*BS*Latest news from the clubs in Blue Square Bet South…*BF*

Including Liam Daish’s promotion ambition at Ebbsfleet, financial concern at Bromley and an ex-Dover player joining Bishop’s Stortford.

*BS*Ebbsfleet United*BF*

Fleet boss Liam Daish is gunning for promotion with his young side, put together under difficult circumstances in the summer.

Ebbsfleet became a part-time club again after relegation from the Premier division but they have settled well despite off the pitch concerns around the influence of the myfootballclub ownership.

Daish told the Gravesend Reporter: “There were always doubts because of the position the club was in, with a lot of questions that needed answering.

“It was a difficult period with a lot of uncertainty. But, we made it into pre-season and got the players to make a squad to work with.”

Ebbsfleet are in good form and have put themselves in contention for promotion in their first season of Blue Square Bet South football.

Daish added: “Of course promotion is the priority – from the first day of the season it’s always a priority. The players have handled themselves very well.

“We’ve tried to keep a professional, full-time mentality and discipline around the side which has helped. Paul Lorraine has been very good, as have a number in the spine of the side, from Preston Edwards through to Calum Willock.

“The young lads have come through well in Michael West and Tom Phipp. They have responded to the challenge and we’re pleased, but there is a long way to go yet.”

*Ppic1**BS*Bishop’s Stortford*BF*

Bishop’s Stortford boss Mark Simpson has brought in former Whites striker Walid Matata.

The pacey forward played for Athletic under Clive Walker in the club’s Ryman South days. He has since turned out for the likes of Sutton United, Harrow Borough, Billericay Town and Enfield.

Also joining the club is Callum McNaughton, on loan from West Ham. The centre back will provide some much needed quality to Stortford’s porous defence, as Simpson tries to keep his side in play-off contention.

However, the club has lost talented winger Chris Arthur to Football League club Rotherham United. The 20 year-old joined Stortford from QPR but has signed a two-month contract with the Millers after a successful trial.

*BS*Bromley FC*BF*

Following the postponed fixture between Bromley and Dover on Boxing Day, club owner Jeremy Dolke issued an honest statement to supporters regarding the increasingly difficult financial situation at the club.

Numerous postponements due to the bad weather has hit the London club hard and Dolke is calling on supporters to help raise funds through off the field events.

He told supporters: “Losing our Boxing Day game was a massive blow to the Club, it would have seen one of our biggest crowds of the season. Financially this, combined with significant decreases in other revenue streams due to the terrible weather, has almost crippled the Club.

“We started this season with a contingency fund in place to cover six weeks wages. Early exits in cup competitions left us unable to add to this pot of money and it has now almost exhausted.

“We have a great group of lads at the Club but at this time of year I cannot honestly ask them to stay with us without being paid when they could be earning money elsewhere. I have a family so I know that it would not just be the players themselves who would be affected.

“As many of you know, we suffered a burglary at the beginning of the month. Extensive damage was done to both The Sports Bar and The Glemnet Suite as well as other parts of the ground and assorted items were stolen. Insurance claims are ongoing but in the meantime I have had to reach into my own pocket to pay for repairs, replacements, etc and so I cannot do so again to maintain the playing budget.

*Lpic2*”What the Club desperately needs is a small injunction of funds between now and the end of the year. I am therefore making a plea to all Bromley supporters for any fundraising suggestions that they may have.

“We do not need tens of thousands of pounds, we just need enough to see us through the next month or so without losing the great squad that we have worked so hard to assemble.”

Following this statement, Bromley quickly rearranged a previously postponed match at home to Maidenhead United for Thursday 30th December.

The inform Magpies won the game 2-0, Bromley’s first defeat at Hayes Lane this season. However, a good attendance of 535 has given the club a financial boost before their next home game against Bishop’s Stortford on Monday 3rd January.

*BS*Bromley are the visitors to Perrys Crabble on Saturday 1st January. Kick-off at 3.00pm.*BF*

*BS*Latest news from the clubs in Blue Square Bet South…*BF*

Including Liam Daish’s promotion ambition at Ebbsfleet, financial concern at Bromley and an ex-Dover player joining Bishop’s Stortford.

