A curse is lifted, and cider is drunk (my God a lot of cider was drunk!)

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.

A jolt of reality

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.

A tale of two keepers...

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.

Billericay Town (All Essex stereotypes will be avoided, I hope!)

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.

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!

"It's that fine rain.."

One of the bizarre things of English football (and non league especially) is the ridiculous runs of fixtures that occasionally occur. Currently part time Bath City (that's part-time Bath City) have a run of 8 games in a month (and 6 in 18 days) so after the first game at Welling United on Saturday, we reconvened at the newly named Mayday Trust Park (from now on I am referring to the ground by its old name of Twerton Park) for the visit of Maidenhead United.

Maidenhead United play at York Road the oldest continuously used football ground in England (so possibly the world as I can't imagine anywhere else will beat it) however, they were relegated at the end of last season but due to Kettering Town dropping into the Southern League they were reprieved.

City lined up with two out and out forwards in Charlie Griffin & new boy Kurtis Guthrie, Kerry Morgan dropped to the bench with a niggling injury, Adam Connolly replaced Joe Burnell and Jim Rollo started a game in this his tenth year of being with the men in black and white.

However, Jimmer didn't cover himself in glory with a lunging tackle most unlike the club legend and all round good egg, which earned him a rebuke from the referee and also ended up injuring Jim himself, who limped off after 5 minutes to be replaced by Danny Ball.

The crowd at TP was in good voice, and cheering on a City side attacking with pace and power down the left wing. Aaron Brown capitalised on an error and burst down the left before floating in a gorgeous cross which was begging to be finished, Kurtis Guthrie tried to head the ball towards the bottom corner, but the Maidenhead keeper Lumley got a good hand to it, but despite the custodians best effort the ball ended up in the back of the net. City were one up within 9 minutes and Guthrie showed the cockiness and confidence that is possibly needed in a striker with his initially nonchalant then crowd kissing celebrations.

However, Brown had managed to do himself a disservice and himself was replaced by the already carrying a knock Morgan. Therefore with 15 minutes City were 1 up, but had lost two players to injury.

Morgan instantly caused the Maidenhead full back trouble and City had a few more decent chances. The full repetoire of songs were being utilised and we were remembering how good football can be after last seasons never ending tale of misery at TP.

Garner continued his impressive early season form, but given the way his name was sung continually it would have appeared to someone outside the ground as if City were continually on the backfoot and that it was only the Welsh international that were keeping them in it!

On 36 minutes the ball was worked to Morgan, and the Welsh wingman wriggled his way past a couple of defenders and onto the touchline, the crowd expected a cut back along the ground, but instead Morgan dinked a wonderful little chipped cross onto the head of Guthrie who powered in his second goal of the game. 2-0 to City and the half time whistle blew with everyone feeling pretty pleased.

Maidenhead came out after the break revitalised and attacked City as if they felt they could get something from the game, but City were defending manfully and attacking when they could.

Nevertheless, on 73 Maidenhead scored, I was not paying attention having received a phone call, so while fumbling for my phone I missed the goal, from what I know it was scored from a corner (a slight problem for non league is I cannot turn to MOTD or the Football League show to see anything you miss!) Morgan had seemed to pick up another injury, or was perhaps removed as a precaution but City youngster Noah Keats came on in his place.

Keats had an immediate impact, within minutes of coming on the ball dropped to Keats who threaded a wonderful reverse pass through the defence and into Guthrie's path (I initially thought he was offside, but having watched Palmers video highlights he was clearly onside.)

The young front man took a brilliant first touch which fed the ball perfectly into his stride, he then calmly slotted it past the onrushing keeper for a cooly taken goal which sealed his hat-trick on his home debut.

The game finished 3-1 at which point the heavens opened. I stood around under the Popular Side roof waiting for the rain to subside while chatting to fellow stripes, at which point Palmer rang to say he was outside the ground, he said the rain was just "fine rain" and that the floodlights were making it look worse...this was a pure unadulterated lie as it was hammering it down! Thoroughly soaked we retired to The White Horse to discuss what was an excellent opening home game of the season and the incredible impact by Kurtis Guthrie, now bring on the bank holiday double header against Havant and Waterlooville (H) and Dorchester Town (A).

