Step 5 - 28/04/12 Cambridge City FC vs Swindon Supermarine, City Ground, Cambridge

Well it took me long enough but as Olympic fever resides and football fever grows I am finally getting round to writing up the latest blog about 3 months late. I know you the loyal reader have been refreshing the page every day itching to see what happened on the final day of the season so for that I am sorry but better late than never.

So back to business Cambridge City vs Swindon Supermarine with all to play for in the push for promotion and relegation respectively in Evostik Southern Premier Division.

Back to the Tube.

This seasons tour had started under scorching skies way back in October at Enfield and would finish with the opposite in complete sh!tty weather. But being the brave souls we are we trudged through the rain to the pub for a pre match pint, burger and friendly game of darts.

The Wet and Lonely Streets of Cambridge

It Was a Heavy Menu

Worst Darts Player Ever

With our souls lifted we continued our trudge to the other end of Cambridge and into an intrustrial estate we thought was the ground. As has become tradition google maps failed us and we had to stoop to talking to a member of the public. Little did we know just who that member of the public was, none other than Ashley Edenborough of Swindon Supermarine fame’s dad. And what a nice man he was helpfully pointing us in the right direction of the magnificent City Ground.

British Summer Fun

Through the turnstiles with 15mins to spare time to pick up a raffle ticket, browse the club shop (first one on our tour) and check out the burgers ahead of the tasting to come. Entering the first club shop of our tour there was a real sense of ‘we made it, the big time’ or maybe it was just relief as we were so cold and they had their electric heater on. Either way the closest of us to frostbite took 15 seconds to snap up a official City fleece for the outrageous price of £5. They probably only need to sell one to offset the electric heater cost! And what a nice fleece it was, stick that up your fleecy jumper MrAbramovic/Glazer/Mansour, delete as appropriate.

The Kiss Was All About the Warmth.

DISASTER...man down! And what a man to lose ‘S’ our resident burger expert, dispite getting to the turnstiles after a 1 ½ hr journey from London, had to go back and rescue a damsel in distress from McDonalds. Reluctantly we agreed that is anyone could save her from McDonalds it would be the burger expert but at this stage the repercussions could be massive. Was this the end? How could we go forward? Was our continuity/credibilty in doubt? Our minds fizzed with fear.

Luckily for the financially challenged student he hadn’t come through the turnstiles as he had been on the phone. Hastily we got together and with some quick tasting pointers passed over the turnstiles (to the bemusement of it’s operator) the criteria for the temporary burger expert ‘P’ was established, the show must go on.

Thai Chicken Curry, How Exotic

It’s at moments like these you realise football is not the be all and end all and some things are just more important in life. However KO was approaching and we must take out seats in the stand. The first was a dour affair to be honest with both teams so much at stake it was nervy and cagey start. Swindon had the better of the opening chances without ever looking like scoring until on 31mins a charging run into the  box drew the foul from the City defender much to the chagrin of the City fans. Edenborough stepped up and cooly slotted it away. His dad would be well proud. A couple more chances came and went, again for the away side, and they really should have put one away when just before half time they missed a sidefooted effort at the back post. 0-1 HT.

First Blood Supermarine

Stop burger time. Mr P had shifted in his seat all first half barely being able to concentrate when he knew this moment was coming. He toddled off to the queue literally sweating pressure and expectation.

As usual here is a quick review of the half time snack scoring system: Culinary expert 'S' will be the taste tester for each ground (except this time see above) so we have a level playing field to judge the nosh on (playing field slightly bumpy now but seamless handover made for as smooth a transition of power as possible). 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. 

An extra "+" will be awarded for the serving of bovril. The maximum score is "5 +".

In The Hot Seat.

Score – 4

In his own words:

"Due to unforeseen circumstances preventing the attendance of our nominated burger-taster 'S' (see above), I found myself unexpectedly charged with the purchase, consumption and evaluation of half-time hot food at Cambridge City's ground. This wasn't a task to take on lightly as our regular taster was very exacting in his burger-scoring methodology - consistency is as important in the assessment of burgers as in their preparation! So I got to the front of the queue and ordered myself up the monster Bacon, Cheese and Fried Egg Burger. 

