A trip to Carshalton is always a flag day in the diary of the Rooks away dayers. One of the greatest terraces in Non-League football and one of the greatest pubs to boot. In fact, The Hope in Carshalton is so legendary, Charlie produced a match poster for it a few years ago, although the silly goose used it for a Hampton & Richmond game, not Carshalton:
Why is The Hope so special? Name me another pub with a string of guest ales, enough seating for a coach-load of supporters and a dedicated cabinet for its homemade pork pies, and we’ll start talking. In the meantime, The Hope is in a league of its own, which is why so many Rooks fans were waiting for us when we arrived, a good three hours before kick-off.
In fact, we had so much time to kill, that a dozen of us began working our way through the general knowledge crossword in the paper, taking it in turns to fill in an answer and pass it on.
Here’s Young Rob tackling a particularly tricky 6 across. By the way, it says everything about our little pre-match posse that Rob, now easing into his forties I believe, still carries the prefix”Young” in his nickname. No wonder it fell to me to answer the Atomic Kitten clue on 12 down. Most of our crowd thought Atomic Kitten was an Oppenheimer experiment.
Talking of youngsters, it was great to see The Youth Wing back behind the goal. Although, it’s sad to see another old lag trying to blend in with the 18-30s.
C’mon, Jimmy. You can’t play for The Vets and be in The Youth Wing, even if you do turn your baseball cap the wrong way round.
The pre-match bonhomie was spoilt slightly when news began to filter through that The Kaiser was missing for the first time this season. The big centre-back has been rock solid with Jerry Puemo, so the last thing we needed after the midweek hiccup against Harefield was uncertainty at the back.
Those fears were further compounded towards the end of the first half, when Puemo failed to shake off a whack in the back, and was replaced by Nabeel Ghannam, forcing Parish Muirhead to slot in alongside Ben Mundele as a pair of emergency centre-backs.
We needn’t have worried, as no matter which combination of centre-backs (stand-in or otherwise) we used all afternoon, we looked as sturdy as The Hope’s pork pies.
We created the better chances throughout, and we should probably have been ahead well before Puemo succumbed to back knack. Danny Bassett nicked a ball off a backtracking defender early on, and squared it to the free Marcus Sablier, but his shot didn’t really trouble the keeper. The pair switched roles later in the half, with Sab picking up a loose pass across the back line and slotting in Danny, but he too blasted his shot straight at the keeper.
The game was as tight as a Stodgebuster’s waistband in the first half, but we largely dominated the second, or at least created much the better chances. Toby Bull was called on a couple of times to make saves from range, but we should probably have made it six from six in the league with the chances we created at the end.
None better than when Danny Bassett wriggled free down the left and squared a terrific ball for the busy Ghannam, whose close-range poke was well saved by a keeper doing a Peter Schmeichel-style spread eagle.
Ghannam had another shot at glory right at the death, when he tricked his way past two defenders, played a lovely one-two with Bassett, but blasted his shot over.
It says everything about the start we’ve made to the season that we came away disappointed to only be three points clear at the top of the league. But you can’t be too down hearted after a Saturday afternoon away day in Carshalton, the land of Hope and (almost) glory.
Lewes: Bull, Warren, Mundele, Puemo, Enkh, Sablier, Allen, Muirhead (Ghannam), Allsopp (Hutchinson), Ladapo (Williams), Bassett.
Unused subs: Morris, Jeffrey.
Supporters Club man of the match: Big Ben Mundele did a great job as an emergency centre-back, but we’re giving it to his second-half partner Parish Muirhead, who dropped from midfield into the back line and never once looked out of place.
Boyesy’s brilliant photos:
