A day in the life of an Andover FC fan..

Yesterday was a nightmare. Supporting Andover you don't get a brilliant day out, and come home with 3 points very often, and yesterday didn't change that.

Setting off at 1:30 thinking; away to Mangotsfield. Fairly easy hour and a quarter drive and the possibility of 3 points. Wrong. Getting lost in (one of the) arse end(s) of Bristol, nothing to do with my map reading, means we are late to the game. I get a text at 3:03 saying we are 1-0 already, bollocks. Finally we find the road the ground is on, and within 5 minutes I get another text to say 1-1, game on. We pull into the car park and find no spaces, so have to make due with a space in the rugby club car park next door. Scampering out, we turn a blind eye to the signs stating the car park was for patrons of the rugby club only, and make our way towards the turnstiles. We are greeted by a loud cheer from the home supporters. 12 minutes gone and we are 2-1 down. Thinking we have missed all the goals there were to be, we take our spot and cheer on the team. The rest of the first half is just as open as the first 12 minutes sounded and Andover head in at half time leading 3-2. Half time pint down, confidence high, back out for the second half.

In terms of possession and opportunities, the second half was fairly even, that was apart from the 2 Mangotsfield goals. Here we go again, leading a game, only to be beaten late on, until.....penalty. A Mangotsfield defender handballs in the area and the Andover captain has a chance to equalise. Does he? Does he balls...The keeper falls to his left to collect the ball fairly comfortably. Oh well...a good performance, a narrow defeat, always next week and all that.

That should of been the end of the annoyances. That was until a wrong turn ended up taking us on a 10 mile detour, through some Postman Pat villages, in the pissing rain. Once in Bath we were at a stand still in traffic for a good half hour, until it dawned on us that we had hit the traffic coming out of Bath City's FA cup match and the traffic going into Bath Rugby club for their match. 2 and a half hours later I am home. Cold, tired and disappointed. Ah...the beautiful game.