Match Information

• SE Dons 1-0 Club Lewsey

• When: Sunday 22nd January 2023

• Kick-off: 2.30pm

• Where: King Henry Sports Centre, Ramsden Road, Erith, Kent DA8 3BU

• Competition: The FA Sunday Cup Fourth Round

• Attendance: 202

Interest in Sunday League football is literally booming these days. In fact, the common perception that fixtures are witnessed by “one man and his dog” is firmly consigned to the past.

This is all being driven by teams who have become known worldwide thanks to the massive impact of filming and broadcasting matches online.

One of the market leaders in this respect are SE Dons FC from South London. Established as recently as 2014, they have a staggering 227,000 YouTube subscribers with individual videos registering up to 1.7 million views.

Just to put things in context, those figures are more than many Premier League clubs can attract. SE Dons are proud of the burgeoning phenomenon whereby fans have cropped up in places like Brazil, Mexico and America.

Players get recognised simply walking down the street. Their team is funded by advertising on the videos as well as commercial partnerships and sponsorship deals. Thousands of replica shirts are also sold.

I have been really impressed by the Dons’ extremely slick matchday coverage. Up to six camera angles are utilised courtesy of several staff members forming an enthusiastic club media team.

There are two to three main cameras plus a drone flying overhead and two GoPro recorders set up behind the goals. A very distinctive commentary is added to complete this exciting package.

There are links to the music scene too as one of the club’s co-founders is Rap/Grime artist Don Strapzy. The overall buzz created has led to numerous top professional footballers such as Declan Rice, Junior Stanislas, Josh Koroma and Bradley Dack going along to see the Dons play.

In addition, the YouTube revolution is gaining further momentum since a new capital city “Super League” was launched this season called the ‘Sunday Football League – London’.

Member teams combined (including SE Dons) have approaching one million followers and subscribers over the different internet platforms. In my opinion, initiatives bringing new awareness for grassroots football are definitely admirable.

Therefore, Sunday League action is now both accessible and relatable. So with everything in mind, I set off on a 120 mile round trip to watch my chosen FA Sunday Cup tie. Incidentally, this fantastic national knockout competition dates back to 1964. 

Ground Description

A 3G artificial pitch surrounded by high wire fencing. Access is via the main King Henry Sports Centre building. FA Sunday Cup spectators stood tight around the playing area touchlines which were coned off on one side.

The Match

A thoroughly tense affair featuring robust tackles flying in from multiple directions. The football standard itself was very good comprising of rapid end to end exchanges.

uton-based visitors Club Lewsey FC from the Leighton District Sunday League more than played their part. Most of the Dons’ squad appear in the Isthmian League on Saturdays as semi-professionals.

Arsenal youth academy product Zak Ansah scored the only goal on 46 minutes finishing off intrepid quicksilver passing. This caused a huge, prolonged howl of celebration from the home fans that lasted almost 60 seconds.

The last time I heard such totally unique noise was at Sunderland FC’s old Roker Park stadium during the late 1970’s (the famous ‘Roker Roar’).

As the game progressed and Club Lewsey determinedly pushed for an equaliser, I enjoyed two stunning saves by six foot six inch Dons keeper George Kamurasi who had “Big G” displayed on the back of his shirt.

The People

A lovely family feel existed amongst the young and vibrant SE Dons crowd. I counted more than 200 people present. Indeed, some supporters had travelled long distances to cheer on the team.

There were repeated cries of stirring club motto: “ANYTHING for the Dons!” Then when Zak Ansah scored, the home faithful burst into jubilant song with: “One-Nil to the London boys!” and “Green Army…Green Army…” ringing out. 

Footnote:

SE Dons will now travel to North London to face last year’s beaten finalists Highgate Albion FC in the FA Sunday Cup Fifth Round on Sunday 19th February 2023.

