To The Football At Huddersfield
I arrived in Manchester on my trip from Southport at Piccadilly and had the long walk from Platform 13 to the main concourse to get the tram to my hotel. There are plans to put another two platforms here, so careful design must be used to avoid worsening a nightmare interchange.
I had a bath and then returned to Piccadilly for supper in Carluccio’s. This branch seems to be much faster than most and I’ve not missed a train yet there, due to a slow meal.
I nearly did this time though, as the next Huddersfield train left at 18:11 and I didn’t get to Platform 13 until 18:15. But the crowded train was late!
I was in my seat half-an-hour before the match started.
Ipswich won 2-0 and I was able to catch the 22:00 train back to Manchester, where I had a non-alcoholic nightcap in Carluccio’s.
I suspect that Piccadilly needs almost to create a new concourse linking the dreaded Platforms 13 and 14 and the proposed two new ones to the lines in the main station, at the far end of the station.
Let’s hope some of the UK’s best architects are working on creating a station fit for the twentieth century, let alone the twenty-first!
Will Ipswich Make The Play-Offs?
This looked extremely unlikely after David McGoldrick got injured a couple of months ago, but after three wins out of the last four games, it just could happen!
C would now be going on about the dreaded play-offs. I don’t know why she hated them so much, but it could be that it made me increasingly edgy.
But if they do make the play-offs, after last night’s win against Derby, where they gave away a goal in the first minute and didn’t score the winner until the last, they won’t do it the easy way!
It’ll probably be a roller-coaster ride all the way to Wembley! That’s if we get there!
Comfy Seats At The AMEX Stadium
The AMEX Stadium is one of the few in the country, that have comfy seats for all.
Comfy Seats At The AMEX Stadium
As you get free train travel in the price of tickets, surely the attitude of the club and the stadium design, did all this contribute to a full stadium.
Sadly for Brighton, Ipswich spoiled their party.
Why All The Fuss About David Moyes?
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 this morning, is about David Moyes and his tenure at Manchester United!
I have been following and watching football for sixty years and I can name probably ten or even twelve very good or great managers, whose successors had problems. Those at the top level, who were followed by one who was equally good are extremely rare and the only one I can name is Bill Shankly at Liverpool.
But it’s not just in football, that the succession is a problem. Look at Kings and Queens, politics, Presidents and prime ministers and business leaders!
The only rule that seems to apply is that the more charismatic the leader, the bigger the problems.
So all those angry Manchester United supporters, should just remember than David Moyes’s problems are par for the course. Especially, when they have the example of Matt Busby.
Did Jack Warner Take A Bribe To Vote For Qatar?
It is being reported in the Telegraph, that Jack Warner took a bribe of over a million pounds to vote for Qatar in the bidding for the 2022 World Cup.
I file stories like this under the heading of Is The Pope A Catholic
East London To Yeovil By The Long Way
Yeovil is a long way from London and when I saw the fixture list, I felt it was a game that would be impossible to see.
So when I found out that Thomas Heatherwick had designed a café at Littlehampton, a town I’d never visited, I thought perhaps I could go there on the way and have a decent lunch.
So I booked a ticket to Littlehampton from Clapham Junction and then another from Littlehampton to Yeovil, with changes at Fratton and Salisbury.
I started just after ten and took a Class 378 London Overground train to Clapham Junction.
I just missed a Littlehampton train at Clapham Junction, so I had a cup of hot chocolate on the bridge at Knot Pretzels.
The train I did get to Littlehampton was direct, but it did take an hour and thirty five minutes in a comfortable Class 377. I did walk to the beach at Littlehampton see the café and have lunch.
I just caught my train out of Littlehampton at 15:23, which was the first leg of my journey along the South Coast to Yeovil to Fratton. The train was an elderly but well-refurbished Class 313.
From Fratton it was a First Great Western Class 158, which was going all the way from Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff.
The final leg was a South West Trains Class 159 from Salisbury to Yeovil Junction. I arrived on time at 18:40.
I think this journey shows up our trains in a reasonable light. The journey times are slow not because of slow trains, but because of the frequent stops and complicated route. The journey took three hours seventeen minutes from Littlehampton to Yeovil, but there was only thirty-three minutes wasted in connections.
Although some trains date from the 1980s, there wasn’t anything as bad as the dreaded Pacers that inhabit the North. The services were pretty well-used and except for the short leg from Littlehampton to Fratton, there was a catering trolley on all trains.
Would I do this journey again? I might, but I doubt I’ll ever need to do it. My next trip to the South Coast involves a trip to Brighton, which will be a lot quicker.
I had hoped to take a few pictures, but my camera died at Littlehampton.
Wigan Do It Again!
Last year I asked if there was a God, when Wigan beat Manchester City in the FA Cup Final.
Has she just told everybody, she’s a Wigan supporter, as they’ve done it again?
I suppose Manchester City will have to buy a few more players, as this lot don’t realise that money is everything!
Walking To The Riverside Stadium
My purpose in going to Middlesbrough was to see Ipswich play Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium. On a pleasant day, it is one of the better walks from a station to the stadium, as there are things to look at.
I even popped into the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where I went over their current exhibition called Art and Optimism in 1950s Britain. It was interesting, but it was an exhibition, that would have been excellent to visit with someone of my own age, as a lot of the things shown, would bring back memories for those like me, who can remember the 1950s. I can’t actually remember the Festival of Britain, but I have seen photographs of myself, there in my Cumfifolda pushchair, with my grandmother.
I was a bit disappointed to see that some of Middlesbrough’s liths had been vandalised, as had the statue outside the court. There’s a report here on the latter, but the other damage looked like thieves were after the metal.
Mick Gives A Lesson In Motivation
This report of an interview on BBC Suffolk of Mick McCarthy is a classic and shows how to motivate your remaining strikers, so that one steps into the big shoes of David McGoldrick. Here’s an extract.
“All the ones that think they should be playing every week – Paul Taylor, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Frank Nouble – opportunity knocks for one of them,” McCarthy told BBC Radio Suffolk.
I would assume that gentle tactics like this didn’t appeal to Roy Keane.
Why I’m Pleased Manchester City Lost
There’s an old saying about cheats never proper.
Read this article in Wikipedia about the UEFA Financial FairPlay Rules and especially this section which relates to Manchester City.
Until books are fully opened by all of these teams and probably published on the Internet, I will not give them an iota of my support or sympathy.
The Anonymous Widower 