years playing for the North Carolina Tarheels she helped them to win three national college championships. She won her first international cap at age 19, and was the youngest member of the gold-medal winning US Olympic team in Beijing. Basically, she's awesome.

Since the majority of my readers are not American I'd better take a moment to explain what a 'draft' is. Rather than just let teams fight over young prospects with little regulation, most professional leagues in America have a system for distributing young talent to the teams that need it most. Because high-school and college sports in America is not only very competitive, but also well financed, elite athletes normally stay in these programs until they are about twenty-two years old. At that point, if their prospects are good, they will enter themselves into a professional 'draft.' Each team selects players in turn, normally with the weakest team going first. As the Atlanta Beat are a brand-new expansion team they got the first choice of this year's crop of college seniors. They would not confirm in advance who they were going to pick, but nobody had any doubts that Tobin Heath was going to be their choice.

What does this mean for the Beat then? Are Heath and Bachmann going to be the Gerrard and Torres of the WPS? Well, maybe. It's too early to say, and as Real Madrid have shown repeatedly, it takes more than just the best players in the world to win a title. Head coach Gareth O'Sullivan still has a huge challenge ahead as he tries to fashion a group of players who have not even met before into title contenders. At least he now appears to have the right ingredients to do it with.

Heath also offers the Beat something else that all professional teams need: a player with star quality off the pitch. For the Beat to succeed long term it is more important that they conquer the hearts and minds of the Atlanta sporting public than the teams they face on the pitch each week. This won't be easy. Atlanta's main paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, shows little interest in the city's new team. They declined to even cover the draft at all. It's going to take someone with charisma and charm to get the Atlanta media to take an interest, and Heath is probably the Beat's best shot.

The Beat also picked up six other players in the WPS draft. Blakely Mattern, a two-time All-American defender from South Carolina, was their second pick. I'll admit that as a relative newcomer to women's football, I didn't know who Mattern was, but she is well known to Coach O'Sullivan. 'Blakely is a very solid defender,' he said, 'who I have seen play on a number of occasions.' She was the only pure defensive player the Beat took in the draft, so I hope she is solid. She sure was excited to be drafted, though:

'I couldn't be happier. I'm just on cloud nine right now. It's literally a dream come true to even have a chance to be here, and to think I'm going to be playing professional soccer is unbelievable to me. It still hasn't sunk in yet. It couldn't have worked out any better!'

The Beat potentially set some sort of sporting record (I'm sure someone keeps up on this sort of thing) by selecting twin sisters in the same draft. Shameka (defender/midfielder) and Shaneka (forward) Gordon originally hail from Old Harbour, Jamaica. They both played together at the University of West Florida.

The Beat also selected three more forwards (O'Sullivan has said he wants the Beat to have an attacking style of play!): Jill Hutchinson from Wake Forest, Kasey Langdon from Okalhoma State, and local girl Carrie Patterson from the University of Georgia.

With twenty-one players now signed or drafted, the Beat must be coming close to completing their squad. The only obvious opening is another keeper to back up Allison Whitworth. Will the Atlanta Beat fulfil their promise to be 'the best in the world?' I think they might just do it.

New Media In Action!

Last night about midnight I was struggling to write my article on Saturday's draw with Bishop's Stortford. As Bath City had thrown away a 2-0 lead at a key point in the season, I was finding it difficult to write something that was truthful without being totally depressing. To lift the mood I turned on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra to hear the commentary of the NFL playoffs. It was the AFC championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets. The coverage was from the Westwood Radio Network in America (to me, after years living in the UK, the commentators sounded REALLY LOUD AND REALLY FAST!!!!!) with the BBC's Arlo White adding insights and statistics from a studio in London during the American network's frequent commercial breaks. As is the norm on during Radio 5 Live, Arlo invited the listeners to get in touch by text, on Facebook, or through Twitter.

