It's All A Bit Mickey Mouse

England vs Wales and Boston United vs Solihull Moors

Wembley: Theatre of boredom.

I was going to write a blog post about the England - Wales game but it was uninspiring and frankly pretty rubbish so I didn't have the will to do it before the Solihull game rolled around.  This game was also an appalling display of "football" and so I thought "why not dump these two together into one really depressing blog post?"  So now the scene is set here is what happened...

1,700 odd Welsh fans.

England took on Wales at Wembley in the hopes of securing a win and a foot in the door of Euro qualification. Anyone who watched the game will have seen what can only be described as a "professional" showing from an England team who so often lack the creativity needed to excite.  England went 1-0 up through a neat Ashley Young goal but had a lucky escape when Earnshaw missed an open goal from a couple of yards out deep into the second half.  It would be fair to say that the only ones drawing any inspiration from the drab and boring Wembley surroundings were the Welsh players and their meagre 1,700 or so fans.  With the turnout at 77,000 the question surrounding the return of home internationals seems academic, there just isn't the interest from the public.  The evening was marred by the sad death of a Wales fan before the game.

Coincidentally the first leg of England - Wales fell on the same day as Solihull's last league win, against Boston on the 27th of March.  Since then Solihull had gone 17 games without a win, only managing two draws in the process.  Boston have been playing some rubbish football, if you can call it that, recently and also have some sort of psychological issue with playing against teams who wear pink as matches against Nuneaton and Harrogate have shown.  With Solihull's poor run of form it was inevitable that United would mess up the chance to claim three points and that was exactly what happened.

Pink: United's bogey colour.

The York St Mickey Mouse
Show.

The home team started with Stones and Suarez up front while Newsham was pushed onto the wing in place of Holsgrove, so we're going for pace then.  Despite the ponderous front line the Pilgrims started the stronger and with only a few minutes gone it looked like Moors might be on the end of a right drubbing.  There were a couple of chances for Stones but when he did get to the ball his headers were either weak, off-target or saved by the impressive Singh in the Solihull goal.  Suarez was also unable to hit the target and put a difficult chance wide.  That was about it for United.

Solihull came into the game and made the Pilgrims look lacklustre and mediocre at best.  Much like England, Boston suffered from a chronic lack of creativity and there was seemingly no plan B.  As soon as the high ball into the box option had been sussed by the Solihull back-line, United were out of ideas.  Only Moors' profligacy saved Boston's blushes before the break and the home team walked off with boos ringing in their ears.

The second half saw more of the same dull rubbish from United.  This time Solihull were more accurate, Bastock flapped at a cross, the defence failed completely in their attempted clearances and Thompson-Brown slotted home his second chance of the half.  Holsgrove and Milnes were thrown on for Stones and Hall to chase the game but the reaction was toothless.  United had the odd chance, Semple heading on target from a difficult position while Milnes and Holsgrove shot wide, but the Pilgrims scarcely looked like troubling the Solihull defence who deservedly claimed their first points of the season.

Head in hands time for United.

As for United, something needs to change and fast; this game saw the first instance I've seen of fans calling for the managers to resign.  The attendance was 1,117 and with performances and results like that it won't stay above 1,000 for long so things really need to pick-up and quick.  Any pace up front, even if it came from the right back Jordan Fairclough, would be appreciated as a back-up plan at the very least.  At the moment the United game-plan is very, very predictable.

Next up: Boston United vs Hinckley at York St.

Easy

Wales vs England

Firstly a bit of pre-amble... It's been a busy week at Boston United.  Shortly after the Harrogate game last week it became apparent that Rotherham had sacked their manager.  Inevitably the rumour mill started turning adding to the fears that the managers would leave.  Rob Scott had previously denied all links with Grimsby but the Rotherham job was bigger and at Scott and Hurst's footballing home no less.  The news broke on Monday morning.  No, not Rotherham... Grimsby.  Flipping GRIMSBY!  Rob Scott seemingly not fussed about lying to the Boston fans had, along with Hurst, been informed of an approach by United chairman David Newton.

Newton advised the managers that they'd be allowed to talk to Grimsby if they would agree to some conditions which would cover the Pilgrims financially for the remainder of the season.  Rob Scott threw a hissy fit worthy of any toddler and promptly resigned taking Hurst with him with only seven games left in the season.  Since then, the now ex-managers have signed up to lead a team who are, frankly, not going anywhere this year.  In fact there is a chance that they may be playing Boston next year.

The waters are muddied even further by the fact that Scott and Hurst have no legitimate way of releasing themselves from their contracts and are, as such, still Boston managers.  Hurst is still registered as a player at York St!  Grimsby are adamant that Boston and Newton don't have a leg to stand on over compensation but I'd back Newton to rinse the Codheads for all they're worth over this.

Newton had to find some managers to take up the reigns before the crunch game at Solihull on Saturday.  He plumped for on-again, off-again Boston striker Jason Lee and club captain Lee Canoville.  I would imagine that this is only to the end of the season and is probably another wise decision from the chairman.  These two know the club and the team and probably won't change too much.  Their first decision came with the news that Haystead could be out for the rest of the season.  This prompted the return of 40 year old, club legend and record appearance holder, Paul Bastock.  Good luck, guys!

So the Solihull game was looking even more important now but, having not known this several months ago, I'd made other plans.  So it was that I found myself speeding through a misty English countryside on Saturday morning bound for another country.  A strange foreign land, with odd customs and an even more odd affinity for all things woolly.  Arriving in Cardiff it was clear that a party atmosphere was building as England fans milled around the crowded streets and bars.  Table football and super-expensive beer accompanied the highlights of encounters past in the England village.

The teams come out.

Miss Wales sings the anthems.

It was soon time to make the trip through the streets of Cardiff to the Millennium Stadium.  The ground started to fill up before kick-off and eventually almost 69,000 people crowded into the stadium.  The English national anthem was met with an inevitable wall of boo's, incidentally this was the most noise the Welsh made all day, whilst the Welsh anthem was greeted with a shower of inflatable sheep.  The match kicked off and within minutes the small number of Welsh fans having a party near the away end were silenced.  Frank Lampard's penalty conversion on seven minutes followed minutes later by a great Darren Bent conversion, after some good work by Glen Johnson and Ashley Young, effectively ended the game.

With some Wales fans calling it a day and making their way to the exits after only 20 minutes, the match descended into a training exercise for England.  The Welsh team were awful and none of the players seemed to want the ball.  England on the other hand were confident and with a bit more application could have scored several more.

Lampard scores the penalty.

With the lack of competition and the near silence from the Welsh fans it was difficult for the English to get any sort of atmosphere going, particularly in the second half.  The atmosphere amongst the group of Boston Boys at the game was probably lower than average with the news of England's heavy defeat in the 2011 Cricket World Cup being compounded by reports of a missed Weir-Daley penalty and a 1-0 loss at Solihull.  The rest of the EURO 2012 qualifier was played out calmly.  Wales had one or two chances but weren't able to capitalize due to a serious lack of quality all over the pitch.

England fans applaud the players.

Standing in the ridiculously poorly organized queues at Cardiff Central Station for an hour or so, there was time to mull over the game as England's qualifying campaign rolls on.  England's was a competent performance, you can only beat what's in front of you after all.  Wales on the other hand have some serious rebuilding to do to get anywhere near to being competitive in this competition.  Post match reaction from Solihull seemed to indicate that the Pilgrims were the better team and probably should have got something.  So, some consolation for the trip home.  It wasn't the worst day by a long stretch but it definitely wasn't the best either.

Next up: England take on Ghana at Wembley in a friendly.