Havant & Waterlooville 2 Histon 0

23oct10
FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round
Westleigh Park, Havant
att. 905

This bit is why we non-league types love the FA Cup. This bit. Right now. Admittedly this paragraph only really works if you happen to be reading over my shoulder as I type, but let’s pretend you are and that it’s quarter to midnight on Saturday 23rd October. Ready? Good. So, like I say, it’s this bit. The bit between 4th Qualifying Round victory, and the numbered ball relating to us being drawn out of the 1st Round hat the following afternoon.

It is within these good times pro tem, this exquisite interim, where possibility rules. These are the precious hours of the what-if’s, the maybe-it’ll-be’s and, to paraphrase Brian Wilson, the wouldn’t-it-be-nice-if-we-drew-Sheffield-Wednesday-away-before-we’re-too-much-older’s.

picture © Dave Haines

The optimists reel off all the league clubs they’d love to visit, while the pessimists will say, “dunno what you’re getting excited about Ted, we’ll be home to bloody Vauxhall Motors or something.” The seasoned beano-ites will be hoping for the most ridiculously long trip possible, while the homebirds will hope Hampshire Police don’t force us to play any potentially troubling tie at Fratton Park. Thankfully Millwall have left League One behind which rules out a repeat of that one. Then again, there is always the potential of getting Southampton. Which would be flippin’ ‘orrid, John.

Yet, whilst getting lost in the clouds of possibility, we must not forget the journeys that bring us to this point. You could argue we have been fortunate, what with the three home draws on the trot this year. Yet those games still needed to be gone and won. That the latest opposition in that run came from a higher division should also be duly noted. “Not bad for a village team” sang their supporters and Histon have indeed come a long way in the last few years, however whilst this result coming not really as a shock reflects their status as one of the Conference National’s less celebrated names, it also says a lot about how much our outlook and expectations have changed and how far our club has come.

FA Cup scalp taking. It being another in a long line of scalp takings. This posting is building nicely to my being able to wax nostalgic about our previous in this area. The appeal of banging on about it once more is indeed immense. Indeed, the temptation to crow is so great that I’ve started to grow black feathers and a beak. However I think, by now, you’ve heard it all before.

So, let me just talk about today, a relatively untroubled win over a Conference National side. We were able to settle relatively quickly, Wes Fogden scoring after only three minutes. This wasn’t a Wes goal of legend, of swashbuckling impudence and dandy-ish flair, but he was in the right place at the right time, after an excellent run and cross from Steve Ramsay, to guide the ball in. The ball hit the keeper’s ribs en route, and like a racehorse clipping the final fence with the tips of its hooves, flailed a bit before collapsing over the finish line.

The second was scored just about an hour later. The Histon defence was opened up like a tin of Spam and Mustafa Tiryaki was the little key thing peeling away their resolve. Once Muzzy powers through a defence like this and looks up at the trembling keeper, like a lion watching the movements of a honey-glazed gazelle, there is only ever one outcome. Muz’s shots travel remorselessly hard and straight like cannonballs through the hull of a wooden ship, and so with only the bottom corner just inside the near post to aim at, that is what he hit. It is no surprise that several league clubs are sniffing around him.

As the season jogs on the more the confidence is rippling like a weightlifter’s bicep through our side. On current form, we have much to feel good about, in both league and Cup. So we can’t be too disappointed that the Cup draw has only succeeded in sending us fellow non-leaguer’s Droylsden, as in the context of our history and our season, we can go into it confident and dreaming of Round Two.

Road to Wembley
F: Manchester City 1 Stoke City 0 (att. 88,643)
SF: Manchester City 1 Manchester United 0 (att. 86,549)
6R: Manchester United 2 Arsenal 0 (att. 74,693)
5Rr: Arsenal 5 Leyton Orient 0 (att. 59,361)
5R: Leyton Orient 1 Arsenal 1 (att. 9,136)
4R: Swansea City 1 Leyton Orient 2 (att. 6,281)
3R: Norwich City 0 Leyton Orient 1 (att. 18,087)
2Rr: Leyton Orient 8 Droylsden 2 [aet] (att. 1,345)
2R: Droylsden 1 Leyton Orient 1 (att. 1,762)
1R: Havant & Waterlooville 0 Droylsden 2
4QR: Havant & Waterlooville 2 Histon 0
3QR: Havant & Waterlooville 4 Dorchester Town 1 (att. 708)
2QR: Havant & Waterlooville 1 Frome Town 0

Bishop’s Stortford 1 Havant & Waterlooville 5

16oct10
Conference South
Woodside Park, Bishop’s Stortford
att. 571

Clearly, in karmic terms, I’ve been a good lad of late, as my foot-stamping huff over the fact other commitments had meant I’d missed our two biggest wins this season (4-1’s against Thurrock in the league and against Dorchester last week in the Cup) was soothed by this, an even bigger win.

