Games That Are Nothing To Do With Aber Whatsoever, But I (or Jon) Went To Anyway!
Auto Windscreens Shield Southern Section First Round
Swansea City 1-1 Wycombe Wanderers
(Swansea win 6-5 on penalties)
The real football was frosted off in ebbw Vale so we made our way to
the south coast to find the Vetch (which is quite well hidden in a web
of terraced houses). The crowd was 1600 which, considering this was only
the first round of the Southern Section and the not warm conditions
was quite impressive. Wycombe bought about 40 people with them, the
terrace behind the goal to our right looked impressively sparse. In
the first half, the defences were on top, Swansea keeping a tight line
at the back and being unable to penetrate at the front, although they
did create numerous half chances and hit the bar. Wycombe played the
second half like a league match where they had come for a point and
should have paid the penalty but Swansea could only put the ball in the
back of the net once, an excellent strie from distance from David
Thomas around the seventy minute mark. This should have caused Wycombe
to come out of their shells but no, it was still al Swansea, who hit the
bar again, forced an excellent save and had countless shots drift
fractionally wide or over. Then Wycombe scored. A break down the right
was not dealt with, the ball was flicked back and from a distance of
ten yards, the Wycombe player drove and unstoppable one past Freestone.
Golden goal extra time was played out with honours even, Wycombe having
the best chance with a cross across the face of goal that two players
slid for, so it went to penalties. Regular penalties finshed at four
apiece but on the second sudden death penalty, the Wycombe lads lost it.
We were asked quite a few times just who we were supporting in those
green and black scarves, and Andy even yelled "Come on Aber!", but
this really was an exciting cup tie (even if the compettion is
meaningless) and well worth our student discounted entry fees.
J.D.Smalldon Jan 1997
FA Carling Premiership
28/12/96 Coventry City 3-0 Middlesborough
The Middlesborough All-Star roadshow continues its one way slide to
oblivion after today's game in which the real hero was the man who set
Coventry's all time appearance record, Steve Ogrizovic involved in
match 544 frustrated Ravenelli, Juninho and the rest with some excellent
saves on the few occasions they breached the organised Sky Blue
defence. The kick off was delayed for fifteen minutes to make sure that
the majority of the 20500(ish) crowd were in place for the kick off, a
caller to 6-0-6 who had got aticket in advance complained that it still
took him an hour to get into the ground. Possession throughout was
divided equally but Coventry look more organised, a frightemingly
effective unit that can thrust forward through Huckerby, Salako and
McAllister with alarming efficiency. Middlesborough may have all the
stars but they now have fewer points, despite the tireless running of the
aforementioned attackers, and the neat touches of Emerson they do not
look like a team. The first of the Coventry goals was the pick, neat
midfield work led to the ball being spread wide to Salako who crossed
for Huckerby to put it past Gary Walsh (I saw him make his League debut
you know). That gave the half time initiative to City. Midway through
the second halfHuckerbyforced a penalty that McAllister converted
with relish, and late on Liddle blasted one into the wrong net. Never
has a number 22 looked more disconsolate. Dad and I were in the Main
Stand, which lacks atmosphere compared to the rest of the ground, but
there was still a lit of noise eminating from the other sections. And
that ma Ogrizovic got many huge cheers as he left the pitch at the end.
J.D.Smalldon Dec 1996
FA Carling Premiership
21/12/96 Leicester City 0-2 Coventry City
The Leicester cathedral choir froze for fifteen minutes whilst the PA
hideously distorted their carol routine. FXL danced without conviction
and Mark Morrison, a self confessed Leicester fan, presented two
chequesto various charities and doled out the half time raffle, now
called Wembley Winners or something equally stupid. Three bovrils, two
pies and a snickers came out t the wrong side of £6. The entertainment
free matchday magazine managed to lay out theteam selection so as to
make it impossible to actually change the line up effectively. Coventry
made no changes to theteam which beat Newcastle in the midweek and
performed with a stoical resolve to dispose of a poor, clueless Leicester
side who must have played better than this not to be bottom of the
table. Bereft of ideas they fell to two identikit goals where Dublin (
now playing center back) headed in, unmarked, from set pieces (an early
first half corner, a late second half free kick). Leicester ran but
could not break through often enough and Heskey fluffed all the chances
tat came his way, simply because he demanded too much time on the ball.
The Leicester crowd lacked anypassion to lift their team, in contrast
to the horde from Coventry who kept up a barrage of noise throughout,
and were quite amusing about it. The sight of an entire stand, standing
up and pointing to the ceiling yelling "What the f*ckinghell is this?"
will stay with me for quite some time yet.
J.D.Smalldon Dec 1996
FA Cup 2nd Rd
07/12/96 Cardiff City 0-2 Gillingham
She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes,
She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes,
She'll be coming round the mountain, coming round the mountain,
Coming round the mounatain when she comes,
Singing I-I-Iffy when she comes,
Singing I-I-Iffy when she comes,
Singing I-I-Iffy, I-I-Iffy,
I-I-Iffy when she comes!
That chorus sang by the small Gillingham contingent at Ninian Park
praising the hard work and skill of the Gills' frontman, and top
scorer Iffy Onoura cab in effect sum up the game. Gillingham's
more professional and, at times, skillfull approach nullified a Cardiff
side that looked impressive up until the final third of the pitch,
where their lack of vision, and more importantly a finishing touch
meant that Gillingham always looked the more likely team to progress
to the third round.
Although known as more of a long-ball side than anything else,
Gillingham showed enough invention in the Cardiff half to have created
a couple of opportunities in the first ten minutes, hitting the crossbar
and blasting narrowly over. But, in the 19th minute Gillingham got the
goal that their pressure had deserved. The ball was played into the
feet of Iffy Onoura just outside the box, with his back to goal. In an
instant he had controlled, swivelled and shot the ball into the bottom
left hand corner of the goal, past the despairing dive of Welsh U21 and
ex-Barry Town 'keeper Pat Mountain. From then on Gillingham never
looked like losing the game, the defence was solid, with 'Big Jim'
Stannard saving well when he was called into action (which was not
often). In the midfield Andy Hessanthaler ran the game, and looked the
classiest player on the pitch by miles. Everything Gilligham did went
through him, and his class showed against the third division outfit.
Up front the presence of Onoura and Butler unsettled the Cardiff
defence and it was Onoura's flick on from a Jim Stanard free kick that
sent Andy Hessanthaler through on goal to score Gillingham's second
and seal Cardiff's fate. Steve Butler could have made it three with
about 15 minutes to go, as Iffy Onoura put him through on goal, only
for Butler to blast the ball over.
It has to be said that t is amazing that Cardiff are in the third
division. Their stadium wouldn't look outof place in the first division,
and except for their poor finishing they surely would have given
Gillingham more of a run for their money.
