Bank holiday bonanza

Over the last bank holiday weekend before Christmas, City played in two games, and for ease of use I am combining the games into one bigger than usual blog!

Havant and Waterlooville (Home)

One of the first things I have found from being relegated out of the Conference National is the rapidly diminishing stature of the clubs City are playing. Last season, on the Friday when leaving work when asked who City were playing that weekend, I could respond with Luton/Kidderminster Harriers/Wrexham etc., this time around it was "Havant and Waterlooville at home," which was invariably followed by "Who are they?"

So in a nod to all the people querying who they are; Havant and Waterlooville (H&W) were formed in 1998 in a merger between Havant Town and Waterlooville. They currently play at West Leigh Park in the town of Havant, and they are the team you may remember taking the lead twice at Anfield against Liverpool in the 4th Round of the FA Cup in 2008, before eventually losing 5-2.

The weather was warm, so I decided against a coat which was a huge mistake as walking from the pub to the ground the heavens opened and we were soaked. A quick sprint to Charlie's was decided on, and we took advantage of the free drinks vouchers offered by the club with this years season tickets.

Nothing of note happened in the opening exchanges a few attacks from both sides came to nothing. Then the curse of the football fan opening their mouth occurred. A City fan was bemoaning what he considered to be a lack of impact that Josh Low had affected in his first two games. As the words had barely left his lips, the stripes managed to defend a threatening situation, before some neat interplay led to Adie Harris releasing Low inside his own half with H&W out of shape defensively.

Low raced forward carrying the ball to the edge of the H&W area, before the former Cheltenham wingman cut inside before unleashing a gorgeous curling shot that nestled into the bottom corner beyond the despairing dive of the H&W keeper. 1-0 City with 10 minutes played.

City then controlled the game, but neither side created much in what were changeable conditions to say the least, and the game drifted towards half time.

After the half the stripes continued to press, but Charlie Griffin appeared to be carrying a knock (more on that later) and on 65 minutes was replaced by young Brad Norris. Norris was industrious, and as pointed out on a City forum the combined age of Guthrie and Norris was less than Scotty Murray's age last year!

On 72 minutes, an attack down the right led to the ball dropping to Norris, the young front man fired in a shot which was never going to go in, but a deflection off of a defender and the goalkeeper led to the ball dropping to Guthrie's feet two yards out and the frontman added to his 3 goals from Tuesday with a simple tap in. 2-0 to City and everyone in the ground knew that the game was over and City were going to collect their second with of the week.

There were two moments when the score could have changed, a H&W goal was disallowed for offside, while the referee in the worst case of not playing advantage blew for a freekick for a foul on the edge of the area, but City had worked the ball to an unmarked Guthrie who surely would have scored, why the ref blew I do not know, but given the result was a two goal win to City I cannot careless!!!

Dorchester Town (Away) 

After the good win on Saturday, the men in black and white were to travel to The Avenue Stadium to take on fellow stripes Dorchester Town. The travel to Dorchester should have been an indication of what was to come, as there were 10 stripes on the train...a train which was delayed by initially 20 minutes, and eventually meant we arrived into Dorset's county town an hour after the original planned arrival time.

We arrived once again this summer to a depressingly wintery day, and went searching for the Blue Raddle pub which had been recommended to us, after a little bit of an effort we found the pub, and it was....closed. On a bank holiday Monday, closed. Unbelievable! We eventually ended up in a pretty ropey pub which had an aroma which can only be described as rancid. So not the best pub of the awaydays, and hopefully what will turn out to be the worst of the season.

The Avenue Stadium, is a new ground having been built in 1990 for a cost of £3,000,000, but unlike horrible new grounds like Nene Park, the ground positively oozes character. This is (allegedly) due to Prince Charles as the land is Duchy of Cornwall land and it was decreed that the ground was to be built in a traditional manner. Therefore the ground has a gabled end with a clock, three sides terracing and slate roofs. Superb, and I wish more new grounds could have been built with such nods towards tradition and style.

Lovely gable and clock

The Dorchester team contained three ex-stripes, in Charlie Clough, Jason Matthews and Ben Watson. Of which during the course of the game all three would incur various levels of wrath from previous fans, due to general unsporting behaviour, including a disgraceful dive for which Watson would be booked.

City were dominant in possession and were all over a few poor Dorchester team. A few cards were flashed to Dorchester players for some fairly crude challenges. On 13 minutes, Clough gave away a freekick 20 yards from goal. Josh Low ran over the ball, before Griffin curled a freekick up and over the wall, Matthews managed to get a hand to the ball but ended up in the net with the freekick, City took the lead for the 4th game in succession, and Griffin celebrate vigorously.

Matthews then saved well from Griffin, and sadly Adam Connolly couldn't get away a good enough strike after a well worked City move. It was during this period after the goal that Watson collapsed pathetically when chasing a ball when Garner got near to him, thankfully the referee didn't buy it and booked the cheat.

Griffin had another freekick from almost an identical position from which he scored, but this time the balding frontman could only hit the ball into the face of a man in the wall. Griffin and Simpson then both narrowly missed connecting with crosses across the 6 yard box. So the half time whistle went with City leading one nil.

Soon after the 2nd half commenced Guthrie tried a bit of audacious skill when bringing the ball under control, flicking it over his head and hammering a shot towards goal which went narrowly wide but would have been a fantastic goal.

Against the run of play Dorchester equalised, a corner was headed against the bar by Walker, the ball rebounded off of the bar and appeared to hit Walker and somehow find its way over the line. City were rocked, and moments later were behind when after another corner the ball was cleared as far as Martin who hit a fizzing, low shot that skidded off of the turf and left Garner helpless.

City attempted to equalise, and Matthews saved more in the final 10 for Dorchester than he had in every game he played for us last season, including a corner from Josh Low which almost crept in. However, Griffin and Guthrie both looked completely shattered, and it is possible Griffin is still feeling the knock from Saturday, so despite the effort and endeavour it was fairly desperate stuff from City and they never looked liked scoring.




The game finished 2-1 ad City's unbeaten run was over, however, enough positives have come from the opening 4 games of the season that I am confident that this season will be an enjoyable one, now bring on the next two ridiculously quick succession games!

Yes it is a dolphin in a hedge outside the ground, no I have no idea either!