Greenwich Borough (0) 0
Cray Wanderers (0) 0
Attendance: 165
Entrance: £5 Senior
Programme: Sold Out
Mileage: 77/5,153
Match Report
It was the day that the humble townsfolk had awaited with eager anticipation for months, the day when the Greatest Show on Earth, The Billy’s Dicky Circus, rolled into town. Roll up, roll up. Come and see the roaring lions; Tamplin, the greatest ringmaster of the modern era and clowns, there will be clowns, plenty of clowns.
But, sadly for the humble townsfolk, it rained and it rained. Despite the best efforts of the Top Man, soon the Big Top was awash. No ringmaster of such standing could be expected to perform in such conditions, the humble townsfolk would have to wait until another day.
So, forewarned is forearmed and I hightailed it up the A21 to Greenwich Borough, a club that had pretentions of their own to be the Greatest Show on, well if not quite Earth, perhaps the South East. These days they ply their trade in the less lavish surroundings of Middle Park Road in Eltham and, before the start of play, sat handily in fourth place whilst their visitors, Cray Wanderers were second setting up what should have been a good game. A few extra people than expected by Greenwich officials obviously made similar detours to mine, so at 2.30 p.m., programmes had sold out.
The division’s leading goalscorer in Michael Power, Shaggy from his Longmead days, led the line for Cray but for the home side there was no Charlie McDonald. Most people would have expected to see goals in the game, but my record at this ground is sparse pickings apart from the play-off game against Corinthian Casuals last season.
Cray started well, had the ball in the net after nine minutes but ruled out for offside and Power had a shot from the edge of the box deflected over. But once Greenwich got a foothold in the game they held the balance for the rest of the half. After 25 minutes, Tom Beere, quite possibly the best player on the pitch, send Jack Barham clear down the right and collected the cross to fire in a shot that was blocked with the rebound falling to Barham who put it fractionally wide.
The second half saw Cray in the ascendancy with Lea Dawson planting a header against a post just past their hour and Power and Dawson failed to force the ball home as chaos reigned in the Greenwich box following a corner.
As nil-nils go, it was half-decent but this was par for the course for me and Middle Park Road.
Meanwhile, back at the Big Top, a late arrival for whom Tamplin’s favourite communications outlet, Twatter, had obviously passed him by, was bemoaning the lack of a show. “Where are the clowns, there ought to be clowns”, he lamented. Well, maybe next year.
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