This Sunday, Monk were taking on table-toppers Casuals FC. Manager Shaun Smith described it as a game of two halves. It got me thinking. This is an often used phrase but it's a bit of a strange thing to say when you think about it. Every game is a game of two halves. It's like saying 'it's a game played with a ball' or 'if that had gone in, it would have been a goal', which I believe was actually used by a Match of the Day pundit once. Anyway, I digress.

Sunday's game was, indeed, a game of two halves. Casuals came out fighting and took a 2-0 lead. Goals from Nathan Good and Alfie Presley had The Monks crying in the chapel before half-time.

HT Jovial Monk 0 Casuals FC 2

Luckily for Monk, Shaun had the foresight to bring along his hairdryer which was duly deployed during the half-time interval. That combined with the introduction of Robbi Ali proved to be the game changer. Monk came back at Casuals with Robbi getting both goals in a storming second period. The Monks could easily have turned it around completely but, in the end, were happy to take a point from the game, meaning they have now taken 4 out 6 against the top two. Of course, the turnaround was all down to the managerial skills of Shaun (at least that's what he told me. I guess the fiver is in the post).

FT Jovial Monk 2 Casuals FC 2

DPR's 4-3 home defat to AFC Stratton on Sunday means that there are now no unbeaten teams left in the division. It is still incredibly tight at the top of the table with just two points separating the top six teams. Of the those team only AFC Stratton have a league game next weekend as they travel to bottom side Purton Redhouse.
Jovial Monk have a weekend off to do their Christmas shopping.

Jovial Monk
Monk are back in league action as they host top of the table Casuals at the Lambourn Sports Club. Division 2 is very congested at the top of the table with just 2 points separating the top six clubs. Casuals lead the way with Monk down in sixth, as it stands. As any regular readers will know, this is the reverse fixture to the game that took place  just over a month ago - Miracle Monks - where a depleted Monks squad dug out a superb 2-1 win. Goals from Maher Ali and Robbi hauled them back into the game after an Aaron Presley goal for Casuals had left them all shook up in the first half.
Jovial Monk v Casuals FC. ko 10:30. Lambourn Sports Ground, RG17 8PS

Caversham United
The Goats had a week off last week but are back at it this weekend. Currently in tenth spot, Caversham host second placed Westwood Wanderers who bring a 100% away record to Mapeldurham Rec. The Goats are themselves unbeaten in the league since mid-September but need to convert a recent run of three 1-1 draws into wins if they wish to climb the table. Westwood have hit a rich vein of scoring in recent weeks following their 6-0 win at Rose & Thistle with a crushing 9-0 win over bottom side Reading Kites last weekend. Quite incredibly, this is Caversham's first home league game of the season.
Caversham United v Westwood Wanderers. ko 10:30. Mapeldurham Rec, RG4 7ER

Caversham United Women
This weekend sees something of mid-table battle as The Goats take on Wargrave Women. Both sides have played six league games so far and both have won two. Wargrave have the slight upper-hand by means of a 4-4 draw at Penn & Tylers Green on the opening day which sees them head Caversham by a single point. The Goats come into the game on the back of a superb 7-1 demolition of Holyport in the Berks & Bucks Cup last weekend. Holly Swan's four goals in this game saw her leap up to joint second in the top scorer chart. Wargrave are looking to halt a run of three consecutive league defeats but also won away in the Cup last weekend, 3-1 at Wallingford Town.
Wargrave Women v Caversham United Women. ko 14:00. Wargrave Recreation Ground, RG10 8BG.

