Paddington is a Wader – this is just after DJ barged 2 young children out of the way 👀
Attendance – 166
Ground Rating – 7/10
Picnic…
We turned out mob handed for our 1st proper away day of the season… 🤥
GreenArmy!
When I say mob handed, this is the GreenArmy I’m talking about 🤣 Bunnyman, DJ, BigAl and me took advantage of a group save on the train and set off at 11.30 – Mine and BigAl’s 1st proper rail journey since before lockdown – he was so excited (if you know him, you know this is completely true and a few numbers were taken…🙄)
Oh and he might of had a little wee about using the new Elizabeth line 🤣🤣🤭
The ground was easy to get to from the station and the drink etc reasonably priced. A couple of screens in the clubhouse, a fruit machine and Bunnyman spotted the dartboard…
Good service at the bar – even at half time👍
The locals were all friendly 😁
A very dry pitch….
Out for the 1st half the pitch was seriously dry – I’m guessing they were probably on a hosepipe ban – although BigAl did spot a firemans hose – no, really he did… in fact he gave us the detailed specs of it – so detailed in fact I immediately deleted from my memory…
It also soon became apparent why BigAl was so keen to visit this ground, home of the ‘The railwaymen’ – Yep we were right on the trainline and were treated to a steam train passing several times during the match…
JT’s Waders on Tour flag got an airing today
Not a good day at the office today – we lacked any real threat going forward and created only a handful of chances..
Only got a pic of the chips – DJ made short work of the burger…DJ also need to work on his selfie poses…2nd Half
I has to be said it is a big thanks to our no.1 Timmy Smith that the score line wasn’t more embarrassing – he had an outstanding game and 2 of the saves he made in the 1st half were world class!
We had a great day out, with some laughs, plenty of drinks and the trains were even on time! – sometimes the football is just incidental… 🥃🍷🍺🍺🍻🍔
Tel & Chelseaboy need to work on their selfie poses 😂
Entertainment Value – 8/10
A funny old one today – the omens were against us… It started on my return from getting lashed ( https://lashesbyamy.co.uk ) at 11am I walked through the Spoons Yard and to my horror it was closed!!! 👀😭 I sent out the distress call to the Waders chat and so myself and BigAl didn’t meet up with the GreenArmy until 20 minute before kick off. No spoons on a Match day…🤦♀️
Cheslseaboy, MattyMouser (looks like he’s staging a comeback – this is his 3rd visit this season :)) Rodney, Grandad were all waiting at Langford road for us. Bunnyman was still sunning himself in Weymouth.
2nd Omen – We kicked off towards the BelEnd in the 1st half – and them’s not the rules! according to BigAl😜
Walking up to the BelEnd and I was met with Tel’s latest charm offensive – “Ere them photos you posted!” (I’d done a FB montage for my daughters 25th the day before) – “You was bl00dy gorgeous when you was younger!!” 🤔 now clearly he does need to go to specsavers, yes but, ahem..🙄Yeah cheers Tel, guessing age hasn’t been so kind to me 😉😂🤣 I think at 80 (him not me! 👀) I’m gonna be hard pressed in helping him improve his chat up lines now 🤣
A good win for the Waders albeit against a club a step below. We passed the ball well and Jon Clements was oustanding scoring a hattrick!!!
Goal!!
The match was pretty much over at half time with us leading by 4 goals.
In the 2nd half we eased off and the visitors scored a consolation goal – all in all a good win for us 👏
So still in the cup and We’ve drawn Dereham away on 3rd September. I believe a few of us will be making the trip – when I say a few, I think its 8 of us 🤣
BigAl was happy today – apparently the rules for the 1st game of the season is scorchio weather…. and what a scorcher today would be; it said 33 degrees, but it felt much hotter 🥵
Myself, DJ and BigAl set off to Spoons for DJ’s obligatory pre-match burger. Chelseaboy was the next to arrive swiftly followed by Rodney, Lew and Grandad… I did have to do a double take when Grandad sat next to me pointing towards his nether regions “Oh dear oh dear you wanna see the bites I got on the BelEnd” 👀 err no thanks… luckily it turns out he was pointing at his lillywhites and referring to Tuesday night game 🤣
The topics of conversation didn’t really improve as the beers flowed.. I knew Grandad was into his fishing, but lets just say never EVER let him swim with Dolphins 🤔👀🤣
We took a slow bimble down to Langford Road, with a brief respite under the bridge for Lew to belt out La la la la la….Waders!🎵
It was a pretty small attendance I think someone said 123; no surprises really on a hot day in August. I was good to see JT, Bozza, ChrisB and Wessex – Bunnyman was missing in action today as was Em and M.
