FC Halifax Town 2 Stockport County 0

A win for Halifax in a fairly routine pre season friendly bar one incident - you can't look too much into friendlies but for what it's worth, Halifax look a pretty effective unit bar some defensive mistakes, and their new signings are already starting to slot in nicely - they're the favourites in the Conference North and there was nothing here to suggest they won't be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

Stockport meanwhile struggled near the bottom of the Conference last season, and did little attack-wise in the first half of this game but improved after the break. They'll need to improve this season else they could end up swapping divisions with Halifax - personally can see them settling into mid table this time round though.

So in the match, Halifax took the lead midway through the first half with a Seddon shot going through the goalkeeper's legs, and got the second goal late in the second half from a soft/dubious/laughable penalty.

The incident was towards the end of the first half - Dan Gardner, who'd looked very good for Halifax, was shaping up to play a pass, around 30 yards from goal. He sort of turned as he was passing, and it appeared that one foot seemed to stay stuck in the turf, as the rest of him turned and that leg didn't turn with him.. next second he was on the floor writhing in absolute agony - it looked very, very serious at that point.

He was stretchered off, but later a scan revealed he definitely hasn't broken anything. But he said in an interview that it was the worst pain he'd ever felt, and the worry for him could be that this could turn out to be ligament damage - which in terms of time out injured could turn out to be worse than a break ultimately!

Mossley 0 Oldham Athletic 3

I've learnt from previous years not to look too much into performances at friendlies - the main example from last year was when I saw Mossley beat Hyde, and on the day Mossley beat a disorganised, near-shambolic Hyde side. The obvious conclusion was that Hyde were going to be relegation strugglers. Fast forward to the end of the season, and Hyde were top of the Conference North by some distance, and mainly because they played as a super-organised unit.

So, I guess going off that I shouldn't be thinking 'here we go again' with Mossley after seeing them manage just a single shot in this entire match. A shot that cleared the stand and possibly even the school behind the stand. Yes they were missing some of their first team players and playing Oldham's full first team so the result was entirely expected, but it was the complete lack of attacking threat that was a disappointment.

Early on Oldham seemed to struggle with playing with a ground with a small fence on one side, as they managed to send the ball over it at least 5 times in the opening 10 minutes. When play was stopped for an injury Dickov brought his team over and had a word, and they stopped doing it from then on!

Shortly after Oldham got a (dodgy) penalty, and scored, and really they seized the initiative from there on in. They scored again at the start of the second half, and mainly bossed the game. Mossley finally had some solid spells of possession late on but still failed to create anything with it, and Oldham added a third goal right at the end. 

It was an easy and relaxed first run out for Oldham, so much so that they seemed to repeatedly switch off and give away possession in dangerous areas - fortunately for them Mossley were never actually going to manage to exploit any of these opportunities, so in truth it didn't really matter!

The positive for Mossley is that because they so much sat back and didn't at all make a contest out of it, the game was a manager's dream from Oldham's perspective - no risk of injuries, no risk of embarrassing loss to non league opposition. That means Oldham are likely to be more than happy to come back for another friendly next year - and with a crowd not too far short of 1000 at this game, financially this must be a big pre-season bonus for Mossley.

Best and Worst of 2011/12

So, unless today's torrential rain forces a postponement, tomorrow I'll be watching my first game of the 2012/13 season - albeit only a pre season friendly - (Mossley vs Oldham Athletic). So to draw the curtain on the last season, here's a quick 'bests and worsts' from all the grounds I visited during the course of it:

Noisiest atmosphere: For most of the season this was between Bolton and Sheffield United, and then on the final game of the season I went to the Galpharm Stadium, where the Huddersfield Town fans created a right racket for the majority of the match! Admittedly everyone was given a 'clapper' which certainly added to it, and it was a play off semi final, so I'll be interested to see in the coming season if they get close to that atmosphere in a normal match.

