Fired up

I tried and failed to see a game at Hanwell last Tuesday. Tube trains are normally one every five minutes at that time of the evening at Lancaster Gate , but there was nothing for 15 and the indicator board was blank. Then there was an announcement: ‘’Due to a reported emergency would passengers please leave the station immediately”.

I made my way swiftly to the lifts, but neither of them was working. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around as I struggled up a 78-step spiral staircase to ground level. There I found the station entrance closed and could hear fire engines approaching.

I hadn’t realised that Spartan South Midlands League football could be so dangerous.

The trick at 5 o’clock on Friday was get out of the Stadium and up to Wembley Park tube with thousands of people coming in the opposite direction to attend a U2 concert. There was another problem on Saturday: the suspension of two tube lines meant that I couldn’t get to Clapton v Kingsbury London Tigers, my first choice in The FA Cup.

It exactly mirrored the day of last season’s Extra Preliminary Round, ‘The Barber’ setting off for Clapton and ending up at North Greenford United. The Combined Counties League Premier Division table-toppers, following 5-1 and 4-0 victories, lost their tie to Cockfosters 2-0.

The first goal, after half-an-hour or so, came direct from a corner with no other player touching the ball. What made it even more of a rarity was that the scorer hit the ball right-footed from the right wing. In order words it wasn’t an ‘inswinger’. United had a 15-minute period at the start of the second half when they did everything but score. The goal guarded by No.52 had a ‘charmed life’.

There was an even odder goal at Barkingside in Sunday’s FA Cup tie, a meeting of two Essex Senior League teams. Visitors Bowers & Pitsea, who won 4-1, took a 2-0 lead following a firmly-struck cross into ‘Side’s six-yard box. A defender lashed the ball clear, but it hit Bowers’ No.11 in the face and rebounded high into the net.

He needed treatment, but was still able to smile.