Lew burger that ended up being DJ’s 👀🤣DJ has spotted the burger…
You can probably tell that I am padding this one out – not because too many drinks, I stuck to beer today; but to be honest it wasn’t the most exciting of matches – with the hot weather and both defenses on top😬
Towards the end Cirencester looked to be getting on top and I feared they might snatch it, however, a good save by Smith saved us in the dying minutes 😊
Apparently Cirencester are one of the favorites to go up this season, so all in all we were happy with the point today 👍
So I, yes, I was persuaded to part with another few quid to keep this blog alive (yes I have to pay for this site 👀) I also took advantage of the family ticket this season for myself, BigAl and DJ – good value at £220 for the 3 of us 👍 well not quite such good value for me as BigAl, is paying his share back to me in instalments…. 🤔
I’ve only done a 3 pre-season friendlies, and to be honest it difficult to say what we are going to offer, now we’ve dropped down to the southern Central – the management team are gunning for promotion – we’ll see. On a positive we’re at home on Boxing Day – let hope they change it to a 1pm kick off 🤞
I half expected it, but hoped I’d be wrong and we’d at least hang on to local lad… James Peters…. but it wasn’t to be 🥺
JP’s like a son, BigAl and I have been watching him play footy since he was a kid – nothing weird in that..👀 we were actually watching our son who was in the same year as JPs kid brother Olly…
JP always gives us a wave when he spots us out and about in Biggy 💚… So I was over the moon when he joined the Waders, it seemed so right to have a local lad 😊 and trust me he really cares about the club, never giving less than 100% – So this feels really personal….
With a voice like that – we could actually be related 🤣
Yes he’s prone to the odd booking… but it because he cares do much… winding up the away fans though 🤔 not sure I can comment 😂
An all round top geezer – we wish him well! 💚⚽️💚 I really don’t know what the #$&€ is going on down at Langford road…🥺 Is there anyone left now??
Was I surprised on 24th January when I saw the tweet from Nunny? Yes I suppose I was; I knew it wouldn’t last forever, after all he’d only returned to the club to help us out – 2+ years ago… so I knew the day would come… 🥺
Nunny is so much more than a Gaffa 💚 he’s a mate, a brilliant people person, a bridge builder – Just a thoroughly decent guy; Ok he’s also a Gooner, but you can’t have everything can you…🤣
Nunny isn’t the type to dump and run, its just not him… So this didn’t come out of nowhere, he’s done this for (his) good reason(s) and the Green Army have nothing but respect for him 💚⚽️💚 we understand, we truly do. We also don’t believe for a second that the Waders would of survived in this league without him at the helm, you only have to scroll through some of the players tributes to him to understand he has something special; Someone once said to me “You can’t do enough for a good boss”
So, yes I’m sad, we’re all truly gutted; but not like before, because this time I knew it was coming; I’m sad because I don’t feel he’s been given the credit he deserves – and he deserves it by the bucket load!!
Chris Nunn we salute you! for me it will always be “Chrissy Nunn’s Green and white army”
Russell Short announced he was leaving us a couple of days back – another real shame 😪 he’s had a couple of spells with us, a nice guy, quality player and the 2nd best looking player to ever wear a Waders shirt – 2 guesses who holds the no.1 spot???
He’s no Big Gav…😘
Shorty’s 1st spell with us was the early days of promotion playing in the back 4, his performances were outstanding, although unlucky with injuries. In his 2nd spell, he was player / assistant manager where we were to see a different side to him, getting some impressive results standing in for Nunny.
Bushey with Lew on his birthday
Hot on the heels of shorty’s departure, we heard that Shane Bush had also decided to leave us 😭😭 What a guy he is; Lee Allinson signed him and when he departed to Hendon, Bushey showed some immense loyalty by staying with the depleted Waders side 😍 The last few years he’s stuck by us playing at centre half and we all know he secretly wants to return to bring a striker 😉 I have little doubt that he’s had plenty of offers the last few years – but loyal he’s stayed; What we all love about Bushey is he’s so approachable, up for a laugh and always appreciative of the Green Army…. Really sorry to see him go 🥺
🤣🤣🤷♀️
As I was typing this blog another 2 players have announced they’re leaving us; Matt Hall, who has played at centre half, has been outstanding for us 😢 and always the up for some banter with the fans… In fact, Matt is to blame for our 5 year old grandson’s current goal celebrations…Not sure they’re appropriate for his level of football – but good to know those awayday coach trips weren’t all a waste..🤔🤭
Coaching in progress
“Joe Neal.. Joe Neal.. Joe Neal.. Joe Neeeeeeeeal……!”🎤🎵🎵 If you know, you know… Gutted!! what a player – was on loan from Cambridge utd to start and really showed his class; I can’t believe they let him go (Nor can some of the Amber army). Nunny was lucky enough to sign him and he soon started getting the goals for the Waders⚽️💚a hat trick on Saturday ffs 🤣 I don’t think I’ve seen a centre forward work so hard as Joe (definitely not Donners… pretty sure he doesn’t read these anymore.😬😬🤔🤭.) literally non stop running all game.