After over two weeks without any live football and three without a match blog, it was time to wrap up and head back out onto the road this Wednesday evening. There were a couple of potential games but, eventually, I settled on the JW Hunt Cup local derby between Darlaston Town and  my home town club, Dudley Town.
The JW Hunt Cup has been running since 1926 after being set up by West Midland businessman John William Hunt to raise funds for the local blind. One thing that caught my eye when researching it was the Wiki entry that shows that the committee presented a cheque for £10,000 to the Beacon Centre for the Blind in 2018. Having grown up in the area, I know the centre and, back in youth the centre was the venue for my debut on stage in a band back in 1991 (I think). The only thing I remember abut the gig is that the headline band were call The Road Cones. Good times. Anyway, back to the football.

​The Ground
Darlaston have played their home games at what is now known as The Paycare Stadium since their reformation in 2014. The ground is just off Junction 10 of the M6, wedged between the River Tame and the notorious Black Country Route, a link road that was originally planned in the 60s but not completed until the mid 90s. The ground has a good sized car park and an overflow area, all managed by stewards who are happy to point cars and supporters in the right direction. All of the facilities are on the near side of the ground as you enter, there is a fairly large clubhouse which has a smaller building attached containing the players and officials changing areas.

​Plenty of new looking signage on the side of the pavilion and near the entrance make the ground look tidy and professional.  The dugouts are also on this side of the pitch, directly in front of the pavilion. There are two covered spectator stands, one on either side of the pitch, the Lauren Wilkinson (Lolly) Stand on the pavilion side was renamed in honour a local teenager who sadly died in 2017.The Dave Powers (Fingles) Stand opposite the pavilion, is named after a lifelong Darlaston and Wolves supporter who passed away in 2003. Overall this is a superb stadium for this level of football and would not look out of place several steps higher.
​

​The Background
Neither Darlaston Town nor Dudley Town have ever won the JM Hunt Cup. However, Darlaston did get to the final in 2007 before losing 3-0 to Wryley Rangers. The sides have spent a number of years playing in the same divisions over the years, going back as far as the mid 40s when both were in the Birmingham League structure. Dudley, of course, spent some time in the Southern League during the 80s and 90s, but have since dropped down the leagues and both they and Darlaston now play in the Midland League structure at Step 6. Both have had good starts to the Division One campaign this season. Coming into the game Darlaston were the better placed of the two, sitting fourth with 41 points from their 20 games. Dudley were two positions and two points below their hosts but had played four fewer games. One league meeting had already taken place, a 2-0 home win for Dudley back in September with Rhys Horton getting both goals. However, The Robins would need to be wary of Darlaston's formidable home record in which they have won eight and drawn one from ten matches so far, scoring a colossal 45 goals and conceding only 6. Having said that, Dudley's defence has conceded only 14 to date, a defensive record that only leaders Atherstone Town can match.

​The Game
It was the home side who started the game on the front foot but it was a mistake at the back that led to the opening goal. Ten minutes in and a speculative ball played into the Dudley penalty area caused all sorts of confusion between the goalkeeper and the defenders. The loose ball dropped to Lewis Gill on the left-hand side of the 18 yard area. His goal-bound effort was helped into the net by an attempted clearance from Rhys Boswell. 1-0. It was hard to tell if the ball would have gone in without the defender's intervention but I would be inclined to give it to Gill.
Dudley were struggling to cope with the home side's movement and were being pressed back into their own half consistently. Jake Pearson's combative style in the centre of midfield (which would earn him a yellow later), captain and centre-forward Andrew Nicol's movement and the pace of Maxwell Ngbeken were all causing concerns to the Dudley backline. However, despite their possessional dominance, there was no real end product and the Dudley goal remained intact.
As the half wore on Dudley did start to get a small foothold. A couple of earlier breaks had led to a header narrowly wide and an attempted bicycle kick off target but there were distinct signs, as we approached the halfway mark, that they were beginning to see more of the ball.
Just as we were all preparing to get a half-time cup of tea, Dudley snatched an equaliser and, as with the home goal, it came form a mistake. An innocuous looking cross into the home six yard box looked to be easily caught by goalkeeper Callum Hayward but he fumbled the ball which fell directly to the lurking Alex Perry who managed to bundle the ball across the line 1-1. Maybe, on such a cold evening, with not too much to do, the keeper's hands were not sufficiently warmed up. Who knows? It was just one of those errors that sometimes happen.

