Here is a game summary, with a decent haul of 57 goals:-
Trinidad & Tobago 2 Iceland 0,
Invisible 9 Athletico Chips 1,
Eastbourne Town 3 Redhill 1,
Eastbourne Town 2 East Preston 0 (Reserves),
Old Town 1 Wealden 3 (Youth),
Eastbourne Town 6 Abbey Rangers 1 (Women),
Athletico Chips 1 Roths Child 4,
Alba 2 Audit Commission 3,
QPR 1 Crawley 2 (Reserves),
Mother 1 Morley 3,
Warrington 6 Rotherhithe 0
Sotheby’s 3 TNT 2
Trinidad & Tobago v Iceland at QPR on Tuesday of last week sounded like an interesting fixture, particularly with the "home" side being in England’s World Cup group.
About 8,000 T&T fans dressed in red and black squeezed into the South Africa Road and Loftus Road stands and sang along to a band that played throughout the game.
"We all say…we want a goal!" They got two, both scored by the legendary Dwight Yorke.
It was a brilliant atmosphere, one I’ve not experienced at a football ground before. Immediately after the players had trooped off at half-time, a dozen stunningly attractive girls danced out onto the pitch. I thought I was dreaming.
The temperature in west London that night went down to minus ten centigrade and yet those Carnival entertainers were wearing garments that could only be described as bikinis.
Those six-foot lovelies bewitched the crowd for 15 minutes, apparently oblivious to the cold. After that the second half was almost anti-climactic, with Yorke notching an outrageous chipped penalty before the action petered out in a plethora of substitutions.
The following night I saw Invisible crush Chips 9-1 – yes, they were really out of sight – before slipping back to the hotel to watch the England game on the box.
At the weekend the weather was decent enough to allow "The Barber" to take in another four games, all at the same venue of The Saffrons in Eastbourne. Town’s Ladies team, whom I’d seen win once in about ten years, blazed into a 3-0 lead within six minutes of the start on Sunday afternoon. They won 6-1.
There have been two 3-2 thrillers this week, both with last-minute winners, and the first of those had a crazy finale. Alba and Audit were locked at 2-2 in injury time on the sand-based pitch at the Rec.
Then Audit forced the ball home in a scramble but the ref had blown for a penalty a split-second before the ball entered the net.
"Sorry, lads", said the ref. Then, before the player could take the kick, the floodlights went out. Looking up, the enterprising official noticed that the game on the nearby water-based pitch had just ended and shouted: "Let’s finish it over there!"
So the three match officials, the Audit penalty-taker and the Alba goalkeeper grabbed their kit bags and ran over to the other pitch, hoping to complete the kick before the lights went off there too.
The spot-kick was calmly slotted home, the ref blew for time and everyone went back to the changing rooms. One game, two pitches!