Friday, 19 of August 2011. Seven goals against Birtley Town. And a win in the FA Cup. Thought I should mention it, as we haven’t won an FA Cup tie since. Never mind three lions on a shirt and Jules Rimet still gleaming, this feels like thirty years of hurt to me, or near enough anyway. I don’t expect to be rocking up to Wembley to see RCA v Chelsea in the final anytime soon, but I would like to see us get past the middle of August in the FA’s premier competition one of these days. We do always seem to get tough ties mind, poor old Birtley excepted, and we are bad starters most seasons I know but even so, even so....
All of which made Tuesday night’s hard fought win in our first league game of the season a nice surprise, I must say. Well, not a surprise then, but a relief. A decent performance against a decent side, a 100% league record and third top, happy days, what could possibly go wrong? Although I also note that in a spirited early defence of the Northern League naughty boys title, which we strolled last season, we have also managed to get someone sent off in both of our games to date, so another 100% record. Both for two yellows admittedly, and none of the offences what you might call nasty, but it don’t look so good, you might say. No doubt we will manage some proper red cards soon enough.
What else is happening in our little football world? Well, there are a lot of these blog things about. Some pie eating chappie has taken over League blog duties following the retirement of the former chairman, not to his approval, but he hasn’t taken it sitting down, the former chairman that is, and has gone freelance with a blog called Grass Routes. Very good it is too, although with so far quite a deathly flavour, as old acquaintances drop off the log every few days. And to be fair the pie man does a decent job as well, (A Life of Pie, on the Northern League website), though mostly focused on games he has attended, which is fair enough, especially if your old mates are staying alive.
So, early August, games coming thick and fast, like many a winger in this league, bring it on I say, your correspondent will keep reporting.