I have been watching games in The FA Vase since its first season of 1974-75. Before that I had enjoyed more than a hundred matches in the old FA Amateur Cup, including eight Wembley Finals.
At the weekend there were plenty of second round qualifying ties to choose from and I went for Beckenham Town v Redhill on Saturday and Southall v CB Hounslow United on Sunday. Both games finished 2-0 to the home side.
Beckenham play in the Southern Counties East League and their ground is almost next door to Eden Park station, a half-hour’s train ride from Charing Cross. Even though we were three days into October, it was too hot to stand in the sun, so I moved from behind the goal to one of the sides.
‘Becks’ had already played Redhill, now demoted to the Combined Counties League, twice before in The Vase.
They beat them 3-2 in the Preliminary Round in 1992 and 2-1 in the first round in 1996, both times at home. I went to the second of those.
The home side played the ball around confidently from the start but had to wait until the 28th minute for a goal.
Their No11 scored a brilliant second soon after half-time as a move developed on the right without any Redhill player getting close to making a tackle.
Southall take on CB Hounslow United
At 2-0 the visitors’ heads could have dropped but they played well after that and were unlucky not to at least pull one back.
I went into the clubhouse afterwards for the football results but all the screens were showing the rugby. South Africa v Scotland, I think.
On Sunday morning, still as warm, I was in Regent’s Park to see KPMG Salmon edge Detica 3-2 in a London Accountants League fixture.
There was one another spectator for the first half but he melted away during the three-minute interval. Salmon in their pink socks had a centre-back wearing No1, which was quite unusual. It was a normal shirt, not a goalkeeper’s jersey.
It was a tube to Oxford Circus and then one to Perivale for another Vase epic at Reynolds Field, the ground that Southall share with Hanwell Town.
Southall are fourth from bottom in the Spartan South Midlands League’s Division One but they have some good players and a determined second-half performance brought them a 2-0 victory.
Their second goal, scored by the No8 with 12 minutes left, was a 25-yarder that travelled like a mortar shell into the far corner. I have seldom seen a ball hit harder.
I was back at the hotel for the start of Ireland v Italy on the telly. I am now on 56 games for the season and 6,913 altogether.
