Category: Club events

Willand vs Swindon Supermarine

A sports journalist was recently embroiled in a Twitter controversy that he really had nothing to do with.

His issues started shortly after the BAFTAs had finished and Twitter became the epicentre of the ill-informed and the socially illiterate. The ignition of this maelstrom was, of course, a racial slur that could be heard on the BBC broadcast of the awards.

Internet personalities and idiot politicians were quickly playing ping pong with blame, targeting both the BBC and the individual who uttered the slur. It seemed beyond their cognitive reasoning that someone could hold the dual positions that a) the racial slur was abhorrent and b) it was involuntary.

John Davidson, Tourette’s campaigner and sufferer, left soon after the incident, and within hours was being accused of faking his illness, of being able to stop the tics if he really wanted, and of being racist because his tics were just his subconscious.

It’s a slight on society that most of those throwing baseless accusations hid behind the anonymity of made-up names and egg shaped profile pictures, but even that pales in comparison to what happened next.

John Davidson quickly began receiving messages on Elon’s social media platform. The irony that many of these included slurs that, although not comparable with what was heard at the BAFTAs, did have the distinction of being deliberate, was not lost. Derision turned to dogpiling, which turned to death threats.

One can only imagine what John Davidson, Tourette’s campaigner, thought about this. Because John Davidson, Tourette’s campaigner, doesn’t have a Twitter account.

Australian sports journalist John Davidson does, though, but this case of mistaken identity didn’t seem to deter the dullards.

Unfortunately, the case of the wrong John Davidson isn’t an isolated one. A relative of Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey was once questioned at Bristol Airport because he shared the same name as Tommy’s son; a mistake quickly rectified but still a shock to the system. Jason Kessler, American writer and food critic, faced severe distress when his reputation was damaged by the actions of a MAGA supporter and white supremacist who happened to share his name.

But as serious as these instances were, they seem benign when compared to David Sosa, a Florida man who was arrested twice due to a 1992 warrant from Texas for a different David Sosa. Despite having different physical descriptors, he was jailed because of the shared name.

It’s not just the famous and infamous who have name crosses to bear. For the last thirty years I’ve been receiving emails from a near namesake in New England, who I can only assume uses my email address when they don’t want to receive junk mail, and I once missed out, albeit temporarily, on a work bonus, while my namesake was paid twice.

There are also two teams in Swindon, and Willand’s opponents for their second of three home fixtures in seven days were the superbly suffixed Supermarine. The visitors started the  game three points above the hosts and with half an eye on the teams below them, were buoyed by an unbeaten start to March.

Ben Watson, able to call on a settled and talented squad, made a few changes from the side that beat Mousehole comprehensively on Wednesday. Bateson, Jagger-Cane and Dorothy started in the forward areas, while Sneap came into midfield.

There was another familiar name on the official list submitted to the FA, with referee D. Baylis officiating.

The game kicked off shortly after 3pm under a sun that, if not blazing, was at least visible and it was an open beginning. The visitors showed early intent, but within moments Willand thought they had taken the lead. Bateson rounded the goalkeeper and Kempster applied the finish, only for the assistant’s flag to cut celebrations short, Bateson adjudged offside in the build-up.

Supermarine settled and began to create chances of their own. Hemmings fired wide, while Purnell produced a good recovery save to deny Bateson at the other end.

The visitors took the lead after 15 minutes. A move down the right ended with a well-delivered ball into the box, and McDonagh met it with a controlled finish past Ashby-Hammond. It was a well-taken goal, but from a position that fans at Silver Street are starting to see conceded more often than they would like.

Willand continued to create openings. Bateson went close again, while Kempster remained involved in attacking moves, but the final touch proved elusive.

The other story of the half was the number of shouts for fouls and penalty appeals that went unanswered at both ends. On another day, the scoreline — and perhaps the number of players remaining on the pitch — might have told a different story.

Half-time – Willand 0–1 Swindon Supermarine

At the break, Willand made a triple substitution, introducing Morgan, McIver-Redwood and Rooke.

The second half saw a clear shift in momentum. Willand applied consistent pressure, forcing Supermarine onto the back foot, but struggled to find the cutting edge required to truly test the goalkeeper. Crosses were regularly delivered into the box, and Maciver-Redwood went closest with a diving header that drifted wide.

Willand were also denied an equaliser when a corner was forced home, only for the referee to rule it out for a foul on the goalkeeper.

Despite Willand’s endeavour and growing control of the game, Supermarine defended their lead well. They dealt with aerial deliveries, limited clear chances, and Purnell remained solid throughout.

In the end, despite the pressure, the equaliser never came, and Supermarine held on to secure the win.

In his post-match interview, Ben Watson gave credit to the visitors while also expressing frustration at several refereeing decisions, noting that a number had gone against his side.

I won’t comment on that. I just hope he doesn’t get us mixed up.

Full-time – Willand 0–1 Swindon Supermarine

Willand vs Didcot Town

Football and philosophy often walk hand in hand. At least they do in my match reports.