I don't usually take up these invitations. It is a pretty rare event when I find any of these listener comments at all enlightening. Why would I want to inflict my own ill-informed, potentially biased opinion on the entire nation (especially when I have this blog to do that through, anyway)? Unusually, though, Arlo White gave his own Twitter address, @arlowhite, and it just so happened that I follow Arlo White on Twitter. One of his recent tweets was just there in front of me on the computer. Without giving it much thought, I sent the following tweet: '@arlowhite as an American in exile, its great to get the coverage of the playoffs. Keep it up! (next year the Falcons will win it all). '

I was determined not to be up too late writing, so as soon as I sent this I buckled down to try and grind out a description of City's defensive collapse in the second half. I didn't get very far, because within twenty seconds or so I heard Arlo's silky-smooth radio voice to my right say: 'NedvedsNotes on Twitter says, "as an American in exile, its great to get the coverage of the playoffs. Keep it up! (next year the Falcons will win it all)." Discuss. I don't know about that.'

Well, I just about fell out of my chair! I know this new media thing is supposed to be instant and interactive, but I hadn't really written that tweet with an expectation that it would be read on air! For some reason that I can't quite explain, contributing even a short, anodyne comment to a national, but niche-interest, radio broadcast made me feel very good about myself. I didn't even mind the way Arlo's co-host grunted dismissively at my suggestion that the Atlanta Falcons would be contenders next season (they probably won't be, anyway). Maybe that's why the BBC encourages interactivity so much - it makes the participants feel good. After all, that's what CBeeBies has been doing for years when it holds up homemade birthday cards that the parents of toddlers have sent in each morning. Nobody watches those and says, 'that birthday card for Jeremy, aged three, who I've never met, made my day!'

I can't say that writing about the Bishop's Stortford match got any less depressing after this. It helped to get me through a fairly gloomy bit of writing at least. If City have many more matches like that, listen out for comments on 5 Live from 'NedvedsNotes!'

Dog Days at Twerton Park

Bath City drew against Bishop's Stortford at home in front of 558 people yesterday. That was not how things were supposed to go.

No. Things were supposed to go very differently. City were supposed to crush Bishop's Stortford as they did at the away fixture 5-1. This was supposed to happen in front of a bumper crowd made up of people drawn back after the great football they saw at the last two Saturday home matches (1,404 against Newport County and 3,325 against Forest Green Rovers). That's the way I had planned it, anyway.

The last time I had seen City in action had been at their 3-1 away victory at Woking. This had been a superb performance in adverse conditions. It was followed by a fairly routine victory against the hapless Weston-super-Mare on Boxing Day. Being just a few points out of the playoff zone, and in excellent form, was creating a real sense of momentum among the City supporters. And then, like some sort of evil snow monster, the bad weather took hold, and matches got cancelled. Without kicking a ball, City found itself slipping down the table. When the Thurrock match went ahead against all expectations last Saturday, City played disappointingly and lost 3-1. Now after drawing to Bishop's Stortford, City are in tenth place and eight points behind the playoffs. Despite everyone's best intentions, all that momentum seems to have melted away with the snow.

I did not know this yet as I arrived at Twerton Park with the two Nedved Juniors. I was mostly just relieved to be back at a live match - the last two times I had been to Twerton I had found the games called off. I was excited to see the new enormous flag that had been organised by 'WSP' and his burgeoning group of City Ultras. The origins of this enormous Naval ensign have been kept obscure, but a whipround among the fans has paid for the City badge and the words 'BATH CITY' to be added to it. My Latvian flag with 'ANDREJS' painted on it, looking rather small and insignificant in comparison, made its first appearance as well.

Although the crowd appeared to be much smaller than I had hoped as the match kicked off, the opening spell of play looked very encouraging. Kaid Mohamed and Darren Edwards had the look of a potent partnership from the first whistle, and Lewis Hogg and Adam Connolly appeared to be in good form as well. The play was slightly scrappier, and more reliant on the long ball than I had remembered before the new year. It only seemed a matter of time, though, before City took the lead.

I started to get worried after about fifteen minutes, however, when City had not scored. Stortford was not looking likely to score themselves, but both teams began to struggle to do anything but knock the ball around in midfield. I got more worried when Darren Edwards went off at the twenty minute mark. It turned out Edwards was about to suffer a migraine and his vision had started blurring. He was replaced by the controversial Stuart Douglas.