*BS*Ebbsfleet United*BF*

Fleet boss Liam Daish is gunning for promotion with his young side, put together under difficult circumstances in the summer.

Ebbsfleet became a part-time club again after relegation from the Premier division but they have settled well despite off the pitch concerns around the influence of the myfootballclub ownership.

Daish told the Gravesend Reporter: “There were always doubts because of the position the club was in, with a lot of questions that needed answering.

“It was a difficult period with a lot of uncertainty. But, we made it into pre-season and got the players to make a squad to work with.”

Ebbsfleet are in good form and have put themselves in contention for promotion in their first season of Blue Square Bet South football.

Daish added: “Of course promotion is the priority – from the first day of the season it’s always a priority. The players have handled themselves very well.

“We’ve tried to keep a professional, full-time mentality and discipline around the side which has helped. Paul Lorraine has been very good, as have a number in the spine of the side, from Preston Edwards through to Calum Willock.

“The young lads have come through well in Michael West and Tom Phipp. They have responded to the challenge and we’re pleased, but there is a long way to go yet.”

*Ppic1**BS*Bishop’s Stortford*BF*

Bishop’s Stortford boss Mark Simpson has brought in former Whites striker Walid Matata.

The pacey forward played for Athletic under Clive Walker in the club’s Ryman South days. He has since turned out for the likes of Sutton United, Harrow Borough, Billericay Town and Enfield.

Also joining the club is Callum McNaughton, on loan from West Ham. The centre back will provide some much needed quality to Stortford’s porous defence, as Simpson tries to keep his side in play-off contention.

However, the club has lost talented winger Chris Arthur to Football League club Rotherham United. The 20 year-old joined Stortford from QPR but has signed a two-month contract with the Millers after a successful trial.

*BS*Bromley FC*BF*

Following the postponed fixture between Bromley and Dover on Boxing Day, club owner Jeremy Dolke issued an honest statement to supporters regarding the increasingly difficult financial situation at the club.

Numerous postponements due to the bad weather has hit the London club hard and Dolke is calling on supporters to help raise funds through off the field events.

He told supporters: “Losing our Boxing Day game was a massive blow to the Club, it would have seen one of our biggest crowds of the season. Financially this, combined with significant decreases in other revenue streams due to the terrible weather, has almost crippled the Club.

“We started this season with a contingency fund in place to cover six weeks wages. Early exits in cup competitions left us unable to add to this pot of money and it has now almost exhausted.

“We have a great group of lads at the Club but at this time of year I cannot honestly ask them to stay with us without being paid when they could be earning money elsewhere. I have a family so I know that it would not just be the players themselves who would be affected.

“As many of you know, we suffered a burglary at the beginning of the month. Extensive damage was done to both The Sports Bar and The Glemnet Suite as well as other parts of the ground and assorted items were stolen. Insurance claims are ongoing but in the meantime I have had to reach into my own pocket to pay for repairs, replacements, etc and so I cannot do so again to maintain the playing budget.

*Lpic2*”What the Club desperately needs is a small injunction of funds between now and the end of the year. I am therefore making a plea to all Bromley supporters for any fundraising suggestions that they may have.

“We do not need tens of thousands of pounds, we just need enough to see us through the next month or so without losing the great squad that we have worked so hard to assemble.”

Following this statement, Bromley quickly rearranged a previously postponed match at home to Maidenhead United for Thursday 30th December.

The inform Magpies won the game 2-0, Bromley’s first defeat at Hayes Lane this season. However, a good attendance of 535 has given the club a financial boost before their next home game against Bishop’s Stortford on Monday 3rd January.

*BS*Bromley are the visitors to Perrys Crabble on Saturday 1st January. Kick-off at 3.00pm.*BF*

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*Link1*

*BS*Day 3
If our final day was a disappointment on a couple of levels, this was probably our fault. Looking back, we’d gone off in search of a golden era that, if it had existed in the first place, wasn’t coming back.*BF*

Back in the days when I was young and impressionable and all good football teams from behind the Iron Curtain were described as ‘crack,’ Gornik Zabrze weren’t far away from being a top European club.

