With City dropping out of the Conference National last season, it now means that the stripes enter the FA Cup two rounds earlier than last year, entering the venerable competition at the Second Qualifying Round.
The draw had paired the stripes with Buckland Athletic of the Western League Premier Division, and we were to visit there ground on the outskirts of Newton Abbot, Homers Heath. Buckland play in yellow and won the South West Peninsula League last year to get into the Western Football League. Four of us were travelling on the train, so as has been the usual this season, we met up at an early time, got our group 4 saver and set off. The journey was uneventful, and was a direct train, which was nice. However, the train was packed so we stood the whole way and enjoyed the scenery as we travelled along Dawlish Warren and marvelled at the engineering done by IKB to place his railway on edge of the sea.
We arrived into Newton Abbot at 10:38 and wandered around what is a much nicer town than I had expected. The town has a population of 23k and seems to have a nice independent air to it, with a fine array of independent shops, and a model shop which Bath itself can no longer boast of having.
Now if you ever find yourself in Newton Abbot head towards East Street, the street has 8 (eight) pubs along its length and one very important house (more on that later...) the four stripes headed to the beer guide recommended Union Inn, and sat down to a very reasonable and very welcome English breakfast. We left the Union and headed up East Street to the Dartmouth Inn, at this point the away day started to grow into its own.
The Dartmouth is a lovely little traditional boozer, and the array of stripey clothing we were wearing started to attract attention. No-one in the pub had heard of the FA Cup game taking place, so the barmaid rang her son who rearranged his plans to go to the game and she was working out ways she could get there, who says the magic of the cup is dead? A few enjoyable Dartmoor ales were sunk, and two more stripes joined us as we walked to that important house I mentioned.
City boys by Ye Olde Cider Bar
We walked towards the building and saw the name picked out on the side "Ye Olde Cider Bar" that's right, the important house is a cider house, one of only four left in the country. What's a cider house I hear you cry, surely it is just a pub? Well no. A pub sells an array of alcoholic beverages, while a cider house sells only cider (and perry and country wines) The place is amazing, all hard wood tables, cladding and masses of cider barrels. After the disappointments of Dorchester and Salisbury the three establishments of this trip were amazing, but the cider house was the best. Many ciders were sunk before we walked to Homers Heath.
Look at the cider!
The ground is a slightly odd, but lovely little ground, you enter up a steep slope, and pay the entrance fee to a few people by a table (no turnstiles) and walk towards the pitch. There is a large clubhouse with a beer garden type set up, and on the opposite side to the pitch is a large stand, with seating and terracing, a tidy set up and one which must be the envy of many of their Western League competitors.
Big smiles of happy cider drinkers
We went behind the goal City were attacking, and an attempt at hanging flags was made, it took so long for the largest to be hung on the netting, that a steward wandered over, and then laughed at the incompetence and gave up on his original plan of telling Tim to get off of Palmers shoulders.
The offending flag
Buckland belied their lowly league status, and were a very impressive side. City were finding it hard to get a foothold in the game, and Garner had to pull off an impressive save to prevent Buckland taking an early lead.
However, the early storm weathered, the stripes began to fashion chances of their own, a Aaron Brown effort was cleared off the line, and the same player had a freekick saved moments later. Charlie Griffin hit the post when through on goal, and you felt that if City had managed to score at this stage the game would have been easier.
At half time, we went into the excellent clubhouse, and in a first, I won second place in the 50/50 draw and collected an unexpected but gratefully received £20. I started the second half standing on a table in the beer garden area (Buckland fans did it first I'd like to point out!) while finishing my pint. It was from this vantage point, that I saw the first two goals of the game. Buckland took the lead when a freekick wasn't fully cleared and it fell to Gavin Hammon who already has 9 league goals this season, and he added to his tally by firing past Garner.
The goal stopped City in their tracks, and there was a period of the game where the men in black and white couldn't get anywhere or create anything. However, on 59 minutes the ball was fed to Aaron Brown on the left, the fullback took the ball forward before unleashing a hammer blow of a shot which squirmed into the net despite the keepers best efforts.
