The Southern Premier League is the strongest it has been in years, and there is no better barometer of this than the quality of the away games. Good riddance Dunstable, Hendon and Hayes, greetings to Marlow, Chertsey and Frome. Having to watch a game at Havant? Well, you can’t have everything. And it was Marlow that was the delightful setting for our latest round of the mildly infuriating game of ‘two dropped or one gained’ as we were left to ponder what might have been on Saturday. Having twice let a lead slip to eventually come away with a point, after playing about half an hour with 10 men.
We won’t visit many better places than Marlow this season, with its delightful old style ground, plethora of pubs en route, and its brilliant array of restaurants and wonderful scenery. It is the perfect sort of place you’d go for a weekend away, which is exactly what my partner and I did. Marlow was, of course, chosen at random, so you can imagine my surprise when I found out that Dorch were playing there that same weekend. A stunning coincidence, and the sort of thing that has happened before as my Mother will readily tell me of a weekend spent in York with my Dad when it turned out Pompey were playing there that weekend, and a friend from the BTP once took his girlfriend to a spa retreat in the Cotswolds, to then find his beloved Scunthorpe were playing at Forest Green Rovers. I mean, what are the chances?
When researching our trip to Marlow, The Girlfriend and I quickly worked out that it was an expensive place to stay. The solution? Stay for a fraction of the price in nearby Maidenhead and take the train to Marlow. And for those veterans of the non-league circuit, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but The Honeypot near Maidenhead’s ground is no more. RIP to The Honeypot and all who sailed in her. But for a Friday night stay, the Maidenhead Travelodge was more than sufficient as we carried out some Friday reconnaissance in Marlow. Taking the train from Maidenhead to Marlow on a service known as ‘The Marlow Donkey’, we had possibly the best meal out we’ve ever had at The Coach, with its Michelin star and all, and worked out which pubs seemed the best for our mooch to the ground with the rest of the travelling party. All was set for Saturday’s main event, for The Girlfriend, shopping, coffee, and watching the second half. For me, Magpies and seeing just how badly our travelling fans could fuck up the journey.
The first transport hitch was actually one that affected The Girlfriend and I. After a not quite Michelin starred McDonalds for breakfast, a breakfast that saw me mistaken for a Just Eat delivery driver due to my rather orange coat, we found the Marlow Donkey was temporarily out of action due to a points failure. However, a short Uber journey later and we were back in Marlow where the better half went in search of shops and a hot beverage, and I went to meet the first batch of travelling ‘pies off the Donkey. This was where the next slight travel hitch had taken place as Fred was late getting into Maidenhead, with TG, Joe and Floydy taking The Donkey to Marlow, and Fred having to Uber it there. We all soon met up and were joined by the best sideburns in non-league as The Luth arrived at the Crafty Tap.
If anything can really show how far the club has come on the past few seasons, it is how there is now expectation as well as genuine optimism from fans. You’d have struggled to meet a more miserable bunch of fans not that long ago, whereas now we feel every game is winnable and that the football is actually a highlight of the day rather than something that gets in the way of an afternoon on the piss. The main topic of conversation was what Tommy would do selection wise. The side we put out against Bridport in the Dorset Senior Cup was ridiculously strong, and with several players available again after missing the win on penalties over Tivvy in the FA Trophy, this was the most pleasant of selection headaches to have.
Mentioning the DSC, the attendance of 301 and the side we put out were ridiculous compared to previous years. Many of us have seen lesser Dorch sides and far smaller crowds for midweek league games. Given the weather was fucking awful and that the DSC has never been a crowd favourite, it was a hell of a crowd. Fair play to Bridport as well who scored one of the best goals I’ve seen at the Avenue in a long time and looked a very tidy side.
