Saturday 11 November 2006

Gainsborough Trinity 1 Barnet 3

FA Cup Second Round
Attendance: 1,914

Wet. That somes up this match in more ways than one. Ten minutes into it Bertie had a little accident and spent
the rest of the afternoon with soggy feet, poor mite. Then, in the second half, we left our covered seats in the main stand for a walkabout only for the rain to start, sheeting down across the floodlights.

We'd been sitting in the row in front of the press boys. There was a fella from Radio Lincolnshire, one from Press Association and three lonely anorak sorts, one with a pair of binoculars and another who spent most of the half spelling out 'Andy Hessanthaler' to a colleague on the other end of the phone. [Blackburn Championship winner Paul Warhurst also played for Barnet].

The game's excitement was all contained within the final 20 mins. Trinity equalised Barnet's early goal but the Bees hit back quickly. They sealed victory in injury time with a controversial penalty and sending off. To compound their their bad luck, Trinity then hit the bar. The players re-surrounded the ref at the final whistle as we all paddled off to the strains of "Always look on the Bright Side of Life". Markse United in the September sunshine seemed a long way away.

The crowd was appropriate for a match preceded by a minute's Remembrance Day silence: 1914.