Saturday 8th October 2011 ko 12pm

Hellenic League Division One West

CARTERTON FC 2 (MacDonagh 10 17)

LYDNEY TOWN 2 (Elliott 43 Liddington 47)

Att 102

Entry £4

Programme £1

Cappuccino 90p

Sausage & Chips £2

The purpose of this “mini-hop” is worth explaining. The Hellenic hop started life as a stand alone hop organised by the league itself. Later on the hop expanded and was attached to the Welsh hop when Chris Berezai became involved. With the Welsh hop now in Mid-Wales, the Hellenic has reverted to being stand alone. This day was set aside for those who had not visited the grounds on the original hops to catch up. That by the way included Chris himself! And that reader, is why I came to be doing 3 revisits for the first time, possibly ever!

Kilkenny Lane is one of my favourites in the league. It manages to combine good facilities with quirkiness. The bar is superb, little wonder League meetings are held here, but despite, the two stands, there is only one realistic place to watch the action, the bar’s balcony, thoughtful covered since my last visit. Jens from Germany was impressed; 5000+ grounds and he could drink, smoke and watch football simulaneously! Wunderbar! His travelling Margarete, was another welcome visitor, and her dislike for brown sauce was gently mocked as normal. Wonderful to see them again.

Carterton, were relegated last season, and have struggled to adjust to their new division. Lydney too have been in the top flight, and are struggling too. They would not have be happy to ship two goals in 10 minutes to goal keeping howlers, and then watch a stonewall penalty not be awarded by a referee bent on making as few decisions as possible. Creditably they fought their way back into the tie, and and their two goal blast was richly deserved.