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The Last Farewell
May. 11th, 2025 08:25 pmWent to Stoneham on Thursday to see AFC Portchester in the Russell Cotes Cup Final. There was a good turnout of Portchy fans, with Lewis, Ian and plenty of others all gathering behind the goal. As it was my 2000th football match I wore my When Saturday Comes “Football Voetbal Le Foot 2000” T-shirt and, after trying an older Hampshire FA official who, alas, couldn’t work the camera on my phone, got Lewis to take a pic of me outside the turnstile.
Lewis had said to me in the bar there’d been a bit of bad blood during the season created by comments from some people at AFC Stoneham. So once the game got under way the Portchy fans were ready to rub in Stoneham missing promotion through losing in the play-offs despite coming second in the league. We chanted “Wessex again, ole ole”, “FA Vase again, ole ole”, “Cowes Sports again, ole ole” with additional verses namechecking about a dozen Wessex League Premier teams. Lee Webber, Stoneham’s veteran goalie, turned to us at the end of the song to say “A bit harsh”, but he turned out to be one of those opposition keepers you can have a bit of a laugh with, keeping up banter during periods when the action was at the other end. Mostly a goalkeeping coach, Webber told us how had stepped in tonight as both Stoneham’s regular keepers were unavailable. “I wasn’t going to let our 17-year-old youth team keeper play, you lot would have eaten him alive,” he grinned.
Marley Ridge put Portchester in front on seven minutes, lashing in off the crossbar, and in the 25th minute Josh Clack doubled our lead with a low thunderbolt drive.
Some young kids supporting Stoneham, standing at the other end, did some chants of their own at us so we responded with “You’re back to school tomorrow”. After a round of “91 points, not enough” to the Tom Hark tune, we got behind Portchester with our usual Arancione chants like “Portchester, la la la”, adding in the odd rendition of “We’re all going on a Step 4 tour”. We got a good laugh when the Stoneham kids sang “Hampshire Cup winners, you’ll never sing that”, since we actually won the Hampshire Cup last year! Naturally we responded with “When Woody went up to lift the Hampshire Cup we were there, we were there”.
From kick-off after half time, Portchy went straight on the attack and Lee Wort’s shot drew a save from Lee Webber, but had drawn the keeper out of position leaving Marley Ridge with an open goal to tap in Portchy’s third. After the chant of “Marley Ridge, Portchester’s Iniesta” had died down, I started the Ken Barlow song. One of the Portchy faithful needed that one explaining, so Lewis explained that it was an FC United of Manchester chant that we’d adopted. “When you want a feelgood chant, you can’t go wrong with Ken Barlow”.
Stoneham scored a very late consolation. The match ended, 3-1, wild celebrations at our end. We stayed for the trophy presentation, singing “Treble winners, we know what we are”. The players walked along the perimeter shaking hands with us and let Lewis and Matt have their photo taken with the cup.
Got a lift back to Fareham with Matt and Lewis, who played a selection of this year’s Eurovision songs on his car music centre, and we discussed who we thought would do well. I was hopeful Remember Monday would get a decent mid-table placing at least for the UK.
Today, in blazing sun, the Portchester Ladies Reserves played a 25 minute walk from me at Gosport Falcons. This was Michele’s farewell game, as she’s on holiday when they play their final game of the season in two weeks’ time. It was a lovely surprise to see Jenna in the squad; presumably she’s back from her travels. My sponsee Sam was another welcome face on the bench. Millie (the striker, not the goalie) came along to watch; Charley was disappointed that she hadn’t brought her kit and boots, but got her on board for the game in a fortnight, when the girls are again going to be thin on numbers.
Trevor came along to this one and I joined him on the line of folding seats the team had brought. We talked about his upcoming holiday and likely developments for next season.
Gosport Falcons had the better of the first half. Millie (our goalie) kept them at bay with a series of superb saves, then just before the break Portchester took the lead against the run of play when Elisha netted from a goalmouth scramble.
With the introduction of Sam and Jenna, Portchester launched into the second half with new zeal and purpose. Falcons continued to attack and the second half became a goal feast. Falcons equalised, Bee put Portchester back in front volleying from a corner, Falcons equalised again then took the lead with a long range curler into the top corner.
With 10 minutes remaining Portchester’s record of being the only team in the entire Hampshire League still unbeaten, which Charley had mentioned with pride before the game, looked set to fall. Then Paula was put clean through on goal and neatly side-footed home the equaliser. Three minutes later from an attempted clearance, Lisa volleyed into the roof of the net to give the girls all three points.
