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Nov. 14th, 2009 09:55 pmMade my way through the torrential rain to Cams Alders this morning to join the supporters' coach to Fareham's FA Vase 2nd Round tie at Whitehawk. When I arrived everyone was sheltering from the downpour in the stadium office corridor. The first face I saw on cramming in with them was a familiar one - Sue #6 from the telephone unit. After remarking "fancy meeting you here" she added "You're really a Havant & Waterlooville fan, aren't you?" She introduced me to her husband Rob who gave me a bit of stick about the Hawks as he used to work in Leigh Park and couldn't stand the place. The team picked their way through us to get on their own bus and we all shouted good luck to them. On the coach Rob said that he was a regular attender at Fareham games but this was only the third or fourth football match of Sue's life, and that the last game she went to was when she accompanied him to the 1987 FA Cup Final.
All through the journey there, in a relentless downpour almost the whole time, people wondered whether the game was going to be called off, but we'd heard no announcement by the time we reached the ground. I sat drinking with Sue, Rob and their son Simon, who shared some of their nibbles with me. Just after 2 pm came the news that the match was definitely on.
Fareham weren't at the races for most of the first half and conceded an early goal. A superb performance from Matt Willsher in goal kept it down to one. Just before the break Gary Austin had a brilliant chance to equalise but screwed his shot wide.
After half-time (no Sky Sports News in the bar, alas, they had bloody horse racing on) Fareham came out transformed. A few minutes in we got an equaliser from a rebound after a free kick; from the covered terrace no-one was quite sure who scored. Fareham bossed the second half and, after several attempts, took the lead with a quarter of an hour to go when sub Tommy Woodward hammered home a beautiful goal. It looked like we were cruising through until the very end when Whitehawk were awarded a raggy penalty and scored it to send the match into extra time.
Alas, the blow knocked the stuffing out of Fareham, who were anonymous all through the first extra time period. Just after Torr Spicer had a shot saved, from the goal kick Whitehawk got the ball straight down the other end and fired home the goal that sank us. To add insult to injury the winner was scored by the Whitehawk number 9, who should not even have been on the pitch - having already received a yellow, during the second half he'd proceeded to commit flagrant dissent and a vicious foul, but the ref had bottled out of sending him off.
At the end several of us away fans gathered by the tunnel to clap the lads off the pitch. Matt Willsher, looking dejected, got shouts of "Well played, Matt" and "Man of the match." The ref didn't escape the attention of some of us. Phil and I talked to a very attractive girl who turned out to be Matt's wife.
We hit the clubhouse for a subdued pint and some of the England v Brazil match till about ten past six when we made our way back to the coach. On the drive back Splodge read out a text message from manager Matt Parr to thank us for our support and say how gutted he and the players were. One super-optimist constantly talked about the need to pick ourselves up and focus on winning the league (we're currently nine points behind the team in third and twelve behind the leaders, albeit with a game in hand on each).
Thank frack the rain had stopped by the time we got back and I had to make the long walk to the bus stop.
All through the journey there, in a relentless downpour almost the whole time, people wondered whether the game was going to be called off, but we'd heard no announcement by the time we reached the ground. I sat drinking with Sue, Rob and their son Simon, who shared some of their nibbles with me. Just after 2 pm came the news that the match was definitely on.
Fareham weren't at the races for most of the first half and conceded an early goal. A superb performance from Matt Willsher in goal kept it down to one. Just before the break Gary Austin had a brilliant chance to equalise but screwed his shot wide.
After half-time (no Sky Sports News in the bar, alas, they had bloody horse racing on) Fareham came out transformed. A few minutes in we got an equaliser from a rebound after a free kick; from the covered terrace no-one was quite sure who scored. Fareham bossed the second half and, after several attempts, took the lead with a quarter of an hour to go when sub Tommy Woodward hammered home a beautiful goal. It looked like we were cruising through until the very end when Whitehawk were awarded a raggy penalty and scored it to send the match into extra time.
Alas, the blow knocked the stuffing out of Fareham, who were anonymous all through the first extra time period. Just after Torr Spicer had a shot saved, from the goal kick Whitehawk got the ball straight down the other end and fired home the goal that sank us. To add insult to injury the winner was scored by the Whitehawk number 9, who should not even have been on the pitch - having already received a yellow, during the second half he'd proceeded to commit flagrant dissent and a vicious foul, but the ref had bottled out of sending him off.
At the end several of us away fans gathered by the tunnel to clap the lads off the pitch. Matt Willsher, looking dejected, got shouts of "Well played, Matt" and "Man of the match." The ref didn't escape the attention of some of us. Phil and I talked to a very attractive girl who turned out to be Matt's wife.
We hit the clubhouse for a subdued pint and some of the England v Brazil match till about ten past six when we made our way back to the coach. On the drive back Splodge read out a text message from manager Matt Parr to thank us for our support and say how gutted he and the players were. One super-optimist constantly talked about the need to pick ourselves up and focus on winning the league (we're currently nine points behind the team in third and twelve behind the leaders, albeit with a game in hand on each).
Thank frack the rain had stopped by the time we got back and I had to make the long walk to the bus stop.
