Crows on the Road – by Jez Izod
Crows Dig Themselves Out Of A Mole Hill.
Match v Aylesbury FC
Tuesday 4th September 2012
Result: Aylesbury 1-1 Crows: Attendance 158 (16 Travelling Crows)
The Journey
I left my place of work in Letchworth at 18:10 and followed my own directions to Aylesbury, wish I had not! After a pretty straight forward journey through Hitchin and on the A505 into Luton, I realised I had made a fundamental mistake. Luton Town v Cambridge United and the crowds were out in force. As I entered the esteemed town of Luton, I was met with the sign of “Welcome to Luton” underneath this, someone had scrawled in red paint “you’ll never leave here alive”, glad I was just passing through! The journey after this was pretty straight forward through Dunstable and then taking the winding roads of Aylesbury Vale. I reached the ground at 19:30.
The Ground
I did think I had made a mistake with the directions as turning into Haywoods Lane, I was confronted with houses at either side? A ground near houses, never! But here she lay, the ground that is, not a pedestrian I had hit on the way in.
I managed to find a spot in their decent sized car park, sandwiched between an expensive Range Rover and a top of the range BMW. My little Skoda was in good company.
I meandered down to the turnstiles passing a modern’ish facility on the left hand side, this housed the club offices, changing rooms and supporters club. The lay out of the ground was three open sided terraces, covered on one end. Along the side of where I entered the ground, stood the main stand with approximately 200 seats, centred in the middle of open terrace.
Food and Drink
As I came straight from work, the hunger pains in my stomach drew me to the food bar situated in the main stand, unfortunately it was closed, due to the manager needing a fag! That’s right, the queue of hungry supporters had to wait until, the staff were all smoked up.
However when this situation was resolved I did partake in a bacon roll (£2.50) and a cup of tea (£1.00). The roll was good, but the tea seemed to attract every fly in the area, god knows what they put in the water down there!
Programme
£1.50 for a glossy, well written programme. This was indeed a good read, with plenty of information about the Crows. My only criticism towards this publication, would be the over use of Wikipedia for facts. No-one’s perfect I suppose.
State of Toilets
The ones housed in the main stand, I can only use one word, disgusting. Brown stains adorned the urinals. The ladies toilets I understand and not from this reporter’s use of them, were pretty good.
Tannoy System
Music was pretty good, with a wide variety to appeal to all tastes. The announcing though sounded like a throwback to the 1980’s British Rail tannoys. Tune of the night must be “The only way is up” by Yazz, takes me back to my early “pulling” days. When Paradiso was Paradiso and the Boars Head had two bars!
Home Fans
Very depressed before the game, they were expecting to be trounced, but as the first half wore on, the disjointed performance from the Crows gave them huge confidence. They did spend most of the game berating the officials. When one of their players fell to the floor as if felled by a Nicola Adams Olympic punch, they screamed to the linesman to flag up. This was quite funny, as he turned and shouted “I don’t have an electronic flag you know!” Eventually, play was held up for the second best looking physio in the league to come on and ply her trade. Second best I tell you, after our Kim!
Crows
16 in a crowd of 158 made the long journey from Royston (even longer if you followed my directions). Frustrated by the team’s first half performance, did give them a lot of support in the second half.
The Game
As seems to be the trend at the moment, a poor first half, very disjointed all round. It was like “After the Lord Mayors show” following the excellent performance against Barton Rovers. The second half much, much better. We dominated for most of this half, carving up several opportunities to turn the match on its head. Cool Penalty from Luke 10 minutes from time sealed the draw.
Man of the Match
A little hard to decide this one, so I am going to sit on the fence and give a joint one. Step forward Luke Robbins, who worked his socks off all night and never ever gave up and Lewis Endacott, who worked extremely hard, intercepted loads, solid tackles when needed. Honourable mention to Will Norris, two extremely important saves late on ensured a point for the Crows.
Mileage for me so far (Round trips)
223.8 miles
Jez Izod