From Johan Cruyff echoing Aristotle with “Football is simple, but the hardest thing is to play simple football”, to Paul Gascoigne accidentally discovering the limits of theory against reality, along with a healthy dose of surrealism, with “I never predict anything, and I never will”, there has always been a union.

We’re often told, usually by Philosophy graduates who don’t write match reports,  that Philosophy is an abstract discipline distant from everyday life. But its questions surface everywhere in life, even on a muddy football pitch on a Saturday afternoon. After all, philosophy concerns itself with the fundamental questions of existence: what is real, how should we behave, and why things happen the way they do. People talk about Sports Science and Data Science  like it’s going to save football, or at least propel it into the next millenium, but despite its modern prestige, science is merely a branch of philosophy that just so happened to start measuring things. Philosophy doesn’t worry itself with XG or HRV stats. Philosophy is about the lives we lead, and the games we play.

Consider ethics, the philosophical study of right and wrong. On a football pitch this raises immediate questions. Should midfielders be strict utilitarians, always seeking the greatest good for the greatest number by passing rather than shooting? Or is there a deontological duty to attempt the spectacular strike whenever the opportunity arises, regardless of the consequences?

Then there is the philosophy of religion. If God is truly omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, why does He allow our team to concede late equalisers? Theologians have wrestled with the Problem of Evil for centuries; the problem of the 92nd-minute corner remains equally unresolved.

Epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge, also appears frequently in football. How do we know the ball crossed the line? Did the striker really mean that pass, or was it a fortunate accident? In grassroots football, knowledge is rarely certain and VAR is replaced by the loudest voice on the touchline.

Metaphysics, the study of what exists, raises deeper questions still. What truly constitutes a football match? Twenty-two players? Two goals? A referee?

And occasionally those questions appear not in lecture halls, but on football pitches.

Philosophers have long debated the nature of existence. The more pressing question on Saturday was slightly simpler: does football still exist if nobody can find the ball?

The matchday soon descended into something resembling existential football. First a training ball vanished into the metaphere, the intrepid media team deemed responsible, if not for its sudden disappearance then certainly for its retrieval, before the dugout’s reserve supply of balls threatened to evaporate entirely, leaving the players confronting the uncomfortable question of whether football can exist without a football.

Before that philosophical crisis emerged, however, there was still the small matter of the game itself.

Willand came into the game on the crest of back to back victories for the first time this season, and with confidence high it was a familiar starting eleven that took to the field against Didcot Town.

The Oxfordshire opponents came into the game following a February that included three victories in which they scored 8 goals without reply, and a single defeat to Sporting Club Inkberrow in which they were on the wrong side of a 6-4 scoreline.

It was Willand who began brightly and inside two minutes were already testing the Didcot defence. Dorothy cut in from the left and unleashed a powerful strike that forced the visiting goalkeeper into action. The keeper managed to get his gloves to the effort, pushing it away to safety.

Rovers continued to press and nearly broke the deadlock in the 11th minute through a lively exchange between Jagger-Cane and Dorothy, the former latching on to a direct pass before his strike was well saved by Bedwell, the ball falling to Dorothy who will feel he should have done better with the chance, with Didcot’s number one eventually holding on firmly to keep the scores level.

Didcot responded midway through the half with a promising chance of their own. A determined run carried the visitors into the Willand penalty area where Ashby-Hammond managed to get a touch but could not quite secure possession. As the Didcot attacker shaped to turn and shoot, the Willand stopper intervened to prevent a clear opportunity.

Half Time – Willand 0 – Didcot 0

Changes were chimed, if not rung at half-time, Kempster replacing Rooke and the game continued with the ebb and flow of match where it seemed neither team was going to trouble the scoresheet.

The game took a turn toward the absurd in the 88th minute, the ball heading out for a throw-in as the visitors mounted another attack, only for the to deflect off the linesman and over the goal line. To the surprise of most in the ground, including the referee, the linesman flagged for a corner, which thankfully came to nothing.

Despite the contentions of the Baylis stand, it appears that the linesman was in fact correct.

With the crowd wound up, and the game winding down, it was left to Bailey Kempster to score a late, late winner for Willand, cutting in past a number of Didcot players before unleashing an unstoppable strike past Bedwell.

The final whistle blew soon after, although the action continued, with the Didcot keeper shown a red card, apparently for his description of the referee’s performance.

While three wins on the spin should be applauded, Ben Watson and his team won’t be resting on any laurels, with games coming thick and fast until the end of the season, and Southern League safety still the priority.

What the game should remind us though, is that sometimes we can overcomplicate things; formations, free-kicks – even the philosophy of football. In the end it really just comes down to one thing. Tautology. The philosophical notion that something just is.

“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” as Gertrude Stein would say.

In football philosophy, Thierry Henry may have said it better though.

“Sometimes you have to score goals”

Full Time – Willand 1 – Didcot 0