HT Darlaston Town 1 Dudley Town 1. Darlaston were on top for much of the half but Dudley did start to get a foothold towards the end and got lucky with the equaliser. A nice touch from home captain Nicol at the break, as he immediately went over to console his goalkeeper after the mistake that led to the Dudley goal.

​Dudley were much improved in the second half. In fact, after the break the game mirrored the first half but with the away side being the team in control of the game in the most part. However, just as the home side in the first half, The Robins could not turn their possession into goals. Connor Archer was a willing runner all night and the introduction of some fresh legs kept the momentum with Dudley for the majority of the half but a combination of solid defending and tame finishes kept the scores level. At the other end Nicol's runs were less frequent, which was not surprising after his first half work rate, and when the runs were made the through balls were not finding him as the did in the first half.

FT Darlaston Town 1 Dudley Town 1. The first half belonged to the home side, the second to the away side, so a draw was probably the right result over 90 minutes. No extra-time in the JW Hunt Cup so we were all set for a penalty shootout.

Penalties - Dudley to take the first kick.
Alex Perry scores for Dudley 0-1
Andrew Nicol scores for Darlaston 1-1
Dudley's Kurt Perry puts his kick over the bar. 1-1
Ryan Winwood scores to put Darlaston ahead 2-1
Dudley's Kaine Butler also puts his spot kick over the bar. Still 2-1
Liam Wilkinson catches the 'rugby conversion' bug and blasts his effort over the bar too. Still 2-1 after 3 each.
Brad Ward scores for Dudley. 2-2
Reece Mason does likewise for Darlaston 3-2
Hinesh Patel has to score this one for Dudley but Callum Hayward gets down well to save it and make up for his earlier error.

Darlaston go through 3-2 on penalties.

Whilst writing this blog I saw the terrible news about Darlaston player Leon Taylor who died at the age of 36. Darlaston's game against Shawbury on Saturday has been postponed in light of the awful news. Thoughts go out to his family and friends. 

Darlaston Town: Hayward, Ballantyne, Mason, Wilkinson, Lal, Turton, Winwood, Pearson, Nicol(c), Ngbeken, Gill. Subs: Evans, Cook, Jones, Dangerfield, Phillip
Dudley Town: Maydew, Mitchell, Boswell, Lawley, Beddall, A.Perry(c), Archer, Ward, Baker, Hanna, K.Perry. Subs: Fuller, Butler, Patel, Perry, Scriven

Ground Number: 291
Att: 199
Entrance: £5.00
Programme: N/A

Our Goat pals over at Caversham United often run a Six Word Summaries #6WS Twitter thread on Monday morning. This week's response from Monk-in-chief Shaun Smith was "#6WS. Don't want to talk about it". It perfectly summed up the Sunday that our favourite Swindon Sunday League side encountered.

It was all set up to be a big day. Monk's win the previous weekend had seen them jump to the summit of the table and were still unbeaten in the league. Sunday's visitors were DPR FC who had played three, won three so far. A tough task for both sides.

As expected, it was a tight game throughout the first half. However, sometimes the timing of goals can change a game and that was the case on Sunday when DPR scored with the last kick of the first half.

HT Jovial Monk 0 DPR 1.

Monk were having one of those days where they could have continued playing well into the evening and still not scored a goal. DPR, however, were suffering no such problem and managed to notch up two more in the second half.

FT Jovial Monk 0 DPR 3.
As Shaun commented "The better team won", but Monk had their chances too and maybe, just maybe, if they hadn't conceded so late in the first half, things could have been different. Still, could've, should've, would've. The fact is DPR retain their 100% record and, showing how tight this division is, Monk drop from top to sixth, albeit just 2 points off the leaders Casuals FC.

