After standing behind the goal in the blazing heat on consecutive afternoons, I am now one part superfan to two parts lobster. I saw Carshalton Athletic v Leatherhead in a pre-season friendly on Saturday (1-1) and Chelsea LFC v Bristol Academy Women in an FA WSL1 fixture at Staines on Sunday (2-1). With temperatures in the 80s, I probably didn’t need the anorak.
I had last Wednesday off, another warm day, and went to Sutton United v West Ham United XI (0-1). So I’m up to eleven games so far in 2014-15, with Orient v QPR the next one tomorrow.
Action from Carshalton v Leatherhead on Saturday
My first-ever pre-season friendly – though I think we called them ‘trial matches’ in those days – was Portsmouth v QPR on a Saturday afternoon in August 1965. Pompey won 5-2 before a crowd of 5,327 and I stood on the terracing behind one goal with Dad and my friend Steve, who lived opposite my grandparents in Gosport. We needed two buses and one ferry to get there.
Pre-season friendlies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I know people who refuse to watch them. "They’re just training games," they say. Granted you don’t get points or a passage into the next round of a cup competition but winning games must help a team’s confidence as they build towards the season’s start.
Players are always keen to do well and catch the manager’s eye to be included in the starting line-up for the opening fixture.
Carshalton, another team I’ve followed for half a century, were at home to Surrey rivals Leatherhead on Saturday. The Robins were relegated from the Isthmian Premier last season, where the Tanners now are, and played reasonably well to draw 1-1. They also had a 25-yard chip that looked a goal all the way but hit the underside of the bar. It was only three quid to get in and there was a free team-sheet.
Back at the hotel, I saw Scotland scrape through 56-0 against Barbados in the Commonwealth Games’ Rugby Sevens.
Staines Town hosted The FA WSL game between Chelsea and Bristol Academy on Sunday
If anything it was even hotter on Sunday. After England had taken the lead against Malaysia in the Women’s Hockey, I set off for Waterloo and the 12.09 to Staines. It was so packed, there were even people standing in the gangways. Surely they weren’t all going to Chelsea Ladies. No, I was the only one.
Chelsea have a sprinkling of England internationals, past and present, and two genuine stars from the Far East. Ji So-Yun, a midfielder, has been named ‘Korean Footballer of the Year’ three times and was a close season signing from Japanese league and cup holders Kobe Leonessa. Striker Yuki Ogimi, who scored Chelsea’s opener in Sunday’s 2-1 victory, was part of Japan’s World Cup-winning side in 2011.
On the long walk back to the station I thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if the London train pulled out of the station as I stepped onto the platform and due to a delay there wasn’t another one for 45 minutes?’
Twitter: @thebarberfan
