Christmas Disappointments

As we all know, the main excitement of the festive season is not the celebration nor the presents, but is the festive football games.

City were scheduled to play on 22nd (Havant and Waterlooville, away), 26th (WsM, home) and 29th (Dorchester Town, home).

So come the 22nd December, and despite a 30th birthday party the night before (not mine I hasten to add!!) at 9:25 six stripes met and boarded the train to Havant, precisely 2 minutes later we received the call informing us that the game was off due to the rain. We broke the news to the 3 additional stripes who boarded the train at Bradford on Avon, the decision was made to disembark at Salisbury, and a jolly boys outing commenced, where many great pints of Hop Back breweries beers were sunk, including a trip to the iconic Wyndham Arms, where Hop Back was founded, so the cancelled Saturday was salvaged and a good time was had by all.

Come Boxing Day and the biblical rain continued to sweep the southwest, luckily Twerton Park's slope and normally good drainage continued, and the game was played. The visit of Weston Super Mare, and their 7 fans is definitely a come down from the Conference National days.

As we arrived at the ground the weather was atrocious, and you could tell how much water the pitch was containing. The weather definitely played a part in a game that had moments of quality (most of it supplied by Charlie Griffin) and moments of farce. The stripes battled manfully in the conditions, which worsened at one point, and a lot of us expected the game to be abandoned, but the referee allowed the game to continue.

Weston super Mare scored just after the half hour, with the use of a hand (I think it was Kane Ingram who handled it home, but am not 100% certain) Shortly afterwards Griffin was fed, the keeper saved, but Griffin slipped and slid across the wet turf and slammed into the concrete wall that surrounds the pitch at Twerton Park. Griffin seemed momentarily unconscious, and there was genuine concern for the burly centre forward, thankfully he picked himself off of the floor after some treatment.

Moments before half time a ball was whipped into the WsM box, and Griffin challenged for it, the keeper spilled the ball and in his desperation to retrieve it, he hauled Charlie down, or at least that is what the referee must have seen as the penalty was awarded, personally it seemed a bit soft. Griffin stepped up and fired the ball home. 1-1 at HT.

Half time seemed to be taking an age, and then there was an announcement over the tannoy that the linesman had injured himself, and that they were after a replacement from the stands, a fully qualified City fan was found, and thanks to him we were able to continue the game.

For the first 20 minutes of the second half, the stripes battered WsM and should have scored, but a combination of keeper, weather, unlucky breaks and poor finishing cost City, as WsM scored after the dominant period to make it 1-2. City seemed to run out of ideas, and strength as the pitch rapidly began to resemble No Man's Land from the First World War (in terms of mud obviously...) Sean Canham was brought on, and it has since turned out that the lanky frontman is moving to Australia soon. The game ended, and ridiculously and shamefully people booed a team that had done it's best in testing conditions.

Then came what should have been the best game of the Christmas spell, Dorchester Town at home, however, as I walked into town, Victoria Park was basically underwater and news of a pitch inspection at 10:30 caused my heart to drop, as expected the game was postponed.

Therefore out of 3 games, two which we would have expected the stripes to win, we have had two postponed and one lost! Not what City wanted, with the weather set to continue, I can't see the game against WsM on New Years Day going as well, so we will be having a lot more Tuesday night games soon!

A game of two halves (and other cliches)

Given the ridiculous way fixture lists seem to be created, and our propensity for being knocked out of cup games this was the first game at Twerton in almost a month, and is the last game until Boxing Day.

City were welcoming Eastbourne Borough who as recently as 2010/11 were in the Conference National, but like us soon dropped back into the Conference South. For a team that were once in the national league they brought a very small amount of away fans, with myself seeing precisely zero fans, I assume there must have been a few, but I imagined they might have brought a coach load at least.

Since the last home game the stripes have taken Tom Nichols on loan from Exeter City, and the young forward was keeping Charlie Griffin out of the team, Jason Mellor continued in goal, and Kerry Morgan was still on the bench, much to the annoyance of some of the people around me.

This was the first game that had the real bite of winter to it, as the steam rose from cups of Bovril and teas all around and hands were covered in gloves, muffling any clapping.

Adam Connolly seemed to be regaining some of his verve from years gone by, and City started brightly enough, however, our poor defence struck once again. A long ball was misjudged by Preece, and Mellor raced out of his goal and was caught in no mans land allowing Kezie Ibe to lob the ball over Mellor into the unguarded net.

City battled back, and but didn't create many chances, and right on the stroke of half time a freekick was given away by Danny Ball, the resulting freekick was whipped in, and for the umpteenth time this season City conceded to a headed goal.

In the second half the stripes rallied, and gave the proverbial 110%, but were unable to make a difference until Morgan and Griffin came on for the ineffectual Canham and Low. Kerry Morgan showed again how much of a threat he is to a tiring full back, by doing the defender on a number of occasions. City reduced the arrears on 76 minutes, when a ball into the box eventually found its way to Danny Ball, who's strike took at least one, possibly two deflections before ending up in the net 1-2, and with 15 minutes left there was opportunity to secure a point or more.

The two substitutes linked up soon after, where an inviting cross from Morgan was met with a thundering header by Griffin, sadly the ball crashed off the crossbar and away. The fans started to really get behind the men in black and white, and City swarmed in desperate search for an equaliser, Mark Preece blazed over the bar, when he should have done better. Finally, agonisingly for Eastbourne City snatched a draw when Kerry Morgans freekick pinballed around the box, before Gethin Jones lashed the ball home, a defender got to the ball but it was clearly over the line, and in the last minute City had secured a dramatic draw.

Sadly, we have to wait till Boxing Day for the next home game, but absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.