Poole Town

Saturday 26th March - FA Vase Semi Final 1st Leg
Poole 1 Whitley Bay 2

Gate: £8
Atten: 1,652
Food & Drink: just a coffee & kit kat £1.40
Ground: Excellent pitch ,warm welcome, very basic facilities. Looks like an old school playing field,  good job a new fence was erected this week otherwise much worse 2/10 (1 for the ground and 1 for the new fencing)
Match Enjoyment: Enjoyable game and Whitley Bay were in the deep end at Poole ! - Poole played really well and fully deserved to even win the game until Whitley were thrown a life jacket with two late late goals. This really was a smash and grab raid - 8/10

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View all Vids (5) 
Includes Whitley's late late winner !

The history of Whitley Bay is an interesting one and can be read here

This was Whitley Bay's Away kit they wore today .... this really was a smash and grab job !


This really was a smash n grab job by Whitley Bay


Whitley's late equaliser


Poole defend a Whitley Corner


Feed the Chow !
The handball which led to winning goal


Kerr hits a belter into top corner

Carshalton Athletic

Saturday 19th March - Ryman Premier
Carshalton 2 v Aveley 2

Gate: £10
Atten: 310
Food & Drink: just a coffee & kit kat £1.70 but a good selection of hot/cold foods were available. The bar was lively with live match on big screen. 
Ground: Decent facilities, covered stands on all four sides, i quite liked the place 7/10
Match Enjoyment: I really enjoyed this game, the first half flew by and the second half was very enjoyable 7/10


View all photos (36)
View all vids (1)

Report to follow ...







The sun was shining so no better place to eat pre match meal !!

Hitchin Town

Saturday 12th March - Zamaretto Div 1 Central
Hitchin Town 1 v Biggleswade Town 2
Gate : £9

Atten: 628 (biggest of the season by far)
Ground: A cracking ground ! old rickety wooden stands full of charm 9/10
Food: Coffee £1 + Barbecue with Chicken , sausages and burgers -delicious.


Match Enjoyment: Very entertaining game. End to end top of the table local derby and the away team deserved all the points -8/10

View all Vids here (3)  includes Biggleswade's winning goal 
View all Photos here (55)

After seeing photos of this ground sometime ago and listening to the advice of a respected hopper, for a while i have been itchin' to get to Hitchin and the wait was very much worth it.






Woking

Saturday5th March - Conference South
Woking 1 v Farnborough 1
Gate : £12

Atten: 2132
Ground: A decent ground mixed with old and new. The new stand is superb
Food: Coffee £1.20p Kit Kat 60p
Match Enjoyment: A scrappy fiercely contested local derby . The Cards played it well  but were dealt a cruel blow and  it was Farnborough who came away with the Brucie bonus ! 5/10


The signs were there for a decent game !

Like last week Plan A was cancelled due to family things so my long awaited Vase trip to Poole v Torpoint was spoilt as most of the morning was taken up by someone else's errors. Never mind plan B was a decent one -  a trip to Kingfield to watch inform Woking (The Cards) play high flying Farnborough. They are first and second in the form table, The Cards had not conceded in 8 matches and the 'Boro defense was decent as well. Add in this is seen as a local derby as they are only 15 miles apart. This was the match of the day in the Conference South by far and i was going to be there !.



I liked Kingfield as it seemed a well run club and Woking's history is worth a read here.  
The ground has 2 quirky stands down one side and behind one goal a decent stand and behind the other a superb new stand which hold 2,200 people. Must be one of the best in the league by far.
The new stand

and a Quirky stand

Now the Cards got of to a flying start and scored a well worked goal in the 4th minute then the Farnborough manger Steve King a shrewd operator at this level went bananas as he felt his team should had a penalty. If truth be told his player fell over , it was no foul. He was clearly under pressure and he felt he had been dealt a bad hand ! The Cards were on top and Kingy was sent to the stands!
Were The Cards dealt  good  fortune or did  King's Farnborough get the 'Brucie Bonus' ?



The home side should have been 3 goals up by half time but just lacked the end product. The rest of the game was a very even affair and another clean sheet was on the Cards (excuse the pun !). Woking had the ball by the Farborough corner flag deep into injury time but instead of staying there the Woking forward tried to beat 3 players to score another goal but he lost the ball in the area and within ten seconds the ball was in the other net !! Farnborough had 'stolen' a goal in the 96th minute their only third chance in the whole game due to the excellent no nonsense defensive display from Woking. It was fitting the best player Number 11 scored the goal.
Farnborough celebrate late late goal

Within seconds the final whistle blew and the Away bench erupted with joy as they were relieved to have snatched a point and in the end it was them who got the 'Brucie Bonus'  but in reality it was a tactical game of few clear cut chances as both defenses were on top. The crowd of 2,132 was by far the biggest of the season and it was good to see many young families in the crowd today but this was no 'generation game'  and certainly was not a " good game good game" !