Day started at 8am, crawling out of bed and onto Woking to meet my ride to Huish park at 10 am. Que hours of crawling around the concrete jungle that is Woking, waiting for a certain Peckham Terrier. Once he was on board the cans were open and pork pies were out, we hit the road. (Credit to Simon for providing a great spread)
If England had an equivalent of a sunshine state, Somerset would be it. The sun was both a help and hindrance all day as we cruised through the fields on relatively picturesque trip, which included a sighting of Stonehenge, (one for the history fans!).
So we arrived and parked in and amongst the array of Car and Tractor garages that seemed to sprout up from every direction around the ground. Captain Sensible Chris then decides to boot a town quality training ball from the boot of Simons car into a massive fenced off waste land. Good one. Using a tree as a pole to climb up, the ball is retrieved and Chris escapes with some meaty looking cuts for his trouble. It was becoming an eventful one already....
Just as the ball was rescued general and the goons turned up after the pilgrimage from Huddersfield and we set off to try and find a boozer. What we found was a tired looking marquee with an equally tired looking M C who was whipping the locals into such a pre match frenzy, we didn't think we would get out alive. Hours of bad jokes and friendly banter passed along with a few pints and then it was time for kick off. We left what looked like the recpetion to the wedding from green and white hell and heading to the open Terrace, hope in our hearts, doubts in our heads!
It was great being on a terrace again and the swiggers bus turned up full of songs and many a bleary eye. They were fantastic all afternoon. Yeovil was quite a welcoming place, they even left fake flowers in the pissers, a first at any football game for me. Sadly Smithies didn't want any of the flowers the we offered him in the warm up, strange that?
The game kicked off with three debutants in the side, all performing well except Trottman who looked rather shakey and behind play at time. Eccelstone popped up to score in the 25 minute after some encouraging build up play in the early stages. Rhodes and Roberts were linking up well, with Tom Clarke offering a bit of steel in the middle of the park. After the goal, every time Eccelstone received the ball there was a murmur of excitement among the crowd and was being affectionally called Bernie lad, great nickname!
The Second half started, with Yeovil being more wasteful than ever. That penalty miss in the first half was truly impressive! Clark talked about the team needing to grind out the results, especially away from home and this was a perfect example. Scrappiness was a definite buzz word for this encounter.
The performance on the pitch might not of been quality but in terraces it certainly was. With a small contingent of fans singing all game and lifting the atmosphere so much that the moaning from the others was barely audible.
the chant WE'RE ALL MAD, WE'RE ROUND THE BEND, NO ONE TAKES THE COWSHED END, sang about 600000 times will live in the memory. It was good to get the scarf twirling round overhead and really get behind the team.
Full time came as a relief, both for three points and the fact that many pairs of feet were starting to Freeze. The sun had gone down but spirits were defiantly up. Town had won away for only the third time this season and the sweet taste of victory lasted long on the way back to the big smoke.
Could it be our year?
credit to Simon for driving and photography.
