Wroxham wreckers

I was in bed with a particularly sweaty case of ‘Vase fever’ on Saturday morning and the only cure was to take the 12.52 from King’s Cross to Royston for the Crows’ Fifth Round tie with Wroxham. I’d never been there before and wasn’t even sure where it was.

It wasn’t ‘just north of London’ as I’d suspected but was almost in Cambridge. When I got off the train, it was sleeting, there were puddles everywhere and the sky was grey going on black. Not a promising start to the afternoon but the game was on and the pitch looked fine for February.

A crowd of 650 saw the Norfolk visitors take the lead after three and a half minutes. I was behind the goal that Royston were attacking but as usual all the action was at the other end. It was only 1-0 at half-time but Wroxham went to town after the break and blitzed their hosts with another four.

I read in the programme that someone had been to more than 9,000 games. It made me feel that I’d hardly been out of the front door.

Sunday’s treat was Crystal Palace v Aston Villa in The FA Cup. In what could be described as my first full season of watching football, 1961-62, Third Division Palace were my team and they were drawn away to top-flight Villa in the Third Round. It was 3-3 with a minute to go, with a dream replay (for a ten-year-old) in prospect, when a Villa player called ‘Burrows’ scored the winner.

Ever since then I’ve hated that name. But yesterday, after waiting nearly half a century, I finally got to see Palace take on Villa in The Cup at Selhurst Park. It was a brilliant 2-2 draw, which included an ‘impossible’ Ambrose free-kick from 36 yards that put the Eagles 2-1 up after 70 minutes.

About half-an-hour into the game the old chap (he was 77) sitting next to me in the Main Stand complained of feeling unwell and quickly had stewards and St John’s Ambulance personnel fussing around him. He was carted off, breathing into an oxygen mask, and it was all done very efficiently. Shame he missed that free-kick.

Last week began with a couple of days down in Bournemouth and I went with Peter, the owner of the hotel that I always stay in, to see AFC Bournemouth beat Notts County 2-1 in a League Two fixture at Dean Court. It was freezing afterwards as wehurried back along the mean streets of Boscombe.

Two men were standing next to a car and talking. One said: “I can’t believe you only got three weeks inside for hitting that bloke with a hammer”. Peter and I started walking more quickly at that point.

I’ve been watching games at Market Road in Islington for several years now but on Wednesday I saw my first there with the pitch covered in snow. The groundsman had brushed the touchlines clear and they played with a bright yellow ball. L’Inizio scored the only goal of the game against Tornados and the attendance of five was four more than I was expecting.