So you can forgive us for the atmosphere around the place being a bit shit and negative at the moment, even if we are onloy 7 games into the new campaign. Just 726 souls turned up for this one, with 700+ of those really regretting that they had bothered.
To be honest, I didn't actually think we were THAT bad in this game. In fact we were probably at least worthy of a point for our performance, with the Hayes fans attending mostly admitting to it being a bit of a smash and grab.
Well, we certainly created enough chances to score a goal or two. In the first half we actually got to see the woodwork get rattled when Ben May's shot hit the frame after Simpemba's flick on from a free-kick. Then just before the break one of our best moves of the game gave Sessegnon a chance but he volleyed his effort straight at H&Y's Sam Beasant in goal.
But that was about it for us in a turgid first half affair, with many criticizing Forster employing the unpopular and seemingly unworkable 4-5-1 with May being the isolated front-man, and the two poor wingers Modeste and Sessegnon hardly seeing any of the ball. Forster decided to replace the latter two at half time with the introduction of himself and Jamie Smith, thus reverting to a 4-4-2.
And the switch seemed like it might pay dividends after producing a strong 15 minute spell ten minutes after the break with our first chance being produced through May's strong flick on but Nicky could only drag his shot wide of the post. Soon after our biggest chance of the game was created on the counter attack. Walker quickly distributed the ball out to Jamie Smith and he released Cogan down the right hand side. Bazza produced a superb ball into the centre for Dean Rance to bury but he fired his shot straight at Beasant when he really ought to have scored.
Then we had 3 moments where Forster, Smith and Thomson all narrowly fired shots just passed the left hand post. It was at this point where I though "actually, I think a goal is actually coming and we're going to win the win game" but sadly that wasn't to be the case. Our pressure came to a halt when we conceded a quite dreadful goal on the 70 minute mark. A very long hoof out of defense was not dealt with by the usually reliable Steven Watt and his weak header went straight into the path of Tobi Joseph, who finished easily past the on rushing Walker, who's positioning was pretty awful.
That was a big blow as we had quite easily nullified most of Hayes's threat throughout most of the game and the few shots they had had up until then were piss easy saves for Mitchell. This one lapse of concentration cost us and we never recovered from it.
You could tell the uneasy, unconfident and desperate nature began to fizzle into our play. No longer would Walker look to distribute the ball by throwing it out to a player, the ball would get lumped straight up field. Any time we got hold of the ball we'd start looking for the long hollywood pass up to nobody and generally our attacking threat fizzled away.
Forster had the best chance of rescuing a half hearted equalizer that nobody would have really given a fuck about, but he blasted over Jamie Smith's deep cross in usual fashion. NF has looked very lively and intelligent whenever he has played for us but he seems to have lost his predatory instinct in front of goal.
At the start of the day I had genuinely not expected us to get much out of the game, a true indicator of how I've lost the faith in how we'll perform at Crabble. No secret thoughts deep down that this could be the one where we turn it around, just genuine feelings that we're never going to end the hoodoo. Thus I was well prepared for a defeat and told myself I'd be able to handle it. But come the full-time whistle from the referee I just wanted to repeatedly smash one of the large structure beams around me and break every bone in my hand as a form of release. Luckily I decided it against anything silly as I always think back to that clever idea of smashing my phone up after we lost to Welling last season, which ended up costing me £50+ in replacement. But even though I've come to expect mediocrity, it still fucking hurts. Its Wednesday now and I'm still reeling from the loss and want to shut the world around me. Its true "you need to get a fucking grip and perspective" stuff, but another season of shite and underachievement in this god awful league is just really fucking hard to take, even though you expect it by now.
The thing is I won't criticize us too much on that performance because as I've said elsewhere, it was OKAY. Had Rance stuck away that easy chance, or had Ben May's shot crept inside the other side of the post, we could be talking about the game from a very different perspective. Football is indeed very much about fine margins and we could have just as easily walked away from Saturday with 3 points. Its just the bad timing and nature of defeat, we really need to get our confidence at Crabble back as soon as possible and the longer this terrible home record continues the more it will effect our falling gates, the more it will damage our players confidence and the more a negative cloud lingers above our club.
We weren't great by any means in the game, it wasn't the all-guns-blazing blistering, swash buckling performance that we'd all love but on another day we'd have won that game. Its frustrating, its so annoying.
Off the pitch wise, it was an alright day. I don't think I've ever been to a football game in such hot sweltering conditions in a long time. When I left Jared's house in the morning I was wearing jeans, by the time we had got into town I had to stop back off at my house to change into shorts. (AEK Athens ones by the way, being the 2CW that I am).
There's nothing better in the world than a good old Rooks, so that's exactly what me, Jazza and a now-rare appearence from Sappo went out for before heading to the Old Endeavour. For those of you reading that are unfortunate enough to not know what it is, it is a popular butchers/bakery that for some reason is still only a Kentish company and not a national one, which sells the nicest pastry products on the market. So I naturally went for my patterned cheese burger puff while also purchasing their new special limited edition product, the awesome chorizo sausage rolls.
Jazza and Sappo had a double chicken zinger in a bagutte with mayonaise and lettuce, which truely looks fantastic and I must try out myself in the future.
LONG LIVE THE ROOKS! FUCK GREGGS!
The Old Endeavour was the quietest before a match I have seen in a long time. For about an hour it was just us three and then Doddy, which meant I had to engage in a rare game of darts. I played Jared and it was probably one of the worst games of darts in history. Me and Jared took about 20 minutes failing to finish the game before he finally finished with a double 1, much to the relief of myself and the others. One of the rare cases where I'm happy to lose.