*Credit for photos in this article belongs to @TonyIncenzo*

FIRST PUBLISHED: 31st January 2023

@SteTudor123 on the worst January transfers in Premier League history - do you agree with his selections?

It is always a high-risk endeavour signing players halfway through a season. These five clubs found this out the hard way. 

1) Fernando Torres – Liverpool to Chelsea (£50m)

Even twelve years on, the Spanish striker’s sharp decline on joining the Blues flummoxes.

Did he struggle to adapt to a change of playing style? This feels unlikely given that five different managers were at the helm during his disastrous spell in the capital, each with their own theories on how to reignite his powers.

Was the player sold against his will? Nope, Torres handed in a transfer request when an initial £40m bid was rejected. 

Was the hit-man on the wane anyway, after enduring a year of injuries? This one remains open to debate. 

Whatever the reason, Chelsea’s Premier League odds were drifting when they secured the formerly prolific forward and many believed he could fire them back into a title race. 

Instead he missed. A lot.   

2) Alexis Sanchez – Arsenal to Manchester United (swap deal) 

There is lots of optimism swirling around Old Trafford at present and this is partly because finally in the post-Fergie era the club appears to have sorted out their transfer dealings. 

The Brazilian Casemiro has come in and made an immediate impact. The same goes for Lisandro Martinez. 

Prior to last summer however – and for too long – United’s strategy in the market seemed reactionary and knee-jerk and nowhere is this better illustrated than in their ill-fated swoop for Sanchez.

On paper, the switch with Henrikh Mkhitaryan looked potentially a decent deal, only then the player’s colossal wages were leaked, and then Sanchez took to the field.

Too often anonymous, when he wasn’t anonymous, the Chilean was a bit rubbish. 

3) Kostas Mitroglou – Olympiakos to Fulham (£13m)

Back in January 2014, the Cottagers were deep in the relegation mire with all the sensible betting backing them to drop. 

Believing that a lack of firepower was the root cause of their woes, manager Rene Meulensteen persuaded his board to part with a club record fee of £13m for a striker who was tearing things up in Greece but if Mutroglou was the answer, the question was all wrong. 

Starting just one league game and scoring precisely no goals, the 26-year-old was soon back at Olympiakos, with Fulham in the Championship.

Fulham presently have another forward nicknamed ‘Mitro’. He is ever so slightly better. 

4) Jean-Alain Boumsong – Rangers to Newcastle (£8m)

The French international centre-back had been available on a free the previous summer and it’s telling that Newcastle were not among a handful of interested parties.

Yet just six months later, after impressing in Scotland with Rangers, the Magpies were prepared to shell out £8m for his services. 

It this seems like an odd way to conduct business it was a suspicion shared by the Stevens Inquiry that looked into football corruption in 2006, including the deal as part of their investigations. No evidence was found of any wrongdoing. 

There were plenty of examples of wrongdoing on the pitch though, as Boumsong flapped and flailed for 18 months, a poor defender found out. 

5) Guido Carrillo – Monaco to Southampton (£19m)

With substantial funds at their disposal after selling Virgil Van Dijk to Liverpool, the Saints embarked on a lavish shopping spree in the summer of 2017, buying players who are now alas merely obscure quiz answers. Wesley Hoedt anyone?

Not realising the error of their ways, the Saints continued flashing their credit card around aimlessly, splurging a club record £19m in January for a forward who was way down the pecking order at Monaco. 

With a C.V. on the south coast that ultimately amounted to eight games and no goals, we now know why.

*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*

FIRST PUBLISHED: 30th January 2023

Who takes top spot in our list of the most boring clubs in England's top flight? Here, @SteTudor123 picks his five boring football teams in the Premier League...

1) Wolverhampton Wanderers 

Boring is subjective. One man’s thrills prompts another man to yawn.

Surely though we can all agree that a club who repeatedly signs funky, attacking Portuguese players – enigmatic and skilful to a man – yet insists on being so cautious and pragmatic, deserves a stern talking to.

