Step 3 - 10/12/11 Tring Athletic vs Harringey Borough, Grass Roots Stadium, Cow Lane, Tring

First and foremost I know I said I'd have this up before Christmas but you know what? I was busy. Turkey and beer will always come first, sorry loyal reader.

Now come on a journey with me back to more innocent times, transport yourself back to 2011, the year the world started going tits up, a good year for fans of royal wedding memorabilia and a bad year for lonely dictators. A time when our rabble also visited the village of Tring for the upper-mid table clash between Tring Athletic and Harringey Borough.

The excitment generated from this very blog and the expected step up in class gained us a few extra bodies and with 2 regulars also running late due to overdosing on fun (and alcohol) we were to have our biggest ever following of 11 come kick off. Hinton couldn't have coped!

Massive

The excitement was tangible.

So first impressions of Tring? Well it took long enough to get there, the train station is about 20 miles from Tring. Seriously this could only be called Tring if Ryanair flew there. It took us near 30mins to walk to the Pub which was the closest part of Tring to us. Luckily for us it was a nice day and a stroll was not unwelcome however there is absolutely nothing of any note on said walk except our first glimpse at The Grass Roots Stadium on Cow Lane and holes in the pavement.

Road, pavement, tree the long lonely walk from the station.

An amusing hole in the pavement, the most interesting thing between station and pub, made it all worthwhile.

30 mins later.

To be honest there wasn't much time left to explore so that is literally all I have got on Tring as a destination exept the Robin Hood Inn pub which was more than a welcome site. It was stuffed to the gills on a Saturday lunchtime so we squeezed in and ordered ale and food sharpish. I spotted a poster advertising their Tuesday sausage and mash night and that was enough for me, bring the bangers. Food was good and really tasty but whoever invented the massive triangular plate it was served on was an idiot. Pints in us and stragglers caught up so it was time for the walk to the hallowed ground.   

Nice wee pub, seem to be able to find a decent boozer at each step so far.

Stupid angular awkward plate still grinds my gears.

So about half way back the way we came from the station was Cow Lane, easy to find since we basically walked past it on the way to the pub right? Wrong. In our haste we went the wrong way. 3G lacking in the countryside we reverted to my homing pigeon abilities and found us a neat short cut via another football pitch which we probably weren't supposed to be on. After a very dodgy/tipsy climb over a fence complete with large testicle worryingly dangerous spikes we got to Cow Lane about 5 mins after kick off. Bit disappointed as it was the first one we missed but managed to get in and nab the last programme.

Pitch Invasion with spikes emphasised by Author.

Cracking wee programme filled with info, loving the Match Sponsors too. Here's to John, Mick and Alan.

 On with the football. Entered the ground at 0-0 and quickly realised that, although there were loads of supporters cars parked outside, most were watching the rugby on the pitch to our right. Where we were sat it was like flicking between chanels when nowt is happening on one or tother. The rugby looked pretty decent, though I could only see about half the pitch.

It was an exciting moment as we took our seat in the first raised seating area of our travels, not only would we remain dry but we will have an elevated view too. Quickly spotted some plastic cups doing the rounds and volunteered one of our lot to get the pints in. One could get used to this upper league comfort.

Sunshine and lollipops.

Now the thing that has struck me most is the step up in obvious quality between the leagues. Although not quite the same gulf as the last 2 leagues it was plain to see again, it helped that both teams were positive from the start. Tring as you would expect from the home team settled into the game best and based on the first 10 minutes you could only see one team winning. Or could you...

Against the run of play Harringey broke quickly and number 10 rifled the ball into the roof of the net from an acute angle. The tide had turned and within a short period of time Harringey had doubled their lead with a lob from well outside the area, definitely in the running for goal of our tour. The Borough strike force was starting to look the part. That period of attacking football was some of the best we had seen so far and Tring looked like they might be on to a hiding. A very good half ended with Harringey dominant.

The big boot upfield.

 On a more disappointing note the first incident of 'Jessyism' was spotted when No 9 was deemed to be wearing gloves. I truely thought they were made of more in the lower leagues. Tring to their credit were completely ungloved, if only titles were decided on such things. Sigh. The only way to continue now will be to see if the occurances increase through the leagues, it's obviously much more rife than first expected, I will investigate and report with my findings.

A sad day.

