As You Were...

For once on a match day we had an extremely unhurried morning - we weren't leaving Euston until 9:40am and were able to take our time over breakfast in the Double Six. As well as Martin, Howard was making one of his rare away visits having never been to Gresty Road.

The cafe was full of fans of various types - including a sizeable collection on Brighton fans on their way to Villa for their FA Cup tie - but it was mercifully free of the usual loud-mouth cabbies that seem to eat here earlier in the day.

The journey to Crewe was as quick as it can be - first stop on this service, taking just 90 mins.

I'd been in touch with the chosen pub for this trip earlier in the week - it is the local pub of the year for 2009 so was an obvious choice - and they'd said they'd open up early for us.

I therefore wasn't going to waste valuable drinking time walking so we took a cab to the Borough Arms.

(left) Borough Arms

On arrival Trevor was already being served - he'd walked from the station along with John and Rich who travelled down from Darlo with a couple of their mates.

There was an impressive selection on offer: Woodforde's Wherry, Bowland Pheasant Plucker, Northumberland Winter Gold and Bucking Fastard, Blue Monkey Ape Ale, Copper Dragon Golden Pippin, Harviestoun Ptarmigan and Salopian Oracle. All served with a smile from Rob.

They'd also ensured there were plenty of sandwiches and pies for us all - a warm welcome indeed.

There was one beer brewed on the premises - Hop and Glory. When John, the current landlord, took over the pub he found the previous incumbent had left behind some brewing gear. Rather than use it himself, John hired a German master brewer from London to brew for them.

It seems the brewer comes up to Crewe about once a month and brews enough for about 16 kegs.

(left) Howard peruses the hand pumps

However there was no brewing over Xmas as it seems salt from grit laid during the snowy weather had got into the water supply.

I started off on the Winter Gold which was decent stuff - as was the Hop and Glory - both quite similar at approx 4.5% and easy drinking with a decent amount of hops.

We were then joined by Lance who'd been the first to arrive in Crewe but in true style he'd had a good wander round before joining us. We were also treated to the sight of his Villa socks - not for the faint-hearted.

Colin then arrived having braved the hordes of English Defence League members on their way to Stoke - he was ready for a beer. Last to arrive was John Bell for what was almost a home game.

The best beer for most of us was the Salopian Oracle - yet another golden beer but at 4% it had bags of flavour and slipped down a treat. I'd also had a drop of Colin's Blue Monkey Ape Ale which was very tasty too - and at 5.4% it only cost £2.85 - the dearest on offer with most others only £2.50.

The pub never got really busy which is a real shame - it's a clean, tidy comfortable pub, no noisy jukeboxes or games machines.

(left) Lance and his Villa socks - classy...

The Preston -v- Chelsea FA Cup game was on TV but it seemed that people preferred to chat. There were a few Crewe fans that came in and who were very friendly but not as many as I thought would be in - their loss.

Whilst some of our group chose to walk to the ground, we wanted to make the most of our visit and preferred to take a taxi. Unfortunately it was a bit late - barman Rob kept an eye out for us and kept chasing up the taxi firm - and so we finally arrived about five minutes after kick-off.

The police - of which there seemed to be a larger number than I'd have expected - were all busy tucking into burgers and pies are we came past, looking very sheep-ish as if they'd been caught in the act.

It's many years since I've been to Gresty Road - 1993 to be exact when we lost 2-1 - its a bit of a hazy memory but since then they've moved away fans from behind the goal to the compact Blue Bell stand.

There was a decent contingent of Darlo fans all hoping for another inspired performance from the Quakers - or even a wretched performance from the opposition would do, we're not proud - and for a while we competed but it wasn't to last.

The three forwards for Crewe were very lively and made it difficult for the defence - Alan White is back in the heart of defence, now with hair which I don't think suits him - he needs his hard-man shaven head and not a choirboy cut.

And keeper Liversedge never seems at ease with crosses into the box and following a corner from one of his fumbles, Crewe take the lead though Zola.

And then in the space of ten minutes with the defence at sixes and sevens, Crewe scored another two and it's Goodnight Vienna. And there could have been more - Liversedge making a good stop when one-on-one with one of their strikers.

Up front we never really made any impact on their goal - the only positive from the first half was the work put in by Gareth Waite over on the right side of midfield. Considering he was signed from Spennymoor a week or so ago, he looked good.

At half-time I had a chat with a few of our number and any positive vibes that we'd had following the win against Rotherham in midweek had been blown away. Not that we were surprised of course.

The second half saw a much improved performance - whether this was due to a bollocking from Staunton or Crewe taking it easy - probably a bit of both I suspect - but we started to take the game to Crewe.