In 1968, they’d given eventual winners Manchester United an almighty scare in the quarter-finals of the European Cup prior to going out 2-1 on aggregate after winning the first leg in Poland. Two years later, they lost in the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup, going down 2-1 to Manchester City in Vienna. Gornik is Polish for miner, I’m told, and most of the side from that era came from the Silesian pits.

I don’t know quite what we expected to find at the end of our two hour train ride to Zabrze. Maybe we’d expected to stroll into a real life LS Lowry painting and eat warm gravel at the local welfare club? Perhaps we’d recognise the players as they’d be the ones with boots hanging round their necks as they travelled, on’t charabanc, t’match. Reality was much more grim.

Although the vast tourist information board at the station suggested Zabrze was an aesthetically pleasing enough place if you had time enough to explore, it didn’t seem likely that we’d make it to the ground via the scenic route of the botanical gardens. We’d seemingly walked onto a location set for 28 Days Later in which the windows were shuttered and no sod was about at midday on a bleak, grey Sunday. Back at the station, maybe 15 taxis queued optimistically, probably in the hope that the trains would stop running. We looked for a restaurant, but found only a single-toothed crone dispensing what were surely the world’s largest, cheapest and most disgusting cheeseburgers.

As the next train into town reunited us with our new-found friends from Austria, we dodged a tumble weed or two as we half-heartedly perused the main drag. Then we chanced upon a sports bar that was practically giving away pints of Tyskie and sunshine by the jugful instantly entered our world and our souls.

If the beer hadn’t been quite so inexpensive, I suspect we wouldn’t have had quite so much of it. Yet whilst under-indulgence would have seemed rude in the circumstances, we were mindful of the fact that all four of us still needed tickets to the game . Accordingly, we stayed sensible enough to place ourselves in the ticket queue maybe an hour before kick off; and it’s from here that matters rapidly went the shape of the pear.

At the outset, I should stress that I fully understand why, in some countries, it is necessary for a fan to produce an ID card or passport if he wants a ticket to a game. I’ve done so a few times and appreciate why it’s a good idea. Elsewhere, clubs cater for the ticket demands of casual fans efficiently and successfully. Accordingly, I can’t think that the practice of placing two mental defectives in a plastic hut and expecting them to cope with more than a handful of customers – a practice Gornik deemed sufficient – is likely to catch on around Europe.

*Lpic1*If the ticketing had been overseen by two civil servants on the day of their retirement, we might have got in for kick off. But as the ladies behind the counter operated their keyboards with two fingers and in a manner that suggested they’d been asked to service a hovercraft, hopes of seeing more than half a game slowly evaporated. Acting with true English grit and stoicism, the Clown Prince and I tutted quite audibly.

By way of apology, a Katowice fan who’d joined us in the queue said: “This is really embarrassing! Sometimes it’s as though the Russians never went home.”

Just before half-time, after strolling past 400 riot police and stewards with absolutely nothing to do, we got into Gornik’s ramshackle, God-awful athletics stadium with a football pitch in the middle, in time to see them go 1-0 up.

Three days earlier, Gornik’s opponents, Lech Poznan, had lost 3-1 to the aforementioned Manchester City in a Europa League group stage game. Ten days later, I saw them from the comfort of my armchair when they played superbly to beat City by the same score. Today, in the manner of so many clubs who have just played away in Europe in midweek, they just looked knackered and disinterested. After their goalkeeper had a classic Robert Green moment – which I heartily recommend you find on Youtube if you fancy a chuckle – to concede a second goal, Gornik never needed to get out of second gear to win with ludicrous comfort.

Truly miffed and as disinterested as Poznan, I wandered off in search of the solace that a Polish sausage the size of small submarine can readily provide.

Some hours later back in Krakow, there was time for one last meal before getting ourselves sorted for the early plane back to Stansted the following morning. Feeling only slightly peckish, I opted for a light snack. In other words, about 14 deliciously honey-roasted chickens that came with roast potatoes, an assortment of dips and a couple beers.

Truly embarrassed by the size of our bill – about £5 per head – we left a decent tip.

