Wednesday night and I travel to Tiverton to watch Elmore take on Bovey Tracey in the South West Peninsula league. I arrive late and hear a great roar as I park the car. That roar was Elmore scoring a home goal. I get several minutes of football in then a Bovey Tracey player goes down with an injury. The match is held up while the man with the sponge attends and then we hear the call for an ambulance. A fan next to me tells me that the last time that happened no ambulance appeared and the ambulance service phoned back asking the football club to get the injured player to the hospital.
After a good half hour of delay the decision was taken to abandon the match. A player mentions that the injured man cannot be moved as the foot has clearly become detached (at least the bone) from the rest of the leg. This is a serious injury. I hear that the ambulance has to come from Exeter. I head for my car, phone my wife to let her know I will be home earlier than expected and set off home. Twenty minutes later I am approaching Exeter and I see an ambulance with blue lights flashing heading north. There were no other flashing lights visible on my journey home. I work out that the injured player will have been lying on the pitch for an hour and a half before the ambulance gets there. Tories will tell you that this is an efficient use of resources. Any decent human being will tell you that this is FAR TOO LONG.
So, although unusual and unexpected, I got to see something special and different. I also got a brief look at the Bovey Tracey team. They play about 10 minutes from where I live so it is further than the Liverton United ground which is 2 minutes away but I will have to visit them before too long.
Liverton United themselves were in action on Tuesday night. They were taking on Newtown who beat them 5-1 in the opening game of the season. I got there in time for kick off and I am glad I did as Liverton took the lead. This was the first time I had seen my local team up in any match. Not to worry though as two quick goals from Newtown restored my expectations for my home team. There were a few tough tackles as the game progressed and then, although I missed the incident, I saw the referee in a long discussion with the linesman. This resulted in a young Newtown player seeing the red card and leaving the field.
I genuinely thought that Liverton had a chance of winning at this point but the card seemed to galvanise Newtown and they produced a third goal to take a commanding lead in the match. The Liverton team did not give up the fight this time and continued to press missing a couple of good chances.
I got chatting and mentioned that the Liverton number six seemed to be a cut above and I was informed that he also plays for Barnstaple. I think I need to get myself up to the far north (of Devon) and watch him play at that higher level. Last time I felt he did not want to put the effort in but this time with a chance of victory there was a new determination that had been lacking. He still got himself out of position, though, like all the other Liverton defenders.
I have nicknamed the back four "The Evaporating Defence" or TED for short. Whoever is coaching this lot needs to work on discipline at the back.
This was the third different goalkeeper in three matches and if I was a goalkeeper I would not feel safe having to cope with the sudden evaporation of every defender every match.
After a good half hour of delay the decision was taken to abandon the match. A player mentions that the injured man cannot be moved as the foot has clearly become detached (at least the bone) from the rest of the leg. This is a serious injury. I hear that the ambulance has to come from Exeter. I head for my car, phone my wife to let her know I will be home earlier than expected and set off home. Twenty minutes later I am approaching Exeter and I see an ambulance with blue lights flashing heading north. There were no other flashing lights visible on my journey home. I work out that the injured player will have been lying on the pitch for an hour and a half before the ambulance gets there. Tories will tell you that this is an efficient use of resources. Any decent human being will tell you that this is FAR TOO LONG.
So, although unusual and unexpected, I got to see something special and different. I also got a brief look at the Bovey Tracey team. They play about 10 minutes from where I live so it is further than the Liverton United ground which is 2 minutes away but I will have to visit them before too long.
Liverton United themselves were in action on Tuesday night. They were taking on Newtown who beat them 5-1 in the opening game of the season. I got there in time for kick off and I am glad I did as Liverton took the lead. This was the first time I had seen my local team up in any match. Not to worry though as two quick goals from Newtown restored my expectations for my home team. There were a few tough tackles as the game progressed and then, although I missed the incident, I saw the referee in a long discussion with the linesman. This resulted in a young Newtown player seeing the red card and leaving the field.
I genuinely thought that Liverton had a chance of winning at this point but the card seemed to galvanise Newtown and they produced a third goal to take a commanding lead in the match. The Liverton team did not give up the fight this time and continued to press missing a couple of good chances.
I got chatting and mentioned that the Liverton number six seemed to be a cut above and I was informed that he also plays for Barnstaple. I think I need to get myself up to the far north (of Devon) and watch him play at that higher level. Last time I felt he did not want to put the effort in but this time with a chance of victory there was a new determination that had been lacking. He still got himself out of position, though, like all the other Liverton defenders.
I have nicknamed the back four "The Evaporating Defence" or TED for short. Whoever is coaching this lot needs to work on discipline at the back.
This was the third different goalkeeper in three matches and if I was a goalkeeper I would not feel safe having to cope with the sudden evaporation of every defender every match.
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