When Douglas arrived at Twerton Park at the beginning of last season, he looked like he would be a goal-scoring machine for City. He was, once, against Newport County, about a year ago. He can show impressive ball skills, and frequently gets the ball in good positions in the penalty box. Frustratingly, this rarely results in a goal. Douglas doesn't help his case with the fans by regularly falling over and frequently getting called offside.

I try not to be negative about Douglas. Nothing would be better for City than for him to prove his critics wrong. That scenario wasn't looking likely, though, as all of City's forward attack appeared to have dried up. Both teams looked ineffectual, and I began to wonder if a 0-0 draw was on the cards. If this continued then City would need a bit of magic to score.

And then, the magic happened. Douglas fought for a ball in Bishop Stortford's half, and although he fell to the ground in the process, the ball rolled to City captain Jim Rollo. He slotted the ball neatly to Adam Connolly, who passed it to Lewis Hogg with one touch. Hogg, sent the ball right back to the advancing Connolly with a looping chip. Connolly struck the ball with a powerful volley from twenty-five yards out, right into the bottom left corner of the net. As City had been the dominant team for most of the match, you couldn't call it a goal against the run of play. It certainly wasn't expected, though.

Bishop Stortford had showed so little interest in City's goal so far, I felt very relaxed with City's single goal lead. Several chances for City came before the end of the half. The best came when Douglas got the ball in the penalty box unmarked, but stumbled before he could square up for the shot. Although the half ended with the score only 1-0, I thought City had a good chance of opening up a big lead before the game was over.

The second goal came within a minute of the restart. Connolly got the ball on the break and found Kaid Mohamed on the right. I thought he might score on his own, but a Stortford defender caught up with him as he neared the goal line. After tracking back a few yards, Mohamed made a perfect, head-high diagonal cross to Hogg. A brilliant goal, and a sign that City's pre-snow form was returning.

Except, almost immediately after the goal, the pre-snow form disappeared again. Perhaps because Bishop's Stortford had shown absolutely no inclination to score up to this point, City appeared to be happy to let them have most of the ball from this point. Stortford still didn't look very effective, but they certainly got plenty of time to practice penetrating the Ctiy defence. The practice paid off just after the hour mark. After several ineffective attempts to clear the ball, City sat back and let Stortford string together nine uninterrupted passes mostly around mid-field. Although none of the passes looked very threatening, eventually one was made to Charlie Sherringham at the top of the penalty box. He chested the ball down and struck it sharply into the City net. 2-1.

I've seen City show a tremendous amount of character in tough situations throughout this season. It was a real shock to see the same team allow an opponent back into a match through complacency. It was even more shocking to see City be just as complacent after the goal. After watching City sit back for another fifteen minutes, it was not shocking to see Charlie Sherringham score a second goal to level the score. A simple pass across the goal mouth eluded City keeper Ryan Robinson. Sherringham was in the right place to tap it into the net.

City did play better once they had blown their two goal lead, but I am too depressed to write about it. They came close to taking the lead again a couple times, but they really shouldn't have been in the position to need to take the lead again. The game was all but sewn up a minute into the second half. It was two points dropped, and dropped with an enormous thud. Suddenly, everyone, including me, is on a downer.

It goes without saying that after watching a two-goal lead disappear, the emotions in the stand ranged from anger to despair. The Bath City message board has been full of comments about how the playoffs are now out of reach and efforts should be concentrated on next season. In his post-match interview, manager Adie Britton said he doesn't have the money he needs to bolster the squad anyway at the moment. "It appears the money from the FA Cup has been spent on the quiet winter period when we haven't had games and we simply don't have the cash flow apparently to sign players," he said. Bummer.

Although I am usually a 'glass-half-full' type of person, I can't help but share in the generally miserable mood that has descended on the Bath City faithful. I have a lot of affection for this year's City squad, and the idea that they might end up merely mid-table really depresses me. Although they are capable of playing brilliant football, they need to play it more consistently than they are now if they are going to make the playoffs. After yesterday's match, that seems unlikely.

