David Barber aka ‘The Barber’ joined The FA as Sir Alf Ramsey’s assistant after the Mexico World Cup in 1970 and has been its historian for the last 35 years.
He has attended 6,666 football matches at all levels and lost none of his enthusiasm. He brings us up to date with his travels during pre-season...
I’m doing alright for goals this season, having seen 39 in my six matches so far. The results have been: London Bees 4-5 Watford Ladies, Tooting & Mitcham Wanderers 3-5 Whyteleafe, London Bees 1-8 Reading FC Women, Southall 3-1 London Tigers, Corinthian-Casuals 1-5 Hampton & Richmond Borough and Merstham 0-3 Kingstonian.
Spikes Bridge Park in Southall
It was hot and sticky in London on Saturday and I didn’t fancy travelling round in packed Tube trains, so I made the 14-minute overground journey from Paddington to Southall.
Southall’s first pre-season friendly was against London Tigers on the 3G pitch at Spikes Bridge Park, about a ten-minute walk from the station. It was my first-ever 100-minute match, with four quarters of 25 minutes each, and three of the four goals came in the last quarter.
The attendance was a modest ten. I had two matches yesterday in the Geoff Harvey Memorial Vase at Corinthian-Casuals’ ground in Tolworth: Corinthian-Casuals v Hampton in the ‘Match for Third Place’ in the morning and Merstham v Kingstonian in the Final in the afternoon.
There was a two-hour gap between them, so I went into Tolworth town for a nice lunch on the Broadway. The Final had a huge number of substitutions in the second half and there was one hiccup.
Kingstonian’s No.8, who had provided some neat touches in midfield, was sitting on the bench when his manager turned round and said: “’Ere, what are you doing there? I haven’t taken you off!”
They rushed him back on because they were down to ten men.
Hampton make a change at Casuals - a keeper for a keeper
The previous weekend (5/6 July) I’d seen newly promoted Whyteleafe go 5-2 up in a rainy first half against Tooting & Mitcham Wanderers at the Aspire Centre near Southfields Tube – they could easily have scored ten – and then barely fashion a chance after the break.
London Bees held Reading FC Women to 1-1 at half-time before a crowd of 496 at The Hive, Lucy Loomes equalising spectacularly for the Bees, but then capsized completely to concede another seven.
The 1966 World Cup will always be my favourite – I went to four of the Wembley matches with my dad – but the Brazilian tournament has been great to watch on TV.
The hosts’ 7-1 capitulation to Germany in the semi-final was the most surprising (well, no, shocking) result I can think of in my 53 years of following football.
The intense Brazil v Chile match was my favourite, I liked Tim Cahill’s goal for Australia against Holland and the Japanese anthem was ethereal and wonderful!