*BS*Flights*BF*

If Ryanair have been the subject of a few stand-up comedy routines, I can only speak as I find and state that I’ve only ever been impressed with the service they offer. Having been to Sweden, Hungary and Poland with them, each flight has left on time, arrived on time and been perfectly comfortable. If you follow the simple instructions set out on their website, get to the airport on time, don’t take the mickey with your baggage allowance and check-in online before you travel, I’d wager you’ll be just impressed.

On this occasion, a return flight from Stansted to Krakow cost me just under £60 – and that included my travel insurance. A train service runs to and from Krakow city centre to the airport and takes maybe half an hour. A single ticket will cost you in the region of 80p.

*BS*Hotels*BF*

You’re really spoilt for choice for hotels in Krakow and none of them are particularly expensive. Once again, I visited www.Venere.com and booked online to stay at a comfortable little family run place called the Globtrotter. (Yes, I have spelt that correctly!) Within a couple of minutes walk from the main square, the Globtrotter was a warm and comfortable billet in which the staff could not have been more friendly or helpful. A 4-night stay in a single room with en suite facilities cost 620 Polish Zloty; excellent value at around £33 per night.

*Lpic2**BS*Handy tips*BF*

When you set off, just take a few Zloty with you to cover incidental expenses. You will get a far better rate of exchange if you change up your money in Krakow. Krakow is an easy place to walk round, but if you should need a taxi at any point, don’t be alarmed. All forms of transport are ludicrously cheap and taxi drivers should always agree a price with you before you get into a cab.

If you decide to visit Auschwitz, remember that this is the name that the Nazis gave to the town. The locals call it Oswiecim (Oz-vee-chim) and appreciate it enormously if visitors do as well.

*Link2*

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Limited Edition shirts that have been pre-ordered were delivered to the club on Saturday. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we were unable to open the shop.

Shop Manager, Joe Lowney Said “The approaches to the shop were too unsafe for to open the shop. We have to consider customer safety.”

All being well, the shop will be open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

If you are unable to collect during these time, please contact the club shop by e-mail – shop@doverathletic.com and we’ll do our very best to assist you.

*Link1*

*BS*Day 3
If our final day was a disappointment on a couple of levels, this was probably our fault. Looking back, we’d gone off in search of a golden era that, if it had existed in the first place, wasn’t coming back.*BF*

Back in the days when I was young and impressionable and all good football teams from behind the Iron Curtain were described as ‘crack,’ Gornik Zabrze weren’t far away from being a top European club.

In 1968, they’d given eventual winners Manchester United an almighty scare in the quarter-finals of the European Cup prior to going out 2-1 on aggregate after winning the first leg in Poland. Two years later, they lost in the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup, going down 2-1 to Manchester City in Vienna. Gornik is Polish for miner, I’m told, and most of the side from that era came from the Silesian pits.

I don’t know quite what we expected to find at the end of our two hour train ride to Zabrze. Maybe we’d expected to stroll into a real life LS Lowry painting and eat warm gravel at the local welfare club? Perhaps we’d recognise the players as they’d be the ones with boots hanging round their necks as they travelled, on’t charabanc, t’match. Reality was much more grim.

Although the vast tourist information board at the station suggested Zabrze was an aesthetically pleasing enough place if you had time enough to explore, it didn’t seem likely that we’d make it to the ground via the scenic route of the botanical gardens. We’d seemingly walked onto a location set for 28 Days Later in which the windows were shuttered and no sod was about at midday on a bleak, grey Sunday. Back at the station, maybe 15 taxis queued optimistically, probably in the hope that the trains would stop running. We looked for a restaurant, but found only a single-toothed crone dispensing what were surely the world’s largest, cheapest and most disgusting cheeseburgers.

As the next train into town reunited us with our new-found friends from Austria, we dodged a tumble weed or two as we half-heartedly perused the main drag. Then we chanced upon a sports bar that was practically giving away pints of Tyskie and sunshine by the jugful instantly entered our world and our souls.

