Best (and worst) of 2019/20: First Team

As the final game of the season (the Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley) was meant to be earlier this week, it seems an appropriate enough time to reflect on the best/worst moments of games which I watched over the past 12 months.

In total, I saw 59 first team matches in 2019/20 and, quite remarkably considering I've developed a habit over the years for picking sh*te games to go to, there were actually only two goalless draws amongst them.

I was planning to reach the landmark of having seen 1,000 competitive English/Scottish games by the end of this season but someone eating a wild bat in China put paid to that plan.

Anyway, including a few random facts, these are my best/worst choices for this season:

Total Games Seen: 59
Total Goals: 136
Countries Visited: 6
Highest Scoring Game: 6 Goals: Rangers 6-0 St Joseph's
Lowest Scoring Game: 0 Goals: Peterhead 0-0 Inverness, Huddersfield 0-0 Middlesbrough
Biggest Attendance: 59,626: Tottenham vs Bournemouth
Money Spent: Too Much!
Highlights: Rangers (July), Dinamo Zagreb (September), South Wales Derby (October), Tottenham (November), Rochdale (January), Manchester Derby (January)

Best overall game: Rochdale 1-1 Newcastle, FA Cup Third Round.
This could have been an all-time cup classic, but it was certainly memorable in any case. The League One team were utterly rubbish for much of the first half, looked way off the pace, and deserved to be 3-0 down but Newcastle couldn't take their chances - partly because Joelinton was in the side! After half-time, Rochdale looked transformed and absolutely battered their opponents, eventually equalising and being unfortunate not to snatch a late winner.

Most enjoyable DRFC game: Doncaster 3-1 Wycombe, 29th February
This game, which turned out to be the last match at the Keepmoat before lockdown, was really enjoyable. Wycombe were (and still are, if the season resumes) a good team yet Rovers did a very effective job and took their chances to get the three points. The officials weren't very good either that day, which aided the atmosphere a bit and made the occasion even more enjoyable.

Worst (and also least enjoyable) game overall: Huddersfield 0-0 Middlesbrough, 23rd October
Imagine 70 minutes of mind-numbing, sterile nothingness between two toothless teams who wouldn't have been able to score in a brothel. I left 20 minutes before full-time safe in the knowledge that I'd not miss anything else!

Best goal: Niall Ennis (Doncaster Rovers)
The only strike which instantly springs to mind is Niall Ennis' goal for Doncaster against Lincoln way back in August. He showed a good touch, then technique to bring a long downfield punt under control and finished with aplomb.

Worst miss: Tom Nichols (Bristol Rovers)
The undoubted winner here is Tom Nichols' spot-kick, which was saved, for Bristol Rovers at Doncaster in October. It wasn't a great penalty to start with - by no means the worst I've ever seen but certainly not the best either. This choice is more down to the fact that plenty of strikers have misfired over the years, but his appalling average of 1 goal every 29 appearances, at the time, takes bad statistics to a whole new stratosphere.

Best team performance: Forest Green Rovers (vs Salford), 28th September
Forest Green's total destruction of Salford City in September was brilliant. They won 4-0, were leading after only a couple of minutes and it was a faultless performance - even to the point where they were defending professionally and astutely up to the final whistle to 'cash in' with the clean-sheet bonus. It was a very, very high quality display, so it surprised me they crashed badly in the second part of the season.

Best Doncaster Rovers performance: Vs Oxford United, 1st January
I'd plump for the game-management in the New Year's Day win over Oxford with this category. The visitors were one of the best teams in the division yet came unstuck due to a very good and mature defensive showing. Better still was it came on the back of the worst team display of the season in the home defeat to Sunderland.

Worst team performance: Sunderland (Vs Scunthorpe), 12th November
Phil Parkinson named a strong line-up, on paper you'd have thought they'd win, yet they got hammered and were gutless. Yes, it was only the Mickey Mouse Trophy, but even still... Another dreadful display worth mentioning was Cardiff's limp, lacklustre and truly sh*te showing in the South Wales Derby - a big occasion on which they badly let their fans down.

Best comeback: Doncaster (Vs Rotherham), 7th September
Had Jan Vertonghen not made a last-ditch challenge to stop a Bournemouth play breaking clean through on goal in the dying seconds of Spurs' 3-2 win over the Cherries in November, then that game would be the winner. Therefore, I'll have to go with Doncaster's 2-1 league win over Rotherham in September on the basis that the visitors were miles superior in the early stages but were out-smarted in the second half.

Biggest cock up: No outright winner as such!
No mistake in particular springs to mind, but Doncaster have conceded some pretty poor goals due to messing around and 'over-playing' at the back. I admire the bravery in some ways (even though playing out from the back is the latest, modern day phenomenon in football), but there's a time and place to do it and it's resulted in two or three cheap goals being conceded.

Worst refereeing decision: Sebastian Stockbridge (Doncaster vs Oxford)
This season's remarkable officiating disaster was provided by Seb Stockbridge who lost the ability to count out 10 yards, when Oxford had a free-kick, in their 1-0 loss at Doncaster. The U's players and fans weren't happy and after footage emerged afterwards, it soon went viral.

Best atmosphere: Rochdale vs Newcastle, 4th January
It was raucous, red-hot atmosphere after Aaron Wilbraham equalised for Rochdale in this game - a moment where David seemed capable of toppling Goliath. The Geordies played their part by creating a racket beforehand and it was a proper cup game with a good atmosphere.

Best stadium visited: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Tottenham's new stadium is a fantastic venue, steeped in history and club memorabilia which pays tribute to White Hart Lane. You can wander around freely in the upper tiers to enjoy different views and it's definitely worth visiting if/when you get the chance. £39.50 (which I think was the ticket price) well spent!

Worst stadium (and with the worst atmosphere) experienced: Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb
It's Croatia's national stadium and where Gary Neville scored an infamous own goal with a back-pass that hit a bobble on the pitch and went over Paul Robinson's foot in a European Championship qualifier several years ago. However, it has no roof, Dinamo Zagreb attract just a few thousand fans despite the capacity being over 35,000 and it just felt very underwhelming.

Biggest surprise: Chesterfield (from worse to even worse)...
The Spireites never cease to amaze me but you'd think, given their (lack of) achievements in recent seasons, I might have learned that they're not very good nowadays. However, having seen them twice (and thankfully no more) even I thought they'd have performed better than getting caught up in another relegation battle in the National League.

Least surprising thing to have happened: VAR being hated
Having seen VAR used abroad in games before this season then I knew it'd cause problems over here, but even I didn't expect players to be penalised for fractional (and farcical) offside decisions, or perfectly good goals to be chalked off - as happened at Sheffield United in January when Declan Rice was penalised for a trivial handball following a long and lengthy delay.