Bored already!

This time most Saturday's I'd be heading off to my local boozer, Pi on Rose Lane, South Liverpool, for a couple of pints and to listen to the City game on BCIR.

Well, now the season's over Saturday's won't be the same for the next 3 months. So, what are you all getting up to today and for the next few months on Saturday afternoon now that there'll be no trips to TP for the match, or no tuning in on BCIR to listen to the commentary?

Personally, I'm already in Pi having a pint of Liverpool Organic Brewery "South Sea Pale". Then I'm heading off to the Albert Dock where there's a "Day of Steam" taking place. Apparently they've got some steam engines from the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways on display. Then I'm going to walk along to the cruise terminal on the other side of the Pier Head where HMS Bulwark is moored up.

Might go for a sneaky pint in the Baltic Fleet and maybe Black Lodge Brewery after that.

Suppose all of that will keep me out of trouble for a couple of hours! ;-p

Holiday, Glastonbury + cricket! Must say after 9 months I like a break from football, although I'm looking forward to watching the Euros.

After the rollercoaster, tension, nerves, and sheer unpredictability of following City, its time to relax and follow Somerset...ooer...

Well I sort of had the TP experience last night at the quiz night in Charlies.
Well attended and as always a good night. Thanks to quizmaster Scott, Bas, Martin and anyone else who helped, for organising this.
Nice to see the stadium busy as there were also functions in Randalls and the Hayes Lounge.

I was literally doing the cliched being dragged around the shops that apparently is the life of a football supporter in close season - in particular, a kitchen shop. I will mostly be spending the close season avoiding kitchen shops, doing a bit more band stuff enjoying my new kitchen (and bathroom) and, of course, going over to the Euros to watch my beloved Wales.

It says something about Bath City that I haven't thought about the Euros much until now. Of course, I am now concerned about Bale's knee and trying to recognise most of the other players. Actually, Bath City stuff isn't completely on hold as the 1000BC stuff is still very much ongoing and there is the Supporters' Society AGM (which you should all try to get to) on June 23rd.

I went to watch Oldland Abbotonians vs Wells City in Toolstation League Division One.

To win the title, Wells needed to avoid defeat, or hope Chipping Sodbury didn't overcome a six goal swing in goal difference.

Oldland won 2-0, Chipping Sodbury won 6-0. Oldland might end up winning promotion as well by finishing fourth but Wells failed to win the title.

Not a classic. A standard Western League game where players largely take out their frustration on the referee for 90 minutes, which affects their performance. Also a notable lack of praise for players when they do something well, meant a number of players panicked under pressure and failed to take their time on the ball. Still, a ground ticked off.

Just remembered I'm going away next month - Rotterdam, Antwerp, Gent and Iepers (Ypres) for a few days, finishing off in Lille on the day that Russia take on Slovakia in Euro 2016. Then getting Eurostar back to London and a quick escape back to Liverpool for more "work, eat, sleep, repeat..." ;-p

I should know but who is the statue of in your profile picture.

Ken Dodd!

Well that was fun in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ypres. Could't escape the football though - some competition called Euro 2016 was being shown in a lot of the bars!

I ended up in Lille of all places to catch Eurostar back home. Went to a great bar opposite Lille-Flandres railway station called Les 3 Brasseurs that served great, locally produced beer (well, Lille is right next to Belgium, and this part of France is renowned for it's beer). Unfortunately the bar next door, and the street outside, had been taken over by several hundred drunk England supporters. I managed to escape before the French riot police went in and started making arrests! No idea why people were telling me to stay well clear of any Russia supporters in Lille when it was the England fans/yobs who couldn't handle their lager that were causing the problems!

Anyway, back in Liverpool now - back to the rain, trains being delayed and cancelled, and English (and Irish) people misbehaving in the pubs! It's so much more civilised in the bars in The Netherlands, Belgium, and even France; and the beer is better over there! ;-)

Forget Brexit, I'd imagine the whole of France is praying for an Engxit asap....

Sorry Matt. There is no decent beer brewed in France. I'm currently watching Les Bleus with a pint of German beer in my hand.....and a flagon of red wine close at hand.......plenty of snow up here too.....might get the skis out tomorrow!

You need to get up to Lille then.

Good article here which mentions Les 3 Brasseurs:

http://masonjust.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/lille-beer-odyssey-and-much-more-part.html

Okay, the beer isn't as good as most of the beer you get over the border in Belgium; but it's better than that French lager stuff!

