The FA's superfan and historian David Barber continues his quest to watch 7,000 games as he reaches a dozen for the season...
I saw just two games on a soggy weekend: CB Hounslow United 1 Walton Casuals 4 in a pre-season friendly and Inter Asia 1 London Gaza 7 in the Inner London League.
Those brought me up to 12 for the season, or pre-season, and 6,869 in total.
On Saturday I took the 12.33 Heathrow Connect from Paddington to Southall and then walked the two miles past fields and streams to the ground in Osterley.
Inter Asia face London Gaza in the rain
A gathering of 30-odd saw a very one-sided affair. Oddly it was 1-1 at half-time but Walton were rampant after the break and could easily have doubled their tally.
Sunday morning’s match was played in heavy rain on Mabley Green and I was one of three spectators, thankful that I had an umbrella. Inter Asia turned up with just eight players, against London Gaza’s full complement, and were 3-0 down in 13 minutes.
Redhill FC, now in the Combined Counties League, used to play at the Memorial Sports Ground in the centre of town. In their Athenian League heyday in the ‘50s they would have thousands watching them. I went to my first game there in 1961, a 4-1 win against Southall, and my last in 1983, a 3-1 win against Camberley Town.
The Reds had to leave the ground with all those memories with a new road going through the penalty area and they have been at Kiln Brow, a couple of miles south of the town, ever since.
The old place is now ‘Redhill Memorial Park’ and there isn’t a hint that football was ever played there.
The previous weekend the Reds were playing South Park in a pre-season friendly on the 3G pitch at Warwick School. It was the first time for 32 years that I had seen Redhill play in Redhill. A crowd of about 30, who were all allowed to stand at the touchline, saw an entertaining 2-2 draw.
When my parents moved down to Bexhill on the Sussex coast in ’84, Dad and I became fans of Bexhill Town in the Sussex County League’s Division Two. They play at The Polegrove, near the sea front, but they were relegated at the end of our first full season.
Over the years we got to know the Chairman and the Committee and were always invited into the clubhouse for tea and cakes at half-time.
London Bees beat Aston Villa in FA WSL 2
We very much appreciated the kindness shown to us.
I hadn’t seen Bexhill United, as they are now known, for a few years but they had a pre-season friendly double-header at Raynes Park Vale on 18 July – Under-21s at 1pm and First XIs at 3pm – and that was easy to get to via a District line tube to Wimbledon and then one stop to Raynes Park.
Bexhill were drawing both games 1-1 at half-time but ran out of steam towards the end in both to lose 5-1 and 3-1. But the best goal, in my unbiased view, was scored by Bexhill’s No.9 in the first-team game – an absolute bullet into the top corner, lapped up by the 12 spectators.
My Sunday morning game on Mabley Green, London Gaza v Redcoat, didn’t take place and I don’t know why. So I had breakfast over the road and took the Overground to West Hampstead, then the Jubilee line tube to Queensbury for London Bees v Aston Villa Ladies in the WSL 2.
Bees fought hard all over the pitch for their 2-1 victory. Some of their ‘keeper’s saves were truly remarkable, particularly near the end when they were hanging on for the points.
You can keep up to date with the Barber's travels by following @thebarberfan on Twitter.
