Ten Acres Saturday, February 24th, 2018 k/o 15:00   National League Attendance: 1,853         Eastleigh 0-0 FC Halifax Town
2017 /18

Comments :

A wonderful train ride down with sparkling bright sunshine and passing through lots of beautiful countryside (wild deer, kites) and all spot on time. Then a gentle (but very cold) walk through Lakeside Park to the ground. It''s a nice little ground and clearly shows the intent of the owners with new stands on three sides and a very nice bar and hospitality complex at one end. Scarf a bit iffy but got it nevertheless. The game was absolutely dire. Lots of big, obviously athletic, blokes with no skill. The ball spent most of the time in the sky and both side looked like they were going to be lucky to score none. One bright(ish) spark was a loanee from Bournemouth (Sam Matthews) but even he dribbled to nowhere most of the time. That said, the majority of saves were by the home keeper who saved the game for Eastleigh three time by my count. Oh, and we had the fattest referee I have even seen - league, non-league or deep amateur !!! A couple of moments that made me laugh out loud. 1) A bloke done in front of me shouted at ''our'' winger time, time, meaning take you time before suddenly screaming man on as he realised he had significantly over-estimated the ''time''. 2) His mate suddenly shouted spread out. Obviously a tactical genius !!!! However, the biding memory will be the intense, numbing cold. The temperature was hovering around zero, even in the sun, but the wind chill put it several degrees below. It was pain pain pain and the 20 minutes walk back tot eh station were a blessing as it got at least some circulation flowing. Two more trains (first class) and a tube across London and car back from Crewe station and I was home in the warm by 22:00 to watch a recording of England getting ''turned over'' at Murrayfield. Pah!!! Another excellent day of adventures.