Well, a long ride home from Hanky Panky Pagnell I bet. And I guess not so boisterous an hour or so in Wetherby as on previous trips out. A tough way to lose, and hard to take, especially given the draw for the next round, but you have to hold your hands up. When it is not your day and all that. And a South Shields V RCA Vase Quarter Final would have generated the biggest gate money in a long time between two Northern League sides. Which to be fair won't be cheering our committee up much.
Anyway let's hope we don't have the long post-Vase hangover we had last year, though Saturday was a bit ominous, losing to a side on a long run of defeats. Got to look for the positives though, good run again, good exemption secured for next season again, and much improved profile and publicity for the club. I think I said that last year as well.
Good luck to Shields anyway, though I don't think they will need it to get past Newport Pagnell. Strong lads, fit and determined and kept going all the way to the end is what I hear, but I doubt that will be enough at a packed Mariners Park.
So what is happening elsewhere? Big Sam and PVA looking a bit green about the gills after coming up against the free scoring, all out attacking Sunderland boys. Did I just write that? Will Sam finally lose his Premier League unrelegated record this season? Not sure, looks to me that a lot of the big boys are in a relegation fight but haven't realized it yet, might be a real shock or two methinks in the going down stakes. Great result at Palace for the SoL boys, can they build on it? Maybe, maybe not, but they have given themselves a chance as they usually do at this time of year.
As it happens your correspondent is writing this from distant parts, but there is always football to watch, Tigre v Toluca in the Mexican Cup is this evening's entertainment, on the telly I must add. Bit like large scale five a side except nobody scores. Good crowd in mind, and all up for it. Good passing on a good pitch and some proper tackles going in, Nobby Stiles would have got a game over here alright. Toluca the better side, but goalless after 90 minutes, didn't see extra time. Not much of a report I know but the wife wanted to move on.