Red and White Army

An incredibly busy day today - I just seemed to be moving from one task to another with hardly any time to take a breath. It is nice to be so wanted by everybody but it felt like shovelling coal with more pouring down the chute all the time. I did, however, have the pleasure of spending a bit of time with Sara over a coffee at Starbucks at lunchtime. She had been and had morning coffee with Maxime and I suggested that as she was in Salisbury it would be good to meet up for a coffee and a chat as I was going to the bank anyway. One of the great advantages of working in Salisbury more is that I can work hard and still find time for family without being too tired. More meetings and advices given this afternoon and then back home to pick up Tom and go to Southampton for the Saints v. Torquay League Trophy game at St. Mary's. It was an early kick-off at 7 p.m. and so we arrived in Southampton at 6 p.m., had fish/sausage and chips at the St. Mary's Chippie and arrived at the game with 25 minutes to spare. Tonight we went in the Northam Stand - the only stand neither of us has ever been in before. This is where the noisy element stand (not sit!). It soon became very apparent how gentile we all are in our normal Chapel Stand. I was told I could not bring into the stand drinks in plastic bottles without removing the tops. When I pointed out that we are never asked to remove tops at the Chapel end I was asked if I knew what injury I could cause with a thrown bottle full of liquid? My response was that we tend to drink our drinks in Chapel and not throw them about! I removed the tops eventually and had to go through the turnstiles with three bottles all open. Our seats were about halfway up to the right of the goal by one of the gangways. As is normal in Northam, nobody seems to use their seats and we had to stand in order to see the game. Regularly the stewards asked us to sit down but after sitting for less than a minute the crowd would start singing "Stand Up if you Love the Saints" and the whole process would start all over again! The language was quite "choice" too. Tom has now experienced the Northam End, something he has wanted to do for a long time, and concluded that his preference, like mine, is to sit in the relative peace and quiet of the Chapel with only Andy's occasional outbursts suggesting what the manager or players should do! I must say, our Chapel stewards have it so easy. Saints were pretty awful in the first half with a stupid goal conceded when Kelvin came off his line and later a penalty caused by Kelvin fouling a Torquay player. By contrast, Grimsby Town were 2-0 up at halftime in their match against Hartlepool. In the second half Saints pulled two back thanks to winger/striker Papa Weiga. Full time saw the scoreline at 2-2. This meant penalties and a save by Kelvin meant a final scoreline of 7-5 - Saints winning 5-3 on penalties. Grimsby also went through tonight as the 0-2 scoreline remained unchanged during the second half of their game at Hartlepool. Are we to expect a Grimsby v Southmapton final at Wembley? A long way to go yet!