Puff and Blowers

I always look forward to a trip to Welling's Park View Road ground but my journey to South East London was so problematic I should have envisaged that it would be a far from enjoyable afternoon.  With all the tubes closed for engineering, Hammersmith was gridlocked with rail replacement buses and having persuaded the driver to let me off the bus rather than sit in traffic for half an hour I had to wade through the half term crowds visiting the museums at South Kensington before I just managed to get the last train from Victoria able to get me to Welling by the early kick off time caused by the Wings' floodlight problems.

Alighting from Welling station at 2.16 a lack of taxis meant I opted to jog the normal twenty minute walk down the High Street and the hours spent in the gym have obviously paid off as I halved the time in Roy Castle style to take my seat ahead of the teams walking onto the pitch.  Thus I had little time to ponder whether I was in London (Zone 4) or Kent (DA postcode).

Park View Road is a great ground due to the proximity of the excellent pitch to the surrounds.  Some people might moan about a lack of covered standing but Henry Blofeld for one would be delighted at the chance to watch the game whilst watching a stream of red double decker buses pass by the ground at the Park View Road end.  Add in the warm welcome and hospitality from the likes of club President Eric Brackstone and you have the makings of a great afternoon at the match.

The game itself kicked off in more ways than won as both teams tore into each other as if it were a derby and it was no surprise that eight names entered the referee's book, four from each team.  I think this secretly delighted most of those seated in the main stand who judging by the smiles on their faces relished the opportunity to bait the Maidenhead bench and match officials throughout the game.  With the "Big Society" very much in the news David Cameron could do worse in his search for the definition of his big idea than taking in a Welling home game because patrons get good value for money in the main stand as they not only can watch the game but also get free primal scream therapy, with the atmosphere making it nigh on impossible not to unleash ones frustrations pent up during the working week. I was particularly pleased that one of the leading exponents in hurling vitriol at the men in black (and black and white) was someone who I had blogged about in the reverse fixture for  urging the Magpies to "get on with it, its a man's game"!

As to the main action, Maidenhead's game plan essentially worked but two individual errors cancelled out all the hard work that went into Alex Wall's superb volleyed goal. Thus Maidenhead tumbled into the bottom three with all hopes resting on the fact that for most of every game this season one or even three points are  within the Magpies' grasp.