It's cup week again next week as Monk make the short journey to The Elms to face Highworth Town's Sunday team. Highworth are a division above Monk but are currently sitting bottom after four games, having lost all four.

Kick off is 10:30am.
The Elms Recreation Ground, Swindon Road, Highworth, SN6 7SJ.

Jovial Monk are back. After two weeks without a game Swindon's finest stormed back into action with a goal-fest to go top of the Swindon & District Sunday Division 2.

There was no let up from a buoyant Monk side who dominated opponents Chiseldon from the first whistle. The pace and trickery of Mitch Sutton and Jono Peachey-Score took Chiseldon apart, giving the Monks a 4-0 lead at half-time.
Unlike previous games where there has been a lull in performance after the break, this week the Monks were on it straight from the restart. Four more goals followed. There was a slight blip when they conceded a penalty but Ben Pres loves his clean sheets, and pulled off a great stop to keep Chiseldon goal-less.

​Jono ran the game, scoring three and getting four assists. Mitch scored his first hat-trick for the club with Kris Redford and Antony Collett also getting on the scoresheet.
A great result for the Monks which, combined with AFC Stratton's 6-3 home defeat to Gorsehill Borough and cup matches for the other contenders, sees them leapfrog everyone to the summit of the table.

This makes next week's game HUGE as the current leaders face the only club with a 100% record in the league, DPR FC. DPR's record this season, although they have only played three league games, is impressive, having won all three, scoring 15 and only conceding 3 in the process. They have already seen off second-placed Casuals 4-1. I'd recommend getting along to this game if at all possible, it's going to be a cracker, no doubt about it.

Note the kick-off time change for Remembrance Sunday.
Jovial Monk v DPR FC
Lambourn Sports Club, RG17 8PS
Kick-off 11:02 to allow for 2 minutes silence before the game.

A last minute change of plan meant that I could no longer make the Enville Athletic v AFC Solihull game as originally planned. Therefore, I needed to find a game closer to home. Luckily there were plenty to choose from in the local area, including the chance to visit a ground that had been on my list for some time, Old Bradwell United.

The Ground
Bradwell village has long since been enveloped by the sprawl of Milton Keynes. However, when you pull off the A5 and wind your way around a couple of side roads on to Abbey Road, you do indeed find something resembling an old English village. Bradwell Sports and Social club sits perched just above the playing fields which serve the village community. It encompasses the cricket club, tennis club, bowls club and, of course the local football club. There are two pitches, a nine-a-side pitch close to Abbey Road and the men's pitch at the far end of the playing field. The Abbey Road side of the ground is open because it also forms part of the cricket ground. The right-hand goal as you look from the clubhouse is backed by the tennis club and courts but the most interesting part of the ground is at the far side from the clubhouse. The West Coast Mainline runs past the ground raised on an embankment at this side of the ground. Below this sit the two dugouts, a brick construction with art work on both sides, a kingfisher design, and the rear, OBUFC written in a graffiti style. However, that's not all. When I first started walking down to the pith level I noticed a young lad heading towards the dugouts carrying a large net on a pole. It was then that I realised there was water running behind that side of the pitch, between the touchline and the railway line. The lad was clearly employed by the club to fish errant passes out of the water. Not quite the coracle man of the old Gay Meadow but a cut down equivalent for non-league. These are the little quirks that make non-league grounds such interesting places to visit in my opinion.