At this point I moved from my unusual vantage point, to behind the goal again. City's goal led to a sustained period of pressure, and from this point it seemed certain City would score again. This happened on 71 minutes, when Cummings crossed from the right, and Guthrie leapt high to powerfully placed his header into the opposite corner. The game was to finish 2-1 to City, but Buckland did themselves proud and if they played like that it will not be long until they are promoted again. With City winning away, this has finally broken the curse of me not seeing City win away since Barrow in March 2011 (happy days!)
We left the ground, and fatally returned to the cider house, many free tasters were dished out by a friendly barmaid, mead was drunk (who drinks mead!?!?) and the night started to get fuzzy around the edges. We eventually made it back to the station, where I unfortunately had a disco nap, the train was delayed by an hour, and due to stupidity I lost my glasses and Tim hurt himself! We survived though, and Buckland will go down as one of the best away days ever, now to see who comes out of the hat in the draw for the next round.
After finding themselves top of the table after the opening few games of the season, the mighty stripes have definitely come crashing back to earth in the last few weeks.
Having at the end of my last blog predicted that City would inevitably win at Bromley away with me being unable to go to the game having been in Barcelona, however, on arrival back at Bristol airport I texted mate and fellow City fan Palmer asking how it went and got the following "Lost 1-0. Were utter dog shit, to a man" so felt much better that I didn't end up at Bromley, and arrived back at Twerton Park with City on a two game losing streak and about to host high spending Dover Athletic, who as is customary this season had a ex-player in their ranks, this time Danny Webb, centre back in the season we finished 10th after promotion to the Conference National.
The opening to the game, was low on quality and low in tempo. A few chances were created, but all in all it was a pretty poor first half. Garner patted one shot down, that I dangerously thought was being patted into the onrushing forwards path, but Glyn has been pretty good this season, and the threat was nullified.
A Dover goal was disallowed for a clear offside, but that is about all.
Kerry Morgan replaced Josh Low at halftime, I assumed with an injury as late in the first half we saw him doing a leg stretch I had previously seen him do moments before last going off injured. Morgan definitely offered an increase in tempo and threat, and if he is fully fit he should definitely be starting every game, as he has looked a class above at every opportunity when played out wide, but horrifically stunted when playing as a second "deep lying" forward (tactical discussion done for a while I think!)
On 50 minutes, Morgan fed the ball to Griffin, who took a touch to tee it up for himself before thrashing a volley that the keeper flapped at, the ball rebounded off of the crossbar, and fell to Noah Keats, his shot was blocked but fell to Griffin who hammered the ball first time into the top corner, both of Griffin's efforts were of the highest quality and definitely deserved a goal from one of the chances.
Briefly City threatened, and could have scored another while Dover were regrouping, Chris Allen came on for a debut, and looked a tidy little player (emphasis on little) and a jinking run, and cute pass found a sadly offside Guthrie who scored, but the flag was raised (correctly) as soon as he touched the ball. However, by that point the game was already level, with Dover scoring on 65 minutes, and that was the last chance the stripes really fashioned. Dover took the lead on 71 minutes, when a freekick was deflected into the path of Dover captain Steve Thompson who rounded Garner with a coolness rarely seen at this level before slotting the ball home.
A Dover player was sent off late on for a second booking for dissent, but City were never going to score despite the 4 minutes of added time. Sadly, City's 100% home record died, and a third game on the trot was lost, pushing City down to eleventh in the table, too early in the season to really worry about, but bringing us back to earth with a bump. Adie Britton faces a task to ensure the players are ready and able to beat Buckland Athletic in the FA Cup on Saturday, with the trip to Devon and the Western League team being a potential banana skin if the team is not fully focused.
Tuesday night games are an interesting one. If played at home they can be a brilliant distraction from the working week, and for some reason quite often seem to generate an atmosphere that is lacking from weekend games, however, Tuesday night away games aren't quite as good. The main issues being the lack of time to get where you are heading and then late return. Sadly, City were only allocated one Tuesday night game at home (Maidenhead a few weeks ago) and have trips to Truro, Eastleigh, Eastbourne and last nights trip to Salisbury City.
I was to drive to The Raymond McEnhill Stadium (awful, awful name!) and was taking a full car. While collecting my first passenger from the University, a moment happened that should inspire all football fans. After collecting Palms, we started to leave the Uni, and a squirrel ran out in front of the car in front of us, surely the end for Nutty you would think, but no despite being span around inside the wheel, he landed on the road and ran into the bushes, a miraculous escape and proof that anything is possible!
