Nice round up of yesterdays game.........

score.

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Joined on 19/07/2006
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Paulton Rovers......who needs prawn sandwiches ?
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Although we're finding it a bit of a culture shock in Division One it's not every day that we get a chance to really ' get back to basics. Yesterday Paulton v Norwich provided that opportunity....

We drove through some lovely Cotswold countryside on the way there. There were some weird sounding places. One was a village called The Shoe - Mrs Hubbard must live there - and a place nearby, Peasedown St John, looked to have got it spot on as the heavens opened as we approached Paulton. Luckily, apart from a brief shower towards the end of the game, it stayed dry. I'd heard it said that Paulton itself was a bit of a dump. True, there were some very plain looking buildings dotted around and it wouldn't make the front picture on a fancy box of chocolates but almost everything is built of stone, the village centre itself is picturesque and I've seen far worse places. No doubt these rumours were first circulated by envious local rivals trying to spoil Paulton's big day....( lol)

The ground itself was, as expected, pretty basic. There is an impressive Clubhouse/ Social club at the front and I got the impression village revolves around this rather than the football side of things. The atmosphere inside was very friendly and the temporary bar staff drafted in for the day were seeing more than enough action to justify their wages.

Inside the ground - no executive boxes here - we ended up with a slightly restricted view behind the goal on a flat open concrete ' terrace ' two deep. The pitch, a little wavy, looked in superb condition. To our right was the temporary open seating for City fans. The home fans enjoyed what looked like a long covered bicycle shed at the other end. Delia and MWJ sat precariously perched in the front row of a small elevated Main Stand next to the Clubhouse. The TV gantry next to the Main Stand, presumably also housing Andy Townsend & Co, was a wobbly looking scaffolded structure that looked as though it might collapse at any moment ( all the Townsend ' fans ' must have been praying that it would ! ) Given the small crowds that normally attend temporary toilet provision was provided by way of a cluster of portaloos plonked next to the burger van to give a special something extra to the normal aroma. Football fans know how to dine out in style......

The ' David v Goliath ' match itself was one where David barely got a look in. The home started all guns blazing in the first few minutes but once this fizzled out it was all a bit of a procession. With the scoreline as it was no City player could have been said to have had a bad game although Russell made a few stray passes early on as the home side came at us. Hoolahan ran the show - someone said he was TVs MOM - and we were slicing through at will particularly in the second half as Paulton tired. Although the home side never gave up in truth it should have been a double figure scoreline. There were several one-on-ones that were not taken and Holt should have completed his hat-trick with a simple header. This must have been infuriating for him as he couldn't whip his shirt off to get the booking he desperately needed. Instead, after an earlier failed attempt, he had to resort to impeding the goalkeeper to finally get the ref to reach for the book. Hilarious isn't the word to describe his feigned look of shock and horror as the ref did so ! ( I found out later that Lappin needed a booking too which of course must have been entirely co-incidental....)

The Paulton fans did their best to spur on their heroes, particularly in the first half, but the City fans were pretty quiet. Maybe this was because everything was going so well to plan on the pitch that there was little about which to get excited. Eventually, late on, someone discovered that if you banged the metal fence behind us it made a loud noise which stoked things up a little. There was a lot of touch-line banter with the City subs, particularly Jamie Cureton, and the City fans took a particular shine to Rich, the Paulton No.11, who had to take the corners at our end. Poor lad.

At the end of the game the home team didn't perform the customary lap of honour. Perhaps they were too shell-shocked or simply forgot. The goalkeeper looked particularly gutted - no doubt the score wasn't mentioned to him later in the evening when some City fans bumped into the Paulton team ' enjoying ' a post-match night out in Bath !!

The day was what Cup football is all about. An army of volunteers must have worked all hours to get the facilities ready to stage the game on their home ground.Well done to all of them. There's always a chance of an upset in a match like this and thankfully Norwich made sure it didn't happen to them here. Paulton Rovers must have been delighted to have played a Football league side in front of the live TV cameras and hopefully they'll have made a lot of money to put into their club over the next few years.

Roll on the 2nd Round......

Posted By: DrDublin, Nov 8, 10:55:22