Viva Dragons

My two Saturday games produced just two goals between them – but there’s never been a day like it! On the same mild November afternoon I saw a classic FA Cup First Round tie in which a non-League side came within inches of holding League opposition and a Wembley international in which England took on the reigning World and European Champions.

Here’s a run-down of last week’s games, with attendances in brackets: Brentford 6-0 AFC Bournemouth in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (3,015), Sporting Bengal United 1-1 Barkingside in the Essex Senior League Cup (47), Brentford 1-0 Basingstoke Town in The FA Cup (3,553), England 1-0 Spain in the Street League International (87,189), Hamlet Gardens 2-2 Borussia Dawlish in the West End Sunday AM League (1) and Old Actonians 2-6 Billericay Town in The FA Women’s Cup (17).

Brentford’s FA Cup tie kicked off at 1pm. Even though it had eleven minutes of stoppage time there was still time to get to Wembley afterwards via the 15.09 from Brentford to Waterloo, Bakerloo line to Baker Street and Metropolitan line to Wembley Park. Cup history was made at Griffin Park with the game being controlled by a Japanese referee, who was there as part of an annual exchange programme between PGMOL/FA and the Japanese FA.

Masaaki Toma regularly officiates in Japan’s J-League, has been on the FIFA list since 2005 and was the ‘man in the middle’ for England’s Wembley friendly against Mexico in May 2010. I was impressed by the calm authority of this world-class ref and so were the people around me in the ‘Paddock’.

Only one thing puzzled us. During the indicated two minutes’ stoppage time at the end of the first half a Brentford player received an injury on the edge of Basingstoke’s box that required several minutes of treatment. He was eventually stretchered off with his right leg in a brace, play resumed and the half-time whistle was blown about five seconds later.

The minute’s silence before the start was the best ever. Yes, you would definitely have heard a pin drop. The Bees scored with a free kick that soared into the top right corner from Sam Saunders’ orange-booted right foot after eight minutes and the battling Basingstoke ‘Dragons’ from the Conference South came close to levelling on several occasions in an exciting second half.

Sunday morning’s game in the bright sunshine in Regent’s Park featured Hamlet Gardens, an Iranian team (I believe), and Borussia Dawlish, a play on ‘Borussia Dortmund’ with the team even wearing the famous Bundesliga club’s colours. Hamlet were ahead in ten seconds and it was 2-2 after 13 minutes. But what I’ll particularly remember is a Hamlet player rushing onto the adjoining pitch, with a ladies’ lacrosse game in progress, and being battered from all sides by lacrosse sticks.