Match 9. Folland Sports v Frome Town

Saturday 27^th September 2014 @3pm

FA Cup 2^nd Qualifying Round

FOLLAND SPORTS 1-1 FROME TOWN

Follands Park, Kings Avenue, Hamble-le-Rice.

Admission: £6

Programme: £1

Attendance: 93

Refreshments: Cheese and onion crusty roll £1.25. Tomato cup-a-soup £1. Topic 80p. Thatcher’s Gold, £2.95

The journey down to Southampton was trouble free but took 30 minutes from the M271 to drop off my wife and daughter no2 at IKEA then another 45 minutes to complete the 6 miles to Hamble, due to road works and the fact that Southampton’s St Marys Stadium in on the route and they were at home to QPR.  This meant I arrived at Follands Park 5 minutes before kick-off.  Luckily there is a spacious car park, but programmes had sold out and I had no time to visit the outside clubhouse before kick-off.  The players’ journey from the outside dressing room is lined out with temporary fencing and enter next to the spectator turnstile.

Inside the ground next to the turnstile in “Mugs Corner”. No polystyrene cups here.  All hot drinks are served in a proper mug. The committee room is behind the snack bar. There is a mixture of seats (for the match announcer and co) and standing under a DIY style cover. Then a long covered stand with 2 rows of wooden seating. In the corner is a replica jet plane, a nod to the Avionics Company on site.  The only other furniture is the dugout on the opposite touchline and a bus shelter cover behind the far goal.  The rest of the ground has hard standing and enclosed with fencing and tall trees, giving a rural feel to the location.

Frome unsurprisingly took the upper hand in the first half, sometimes easily showing the gulf between the 2 sides pyramid placing. The home side were forced into some last ditch defending, but in a rare venture forward on 28 minutes, got a slice of luck when a reckless challenge in the area gave Sports a penalty which was expertly tucked away by no10 R.Long.  The home side couldn’t keep ahead going into the break as an in swinging cross from the right by no7 R.Hulbert perfectly found the head of no10 B.Thomson to nod in 5 yards out 5 minutes before half time.

The second half consisted of long periods in the Folland half, but the home side counterattacked well and both sides could have scored the winner.  There was a flare up halfway through the 2^nd half when Follands Long kicked a Frome player who was laying on the ball.  The Frome centre-back Baggridge came rushing in and pushed the offending player in the face.  After the 20 man scuffle the ref gave a yellow card to each, when a red card for each should have been the fair reflection of the incident.  This was isolated though as there were no other malicious behaviour throughout the 90 minutes.

This was an entertaining Cup match and a valiant effort by the home underdogs to earn the right to have their name in the next FA Cup draw.  I expect Frome will go through in the replay on Wednesday.

I even got lucky when I asked the announcer if there were any spare copies of the match programme to purchase in the committee room.  He kindly gave me his copy, with the turnstile lady saying she sold all 60 at the gate by 2.45, with the paying attendance of 93.  Who says the demand for programmes is history?