Between the Sticks: Guernsey
From a player's perspective, there are three things that can be said about Guernsey (A) that might sound contradictory, but all live completely in harmony:
1 - It's the first fixture you look for when the schedule is released;
2 - It's a complete ball-ache no matter when it lands;
3 - You still look forward to the day when it comes around despite the immense amount of hassle it causes.
This Monday just gone was one of those non-league days I will remember for a long time and could probably be broken down into a mini-series following different characters' perspectives across the day. I'll recount the day's events from my own as that's the only thing I can do, and hopefully it's as entertaining as I think it is.
I'm firstly going to address the day this fixture was scheduled - Bank Holiday Monday. Why Tooting & Mitcham? South Park, Merstham and Leatherhead are all on the M23 / M25 junction and definitely closer to Gatwick Airport than we are. Bedfont Sports live literally at the end of Heathrow runway. There's an argument to be made that no club should have to travel to the Channel Islands on a Bank Holiday, but that would only mean midweek fixtures at different times of the year.
For us, having this game on this day means that an already long journey is coupled with less than 48 hours recovery from our previous game, and for those in full time employment, a swift return to work the following day. Not fun.
I'm in a fairly fortunate position where my parents live in Burgess Hill, just south of Gatwick, so I was able to drive down on Sunday and stay the night at theirs before getting a train up to the airport. My alarm was set for 5.15am - I know that a lot of the other boys met somewhere around East Croydon for lifts at around 5.30am, so their alarms would have been significantly earlier coming from all over London. General consensus was that most people got 3-4 hours sleep (anybody who can fall straight to sleep knowing they have an early alarm is a psychopath), but some got a bit more, some didn't get any at all. Fair play.
My 6.09am train from Burgess Hill - ticket bought and paid for well in advance - was already cancelled as I arrived to station at around 5.55am. Direct quote from the on-duty station employee: "that train is cancelled every morning, it never has a driver." Perfect. Next train was 15 minutes after, meaning I missed our meet time at the airport, resulting in an internal fine. I am on the fines committee, but there's zero chance that'll get successfully appealed. I could have been hit by the train and it would still be upheld. Changing room committees are not democratic. Please rest assured that there was never any suggestion of me possibly missing the game - I would have run to Gatwick had it been required.
We met at the gate, checked all of the large equipment (kit bag, tactics boards, footballs, water bottles, physio bag etc) including some of the players' individual kit bags that were on the larger side (more on this soon). More fines were handed out - Anuar was wearing shorts like he was going on his summer vacay - and we headed through security where various standard kit bag items such as shower gel, deodorant etc were removed by an over-zealous security team. Thankfully this was the most heavy-handed officiating we were to receive all day.
After being robbed of £15 for my Pret breakfast of porridge, smoothie, water and black coffee (desperately hoping to find a £5 note in the bottom of the porridge), we boarded on time. The officials were also on our flight and made conversation with us at the gate - they seemed a young, friendly bunch. I was hopeful.
Things started taking a turn for the worse once we landed in Guernsey. We collected all the equipment from the single luggage conveyor, the shutters came down, it stopped revolving and Corey was left standing there without his bag. There was a moment of comedy (video can be shown in exchange for a pint) followed by the gravity of the situation - our skipper had no boots, shinpads, anything. Sweet.
A quick Google discovered there was apparently a JJB on the island (I'm pretty sure they were taken over or liquidated around 10 years ago) but we decided it would be best for our leader to wear GK coach Bobby's Kipsta boots from 1970. They seemed to do a good job.
The game itself was probably the least dramatic part of the day. The pitch was poor by Guernsey's high standards - javelin holes, shot put divots and large patches of sand everywhere - but we started fast for a team with a combined 45 minutes of sleep, scored our penalty after just one minute, and from then it was fairly plain sailing. They mustered a bit of steam in the second half but some excellent defending from the entire side alongside some creative game management saw us through until Eddie put the game to bed late on. The officials were excellent throughout - as noted on Twitter, they were approachable, decisive, consistent. The referee noted on the flight home that he will be a 4th official for a National League game in a few weeks - seems a waste to keep somebody who is actually good out of the middle.
The locals weren't particularly happy at the 'game management', as expressed on social media afterwards and to yours truly behind the goal. I have history of this tactic away at Guernsey with previous clubs - it seems to really get under their skin for some reason. So obviously once I now know that, I'm going to ram the point home repeatedly.
It's worth saying that all the ball boys and girls around the pitch were incredibly polite and a credit to themselves and their parents, while some of the more experienced members of the crowd behind the hoardings were nothing short of miserable old farts. Hope they make it over on Boxing Day.
The reason the game was moved forward to midday in the first place was because of a limited amount of spaces on the evening flights. Corey, Bobby, Bruno, Tony and I rushed out the ground to get to the airport for 3pm and a 4pm flight. After deflating all of the footballs thanks to the absolute jobsworth security guard (this wasn't required on the outward flight), no sooner were we through security it was announced our flight was delayed until 5.30pm due to an issue at Gatwick. Brilliant.
We settled into the airport bar (£6.50 a pint, £2.50 a bottle of water) and the flight was pushed back even further to around 7pm. The rest of the boys for the 6pm flight turned up, breezed straight through security, onto their plane and off to the mainland. They were somewhere over the Isle of Wight when we eventually left the tarmac at around 6.45pm.
A further 25 minutes were spent on the runway at Gatwick as there were no free stands to park the plane, before Corey set off to find his bag, which apparently never even made it onto the plane to Guernsey in the first place. I got back to my parents around 8.45pm. Exhaustion was an understatement.
A couple of final things. Firstly, a huge thank you to the two lads who made it over there to support us. Hell of an effort. Secondly, I was so proud of every one of those players. The circumstances we had to deal with all day, especially after the frustration of Saturday, could have easily defeated us before we even set foot on the pitch. We didn't let that affect us, and we were on it from the first whistle. That takes concentration and mental strength. I hope we can channel that 'backs to the wall' mentality throughout the season.
Finally, thank you for the continued support from everyone online and in person. It means so much to us. It's been a tough start to the season in terms of our results, but we feel performances on the whole have been solid for large spells -- we feel like we're progressing towards what we want to be with every game. Everyone is still working incredibly hard and professionally and we're confident this will be the first of many wins to celebrate this season.
Thank you as always for reading!
