| PRE MATCH
A nice early 12.30 meet in the pub, although as usual this was ignored by most, most notably Browns.......surprise, surprise. Several frames of pool came and went before nobody seemed to want to face the indignity of losing to Chappie again so everyone stopped playing!!! Dogva made light work of the worlds biggest burger before we managed to get in the first half hour of the rugby before getting the tube. England made a surprisingly good start and were actually winning when we left!!!
ATTENDEES
A decent turnout. Middle, Stew, Chappie, Dogva, Gobless, Winkle and Browns (eventually at about 3.20pm). Oh, and a rare and surprise appearance from Hammond the Younger. Oh yes, and also Skippy back from Vegas for a couple of weeks. I think that's it!!! Can't remember really!!!! So quite a good number. No good excuses for absence either this week which is a shame.
CROWD
Crowd of just under 1,900 which was a bit poor, although I think is going to be about the norm. Darlo bought 310. They thought this was quite good, but surely all these Northern Clubs have exiles in London who have left the North for a better life??
I think basically the home crowd is going to be fixed at about 1,500-1,600 and then the crowd will be dictated by how many the away team bring on top of that. That has been the case so far anyway. I think people need to make more of an effort to bring people along though. We spend loads of time nagging our mates to come to games with us, and if people did more of this it could increase the home attendance??
MATCH
We started very well and for the first 30 minutes were on top. However, we didn't score, and from that point our lack of quality showed up. They scored just before the break with a very good finish and then in the second half we were given a bit of a lesson. We didn't get the rub of the green at all, but they were by far the best team we have played so far, and 3-0 was in all honesty a fair reflection on the game. The highlight of the game in hindsight was probably listening to the last ten minutes of the rugby on the radio where England somehow managed to win!!!
POST MATCH
It was back to the pub and we somehow persuaded them to put the Oxford game on rather than the Sheffield United game. And what a treat it was. They were played off the park by Droylesden who had not won a game before Saturday!!! I miss the Conference!!!! After that it was off in different directions, mostly to Brentwood to watch the second rugby Quarter Final and watch Gobless get Gobless. The great man was back in his old routine, so much so that he managed to park most of his late night curry over himself and the table before leaving for home, although he does not remember any of the journey!!! |
