North v South

After a breakfast of bacon rolls, Tom and I set off for Northampton to watch Southampton take on its northern namesake in Round 2 of the FA Cup. We had a wonderful journey up to Northampton and got there around 12.45 p.m. We managed to park the car in a field close to Sixfields Stadium for £1 and after buying a newspaper at a local service station we went for lunch at the TGI Friday's next to the ground. There was a half hour wait for a table so Tom and I had a drink and I read my newspaper. There was a further delay of around 25 minute before we eventually got served- I has "surf and turf" and Tom had a half rack of ribs. The food was adequate although a little overpriced and my steak a little over done. It did make a change, however, from fish and chips or burgers. Saints fans took up two whole stands at the ground and we outnumbered the home fans - indeed, this was the first time I'd been to an away home match! Although Saints had the majority of possession they did not do anything remarkable with it for the first 3o minutes or so and didn't seem to get the ball on target. Suddenly, on 41 minutes Papa Waigo scored first and then a second goal came on 43 minutes from Lallana. The second half saw a third disputed Saint's goal from Hammond on 59 minutes. Unfortunately, Dean Hammond scored again - for Northampton and one minute before the final whistle scored a penalty to make it 2-3 to Saints. Our journey back was uneventful apart from some delay near Chieveley caused by either an accident or broken down vehicle. We met with torrential rain and flooding as we entered Hampshire and Wiltshire. All in all a good day out with the prospect of an interesting Round 3 draw tomorrow.