arundel061007

From a previous visit here, I know that the pitch can get heavy but today it was fine. A really warm afternoon, more like July than October.

There is a small seated stand down one side, some cover at one end, but you wouldn’t want to be here in wet weather. However, it is a pleasant rural setting, on the edge of this pretty village, with the castle on a hill above.

A friendly tea bar dishing out the usual stuff.

A strange little offering. On the one hand, they had gone to the effort of printing it in colour; on the other, they couldn’t stretch to staples. No editorial of note and a couple of odd blank sides. Two out of ten.

Painful, on a par with last season’s West Wickham debacle, but with added travel to add salt to the wound. Was it a coincidence that for the first time this season in a cup competition we were no longer held to be the underdogs? Arundel’s officials were predicting defeat for their side before the start and their team seemed to revel in the challenge, being far more up for it than we were. They played good football, especially on the break, and kept our chances to a single header that hit the bar early on. Sadly, the 5.0 scoreline did not flatter them and they were all well taken goals. The first goal was an early psychological set back – a somewhat wayward pass back by Ian Ross and clearance by Paul Hyde which was punted back into the empty net. However, the real body-blow was their second, just after half-time. Maybe the efforts of recent weeks had an impact; I suspect that Joe Neilson was also a big loss for this game as he would have troubled their big defenders whereas our too one-dimensional aerial attacks were easily rebuffed. Man of the match: Null and void. To be honest, everyone had a stinker. Hopefully it is well and truly out of our system.

Tough decision as no one played well from start to finish. Both wingers looked dangerous at times but my vote goes to Tom Adlington, who did well to keep their best player (number ten) under control for most of the game.

Unimpressive. Few in number and mostly consisted of some grumbly blokes who couldn’t be bothered to move at half-time. Arundel is clearly not a hot bed of football. Their officials were friendly enough.

Put in a performance on a par with our lads. Didn’t affect the outcome, of course, but jaw-droppingly bad at times, as shown early on when he twice allowed free-kicks to be taken before letting the players he’d just lectured resume their positions. Lots of things missed, lots of unnecessary stoppages. Same rating as for the programme.

The tour of the castle was nice, I should have spent the afternoon up there as well.

Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any worse, I had a whisky-fuelled Martin Giles revelling in my jet-lagged state on the coach going home and not allowing me a moment’s peace. I must have heard at least five times about his bloody 99p chicken curry slice (he’s easily impressed), amidst all the rest of the drivel.