🚀 What a stunning goal by Riley Weedon! 🎯 Just 6 minutes into our cup game against Dorchester Town FC, Riley set the tone with an absolute screamer! 💥⚽️
— Bridport FC (@Bridportfc) October 10, 2024
Although Dorchester claimed a 4-2 victory, our team showed incredible spirit and came so close to equalizing before their… pic.twitter.com/zAaV1RZC63
Back to all matters Marlow and once we had established that none of us had the faintest idea what Tommy would do, it was off to The Chequers for a final one for the road before the mooch to the Alfred Davis Memorial Ground, and what a ground it is. Marlow are one of the oldest surviving football clubs in world football and the ground is one of the best, from a nerd’s perspective, in the league. With an Edwardian stand on one side, very retro floodlight pylons, decent sized bar and old school terracing, it’s a ground I really liked. But we were here for a beer and for three points, and I’d already got my pint in.
After Floydy had to assure Tommy he wasn’t a thief as he took a closer look at the TSOF sponsor on the back of the away shirt, we had a look at the starting eleven. Unsurprisingly, it was much changed from Bridport, but was a very strong looking side. Gez was back in goal, JD and Hastey occupied the fullback slots with Spetch and Bragg in the centre of defence, Corby and Buse in the middle of the park, and on the more attacking side of things we had Pards, Dawsy, Shaq and Olaf all looking to add to their goal tallies. We were kicking towards the covered end so off there we headed to get behind the team and to stick the flags up.
The latter part of this took far longer than it should have done as the combined brainpower of Bargey and I took what must have been a good ten minutes to put one flag up. World renowned masterpieces have been painted in less time than it took us to raise the Dorset Ooser, but we eventually got there as I overcame my broken fingers to tie an awful knot, and we could both get back on solid ground to watch the game. We’d already had one disallowed by the time Bargey and I finished working at height, with Shaq adjudged to have strayed just offside as he turned the ball in from close range, and no one seemed to know if he was or wasn’t from our angle, but the lino was definitely more proficient at putting a flag up than we were.
I was beginning to wish I’d spent more time putting the flag up as the game wasn’t an especially thrilling watch, and then we went 1-0 up and the previous 20 minutes were forgotten. Marcus Daws cut in from the left and hit an effort towards goal that took a couple of nicks before finding Shaq a yard or so out who gladly turned the ball into the net. A quick glance at the lino to see where his flag was confirmed it was pointing south, so we could celebrate without worry. This was a pretty close copy of the goal Shaq had ruled out, and he seems to have regained the sharpness he was lacking when he came back from his injury after the first few games. This was not the last time Shaq would feature in a significant moment in the game, more on that later…
The goal seemed to settle us somewhat, and we looked a little more relaxed without really creating another clear-cut chance. Marlow equally didn’t seem to look likely to work Gez from anything other than a set-piece as the ball stayed in the middle of the park for large passages of play. With the half’s end approaching, Floydy and I headed in the general direction of the bar, and as we made our way there, some careless play from us gave Marlow a free-kick about 20 yards out. Now, we were now on the side so didn’t have the best view, but the wall and how we were setup looked a bit all over the place from a distance with much shuffling and Shaq being called back to act as a charger. Whatever we did, it didn’t work as the ball went in low via the post to Gez’s left hand side and we had a level game, and I needed a beer.
It was while queuing for this beer that I missed the next important moment as Shaq picked up a yellow card. Reports vary on the severity of this with some Dorch fans saying it was soft and never worthy of a card, others saying he was lucky to stay on, some saying a yellow was fair but the ref only gave it as there was a spot of blood, and the rest either didn’t notice or were too busy annihilating a double bacon cheeseburger. Either way, Shaq was definitely in the book. There was then a bizarre period of what felt like five minutes of timewasting as the fouled Marlow player went back down after treatment, and then the home keeper picked up a phantom leg injury requiring further intervention from the physio. Bargey and I could almost have put a flag up in this time, but the halftime whistle came before anyone else could go down mortally wounded, and we took the flags down with only marginally less issue as Bargey battled with a bungee cord before heading to the far end, Craner’s scream mask in tow.
Thankfully, there was a fence that was far easier to hang flags on at the far end. It was also apparent that we’d travelled really well, again, and that we’d got what I’d guess was 60+ for one of the longer trips of the season. Numbers and atmosphere have been good at almost every away game I’ve been to this calendar year, long may that continue. As the half started the only thing of note was that Ieuan Turner had come on and replaced Tom Bragg, for injury or other reason, we don’t know. There was very little to report as the game had the same pattern as the first half from our perspective as we showed plenty of endeavour but little quality. That was until Corby Moore decided to take matters into his own hands as he restored our lead.
