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.

(Under) Hill Street Blues

Another Saturday in the capital for Tony but despite playing up in north London, we first wander southwards to the tried and tested Maries where we find John W is already tucking into his breakfast.

We then catch the Northern Line from Waterloo and by chance, Brian joins our train at Leicester Square - very spooky timing - and after a while we emerge into the light and arrive at High Barnet.

(left) Welcome to Barnet

As we walk up the High Street we bump into John Bell who's lurking by the Olde Mitre - a quick peep though the window suggests that there's a underwhelming choice of beers on offer.

Recent reports on BITE suggest that this pub has improved of late but we've found it to be very disappointing on our last few visits. We'll be giving it a miss today I think.

As it's not yet noon, the first port of call is the White Lion as this is one of the few pubs in Barnet that opens early. Or it did last season. The door is shut when we arrive.

We notice that we've lost Tony and Brian somewhere on the way - by the time we call them and decide we'll go somewhere else the pub is now open. We decide to wander in for a quick one and my polite query about opening time is met with a mumble and a glare. Very friendly.

John W and I opt for the guest beer - Moles Best- which is OK-ish, possibly on it's way off, but it's difficult to tell as Moles always seems to have a distinctive tang. John B sticks to Fullers Discovery.

We don't linger long however and soon we join the others in the Lord Nelson. This is a bright airy pub that we really enjoyed last season.

It's hidden away to some degree and as a result it never seems to get too busy - certainly as far as football fans are concerned - and we arrive to find that Tony and Brian have joined Trevor.

It's a Youngs house so normally there's a choice of Ordinary, Special and Bombardier - all in excellent nick. There is a guest however and today it's Titanic Iceberg. I find this to be one of my favourite beers for session drinking - nicely tart and very more-ish.

We're later joined by Geoff, the tame Argyle fan, and then Durham Tony pops in too.

The food menu looks good though most of us are still full from breakfast. Brian isn't and he opts for the lamb shank which looks delicious. After finishing it, Brian soon falls asleep. Not a surprise.

(left) Sleeping Beauty

After a pleasant couple of hours we gird our collective loins and leave for the game, reaching Underhill just in time for kick off.

There are quite a few new faces in for Darlington - the story of the season so far - with loan signings and youth players getting a chance under Staunton.

The first half was excellent from a Darlington perspective - the team looked to have a good shape - the defence looks solid whilst Thomas and Collins up front look lively - and we have several excellent chances - one brings a great save from their keeper whilst the rest were poorly finished. Lack of practice no doubt.

Ian Miller was lost after about 30 mins after a clash of heads - Plummer came on and did well in his stead.

By the time we get to half-time it's a wonder we're not 3-0 up at least. Certainly the best half I've seen from us this season.

Darlo are out early for the second half obviously keen to get going - Barnet though are out much later and look like they've been kept in for a bollocking. If they were, it certainly worked.

The Quakers failed to keep their momentum going and after 15 mins Barnet had taken the lead through a header from a corner.

Barnet kept the pressure on and increased their lead with a breakaway through the middle though their scorer looked offside to most of us on the terraces - we were more or less in line with the backline unlike the linesman who seemed to be behind play (not for the first time).

It had to be said that the referee had an atrocious game too - not that he was to blame for the result but he was extremely poor for both sides - advantage was not given on many occasions and then bad fouls were not punished. Just as well Colin F was absent!

The tie was over a few minutes later as Darlington heads dropped and we were caught napping as a cross came in. Goodnight Vienna, Arrivederci Roma.

(left) Away entrance at Underhill

Tony, John W and Brian headed for the exits and I joined them. We'd seen enough for today.

We caught a City-bound tube with a minute to spare and headed off to the King Charles I at Kings Cross. A decent selection of brews on although sadly no Brodies - Deuchars IPA, Brains SA, Hopback Odyssey and a beer from Palmers whose beers you don't often see.

The jukebox got a bit of hammer - a wide range of music on there from old crooner Andy Williams though early Jethro Tull to classic Motorhead.

Tony was pleased to find some Neil Young whilst John and I were delighted to find one of our old favourites, Big Eyed Beans From Venus by Captain Beefheart - who can resist lyrics such as:

Men let your wallets flop out, and women open your purses

Cause a man or a woman without a big eyed bean from Venus

Is suffering with the worstest of curses

Yeah, you're suffering, with the worstest of curses.

Wonderful stuff, oh my oh my!

After a few pints Tony and John B leave to catch their trains home leaving Brian, John W and I to soldier on.