Best match: A tough one - I remember the second half of Manchester City vs Sporting Lisbon was very exciting, where City battled back from 3-0 behind on aggregate to bring it to 3-3 on aggregate, and then right at the end a last second Joe Hart header was narrowly pushed round the push, and the whistle went to sent Sporting through on away goals. It was a dramatic end and if that'd gone in that would've been an unbelievable moment. But I don't feel like it can be best as the first half was terrible!

I guess, and admittedly this is a highly biased choice, the most memorably exciting match was Bolton Wanderers 2 QPR 1. It had plenty of drama, and was to be mainly remembered in the media for QPR's goal that never was, but it was a riveting watch from start to finish. With the battle to stay up getting increasingly tight, this game had so much at stake, and it was Bolton leading 1-0 at half time, before Cisse grabbed a goal midway through the second half to make it 1-1.

Both teams had big opportunities to get the crucial win, and then in the 86th minute Klasnic was put through clean on goal... it was one of those moments where time seems to slow down, as he ran at the keeper and finally side-footed the ball towards goal and perfectly into the corner, and thus the Reebok Stadium erupted. Cue the most nail biting period of time added on I'd experienced in a long time!

Worst match: There were a couple of dismal Mossley games I put up with towards the beginning of the season, but in the preliminary round of the FA Cup, Mossley 0 Runcorn Linnets 0 was absolutely dire from start to finish. Now I enjoy following the FA Cup round by round where possible and was looking forward to seeing if my local team could get another run going, having got to the last stage before the 1st round the season before, but this was lifeless utter rubbish that completely went against the 'magic of the FA cup'. The replay was no better from a Mossley perspective, as they were dumped out 4-0 (remember this was against a team from the division below).

Best cheese and onion pie: By a country mile, Glossop North End. It was their steak pie that won an best football pie award a couple of years ago, but this one is ridiculously good.

Worst cheese and onion pie: Oldham Athletic. Their solution to how bad it is seems to be to give you something that's so ridiculously hot, you can't even taste it for a quarter of an hour after buying it. But, leave it to cool till it's edible, and you're left with mush in pastry!

Best league ground: With the Reebok Stadium a very close second, this goes to Man City's Etihad Stadium.

Best non league ground: I'm a big fan of Lancaster City's Giant Axe. It just has real character and a feel to it, which is added to with the backdrop of the train station and Lancaster Castle.

Worst league ground: Oldham Athletic's Boundary Park is looking dilapidated with it's missing stand and general lack of any refurbishment, it's a depressing mess at present.

Worst non league ground: Woodley Sports' Neil Rourke Stadium. (they've now renamed themselves to Stockport Sports having been knocked down a division because their ground didn't match the division's regulations). At the time I visited it was a plastic pitch in the middle of a building site on all sides, it was just a total mess. We'll see if they can developed it into something remotely respectable to match their ambitions.

Best goal: One of those frustrating non league moments where no one was filming so only the people at the match will ever see it - in the second minute of Chorley 2 Whitby Town 2, Jimmy Beadle gets the ball 40+ yards from goal with nothing on, and in a "what is he thinking?" moment, shapes to shoot. The ball goes high and then dips perfectly into the top right corner, impossible to stop.

Best moment: The minute's applause for Muamba at Bolton vs Blackburn. I think minute's silences/applause are overdone and frequently can feel forced and like they gain little, but complete with the stunning 'MUAMBA 6' mosaic and the ripples of chanting of his name, this really was one of those moments that lives with you and gives you goosebumps even when you look back on it months later.

Bolton in the Championship

So despite Manchester City's dramatic late turnaround to beat QPR 3-2, Bolton finished just below QPR after drawing 2-2 away at Stoke, and thus Bolton were relegated. So how will the team I support fare in the Championship?

Within a week of being relegated, the sinking feeling was made all the worse for the fans. as Bolton were faced with the need to significantly cut the wage bill to cope with the sudden drop in income. 16 players either left or were released, including Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ricardo Gardner, Gretar Steinsson, Ivan Klasnic and Nigel Reo-Coker. Not only had some reliable first team regulars gone, there was also little or no squad depth left in several positions.