Beastly

It was a beast! The inclusion of the egg made it feel like a full fry-up in a bap and I have to confess to not seeing it all away myself. It was a good burger, the patty was reasonable quality and the egg yolk a good deep yellow. The inclusion of the egg was controversial and I'm not sure that I'd have this in my burger every weekend. The cheese was nice and fake, I was sure it had had nothing at all to do with a cow at any stage and it would still look the same as pictured in a thousand years. Lovely! Condiments are an issue here, I think it was just tommy K on offer at the counter, but with all that egg, there was plenty of wet. I recall the bacon being OK, not like shoe leather and not raw, it did the business. All in all this was a big feed and at £4 not too bad for the quid-to-calorie ratio. So to the score... I'm going to put this in the top 3 elevenleaguesundertheprem rankings by rating it a solid 3.5. If you get to a match at City's ground and you missed brekky, this burger is all you'll need til tea time!"

Once we had the eating out of the way we had time to sit back and watch a bit of quality football in the shape of the Cambridge yoof praticiing their one on ones on the pitch before forming a guard of honour for the returning footballers. Real community spirit feeling about the whole day. So much so that us Londoners decided to head for the cyincial side of the ground and join the City Ultras on the far side of the pitch.

Community at Work

It was here that were to come across our first chants for the tour up the pyramid. Some standard affairs ‘City, city, city’ and the like but a couple of gems thrown in for good measure. This felt like football proper although not sure I’d missed it that much.

A Swindon effort after 5 mins of the second half which well saved by the City goal keep signalled the end of their dominance and City began to up their game. A rasping volley marked their intention and drew a full stretch finger tip save from the opposition. Cambridge knew without a goal their promotion chance was over. On they pushed.

Spot the Ball

The pressure eventually told on Swindon and at the 70^th minute mark Dave Theobald leapt like an antelope to nod in a cross from the right. 1-1. Cambridge could still make the playoffs but even at 1-1 they needed results elsewhere to go their way, Supermarine simply had to win and likewise hope for the best elsewhere. A draw could be no good for either team.

Instant drama when City were denied a decent penalty shout only for the foul to be adjudged outside the area. The resultant free kick was swung in and City hit the bar before the rebound was bustled into the goal. The crowd went wild and chants rang out around the ground. But wait the linesman stood with his flag up...offside.

Scramblicious

Still City pushed on and on but nothing more than a couple of good half chances came and went. The final whistle sounded. Swindon were down but City must wait for other results to filter through. If only we had a mole at the other game, no one heard anything. Back to the bar and the BBC videprinter to await the outcome of the Frome v Stourbridge game .

Legends...That's a Smug Fart Pose If Ever I Seen One.

"A Fine Representation of the Badge There" - Tony Hart.

People talked in hushed tones over the pints as the scores rolled in until eventually it popped up. Frome had held Stourbridge, City had done enough. With everyone in jubilant mood the end of season player of the year award was handed out to David Theobald and on the basis of the days game alone he probably deserved it. At this point it started to feel like we had joined someone elses party (which is basically exactly what we had done) and so we skulked off to find a pub to call our own back towards the station.

6 People Who Don't Have a Clue What a Camera Is.

Jumping off at Station road to be surrounded by 3 pub options. Brilliant except they were all closed a blot and slight disappointment on an otherwise fine day out. So onwards and upwards to the lofty heights of Blue Square next season, where to next for our entrepid adventurers? Tune in next time to discover their fate.

Ticket price - £8

Beer Price - Pint Guiness £3.50

Burger/Pie Price - £4 . 3.5 star rating.

Crowd - 505.

Score 1-1

Scorers:

0-1 31 mins 9 Ashley Edenborough

1-1 75 mins 10 Mitchell Bryant

Facilities

Bar - Yes 6/10

Food - Yes

Stand - Yes raised and covered for about 500 people on long clubhouse side, covered areas elsewhere for about another 300.

Programme - Yes £2.00 

Fanzine - No

Club Shop - Yes - Shirt Price £35