Now for those who missed last months blog here's a review of the half time snack scoring system: Culinary expert 'S' will be the taste tester for each ground from now on so we have a level playing field to judge the nosh on. Pies, being the traditional food of choice, will take prioroty but in such case as a pie is not available a burger will be substituted. Food will be rated out of 5 stars. 1 being poor, 2 being average 3 being good 4 being very good and 5 being excellent.


As a new feature and in addition to the above an extra + will be awarded for the serving of bovril. This will not have affected Hinton or Cockfosters scoring as Bovril was unavailable at their grounds. The new maximum score will now be 5 + stars increased from a plain 5 stars.

Subject B

Score - 2*
Tasting expert 'S' approved of the addition of optional onions although overall quality was down on previous tests, cheese was undermelted and burger a little lacking in meat girth but tasty overall. The biggest downside was the bun which was cheap and fluffy, tasting 'weird'. A decent effort and no more. The addition of the bovril was an elixir on a cold afternoon and helped add extra beefiness.

The expert knows how to make the ladies swoon, beefy.

Clubhouse Interior

The clubhouse was well kitted out and seemed to have been renovated relatively recently, locals were noticeably friendlier than at Cockfosters but as we know from living in London, Londoners could do with lessons in pleasantness. Definitely something we will be considering in our future game selections. While having our refreshments the state of the ongoing sweepstake, initiated just prior to kick off, was reviewed. 2-0 and 5-0 to the home team being off the cards I bowed out early.

Fix

The distraction of the sweepstake out of the way I was left free to concentrate on the game as the sun set over Cow Lane. Harringey Borough started how they left off and looked the more likely to cement their lead but once again the sand shifted and after 10 minutes Tring were right back at them. Tring pulled a goal back around the 70th minute and set the game up nicely for the finale. To be honest the goal was right at the far end from us and I saw not a jot of it but from Trings own website it was 'Humphreys who pulled it back for Paul Jeffrey to sweep home'. Go Jeffers.

A lonely fan gives the Harringey defence a rollocking for some sloppy defending.

It became a little bit scrappy for the next 15 minutes or so and tension rose after a late tackle which led to some handbags. Aside from that it was cold with periods of half chances. This respite gave us a chance to reflect on the ground and the scary tree at the far end and how placing you pint on a concrete pillar is a handy feature when hands are cold. Yep it was that enthralling.

Scary Tree

Handy Feature

Time flew by with such inane frivolities right until the 90th minute when Harringey broke from defence raced up the pitch and walloped it in from right in front of us, 3-1 surely that was it, only injury time to go, but almost immediately Tring scored another and it was 3-2 to Harringey could Tring rescue a point and send us into a frenzy...?

Fat Ref

No, the fat ref blew it up and we sloped off to the clubhouse after an excellent game. Pretty thrilling stuff despite the lull towards the end and then only for one last flurry of excitement to send us off with the proverbial happy ending. Bravo.

So by now you know the score back to the club house, alcohol and obligatory scorecard. All of which can been seen below. But 'wait' I hear you cry 'who won the sweepstake?'. Well much like a 80's ITV game show we all shouted gamble at the winner hoping they would risk it all on a flight of fancy and throw it all into the clubhouse draw. The madness went to her brain and we bought 10 draw tickets only to leave with nothing. The disappointment could only have deepened if the clubhouse wall had slid back to reveal the speedboat we could have won. But then what would we do with a boat in Archway?

No idea where we are off to next looking forward to it though based on this game. Today's facts and figures below.

Just time for a quick pint and the obligatory score card.

Ticket price - £5 

Beer Price - Pint Guiness £2.75

Burger/Pie Price - £2.50 . 2+/5 star rating.

Crowd - 73.

Score 2-3 Away Win

Scorers:

TA: Paul Jeffrey (75), Che To (90+5)

HB: Roland Namquita (27), Darrell Cox (34), Christopher Benjamin (90)

(Taken from Tring Athgletic Website  http://www.tafc.co.uk/report.php?fixture_id=1702 )

Facilities

Bar - Yes 7.5/10

Food - Yes

Stand - Yes raised and covered for about 50 people on long clubhouse side, covered areas elsewhere for about another 100.

Programme - Yes £2 - good in-depth knowledge, stat heavy. 

Fanzine - No

Club Shop - No

Hospitality - No