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Dec. 12th, 2009 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71Hawks v Dover in the FA Trophy at Westleigh Park this afternoon. Inside the ground, Dave in the old programme hut and Sharon at the HawkSupport table were in competition, both selling HawkSupport Christmas raffle tickets - Sharon had a young lady with her, leading her to lament "I even brought my glamorous assistant along, but Dave's still outselling me."
The Southern Counties and Kent local radio commentators, sitting just behind me, kept the people in our part of the ground updated on what was happening in the day's League games.
Hawks took the lead on 23 minutes through a lovely cross shot from Robbie Martin, but a minute later Dover's ex-pro Nicky Southall unleashed a thunderbolt from outside the box for the equaliser. A bit later a blunder by Aaron Howe in our goal let Dover take the lead. Manny Williams put us back on level terms with a beautiful goalmouth bicycle kick early in the second half, but it wasn't long before Dover scored a third from a free kick and after that Hawks never looked likely to score again.
So farewell to the FA Trophy - and to our season, since we're now out of all the cups and appear fixed in mid-table in the league. At the final whistle someone asked me how I rated Shaun Gale's prospects of survival. On balance I think he's fairly safe as I believe the board are planning for the long term with the hope that Galey will provide stability and bring on some of our emerging young players.
In the clubhouse I didn't spot any other Hawks fans, just two dozen jubilant Dover supporters talking about who they wanted in the next round and winding each other up over the fortunes of their Scottish teams as the full-times came in. It seemed my post-match Kopparberg would be my only consolation, until across the vidiprinter danced those immortal words :
Berwick 0 E Stirling 1
Especially sweet because Berwick are my mate Rob's Scottish team. Grabbing that crumb of comfort I punched the air and exclaimed "YES! Go the Shire!" No-one batted an eyelid.
The Southern Counties and Kent local radio commentators, sitting just behind me, kept the people in our part of the ground updated on what was happening in the day's League games.
Hawks took the lead on 23 minutes through a lovely cross shot from Robbie Martin, but a minute later Dover's ex-pro Nicky Southall unleashed a thunderbolt from outside the box for the equaliser. A bit later a blunder by Aaron Howe in our goal let Dover take the lead. Manny Williams put us back on level terms with a beautiful goalmouth bicycle kick early in the second half, but it wasn't long before Dover scored a third from a free kick and after that Hawks never looked likely to score again.
So farewell to the FA Trophy - and to our season, since we're now out of all the cups and appear fixed in mid-table in the league. At the final whistle someone asked me how I rated Shaun Gale's prospects of survival. On balance I think he's fairly safe as I believe the board are planning for the long term with the hope that Galey will provide stability and bring on some of our emerging young players.
In the clubhouse I didn't spot any other Hawks fans, just two dozen jubilant Dover supporters talking about who they wanted in the next round and winding each other up over the fortunes of their Scottish teams as the full-times came in. It seemed my post-match Kopparberg would be my only consolation, until across the vidiprinter danced those immortal words :
Berwick 0 E Stirling 1
Especially sweet because Berwick are my mate Rob's Scottish team. Grabbing that crumb of comfort I punched the air and exclaimed "YES! Go the Shire!" No-one batted an eyelid.
