(Your Lard Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher

Horsham FC play Littlehampton Town FC in the Sussex Chalenge Cup Final at the AMEX Stadium

One last outing to the AMEX this season for the Sussex Senior Cup🏆 . It’s the Hornets 🐝 again. This time their opponents are the Marigolds 🧤. We’re in the south end of the West Stand with the Lardy Army 🧈 supporting the Hornets who have just been crowned 👑 the Isthmian Champions 🏅. Up to the NLS for them next season. They are also the holders so looking to retain the cup tonight. The Marigolds (I’m glovin’ it) finished 18th in the Isthmian South East after an unremarkable season leaving them 40 places below the high flying Hornets. We haven’t seen the Hornets this season but remember some of the players. We also recognise Ole O from Lewes who moved as part of a recruitment raid on the Rooks by Horsham last summer. No Dougie this year as he has gone back to Bognor. Some season he has had, leaving the Hornets who get promoted ⬆, to join the Rocks who got relegated ⬇. Coincidence? Or is he still on the Hornet's payroll to sink their rivals. Probably not, he hasn’t played much and isn’t that influential on the pitch these days. There are no fireworks or taking the knee tonight. There are lots of photos as it’s a big occasion for non-league players. Let’s get going as it’s 5 minutes late for kick-off already. Blood and guts non-league football incoming. Hopefully 🙏🏼.

The Hornets are on the front foot and put the ball in the net in the 3rd minute. It’s disallowed for off-side to zero protest. There follows lots of scruffy football with the Hornets trying to play their passing game and the Golds trying to play long. Most notable event of the half is the Gold keeper collapsing in pain and having to be replaced. It’s level at the break. 

The Hornets looked a little leggy or maybe hungover from the league win in the first half. Need to step it up now. They do for a while and get a series of corners. It’s the Gold who look the most up for it though and their tackling becomes even more spirited.  The Golds keeper looks to be injured as he sits down, Zinsberger style. Are we going to see another keeper change? He recovers and we start. Wonder who would have gone in goal? The Golds have their tails up and look full of energy. They need to be careful of the outlets for that energy as their rate of bookings goes up as well. The ref is filling up his little black book but is being mostly fair with it. Although he does miss a big 2 footed tackle on one of the Hornets. They are applying all the pressure as we go into 6 minutes of injury time. The Gold fans have started to make themselves heard but it’s limited to “Your support is effin shit” (which it most certainly isn’t) and “we hate Horsham” although they play in a different league. Weird, predictable and boring. The Lardy army haven’t stopped singing with old favorites like “Start spreading the lard” and “The Yellow and the Green” despite looking second favorites to win it from here. The Hornets break out of the Golds press but are stopped by a challenge within sight of the Golds goal. Into the last minute as Hammo steps up to take the free kick. He hasn’t scored from a direct free kick all season but no-one will remember that because he sticks this one in the top corner ⚽ with just seconds left on the clock. Unbelievable scenes in the Lardy end. It’s still chaos in the stand as the whistle goes straight after the restart . Some last gasp win for the Yellow and Green.

Wow. That’s 3 big wins for us in 6 days. The Hornets retain the Cup 🏆. Littlehampton must be broken 😭 to lose that so late on. They looked most likely to score as the clock ticked down but a free kick shattered their dreams with almost the last kick. Made up for the Lardy Army who have got behind the Yellow and Green for the whole game. We could hear them still singing in the ground from the Bridge car park. The Hornets looked slightly off the boil tonight. Too much celebration after their promotion or a bit of complacency from the holders. Makes no difference now. The Golds were certainly up for it and a little bit too committed in some of the tackling. They tried to apply some level of dark arts but were fortunately beaten by a side focused on quality football. We are made up for the Hornets. They have been building to this for years and to do the double is amazing for them. The Lardy army certainly played their role in the season and tonight. Hope the Hornets are back next year to beat another opponent. This is the last of 4 visits to the AMEX this season. Hope to get to a few more next season. The U23 final was also tonight and Newhaven lost to the all conquering Hassock who have won everything this season. Congrats to the Robins.

POTM: There can only be one winner here. It goes to James ‘hammo’ Hammond for the goal. He won the game with that kick. Congrats. That won’t be forgotten for a while. 

The officials had a mixed night. Missed a few fouls and offsides. It was certainly busy for them and they managed to upset both sets of fans. Ref will need to add some pages to his little black book after that. 

The Scran’O’meter downgraded the Veggie pie 🥧 from 9/10 to 8/10 due to the temperature or lack of. Bottle tops were removed as usual for fortress AMEX.

