Strangely moving

Four more games for the superfan included an FA Cup Second Round Qualifying replay at Woking and an FA Vase First Round Proper tie at Redhill.

I went to my first Redhill game at the Memorial Sports Ground in the town centre in 1961. Crystal Palace’s home fixture in the old Division Three was called off on that wet December afternoon, but there was still time to get down to Redhill on the train for the Reds’ Athenian League game with Southall. I think we actually missed the first five minutes or so.

There were several hundred watching and we stood on some terracing along the side, next to the tea bar, and I kept people around me amused by twirling my rattle and shouting ‘Come on, Reading!’

I hadn’t really got my head round the fact that there was football outside the Football League. Amateurs Redhill won that game 4-1 and a certain Tony Williams scored a hat-trick.

The Reds play at Kiln Brow now, two miles south of the town. In the 1950s home crowds would be close to 4,000. For Saturday’s Vase tie with Camberley Town they had 85. I took the train from Purley to Earlswood and was in the ground around 2.30. The chap selling raffle tickets just inside the entrance told me the first prize was ‘a weekend with Jordan’.

Someone writing the teams down in his programme piped up: “The second prize is TWO weekends with Jordan”.  Rather unkind.

The Reds were a goal down in a couple of minutes and, after applying a lot of pressure, managed to equalise in the last few seconds of the first half. I was invited to join the throng in the boardroom by a former Redhill Secretary who is now an FA Life Vice-President. The club may be in the Sussex County League (yes, I know it’s a Surrey town), but their bread pudding is Premiership class.

Last Sunday I’d seen four red cards in an FA Sunday Cup tie at Dulwich; I was about to see three more at Kiln Brow. The teams were locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes and then Redhill were awarded a penalty early in extra-time. Their No.15 put the ball down on the spot, a Camberley defender moved it, the No.15 moved it, the referee moved it and the No.15 moved it again. The tension was almost unbearable.

The ‘keeper blocked the kick when it eventually came, but the taker followed up to score. Another goal in the second half of extra-time made it 3-1 to the Reds.

My other games finished Woking 5 Hythe Town 1, Camden Town 0 FC Mutant 1 and Camden Town 0 Hackney 1 (Women). That’s 45 this season and 5,718 altogether.