Welsh rare hit

I do like a nice FA Cup giant-killing. I saw my first one 39 years ago when the Isthmians of Walton & Hersham edged Exeter City 2-1 at Stompond Lane and I was privileged to be present at the only Second Round giant-killing at the weekend.

I’ve nothing at all against Brentford. My grandad used to go to Griffin Park every week – first team one week, reserves the next – and he’d leave his bicycle in one of the front gardens in Ealing Road for a ‘fee’ of two old pence. My dad supported them for several years and was part of a record crowd for a Sixth Round tie against Preston in 1938.

Having seen the Bees struggle to beat Conference South Basingstoke by the only goal in the last round, I fancied they’d find it quite problematic against a team leading the Conference Premier. With my recently acquired ‘senior’ status I got into the ground for a tenner. To avoid any dispute I try to look as old as possible as I approach the turnstile: a stooping walk, white powder in the hair and making sure my First World War medals are prominent.

My favourite TV programme at the moment is ‘True Blood’, a long-running, fairly tongue-in-cheek series about vampires. It occurred to me that anyone who’s been ‘undead’ for hundreds of years could also qualify for the concessionary price. But I suppose vampires would only go to night games – for obvious reasons.

I sensed an upset in the first few minutes on Saturday, standing at the back at the Ealing Road end, as the Welshmen passed the ball around confidently and put in some committed tackles. They looked like a team who thought they could win and they achieved it with Jamie Tolley’s tremendous strike from outside the box on 33 minutes. Some Bees fans near me were so cross with their performance that they left well before the end.

“We wouldn’t score if we played for a month”, said one.

There was a minute’s applause for the late Gary Speed before kick-off, which was actually underway before the ref had blown for it to start. There were chants of “There’s only one Gary Speed” at various times during the game from the Wrexham contingent at the other end. I’d contrast that with the ‘minute’s silence’ at Bethnal Green last Wednesday which was largely ignored.

There might have been another giant-killing at Sutton yesterday if the Conference South side hadn’t fluffed a penalty in the last seconds of the first half. But they matched Notts County, their League One opponents, for a lot of the game and can be proud of that. The crowd was 3,704, their previous home fixture having attracted 460, and it brought back memories of that Fourth Round tie with Leeds when I was one of 14,000 inside that little ground.

Last week’s results were: Wealdstone 4-0 Banbury United, Bethnal Green United 2-1 Sporting Bengal United, Lyndhurst 2-2 The Heath, Brentford 0-1 Wrexham and Sutton United 0-2 Notts County.

That’s 102 for the season and 6,153 altogether.