There didn’t seem to be much on when the ball broke to Corby somewhere in the region of 25-30 yards out, so he worked it onto his right foot and stuck it in the top corner to make it 2-1, making an incredibly difficult strike look very easy. I’ll say this is Corby’s second Dorch goal after his free-kick from wide curled all the way in at Beaconsfield last season, but this was a hell of hit and it put us back in the driving seat. Marlow heads seemed to drop a bit and given they were yet to win a game this season, you felt like we should go on and see this one out. But one problem we do seem to have is discipline, and that sadly was an issue again as Shaq was given his second yellow card followed by the inevitable red, leaving us with around half an hour to play with ten men.
I didn’t see the incident particularly well from my vantage point, but there wasn’t much complaint from those around me or really much on the pitch. This was our third red card in nine league games and not keeping our full complement of players on the pitch will catch us out sooner or later. As nice a feeling as it is gaining points when at a numerical disadvantage, I’d rather see us win with eleven men on the pitch. Dawsy came off as Jordan Ngalo made his league return following his suspension, but there wasn’t anything he could do as Malow equalised with 72 minutes played following a flick on being tucked home from what had looked initially quite an innocuous attack.
More changes came as Wayne Robinson and Samadi came on for Buse and Olaf, and despite being a man down and the game becoming scrappy at best, we still had the two best chances to win it. Pardoe drew a very good low save from the keeper after being teed up by Ngalo, with another save of similar quality keeping the scores level soon after. There was still time for one more moment of controversy as Robinson was booked for diving by the ref, with this one fully splitting opinion on the terraces with some convinced he was fouled, others saying he made the most of it at best, if not dived, and that the ref was right. It mattered not as the final whistle came and after applauding the players, we had the next round of ‘two dropped or one gained’ in the bar as we quaffed on our pints of Rebellion ale.
Two dropped was the almost unanimous consensus. Even with ten we’d looked the more threatening, and although a point on the road is not a bad return, even with ten men, it felt like one we should have won. The other points gained with reds, I think, being a 1-1 draw at Winchester, beating Tiverton 2-1 at home, a 1-0 win over Gloucester, a 4-0 victory over Frome, and the 2-2 at Marlow. I’ve not included red cards given to manager or coaches as I think we’ve had a few of those as well… But, even with the draw at Marlow feeling a bit deflating, we’ve taken 10 points from an available 12 in the league, advanced in the FA Trophy, and can go up to fourth if we win at Sholing tomorrow. We are not doing badly by any means. Only got a draw at three of the bottom four? Well we’ve also beaten two of the top three, so it depends of how you want to view the fullness of your glass. One issue that needed a speedy resolution was the fact that Bargey had been blocked in in the car park, one Marlow fan telling him to “fuck off back to posh Dorchester”, which is ironic given how affluent Marlow is – Dorch’s two branches of Waitrose struggling to compete with Marlow’s regatta and Michelin stars in terms of posh-ness. Hopefully it took Bargey less time to get out than it took us to put the fucking flag up. The team bus had no such issues in getting out and there were no major revelations from the journey home, other than The Dodge saying one of his main roles on the bus is to make sure no one goes for a piss when there is a roundabout approaching. So, as The Girlfriend and I took that method of conveyance home – it had been a very good couple of days, even if it felt like we could have got more from the game.
Sholing tomorrow will be another testing game in what is a very tough league. They look to have spent and recruited well and are one place below us in seventh, but I fancy us against anyone at the moment. This is the best club infrastructure from top to bottom, best side, best managerial team, best atmosphere around the place and best supported I’ve known us in a long, long time. I hope this hasn’t cursed us and that we don’t fall to an abject 3-0 loss in the wrong half of Hampshire now I’ve said that.
Up The Magpies, I’ll no doubt see a few of the readership at Sholing tomorrow, I’ll be the one who looks like I’m about to drop off your takeaway. SV.
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