#16, Published January 14th, 2013
Beaten at last in 2013 - it had to happen.
A fairly decent 1st half performance with some good short passing trying to unlock the Basingstoke defence and I feel a well deserved lead from a Rae-Beadle follow up after Wheeler's shot hitting the crossbar. The lead did not seem to last, a 2-1 down at half time and finally losing the game 3-1.
There is a common feel each time we visit Basingstoke as the game is often postponed and of course this game had already been arranged from December when that wet Saturday was the culprit for all the games in our division being postponed. I looked at the BBC text at about 11.00 Saturday morning and three games were off in our division all of them based on the south coast and Basingstoke being about 30 miles from Staines and the south coast. Will our game join in with waterlogged pitches? So far no...
With only a bit of light rain and a sleet shower on the way down there it seemed to be a case of “oh no - not again”. The car park was fairly full so optimistic the game going ahead only for people saying there is a 2.30 pitch inspection. This seemed daft to me as it was dry - so call the match off at 11.00ish or just play. The pitch was heavy but there is a game of football to be played not ballroom dancing. I understand the referee wanted to call the game off but both managers (and I assume all the supporters) were keen to play.
After last Saturday's win at Dover we were 11th in the league which sounds fair enough to me. Then down to 14th after a few midweek games (without playing) and slipping further down the league after Saturday's defeat. And we have played more games so I am a bit worried we may slip into the bottom three. But think positive - our next two games are home to Welling who have won 10 league games in a row and currently second in the league and then we visit Salisbury who are top of the league so no pressure then in obtaining 6 points from the two games.
The weather is snowy at the moment with just above (just below at nights) freezing point. We are not used to these sublime temperatures in this part of the country - usually makes the news headlines when one flake of snow is spotted - so possibly the two games are in doubt - we will just have to wait and see...