That's it for men's football now. See you in Birmingham for the last game of the WSL season.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾

AMEX under the lights

Winners again

97 Tears

Brighton & Hove Albion Women face Chelsea Women in the WSL at the Peoples Pension Stadium

It’s the Seagulls 3rd game in the big playground this season. Today, Liverpool are the opponents in the penultimate home game. It’s a six pointer as the Albion are 5th in the WSL with the Reds just a point behind. Man City are 13 points clear in 4th so this is the battle to be the best of the rest. Since we last saw them play, Maddie has been injured against Man City and will miss the rest of the season. Big loss that. And during the international break, our Michelle became a national hero scoring a worldie for the Senior Lionesses against Belgium in Belgium. It was her first senior goal after just 53 seconds on the pitch. She was with the U19 squad when she got a very late call up to replace the injured Russo for the trip to Belgium. The rest is history, literally. She gets a rare start today. Also starting from the Lionesses squad are Fran and Nikita. Maisie starts after her first senior Lioness call up too although she didn’t get to play. At least her talent has been recognised👀. The Liverpool news is that Matt Beard 🧔 was surprisingly sacked 💰 in February. Acting in his place is Amber Whiteley. She took them to the FA Cup semi-finals last week but they lost to Chelsea. They took the lead in that match through an Olivia Smith goal with her trademark fast break and diagonal rocket into the net. Hope we don’t see that today but she is lethal. We were a bit surprised to see her today as she went off injured last week. We have yet to see the Albion win at the AMEX but we are hoping to break that duck 🦆 today. We lost to Everton here at the AMEX a year ago today. Hopefully we’re not completing the Merseyside double today. It’s a very sunny ☀ April 🌧 day and it’s toasty 😎 in the front row of the East Stand. There has been a bit of a wheelie bin malfunction and some have been taken away. The remaining display is a bit half-hearted. It’s time for “Sussex by the Sea” and then we’re off.

It’s a horrible start. Olivia Smith is straight down the wing and smashing it in from an angle. Identical to the goal at Chelsea last week 😡. A week to prepare for that exact danger and we’re behind in a minute. Mustn't swear, we are in the Family Stand 😶. Drat, Damn and Whops. It restarts and we make some noise to get behind the team. They can’t keep the ball though. It’s all Liverpool with misses from Fisk, Kiernan and Fisk again. The Seagulls manage to get a shot in but Nadine misses her chance. There is an impromptu drinks break as Olivia receives treatment on 31. Rinse and repeat on 39 except the play doesn't stop this time so she is left rolling around on her own. The Seagulls get caught playing out from the back and Kiernan makes it 2-0 to the visitors on 43. Long way back now. A goal before the break would be nice. Olivia Smith, having needed treatment twice, is flying down the wing. This time Poppy keeps up and absolutely flattens her 🥊. Well in, Popps. More treatment is required and after wasting loads more time, she is replaced by Kapocs on 45+6. Poppy is booked which is fair enough. The half ends after 8 added minutes, mostly due to Olivia Smith sitting down. The is a brief relief from the heat as we get a lovely cooling spray at the halftime sprinklers.

Brighton need something now. Dario makes 3 changes. Rachel, Poppy and Nadine are replaced by Dejana, Kiko and Marisa. Maisie drops into the left centre back roll vacated by Poppy. It is better! There is more aggression in the midfield and the ball is moving forward. We start to get chances.  Nikita gets caught offside. Michelle puts Kiko’s cross in the net on 48⚽. 1-2. A good start. We can’t get any momentum built and it is scrappy for a while. Fran misses from another Kiko cross. Nikita is booked for a late tackle. Michelle is injured and there is another drinks break while she gets treatment. It's now Frans turn to get booked. Michelle takes a shot from the corner of the box, it’s well high and wide as it curls into the stand but Rachel Laws was still injured in the action 🤷. More work for the physios who are earning their money 💰 today. Liverpool get a corner and Bonner is injured in the action. On come the physios again. The clock is ticking down as Bruna replaces Jelena on 81 to big cheers. She is back from Barcelona after treatment for an injury. Melina makes a good save from Holland. Bruna misses down the other end. It’s all Brighton now. Laws is booked for time wasting. Albion get a string of corners but no goals. Auee is replaced by Charlize on 90+7 as play restarts. It finishes on 90+10 with a 1-2 loss.

