Balls

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Maidenhead

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At Oldham last week in very windy conditions and on a bumpy pitch we witnessed some appalling football but what I particularly did notice was that the ball seemed to be impossible to control.

In many ways it reminded me of a Frido ball the way it bobbled bounced and moved. (any one else remember them?)

Not just at Oldham either, the balls really do seem to bobble and wobble a lot these days.

Are modern balls lighter weight than the balls in the 70's & 80's?

What gives them the aerodynamics to swerve all over the place?

They may be great on the premier league billiard tables but I really don't think they do anything for third division football on third division pitches.
 

Maidenhead said:
At Oldham last week in very windy conditions and on a bumpy pitch we witnessed some appalling football but what I particularly did notice was that the ball seemed to be impossible to control.

In many ways it reminded me of a Frido ball the way it bobbled bounced and moved. (any one else remember them?)

Not just at Oldham either, the balls really do seem to bobble and wobble a lot these days.

Are modern balls lighter weight than the balls in the 70's & 80's?

What gives them the aerodynamics to swerve all over the place?

They may be great on the premier league billiard tables but I really don't think they do anything for third division football on third division pitches.
Click to expand...

Perhaps a white ,orange , or brown ball with laces is the answer , and its not the players.:D

UTB
 
Maidenhead said:
At Oldham last week in very windy conditions and on a bumpy pitch we witnessed some appalling football but what I particularly did notice was that the ball seemed to be impossible to control.

In many ways it reminded me of a Frido ball the way it bobbled bounced and moved. (any one else remember them?)

Not just at Oldham either, the balls really do seem to bobble and wobble a lot these days.

Are modern balls lighter weight than the balls in the 70's & 80's?

What gives them the aerodynamics to swerve all over the place?

They may be great on the premier league billiard tables but I really don't think they do anything for third division football on third division pitches.
Click to expand...
Yes, footballs should weight at 16 ozs and it is lighter than it was in the 1970s. I remember getting a Frido ball delivered by my postman (from collecting cereal packet tokens) in the early 1970s and on the first day I accidently left it in front of an electric fire in my house for too long which caused the ball to become egg shaped and I was upset! Surprisingly,the ball never got deflated for about 10 years!
 
I'm not an expert on this but there have been developments (not necessarily advancements) in football technology. Some of it is materials, I think there are other factors.

The flight of the ball has definitely been affected. For me to sell the game requires spectacle, they couldn't get away with bigger goals so they went for wobblier balls.

As Silent had said there are Laws governing the weight of the balls, and afaik these haven't changed so I think talk of lighter balls is misplaced.

I think this has been a factor in the screamers scored against us in recent weeks. Though less so on Tuesday.

Imo the problem at Oldham was the pitch, the ball bobbled constantly whether the players tried to run with it or pass it.

This is also an issue to a lesser extent at BDTBL.

I think Bristol City have a Desso pitch and Clough cited that as a factor in our performance there.

So we'll sweep everyone aside next season.
 
Maidenhead said:
At Oldham last week in very windy conditions and on a bumpy pitch we witnessed some appalling football but what I particularly did notice was that the ball seemed to be impossible to control.

In many ways it reminded me of a Frido ball the way it bobbled bounced and moved. (any one else remember them?)

Not just at Oldham either, the balls really do seem to bobble and wobble a lot these days.

Are modern balls lighter weight than the balls in the 70's & 80's?

What gives them the aerodynamics to swerve all over the place?

They may be great on the premier league billiard tables but I really don't think they do anything for third division football on third division pitches.
Click to expand...

We were there too and it was difficult. For me it was the state of the soil beneath the grass. There seemed a good amount of grass, but remember when Bruce as at the Lane, he insisted on a very hard pitch and we had some special stuff drilled into the ground to make it hard - a decision that was reversed after he left.

Just remember playing in April on stupidly hard park pitches (Graves mainly) and games just become a lottery, especially with a bit of wind. My heart used to sink on a Sunday morning, waking up to a high wind - you just knew it would be a shit game. Much preferred it to be pissing it down with rain - you could do great sliding tackles, and when perfected, leave your foot there just so the centre forward went down instead of getting past! Nothing malicious or dangerous - just making sure he didn't get through on goal...................oh for the old days!

UTB
 
Fulwood Blade said:
We were there too and it was difficult. For me it was the state of the soil beneath the grass. There seemed a good amount of grass, but remember when Bruce as at the Lane, he insisted on a very hard pitch and we had some special stuff drilled into the ground to make it hard - a decision that was reversed after he left.

Just remember playing in April on stupidly hard park pitches (Graves mainly) and games just become a lottery, especially with a bit of wind. My heart used to sink on a Sunday morning, waking up to a high wind - you just knew it would be a shit game. Much preferred it to be pissing it down with rain - you could do great sliding tackles, and when perfected, leave your foot there just so the centre forward went down instead of getting past! Nothing malicious or dangerous - just making sure he didn't get through on goal...................oh for the old days!

