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Dull, grey and threatening to rain, without managing it properly until after the final whistle. A strong wind blew across the pitch, which was described as like a billiard table by the man behind the bar. It was green, but bumpy.

Neat and tidy, new fencing to enclose it from other pitches, like at Sevenoaks. Decent seated stand, with seats in club colours, like at Deal. There was one area of covered standing, to the side of one of the goals, that used to be the main stand before the pitch was turned 90 degrees when the floodlights were erected. Behind the other goal was a step of terracing and a do-it-yourself cover of corrugated sheets and scaffold poles. There was a modern changing room block, with tea bar. The social club was just outside the ground.

If you were unkind, you could say the kitchen struggled to keep up with demand from their usual attendance of just under one hundred. So let’s be kind, and say that the food was ‘cooked to order’ and piping hot after a short wait. The burger, chips and tea were fine.

An impressive 48 page edition for £1, with a mixture of full colour glossy cover and adverts, with printed articles. A fair amount of reading, stats and some FA Cup trivia. A good effort, and their second programme in four days. I believe last season’s programme won the top award in the Combined Counties Premier Division.

Slightly subdued in the first half, which saw a lot of possession for the home side without ever creating any danger in front of goal. We took the lead after half an hour with our first threat on their goal, an Ian Ross free-kick met by a very low, close range header from Jason Brazier. In the second half we had plenty of attacks, and a fine shot from Joe Neilson and a classic far post header from Buster seemed to have finished the game off. However, a sloppy free-kick conceded near the end gave the home side a goal at about the third attempt, and a very iffy penalty in injury time made the score look far closer than it deserved to be.

I will award it to the back four, their defending, covering and blocking was top class for virtually the whole game, and it gave Paul Hyde a quiet afternoon.

It was certainly a friendly club. They seemed to watch their football very quietly, though, as there was hardly a peep out of them before they scored at the end.

It was an easy game to referee for about an hour, but our two goal lead led to a bit of frustration in the home side’s defence. On the advice of his assistant, he red carded one of their defenders for a head butt. This gave him a difficult remaining half hour, which I felt he struggled to cope with. His yellow card came out regularly, some were blatant, but some left me baffled. The late penalty he gave the home side looked a poor decision.

A solid FA Cup win, and away from home. My first away-day report victory. Yet another win against a team in black and amber. Bottled bitter in the bar, although I think I mentioned this once or twice on the day.

None whatsoever.