Happy belated New Year everyone!
I hope you all celebrated well, I certainly did as I was working until 12:30 on NYE..
Anyway I had a week off from Groundhopping last week but as Thin Lizzy would say “The boys are back in town”, as me and my friend were on Saturday.
We thought the first tick of 2020 must be the long awaited trip to the Wibbandune Sports Ground for Balham FC v Egham Town in the Combined Counties Premier Division.
For some reason we thought that driving through South London on a Saturday lunchtime would be a good idea, so we decided to drive rather than get a train.
Big mistake.
It took the best part of two hours to get there, and once we were within touching distance of the ground, my Sat Nav failed with it’s one job and misdirected us.
Luckily we saw the ground and managed to find our way in and grab the last parking space, thank god.
Our first impression of the ground wasn’t the best as it looked like it was basically just a football pitch in a park with a small stand.
To be honest the entertainment on and off the pitch really did make up for this.
The first half saw Egham take a commanding 3-0 lead, the first couple of goals were well worked moves that lead to simple finishes.
The same could not be said about the third as an Egham player (who’s name I cannot remember) scored an absolute scorcher from about 30 yards just before half time.
Goal of the year for me.
I was disappointed to find that they did not do burgers but they did sell 7UP which is a massive bonus.
Going into the second half it looked pretty bleak for Balham, 3-0 down and they couldn’t seem to break down Egham’s defence at all.
But after one excellent free kick and two more well worked goals, they found themselves level going into the closing stages.
At this point we were fully fledged Balham fans, due to the fact that we were sitting near a couple of Egham fans that were shouting at the ref after EVERY decision.
This is my pet hate, especially when I thought the referee had a good game, but these two blokes were really annoying so we were routing for a late Balham winner.
And you’ll never guess what….
It actually happened, Istanbul 2005, St James’ Park 2011, Anfield 2019 and now the Wibbandune Sports Ground 2020, the greatest comebacks in football history.
The goal was quite scrappy but who cares, what a game to kick off 2020 and fair play to both sides for a thoroughly entertaining game.
The drive back was much better as I decided to just go around the M25 and we were back to Greenwich in what felt like no time.
We are off to Sandhurst next week so watch out for my blog again!
- GROUND: Wibbandune Sports Ground
- GAME: Balham FC 4-3 Egham Town
- COMPETITION: Combined Counties Premier Division
- GROUND NUMBER: 69
- WOULD I GO BACK: Probably
- TICKET PRICE: £7
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