There I was on Monday hearing about our progress in the Cup and how I’d missed ‘the best Hawk goal ever’ by Mustafa Tiryaki. Thankfully, YouTube is our friend down at Westleigh Park these days and so I’ve been able to have a look. From the side-on angle, to me it doesn’t look anywhere near as good as Richard Pacquette’s against Bognor a couple of years back, or Dean Blake’s at Welling in 2003. Then again I was behind the goal for both of those and long-range strikes always look better when they’re coming right at yer face. Thank goodness for the durability of the goal nets in the Conference South, is what I say.


Thankfully though, them Hawks must have realised I was feeling a little left out and put five past Bishop’s Stortford’s inexperienced keeper Bert Greenwood to allow me a taste of it. That said, it was one of those 5-1 wins which doesn’t feel particularly euphoric, as in fairness, we didn’t have to work that hard to achieve it. In terms of getting a heat going on the terraces, this game was so damp you could have wrung it out and filled a bathtub with it.

Mind you, after ten minutes or so of the first half, things didn’t seem quite so clear cut with Stortford leading through a freak goal by Lynval Duncan and our mob just beginning to warm up. It was an unfamiliar line up as well, with Bobby Hopkinson suspended, Sammy Igoe and Ian Selley injured and Jake Newton off representing Guyana in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Furthermore our recent marquee signing, former Portsmouth, Fulham and Serbia defender Dejan Stefanovic is not yet considered to be match fit, having been dragged out of retirement slowly like a reluctant octogenarian being co-orced into barn dance action by his eager grand-daughter.

Despite this though, we gradually turned it on and if that ‘it’ wasn’t 100% style and finesse, then it was enough of an ‘it’ to more than comfortably see off a very poor Bishop’s Stortford side. They didn’t help themselves, of course, what with having to play the entire second half with ten men after Sanchez Ming’s dismissal.

However by that point, we had a 2-1 lead, with Manny Williams having equalised with a crisp sidefoot after an gorgeous cross from Steve Ramsey out on the right. Inspired by this, Manny accomplished some brilliant by-line work of his own on 42 minutes, bamboozling the Bish defence and dinking a cross that Wes Fogden was able to guide in off his forehead from a seemingly impossible angle.

Making the most of the acres of space afforded to us in the second half, a third came just four minutes into it, Manny tucking home a rebound after a desperate stretch by Muzzy Tiryaki at the far post had only succeeded into pinging the ball against said post.

At this point, one felt that a big score was coming as the Stortford defence looked as clueless as a crossword compendium showing nothing but the black and white squares. However twenty minute periods of rest were bestowed upon the hapless Bish, with Wes scoring the second and third of his trio (which, I believe to be only the second hat-trick by an out-and-out midfielder in Hawk history, following Craig Anstey’s against Littlehampton in 1998*) in the 66th and 84th minutes.

Both goals were pretty similar in that Wes was able to tuck into a ball skimming across the six yard box, and resulted from build-up play which highlighted the skills of a new non-contract signing. The fourth was a showcase for bulky midfielder Hakeem Adelakun’s footwork as Big ‘Ak (as I shall know him) shared a 1-2 with Muzzy before Wes was able to slide in to score. The fifth and final saw Wes, after an excellent chase and cross from Big Ak’s fellow newbie Stefan Gaisie, take the ball at the back post and make the most of the time given to him to sidefoot the ball home.

Reading all that back it seems churlish to even hint at complaint about the intensity of this game. For the record I am willing to accept damp-squib 5-1 away wins every other week from now until May. Thanks.

*uncontested hat-trick anyway. There being a grey area around our 3-1 win over Salisbury City on Boxing Day 2000 where Tim Hambley may have scored a hat-trick, or possibly been robbed of it by Dave Leworthy nodding in the third just before it was about to cross the line anyway!