Bolton have lately brought in two players to begin to add more options, with Matt Mills added to their defence and Keith Andrews in midfield. To me these are strong signings at Championship level, and strong battling type players will add a backbone to the team and perhaps replace the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker and David Wheater (still with Bolton, but recovering from a major ligament injury).

The hope with Bolton is they have more luck with injuries this time round - with all the players to pick from, I'd be confident this team would be right near the top of the table all season. But another series of unlucky injuries would expose the gaps in squad depth.

Last time round, both Chung Yong Lee and Stuart Holden (arguably two of Bolton's best players) were pretty much out all season long with major injuries. Various other smaller injuries disrupted the team throughout the season, and of course I don't even need to say what happened to Fabrice Muamba. The hope is that Bolton were dealt such a bad hand in terms of luck last season, surely they're due some fortune this time round?

Anyway fixtures were announced a few weeks ago, and of all the games they could possibly start with, incredibly Bolton begin away at Burnley - a bit of a local rivalry to start with, but lately much more so since Owen Coyle moved from Burnley to become Bolton manager. Burnley, having started so well in the Premier League, went on to plummet down the table to relegation without Coyle, and have been stuck mid-table in the Championship since.

Burnley was an away trip I was pondering before the fixture announcement, but the home fans will be wound up given the circumstances and it being the opening fixture, and thus the idiots may also come along looking to cause trouble (and that's in both the home and away ends). I'm not sure if I'm looking into it too much or whether I'm just best giving this one a miss!

Whatever the result in this I feel the most important thing in the start of the new season will be the next two matches - at home to Derby County on Tuesday evening, and then Nottingham Forest on Friday evening (live on Sky). I say this as in previous seasons, the Reebok Stadium was widely seen as a difficult away game for many teams - there was a confidence that Bolton had at home that meant even major sides like Arsenal and Tottenham were intimidated into regularly losing/drawing there.

For once this didn't happen for Bolton last season, with just 4 wins from 19 home games. A poor start at home seemed to take away the confidence they'd built up over the seasons. But they've got the chance, in these difficult but potentially fairly attack-friendly opening home games, to make a statement to the other Championship clubs that the Reebok Stadium will be a really difficult away day for everyone. And of course some good early home performances can also lift the crowd to build up a big, noisy and potentially intimidating atmosphere for all visitors!

Football's almost back!

Summer is difficult when you're trying to keep a football blog up to date - do you leave it untouched for months and hope your viewers come back when the next season begins, or try to make posts with little to talk about and risk filling your blog with boring ramble?

Euro 2012 somewhat filled the gap between the seasons, and now with just over a month until the majority of the leagues begin, it's time for pre-season to start to kick in. Pre-season of course never compares to competitive football in terms of entertainment and atmosphere, but it can just be nice to be back at the grounds and enjoy the simple things you don't get from seeing it on tv.

For me a return to going to competitive matches happens before the new season starts however, as I'm at a couple of the Olympic football games at Old Trafford.  I've heard it all with the whole 'yeah but it's not taken seriously' 'it's mostly youth players so it'll be rubbish' etc, but for £20 for a ticket it seems well worth it to me.

First on the 29th July I see a double header in the group stages, Egypt vs New Zealand and Brazil vs Belarus (and seeing the Brazil team will contain the likes of Pato, Neymar, Hulk, Marcelo and Thiago Silva that seems an attractive prospect!).

Then on 4th August I see the first of the quarter finals, the winner of Group D vs the runner up of Group C. Group C is the four countries I mentioned above so it would be optimistic to think there'd be any chance of Brazil only being runners up, but Group D contains a strong Spain team (Mata, Alba, Martinez) so I've got my fingers crossed I'll be seeing them!

In the meantime I'll be at the local pre season matches, starting with Mossley vs Oldham Athletic this Wednesday at 7pm. As with last year Oldham are planning on taking their full first team, which is excellent for Mossley in terms of getting a decent crowd paying admission and buying food and drink - think I'll be getting one of their excellent cheese and onion pies too!