I'm bored to death with the Euros already. What a dreadful format that encourages non attacking play. Ten minutes of passing in midfield that peters out without a shot being made. Where are the exciting players to light up a game?

Boring!!!

Agreed Benny...especially applies to England who have been poor.  

Hodgson and the management team have made some big gaffs in the starting eleven selections.    
They corrected that in the Wales game for the second half, but against Slovakia, leaving out Rooney, Alli and Rose, England's better players in the Wales game, in favour of, particularly Bertrand and Henderson, was bad; I am not that enamoured with Lallana either.  Rarely was the game played to Vardy's strength...his pace, and he probably should have scored. Play your best team; put the game to bed, that is the old adage; keep the momentum, that is another. Instead Hodgson rang the changes and it did not work. England did not play badly but they did not do enough and paid the price. Euro 2016 is so even that no-one knows how this will pan out – if they had won the group they could have faced Croatia - but surely England have to find the right formula and settle on it. They are not good enough to make all these changes. I hope he doesn't consider reintroducing Sterling who, since leaving Liverpool, has been a shadow of his former self and barely merits inclusion in the squad. 

We have had many Welsh players, and supporters, so congratulations to Wales in their performance against Russia. 

Good luck to Northern Ireland tonight but I fear Germany will win relatively easily. 

Yes, I feared that the 24 team format would lead to some pretty poor football in the group stage too. However, I have really enjoyed the matches in the first two rounds of group matches. The standard of play, and the positive approach of the majority of teams has been excellent. I was very impressed with the standard of play in the match I went to in Lyon (Belgium v Italy), plenty of attacking play (although the second half was better than the first half), and the atmosphere in the stadium was electric (in fact the whole town was heaving with Belgians, all in good humour).

I suspect that there could be some less inspiring games amongst the third round of group matches, given how many teams are already through to the knockout stage or with very little needed to get them there. After yesterday's results, Northern Ireland now only need a draw to be sure of going through. However, if Germany beat them then Croatia will join Spain, who they play later on, in being certain of going through. And, in tomorrow's games, Belgium only need a draw now and Italy are already through.

Anyway, looking forward to going to a couple of knockout games this weekend, although slightly concerned that there may be one or two teams that see their best chance as being to play for the penalty shoot out.

Anyone else been to any games? How did you enjoy them? Anyone else going to any knockout games?

My enjoyment of these tournaments usually increases once England have been eliminated, and this is likely to be the case with this one. As usual the level of expectation of our national team is far too high - just because the Premiership maybe the richest league and the most over-hyped does not mean that it has the highest quality. And of course there is a very limited number of England qualified players who are regulars in their teams. The most glaring example of this are the goalkeepers and yet there are some who rate the accident prone Hart as one of the best 3 in the world! Those who talk up England's chances every two years clearly have little grasp of tournament football which we regularly fail to adapt to. However, my biggest gripe is that we never seem to enter these finals with a settled team - while the 23 selected for the squad are very much of a muchness, surely the manager had learnt enough from those endless qualifiers and friendlies to know his strongest 11 and keep with them.

But England aside, I have enjoyed the tournament so far. I'd have preferred to keep the 16 team format, but this one has been better than I feared.

So Alan, are you one of Platini's mates? How do you regularly get tickets for these tournaments? As with Poland/Ukraine 4 years ago, I applied for several group matches without success. Did you buy the round of 16 tickets at the same time as the group ones?

Anyway, have a great time! (and the Germans to win the final, although I hope it's Italy...)

We just applied for tickets in the public round of ticket sales last summer. We actually applied for four group games (in Lyon and Saint-Etienne), but only got tickets for one, but we got tickets for both the knockout games we applied for. We didn't apply four years ago, but eight years ago (Austria / Switzerland) we applied without any success. By contrast, in 2000 we got tickets for both games we applied for (Bruges and Liege), and in 2004 for all three (all in Lisbon).

We much prefer to arrange tickets before the draw is made (or even before all the qualifiers are known). It means we can get in early for booking transport and accomodation, and we can plan around location and schedule rather than specific teams. The hotels we booked were long since sold out before the draw, and the cost of transport had soared by the time of the draw.

I would highly recommend attending matches around Europe, as well as Euros in France, Belgium and Portugal, I have been to top flight league matches in France, Germany and Spain (as well as a World Cup in France - 1998 not 1938 before you ask), and the experience (particularly in the Bundesliga) has always been a great improvement on the matchday experience of top flight football in this country.

I went to Bordeaux to watch Wales. Magnificent weekend. 24,000 Welsh there and totally relaxed and friendly.

