I wished for this game to be on so badly Saturday that maybe I deserved my comeuppance. I was itching to get down to this one, especially after the previous weeks loss to King’s Lynn which I missed due to a pals wedding up north.
I had witnessed the highly impressive victory on the 24th Feb at home to Weymouth, where Myrie-Williams scored an absolute screamer on his second debut for the Bulls. That was followed up by beating Gosport Borough away 4-0. Happy days.
The dreadful weather and resulting postponements seem to have knocked us off our stride a bit though. I wasn’t expecting this on Saturday for sure.
Having got tanked up with my pals on the way down from London, via the local Wetherspoons and the hosts club bar, I witnessed the home side score within two minutes of kick-off (albeit through the turnstiles as I made my way in). We have a saying when something goes wrong between our mates. ‘Totally gone’.
That put us right up against, playing a side that in all fairness looked very well organised. Symo hit the cross bar with a header but it wouldn’t go over the line. We had plenty of possession but found chances hard to come by. One down at half-time.
When Liburd headed us on level terms in the second half I thought we would go on and win it. In truth though we really struggled to contain their second half substitute Sam Smart, we couldn’t get near him and he caused us havoc. It was from the impressive youngsters pile driver that Horsell turned over that resulted in Basingstoke taking the lead once again. Despite our best efforts of clearing the close range effort from the corner, the ball was over the line.
As we pressed for the equaliser Smart took his chance when one on one with Horsell, finishing emphatically. It wasn’t just me looking around asking ‘who the fu*k was this lad’.
The support and the chanting was spot on for the second half, it was only towards the end you could hear mumblings of discontent.
Beadle took some stick from sections of the fans as did many of the players. Fans had travelled down and watched the match in sub zero snow. This was a shocker of a performance and some weren’t happy. I can understand that but Beadle is right we need to stick together and for me not loose our bottle. Whether we like to admit it or not, that includes us as fans too.
We are still a point clear with two games in hand so we just need to keep calm. I can understand the frustration, I wasnt delighted myself but let’s go again against Frome Town (pitch inspection permitting) and again against Gosport Borough on Saturday.
Like the chant says, ‘How will we get there? I don’t know. How will we get there? I don’t care. All I know is Hereford’s on our way’.
Andy Del Potro
The Gubbage and the Glory! 