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Aug. 11th, 2007 07:47 pmBack to Westleigh Park for the first game of the season. Glorious sunshine, like it always is on the first day - makes that Magners with ice especially welcome. In the clubhouse I saw Steph and Angie both wearing the third kit - that natty shirt with white and blue stripes that the team wore for the friendlies. "So they are selling the third kit, then?" I said to them, but the ladies replied "Yes, but they've only made a very limited supply. So get to the shop quick."
At 2.45 Trevor entered the bar to announce that kick-off was being delayed by at least half an hour as the Braintree team bus had been held up in traffic. Cue lots of people drifting towards the bar to refill their drinks, but I didn't have the dosh on me for a further drink so headed into the ground anyway.
In the club shop, there were just a few small size third kit shirts hanging up and one XXXL one. I asked Malc if they were the sum total of the entire stock, and he said yes. "They've been selling like hot cakes." I then heard someone ask if he could reserve one to buy it at a later game and Malc said no. I didn't have £27 on me - or even spare in the bank - so that was the end of any hope I had of owning that coveted sartorial item.
In the stand, the word was that the Braintree team had been stuck in traffic at Hindhead, though many of the people sitting around me reckoned the whole delay was a George Borg psychological ploy. The Braintree players began to appear at about 3.40, to a few sarky catcalls from fans around me, including references to their allegedly smashing up our away dressing-room last year. Minutes later George Borg, banned from the dug-out, came to take his seat in the directors' section of the stand, but just got good-natured banter.
The actual game, kicking off 48 minutes late, was mostly dull, dull, dull. Most of the talk in the stand was about the day's Premiership games or Southampton v Crystal Palace. Things only woke up a while into the second half, when the Braintree number 7 and Justin Gregory engaged in a bout of shoving that soon became a 21-man free-for-all, ending with Gregs and the number 7 both getting red cards. One bloke in the row in front of me jumped up and aimed a manic torrent of abuse at George Borg. When the match restarted a Braintree player brought down Tom Jordan, prompting the excitable guy to have another go at Borg. After that the game resumed its listless drift towards a 0-0 finish, enlivened only when Jamie Slabber passed across the front of goal to Mo Harkin only for Harkin to shoot wide, and when Hawks won a corner in the third minute of injury time and piled everyone forward, but it was cleared. Meanwhile it didn't go unnoticed that Borg, who, as he's banned from the dugout, isn't supposed to have any contact with his team or coaching staff, made a couple of calls on his mobile phone during pauses in play - and that the coach in their dugout was talking on his phone at the same time...
It's good to be back.
At 2.45 Trevor entered the bar to announce that kick-off was being delayed by at least half an hour as the Braintree team bus had been held up in traffic. Cue lots of people drifting towards the bar to refill their drinks, but I didn't have the dosh on me for a further drink so headed into the ground anyway.
In the club shop, there were just a few small size third kit shirts hanging up and one XXXL one. I asked Malc if they were the sum total of the entire stock, and he said yes. "They've been selling like hot cakes." I then heard someone ask if he could reserve one to buy it at a later game and Malc said no. I didn't have £27 on me - or even spare in the bank - so that was the end of any hope I had of owning that coveted sartorial item.
In the stand, the word was that the Braintree team had been stuck in traffic at Hindhead, though many of the people sitting around me reckoned the whole delay was a George Borg psychological ploy. The Braintree players began to appear at about 3.40, to a few sarky catcalls from fans around me, including references to their allegedly smashing up our away dressing-room last year. Minutes later George Borg, banned from the dug-out, came to take his seat in the directors' section of the stand, but just got good-natured banter.
The actual game, kicking off 48 minutes late, was mostly dull, dull, dull. Most of the talk in the stand was about the day's Premiership games or Southampton v Crystal Palace. Things only woke up a while into the second half, when the Braintree number 7 and Justin Gregory engaged in a bout of shoving that soon became a 21-man free-for-all, ending with Gregs and the number 7 both getting red cards. One bloke in the row in front of me jumped up and aimed a manic torrent of abuse at George Borg. When the match restarted a Braintree player brought down Tom Jordan, prompting the excitable guy to have another go at Borg. After that the game resumed its listless drift towards a 0-0 finish, enlivened only when Jamie Slabber passed across the front of goal to Mo Harkin only for Harkin to shoot wide, and when Hawks won a corner in the third minute of injury time and piled everyone forward, but it was cleared. Meanwhile it didn't go unnoticed that Borg, who, as he's banned from the dugout, isn't supposed to have any contact with his team or coaching staff, made a couple of calls on his mobile phone during pauses in play - and that the coach in their dugout was talking on his phone at the same time...
It's good to be back.
