On another warm and sunny weekend, probably the last for eight months, the superfan saw an FA Cup tie at Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire and an FA Women's Cup tie in the middle of London's Regent's Park.
I’d been aware for several seasons that football was played in Regent’s Park but had never been there. I’m not sure why, because it’s definitely walkable from my hotel in Paddington, whereas much-visited Ealing Central is a 'Travelcard 1 to 4' job on the tube.
Keeping the boating lake to my right, as suggested by the map, I crossed a couple of bridges and looked up to see about six football matches close to starting. Yes, there were balls flying everywhere. I’d come to see Hampstead v Tower Hamlets in The Women’s Cup and I knew from the home team’s website that their colours were claret and sky blue.
They weren’t too difficult to pick out. But with the scheduled 11 o’clock start less than 15 minutes away, the nets still weren’t in place on this classic 'park pitch' and there were no corner flags either. The kick-off time came and went, worringly with no sign of any match officials, but thankfully the action did get underway at 11.20.
Hampstead scored in their first attack after two minutes, a central defender dribbling a soft right-footer over the line from near the penalty mark. But Hamlets did nearly all of the attacking for the rest of the half and led 2-1 at the break. An enthralling cup-tie finished 3-3 after 90 minutes and 4-3 to Hamlets at the end of extra time.
The crowd fluctuated from a hard core of 20 to about 30 or 40 when people taking their dogs and/or children for a walk stopped to watch. When you go to a match due to start at 11 in the morning, you don’t expect to be there until two in the afternoon – but that’s exactly what happened. Plans to see another Women’s Cup tie at Hurlingham Park afterwards had to be shelved.
On Saturday, an FA Cup day, I made my first trip to Aylesbury. Not to see famous Cup fighters Aylesbury United, who now play their home matches at Chesham, but Aylesbury Vale who play in the Spartan South Midlands League and had a home tie with Gosport Borough. It was a train from Marylebone to Aylesbury, the end of the line, and then a two-mile walk along the A41 to the ground in Haywood Way.
It was a fiver to get in, including programme, and a crowd of 136 saw a 1-1 draw. Gosport, over the harbour from Portsmouth on the Hampshire coast, was where I spent many holidays with the grandparents as a boy. It’s always been a dream to see them in the First Round Proper, something they’ve yet to achieve in their 64-year history, and they’re still on course this season. Home to Brentford would be nice.
The superfan is now up to 5,565 games.