I wish I had been in Toulouse last night - night of a lifetime for the followers of Wales - don't begrudge us our one night of glory.

"I would highly recommend attending matches around Europe, as well as Euros in France, Belgium and Portugal, I have been to top flight league matches in France, Germany and Spain (as well as a World Cup in France - 1998 not 1938 before you ask), and the experience (particularly in the Bundesliga) has always been a great improvement on the matchday experience of top flight football in this country."

I've always wanted to a league game in Europe. Year before last I was in Berlin and wanted to go and see Hertha v Dortmund. But I also wanted to visit the FC Union Berlin ground in the south east of Berlin in Kopenick so I went there instead; but I only made it as far as the FC Union club shop in a shopping centre . I attempted to walk to the ground (which is in a forest) but got lost and had to shelter in a bar because it was so hot!

Anyway, the following day I was in Hamburg and was planning to go and watch St Pauli, but the match had sold out so I ended up watching it in a bar around the corner from the Millentor Stadion. Forgot who they were playing but it was 3-3 at FT.

I don't think I'd want to go to an England game abroad though!

P.S. this N. Ireland v Germany game that's on now has been good so far.

Matt_1376 wrote:But I also wanted to visit the FC Union Berlin ground in the south east of Berlin in Kopenick so I went there instead; but I only made it as far as the FC Union  club shop in a shopping centre . I attempted to walk to the ground (which is in a forest) but got lost and had to shelter in a bar because it was so hot!

Shame you didn't make it to a game there, as they've got one of the best sets of fans in Germany!

I can vouch for the fun in going to games abroad. It's usually great fun, and is most times pretty different wherever you go. Since our season ended I've been to see Beziers v Chambly in the French third tier, which was an unexpected laugh riot, and offered up some of the most unintentionally silly ultra behaviour I've ever seen.

I also went to Syrianska v Ljungskile in the Swedish second tier, which was noteworthy for the fact that the home team are almost entirely made up from the local Syrian community, and I hardly heard Swedish spoken the whole game. A lively bunch they were too!

I guess I'm lucky enough to travel a lot, and I'll always make a point of catching a match if I possibly can. Although the top-of-the-table clash between Europa FC and Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar just before Christmas was a bit of a stretch...

I would recommend going to a game East of the old Iron Curtain though if you like it lively!

Can you believe the Spanish shirts......when Paul Weller wrote Eton Rifles, with the line, battered and bruised I was sick down my shirt, he surely couldn't have forseen anyone designing a shirt like these!

So England's reward for scoring a grand total of one goal against Russia and Slovakia (who between then conceded 5 to Wales) is to end up in the same half of the draw as Germany, Italy, Spain and France!

Yes it proves that you should put your best team out, try and win games and keep up the momentum or life is tougher.

When I'm in Japan I always try and get to a game. A few years ago I saw Urawa Red Diamonds at the Saitama Stadium, which was interesting, but lacking in atmosphere with the stadium half empty. Also the club seem to think they are the Man U of the J-League, being the best supported team in Japan. Since then I trekked over to Yokohama Mitsuzawa Stadium in the hope of seeing Yokohama FC in an Emperor's Cup match, only to find that it was an away match and the stadium was empty! Yokohama FC looks like a fan-driven club in the mould of AFC Wimbledon, since it was formed by fans after Yokohama Flugel was merged with Yokohama Marinos to make Yokohama F. Marinos - the F. in the name being the only thing left of the former Flugel club! Still haven't got to see them yet...

On the latest trip, I went to see Kashiwa Reysol beat Vissel Kobe 2-0 at the Hitachi Kashiwa stadium. This was a great choice as it is a small stadium packed out to near capacity in the home areas. Looks like a good community-focused family-friendly club as well (https://www.reysol.co.jp/english/). Interesting to see safe standing at each end. Even though I got there an hour before kick-off I could only get on the very edge of the terrace since everyone reserves their spot by tying a scarf or shirt onto the rails. No roofs on the stands or terracing either, but to be fair, you're more at risk of getting sunburn than getting wet. Almost every supporter wears a home shirt in bright yellow, and if you're not wearing one you are offered a yellow plastic bag type thing to put on to maintain the uniformity of colour on the terrace! I guess it's a good incentive to buy a shirt if you are a regular, and the shirts were a decent price anyway, not much more than the price of the entrance ticket.

Now there's an idea....black and white striped plastic bib for any attendee at TP not wearing a replica shirt! Can we get someone to sponsor it?