NEC Nijmegen (a) - 2/8/2025 - Friendly

[Upside Down]

10 hours ago, arbitro said:

They met at 6 am today at Brockhall and will probably be in mid-air on the way back as I write this.

No overnight stay in Hill on Friday. Had there been any travel delays the game might not have gone ahead.

I know it was a friendly but this is so amateurish.

No, amateurs would make sure there was some good preparation for the game. This is the usual contempt and distain that has been shown towards the club for the last 15 years.

[DannyKeg]

This was from Friday.

[M_B]

3 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Pity you weren't playing then.

From the sounds of it it bothered the senior pro's like Travis and Tronstad.

🙄

[rigger]

My thought from yesterdays game : Both teams started the game with a similar plan A, NEC were better at it than us and controlled most of the first half. Second half we try plan B and it works, we get ourselves back into the game, in fact we probably should have got level. Then for some inexplicable reason we reverted to plan A, but with plan B players. The inevitable outcome was that NEC took back control of the game.

        Anyway it was only a friendly, bring on the Baggies.

Edited 2 hours ago by rigger

[Mercer]

8 hours ago, JCRovers said:

I'm pretty sure the players who travelled today aren't too happy about it.

To gather 6AM in the morning at Brockhall, presumably go by train or coach to Manchester Airport (1 hour), take flight to Amsterdam (1h 20 min), and finally travel by coach to Nijmegen (2 hours). Posters on here say they arrived by coach to the stadium around one hour before kickoff; not ideal at all from an injury-risk perspective as they would have limited time for any warm-up. After the game, they take the coach straight back to Amsterdam and later depart for Manchester or Blackpool. Players will have spent at least 8 hours travelling back and forth today and were most likely exhausted when they finally got back home around 10-11 PM; can't really say this was a 'friendly' treatment towards them.

To gather at Brockhall by 6AM means those same players were climbing out of their beds as early as 4.30AM dependent upon where they live!