Rushden 12/01/08

F.A.Trophy

L 3-0

Attendance: 1098

Matchday report Kirstie Bowden. 

The weather was the popular topic on the journey to Rushden. We passed flooded fields and snow topped hills with the weather inside the bus equally changeable, artic one minute and tropical the next. The changing conditions had an effect on Marges teaboy, who attentively noted down drink orders, only to be somewhat unpredictable when serving. Chances were if you ordered a coffee you would receive a tea.

Once at Nene Park, we were faced with a choice - upstairs bar or downstairs bar. We followed the masses up the stairs and along the corridor, even past the Board Room. We tried to get Marge to go in and announce herself as the Chairman, she does after all, go to all the games but she refused! The upstairs bar was better described as a hospitality suite, with the windows on one side of the large room providing a good vantage point onto the pitch, just above the tunnel. We took advantage of their £5 meal offer and had our orders taken by a waiter. This, combined with the expensive and posh feel of the area, led Marge to announce "I feel like I'm in Buckingham Palace". After a short time our meals arrived, and to save this article descending into a culinary review I will simply say that both the food and service were exceptional!

Attention soon turned to the Rushden team warming up on the pitch. As they left the pitch we succeeded in our mission to get ex-Grecian Jon Challinor to wave to us. Soon after, City started to arrive and we counted them out on to the pitch. Tiz acknowledged us with a wave, but the others were oblivious to our presence, or more likely, ignoring us. Marge was having none of this and tapped on the window to get Berties attention. It looked a lost cause until just before disappearing down the tunnel he looked up and gave Marge a little wave, making the journey worthwhile for her!

Quite soon it became clear that Jamie Mackie had not travelled, fuelling speculation that, given the abundance of transfer rumours currently circulating, he had left. Given the well known fact that Jamie is my favourite player, I was subjected to a bit of abuse. Chants of 'Where's your Jamie gone?' were followed by offers to start removing the 'Mackie' from the back of my shirt, and a suggestion to replace the 'M' with 'FL' and turn my shirt into a tribute to the great striker, Steve Flack!

Inside the ground, as the teams were announced it became clear that on the comparative strength of the teams, Rushden were 'more up for the Cup' than we were. Although Rob Edwards nearly scored very early on, this was to remain our only serious goal scoring opportunity. The game was incredibly disappointing for the 147 City fans who had made the journey and paid the astronomical £16 entrance fee. City lacked application on the pitch, whilst some Rushden players, namely Simeon Jackson, had a little too much. He chose to apply the Tim Sills approach to football in an incident which led to Rico getting sent off. The final score was 3-0, a score which in line with their below par performance City deserved, but the fans did not. Travelling back to Devon we had 4 extra passengers, who following an earlier breakdown, thought that they were 'lucky' in getting to Rushden to see the game. Retrospectively it became clear that Adrian, who missed the game accompanying the broken car home, was the lucky one and somewhat envied on the long journey home!