This is my first blog since the tragic events of Emiliano Sala and David Ibbotson. It gets said a lot but it really does put things into perspective. It is horrendous what has happened here. The poor families and that includes both of their dogs that I have seen in photos since. Heartbreaking stuff. It shows what a cruel world we can live in.
This was a trip that had been planned well in advance with one of my bezzies, let us call him Nadaniel Stevens. As this is one, if not the easiest match for me to get to from London, it came in comparatively cheap at 32 sheets! As a result, door to door is only just over three hours. An Uppercrust Ploughmans and a few Stowford mixed with a cheeky desperado for the trip. My mate is all over this IPA shit. It’s not for me. It’s like flowery piss!
Plenty of banter on the way up, but it is only just over an hour and a half from Paddington with a quickfire change at Reading. We were in Leamington just after noon. Stevo had planned a pub well in advance and in all honesty, he nailed it straight off. The Old Library was a decent pub with a tidy little beer garden out the back, they showed football and did decent enough grub. The fact that it was where a large gathering of Hereford fans were at, meant we stayed there until we took a quick cab down to the ground. It was an even bigger bonus Uber operate in Leamington. I only checked my app so I could have a moan, a speculative punt at best.
My memory was starting to get a little sketchy here, as these are the finer details, but the cab ride would have been about ten minutes to the New Windmill Ground. The boost of being told we can buy pints and vape/smoke in the ground was music to my ears. Also, as we were only an hour and a half away from Hereford, it meant there was a decent away following, 600 odd with an attendance of 1150. There was a decent atmosphere as a result and I am a big fan of that.
I would have been pissed had we lost this in the end. I thought some of our link-up play between Owen-Evans, Waites, Richards and Lloyd was decent. I want to see O’Sullivan get that little bit more confidence, cos he can spread a ball and pick a pass and you see it in glimpses. He could be our Xabi Alonso??? I loved Xabi man! Anyway, Waites pounced on a rebound after good work from TOE to put us one up, they scored an absolute screamer as an equaliser and like most players he had to come and ‘give it’ us after. He got served up a dose naturally. TOE then won and dispatched another penalty and we went in at 2-1.
We had a really good spell at the start of the second half and had we scored again, it would have been game, set and match. Waites then went through their centre-back with his elbow. I can’t and I don’t think I have seen/heard anyone defend him (apart from my Dad who thought it was ‘momentum’). The lad will have been sent to us on loan to learn and I hope he has straight away. It is a shame, as he is lively and has ability and we could do with him in the next few weeks. Shit happens! After that, we still nearly went 3-1 up when Richards was unlucky not to find the target after another class ball from TOE. We then conceded the late peno when Owen-Evans (in the thick of it) bought his man down right on the edge, no complaints from the players so that’s good enough for me. It was well taken too. I have to say, as he has had so much grief that Greenslade has been so much better lately and I think his performances deserve a mention.
During the final 20 minutes, Nadaniel managed to spill a whole pint over my new jacket! I was soaked but my jacket got away with it long term. I took it like a champ as I wasn’t massively impressed. We went to the club bar after and we wanted to get a picture outside by the pitch. We were told we would have to leave our drinks the other side of the wall, fine no biggie. The steward took our picture, brilliant and then back to our drinks. Gone! FFS. Decent turn off pace whoever did that. We thought it was our cue to leave as that is not a good sign.
So, it was an Uber back up town with a couple of the Hereford boys and impulsively straight back on the train. I think the late equaliser had knocked the stuffing out of us. We were starting to show some classic signs of being hammered too. We have ended up drinking in London Bridge and then Barking, via some chanting and signing on the tube. Nothing aggressive that would have disturbed others, I would go as far to say there was even some banter. Bants! The rest really ain’t worth knowing. On to Ashton now. Big game. A point wasn’t bad all in all from this trip though.
Al Davies
The Gubbage and the Glory! 