A bit of simple analysis, however, shows that this negative outlook is not really borne out by the facts. Bath City are eight points adrift of the playoffs, but there are eighteen matches left. Every single one of those matches appears, at least on paper, winnable (well, maybe not the away match to Bromley, but I say that only because City never seem to win there). Adie Britton needs more money and a bigger squad, but that's nothing new. He's accomplished so much with a limited budget so far, it is a bit early to start planning for next year. After yesterday, progressing to the playoffs might not feel likely to me, but the City players won't be concerning themselves with my feelings. Yesterday was an ugly draw, and that's all it was. Onward!

Highlights of the match can be seen here.

Once Around the Villa Park and Then Home

I travelled to Birmingham to attend a discussion group for work. It turned out to not be the all-day event I had anticipated, so I decided to take up a longstanding invitation to visit the nearby offices of one of my company's suppliers. The first part of the directions I received read, 'take a train two stops from Birmingham New Street to Aston...' Aston? As in Aston Villa? Yes, it turned out to be so. Besides being the home of a world famous football club, Aston is also the location of a lot of light industry, including the supplier I was visiting. After a tour of the company's headquarters, a bite to eat, and the exchange of a bit of industry gossip, I found myself with an hour to kill before I needed to get back on the train to Bath. Camera in hand I decided to see what there was to see at Villa Park.

So here is what I saw today. Like Bath City, Villa will be playing at home this coming Saturday. Unlike Bath City, Villa are still in the FA Cup.
Aston is a fascinating place. All together in a fairly small area you can find Victorian industrial buildings (many in use), traditional red-brick terraces, a vibrant immigrant community, a world-class football stadium, and a National Trust-like estate called Aston Park. According to what I've been able to read in the initial years after forming Aston Villa played its matches on the grounds of Aston Park.Villa Park is literally across the road from Aston Park. The first thing you come across as you enter the complex is the stately Holte building (which is not, as I first thought, 'Hotel' mis-spelled).As the signs in these pictures show, there are a lot of different places in Villa Park.

The Holte End of Villa Park is the most traditional looking. Like the Burrough of Aston itself, it is a good example of what happened when the Victorians got ahold of a lot of bricks.

Lots of football grounds have stands or ends named after roads. Usually this is an indication that the named road is nearby, or running alongside that part of the football ground. In the case of Villa Park, the Trinity Road Stand was actually built on top of Trinity Road. Honk if you love Villa!

Here's what you see when you come out from under the stands:

After the Trinity Road stand Villa Park is seperated from the street by a row of terrace houses. Here is the last view of Villa Park until you get to the other side of the North Stand:

After reaching the end of the road and making a right turn, I get my first glimpse of the North Stand through a break in the houses. I wonder if they ever watch Aston Villa play with that dish?

For several blocks around Villa Park, everything that can be painted claret has been.

After a few more minutes walking I finally get a full view of the North Stand. And then I wished I hadn't. This is a good example of what happened when architects of the 1960s got ahold of a lot of concrete.

I'm not sure, but I think this building near the North Stand is where the Academy is housed.

Here is a cheerful sign to greet the fans headed towards the Doug Ellis Stand. Or, where'over they're going. If anyone knows what this means please contact me.

Wasn't there a line in The Shawshank Redemption about a prisoner being transferred to 'R Block?' Prisoners, away fans, whatever.

This is not, as I first thought, an official Aston Villa Portaloo.

There seemed to be no end of curious signs at Villa Park. The more the better I say.

Aston Villa FC strongly discourages fat people from purchasing a season ticket for the Doug Ellis stand.

I think I understand what 'Goods Inward' means, but personally I don't think you can improve upon 'Deliveries.'

And here we are back on the other side of the Holte End. The circle is complete.

Back to the train station. It was a much nicer way to pass the time than filling out a spreadsheet back at the office.

Nedved's Notes Turns Half!

Yesterday marked six months of existence for this blog. Considering how many blogs there are that fail to live past the initial excitement of the first few posts, I've decided to celebrate. Well, not exactly celebrate, but at least mark the occasion. So, today instead of telling you about life as a American football supporter living in England, I am going to tell you about life as a blogger writing about being an American football supporter living in England. Vive le difference! I say.

