He has attended nearly 7,000 matches at all levels but has lost none of his enthusiasm - he was watching FA Cup and Sunday Cup action at the weekend...
An FA Cup tie at Selhurst Park is where it all started for me as a nine-year-old in short trousers, my dad taking me to Palace’s First Round tie with non-League Hitchin Town.
Fraizer Campbell opened the scoring for Palace, but Liverpool won
It was my first official match and I was a (very) small part of a 22,000 crowd who saw Johnny ‘Budgie’ Byrne give Palace a tenth-minute lead in a 6-2 victory. There was only one stand in those days, the other three sides being terracing and grassy banks.
I was there on Saturday for the Fifth Round tie with Liverpool and barely recognised it as the Selhurst Park I knew, sitting in the third row of the Holmesdale Upper where I stood for so many years.
Being virtually in line with the goal below me, I had a perfect view of Fraizer Campbell’s 15th-minute strike for the Eagles. (They were the ‘Glaziers’ in the ‘60s).
With Palace kicking-off at 5.30pm, I had enough time to see most of Whyteleafe’s Isthmian League match with Hythe Town at Church Road. I left just before ‘Leafe scored their winner at 3-2 and took the train to Selhurst, as I had done more than half a century ago for that first match.
This time the train came in at Platform 3 instead of Platform 1 and of course Dad wasn’t with me.
New Salamis discuss their tactics at Northwood
After some Sunday morning action in a muddy Regent’s Park – my first match there that featured Belsize Bandicoots FC – I had a ‘Full English’ in the usual Baker Street café. I then travelled the eight Metropolitan line stops to Northwood Hills for The FA Sunday Cup Fifth Round tie between NLO and New Salamis at Northwood FC.
It was an amazing match, watched by 40 or so spectators on a sunny and by no means chilly afternoon. NS were ahead inside three minutes, the home No3 shinning a low cross into his own net right in front of me.
NLO (it stands for ‘North London Olympians’) scored twice in seven minutes midway through the first half but found themselves 4-2 down at the break.
They became increasingly desperate during the second period, trying shots from way out, and NS looked as though they had weathered the storm.
Then, in the last ten minutes, NLO scored twice to make it 4-4! There were no further goals in extra-time, two tired sides both coming close on countless occasions, and this breathless quarter-final went to penalties.
The NLO v New Salamis tie went to penalties
An NLO player’s kick cleared the bar by inches and NS of the Cypriot Football League had won the shootout 4-3.
It was my 119th match of the season and definitely one of the best.
I have another trip up to the Midlands this weekend and hope to make my first visit to Alvechurch for their Midland Football League Premier Division fixture with Long Eaton United.
Alvechurch reached The FA Amateur Cup Semi-Finals in 1966 and I saw them lose 1-0 to Wealdstone before 14,000 at Stamford Bridge. The Church missed a penalty in the 28th minute.