In the Dorchester blog I wrote that I hoped I had found the worst pub of the season, sadly I was wrong! Salisbury's ground was a new build in 1997 and therefore is positioned in a awful position well out of Salisbury itself, and with no decent pubs around. I accept that one day City might need to leave Twerton, but if we do I hope that the move would be to somewhere central and decent rather than the God forsaken middle of nowhere. With that in mind we ended up in a Harvester, with keg bitter. Awful. That is two in two for horrible pubs, so I am hoping the next away pub I get to is much better and more like The Harp!
Horribly positioned ground in the middle of nowhere
The Raymond McEnhill Stadium is pretty poor, one end has three steps and the most unnecessary electronic scoreboard/advertising hoarding ever, a small covered terrace and two mismatched weird sides. We arrived just before kick off, and there was a sizeable travelling contingent. A minutes silence was observed by everyone apart from one City fan who was too self important and wouldn't hang up on a most important phone call (about cement, it was shameful, but I won't name names.)
The main surprise was that Glyn Garner had been dropped and young Jason Mellor was handed an unexpected debut in goal. In the opposite goal was Will Puddy who played a few games for the stripes on loan in 2009/10.
Salisbury raced into an early league, when Chris McPhee (who City tried to sign in the summer) crossed and the unmarked White knocked the ball home from a few yards after 6 minutes of play. This seemed to spark City into live, but sadly led to Simpson being clattered by a fairly robust challenge (I say robust it was a clear foul) but despite the tackle no booking was issued, but Simpson had clearly hurt his knee and was withdrawn and replaced by Luke Cummings. Cummings in his first appearance soon influenced proceedings when he fed in a cross that was begging to be finished and Griffin obliged and bundled the ball home.
Mellor was having a decent debut, until around the 38th minute when a long looping ball was played forward, the young custodian seemed caught in two minds as to whether come out and clear the ball or stay on his line. Stuffed by his indecision, he failed to make contact well with the ball, it bounced behind him, and in the ensuing panic Gethin Jones threw himself head first at a shot at goal, but it clearly hit his hand and the penalty was awarded, and then dispatched by Fitchett. City picked up another injury, and Burnell came off to be replaced by Morgan, after a bit more play, the first half finished 2-1.
We swapped ends as is customary, and had the interesting situation of trying to put flags up where there is nothing to tie them to. Thankfully, Salisbury hire one of the nicest set of stewards (including the nicest steward I have ever met!) and one of them told me to bend back wiring to tie the flag, so I did! Then came the bit everyone is terrified of, the moment a mate suggests giving you a leg up, so perched precariously in Palmers hands I managed to get the flags up, but the fear of being dropped with a slight inebriated pal holding you aloft, is like no other!
Nicest steward ever, just look at his face! Look at his face!
For the second away game in a row and ex-goalkeeper started to rile the away following, Puddy who was fairly ropey under his time with us, hasn't improved in the intervening years. But he is a mouthy so and so. One particularly amusing moment had him punching the ball on the ground after having an argument with the ref, what a tit.
Salisbury increased their lead in the 57 minute with an absolutely fantastic goal, a ball in the air found its way to Ryan Brett, the player controlled the ball on his chest, flicked the ball over his head and hammered and unstoppable shot past Mellor, there was nothing the keeper could do about the strike and he had pulled off some great saves before hand.
Puddy got unbelievably lucky when a Griffin free kick went into his arms, but somehow he spilled the ball and panicked, but fortuitously for him it managed to hit his heel and stop instead of rolling into the goal, at which point he kept looking at the ground, as though a blade of grass had made him drop the ball!
City pressed hard in the last 20 minutes, and young Noah Keats (who had started and played well) was fed the ball by Morgan 25 yards from goal, and the young midfielder thrashed a ferocious shot past Puddy. 3-2 and City had their tails up.
Puddy once again began to wind up some of the away fans and was getting some abuse, as was the aforementioned electronic scoreboard, which kept changing colours and flashing behind us, the stewards also agreed how crap it was and were complaining about it as much as we were. A word of warning never take an epileptic to Salisbury City!