I move onto bottles of the Brodies Porter. I read the label and suddenly realise that it's over 7% which should be no surprise given my last two visits here when I've left a little worse for wear. I tread more carefully this time and sip instead of sup.

Bev joins us having just watched Chelsea demolish Blackburn 5-0 and then we're later joined by Liz and Jenny who've been up to Bury.

We discuss the arrangements for the Darlo -v- Rotherham fixture next February - train tickets will soon be on sale - and it looks like I'm being tasked with getting the tickets for the London Millers as well as the Capital Quakers. That's going to be a fun day out...

The FA Cup draw has now been made and we've been drawn away to Barnet on Sept 7th. The Lord Nelson will be our meeting place once more.

I Predict A Riot

Despite a London fixture, it was still a relatively early start to the day as John Wilson and I popped to Maries by Waterloo station for breakfast - not up to the high exacting standards that we're used from here to but still better than most.

As we got to the tube, the place was swarming with people clutching various banners and placards - all going to a demo in the centre of London, possibly against the G20 thingy - they all looked quite reasonable folk and not the hard-core protesters that are predicted for later in the week.

It reminded us both of that fateful day back in March 1990 when we beat Barnet 2-0 in the Conference after which we were given a Northern Line express tube journey back into central London to find out that anarchy (or as close as this country gets) had broken out in the form of the Poll Tax riots.

Perhaps this was a good omen for the day?

On arrival at Barnet, we met Steve Duffy and Trevor Rutter and we headed to our first point of call, a Fullers outlet, the White Lion. We were very disappointed to find it only had one beer on - Pride - but it was in very good nick.

After a couple of pints, we moved onto another new place - the Lord Nelson - which is a Youngs pub. Already ensconced were Colin, Argyle fan Geoff plus John Bell and a couple of his buddies, including Rod who had already savoured one Darlo victory this season - at Dagenham - so hopefully he'd be another lucky omen for us.

Our final pre-match pub was the Olde Mitre - the quality and variety of beers here have been very disappointing in recent years though comments on beerintheevening.com had suggested the place was improving. Nevertheless, we decided to just have the one in here.

There seem to be three regular beers - Black Sheep, Adnams Broadside and GK Abbot - plus a guest beer which on this occasion was Mr Tod from the Fox Beer Company so we opted for that. It was a 4.2% beer - produced by a former head brewer at Tetleys apparently - quite a light beer, not much taste and of a rather dull condition - which was not really surprising as it went off just after we'd bought our pints.

We managed to get to Underhill just in time for kick-off and we made sure that we were stood with Colin. The reason was that the referee for the game was Premiership official, Alan Wiley, and since Colin is well known for his loud ranting at officials, it would be interesting to see how he coped with one of the top refs.

During the first-half there was ample scope for him - Danny Carlton was taken out at one point whilst poor Ricky Ravenhill was on the receiving end of some nasty tackles on several occasions (though unkind commentators might say that is karma in action). Wiley was lenient in the extreme and Barnet were lucky to keep eleven players on their famous slope.

Barnet had gone closest in the first half, hitting the woodwork (which is off-target in my book) whilst Calyton Fortune skied a good opportunity at the other end.

In the second half, Colin found that Matt Lockwood, formerly of Orient, was down our side and he proceeded to give him a load of gip. Surprisingly, Lockwood took it well and even shouted something witty and polite back which rather non-plussed our Eastwood Dynamo.

We were also privy to some excellent play from Abbot - including the odd nutmeg - and he was on the end of some good work on the left-wing from Danny Carlton to put us in the lead.

Thereafter we were under the cosh somewhat and the defence stood up to most of it with Alan White playing a blinder - what they missed was either saved by Oakes or blasted over by the Barnet forward line.

Oakes was taken off with an ankle injury with towards the end of the game after what looked to be an innocuous clash with Paul Furlong - cue reserve keeper Kazimierczak and a severe bout of jitters for the Darlo fans - would our young Pole rise to the occasion?

Oh me of litte faith! He did us proud with at least two wonderful saves which along with a goal-line clearance from Rob Purdie saw us run down the clock for our first win here for 13 years. Very sweet.

Post-match celebrations were held at the Wenlock Arms, just off the City Road, which is a very well-known pub for we beardy-weirdies. Suffice to say it had the usual array of interesting beers and we were able to watch England trounce Slovakia. Various DAFTS drifted off to catch trains home leaving just John, Geoff and myself - when the jazz band started we called it a day...