Chasetown 1 - 0 Blyth Spartans
250 wordsDebbie’s been teaching on Tuesday evenings this term, so she’s missed out on midweek Brakes matches. This week being half term, we were looking forward to seeing a match together.
Unfortunately, Brakes didn’t have a match last night. We thought laterally, and remembered that fellow Midland Alliance “minnows” (as the Sun has it) Chasetown were playing their replay against Blyth Spartans, so we went there. Steve passed, saying he had the sniffles or something.
When we arrived in Chasetown, the town was buzzing. Cars and pedestrians were streaming towards the ground in number. We were in a long queue outside the ground when the whistle went for kickoff, to an enormous roar from the crowd. Once we were in, we found that the crowd was at least three deep all the way around the pitch. We later learned that the official attendance was an impressive 2,134.
We found a bank with a decent view, and watched the match from there.
Chance after chance was missed by both sides, and as the referee looked at his watch, everyone had pretty much resigned themselves to extra time and probably penalties. Then, in the 89th minute, Chasetown headed one in, and the crowd started making some proper noise.
Spartans’ answer never came, and the pitch invasion on the final whistle was huge. On its fringes, Spartans comforted their weeping fellow players.
I was delighted for Chasetown — the only downside of this is that their 1st round match against Oldham will be televised rather than Leamington’s match against Colchester.