Note ridiculous scoreboard at far end
In the last minute of injury time, a Kerry Morgan corner put Puddy under pressure, and the keeper spilt it, this led to Morgan firing in a follow up shot, which was parried to Guthrie who couldn't score despite having two chances which were both cleared off of the line. Suddenly Salisbury were on the counter and they should have scored, but the unmarked player screwed the ball wide. The game finished soon after. A 3-2 loss was a fair result, but on the way out the tannoy announcer commended the City fans on "being the best away support we have seen down here in many a year" Now he may say that to every away fan, but I'd like to think it was a valid endorsement of the stripes faithful.
With the loss at Salisbury, I have now travelled approximately 3,096 miles (according to google maps) since last seeing City win away, which was Barrow on 26th March 2011 when a Lee Phillips goal won the game. City are away at Bromley on Saturday when I am on holiday, so I predict an away win! Up the City!
P.S. Since writing the blog someone has helpfully uploaded the attached video, Salisbury's third goal is even better than I realised.
At the risk of this blog turning into a weather related blog (when skies are grey perhaps?!) it was a pleasant surprise to be sitting outside supping our prematch beers rather than huddled inside watching torrential downpours, and a decent following could reasonably expected.
Billericay Town were promoted to the Conference South as champions of the Ishtmian League and are one of the ridiculous number of south east clubs in this league. They had one of the smallest footballers I have ever seen in their number 7, and as a mate pointed out they looked like a Sunday league team with a kit that seemed to fit none of them and surprisingly they are lacking in a shirt sponsor, but obviously didn't go for the Yeovil approach of posing topless. However, it isn't all bad as they are one of two teams who have won the FA Vase three times.
As we walked around the ground Sekani Simpson embarked on a mazy run that almost led to a goal, which would have been the first the fullback had scored in a long time! Sadly his shot was blocked and the following effort was fired high over the bar.
Griffin was looking lively and Guthrie buzzed around, while Low and Aaron Brown were both threatening. Sadly though Low departed after 15 with an unknown injury and was replaced by young Noah Keats. Guthrie could have scored when a ball was bouncing towards goal, but his delicate chip was saved by the keeper.
Griffin soon showed the youngster how it was done, when in an almost identical situation the wily frontman lifted the ball perfectly over Brightly in the Billericay goal and the ball dropped into the back of the net. Griffin again celebrated with gusto and I hope to see this more and more this season.
The half time whistle sounded with City winning 1-0. A swift pint was drunk in Charlie's, and it is nice to be able to visit the bar at half time if so desired, unlike the Conference Premier and the problems with policing/stewarding/segregation etc leading to the bar more often than not being closed, not such an issue in the summer months (apart from the lost revenue) but in the winter when it is freezing the warmth can sometimes be very welcome!
Aaron Brown had once again shown he is a class above a lot of the players in this league, and had been superb in the left wingback/fullback role, sadly though while bursting forward to catch a pass you could see him pull up, and Brown limped off to be replaced by Kerry Morgan.
City were again playing well, but weren't creating too many chances, and on 58 minutes a cock up between Preece and Garner led to the City custodian felling an onrushing Billericay player and the referee pointed to the spot and booked Garner. Having seen the replay of the incident the tackle was definitely outside of the area, and should have resulted in a freekick, nevertheless Glenn Poole stepped up and fired a brilliant penalty home. Against the run of play and suspiciously like Dorchester, City found themselves level.
However, unlike at Dorchester the men in black and white rallied, Morgan who despite his diminutive stature was tracking back and won a brilliant sliding tackle, this led to a period of play where City moved the ball around nicely, eventually the ball ended up with Charlie Griffin about 25 yards out, the frontman moved the ball forward a few yards, opened his body and curled a wonderful shot into the net, a cracking finish by Griffin and definitely the best goal City have scored this season.
Billericay sensing their chance had gone resorted to kicking and fouling continually, and the referee failed to offer adequate protection for the City players. However, the match passed without further incident and a 2-1 win propelled City to the top of the league again (not that it means anything 5 games in), but the win will have hopefully given everyone the confidence needed for the Tuesday night game away at Salisbury City.
