End of season review 2011/12

Its ok Steve, it'll all be back next year...

                                               
Well its finally arrived, the end of the football season, well, almost. I will be the first to admit that on these pages there has been very little 'go to a match, watch it, come back and write about it' on this blog due mainly to work commitments and a first-time buyers mortgage. However, for the football we've had the pleasure of watching this season its been a real treat at times.

Firstly the season began with a pre-season blockbuster when the entire city of Leicester turned out to watch the foxes take on Real Madrid, who managed to prise the league title from the firm-grip of Barcelona, kudos to you Mr Mourinho. The special one's special team were given a scare after a gutsy performance from Leicester with good things predicted for the boys in blue over the coming months.

From the Championship to League two soon followed as Burton Albion hit the ground running and looked for the first half of the year at least, like promotions contenders with the early season form of Justin Richard's the main cause of the brewer's hot streak. Richard's sensational strike against Plymouth Argyle was a memorable moment of the season for Albion in a 2-1 victory in September.

Then came the trip to Germany in November as we took in three new stadiums in three day's of football madness which produced 13 goals and nearly the same number of Bratwursts consumed! Germany is almost like re-visiting how football used to be but with a modern way of doing things, typical German efficiency and 'fan's first' mentality really does make the Bundesliga the best in the world for matchday experience. We managed to head down to Dusseldorf to see promotion-chasers Fortuna face Dresden in the friday night fixture for 14 euro's, travel included! Saturday saw a sell-out Signal Iduna Park for Borussia Dortmund's 5-1 thrashing of Wolfsburg and we rounded off in Aachen to see Alemannia face Duisburg in a local derby finishing 2-2, Aachen now sadly have been relegated to the third tier.

There are plans in the pipeline for a Bavarian weekender sometime around November again where we have the choice of such sides as Bayern Munich, TSV 1860, FC Nuremberg, Greuther Furth and Augsburg to name a few, hopefully we can bring this lot to these pages soon.

The latter half of the season began with a wash-out at Morecambe but a rather delicious pie and entertaining 2-2 draw more than made up for the weather, shout out to Tom Dickinson, author of 92 Pies for the recommendation of Morecambe having the best pies in football, not up for dispute in the slightest.

As Leicester have gone through three managers this season, excluding caretakers, and Burton's main man got the Alan Sugar 'you're fired' treatement its not exactly been 'as you were' going into 2012/13. Burton are still without a full-time boss despite Gary Rowett's best attempts to woo chairman Ben Robinson into handing him the position on a permanent basis despite a 7-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers and countless other hidings. Leicester have 'Uncle Nige' back as Nigel Pearson attempts to do better with the Thai owner's money than his predecessors, with the clear out already underway at Leicester it sadly looks like a 'whole new squad' mentality going into next season, why can't we ever build a side? If you examine the teams who have been promoted from various leagues, with the exception of Crawley Town, they have all been playing together for a considerable amount of time.

Finally, an awards ceremony, just a bit of fun (and also in case you couldn't be arsed to read through everything) for the 2011/12 season, you have been a great audience have a lovely summer and don't get too depressed about England in the Euro's!


Game of the season: Borussia Dortmund 5-1 Wolfsburg

Goal of the season: Justin Richard's vs Plymouth

Celebration of the season: Justin Richard's vs Plymouth

Song/Chant of the season: "I saw my mate,the other day,he told me he'd seen the white pele, so i asked, who is he? He goes by the name of Billy Kee" - A song for the Burton Albion forward.

Best ground: Signal Iduna Park

Worst ground: Morecambe

Weirdest experience of the season: A Fortuna Dusseldorf supporter who had a pet hedgehog on the S-bahn train from the stadium.

Award for best matchday food: Currywurst with fries and mayonnaise - Dortmund.

Best player seen: Mario Gotze - Borussia Dortmund

Worst player seen: Danny Blanchett - Burton Albion

Bargain of the season: 14 Euro seating upper tier with the Dusseldorf Ultras with transport from Dortmund and back inclusive.