Presently, only one side in the top seven tiers of the footballing pyramid has scored fewer league goals than Wolves in 2022/23, and this allergy to adventure is nothing new. 

Under new gaffer Julen Lopetegui, their scoring ratio has improved, but only marginally and inevitably this means they still feature prominently in the Premier League relegation betting.

2) Aston Villa 

The Villans have been Premier League residents for 27 of the competition’s 30 year history. Their average league placing across this whole period is tenth.

Granted, there have been a couple of narrow relegation survivals, while all the way back in 1992 the Midlands outfit finished second to Manchester United.

But for the most part they have tootled along in mid-table, rarely venturing to the business ends; rarely getting caught up in any excitement. 

In the great scheme of things, Villa should be proud of their sustained consistency. It does however make them exceedingly dull. 

3) Everton

In a similar vein we have the Toffees. The good old, predictable Toffees, whose average league placing from 30 consecutive years in the top-flight is also tenth. A solid, stolid tenth.

At least with the Blues, there have been some harem-scarem relegation dogfights in the mix, and no doubt we’ll witness another this term as Sean Dyche’s new charges flounder at the wrong end of the table.

On the plus side meanwhile, the David Moyes era brought relative success.

Yet still, when assessing their entire Premier League legacy we see the same story playing out every August through the May.

Bad decisions are made off the pitch but the club survives – and occasionally thrives – due to the high-intensity football inspired by their passionate support. Rinse and repeat. 

4) AFC Bournemouth 

The Cherries are no longer top-flight newbies and subsequently they have lost their underdog status. 

What that means from a neutral’s perspective is another Burnley situation, of a club hampered by limited resources, who aspire to finish 17th each season only minus the fairy tale element to achieving their aim.  

Bournemouth’s journey from near-extinction to the elite is of course highly commendable, as too is their weekly endeavours to stay put.

Seeing them just about do enough each term though, by winning the occasional game of football, is anything but box-office. Rightly or wrongly – and it’s very likely wrongly – familiarity is starting to breed a little contempt.  

5) Chelsea 

Like a lot of the best, and worst, aspects of modern-day football, it all began with Jose Mourinho. 

Back in their pomp under the self-appointed ‘Special One’, Chelsea were less a footballing side, and more an unattractive hybrid of athletes and machine. 

Though their Premier League odds are significantly wider these days, as they struggle to make even top four, this perception has never quite left them, even after countless managers since. 

Chelsea still over-power opponents on their day. They still adhere to percentages. Consequently they are a hard team to love. 

I always feel that the week between Trials Day and the fairly recent Dublin Racing Festival is the perfect time to be proactive and get stuck into the ante-post Cheltenham Gold Cup market.

The Cheltenham races betting odds tend to be all over the place in this particular week so it’s best to strike whilst the iron is hot.

At the top of the pile is Galopin Des Champs who has already got the bookmakers in a tizzy for the Gold Cup and should he score at Leopardstown at the weekend, his price will be a far from punter friendly one.

Currently trading at 5/4 in our 888sports market, we could actually find ourselves with a Gold Cup favourite priced up around the even money mark. But the question still remains – is he really that superior to his rivals this year?

Trained by Willie Mullins, Galopin Des Champs came down after jumping the last fence at last year’s Festival, but this term he hasn’t put a hoof wrong.

Defending champion A Plus Tard gets an 8/1 antepost quote despite his only run to date this season resulting in a “pulled up – P” in the Betfair Chase at Haydock.

If he’s sound and his wellbeing is 100% again then that price may look big about the previous winner.

Many pundits and punters are saying the Paul Nicholls-trained Bravemansgame brings the best form of this NH campaign to the table. The Charlie Hall and King George Chase victor is a well deserved 8/1 poke in our betting for the race.

Last year’s Grand National hero Noble Yeats (8/1) has also blasted the Gold Cup ante-post market to smithereens in recent weeks after a top class performance in Aintree’s Many Clouds Chase, then a third place in the latest renewal of the Cotswold Chase.

