Latest news: New stats page - all the Southern League details you need to bore your friends (should you have any) right here.
Added Saturday 30th January
Southern League Premier Division
Bedford Town 1 Yeltz 1
The run continues. Or should that be the runs continue? It's now 15 league games unbeaten - the best by any team in the SLP - and we are still the only side to have scored in every game this season. And still we hover outside the play-off places so, despite the 10 point penalty, all is rosy. The frustrating part though is we keep drawing. It's three consecutive draws now and seven in the last ten games. Clearly Matt Clarke is beyond criticism for what he has achieved this season but I reckon he'll be more frustrated than anyone at our inability to hold on to a lead. Part of that failure in recent times may be due to Stefan Moore's goals drying up. He was never going to carry on at the same rate at which he began the season but it's four games since he last scored and he's not even the league's top scorer any more. I hope it's only a temporary lull because when he's not scoring he's not doing anything else either.
Added Tuesday 26th January
Southern League Premier Division
Yeltz 2 Clevedon Town 2
Whilst Saturday and Farnborough wasn't quite the Lord Mayor's show, the performance tonight was definitely veering more to the poop cart end of the spectrum. Clevedon played better than their lowly league status suggested and scored two excellent goals, but if Halesowen want to get into the play-offs then these are games that must be won. Saturday's draw was a point gained, this was most definitely two dropped. Two goals from Carl Palmer had given the Yeltz a 2-1 half-time lead and it should have been enough. So, it's now 14 league games unbeaten - the club's best run of the century - and still unbeaten at home but it's still a disappointing (and cold) evening. The upside? Stourbridge lost 6-1.
Added Saturday 23rd January
Southern League Premier Division
Yeltz 1 Farnborough 1
I'm not sure about the pink piping on Farnborough's away kit, and some of their prima donna-ish behaviour indicates that being top of the league and clearly the best side in it has gone to their heads somewhat, but they are undeniably a very good side. Despite being down to ten men for 87 minutes they more than held their own against the Yeltz, who couldn't quite make their numerical advantage count. That said there was enough from Halesowen to suggest that they will make a serious assault on the playoffs as the unbeaten run stretches to 13 games and the undefeated home record remains in tact. Simon Johnson, after a little dip in form before the big freeze, looks back to his best whilst Alex Cowley, making his third (or is it fourth?) debut for the Yeltz was, well, just Alex Cowley. Get Stefan Moore scoring again - starting against Clevedon on Tuesday - and the Yeltz juggernaut could prove unstoppable.
Added Saturday 16th January
There were two games at least. Farnborough took another step towards their inevitable title with a home win over Clevedon and Merthyr moved away from the relegation zone with a decent win at Bedford. My Southern League stats are up to date and you can download them here or from my fledgling stats page.
Added Friday 15th January
Tomorrow's game at Swindon Supermarine has also been called along with a host of other games. The ongoing thaw has obviously left everywhere waterlogged so it's now three weeks without a game. How far behind are we with the season now? Well, the season is currently 45% complete, whereas this time last season it was 48% albeit a full weekend of full fixtures to come, which clearly won't happen this year. Halesowen aren't affected as both this and last year we had played 21 matches. Nuneaton and Truro will have a difficult time making up the fixtures though as they have both only played 16 times. The team who had played the fewest at this time last year was Brackley with 18, and they found it difficult to cope with the fixture backlog that resulted. All in all then we probably aren't that far behind but clearly some teams are harder hit than others.
Added Wednesday 13th January
Still nothing doing on the football front as the snow continues. This week's midweek games have all been called off, and with heavy rain expected to coincide with the imminent thaw we'll all probably be under water at the weekend. On top of that, next Tuesday's home game against Clevedon has been postponed because they've got to play in the tin-pot tournament that is the Southern League Cup. It's all grim.
But at least our problems are only weather based. Chester City's come in the shape of Morell Maison, who seemingly strengthens his grip on the club daily. Listen to his interviews (if you can stand it) and he has clearly dusted off the script he used when he was at the Grove. He sounds like a bad corporate manual.
Added Friday 8th January
It will be a Southern League free day tomorrow, as all of the fixtures have bitten the dust. Apparently it has been quite cold of late. Haven't noticed it myself - it's not like it's been on the news or anything.
Added Wednesday 6th January
The "Big Freeze" continues and all scheduled mid-week games have been postponed. I can't imagine that there will be any this weekend either, so one or two teams are going to end up with quite a hefty fixture pile up when everything eventually thaws. The league is only about 10-15 games shy of where it was this time last year though so it shouldn't be a major problem yet, although if you believe the metereological types the snow and ice is here for another couple of weeks. Withdrawl symptoms are imminent.
It's all quiet at the club as well with no indication that the Ingram takeover has gone through yet. What does it mean? Who knows...In fact most of the news is being made by the couple of characters who used to "run" the club. Guy Simpson is currently on trial for his alleged minor indiscretion with twenty odd million Chinese cigarettes, whilst Morell Maison is spouting his now trademarked bullshit about his plans for Chester City. I don't know about you but when someone starts talking about "projects" and "driving the club forward" I run for the hills. And when that person is Maison then I dig myself into a bunker and thank God that he has nothing to do with Halesowen Town any more. I've said this before but it defies logic, belief and probably physics that he is allowed anywhere near another football club.
Added Saturday 2nd January
A big thumbs down to the referee who carried out an early morning pitch inspection and advised Evesham that the game was definitely on. Consequently we all travelled the admittedly short distance to Worcester only to find out the match referee had called the game off due to a frozen pitch. It certainly didn't become more frozen between the two inspections so god knows what the first ref was thinking. Because there was no game I had an extra couple of hours drinking time and consequently have felt bloody awful all day. And referee number one it's all your fault.
Truly disturbing news from Chester in that Morell Maison has reportedly "assumed control" of the club. What has happened to the FA fit and proper person test? If this man is still deemed acceptable then surely they can't turn anyone down?