But yeah as I say, very quiet with the weather in consideration, probably only about 15 of us quaffing pints before the game, which were not going down very well with the blistering weather doing its best to make the beer go as flat as possible very quickly. Sappo then fucked off to go out with a few of his mates, typically to not return. He was making loads of excuses about his work schedule preventing him from attending any games this season which evidently was more of his bullshit. Mind you, I can't say he did the wrong thing by saving £12 and watching that!
After the game was quite funny. Nicky Forster looked like he was on the verge of explosion when he was in the bar afterwards and I imagine he'd have been even unhappier if he had read Adrian's tweet to him telling him in no uncertain terms that he has outstayed his welcome here. To be fair to him, he did seem keen to explain himself when Champ started up a drunken conversation with him about the terrible home form. He could have fucked off and shyed away.
Champ's mate Kye, an annoying plastic COSPian, was also in this conversation and I amused a few people by schoolboying him. (Schoolboying meaning where somebody kneels behind the person and the other person - me - pushes them over) all while he's trying to have a chat with the gaffer. He didn't seem to see the funny side though, earning myself a few "you fat cunt"'s in the process.
After the game we made a very rare outing to the Cricketers, my first visit their since it has been taken over by the Funky Monkey chavs. And wow, my suspicions were well and truely confirmed. The place has incredibly declined over the past 5 years - it was near empty, and at no surprise when even the cheapest pints were £3.40 for your pissy lagers. And they seem to have brought in lots of tacky decor.
Its a big shame actually, as it should be one of the best pubs in Dover with its quaint appearance, fine beer garden and short distance from Crabble. If I ever win the lottery then I promise I'll take it over and restore it to its glory days.
We all eventually made it back to the Old Endeavour, where the post match depressive boozing would continue. Some good would eventually come out of the day with
I then remember unsuccessfully attempting a chat up line to some munting ginger bint who was hanging around us, who to be fair to her did have a smashing pair of tits.
We'd have entertainment provided to us in the form of Kevin Iverson, a local solo artist and he was fantastic, I was particularly happy when he obliged to my request of an Oasis song and he awesomely performed Half The World Away. He was quality, the sort of person that could easily piss X Factor if he wanted to sell out his morals and beliefs.
My night would come to and end early though at about half 9 with the increasing thinness of my wallet and the desire for a cheap chinese takeaway to stumble home with and fall asleep on, so I called it a day there.
And that concludes another write up from a typical Callum Snell home game. Does anybody actually still read this shit? My home games are so routine and so inevitable, you can already know what is being written before you've even opened the page.
So then chaps, Bath City away on Saturday. I'm looking forward to visiting a town centre yet that I haven't explored, quaffing loads of fine ale and having a civilized day out with a few fellow gentlemen. Knowing us we'll storm to a stonking 2-0 away win at one of the early pace setters and paper over the cracks until our next home game. It's always the way, isn't it?
| Saturday 08 Sep 2012 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basingstoke | 0 | - | 2 | AFC Hornchurch | |
 Tuohy (31) Smith (65) |
 359 |
||||
| Billericay | 4 | - | 0 | Eastleigh | |
 Poole (22) Charles-Smith (29) Wild (54) Green (66) |
503 |
||||
| Boreham Wood | 3 | - | 1 | Farnborough | |
| (20) (80) (83) |
Bennet (31) |
226 |
|||
| Bromley | 1 | - | 0 | Bath City | |
| Joseph-Dubois (11) |
495 |
||||
| Dorchester | 1 | - | 0 | Chelmsford | |
| Reid (64) |
575 |
||||
| Dover | 0 | - | 1 | Hayes & Yeading | |
| Joseph (71) |
726 |
||||
| Havant and W | 2 | - | 2 | Tonbridge Angels | |
| Harris (29) Palmer (66) |
Piper (12) Muggeridge (26) |
805 |
|||
| Maidenhead Utd | 8 | - | 0 | Truro City | |
| Tilson-Lascaris (39) Tilson-Lascaris (49) Tilson-Lascaris (58) Wall (65) Semakula (68) Behzadi (84) Wall (88) Barney (91) |
274 |
||||
| Salisbury | 1 | - | 0 | Eastbourne Borough | |
| White (85) |
769 |
||||
| Welling | 3 | - | 2 | Staines Town | |
| Clarke (16) Jalladeher (83) Main (91) |
Rae-Beadle (12) Garrod (70) |
516 |
|||
| Weston-S-Mare | 1 | - | 1 | Sutton Utd | |
| Stearn (89) |
Beautyman (11) |
277 | |||
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Salisbury City | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 16 |
| 2 |  |
Dorchester | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| 3 | |
Maidenhead United | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 14 |
| 4 | |
Boreham Wood | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 14 |
| 5 | |
Welling United | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 12 |
| 6 | |
Hayes & Yeading | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 11 |
| 7 | |
Chelmsford | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 11 |
| 8 | |
Bath City | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 10 |
| 9 | |
Dover | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 9 |
| 10 | |
Basingstoke Town | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 9 |
| 11 | |
Billericay Town | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 8 |
| 12 | |
Farnborough | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 11 | -1 | 8 |
| 13 | |
Bromley | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | -1 | 8 |
| 14 | |
Eastbourne Borough | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 7 |
| 15 | |
Havant and Waterlooville | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 7 |
| 16 | |
Eastleigh | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -4 | 7 |
| 17 | |
Staines Town | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 6 |
| 18 | |
Hornchurch | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 6 |
| 19 | |
Weston-S-Mare | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 6 |
| 20 | |
Tonbridge Angels | 7 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 12 | -3 | 5 |
| 21 | |
Sutton United | 7 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 13 | -5 | 4 |
| 22 | |
Truro City * | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 17 | -6 | -2 |
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