So here we are, a discombobulated Green Army, with 11 games left… sitting in a relegation place, with a new Gaffa (I have no judgements on Robbie, he’s only just started and looks to be popular with Stevenage fans 😊Jeez, we need him to succeed), and now hemorrhaging players (fans favourites I might add 😭😭); I have to say, it feels like it did, in fact no, it feels worse than back in October 2019 when Lee left us…. A depleted squad, who goes next is anyone’s guess 😳 I just feel really, really sad… 😔 I know its only football, but to quote the late great Bill Shankly:
“Some People think football is matter of life and death, I don’t like that attitude, I can assure them it is much more serious than that”
I missed Saturdays match at Rushden as my friend lives not far from there and I decided to spend a fabulous 4 hours with her catching up on 6 years absence 😍 with that in mind there was no way I could miss tonight, and it was proper cold!!
So cool 😍
Tonight didn’t bode well, 2 losses and a Leiston team on a roll…. Of course, you should never say never as Waders fan and what a match we were treated to 😍
We came out fighting and just 14 minutes in super Joe Neal fired past ex Wader Sam Donkin 😃⚽️💚 1 -0. Within 90 seconds Ronan Silva smacked into the net to make it 2-0 😃⚽️💚 Leiston came back within 20 minutes 2 – 1 😬 and just 7 minutes before the half time whistle it was 2 – 2 I won’ repeat Mr Bs words, buts lets just say he wasn’t confident of us getting 1 point let alone 3 😂 oh Tezza, yee of little faith 😂 one thing we did agree on however, was what a shame it was losing David Manu 😳 such a decent lad and great little player – not sure whats gone on there… but we don’t come up with songs for just any old player – we all thought he was a bit special 👀 good luck David on your next adventure!!
Out for the 2nd half and it was edge of the seat stuff…. 13 minutes in and super Joe Neal nailed it from a corner 3 2 😃⚽️💚!!!!! It was a thrilling, last 30 minutes as Leiston chucked everything at us; but our defence held strong for the 3 points! Wow 👀
Another great Tuesday night! We did have seats booked for the Trophy game against Wisbeach Saturday – unfortunately the day after this match BigAl developed a cough and the both of us tested positive for covid on 28th 😭 😭 so we would miss Wisbech and also Hitchin on 6th …. thanks for all the kind wishes and offers of help 💚💚 luckily it has felt like little more than a bad cold for the pair of us – But I tell you what I cannot wait to see the GreenArmy on 13th, I’ve really missed them 💚⚽️💚
Who is the secret Waders pie maker…? Delivered to my door….
Almost forgot to report – the pie did get delivered and it was very good to- although enough to feed 10!
MoM – David Manu (simply because it turns out, it was my last chance to 😒)
GreenArmy in Spoons
The Green Army met up in Spoons before today match – it was good having Bunnyman back in the fold!
We started the 1st half kicking towards the BelEnd – never our favoured starting half… a bad omen 🤔 and after the 2 matches we’d previously witnessed, you just knew today would deliver us a big spoonful of reality….😬
Rushall looked a tough, physical side and certainly started play by pushing us into the corner 😳 not just us it would seem 😒 on 11 minutes the ref looked to be persuaded to change his mind on a frre kick and gave it to them?? Rushall duly sealed the 3 points with it 😐
Ultimately we just could not get back into it and it finished 0 – 1….
In other news however it was great to see our all time legend Paul Barnes, his lovely wife Karen and their 3 boys 💚💚 the eldest Barnsey is definitely a chip off the old block!!
Not just one legend today, but also Joe Gatti who was with Waders for many years – not many clubs at our level can claim to have had an ex Juventus player grace their benches 😋🇮🇹
Not the result we wanted today – but another great day with great mates 💚⚽️💚 sometimes the football is incidental… 😂
I certainly didn’t expect another 7 goals tonight and given the fact, we never do well against Stratford….
But we only went and done it didn’t we 🤪🤪😃
Right from the ‘Get Go’ we were all over the visitors, and super Joe Neal’s tenacity was soon rewarded as he took the ball from right under the goalies nose and duly delivered 1 – 0 😃⚽️💚 2 minutes in!!
