David Barber, aka ‘The Barber’, joined The FA as Sir Alf Ramsey’s assistant after the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and has been its historian for the past 36 years.
He has attended nearly 7,000 matches but has lost none of his enthusiasm and last week went to a game every day!
I had a ‘full house’ last week with a match on every day. The results were: Aecom 2 CH2M Hill 3 (Monday), North Greenford 3 Hanwell 1 (Tuesday), Southall 2 Edgware 2 (Wednesday), Clocktower 5 St Pauls Celtic 2 (Thursday), England 4 Lithuania 0 at Wembley (Friday), NUFC Oilers 0 Actonians Association 0 (Saturday) and North Ferriby United 3 Wrexham 3 – NFU won 5-4 on pens at Wembley (Sunday).
The Barber saw England beat Lithuania
That’s 150 matches this season. Yes, I know some people have seen a lot more than that.
I love Friday night football. England beat Lithuania 4-0, of course, to become the first England side in history to start a season with seven straight wins.
I travelled back on the train from Wembley Stadium to Marylebone and was in my little hotel room having a cup of tea and a chocolate macaroon by 10.15.
I’ve lived in the same Paddington hotel since the first day of 2000.
On Saturday afternoon I took the Central line tube to Greenford, knowing there would be a choice of matches at the nearby London Marathon Playing Fields.
There are four football pitches, plus one rugby one, and my afternoon’s entertainment started with the first half-hour of New Hanford v Pearscroft United in the Middlesex County League Division One (West).
NUFC put the pressure on by Actonians held firm
I only saw the first of United’s four goals in their 4-0 victory. At one point I counted 25 people watching, which is quite impressive for a match like that.
The main event, at 3pm, was a Southern Amateur League Senior Division Two fixture between NUFC Oilers and Actonians Association. This had a ‘crowd’ of five. I’ve seldom seen a more one-sided match but it finished goalless.
Oilers, with a Nottingham University connection rather than a Newcastle United one, put two close-range sitters so far over the goal that the ball cleared the trees behind it.
Other shots and headers either thudded against the woodwork or were blocked on the line. The bottom line for me was that Actonians put in a great defensive performance.
This year's FA Trophy Final was one of The Barber's favourites
I was surprised by the quality of the play. It was so much better than the earlier match if you don’t mind my saying so.
There have now been 46 FA Trophy Finals and I would put yesterday’s epic between North Ferriby United and Wrexham in the top three.
Wrexham thought they’d won at 2-0, North Ferriby thought they’d won at 3-2 and another late equaliser made it 3-3 after extra time. There was even more drama in the shootout as both ‘keepers made saves.
Just watching it all was exhausting. It was a fantastic match that deserved a bigger crowd than 14,000.
You can follow The Barber on Twitter @thebarberfan
