Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2009 21:19:13 GMT
My first game of the season also happened to be the first Europa League game to be played in England as well as - of course - Shropshire's first-ever European game. I'm speaking of TNS v Fram Reykjavik.
These July European games really are most strange and last night's was a tad more surreal than normal. Played in front of an all-ticket crowd of 933 - all-seated to comply with UEFA regulations - it was actually a half-decent game which TNS dominated and should have won. But, as for the standard, I dare say Torquay United would be able to progress a few rounds in Europe should the People's Republic of South Devon ever come to fruition (get your t-shirts at www.peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk/t-shirts).
The whole TNS story becomes more bizarre. Is it a Welsh club or an English club? Or, indeed, transnational? You may recall that, starting off as Llansantffraid, the club then became Total Network Solutions before pitching up at Oswestry under the guise of, as the programme puts it, The New Saints of Oswestry Town and Llansantffraid FC .
Aside from the inevitable hoppers in last night's gathering, it was hard to work out who exactly supports TNS on a regular basis: traditionalists from Llansantffraid (ten miles down the road and over the border) or gloryseekers from the metropolis of Oswestry where the club has moved to exploit an apparently larger market? And, as ever in those parts, the merging linguistics of Wales, the Midlands and Merseyside adds to the confusion.
The deal was that the move was possible because Oswestry Town - now subsumed into TNS - had been members of the Football Association of Wales since Lloyd George's father was a lad. And, to add to the sense of incursion across the Marches, the ground is on the English side of Oswestry on the site of an old military camp by the A5 and a fair way out of town. It’s a odd place: a hint of an unkempt Shropshire meadow, cows in the field next to the car park, an artificial playing surface and a new conference facility which, commercial value or not, makes for one of the most unspeakably ugly football structures you can imagine.
Back to the game and the Icelandic goalkeeper was rather handier than the one we had... Hannes Halldorsson, sign him now!
Barmcake watch: he's started again and booked a train ticket to Edinburgh to see Hibernian play in a European tie this week. Then somebody told him it was Hibernians of Malta.....
These July European games really are most strange and last night's was a tad more surreal than normal. Played in front of an all-ticket crowd of 933 - all-seated to comply with UEFA regulations - it was actually a half-decent game which TNS dominated and should have won. But, as for the standard, I dare say Torquay United would be able to progress a few rounds in Europe should the People's Republic of South Devon ever come to fruition (get your t-shirts at www.peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk/t-shirts).
The whole TNS story becomes more bizarre. Is it a Welsh club or an English club? Or, indeed, transnational? You may recall that, starting off as Llansantffraid, the club then became Total Network Solutions before pitching up at Oswestry under the guise of, as the programme puts it, The New Saints of Oswestry Town and Llansantffraid FC .
Aside from the inevitable hoppers in last night's gathering, it was hard to work out who exactly supports TNS on a regular basis: traditionalists from Llansantffraid (ten miles down the road and over the border) or gloryseekers from the metropolis of Oswestry where the club has moved to exploit an apparently larger market? And, as ever in those parts, the merging linguistics of Wales, the Midlands and Merseyside adds to the confusion.
The deal was that the move was possible because Oswestry Town - now subsumed into TNS - had been members of the Football Association of Wales since Lloyd George's father was a lad. And, to add to the sense of incursion across the Marches, the ground is on the English side of Oswestry on the site of an old military camp by the A5 and a fair way out of town. It’s a odd place: a hint of an unkempt Shropshire meadow, cows in the field next to the car park, an artificial playing surface and a new conference facility which, commercial value or not, makes for one of the most unspeakably ugly football structures you can imagine.
Back to the game and the Icelandic goalkeeper was rather handier than the one we had... Hannes Halldorsson, sign him now!
Barmcake watch: he's started again and booked a train ticket to Edinburgh to see Hibernian play in a European tie this week. Then somebody told him it was Hibernians of Malta.....