Welling United away

After the depression of last season, it was definitely a change to wake earlier than wanted on a Saturday and actually head out of the house with a mild sense of hope about the upcoming fixture. The fact that it was short sleeves weather at 8am definitely did help to the sense of optimism.

At Bath Spa station, I went to buy the group four saver to Welling, and stumbled across one of the few friendly people at the station, who asked about City's prospects for the season, how he was sad to see us relegated and hoped we had a good season. The four of us alighted and very quickly were disembarking at Paddington, showing that when trains journeys work they can be amazingly good!

The temperature was starting to rise as we got on the tube for the short journey to Charing Cross where we were to change, however, knowing Welling isn't great we got off there and went to The Harp (http://www.harpcoventgarden.com/) which is a quality pub I already knew of and a previous winner of pub of the year.

Great hanging basket, random pram

The pub was pretty full despite the early hour, and on quick inspection we realised it was full of Wrexham fans enroute to Ebbsfleet United. What we hadn't spotted and was about to give me a heart attack was the fact Barrow fans (heading to Woking) were also in the pub, I am standing pint in hand chatting and minding my own business when suddenly a man points at me walks over and states "I know you." My mind races to try and work out how I knew this man and desperately trying to work out if I would have upset him! However, it transpired that I had met him in Barrow two season previously when a few stripes had made a weekend of it. Barrow fans bemoaned the lack of travelling to Twerton as it was an away day they enjoyed and one I will quote as "It was great Bath, you could tell her indoors that we were going to a weekend in Bath, then on the Saturday slip in that a match was going on" Quality bit of deception there!

Beery delight

After a few pints were sunk in the glorious sunshine, leaning against the bizarre outside bar/window part of The Harp, before a BOA exile arrive, before the 5 of us got on the train to Welling. We arrived to heat that is unheard of in this summer, and quickly scurried to a pub where other City fans who had travelled on the coach were sitting. Pleasantries were exchanged before we made the short walk to Park View Road, and paid the £12 entrance fee.

Park View Road is a tidy little ground, with two uncovered ends, but has one of the weirdest little parts I have seen in a ground. Park View Road is shared between Welling United and Erith & Belvedere FC, which means that three quarters of the ground is coloured in Welling's red, and one stand is blue and contains the headquarters of Erith & Belvedere.

Note Erith & Belvedere's blue

City lined up in the 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 (depending on your preference) with 5 (or 6 if you include Adie Harris making his 4th debut) debutants in Danny Ball, Josh Low, Charlie Griffin, Kerry Morgan and Aaron Brown. However, it was left to one of last years new signings Glyn Garner to stop City conceding within a minute, a fierce strike brought the custodian diving to his right and getting a strong hand to it, before getting up and blocking the following shot.

Then on 20 minutes City played a few neat passes in the middle before Aaron Brown collected the ball just inside the City half before driving forward with no Welling defender closing him down, Brown got within 25 yards, and with no City players around him hit a speculative shot towards goal, Welling debutant keeper Tom Mott, had a mare as he went up for it and seemed caught in two minds as to whether catch or punch the shot, instead he did neither and allowed the ball to squirm through his hands and drop into the net. A soft goal but we will take it!

It was bloody hot

The heat was unbelievable and definitely contributed to a slower game than expected. However, after the break Welling crossed the ball and it was nodded back across and the ball fell a few yards out and a sprawling Lafayette prodded the ball home. Welling definitely had the best of the second half, but City stayed resilient and didn't buckle, new signing Kurtis Guthrie came on and looked ok, while youth team player Noah Keats also came on (that's right City actually have a youth player from their development squad!!)

In the dying seconds it was almost all over, when a header meant Garner once again hand to fling himself to his left and pulled off a brilliant save. The game finished 1-1 and for such a newly brought together team, away at last years play off final losers the result was a positive, although City have a lot to thank Garner for.

All in all it was a good first game, and matched the score of Mansfield away last year, however, let's hope for a better season and preferably a few degrees lower!