Vs
Date: Tuesday 30th October 2012 (19:45)
Venue: Silverlake Stadium
Full Time Score: Eastleigh 3-1 Bath City
Competition: Blue Square Bet South
Attendance: 525
My Matchday: 13
ETFC Scorers: Scannell (12), McAlllister (16), Reason (39)
BCFC Scorer: Allen (34)
It truly was a coasting on the coast at the Siverlake Stadium on Tuesday. First of all, sorry for the late post of this, I've been very busy sorting things out. Anyway, my day started with work, I had to go in from 7-12 and earned some nice money for the trip to Eastleigh in the evening. After getting home I sorted through what I needed to take, packed my bag and left the house at 3:40pm. I walked down to MayDay Trust Park via my grandparents and waited for the coach to arrive at 4:30pm. 28 people were on the coach in total, which is pretty good for a Tuesday night away game. We were down in Eastleigh by 6.30pm, which most of the time I would have been happy with but that time I wasn't. This was due to the ground that greeted us.
The Silverlake Stadium (Or Silvershite Stadium as I call it) is a small modern ground on the outskirts of Eastleigh. On the far side is a fairly smart looking stand holding maybe 200-300 people at the most. This is the best part of the ground. On the other side is flat ground with a small shed like roof over the top a bit far back from the railing meaning it's usually ineffective. At the end to the left of the Stand there is a small area of seating on the flat land, most probably for rating issues. It looks rather out of place and didn't help the ground out much, The other end is where the club house and tea hut is located. I didn't bother going in either so can't comment on what they were like. Overall the ground has nothing but flat land apart from the smart stand.
I entered the club shop after buying myself a portion of chips. They were quite nice actually, some of the best this year for me. The club shop is a tight spaced work container. It sells quite a lot of Eastleigh replica shirts which I don't think many take advantage of. What annoyed me most is that they don't label how much everything is so you have to ask. I looked through the programmes and found one I wanted but the selection wasn't great to be honest. This is where I met Russ, who I arranged to meet up with.
After visiting the club shop there was not much to do really, so Russ and I walked around the ground taking in the basic-ness of the ground. We walked around and watched some warm-ups and then took some pictures. It was then time for the game and Russ agreed to meet me behind the goal we were attacking. Adam Connolly was the newest casualty to our injury list. We were now without 4 crucial first team members in; Marc Canham, Charlie Griffin, Sekani Simpson and Adam Connolly. City lined up as follows:
1. Glyn Garner
2. Danny Ball
3. Aaron Brown
4. Harry Hooman
5. Gethin Jones
6. Joe Burnell
7. Josh Low
8. Jim Rollo
9. Chris Allen
10. Sean Canham
11. Noah Keats
12. Kerry Morgan
14. Luke Cummings
15. Aaron Hopkinson
16. Mark Preece
17. Jason Mellor
After hearing the line-up I knew we were in for a hard time. We were playing Jim Rollo in a central midfield role, which isn't his strongest position. To be honest by the end of the game I thought all the players looked like they had no clue where they were playing. I'll try and sum up the game in a short report but they aren't my strong point.
Eastleigh started brightly and never looked like losing out at all. They were cutting the defense apart from both wings, especially the pacey number 7, Scannell. Scannell was first on the score sheet as the ball broke loose in the box after a small game of human pinball and Scannell lashed the ball past Glyn Garner, who to be fair had no chance of saving it, yet should of done better to gather it before Scannell got near the ball. Eastleigh were just toying with our defense and 4 minutes later McAllister was able to easily slot the ball past Glyn Garner after our defense had made a real hash of doing any defending.
The first half was turning into a right nightmare and I was surprised we weren't further behind by 34 minutes but instead a Josh Low shot was parried by the Eastleigh keeper and Chris Allen did well to finish hitting it hard yet getting lift over the diving keeper. A glimmer of hope was all it was really as within 5 minutes our defense was separated like the parting of the red sea as our defense was all at sea! A good link up between Jai Reason and Scannell amounted in a simple opening to poke home from close range and we all knew that it was coming in the end.
God it was only half time! To be fair nothing happened really in the second half, the best thing for us was when Kerry Morgan replaced Jim Rollo and added the extra attacking option and pace that Jim couldn't offer. Luke Cummings also came on for Josh Low, and he offered more attacking threat. I was quite distressed that these two weren't starting as I believe they are two of the best attacking players at the club and are sitting on the bench! We had a better second half but never got back into it and it ended 3-1.
The game was made much better by talking to both Russ and Ashley either side which made for a more entertaining evening rather than the dire football on show. I then got back onto the supporters coach for the journey home, which was full of moaning and people thinking they're the next Jose Mourinho! I fell asleep for an hour and we were back home by 11:45pm and I was tucked up in bed by midnight!
- Journey to the ground: 6/10
- Build up to the game: 5/10
- Food and Drink available: 7/10
- Ground: 4/10
- Game Entertainment: 5/10
Total Rating: 27/50 (Average)
Thanks for reading! Please give it a tweet or a follow @mannojunior! and contact me if I'm in your area or you're in my area!
What to look forward to:
* Farborough (Home) - 03/11/2012 (Blue Square South)
* Wellington (Away) - 07/11/2012 (Somerset Cup)
* Leatherhead (Away) - 10/11/2012 (FA Trophy)
* Sutton (Away) - 17/11/2012 (Blue Square South)
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