To be honest, I was fairly pissed by the time I plonked my fat arse on the Town End terrace for kick-off. Our leader Champ was celebrating his 31st birthday after bringing it a day forward so we made our way to the Endeavour by about half 11 for the usual, predictable drill of having cheap pints of stella and the pre-match football talk. Again, nothing particularly amazing of note occured during the day. Champ managed to spill a pint of strongbow that Mark Winter had bought for him within less than 5 seconds and my main man Russell (Aylesham White) had returned from Nottingham Uni for the weekend and was in attendance (note thats the poly Notts uni, not the proper one). I can remember Champ and Russell agreeing that we were all going to go out to Poland for Euro 2012 like we had originally planned with Dave Bell and co but I remain sceptical about the idea with the extreme non-likelyhood of being able to obtain match tickets. Whether they remember making these plans is another unsolved mystery of life, much like the whole Michael Barrymore/Stuart Lubbock situation.
I outlined a couple of more plans that are far more likely to come off; staying in Bristol for our end of season game at Weston-Super-Mare and maybe another weekender before the end of the season - possibly at Dorchester. Having been really good with my money recently I'm looking to invest any funds on something like this before I ended up spunking it on something stupid like a prostitute or a new tattoo.
After several beers in the beautiful October sunshine and a swift pint in the Centre Spot it was MATCH TIME BABY!!! So I am going to recall what I remember;
- After weeks of me making various shit jokes about playing Wrexham the cheeky plucky candlestick-makers and postman decided they would take an early lead against us! I can't really remember much about their goal but I think there was a bit of a defensive mix-up.
- I don't recall us creating any real chances within the first half and we were pretty shite IIRC. In-fact if it wasn't for the brilliance of Ruiz we would have had an even bigger task on our hands for the second half.
- They had a player sent off on the stroke of half-time. I have no idea what for because I pissed off into the bar a couple of minutes early (I've got into a really bad habit of doing this recently - but only usually when we're playing crap or losing). Their lack of discipline cost them dearly as they would be reduced to ten men late on in the game when one of their thick twats booted the ball away for a second yellow.
- I can remember our equaliser early in the second half. Ed Harris headed the ball against the cross bar but it fell nicely back to him to smash home the rebound. GAME ON.
- Our frontline of Purcell and Bricknell was sadly pretty ineffective once again. James Walker and Donovan Simmonds really changed the game when they came on and actually look like a real partnership, whereas Bricknell and Purcell are two good strikers but not working well as a cohesive unit. Walker grabbed the winner seven minutes from time before turning provider minutes later to give Simmonds an easy headed goal. The feeling was more one of relief rather than joy as I spent the last 15 minutes of the game contemplating how I was going to travel up to Norfolk on Tuesday night but I was now prevented that hassle. Although I wouldn't have minded having a new ground to visit!
- Credit to Wroxham, they were excellent for a side playing at county level, particularly a squad that was riddled with various injuries and forced to play a few untried youngsters. They outplayed us for large chunks of the game and can feel a tad aggrieved to have not gotten anything out of the game. Their fitness levels and lack of discipline ultimately cost them , but they're a good side and I wish them well. As for us, there is clearly still quite a lot of work to be done. If players are to be picked meritocratically on form then Simmonds and Walker HAVE to start our next game at home to Thurrock on Saturday. The former should be in our side every week regardless anyway.
- The attendance and atmosphere in general were both cack. 623 was the announced figure, and it didn't actually look too far off of that. Pretty piss-poor for a Saturday even if it is a cup-tie against lower opposition. Its not like we had the weather to use as an excuse and we have got ourselves a new manager with things looking far more positive and vibrant than they were under Hayes. People are quick to blame high prices and the recession blah blah blah but I think it is a much more deep-rooted problem than that. As for the atmosphere, our birthday-boy leader Champ was rat-arsed and spent the vast majority of the game inside the bar so it was up to me and a few others to get the songs going but we failed miserably.
After that, it was back down the Endeavour for a few more sherberts. I bought myself a jug of 'Long Island Iced Leigh' which was on offer at £8. Its not often you see me sipping anything other than lager and it was not particularly nice! Again, nothing particular of note to report here other than having to dash for the 21:05 train home after me and Russell spent far too long in Morrisons and stopping off at my house after leaving the pub. Its the first time I've run in about 2 years and it really hurt but luckily I made the train by 20 seconds.
So the next round in a fortnight will be Bath City at home. Not the draw I wanted - its a tough one and another fucking home draw. I don't see why everyone is so fucking obsessed with home draws. I love Crabble to bits but I already get to go there about 30 plus times during a calender year! Now that progression has postponed our away fixture at Maidenhead it means that we have four Saturday Crabble fixtures in a row. That could extend to five if we beat Bath and get a home time in a next round!
Bath may be bottom of the Conference but they should still be a tough test for us. They're leaking goals at the moment but have no problems sticking it in at the other end. We're generally quite tight defensively (unless you've watched our last two games!) but are having trouble creating clear cut-chances so I think this will be a tight game that goes other way. Its really not an ideal draw in my opinion but it is far from the worst that we could have got. But if you want to make the first round then it is best to overcome tough tasks rather than a straight-forward easy progression so bring it on, bring it on, tell your friends to come along!!
In other news, Welling overcame a Gillingscum yoof team 2-1 last night so we will meet them in the next round of the KSC after we spanked Maidstone 6-3 last week (yes I actually missed a game!). I was in the minority of people pleased at avoiding Gillingham in the cup. Yes it would be fun shouting abuse as Hessenthaler and singing derograty songs as well as getting a decent crowd at Crabble but it would of been a lot of hassle. Segregation would almost certainly be required and that expence would have to be paid without the guarentee of many Gillingscum fans turning up. Plus I prefer living off the memory of the FA Cup game rather than risk losing to their stiffs in some tinpot cup. Furthermore, its a tad cringeworthy how exciteable some of us are over the prospect of playing them in such a shit tinpot cup while their fans really couldn't give a fuck.
It will now be a really tough task trying to get motivated to travel over to Crabble and pay for a kent senior cup game but I'm sure I will manage it. We have not won this cup since the early 90's and although it is crap and pretty meaningless, it would still be fun to win it, dontcha agree? So I hope we continue to field semi-strong sides out.
Anyway, I won't drag on for much longer. Furry Thurrock are next up on Saturday and it should be a perfect chance for us to win our second home league game of the season, in Forster's first game in chance. Thurrock are struggling but are better on the road than they are at Ship Lane, where we thumped them 4-0 back in August. It seems a bit silly we are playing them again already when we still have not met about 9 sides in this league yet but then again the Conference have always been utterly shite at organising their fixtures. Hopefully we can get a 1000+ crowd but I won't hold my breath (well I can't anyway because I'm fat).
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