Seeing as my enthusiasm to write this blog this morning is very dry I'll get any football-related shit out of the way now. And luckily, due to a combination of being pretty pissed and having been able to erase most of the dour game from my mind, there isn't much I have to reiterate here.
Overall it was just a piss-poor game between a poor Bath side and an under-performing whites side that desperately missed the creative talents of the injured Donovan Simmonds.
We weren't particularly bad in the first half, we enjoyed the majority of the possession but the only real goal threat I remember us producing was a George Purcell cheeky aerial backheel that had to be tipped around the post. Adding to that, we maintained a superb first-half atmosphere in the River End as we looked forward to pushing forwards in the second half.
Unfortunately that FA Cup dream died just a minute within the re-start. I don't remember the build up to the goal, just them hitting the crossbar and then being confused as they stroked in the rebound. The ball looked like it had gone out of play initially.
And that my friends was the end of the game. From then onwards we reverted to shit, long hoofball and struggled to carve out any real chances against a side that were just content to hold on for their first away win on the season. And in the end we could have no real complaints over the scoreline as we went out of the cup without a whimper. Our second half subsitutes that were Baker, Vassell and Ashton failed to make any impact, although in fairness they were not even given much of the ball.
The next stage of this dissapointing defeat was having my fingers crossed that Bath would pull out a shit tie in the draw the following day. I know that is a little bit spiteful and petty but it would have absolutely destroyed me had we missed out on one of the Sheffield clubs or any of the other big football league clubs in the draw.
So I was not devastated when I discovered they had drawn Dagenham & Redbridge away although had we gone through I would have enjoyed that draw. It would have provided a good chance to knock out a league team with them struggling at the foot of League 2 whilst providing a localish ground to get to and to sample their brand new away stand, which is the most impressive part of their ground.
Unfortunately though that will not be the case as we have continued out miserable record of not being able to qualifiying for the first round two years in a row in our history.
One other major concern for me to come out of this game is how we would cope if we got promoted to the Blue Square Premier. With us struggling to get going against the worst that division has to offer, it has made me wonder whether we are ready to re-join the non-league elite. And on that evidence it would be a no. Don't get me wrong I would never turn down the opportunity to get promoted, theres no point supporting a team if you don't want to compete as high as you can. But there should be no desperate rush to get promoted if we're not fully prepared yet.
Of course, the defeat could have just been down to our continous FA Cup hoodoo along with us being jaded after a sterling effort during the week against Bromley. But it does make ya wonder.
Theres not too much to write home about on the social side of things either. We pretty much operated under the same tedious routine that we usually do before home games, although this time we made our way down to the Old Endeavour at 10:30AM instead of the usual Midday. HARDCORE.
Having barely drunken anything on the Friday evening this was fine by me. We spent the first 90 minutes in there sitting outside the back, drinking out drinks very slowly as we patiently waited for happy hour to begin, being the tight bastards that we are. Scotty's young son Dylan provided some entertaining outbursts as most young children do, although the novelty effect soon wore off and I was pretty relieved when he took him home. I'm not going to make a very good father should the opportunity ever arise.
Then I became the source of entertainment when it became public knowledge that I had sat down in one of the chairs covered in bird shit. Cue me having to dash off to the toilet to clean my jacket . A bit of deja vu from a few weeks back when one shat on me in mid-air, in the same pub. WHY ALWAYS ME?
Once midday had passed and happy hour had begun the Stella's began to flow down quicker than Michael Barrymore's tears when he realised that he was responsible for Stuart Lubbock's death. There was a lot of quiz-machining going on too, which in my opinion are one of the best pub things to be invented. After a few jars of lager everybody thinks they are Chris off of Eggheads. Not me though.I am very useful when it comes to Match Of The Day football questions (in fact so useful that nobody can touch me, FACT), but other than that the only time I come in handy is on modern history questions. Still, being the annoying, stella-hyped-up twat that I am I kept on interfering on peoples games in the hope that I would randomly get the questions right.
At one point in the afternoon the Old E got overtaken by a coach load of Bath City fans that had stopped off here on the recccomendation of Phil following some advice on the forum. Whilst it was initially humiliating being over-run by carrot crunchers in our own boozer, I did not mind this because it brought in lots of trade for the pub which will enable them to keep down the low prices for us. As well as this, Bath fans are a harmless bunch, a seemingly simple group who certainly live up to the West-Country stereotypes, particularly with their accents. On an aside note, they must have one of the oldest average age supports out there. I think they only had 1 lad who looked under the age of 45, and he was carrying a kit bag!
The next nice suprise to come up was the appearence of RUSSSSSSSSSALLLLLLLL and his
Overall it was a pretty lively and enjoyable pre-match piss-up and I certainly felt the effects of 6 pints of stella more than I did the 10 pints on Tuesday at Bromley. Quite comically and lazily we got a 15 man mini-bus up to the ground at half 2 which enabled us to get a drink in before the game, and for once it was half-busy in there.
Post match things were very rubbish. I was miserable and deflated, which was a mood reflected by most of the Dover fans. Me and Russell slugged out a very slow pint in the centre spot after the game, where he would greet every Dover player as if they were his best mate. He loves sucking up to the players. Then we eventually joined Phil and Co back in the OE where we managed another miserable pint before deciding to piss off home early, mainly due to the encouragement of Bethany who was obviously worn out of being surrounded by these boring non-league football fan types.But I didn't complain - I was severely pissed off still and just wanted to go to bed. So much so that I fell asleep on the train and ended up waking up at Sittingbourne, a stop further than I had intended too, which meant I got home to Herne Bay half an hour later than I should have done. Annoying, yes, but luckily not as far as Bromley South which is where I ended up after a game last season.
So next up for Dover is Weston-Super-Mare on Saturday for yet ANOTHER game at Crabble. Not particularly looking forward to this one, mainly because Weston are a much improved side this season and will provide a stern test for us, but also because we are missing many regulars so I am expecting yet another small crowd. (We got an 'FA Cup crowd' of 922 on Saturday, which looked more over the 1k barrier to me but we're still struggling to get decent league crowds). I know that Phil Smith has fucked off to Tenerife or somewhere on holiday, Alex and Camilla said on twitter that they're not going while Martyn McGarrigle is off to Coventry to see his best mate Jared's ex-girlfriend Sascha, who is now his girlfriend. Add to the that I can't see many of the floating fans who turned up on Saturday being eager to return after such a dismal game.
But the important thing is that we bounce back after a lacklustre display. Now we're out of the cup they're no excuses for poor league form unlike last season, so lets rise back into the play-off places where we belong. COME ON YOU WHITES.
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