David Barber, The FA's historian and 'superfan', is fast-approaching his 7,000th game and this week chalked up another few matches at various places around the capital...
I’ve been to eight games in the last week, despite a bad back. Standing behind the goal for three hours at Roehampton on Saturday afternoon wasn’t ideal – but at least it was dry.
The results, with attendances in brackets, were: DTZ 3 Colliers International 0 (1), Tower Hamlets 1 Takeley 2 (40), Bakerloo Line 6 Operational Support 6 (3), Kentish Town 3 Pearson 2 (8), Fulham 1 AFC Bournemouth 5 (16,317), Old Meadonians 1 West Wickham 0 aet (43), Summerstown U17s 3 Wealdstone 2 (10) and Belsize Bandicoots 1 Power Rangers 4 (2).
Old Meadonians, in maroon and sky shirts, beat West Wickham 1-0
The first of those was a Surveyors Football League fixture on a chilly Monday evening at Paddington Rec. DTZ beating Colliers International.
Tower Hamlets played well after going 0-2 down on Wednesday, missing a chance to equalise on 86 minutes when their No.18 hit a penalty miles over the bar.
It was difficult to keep count of the score with the TfL teams on Thursday, Operational Support coming back from 2-6 to 6-6 (I think) in the last 15 minutes or so.
I was an AFC Bournemouth fan in the first half of the ‘80s, attending most of their home games and a few of the away ones. It’s great to see them topping the Championship table after Friday night’s 5-1 win at struggling Fulham.
I had three Russian chaps sitting directly in front of me at the Putney End and they walked out when there were still 20 minutes to go. For 25 quid I’d definitely be staying to the end.
On Saturday I took the 14.03 from Waterloo to Barnes for the AFA Senior Cup semi-final between Old Meadonians and West Wickham at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton.
Someone behind the goal told me that five of the Meads team had played when they won the final in 2004. One ex-Meads player, Albert Adomah, now plays for Middlesbrough.
The far pitch at Roehampton is the one where the Uruguayan national team once played a friendly against the Met Police. I was there – in fact I arranged it – and the Police, playing out of their skins, only lost 1-3.
Power Rangers on the attack during their 4-1 win over Bandicoots
Another well-informed person on Saturday said that the ground had also hosted a game between Wimbledon (in the Vinnie Jones era) and a Malawi XI. I believe it was more like a Malawi Banks XI.
Saturday’s attendance peaked at 43 and then dipped after a few ladies had wheeled their prams away from the pitch. It was a slightly frustrating game in which a nifty Meads attack was contained by a solid Wickham defence.
It reached a stalemate and it was difficult to see where a goal was coming from. It eventually arrived three minutes into the extra-time period, Meads’ No.12 heading in from a corner to the far post. Meads will now meet Old Wilsonians in the final on 11 April, the venue to be decided.
Sunday’s entertainment in Regent’s Park started with a Youth game, Summerstown v Wealdstone, and continued – via a mixed grill back at ‘Micky’s’ – with Power Rangers’ win over Belsize Bandicoots in the Regent’s Park 11-a-side League.
I noticed that on an adjoining pitch there was a game going on in which only one of the 22 players had a shirt with a number on. It was ‘7’.
Games this season = 134 Games in total = 6,794
