Underground, Overground

After missing the FA Cup victory at Mossley I was ready for a good day out and it all started as I met Tony off his train at Kings Cross.

Our journey to south-west London allowed us to make one of our infrequent but very welcome visits to Maries which is just a short walk from Waterloo station.

John Wilson was already well through his breakfast when we arrived - no need to spend time perusing the menu here as I always head straight for the Number 7 (with a side order of chips). Tony is happy to follow my example.

We're then joined by Trev who has come down for a couple of nights with his wife but she has declined to join us in favour of a bit of culture and a visit to St Pauls. She doesn't know what she's missing.

From Waterloo we take the overground to Norbiton and from there it is only a ten-minute walk to the Willoughby Arms, the pub of choice for today, so that we arrive at 11am.

The pub actually opened at 10:30am which is extremely laudable and we're welcomed by one of the AFC Wimbledon fans already ensconced at the bar.

Cue the usual confused looks when he finds out that only one of us has actually made the journey all the way from Darlo.

Today the pub has a Halloween beer festival on - all the beers are sat out on stillage in the back yard and you order your beer from a till by the back door instead of at the bar which confuses us to begin with.

They have a good selection on offer - those that I get to try include Hophead and American IPA from Dark Star, Hepworth Iron Horse, Twickenham Strange Brew (which was but not in a totally nice way!), Isle of Purbeck IPA and Orchard Pig Medium Cider.

Mr Wilson tried out some of the stouts and porters on offer - Two Bridges Ink Pen Mild and Hammerpot Bottle Wreck Porter were both nice, less so was the Ha'Penny Spring-Heeled Jack London Porter. Unfortunately due to getting up too late and then train problems, Bev never got to try them.

(left) The Willoughby Arms

Various other DAFTS arrived as the session progresses - Steve is not far behind us but John B, Rod and then Brian are all delayed by problems on the line. Looks like we got here just in time. And then Iain arrived with a number of his chums, all of whom had come to see us before (and who still come again - they must enjoy the beer).

Landlord Rick offered to order taxis for us so that we can maximise our drinking but we decide that we need the exercise and head off.

Various DAFTS have already been to Kingsmeadow (or the Cherry Red Records Fans' Stadium as it is now known) as Darlo played in a pre-season tournament there back in July 2001 when Tommy Taylor was in charge.

I seem to remember Gregor Rioch, son of Bruce, was trying out for us that weekend but thankfully we never took him on. Very agricultural as I seem to recall.

Back then we were one of four teams playing which also included hosts Kingstonian (when it was their own place) along with Aldershot and Brentford. I think we came second overall.

The ground doesn't appear to have changed much physically in the intervening years though it is obviously a lot busier these days as AFC Wimbledon are pulling in decent crowds.

I make my way into the ground, collecting my press pass and hi-vis tabard, and head off to join the Darlo faithful who have been given one corner of the ground. It looks to be a good turnout.

No real surprises in the team sheet today with Liam Hatch back in the squad at the heart of the defence.

Darlo started the game slowly as Wimbledon looked the liveliest and we seemed happy to soak up the pressure leaving little for Sam Russell to do.

From more or less our first attack, Chris Senior prodded the ball past the Dons keeper after good interplay from Tommy Wright and Gary Smith. The home crowd were stunned whilst the Darlo fans went wild.

Darlo continued to attack whenever they could whilst keeping Wimbledon pretty much at arms length, restricting them to some speculative shots which flew high and wide.

Michael Brough was making his league debut for us after what sounded like a good game up at Mossley last weekend and he looked pretty solid in midfield - didn't do anything fancy but broke up play well.

Darlo went in at the break to loud cheers from the Darlo fans and I took the chance to have a chat with a few folk. There was also a rogue Womble wandering round too.

In the second half Darlo continued to hold their own whilst having a few opportunities of their own. Mark Cooper brought on Jefferson Louis for Wright after quarter of an hour just as Darlo were awarded a penalty.

(right) Mark Bridge-Wilkinson makes it two-nil

Darlo had taken a corner from which we had scored but the referee had already blown up for a foul on Danny Hone which took everyone by surprise. Louis grabbed the ball and decided he was going to take kick.

Unfortunately the confidence in his own ability was misplaced but fortunately Bridge-Wilkinson was the first to follow up as the keeper parried the spot-kick and slotted it home. Two-nil and the Darlo fans were delirious.

Danny Powell was then brought on for Chris Senior which struck me as a bit odd as Senior was having a decent game. However Powell's pace saw pass his marker and go one-on-one with the keeper on a couple of occasions but each time he failed to capitalise.

Wimbledon came into the game more as the half progressed - when the defence passed the ball out to the forward line, Louis was poor at retaining possession or offered little when competing for headers . On the touchline, manager Cooper was constantly directing him but to little effect.

Sam Russell managed to keep out a few efforts on goal and we appeared to escape what looked to be a valid shout for a penalty.

The referee didn't help calm the nerves as five minutes of added time were announced. More than enough time for us to concede two goals!

(left) Danny Hone's header hits the woodwork

Thankfully we held firm and Darlo recorded a well-deserved win with a great all-round team performance.

The 346 away fans (plus me) thoroughly enjoyed their day out and it was a merry throng that took the train back to Vauxhall (or Waterloo in Brian's case as he'd fallen asleep on the train).

From Vauxhall we all changed to the Victoria line and headed off to King's Cross. As we were on the escalators coming out from the tube, a message came over the PA asking everyone to exit the station.

John, Bev and I waited outside for Tony whilst Steve decided to head off to Paddington in case the tube situation didn't improve.

No sign of Tony so we headed off to the nearby Kings Charles pub as he knew we were heading there but it was shut - very annoying - so we decided to convene in the Betjeman Arms at St Pancras for a few beers before everyone had to go and catch their trains leaving Bev, John and me to wander home on the tube.