UTB
Click to expand...

Having played local football regularly between 1979 and 1985 I remember controlling a football on the pitch is harder in March and April because on dry and bobbly pitches, the ball seem to run away from you much quicker than in January and February.
 
I remember playing at concord park it was a very frosty January the ball was all over the place, I swear it was weighted and the bounce was awful, but all good fun.
 
Bladebri said:
I remember playing at concord park it was a very frosty January the ball was all over the place, I swear it was weighted and the bounce was awful, but all good fun.
Click to expand...
For home matches my team played on the number 1 pitch at Concord Park (nearest to the door leading to the changing rooms) in the late 1970s and early 1980s
 
I was directly behind the flight of the ball when Oldham scored no goalie would have stopped IMO.

I saw Pasarella swerve a much heavier ball into the back of our net many years ago. Was it Pasarella Silent Blade - you were at that match I think as I was.
 
BornOnShoreham said:
I saw Pasarella swerve a much heavier ball into the back of our net many years ago. Was it Pasarella Silent Blade - you were at that match I think as I was.
Click to expand...

It was Norberto Alonso who scored River's equaliser at the Lane End (yes, I was there). He was outside the box when he struck his effort that swerved to the top corner of the net. Stunned keeper Jim Brown stood there motionless, only that his head spun round (like Regan in The Exorcist film) looking at the ball going into the net. Alonso played in the Argentina v Hungary match in the 1978 World Cup final but didnt play in the final
 
Bladebri said:
I remember playing at concord park it was a very frosty January the ball was all over the place, I swear it was weighted and the bounce was awful, but all good fun.
Click to expand...

You could play on Concord Park any time of the season and it was a lottery. An away day there was always approached with a heavy heart.
 
Silent Blade said:
Yes, footballs should weight at 16 ozs and it is lighter than it was in the 1970s. I remember getting a Frido ball delivered by my postman (from collecting cereal packet tokens) in the early 1970s and on the first day I accidently left it in front of an electric fire in my house for too long which caused the ball to become egg shaped and I was upset! Surprisingly,the ball never got deflated for about 10 years!
Click to expand...

The same happened to me, but with a "striker" orange and black ball. Bought the same day, same result in front of the fire. I tried to make a rugby ball by toasting the other side but it burst !
 
William Henry Foulkes said:
I'm not an expert on this but there have been developments (not necessarily advancements) in football technology. Some of it is materials, I think there are other factors.

The flight of the ball has definitely been affected. For me to sell the game requires spectacle, they couldn't get away with bigger goals so they went for wobblier balls.

As Silent had said there are Laws governing the weight of the balls, and afaik these haven't changed so I think talk of lighter balls is misplaced.

I think this has been a factor in the screamers scored against us in recent weeks. Though less so on Tuesday.

Imo the problem at Oldham was the pitch, the ball bobbled constantly whether the players tried to run with it or pass it.

This is also an issue to a lesser extent at BDTBL.

I think Bristol City have a Desso pitch and Clough cited that as a factor in our performance there.

So we'll sweep everyone aside next season.
Click to expand...


We defiantly wobble
 
Without a doubt the best ever football mitre multiplex
 

Maidenhead said:
At Oldham last week in very windy conditions and on a bumpy pitch we witnessed some appalling football but what I particularly did notice was that the ball seemed to be impossible to control.

In many ways it reminded me of a Frido ball the way it bobbled bounced and moved. (any one else remember them?)

Not just at Oldham either, the balls really do seem to bobble and wobble a lot these days.

Are modern balls lighter weight than the balls in the 70's & 80's?

What gives them the aerodynamics to swerve all over the place?

They may be great on the premier league billiard tables but I really don't think they do anything for third division football on third division pitches.
Click to expand...

Found this....

http://www.morethanmindgames.com/2010/06/26/an-enduring-football-myth-the-weight-of-the-ball/
 
twofootedtackle said:
Concorde park some of the pitches you kicked uphill both halves !
Click to expand...
Don't recall any like that in Concord but the banana pitch in Longley park was uphill for attackers both halves and downhill for defenders :). Also there was one in Graves Park where from one wing you couldn't see the other wing.
 
LSF said:
Don't recall any like that in Concord but the banana pitch in Longley park was uphill for attackers both halves and downhill for defenders :). Also there was one in Graves Park where from one wing you couldn't see the other wing.
Click to expand...
At Concord you could play with the wind both halves :)
Graves was the best for defending a lead on Pitch 2 ,I once made the bottom of Cobnar Rd with the opposition full back running down through the woods to fetch the ball ,he was fucked when he got back.
 
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