A last minute change to the list of officials saw Andy Meaden step in to fill the gap. Andy is full of humour and rattles off jokes and one liners like a machine gun. He soon lifted the gloomy atmosphere and had us rolling with laffs.
He also told us about the wildlife crawling in his country cottage garden. I must remember to buy his book of comic incidents at local football.
Anyway, Lydney kicked off in a game between two top teams. Going in hard a Bridge defender caught one his colleagues and rammed his teeth into his own cheek. Lots of blood but no permanent damage.
When Lydney players went in hard the crowd got excited and the poor old ref took a bit of stick. He spoke to several players about late tackles but his cards stayed in his pocket.
Honours about even at the half time whistle.
Reinforced by the tea made with Trowle Common water, which is reputed to put hairs on snooker balls, Bridge tore into the opposition at the re-start. With only 4 mins gone they went ahead.
As always, a team is at its worst just after scoring, and the wild cheering of the crowd was silenced by the visitors making an early reply.
Game on! Both outfits started to demonstrate fast power packed football which had the crowd enthralled. Andy demonstrated his comic genius when he dropped his flag into the mud when he should have been waggling it above his head. Get a grip!
In the 65th minute a Trowbridge header was powered just under the bar. The keeper leapt, caught it in both hands above his head and started to run out with it when everyone suddenly noticed yours truly waving my flag like mad. The goalkeeper had caught the ball behind the line and Trowbridge had scored their second goal.
I immediately went from villain to crowd favourite!
One or two more incidents on my touchline were also brought to the referees attention and I was going for lino of the year!
On the far side, Andy signalled one way for a throw in, then, realising he had it wrong, he signalled the other way. When the bench asked me what was going on I offered the oinion that if the lino signalled both ways he was bound to be right when the ref sorted it out. Are you confused? Well you should be!
The Trowbridge crowd went hushed as Lydney turned on the style and Bridge gave away too many free kicks as we approached the final whistle. There was a sting in the tail as Trowbdge scored a third goal with two minutes remaining.
An excellent win for Trowbridge and a solid all round performance from the team of three in black. In all the hustle and bustle of a hard fought game only two players were cautioned during the second half.