Making myself a lucky charm…. St Albans City v Chelmsford City

Hello!

Welcome to another entry into my groundhopping diary, today I made my third visit to Clarence Park for St Albans v Chelmsford.

All of my visits to Clarence Park have come this year (the two other times were last season) but it always seems to be bitterly cold when I visit.

I was lucky today that my girlfriend reminded me to put a jumper on before I left because the first thing that came to my head as I left the house was “blimey it is cold today”.

Anyway the journey up was pleasant as always, it’s genuinely refreshing to get the train to games when I have been so used to driving recently.

In next to no time we found ourselves at St Albans City station, this time we knew exactly where we were going and we meant business.

Now you may be able to tell from the title but I believe that I may be a lucky charm for St Albans, before today I have not seen them lose, and to be fair they played very well in both of the games.

Obviously you can probably guess what the result was today, but I won’t reveal it yet to try and keep you reading…

I had seen a lot of stuff on social media surrounding the ticket prices at St Albans but my student ticket was £6, which is very reasonable for this level. The £18 charge for an adult ticket is a bit steep but it isn’t a long way off a lot of other National League South clubs.

We got into the ground about an hour before kick off, which gave us just enough time to develop frostbite in our feet, I really miss watching football in the sun.

The first half started and Chelmsford City looked the better side against a St Albans outfit they were expected to beat.

If you are an avid reader of my blog then you will remember that I am on 99 goals for 2019, so going into this match I was desperate for my 100th to be a 40 yard screamer or a bicycle kick.

It was neither of these, but actually it was a wonderfully worked team goal.

Two incisive Chelmsford passes cut open the defence and Shaun Jeffers then slotted the ball home.

Relief was probably my overriding emotion at half time because it meant that we needed to walk to other end of the ground (fans of non league will know why this is the case).

This was finally an opportunity to get some blood pumping around my body and get rid of my impending bout of pneumonia. I really am dramatic about the weather, anyone would think i’ve just moved here from the Sahara desert…

The game completely switched in the second half as St Albans really took the game by the scruff of the neck and fought their way back into it. They managed their equaliser mid way through the second 45 with a fairly scrappy goal, but that doesn’t matter, they all count the same.

The rest of the game was fairly innocuous as neither team really deserved to get a winner, so in the end the points were shared.

Chelmsford’s fans weren’t particularly happy at the full time whistle but to be fair this wasn’t the worst performance I had seen from them this season, far from it actually, so I didn’t join in.

I didn’t get the chance to have a burger today so my weekly review can’t be done, but I will be sure to get one next week.

So yes, three St Albans games seen and 0 losses for the Saints, so if anyone at the club wants to give me a season ticket they won’t be in their current predicament for much longer!

Thanks for reading!

• GROUND: Clarence Park
• GAME: St Albans City 1 v 1 Chelmsford City
• COMPETITION: National League South
• GROUND NUMBER: Already been
• WOULD I GO BACK: Yep (obviously)
• TICKET PRICE: £6 (student)