thamesmead151207

Cold, bright, cold, sunny and cold. It was the sort of day when the crowd should have gone into a huddle, rather than the players.

The pitch was its usual high quality. Thamesmead have hopes of promotion, and have nearly finished adding some covered standing behind the far goal (the by-pass end?). Although fairly deep, it was all the same level, but helps the club to meet ground grading requirements of development on at least two sides. The club have grand plans to build a mini-Dartford stadium at Bayliss Avenue, funded by the Thamesmead Trust, whose aims are to regenerate the area. The plans, shown on the club website, have been submitted to the council.

The clubhouse has a good kitchen which offers simple meals in addition to the usual football staples. Good value, and tea in a mug unless you want to take it into the ground.

A colour photo-copied 28 page effort, included free with the £6 admission. Plenty of reading, perhaps just lacks a touch of originality.

Travelling away to the team second in the table, who were keen to recover from a shock first home defeat the week before, Hythe were faster out of the blocks. After a number of half chances, we took the lead with Buster’s 25th goal of the season, a far post header. The home team raised their game after half time, and with attacking substitutions there was more and more pressure on the Hythe defence. Could we hold out for 45 minutes? Yes we could, but in the first minute of injury time their new signing from Greenwich Borough, Harbingi Grant, headed an equaliser. A draw was a good result, but it was looking even better for such a long time.

Sadly, for a club looking to advance, the turnstile never overheats. The Hythe contingent must have been 20 in an attendance of 57. Even Tommy, the Thamesmead Toad, failed to make an appearance. Perhaps he is hibernating, wise old toad.

I got the impression that the game just carried on around the referee, without him ever being able to control it. He was offered plenty of advice, from on and off the pitch, but seemed to be in a world of his own.

I suspect most Hythe fans would have taken a point before the start, but to lose the extra two right at the end was cruel. But, we matched the team that is the favourite to win the league.

Injury time should be abolished.