Waite moved to the centre of midfield and continued to look good but there were very few chances on goal. There were an awful lot of balls crossed into the Crewe box but I don't remember a single Darlo player getting his head to one.

The game crept slowly to it's inevitable conclusion - the highlight was a steward offering jelly babies to us - and then we all trudged back to the station. Howard tried to buoy our spirits by buying oranges and Mars Bars - he's good like that.

The journey back to London was a quick one - and thankfully the drunken Chelsea fans who traipsed into our carriage had got the wrong seats and moved on elsewhere - and the journey passed peacefully.

Back in London, Martin and I wandered to the Betjeman Arms at St Pancras where we met up with Wycombe chum, Paul. We've not seen each other this season following their promotion to League One but it's been far from rosy - their season has been almost as bad as ours.

Liz and Clarkey then joined us after getting back from Rotherham's victory over Grimsby - two favours from the Millers this week - and we had a couple of beers before heading home...

Cup Dreams Go South...

And so we come to the first round of the FA Cup and all the excitement that this traditionally brings. Well, perhaps not this season as we face our second trip to Underhill in a fortnight.

(right) Deja Underhill

Since Rotherham's game against Wealdstone had been put back to the Sunday - apparently there was a function in the club bar on the Saturday that took precedence over the football - Liz joined me for the day.

We took breakfast at People's Choice near Barbican tube - this used to be very good but recently they've started to use frite-style chips which don't really stand up alongside the other ingredients of the Traditional English. 6 out of 10 - must try harder.

I suppose that as first round draws go, this was not the absolute worst we could have had - easy to get too for we in the south - but following our 3-0 defeat a fortnight ago, it was highly likely to be a case of deja defeat and as such it was only really a sense of duty that saw us attend.

That and another chance to wander along to the Lord Nelson. This time around there were just four of us - John Wilson and Geoff the only others who came along - but we had some fun playing with Bonnie the pub dog.

(left) Bonnie - throw the damn thing, will you?

Bonnie is a bit of an elderly dog but she loves playing with the regulars.

Perhaps we're now included in that group as she brought her squeaky toy for us to throw. Occasionally she'd even deign to actual go fetch it back...

The guest beer on this visit was St Austell Tribute - I've never been a huge fan of this beer but it was in superb condition on this occasion.

And not quite as many fans in the away end today - not surprising as Sunderland and Boro are both playing in the capital which will have meant that there'll have been no cheap rail tickets for those in the north.

Any hopes that the team had learnt from their last visit were snuffed out after just 20 mins when some shoddy defending saw veteran Paul Furlong slot the ball past Liversedge.

Following that there was some improvement for the remainder of the half as we pressed forward but there were quite a few poor individual displays - Davis was probably the worst and was to blame for most of the lost possession.

Despite being told that Moses Barnett had a great game in our sole win this season, I've yet to be convinced after he had another poor game at Underhill. It was his last game on loan and I'd be surprised if we see him again.

One-nil going into the break wasn't too bad but that soon changed as a simple tap in for Micah Hyde minutes after the restart more or less sealed it for the home team.

(right) Geoff walking backwards to Underhill (for Christmas?)

A third goal hammered the nail into the coffin but unlike our last visit, we didn't leave. We were rewarded four our loyalty as Staunton made a double subtitution - Josh Gray and Mor Diop coming on - and we started to show some concerted efforts up front.

Our finishing on the whole was wayward - Thomas and Collins especially - but Diop showed how it should be done with a close range effort which he slid past the Barnet keeper.

Unfortunately Diop then faded badly - presumably he's not yet match fit - and so did any lingering hopes of getting another goal back, especially after a couple of good saves from the home keeper.

So we're back to concentrating on the league - not a total surprise to any of us but it has the one advantage that we now have a free weekend at the end of the month.

We headed back into town after the game and passed through a manic Kings Cross to the Betjeman Arms at St Pancras.

Apparently Union, the new premium beer from Sambrooks, was supposed to be available but it wasn't. Instead I stuck to the Betjeman Ale whilst John has his first ever taste of Wandle Ale, Sambrooks' current and only offering - still a bit nondescript in our opinion and not dissimilar to Youngs Ordinary. We look forward to tasting the Union.

The Betjeman Arms was starting to get busy with England rugby fans and Sunderland fans all getting a few beers before catching trains home. Once we'd caught up with the football scores we headed for the calm and tranquility of the King Charles I.

Unfortunately we'd narrowly missed out on the Brodies Special which was being served direct from the barrel but their IPA is on tap and for a 4.0% beer it's a very nice drop - well hoppy and a decent body.

We try to get something to eat but the scotch eggs are all gone - there are mussels and pickled eggs but these don't tempt Liz at all. Instead the kindly barman shares some home-made pork scratchings that a customer has made. Crackling stuff.