Waders refused to give an inch with Ben Stevenson scoring on 32 and Blake D’Arcy making it 3 – 0 at half time 😃⚽️💚
Matt Hall – shouldn’t be betting with the big boys 😂
Just 9 minutes into the 2nd half and D’Arcy went in for his 2nd!! 😃💚⚽️ 4-0!! Joe Neal still working like a trojan got his 2nd a few minutes later 😃💚⚽️ beating the keeper to make it 5 -0!! Surely we wouldn’t get another 2 🤔🤔. Ronan Silver not to be left out made it 6 -0 with a great shot from distance 😃⚽️💚. David Manu “Oh Manu Manu!!” Made his return to the squad matter when he despatch a picture perfect penalty 7 – 0!! 😃⚽️💚.
Unfortunately we didn’t manage a clean sheet, with Stratford snatching a consolation goal in the last minutes of the match….
What a performance – what a team!!
Not only was I treated to an 8 goal thriller tonight but I was also promised a Rhubarb pie 🐽 it would be baked by a fellow Wader and delivered within the week – yeah yeah 🤔🤔
After a lovely 11 day break in the sun with BigAl and Chelseaboy – it was time to return home to the Yvette Brewer Stadium…. via spoons of course, we needed to top up our drink levels 😂 it was a full house today with 2 returnees; Bunnyman fully mended, JT having no Charlton to watch.
A few quid spent in clubhouse…😨
I joined BigAl, DJ and Chelseaboy, JT and Bunnyman in Spoons and we were soon joined by BDK, Grandad, Rodney & Lewlew with a guest appearance by Brad… No cheap rounds today!!
At the ground we were joined by M & Em – it really was a full Green Army compliment today…
It would be interesting today as last Sunday me, BigAl and Chelseaboy went to watch Lanzarote FC play – it was a surprisingly entertaining goaless draw in 30 degree heat with no drinks breaks; apparently it has to hit 35 degrees for that! – we did discover the Spanish Donners whilst there 🤣 complete with the hair, headband, attitude 😜 and elbows 🤣 The match was really physical and they even had their own BelEnd (more of a corner really, but doesn’t sound as good) compete with drum (didn’t we used to have one of them 🤔🐰🤭) and megaphone weilding conductor 🤣… the only downside was no drinks due to covid restrictions – BigAl didn’t inform us of this until we’d reached the seats 🤨
A little momento left for the Rojillas – as BigAl forgot the flag
The game kicked off and was relatively quiet for the 1st 10 minutes – giving me time for a good old catch up with Em 😄 – then Ben Stevens, on his home debut, rose high in the box to head home 😁⚽️ 1 – 0 Waders!!
From that moment on, Waders took full control of the game and just before half time Ronan Silva side footed in from close range after another fine cross from Stevens 😁⚽️ 2 – 0
Another large round at half time – I won’t mention the spillage, the one(s) on holiday was more amusing… At our favourite bar in Costa Teguise Chelseaboy had a tray of drinks including a few slippery nipples 👀 he made it to just outside the door before doing a few salsa moves and part drenching some poor unsuspecting woman… later BigAl decided to load a tray with more shots and attempt to bring them over to us, he didn’t even make it out of the bar! 🤭 before drenching the floor – it was only later I found out why a complete stranger had brought our drinks over to us 🤭 turns out it was the aforementioned woman’s husband – luckily he was up for a laugh, and could handle a tray of slippery nipples 🤣
Yep BigAl, this how you carry tray of drinks 😜It wasn’t me…
Back out for the 2nd half and Mr B joined us as the BelEnd. The turning point for the game came on the 50th minute when Barwells no.4 was sent off for what was deemed a reckless challenge – not gonna lie, I missed it searching for the hidden Waders stone with Lew 🧐 – Waders then ran riot and the 1st of 5 goals was an excellent long range effort from local lad James Peters 😁⚽️ 3 – 0
Shhh….don’t tell anyone!
Next up Ronan Silva made it 4 – 0 with a shot from the edge of the box 😁⚽️ Matt Hall made it 5 – 0 side footing home a volley inside the box! 😁⚽️
Matt Hall!!
The last thing the losing side would want to see was Joe Neal coming off the bench – Oops sorry! – he duly delivered making it 6-0 from the penalty spot 👇 😁⚽️
Goal!!!
Surely that would be enough now?? But Ronan Dilva had other ideas a decided on completing his hattrick 😁⚽️ 7 – 0!!!!!
What a great day to be a Wader and return to the YB stadium after what seems to have been an absolute age 😄
A lovely touch from their keeper 👏👏 who handed over his gloves to one of the young Green Army – a lovely touch and I think its fair to say you made the young lads day 👏👏 what a class act!
I have to say – the drinks abroad must be watered down, that or the heat stops it affecting you as much? because I felt hammered yesterday, and todays session was tame compared to Lanzarote 😬 🤔 Nunny and the lads invited us to Spoons after the match, I’m glad with didn’t take then up on it 🤣 I mean, imagine the mess with BigAl and Chelseaboy 😂🤐
Waders Green Army Blog by WaderBird 