Forgive me father for I have sinned.

It is 44 years and 4 months since my last confession. Actually not being Catholic it is technically my first confession and you lot need to be at your mostly priestly as you respect that well know phenomenon that exists between blog reader and traumatised football supporter – the Lost Confidentiality Fox Clause or LCFC (see what I did there).

I was ensconced in my favourite middle class North London coffee emporium, partaking of my weekend bagel (sesame seeds, warmed up, butter in a dish on the side and no jam, thank you). I was perusing the football fixtures for all leagues. And I came upon TATTPIB’s fixture. And I had a ‘pang’.

[Pang] Noun. A sudden feeling of mental or emotional distress or longing. Origin – uncertain. 1495-1500

I was due at Clarence Park for the game against Corby Town. I had a plan for the morning’s domestic tediums and I knew my train times, arriving in good time for the now traditional pre-match snack. And then I saw it TATTPIB. Playing at Charlton – a small jaunt across London, to a ground with a bit of character (let us conveniently forget the fact I have never experienced anything other than DEFEAT there) and I was tempted to go……..My first potential wagon-falling off moment. I wrestled with it.

“These are my rules I can change them any time I like.
But what would I write abut for the blog?
I could lie…pretend I went to St Albans.
But the people who read this blog are colleagues, friends, family how could I look them in the eye? What kind of a Judas are you Lost Fox? Are you pretending to enjoy the SACFC roller coaster? Just fooling the reader?
No. I just realised today that I do miss the noise of 20,000+ people singing.
Well book a ticket for a rugby international and in the meantime get your easily distracted backside down to Clarence Park.”

It looked like I had gone through that moral dilemma for little reward as we headed to a frustrating 0-0, with an inability to convert possession into goals. Although the bacon fries were of course excellent (and there was some gentle badinage with the raffle ticket seller on the subject of the colour yellow. Mmmm…you probably had to be there for that one).

Until that 88th minute winner. And then the impulsive fist-clenching, jack-in-a-box-bouncing, accompanied by a not very ladylike, attracts-slightly-odd-looks full throated roar of YEESSSSSSSS, told me that I might just have made the right decision and that this easily distracted backside will be in attendance at Clarence Park for the foreseeable.

Match stats
St Albans 1 (Henry, 88) Corby Town 0.
Attendance 373.
Raffle Tickets purchased 5. Prizes won 0.
Bacon Fries consumed. 1 packet.
Lager consumed. A modest half.
Acts of commitment from dithering Fox. 1 (replica shirt ordered)

And finally this weeks TILT. It might not be a ground on a par with the stadia that ‘grace’ the Premiership but we do have space for the cameras. Look!

Is he from Match of the Day?

A close up of our camera man

The worst thing about going away (I mean away on holiday, not in the ‘opposite to a home fixture’ sense) is the coming back. Not only are you returning to reality, and the proposition that what you have eaten and drunk for the past x number of days is probably not a sustainable lifestyle choice if you want to see your next birthday, but there is also the return journey.

Now admittedly travelling back from Edinburgh on Saturday with the better half did involve first class train tickets (book em in advance kids and then collect as many free sandwiches, crisps and biscuits as you can for a truly satisfying, artery-furrying bargain) but it still means you’re a step closer to going back to work and 5 hours on the train goes much slower when the adventure is ending. Then of course choosing to travel home on a Saturday (no I am not sure why I opted for that return date either) which caused the inevitable fixture clash. But I had my phone, so I could still follow the home game against Banbury. And by half time I confess, the pain of missing the game was reducing. It was 0-0, we weren’t exactly setting the world alight and there was a small monsoon sitting over Clarence Park (slightly worse than the extreme air-con that East Coast trains seems overly fond of). Little did I know what was going to come next.

BOSH! Seventeen minutes left and we are up 1-0. By the time I have excitedly nudged better half in the ribs (his celebration was suitably effusive…ahem) and tweeted my excitement, bloody Banbury have equalised. Hardly time for me to curse briefly before the buggers have taken the lead. Cue short sulk from yours truly and vague look of pity (or was it a ‘don’t come between man and his Saturday newspaper’ hard stare) from the beloved. But the football gods have not finished with us yet. A Saints equaliser!!! in the 89th minute. And before I have even got the celebratory tweet off we have scored a 90th minute winner. So my equalising tweet becomes a winning tweet and the better half goes on yet another short diatribe about my decision to abandon TATTPIB, no doubt to aid my celebrations…

Strange, but that remaining, train-locked, hour and forty five minutes as we crawled into Kings Cross didn’t seem so bad.
TLF

For a proper match report
http://www.sacfc.co.uk/index.php/2012-04-10-18-56-53/latest-result/2278-saints-leave-it-late-against-banbury.html

Yes I know it isn’t football related but how lovely does Edinburgh look on a sunny day?

