Everton away

Eleven more games, including four on a Bournemouth break, have taken the superfan up to 35 for the season and 5,708 altogether. There were ties in The FA Youth Cup, FA Women’s Cup and FA Vase and they all went to extra-time.

There’s an unwritten law as far as ‘The Barber’ is concerned and that is that if a game CAN go to extra-time, it WILL go to extra-time. Tokyngton Manor, for example, were about five minutes from going out of The Youth Cup in normal time in last Friday week’s Preliminary Round tie in Greenford.

Then they equalised at 1-1 and visiting Clapton finally won on kicks from the penalty mark. We’re not supposed to say ‘won on penalties’ because no-one is being penalised. I travelled down to Bournemouth the following morning and saw the ‘Cherries’ go top of League Two after beating Lincoln City 3-1 in front of more than 5,000 ecstatic fans.

There were only five fans, self included, for the Sunday morning game in King’s Park, the proverbial stone’s throw from Bournemouth’s ground. I saw Kavell, a local Civil Engineering firm, win 3-1 against Vienna Windows, all the goals coming in the first half, before taking the four-minute train journey from ‘Pokesdown for Boscombe’ to Christchurch.

Christchurch Ladies were playing New Forest Ladies in The FA Women’s Cup Preliminary Round at Hurn Bridge. After the four-mile hike from the station to the ground I relaxed with a cold drink in the bar before kick-off, watching a chunk of Birmingham City v Aston Villa on the big screen.

I was one of 17 spectators for an epic game out on the pitch, New Forest triumphing 3-1 on, er, kicks from the penalty mark after two exhausted teams had drawn 3-3 after two hours’ play on a warm afternoon. I estimated that the score had gone from 1-0 to 1-2 inside 30 seconds, New Forest’s athletic No.10 thumping home two right-footers from virtually the same place.

The fourth and final game near the Hants and Dorset borders was a Wessex League derby between Poole Town and Bournemouth Poppies at the former’s Tatnum ground on Tuesday night. The weather had taken a turn for the worse by mid-afternoon and the rain was bouncing up from the platform as I got off the train.

Dripping from everywhere, I met one of our Council Members, a Poole Town director, in the boardroom and was soon being offered coffee and cakes. Both teams had 100% records in the League, but the Poole ‘Dolphins’ were 5-0 winners on the night. Then, back in Blighty, I saw three games over two evenings in Islington before attending a Vase tie on Saturday.

There was a period in the early ‘70s when I was watching Redhill, then an Athenian League side, play home and away. I hardly missed a game during a period when they won the Athenian League Cup twice and reached The FA Cup’s Fourth Round Qualifying. The ‘Reds’ beat Bookham 2-1 after extra-time in Dorking on Saturday and I had the pleasure of meeting some of their officials.

I heard one of them tell some very young Bookham fans: “The winners of this game are away to Everton at Goodison Park in the next round”. Well, he had me fooled.