PRE-SEASON FUN
SOME PEOPLE CAN’T STAND WARM-UP GAMES BEFORE A NEW SEASON, BUT COLIN ALLAN IS AN UNASHAMED FAN…
Reasons to enjoy it
WHAT a sensational result! Hull City beat Liverpool by three goals to nil. But hang on a minute, it was only a pre-season friendly. The match on July 23, 2011, attracted a crowd of 20,924, which included around 3,500 travelling supporters from Merseyside.
I was one of the home supporters who couldn’t quite believe that the Tigers had put on such a wonderful show of attacking football.
Yet did the result mean anything? Perhaps not, but individual performances by the likes of newly-signed winger Robbie Brady, and stout performances in defence by James Chester and Paul McShane gave manager Nigel Pearson hope for the coming Championship campaign.
For their part, Liverpool harboured their usual top four aspirations for their Premier League campaign and had spent £50m on transfers over the summer. They had brought most of their big-name players to Hull.
It was Brady who opened the scoring on 21 minutes when his right-footed shot from 18 yards out took a slight deflection to wrong-foot the Liverpool goalie,
Doni. Later in the first half, a fine City move gave Slovenian midfielder Robert Koren space to fire into the corner of the Reds’ net. So City went into the interval with a deserved 2-0 lead.
Liverpool brought on their big guns (Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Dirk Kuyt ) at the start of the second half to attack the end where their bemused supporters were wondering if the trip down the M62 had been a waste of money.
But their introductions made little difference to the Tigers’ dominance of the match. In fact, City scored a third when Jay Simpson scored from close range.
Without the drudgery of bread-andbutter league points to worry about, Hull’s players had shown a freedom to play attractive, attacking football against their illustrious opponents.
However, post-match, Pearson was his usual down-to-earth self:“Let’s not get carried away with it. It was only a pre-season game.”
Which leads one to wonder if pre-season friendlies are worth watching? Being non-competitive fixtures, there is nothing at stake. Clubs can use them as glorified training outings. It’s a chance to give young players or reserves an opportunity to impress the manager. New signings can be introduced to their team-mates without league pressure. Likewise, the manager can try new formations and new systems.
So what’s in it for the fans? Well, they too can assess new signings. But it’s more than that. Call me a romantic but I think there is something special about seeing different teams not in your league. This especially applies if they are from a higher league or, even more romantically, from Scotland or the continent.
Another pre-season friendly I enjoyed was when the Tigers played Dundee United in July, 2010.
You see, I was brought up with boys’ football annuals of the 1950s and early
1960s. In those days, Scottish teams were regularly featured and the England v Scotland match was one of the season’s highlights.
Sadly, the friendly did not live up to my romantic outlook. For a start, it was watched by only 3,377 (which included a 500-strong travelling contingent from Bonnie Scotland ).
However, it did have a bright start when City’s Tom Cairney unleashed a fine shot from 20 yards out after just ten minutes. It was to prove the main highlight of the game.
Just four minutes later, United equalised when Irmantas Zelmikas scored from close range after sloppy City defending. The Lithuanian was on a trial spell with the Scots.
And it was Zelmikas who scored the winning goal on 50 minutes. Unfortunately for him, it was an own goal, after United’s Slovakian goalie Dusan Pernis failed to hold a free-kick from Nolberto Solano and the rebound hit Zelmikas and flew into the net.
It’s also possible to watch pre-season friendlies on holiday.
In 2017, I was taking a break on Guernsey when I found out that the local team were playing a friendly against Championship outfit Bristol City.
The game attracted 933 islanders, no doubt starved of true Football League experiences.
Guernsey defended stoutly for the whole game as Bristol City dominated possession. The home team rarely got out of their own half and, when they did, offered little danger.
But that didn’t dent the obvious enthusiasm of the home crowd. Indeed, the spectators were very appreciative of their team’s efforts and a family atmosphere provided a pleasant afternoon.
Guernsey goalie Josh Addison brought off a series of fine saves to stop any embarrassing final scoreline. At the end of the entertaining game, Bristol City had won 1-0, thanks to a strike by Bobby Reid.
I left the ground suitably heartened by the state of football’s following on this small outpost of the Isthmian League.
Two weeks later, I was back in Hull watching another friendly. This time it was an international encounter.
City were playing Nantes, a team who had finished the previous season in seventh place in France’s top league.
In contrast to Guernsey’s pleasant tree-lined ground, I could see smoke ascending from the Saltend oil refinery. The game was being played at Hull Kingston Rovers’ rugby ground, Craven Park - not the KCOM Stadium. It attracted just over 2,000 supporters.
A pleasant pre-match distraction was seeing Claudio Ranieri watching his Nantes players warm up. In fact, the match programme depicted the two teams’ managers on the front cover.
Perhaps they were the most interesting feature of the fixture. Hull City had just appointed Leonid Slutsky (ex-CSKA Moscow and Russia coach) whilst Ranieri requires no introduction.
I was sat next to an Italian who was a definite City fan despite Ranieri’s presence.
The game was a chance for Hull’s fans to be introduced to new signing Kevin Stewart (from Liverpool), the returning Fraizer Campbell and on-loan Chelsea player Ola Aina. Maybe also, Slutsky himself was on trial.
Nantes came out in a rather natty lemon/ yellow kit befitting their nickname of Les Canaris. They proceeded to totally dominate possession and showed some fine first touches with the ball.
They were obviously a classy act and made Hull, who were still in need of some more signings, look quite pedestrian.
However, both sides created few genuine goalmouth incidents. One of only two exciting moments came when City’s Abel Hernandez seemed clear but his sidefooted shot was blocked by the oncoming French goalie, Maxime Dupe.
Late in the second half, a fine flowing move by Nantes led to Jules Iloki hitting an upright.
Other than that, it was a case of admiring City’s sturdy defence and the ‘pretty’ possession football of Nantes. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Nevertheless, I came away from the ground quite satisfied. I had seen one of France’s top club sides.
So perhaps the lesson is if you want to enjoy pre-season friendlies, you must take them for what they are.
They are not blood and guts league games with the attendant tribalism of rival fans.
Sometimes, like the above Liverpool game, they can give players a chance to express themselves without the fear of failure.
There is always something to take away from such games, whether it’s seeing a new signing or making predictions for the coming league campaign. Then, of course, there is the romance of unusual fixtures.
I will always love them rather than loathe them.