I’m not sure if any of you are superstitious? As anyone who knows me from my TATTPIB days can confirm I do have a tendency to clutch at any straw, no matter now flimsy. The lucky 7 steps along the small wall past the hospital, the lucky bear, the lucky pants, don’t wash your lucky pants until you lose (NOT recommended), don’t text during a game etc etc. And as my pre-match snack of a packet of bacon fries and half a Stella obviously ensured our win against Hungerford Town I am now committed to a constant pre-match salty fried snack and a beer. What a shame. It’s a tough job being a supporter some times. Grateful I didn’t have an apple and a fizzy water.

And the match itself? Well this as you know is not a blog focussed totally on the match and so I will refer you to the match report here:

http://www.sacfc.co.uk/index.php/2012-04-10-18-56-53/latest-result/2274-saints-2-hungerford-town-0.html

In terms of TLF match stats the important stuff: St Albans 2 Hungerford Town 0. Attendance 383. Raffle Tickets purchased 5 Prizes won 0.

Definitely worth the evening jaunt over to St Albans (house purchase still a work in progress) and I got to speak to John, the volunteer and all round provider of pithy one liners, who tells me that compared to most of the other grounds in our League, Clarence Park is “like Wemberlee” (although he probably doesn’t spell it like that). He also seemed amused that such was the urge to turn the TV on when TATTPIB’s game was on Sky the other Sunday that I had to go out for a walk.

Finally on this bonus blog a fanfare for our new feature. TLF’s Thing I Learnt Today. My TILT. Ok technically it won’t always be typed up ‘today’ but Thing I Learnt Two Days Ago Or Maybe Three so my TILTDAOMT sounds ridiculous.

So, here goes. At Clarence Park, those fans who like to stand behind the goal that the mighty Saints are attacking do something that I have only ever read about happening many moons ago in League football. At half time (or just before kick off if the coin toss is lost) they walk round to the other goal so they can be behind the goal we are attacking for the whole game. A minor thing I accept but I had never witnessed it before and it is the little things that make the difference.

Happy days. TLF

You don’t get to see trees at Old Trafford!

St Albans City Football Club 8 MK Dons XI 1 (13/07/13)

My first game at Clarence Park, but I’m not calling it my official debut. More a sort of pratice run. How do I justify this? (and thus ensure that I can make a big blog FUSS of my official debut)…well it was

a) a friendly

b) because there is no segregation to speak of (more on this another day) you don’t know who is supporting who…Or is it whom? Anyway the point is that the segregation on Saturday was on the lines of those who are going to be sensible and sit in the shade on day one of the “Killer Heatwave” (copyright Daily Express) and those who are going to join the mad dogs, englishmen and lost foxes and sit out in the noonday sun (kick off wasn’t actually noon but don’t ruin a good line with quibbling please people) and bake.

c) we were playing munchkins

When I say munchkins I do mean very skilful munchkins but they were the Academy team from MK Dons so between about 14 and 17. Some were big for their age and some looked like wee stick men that would have weighed about 6 stone wringing wet. This blog isn’t really about detailed match reports and I am thinking of a plan for how match reports will go in the future. But for now all you need to know is that on Saturday it was almost too hot to watch football nevermind play it and that the technically adept MK Dons youngsters were no match for Saint Albans’s physical strength, experience, older football brains and lower levels of teenage stroppiness. If you would like a more detailed match report then this is the place to go http://www.sacfc.co.uk/

Now before you doze off…and I know it is Monday and it is very hot, one last thing…otherwise today’s title doesn’t make sense. Part of the idea of this blog is to introduce the world to the people that make this club – the volunteers, the players and the supporters. So I made an effort to speak to the bloke standing next to me. Turned out he was the Director of Recruitment for the youth academy of a certain Championship club. Yep you guessed it…Leicester City. You couldn’t make it up………

My first programme!