At this juncture he currently looks like the most solid each-way option in the race.

Also popular in the betting is Willie Mullins’ Stattler (8/1) who almost led all the way in the Savills New Year Chase before just being nosed out of it by Minella Indo. 

Mullins has gone down that very same route to the Gold Cup before – namely with Al Boum Photo, and this tried and tested way could well herald another Gold Cup victory at Prestbury Park.

Conflated has been hovering around the 12/1 mark for the big one for a few weeks now and the gelding comes into the Festival on the back of a fine Savills Chase victory at Leopardstown.

Lucinda Russell’s Ahoy Senor is very much back in the game for Gold Cup after landing the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham.

Once as big as 50/1 with us for the March spectacular, that recent victory has seen his price slashed right down to 14/1 for punters placing their horse race bets online.

I personally never got any of that 50/1 manna from heaven as I was already on him prior to his three moderate runs, but 14/1 is a very fair reflection of what I think his chances are.

Admittedly the likes of Galopin Des Champs and A Plus Tard are going to be difficult to beat if they turn up on their A-Game, but I do see quite a few chinks in their armour and I shall try and be the each-way thief here with Ahoy Senor.

Suggestion: Ahoy Senor @ 14/1 E/W

Newcastle continue their policy for the team of the present and the future. Trust in young people, talents in power and experience in the right place when needed.

A strategy started from the first day of the new ownership despite the September 2021 links with players over 30; Newcastle have chosen the opposite direction, an ambitious project with many young talents and next will be Anthony Gordon, new signing of the Magpies from Everton.

Not an easy deal because the negotiation was not short, indeed longer than expected.

Anthony Gordon has been an important ally of Newcastle in this deal because the club wanted to give Eddie Howe a new winger as early as the end of the August transfer market and they chose to proceed with Gordon from the beginning of January: very clear ideas and positive initial contacts, especially with the player.

This was not an obvious step, on the contrary: in August 2022, in fact, Anthony Gordon had been approached by Chelsea in a convincing manner that he had had more than one offer rejected by Everton.

The Blues had insisted because they were convinced of Gordon's potential for the next few years but there was no chance to convince Everton, despite the player's hopes.

Since then, Chelsea have never again appeared in negotiations for Anthony Gordon despite the rumors; indeed, it was Everton executives behind the scenes who tried to persuade Gordon to sign a new long-term deal without success.

Because Anthony was already preparing a different future, the negotiation over a new contract has never been advanced and Newcastle have been able to take advantage of it with speed and a perfect strategy.

The player's green light arrived in early January; Gordon never had any doubts about accepting Newcastle because he was convinced by an ambitious project, a top coach like Eddie Howe who is doing an excellent job and has already spoken to the player, an important contract to prepare for a high-level future.

In short, the feeling was immediate with the club.

The negotiation between clubs was not quick or easy; Anthony Gordon did not show up for training three times to make it clear to Everton that he no longer had any intention of continuing in the club, his only will was called and his name is Newcastle.

A choice that helped the club in the negotiation; because after a £35m opening bid not accepted by Everton, just after Frank Lampard's sacking, the club decided to approve and give the green light to the £40m final proposal plus £5m add-ons for Anthony Gordon.

Newcastle played their cards very well because they didn't want to overpay for a real talent but without indulging in excessive requests.

The £40m offer was the Magpies' last offer, take it or leave it was the message sent to Everton with the approval of the player who only wanted to move to Newcastle.

Since then, the deal has been approved with one key detail: Newcastle will pay this amount in one installment, helping Everton's finances at a critical time to be able to improve the team and prepare for the future under Sean Dyche as new coach.

A new era without Anthony Gordon for the Toffees, the continuation of an excellent project with Anthony Gordon for the Magpies who wanted another young star and... they got him.