If the beer hadn’t been quite so inexpensive, I suspect we wouldn’t have had quite so much of it. Yet whilst under-indulgence would have seemed rude in the circumstances, we were mindful of the fact that all four of us still needed tickets to the game . Accordingly, we stayed sensible enough to place ourselves in the ticket queue maybe an hour before kick off; and it’s from here that matters rapidly went the shape of the pear.

At the outset, I should stress that I fully understand why, in some countries, it is necessary for a fan to produce an ID card or passport if he wants a ticket to a game. I’ve done so a few times and appreciate why it’s a good idea. Elsewhere, clubs cater for the ticket demands of casual fans efficiently and successfully. Accordingly, I can’t think that the practice of placing two mental defectives in a plastic hut and expecting them to cope with more than a handful of customers – a practice Gornik deemed sufficient – is likely to catch on around Europe.

*Lpic1*If the ticketing had been overseen by two civil servants on the day of their retirement, we might have got in for kick off. But as the ladies behind the counter operated their keyboards with two fingers and in a manner that suggested they’d been asked to service a hovercraft, hopes of seeing more than half a game slowly evaporated. Acting with true English grit and stoicism, the Clown Prince and I tutted quite audibly.

By way of apology, a Katowice fan who’d joined us in the queue said: “This is really embarrassing! Sometimes it’s as though the Russians never went home.”

Just before half-time, after strolling past 400 riot police and stewards with absolutely nothing to do, we got into Gornik’s ramshackle, God-awful athletics stadium with a football pitch in the middle, in time to see them go 1-0 up.

Three days earlier, Gornik’s opponents, Lech Poznan, had lost 3-1 to the aforementioned Manchester City in a Europa League group stage game. Ten days later, I saw them from the comfort of my armchair when they played superbly to beat City by the same score. Today, in the manner of so many clubs who have just played away in Europe in midweek, they just looked knackered and disinterested. After their goalkeeper had a classic Robert Green moment – which I heartily recommend you find on Youtube if you fancy a chuckle – to concede a second goal, Gornik never needed to get out of second gear to win with ludicrous comfort.

Truly miffed and as disinterested as Poznan, I wandered off in search of the solace that a Polish sausage the size of small submarine can readily provide.

Some hours later back in Krakow, there was time for one last meal before getting ourselves sorted for the early plane back to Stansted the following morning. Feeling only slightly peckish, I opted for a light snack. In other words, about 14 deliciously honey-roasted chickens that came with roast potatoes, an assortment of dips and a couple beers.

Truly embarrassed by the size of our bill – about £5 per head – we left a decent tip.

*BS*Flights*BF*

If Ryanair have been the subject of a few stand-up comedy routines, I can only speak as I find and state that I’ve only ever been impressed with the service they offer. Having been to Sweden, Hungary and Poland with them, each flight has left on time, arrived on time and been perfectly comfortable. If you follow the simple instructions set out on their website, get to the airport on time, don’t take the mickey with your baggage allowance and check-in online before you travel, I’d wager you’ll be just impressed.

On this occasion, a return flight from Stansted to Krakow cost me just under £60 – and that included my travel insurance. A train service runs to and from Krakow city centre to the airport and takes maybe half an hour. A single ticket will cost you in the region of 80p.

*BS*Hotels*BF*

You’re really spoilt for choice for hotels in Krakow and none of them are particularly expensive. Once again, I visited www.Venere.com and booked online to stay at a comfortable little family run place called the Globtrotter. (Yes, I have spelt that correctly!) Within a couple of minutes walk from the main square, the Globtrotter was a warm and comfortable billet in which the staff could not have been more friendly or helpful. A 4-night stay in a single room with en suite facilities cost 620 Polish Zloty; excellent value at around £33 per night.

*Lpic2**BS*Handy tips*BF*

When you set off, just take a few Zloty with you to cover incidental expenses. You will get a far better rate of exchange if you change up your money in Krakow. Krakow is an easy place to walk round, but if you should need a taxi at any point, don’t be alarmed. All forms of transport are ludicrously cheap and taxi drivers should always agree a price with you before you get into a cab.

If you decide to visit Auschwitz, remember that this is the name that the Nazis gave to the town. The locals call it Oswiecim (Oz-vee-chim) and appreciate it enormously if visitors do as well.

*Link2*