After the whistle I crossed the pitch to where the girls were gathered. When Charley finished her team talk I went around congratulating them. I remarked on Michele’s farewell game and asked her about the ciders she said she’d got for my birthday gift. She confessed she’d forgotten to bring them today but said she’d ask Stacy to take them to the last game at Totton. As I’ve got nothing to do next weekend, and it’s easier for me to lug the ciders home from Cosham (where Michele lives) than from Totton, I said I’d come to hers on Saturday to get them.
Lewis had said to me in the bar there’d been a bit of bad blood during the season created by comments from some people at AFC Stoneham. So once the game got under way the Portchy fans were ready to rub in Stoneham missing promotion through losing in the play-offs despite coming second in the league. We chanted “Wessex again, ole ole”, “FA Vase again, ole ole”, “Cowes Sports again, ole ole” with additional verses namechecking about a dozen Wessex League Premier teams. Lee Webber, Stoneham’s veteran goalie, turned to us at the end of the song to say “A bit harsh”, but he turned out to be one of those opposition keepers you can have a bit of a laugh with, keeping up banter during periods when the action was at the other end. Mostly a goalkeeping coach, Webber told us how had stepped in tonight as both Stoneham’s regular keepers were unavailable. “I wasn’t going to let our 17-year-old youth team keeper play, you lot would have eaten him alive,” he grinned.
Marley Ridge put Portchester in front on seven minutes, lashing in off the crossbar, and in the 25th minute Josh Clack doubled our lead with a low thunderbolt drive.
Some young kids supporting Stoneham, standing at the other end, did some chants of their own at us so we responded with “You’re back to school tomorrow”. After a round of “91 points, not enough” to the Tom Hark tune, we got behind Portchester with our usual Arancione chants like “Portchester, la la la”, adding in the odd rendition of “We’re all going on a Step 4 tour”. We got a good laugh when the Stoneham kids sang “Hampshire Cup winners, you’ll never sing that”, since we actually won the Hampshire Cup last year! Naturally we responded with “When Woody went up to lift the Hampshire Cup we were there, we were there”.
From kick-off after half time, Portchy went straight on the attack and Lee Wort’s shot drew a save from Lee Webber, but had drawn the keeper out of position leaving Marley Ridge with an open goal to tap in Portchy’s third. After the chant of “Marley Ridge, Portchester’s Iniesta” had died down, I started the Ken Barlow song. One of the Portchy faithful needed that one explaining, so Lewis explained that it was an FC United of Manchester chant that we’d adopted. “When you want a feelgood chant, you can’t go wrong with Ken Barlow”.
Stoneham scored a very late consolation. The match ended, 3-1, wild celebrations at our end. We stayed for the trophy presentation, singing “Treble winners, we know what we are”. The players walked along the perimeter shaking hands with us and let Lewis and Matt have their photo taken with the cup.
Got a lift back to Fareham with Matt and Lewis, who played a selection of this year’s Eurovision songs on his car music centre, and we discussed who we thought would do well. I was hopeful Remember Monday would get a decent mid-table placing at least for the UK.
Today, in blazing sun, the Portchester Ladies Reserves played a 25 minute walk from me at Gosport Falcons. This was Michele’s farewell game, as she’s on holiday when they play their final game of the season in two weeks’ time. It was a lovely surprise to see Jenna in the squad; presumably she’s back from her travels. My sponsee Sam was another welcome face on the bench. Millie (the striker, not the goalie) came along to watch; Charley was disappointed that she hadn’t brought her kit and boots, but got her on board for the game in a fortnight, when the girls are again going to be thin on numbers.
Trevor came along to this one and I joined him on the line of folding seats the team had brought. We talked about his upcoming holiday and likely developments for next season.
Gosport Falcons had the better of the first half. Millie (our goalie) kept them at bay with a series of superb saves, then just before the break Portchester took the lead against the run of play when Elisha netted from a goalmouth scramble.
With the introduction of Sam and Jenna, Portchester launched into the second half with new zeal and purpose. Falcons continued to attack and the second half became a goal feast. Falcons equalised, Bee put Portchester back in front volleying from a corner, Falcons equalised again then took the lead with a long range curler into the top corner.
With 10 minutes remaining Portchester’s record of being the only team in the entire Hampshire League still unbeaten, which Charley had mentioned with pride before the game, looked set to fall. Then Paula was put clean through on goal and neatly side-footed home the equaliser. Three minutes later from an attempted clearance, Lisa volleyed into the roof of the net to give the girls all three points.
After the whistle I crossed the pitch to where the girls were gathered. When Charley finished her team talk I went around congratulating them. I remarked on Michele’s farewell game and asked her about the ciders she said she’d got for my birthday gift. She confessed she’d forgotten to bring them today but said she’d ask Stacy to take them to the last game at Totton. As I’ve got nothing to do next weekend, and it’s easier for me to lug the ciders home from Cosham (where Michele lives) than from Totton, I said I’d come to hers on Saturday to get them.
