22 Unbeaten… and then we turn up 😬

So Matt Maybury and I go back about 20 years now, and over all that time we’ve kept in touch, loosely sometimes, but more closely recently since he took offer as the boss at New Milton Town and in the summer signed another friend of mine, Callum Chugg. Although Chuggy is now playing for Fawley, Miss and I went to New Milton’s first friendly at Brockenhurst a 4-0 win! A superb performance and a good catch up with the Gaffer. We then returned to see the Brickies beat Hamworthy United at Fawcetts Field before Christmas. So two wins from two! We must be a good luck omen… not any more 😬

I caught up with Matt the day before the game and we discussed the weather and if the game would go ahead, it passed an 11:00 pitch inspection. So that was it, a short journey for us down to the Bypass Ground (well the AEC Protection Ground as it’s officially known now).

Another new ground for Miss, her 46th, watching her 96th game. We parked up in Romsey Town Centre and did a spot of shoppings before waking across to the ground. The ground is on a roundabout, next to Romsey Rapids and a 5-minute walk from the town, 10/10 for location!

There is lots of parking available, but there were already a lot of cars there, so I was comfortable with leaving the car in the town centre car park.

We went through the turnstile, Under-18s were free - very generous to extend it up to U18s but a good amount of young supporters so it is clearly a popular decision.

The clubhouse is a decent size, however, no baby changing facilities, and this was a day we needed one 💩

So back to the old-school approach of fold-out changing mat on a toilet cubicle floor (a toilet cubicle with a broken lock as well 🤦‍♂️)

It was muddy, it was wet, Miss was in her element and found plenty of puddles to play in!

Everywhere we go, we always see people I knew from footballing past. Several members of the Wessex League board were present, both of whom I’d worked with before, and John Bailey, a former AFC Bournemouth legend 🍒 was there watching his son, Toby, play and open the scoring for New Milton.

The people at Romsey were all lovely and engaging with Miss, but the ground was lacking for a 2-year-old, with uneven ground, random pieces of wood lying around, roofs that creaked in the wind. That said, I’m a realist, it’s Wessex Division One, clubs don’t have money to upgrade facilities or the volunteers to do it either. So it’s all about the people and they were great.

Matt was very obliging and let Miss have a kick about with a New Milton training ball (we left it next to the dugout after we finished with it 🙏) She kept kicking into the goal on the side of the pitch and shouting ‘GOAL!’ each time she did it⚽️

As for the game, New Milton were 22 unbeaten and top-of-the-league; the result was a no brainer surely? Toby Bailey headed them ahead and all seemed to be going to plan...

The heavens opened, the pitch became a bog, the ball was hard to play on the ground. New Milton still led at half-time.

Then New Milton got a red card ♦️no idea why, missed the incident, nobody around us seemed to know why either 🤔 Miss made her feelings known…

Then Romsey took control and were excellent and bagged four second-half goals, and some good goals there were too.

A great game of football (unless you follow New Milton 😬) Miss certainly enjoyed herself!

The people and the entertaining football will guarantee a repeat visit from us - hopefully the urgency for a nappy change midway through the first-half won’t happen next time… 💩🤦‍♂️