The View from the Bar
Evening all. It’s always a pleasure to welcome Fareham and their merry band of japesters to Westwood – hopefully a decent contingent will have overcome the vagaries of the local ferry timetables to make it over tonight. I’ve always had a soft spot for Fareham and their support (and have even enjoyed a couple of extended mickey taking sessions in The Painters with them). This fondness grew last season when, although I couldn’t make it to Cams Alders for our (somewhat surprising) victory, their resident archivist still felt benevolent enough to send the gift of a pristine 63-4 Andover v Cowes F.A. Cup programme back for me. If he’s here tonight, send him my way – I reckon I might be able to return the favour…
It was pretty dispiriting on Saturday, eh? So, I’m not sure many of us expected to get a result against Stoneham, and they certainly looked strong, but for the first thirty minutes we more than gave them a game. They say you make your own luck, and that might be true when you’re at the top end of the table, but I’m not so sure you can make your own bad luck, and all of Stoneham’s first three goals had a pretty strong element of good fortune about them. The first after a lucky bounce put their matey in to shoot (admittedly emphatically) from a tight angle, and the second when Ed made a stunning save, only to see the ball bounce back off a prone Stoneham forward to trickle over the line.
We were good value for the penalty we earned, and scored, around the hour mark, and if Ash had put his one-on-one away just a couple of minutes later things could have been very different. True to form, though, Stoneham went pretty much straight up the other end and scored, with Ed left wrong-footed by a wicked deflection. Unsurprisingly, heads went down a bit at this point, and the visitors carved a couple of well-worked goals to put a distinctly flattering slant on the scoreline.
Given our parlous position currently, it’s more important than ever that we get behind the boys, whose effort in recent weeks can’t be called into question. Over the last few years we’ve hit some proper purple patches in the latter stages of seasons to pull away from the lower reaches of the table, and this has been helped massively by the support (and impressive gates) that has come through the Westwood turnstiles. So thanks, everyone, for your continued support, and please do your best to get a pal or two to come on up to our forthcoming home games. The support makes a massive difference to the team, and every extra supporter through the gate helps keep the club going on a financial basis too.
Speaking of which, how about putting a couple of quid into Brockenhurst’s coffers too? Our (nearly) annual day out to Grigg Lane is looming (Saturday 15th February, to be precise), and another sizeable contingent looks like travelling from Cowes. Come along! It’s a great day out and very easy by train from Southampton. And if the last away day, to Hamble, is anything to go by, there’ll be larks a-plenty to be had. Ian went. He’s still on crutches, you might have noticed, but don’t let that scare you. More detailed plans for the trip in the next home programme…
Enjoy the game.
Toby.