The FA Cup. Part 4.

Saturday, 31^st August 2013

Preliminary Round

St Margaretsbury v London Tigers

 

The Recreation Ground

Stansted Abbotts

SG12 8EH

K.O. 3.00pm

Half time 0-0

Final score 1-0

Steve Barker  90+1 mins

Attendance 35

Miles travelled approximately 10.

I woke to a dazzlingly blue sky. It was already over 60 degrees and climbing. But I felt rotten. It wasn’t a hangover it was dehydration from the day before and something dodgy that I’d eaten.

The plan was to leave early and sit in the bar at the club house, the only problem is that I was having a problem leaving the bathroom, if you know what I mean. Eventually, I did manage to leave the bathroom. I made my way to the train station, £2.50 return, RESULT!

I got to St Margaretsbury, walked up an empty car park and bumped into Richard. “Noggin, good to see you, I’ve got a ticket and a programme for you, I’ll see you later…”, he said, before dealing with the people he was already dealing with.

I went for a walk around the cricket ground, just soaking up the game, the atmosphere, the environment, while taking photos of anything and everything that moved or didn’t including someone that I found face down in the grass in front of a bench and sleeping off a hangover before going into bat…  

This is how Sheffield United must have looked like all those years ago. A cricket pitch and football pitch side by side.

I made my way to the bar and formed my own queue. Up walks Richard, I got the drinks in and he gave me a programme and ticket for the game. At that point Gary walks over, “I’ve got a ticket for you”, he said, as he put his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope. He opened the envelope and gave me this. I laughed like a drain. What a fantastic thing to do. Here comes that Monty Python moment again…

Richard introduced me to the Secretary of London Tigers, saying that this is the guy you need to talk to if they beat us today. We shuck hands and I promptly told him that London Tigers was/is a stupid name. He took it all in good spirits. Top man.

Just before 3pm I left the bar and walked the 100ft along the gravel path past the cricket score shed thing and entered the ground.

The game was stubborn. I think that’s the best way to describe it. It didn’t matter what either team tried to do, neither team could get a grip on the game. There were chances, but the stale mate stubbornly held on.

This wasn’t looking good for me, it wasn’t looking good for anyone else either to be honest, but especially for me. I started to make mental plans about getting to West London the following Tuesday night. To be honest, as the game approached 90 minutes I just wanted someone to win, it didn’t matter which team, just don’t go to a replay.

The most entertaining part of the game was the Manager of London Tigers who took great pleasure in verbally abusing the match officials. It got to the point where it stopped being abusive and became funny because we all just treated him like a recently escaped mental patient sitting on a bus shelter roof while barking at low flying aircraft… Maybe he gets abused by his wife or something and needs to vent. Who knows.

Then right on 90 minutes St Margaretsbury won a corner. Over comes the ball. Everyone missed it and it started to bobble about the box. A shot was attempted. Legs were taken. Somewhere a whistle blew. We all looked at the Ref… who was pointing and walking towards the spot.

11 players were going crazy with joy and hope while 11 players were going crazy with anger and frustration. I just stood there thinking, DON’T MISS!

Just after the re start the Ref blew for full time 1-0. RESULT!

Into the bar. Beer. TV. Football results. Where are the results? Who’s got a Smart Phone? Walsall 0 Preston 3. MORE BEER PLEASE!

Noggin xx