So here are some raw facts: since beginning this blog on 19 July 2009 there have been:

95 Posts (including this one), 7,457 hits, and 11,383 page views.

The most viewed pages (other than the main page) have been: In Praise of Fish and Cleethorpes - 363 hits, City Till I Die (Possibly from Exposure)! - 352 hits, The Nedved Interview: Sido Jombarti & Florin Pelecaci - 314 hits, and An Introduction to Bath City FC - 279 hits.

There have been visitors to the blog from eighty-one countries. About 80% of readers are from the UK, 10% from America, and 10% the rest of the world. You might be surprised to learn that after the UK and the US the most common countries are Brazil, the Netherlands, and Belarus. I'm big in Minsk.

I find all of these stats very exciting, although in the world of serious football blogging it is still pretty minor league (or maybe non-league?).

I would like to thank the many people who have helped me with this work in progress. Mostly I need to thank Mrs Nedved, who all things considered, has been very accommodating with my obsession. Also the two Nedved Juniors need special mention for providing with so much material to write about.

Perhaps the biggest help has been from the Bath City webmaster, known as Yuffie. Without his excellent photographs this would be a rather bare blog. He not only produces very high quality work, but gives it away for free to anyone who wants to use it. This is very generous, especially considering that newspapers and magazines borrow work from his Flikr feed about as frequently as I do. He also gave this blog a big readership boost by putting a link on the main page of his website.

I've also received some much needed help from Bath City programme editor Mark Stillman, and the City stalwarts known as Lord Bear and WSP. The Atlanta Beat front office has been very accommodating with the posts I've done about thier project. I am especially grateful for the encouraging comment I received from Beat General Manager Shawn McGee on Twitter.

How did this blog begin? Almost accidentally, to be honest. I thought it might be fun to write about British sports for my friends home in America to read. This turns out to have been a very minor part of what the blog has grown into over the months. I didn't really intend for the blog to take on the semi-journalistic role it has slid into over time (although that has ended up being some of the most enjoyable work of all).

The most exciting experience so far was interviewing Sido and Florin. I had no idea what I was doing, and I became really aware of this about five minutes in. The article would have been a miserable failure if the two of them had not been so nice and understanding. A special thanks has to go out to the Gibbons family for lending me a pen when the one I had brought to the interview mysteriously disappeared.

There have been a few low lights as well. I find writing about Newport County fairly unpleasant. I find the comments this generates from Newport County fans even more so. I have also, so far, failed miserably on one of the key projects of this blog. City manager Adie Britton was kind enough to give up some of his valuable time to let me interview him, but despite a lot of effort I have not been able to knock my material into anything readable yet. This is solely due to my inexperience writing up interviews, and not with the information Adie gave me. I am still hoping to get this published soon.

What can you expect from Nedved's Notes in the next six months? Well, hopefully I'm still writing. If you had asked me back in July if this would last into 2010 I'm not sure I could have honestly said I expected it to. There are two more interviews in the pipeline (including the one of Adie Britton). There is also a lot more coming about the Atlanta Beat, whose season very conveniently begins just about the time that Bath City's is finishing.

And now, a contest: I've written an article of some sort on every single match City have played so far this season except one. Which one was it? [In actual fact the article is half-written but never published] I'm not sure what you'll get if you win. Perhaps a mention in the one-year-anniversary post I write next July.

Okay, I'm going to end this rather self-indulgent post now. Thanks to everyone who has been reading (I still find it somewhat surreal that people do actually read this thing!). Feel free to contact me anytime with comments or suggestions at nedvedsnotes(at)googlemail(dot)com

Normal service resumes tomorrow!

Attack of the Red Squirrels

Bath City lost to Thurrock 3-1 on Saturday. After nearly a month without any matches at all, I suppose I should just be thankful that the season is back underway. That would be a lie, of course. It's impossible for a loss to be preferable to anything else.

The match was almost postponed in fact. It snowed here in England a few days before the match, and although the weather was warming and rain was on the way, there was still some doubt about whether or not the match would be thawed yet. Reportedly, Thurrock contacted Bath City two days before the match to suggest the match be postponed until the following Tuesday. The proposal was thankfully declined (the City players are part-time, so they need more notice to clear their schedules, and also Thurrock is a long way away for an evening match). Rather bizarrely, the next morning the Thurrock website sported a moving banner declaring that the pitch had passed an inspection and the match was on. Although this volte face had a whiff of gamesmanship, it is more likely the run-of-the-mill administrative chaos that one comes across regularly when following a non-league club (I mean, all clubs except Bath City).