We have a few more IPAs before ordering a takeaway from a nearby curry house and then we head on home. It's an early night for Liz as she's got her own game tomorrow - for her the dream lives on whilst we remain firmly mired in our league nightmare.

Bees Sting

I knew deep down that I should have ended this season's attendance at Spotland last weekend - a truly excellent day out as Bill (or Ted) might have said - but instead habit drove me along the usual early morning trail to King's Cross to take in my final game of the season.

In theory it was a last visit to Da Vinci's for breakfast - I'm now known by the staff and no longer have to order - "your usual, sir?" and a nod from me is now enough to get me my early morning plate of plenty. And it's been consistently very good throughout the season. However I'm sure I'll find an excuse to pop in during the close season.

The journey north was pleasant enough - we were sat with a nice chap from Reading who was a Leeds fan - off to Hartlepool for his sins.

In fact to qualify for an away ticket he'd had to attend a minimum of 19 away games - very credible, or very sad, depending on your point of view. Although I subsequently heard that a lot of Leeds fans got around this by simply paying cash on the day to go into the home areas.

Arriving at Bank Top station at 10:30, there were a few police awaiting the expected hordes of Brentford and Leeds fans - in fact there were a handful of Bees fans waiting expectantly outside Hogans.

As ever all the handpumps were in use in the Quaker today - and quite a few dark beers amongst them too - which included York Brewery's Terrier and Last Drop Bitter; Quartz Heart, 3 River's Delta Mild (not too popular it seems - had been on over a week and still some left!), Stump Cross Ale from the Richmond Brewery, Hadrian & Border's Secret Kingdom and from the Jarrow Brewery, Venerable Bede and Rivet Catcher.

There was a decent quota of DAFTS on parade too - John Wilson had travelled up the night before, Steve Duffy had flown up to Newcastle from Cardiff and Keanu Reeves body-double Brian Elsey had travelled up from Sheffield - obviously no Hollywood duties this weekend.

(left) Keanu Reeves - it had been a hard week

As usual we then wandered up to Number Twenty-2 for an hour or so - there looked to be an interesting stout on offer but it was just too warm for that. By this time we'd been joined by Tony and Lesley plus John, her Dad, neither of who had been to a home game for quite a while.

Arriving at the ground it was interesting to see a bunch of bulky rugby league players handing out leaflets to the fans - it seems that Gateshead Thunder are playing their Challenge Cup tie against Oldham at the Arena on the 9th May. Let's hope they get a decent crowd for that.

I wandered off to reception before the game for my usual quick chat with John and Eric - today I was also picking up Steve Foster's away shirt, sponsored by yours truly for the second season running, as I wouldn't be attending the official presentations following the All Stars Game.

Any misgivings I'd had about attending this game were put to bed within seconds of the kick-off as Alan White's careless (and that's being diplomatic) aerial challenge on Damian Spencer fully deserved a red card - the Brentford man suffering a fractured cheekbone in the process proving he wasn't making a meal of the clash.

It's not the first time Whitey has been sent off for a challenge like this - I seem to remember something similar at Exeter a few weeks ago and overall it's his fourth red card with Darlo in two seasons - and it put paid to any chances we had of getting any sort of result from this game. And what is most frustrating is that it the challenge was on the touchline - not even in a dangerous area - and totally unnecessary other than to make a strong first impression on an opposite number. Well, that was certainly achieved - well done...

There was a rapid reorganisation and Darlo looked to be holding out quite well despite a lot of Brentford possession until the Bees were awarded a disputed corner - the refereee apparently over-ruling his linesman - and from it they scored.

And then any expectation of beating the odds a la Lincoln were extinguished when Billy Clarke headed a second just before the break - at least he had the good grace not to celebrate too frantically in front of us.

(above) Three wise something or others

A shame really as we'd had a couple of good chances - including a cracking free kick from Franz which clipped the bar.

The second half saw Brentford get the benefit of some further dodgy decisions from the referee - Franz went down (rather theatrically of course) after being taken out in the box but it was a stonewall penalty. But no, not a sniff from the ref.

Instead Brentford got the ball down the other end very smartly and Clarke made it 3-0.

Despite fears of a rout, Darlo tightened up and even pulled one back after Abbott slid the ball under the keeper. The last few minutes were a bit fractious - one their defenders should certainly have followed White for an early bath after manhandling Abbott but the ref was happy to only book both parties - an equal opportunities ref obviously.

These decisions would probably had no impact on the overall result but it just left a bad taste - fair play to Brentford on their promotion but it was hard to take when we really should have been in the mix as well. With this in mind, there were plenty of anti-Houghton chants throughout the game and apparently he made himself scarce in the second half.

