It’s the hope that kills you.

Well. It’s been a while since i’ve done one of these. Mostly down to the lack of live football i’ve watched over the past 18 months. Largely the fact that we’ve been in a global pandemic. Which for Dorchester fans (may i reiterate, purely from a football perspective) had probably been the least negative it’s been for a number of years due to not having to endure losing football matches every Saturday. And with that being the other reason, with said form being a lack of motivation to want to bother. Then of course a new season began…

This blog though will summarise what is actually my third Dorchester game of the 2021-22 season. The first being a pre-season friendly at home to Hungerford Town and the visit to Harrow Borough in the SPL. Both of which recorded 2-0 defeats for the Magpies. Both games did offer signs of promise, albeit at different stages of this seasons development.

The third? Chesham United away. A fixture I’ve begrudgingly managed to attend countless times since we got relegated into this league back in 2014. In what is usually a very commutable trip, I’d literally noticed from looking at the fixture list a week ago this game was coming up. I figured as I’m actually off this Saturday and could potentially go, though given an expected lack of numbers from London exiles and a poor run of form results wise, I was in 2 minds if i’d bother. Fast forward to Wednesday night and guess what Dorch do? We only go and bloody win away at Tiverton. The buzz from this result and a chance to build a bit of momentum I thought, “fuck it lets do it”.

Vossy being the only other London based supporter coming to the same decision, despite him having a tight work schedule this weekend, we planned our travel arrangements. Having moved to E17 earlier this year, Walthamstow to Chesham was about as straight forward a Dorch away day could get. Walthamstow to Kings Cross. Kings Cross to Chesham. Piece of piss right? So Friday night, I whack open the old CityMapper app to figure out which tubes to get. Oh great, the Metropolitan Line is part suspended from Wembley Park to Northwood. This automatically ruled Vossy out as a 19:00 shift on Saturday would be cutting it too fine. But i’d already invested the energy over the past couple days I decided to stick it out and brave the potential replacement bus service.

What was to follow Saturday afternoon was nothing short of a clusterfuck and i’m not even talking about the result here. More to come on that shortly. I decided to leave 1.5 hours earlier than i’d originally intended due to the engineering works. Left my flat at 11:45 for my 5 minute walk to Walthamstow tube, still plenty of time to make it to Chesham, sure. Smoothly travelled the first part of the journey and hopped on the replacement bus at Wembley Park. No issues, I was mentally prepared for this. The bus journey to Northwood took as long as expected. What CityMapper didn’t say until now was i’d still have to get 2 tubes to make it to Chesham which seemed a bit unnecessary. At this point I knew i’d be cutting it fine to make kick off. Waiting on the platform at Northwood there was no sign of a tube coming. By which point it was already 2pm and the trains that were due didn’t turn up. Then at 14.30 the announcer announced that all trains were suspended and the bus routes to Chesham would take over 2 hours. I had very little choice but to turn back and go home. I wasn’t even gonna go until 3 days ago i didn’t plan on spending 3 hours fucking around in the arse end of North West London!

While at the bus stop waiting for the rail replacement bus back I checked Ubers after a DTFC director very kindly offered to shout a taxi to help a friend and fellow Dorchie. Assuming I was still miles away from Chesham it turned out the price was less than I’d anticipated. And with half an hour until kick off I unwisely jumped on the first cab to Chesham. Against all odds i’d arrived at the Meadow ground dead on kick off. After all that we better fucking win!

Now for the more boring part. The game. Whilst off the back of win midweek I always get some anxiety about making sure we back that up. Chesham lying 1 place and 1 point above us, this was a big opportunity to build that momentum. The first half seemed a fairly even affair and we looked fairly comfortable. Tom Purrington and Wednesday’s hat trick hero Alfie Stanley coming closest for the Dorch while defensively we looked very assured with the chances Chesham were throwing at us. The gameplan seemed similar to what i’d been told happen at Tiverton and going into half time goalless would probably be a fair reflection of the half and the chance to push on in the second. However, right on half time we were hit with a sucker punch. A Chesham corner was whipped in which was cleared only for Ronny Mfinda to sweetly volley home from the edge of the box.

Vital we build after the break, 4 minutes into the half we gift Chesham a second goal. A loose ball was floated in towards Thiago Casa De Silva for an easy clearance, poor communication meant he let the ball bounce for AWH to collect but Brad Clayton nipped in to lob home. Suddenly we had a mountain to climb. However, we got straight back into the game. Some good play found Alfie Stanley who created space for himself and finished a one on one and it was game on again. From then on Dorch were push for that equaliser, that man Stanley with the best of the chances doing well to fire a shot narrowly wide of the post.

The interim management duo of Brian Churchill and Craig Robinson took off Charlie Madden and brought on Rudy Plummer to make a go of it. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off as this allowed Chesham to create space in attack and with about 15 minutes to go after a bit of pinball around our box they scored the third and it was effectively game over. Chesham’s tails were up and took advantage of our lack of defence and attacked us with ease, scoring twice more to give them a rather flattering 5-1 scoreline.

Trains seemed well and truly fucked around this part of the country with none running from Chesham or nearby Amersham. I was given a lift to Amersham, where the journey back to London seemed much less stressful than the one up. (Another) replacement bus to Beaconsfield, then a train to Marylebone and standard tubes meant I was home just in time for Strictly.

So another poor result and highly frustrating afternoon all round. Despite results this season staying largely the same, by all accounts we’d been hard to beat, usually losing by the odd goal. Typically we finally play a side in an around us and we get our first league hiding of the season. Now we have another huge game at home to Hartley Witney on Tuesday night, vital we pick up 3 points from this and hopefully a managerial appointment is imminent.

As the old saying goes, it’s the hope that kills you. So much so, a last minute Uber to watch us get tonked 5-1 is the fitting life of a Dorch fan. Although a rare novelty these days with more personal and professional commitments taking precedence, today was a reminder that there is still that desire hidden away to support the club. Despite all the bitter defeats and turmoil we’ve been through the past few years, we still put ourselves through it and I have nothing but respect to each and every Dorch supporter who does this week in week out. It’s vital we now appoint the right manager who can hopefully, maybe, finally, FINALLY bring the club some success our fans well and truly deserve. FR.