1998 has turned out to be a pretty unsuccessful year for us yellows - only one win. Fortunately the footie season stops in April and the slate is wiped clean in September. And for us, the slate is still pretty much unsullied here on November 12.
31 October 1998
Beckenham 0 Croydon United 1
In the Sunday papers there were a couple of articles bemoaning the good state of Premiership pitches in the current spate of gales and floods, fondly reminiscing of the days when one small shower would turn the Baseball Ground, for example, into a morass upon which, say, Dave Mackay and Norman Hunter would slither into collision courses from thirty yards distant.
Those people should have been in the Rec for this one, an epic in the mud, and which will guarantee an enjoyably seventies retro feel to the pitch for the rest of the season. Where are those Admiral yellow shirts with the pointy blue collar and cuffs again?
The game was an attritional classic of its type, lost by a harsh first-half penalty. It stopped raining about ten minutes from the end but no-one noticed. The kit bag, weighed down with half of the mud of Beckenham, could hardly be moved afterwards.
17 October 1998
Hayes Lane 6 Beckenham 0
If you play in central defence, like I do, losing six-nil is about as bad as it gets. When the centre forward scores five of them, it gets worse. When you personally have put in good tackles on him on two of those occasions, only to find him two yards further on with the ball at his feet, even worse. On a third occasion he completely disregarded my presence and knocked it round me as I slid in for the ball and missed by a mile.
And I suspect he may be about ten years younger than me too. Hmmmm.
Worse still, we thought this lot would be fellow strugglers, very much the type of game we thought was winnable.
10 October 1998
Beckenham 1 Oakhall 2
We played quite well here, scoring what to date is our only goal of the campaign, and deserved something out of the game. Not to be though.
To end the day I mistook my house keys for the keys to the changing rooms, and posted them through the door of the person who runs the Rec.
3 October 1998
Beckenham 0 West Croydon 5
Well, I missed this one actually, so no report. Apparently the score was a bit harsh though.
Back to the big home page
Last updated 12 November 1998