Whereas Bank Top station at the end of last season saw Dagenham & Redbridge celebrating their eleventh-hour retention of their league status for another season (and look where they are now), this time it was Brentford fans raising the rafters.

Our carriage was full of them chanting all the way to Kings Cross - some dotty old passenger optimistically asked them to "please stop singing" - some hope dear. Thankfully my walkman and the fantastic new album from Mastodon came to the rescue whilst poor old Martin simply had to suffer in silence.

On arrival back into Kings Cross the celebrating Bees all headed straight down into the tube, back to Brentford and champagne in the Griffin (or so they were hoping) allowing Martin and I to escape to the relative peace and quiet of the Betjeman Arms where we met Paul, our Wycombe chum, and his friend Dave.

Paul had been up to Stoke to see Wycombe settle for a point at Port Vale - and so they're still short of automatic promotion for another week - whereas Dave had been to Derby to see Charlton get beat in front of a very respectable 33,000 crowd. A season of highs and lows for all of us.

Also in the pub were a pack of London Wolves who were still celebrating their promotion to the Premiership - last time we saw a couple of these chaps in the Doric Arch they'd been very much the worse for wear but they still recognised me from our chat that day - "Hey, Beardyman!" - well, I assume they meant me...

Mis-Fortune

Brian was already in the pub by the time I got to the Quaker so I got my beer and together we made the first contributions to the DAFTS Beer Tax.

George, one of the 11am regulars at the Quaker, was a bit curious about our little collecting bottle and contributed £1 as well. Good man! Only another £299, 998 to go.
We then got talking to a guy who was a Sheffield United fan and who told us that the stadium had been bought by an Arab and would be dismantled and shipped over there. Cue incredulity from Brian and me - where do people get these ideas?

Tony and Colin then joined us - and so the contributions to the fund continued as we had more beers - before I headed off to Number Twenty-2. I found John and Bev hovering outside - she was itching to go elsewhere to watch the first-half of the Chelsea game. And so she did.

As I was about to get some snaps of the boys and our little DAFTS Tax bottle, I received a call from the Guardian football columnist, David Conn. David is an old chum of ours and was down at Feethams with a photographer, trying to find a way into the ground and see what was left of the old girl, prior to his doing a piece about Darlo's current troubles in the Guardian. I don't think he had expected the place to be quite as barren and flattened as it is.

Whilst David went off to do his research, we got back to raising some glasses - and more money for the cause. One of the barmen approached us to see if we wanted some takeaway pies. Apparently it was British Pie Week - I don't know how that slipped past me - but it seems they'd made too many and did we want to buy them?

Most of us had been to Taylors and were well provisioned but Brian and Tony were pastry-less and so bought a couple - and very nice they were too judging by the speed with which they were eaten.

I got a further phone call - again escaping the usual Number Twenty-2 mobile fine - this time from a Colchester fan, Martyn Stimson, who we'd meet earlier in the season before our game at Aldershot. Martyn and a chum had come up to make a groundhopping first visit to the Arena as well as visit as many of Darlo's decent pubs as they could.

After supping some wonderful stout (McConnells from the wonderful Thornbridge Brewery), we all taxi-ed down to the stadium - I wandered to reception and bumped into David Conn who was chatting with one of the administrators (who barely looked out of school!).

Reception looked a bit gloomy without the smiling face of Helen on reception - Karen from the Supporters Club was standing in for her and had a big collecting bucket so I deposited the tax we'd collected at lunchtime.

Thankfully block 11 seemed to be quite free of the West Stand hordes - Tony and Brian were down in front of us in their lucky seats whilst behind us we had my compatriots, the Darlo Tykes, in the executive boxes displaying their usual level of sophistication and wit.

The game was awful - we were poor, Macc were poor and the ref was poor - we suffered further injures and silly bookings and then the icing on the cake - a needless challenge by Clayton Fortune in the box on a player who was happy to go down.

Flag, Whistle, Penalty. Goodnight Vienna.

So the journey back promised to be a bit miserable for Martin and I but Martyn and his chum joined us and we had a good natter about football, grounds and pubs all the way back to King's Cross.

Over the road in St Pancras, the Betjeman Arms was having a beer festival so Martin and I wandered in - he likes the odd pint of real ale now and again - and before too long, we were joined by a horde of London Millers fresh from their sponsorship day and a nil-nil with Brentford.

I was quite surprised by the range of beers on offer, the majority straight from the barrel - a few I'd never come across before as well as some old favourites such as Woodforde Wherry and Oakham JHB. At least the day finished on a high as I savoured a beautiful pint of Naked Ladies, courtesy of the Twickenham Brewery...

David's piece on Darlo's current plight can be found here and go here to see some of the photos taken during his visit.