Not a good day for the Seagulls. Another goal for Michelle. Shame we couldn’t get more. Albion had a week off to train while Liverpool played an big FA Cup game yet it was the opposition who looked well organised and full of energy. Not having a plan for Olivia Smith and being caught out in the first minute is unbelievable. Disappointed that we underperformed when it mattered and now Liverpool have moved above us in the table as we swapped 5th and 6th places. West Ham drew so at least we didn't drop any lower but need to buck our ideas up or we will be dropping rapidly down the table. Three games to go including Arsenal at Crawley. Enough moaning.  It was a nice day out and we got to test out the new fan zone which is very much a work in progress. We did get excellent value today as we got an extra 15 minutes for the same price although Liverpool players were sitting down for most of it. They are a bit fragile on the wrong side of the Mersey. We do wonder if Smith was fit having gone off injured last week and the needed treatment 3 times today before being subbed. Maybe she is just being massively over dramatic. Who knows? They were a bit of a one player team without her. Full marks to Poppy for putting her out of her misery today. 

POTM: Is awarded to Melina for some great saves and trying to distribute the ball quickly even if no-one wanted it.

The ref got played by the Reds today with all their falling over and rolling around. She got a few names for her collection as well.

The Scran’O’meter tested out “The Terrace”, the new fan zone. The Ultra Cheese Melt toastie was nice getting 8/10. The ordering system needs sorting out though. The catering on the concourse was very slow at half time. Not Arsenal slow but bad enough. And the AMEX stewards and staff are the last remaining outpost for removing bottle tops 🍾.

See you on Monday if it's not too foggy on the Tye.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾

In the AMEX with Sally

Smokey in here

Checking out the new fan zone

Seagulls are doing it for themselves

Brighton & Hove Albion Women host Everton FC in the WSL at the AMEX Community Stadium

The Seagulls are at the AMEX to host the Toffees on a Friday evening in Falmer. It’s a small crowd for the stadium but more than 4500 is great for the Seagulls. They are hoping to complete the double over the Blues having won in the North West with a Terri brace back in October. It might be a popular venue for the fans but the performances here don’t match up to those at the Broadfield yet. The Albion's form has been fairly poor since we saw them in February but they come into this on the back of a win away the the King Power. Micky is still in charge. His line up has Baggers in goal. The back 4 are Li M, Guru, Jorelyn and Poppy. In the middle are Tatty, Ziggy and Maisie. Across the front 3 are Katie Robbo, Terri and Vee Sari. We like the look of that. There have been so many managerial changes in the last few seasons that it’s been very hard for the squad to settle and move forwards. Hopefully Micky can lay some foundations to build on. The Toffee’s are in a very nice salmon coloured away kit. The Danish Holmgaard sisters are in the squad but only Sara is starting. Courtney Brosnan is in goal and up front is Katja Snoeijs. We're in the West Stand behind the dugouts. We’ve had a selfie and a cuddle with Sally. There are wheelie bins of fire and then we’re off.

It starts as an open and even game with teams getting and conceding chances. Baggers is the first to be called into action and has to tip it wide. Brosnan makes a fantastic save to scoop Terrie’s scuffed shot out from behind her. It’s level at the break. Brighton would get the decision on points. They have been effective down the right through Katie Robbo and Terri. More of the same to come hopefully.

Into the second half and Brighton have the slightly better of the play again. Sarri and Pinto getting into the game. Both managers make changes on 58. Pauline replaces Vea on the left wing for the Seagulls. Everton bring on Karen Holmgaard who replaces Hanna Bennison, Brighton still have the upper hand when the Holmgaards combine as substitute Karen heads in from Sara’s looping cross on 60. 0-1. The Seagulls equalise on 62 from a Maisie freekick from just outside the box. It hits the underside of the bar and Tatiana Pinto pounces to smash it into the roof of the net just ahead of a scrambling Brosnan ⚽.  1-1. Phew. Madison Haley replaces Maisie and Lee Guem-min replaces Li Mengwen on 65. Brighton are on top now and keeping Brosnan busy. A mix up sees Jorelyn’s backpass intercepted by Aurora Gallif who is tripped by the on-rushing Baggers. Guru comes sliding in to intercept but can’t help sending into her own net. 1-2. What a mess. And poor Guru getting the credit for a mess she didn’t make. She might be a bit cross. The Seagulls create some great chances to equalise but the Toffee’s defence gets the run of luck that Brighton didn’t. It finishes 1-2 at the AMEX.

That was a good game with an awful result. The Seagulls were so dominant in possession especially in the 2nd half. For all the possession there were very few good chances. Probably enough to win it had they been a bit more clinical in the final third. And being a bit calmer at the back would have helped. We felt that the changes disrupted the team and they floundered a little at times with the changes to the back line. Not easy when the plan is to play out through the centre backs for them to be changing. Still, it was another good performance without result at the AMEX even if the downfall was our own and not the officials for once. A big one for us up next as we head to the Bridge where Chelsea face the European champions. Can’t wait.

See you soon.

Love Tranmerekat 🐾

In the West Stand

Big Tall Sally

I'm on fire

Smokin'