​The Background
This was a Spartan South Midland Challenge Cup game between the home side, Old Bradwell United, who play in Division Two (Step 7) and currently lead the division by two points, up against Milton Keynes Irish, mid-table in the Premier League (Step 5).
United have been around since the 1920s and spent much of that time in local football, paying in the North Bucks League. They gained promotion into the South Midlands set-up in 1995. The club, it is fair to say, have not set the league alight but have steadily progressed over the years. Unfortunately, I also understand that they cannot get promoted to Step 6 even if they win the league, unless they leave the village, because permission to get their ground up to Step 6 standards has been apparently refused by the local council.
Milton Keynes Irish are a relatively new team in their current format, having been created in 2020 by a merger between MK Robins and Unite MK. Neither of these teams was very old either, MK Robins were Buckingham Town until 2019 and Unite were Wolverton Town until 2016. They are based at the Irish Centre in Bletchley making this a bit of a local derby with just over 7 miles separating the sides. The team has come a long way since featuring in the highest scoring game I have seen during the lifetime of my blog, a 3-16 home defeat to Olney Town in the Buckingham Charity Cup on the 5th January 2017 (Sixteen Goals For Three Quid).

​The Game
Within 10 seconds of the game kicking off the lad with the net on a pole was already in action, fishing a clearance out of the stream. It was going to be a fairly busy day for him, not just fishing but retrieving wayward balls from all around the ground. He certainly earns his keep.

There really isn't too much to speak about in the game. In the first half it was fair to say that it was very difficult to notice two division's difference between the teams, a testament to the effort being put in by the home side. In Josh Douglas-Smith United have a striker who leads the line very well and is the sort of player that most defenders don't really like to face. He is happy to mix it with them and seems to revel in the ugly side of the game. I don't mean that in a bad way, he just seems to enjoy a battle. However, he was always going to have his work cut out against a very well drilled Irish back line.
Clear cut attempts at goal were at a premium as the ides effectively cancelled each other out.
The best chance of the half came in the 29th minute when Muzaffar Amoako tried his luck from the edge of the box only to see the ball come back off the bar and then for Liam Jahn to smother the follow up.

HT Old Bradwell United 0 Milton Keynes Irish 0. A half of very few chances but the Division Two side had acquitted themselves very well.

​It was clear to see quite early on in the second half that Irish had been asked to step it upo at half-time. They were immediately on the front foot and looked to have a little more urgency in their game than during the first 45 minutes. However, despite having more of the ball and producing some good football they still could not find a way to break down their opponents. OBU were being pushed back more but still posed some threat when they did mange to get forward. Just past the hour mark Irish did et the ball in the net, Oliver Coleman getting his head to a cross and beating Jahn. However, the assistant's flag was up well before the ball crossed the line. A minute later MK's keeper Jack Taylor had to be at his very best, going full stretch to tip a goal bound Douglas-Smith diving header around the post. That could well have been the decisive moment of the game because 10 minutes later Irish scored what proved to be the only goal. George Boland tried his luck from outside the box with a great effort. Jahn got a fingertip to it, diverting it against the underside of the bar but the ball came down and may have hit the goalkeeper again before crossing the line. A very good strike but you had to have some sympathy for the keeper who almost kept it out. 0-1.
After the goal Bradwell tried to get themselves back on level terms but their case was not helped when Sam O'Neill got himself sin-binned for something he said to the referee in the 88th minute.

FT Old Bradwell United 0 Milton Keynes Irish 1. Not the most spectacular of games but interesting in its own way. Old Bradwell certainly showed why they are top of Division Two and did not look like a team two divisions below their opponents. In the second half, however, Irish showed their pedigree, controlling the game without ever looking as if they were going to run away with it.
Irish entertain third-placed Harpenden Town at the Irish Centre next Saturday whilst Old Bradwell are at home to Hale Leys in a Bucks/Berks Trophy game.

Old Bradwell United: Jahn, Deria, Bhasin, Butler, Ennis(c), Hack, Dewsall, Valentine, Pursey, Douglas-Smith, Bird. Subs: O'Neill, Cox, Keene, Bryce

Milton Keynes Irish: Taylor, Coyle, Amoako, Dummett, Ansah, Smyth, Filip, Lyon, Boland, Coleman, Lawless. Subs: Brooks, McDonald, Masumbuko

Ground Number: 289
Att: 97
Entrance: N/A
Programme: N/A