The superfan saw an FA Vase First Round Qualifying tie at London APSA and an FA Women's Cup Preliminary Round tie at Old Actonians as two more FA competitions started at the weekend.
I’ll be glad when the summer’s over and we can have some decent weather again. I got off the District line tube at Upton Park on Saturday afternoon to be lashed by wind and rain on the walk down Green Street towards West Ham’s ground. Turning into Barking Road I noticed bronze statues of four of our World Cup heroes from ‘66.
But today was a day for FA Vase heroes as I continued on, dodging massive puddles, to the Terrence MacMillan Stadium where London APSA, the first Asian League Champions, were playing Oxhey Jets from Hertfordshire. I turned into Maybury Road, the listed address for the Stadium, and found all the fences padlocked together with "Keep Out" signs everywhere.
There was another way in, fortunately, and I was one of 17 spectators who saw London APSA kick off in rain that was now more or less horizontal. With the stand in the process of being rebuilt, there was virtually no shelter from the elements. But I stood next to something that looked like a Christmas tree at the top of a grassy bank and avoided getting completely drenched.
The Jets, who play in the Spartan South Midlands League, scored after 32 and 34 minutes and looked comfortable until the home side brought on all three subs and staged something of a fight-back in the second half. They made it 2-1 with a blistering shot into the bottom corner – but a third Jets goal a few minutes later really ended the contest.
Inevitably it was raining again on Sunday, but I had an umbrella with me this time. Old Actonians’ Women’s Cup tie was being played at Silver Jubilee Park, home of Kingsbury London Tigers FC. The attendance at this match was four – it wasn’t difficult to count them – and that made it the smallest crowd I’d ever been in for an FA competition fixture.
Three or four minutes into the tie The Comets’ No.9 fired a shot just wide. Actonians’ ‘keeper rummaged around for the white match ball in thick bushes behind the goal and bizarrely emerged with a yellow one. They decided to play with that.
Actonians soon took the lead. The ball was crossed in from the right and three defenders had plenty of time to clear it. But "Heidi", the home side’s No.11, took advantage of some collective indecision to thump the ball past Comets’ American ‘keeper. It was still 1-0 after an hour, with an equaliser on the cards, but Actonians’ passing suddenly became slicker in the final third and by the end Comets had capsized to 7-0.
Heidi increased her personal tally to four. Heidi-hi!