Once the game was definitely going ahead, the question in everyone's mind was, 'would three weeks off have a detrimental effect on the performance of the City Boys?' Adie Britton did not mention this in his post match interview, but I can't help but suspect it did.

The reason I say that is this: against Thurrock, City played very well for most of the match. Some observers have said that except for a ten minutes spell in the first half City were arguably the better side. The problem was that City allowed Thurrock to score three times in that ten minutes. After this, even though the game was almost beyond reach, City fought bravely. They managed to get a goal back on a penalty from Kaid Mohamed in the closing minutes of the match.

Other than a few details, this is almost the same story as what happened to City earlier in the year on another trip to Essex. This was at Chelmsford, where City started strong for ten minutes before allowing four goals in fifteen minutes. Despite the overwhelming odds against a successful fight back, City fought back anyway. They went into the half 4-2, and managed a third in the second half before, rather tragically it seemed, finishing the game with no points. This was the first match of the season. The Thurrock match wasn't the first match of the season, of course, but after such a long break it sort of felt like it.

The parallels between the two matches are not exact. The goals allowed in the Chelmsford match were mostly the fault of on-loan keeper Will Puddy. The three goals against Thurrock were all for different reasons. The goals in both games were still down to a short period of defensive collapse, for whatever reason.

I suppose I should be really worried about the rest of the season now. I'm not, though. It may not be rational, but I'm going to just ignore that result come Saturday when I will be going to Twerton to see City take on Bishop's Stortford.

I wish I could just ignore Thurrock altogether, to be honest. That's not just because they are a team that for no fathomable reason City don't seem to be able to beat. They are a manifestation of a strange and rather unpleasant phenomenon in non-league football: clubs with no supporters.

Okay, I'm being harsh. There are some Thurrock supporters. Their supporters are not like the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot where you wonder if they exist at all. No, instead they are like the British red squirrel: rare, and easily to overestimate in number. Although the published attendance for Saturday's match was 275, Bath City supporters report that there were at most 175 in attendance. The difference in the two figures is possible explained by counting season ticket holders who did not come (or maybe counting the passengers in any planes that overflew the match on the way to London City Airport?).

Seeing as how Bath City only draw around 600 spectators (600 actual, live, breathing human beings) at Twerton Park, I'm in no position to get cocky about crowd size. What I can say, with confidence, is that Thurrock's average attendance of 326 is not enough to sustain a club at this level of non-league football (especially when it appears the genuine attendance average may be much lower).

Despite the lack of a mass following, Thurrock appear to be flush with cash. The cash, apparently, is being flushed down from the chairman, local businessman, Tommy South. After selling the adjacent Thurrock Hotel in 2007 he devoted himself (and his wallet) to running his club full-time. He's been fairly successful at it, considering that Thurrock did not even exist until 1985. To have reached step-2 of the non-league pyramid is pretty impressive.

It's not very nice, though, for the other clubs in step-2. It means that there are fewer away fans to come to your home matches. It means an away match with very little atmosphere. Tiny attendance figures also make the whole league look more, well, non-league.

I don't blame Mr South for spending his money as he sees fit. I do wonder why on earth he does it. If it is legitimate to ask if a tree falling in an empty forest makes a sound, it is fair to ask a similar question about Thurrock. If Thurrock win the league, who will celebrate the victory? It's not like there aren't a hundred well-established non-league clubs in the London area crying out for investment. Clubs where Mr South would be feted as a hero by more people than can fit into a phone booth.

Still, it appears to suit Mr South's fancy for Thurrock to punch well above the weight of its support. Step-2 is a curious level, where tiny chairman-financed clubs like Thurrock and Weston-super-Mare rub along with relatively huge clubs like Woking and Newport County. In an ideal world, Adie Britton and his team will put Saturday's defeat behind them and win promotion to the Conference National, and leave these red squirrels behind!