A first midweek adventure

With pre-season comes to a wide selection of fixtures to choose from but also some early evening kick-offs for those clubs that don’t have floodlights.

Romsey Town entertained Stockbridge in a pre-season friendly at Wide Lane, Eastleigh, home of Southampton University FC and with a 7pm kick-off, Miss and I ventured to her first midweek game.

So this was game #5 of the 2024-25 season for Miss, and her 54th game, a good effort for a one-year-old.

We arrived shortly before kick-off. It was a cloudy but humid evening. Ample parking at Wide Lane, free of charge and next to the gate that took us out pitchside.

Two sides of the ground have fencing around and the other two are open - so we headed round to the far touchline where Miss had plenty of room to run around.

Moments later, the players took to the pitch and Romsey’s ‘Youth’ arrived with their giant flag. Miss was fascinated with the singing and clapping from the Romsey following and she had a good clap along with the chanting.

Fair play to the young Romsey fans - great limbs from them when the ‘hosts’ took the lead, Miss found this fascinating and had a good clap too 👏

In terms of facilities, the changing rooms for the pitch were shut, so the teams changed in the main changing facilities for the whole complex.

Toilets yes; baby changing facilities no. But we weren’t expecting them at a University Sports Ground. Free entry though and four goals (the game finished 3-1 to Romsey, despite a valiant come back from Stockbridge, who succumbed to two late goals).

A lovely evening, good game, good atmosphere and Miss could have a good run around too!