All red in the sun

Two more games have taken me up to a modest seven for the season. Last Thursday, I was the only spectator at a ‘Deloitte Summer League’ fixture between BPRC Barracudas and REHL Madrid at Caledonian Road and on Saturday, I was part of a substantial crowd (of 78) for Hanwell Town’s pre-season friendly with Northwood.

Hanwell play in the Spartan South Midlands League’s Premier Division and they start their League programme this coming Saturday. Northwood, another Middlesex club, have switched to the Southern League’s Division One Central and they sample their first League action a week later.

The Woods, in all red, kept the ball well in the first half and scored a couple of classy goals. There was an amusing moment too, after they’d been awarded a free-kick a couple of yards outside the box on the left. Two players stood over the ball, one peeled away to the right and the other peeled away to the left.

That left the ball there with no-one to kick it. It was probably worth the £3 admission on its own.

It was a much closer game in the second half, with Hanwell threatening to reduce the arrears on several occasions. But Woods came back strongly in the last few minutes and the home ‘keeper made two outstanding saves to keep the score at 0-2. Then it was back on the Central line to be at the hotel in time for the athletics from Barcelona.

I had a feeling that Market Road wouldn’t exactly be bursting at the seams for Thursday’s game. One chap watched for about ten minutes but obviously couldn’t stand the excitement and shuffled off for a cup of tea in the changing room block.

For the rest of the game, it was just ‘The Barber’ sitting on the grassy bank. They were proper teams, i.e. with the same shirts on (and numbers in most cases), but the shorts and socks colours were pretty random. It wasn’t a particular high standard of football but they were certainly taking it seriously. There were some surprisingly good stops from both ‘keepers.

I’m looking forward to England v Hungary next week, an international fixture with a great history. Dad was at Wembley on that grey November afternoon in 1953 when Puskas and Hidegkuti inspired the ‘Magical Magyars’ to a 6-3 victory.