Five days and no football??

A week ago, I sat here still buzzing from the great win over Crawley. This week I sit here with head still fuzzing form a 520 mile trip to Alty... More of that later.

Firstly we need to cast our minds back to last Thursday and the game with Ebbsfleet. No I don't want to either so we draw a rapid veil over that non event and whizz fast forward to a sunny Saturday and a south coast derby.

On arriving at the club, the fans team were battling out a 4-1 win over Weymouth and there was a group of young scouts milling about by the front pitch. Many wondered if the scouts were in fact the new Weymouth 1st, now they were banking on youth to see them through. Fear not, it was another group of potential new fans being given the tour.

I was also a bit puzzled to be told that " My friends from Burton" were in the bar..? I could hardly believe it when I saw Dave, Dave and Josh sitting there. D espite the fact that Burton were only up the road at Creepy, they had come to savour the Boro hospitality and give us vocal support. Young Josh even bought himself a Boro home shirt and we managed to get the 1st team to sign it for him.

It's nice to now that we have made such an impression with some away fans, and I hope we can cement more friendships like this over the coming years. It's what our club is all about.

As kick off time approached, the visiting fans grew in number, and once again, smiled approval over the non segregation policy we have managed to implement on most home games.

A great deal of chat in the bar before the game about the differing fortunes of our two clubs, and then it was into battle. The loyal Muffs took thier place behind the River End goal and we were treated to an appearance of "The Dolphin" on tour... a life size inflatable...

A great atmosphere continued throught both halves and there was a nice bit of rival singing from close quaters, something I think took the Weymouth guys by suprise.

Still they heaped praise on us when they returned home, via their forum saying Eastbourne was a model on how clubs SHOULD be run. Thank you guys... and good luck.

The 3rd match since we were last together saw us back on the road to Cheshire and Altrincham. With the sun shining as we left, we were pretty hopeful the game wouldn't fall foul of a daft refereeing decision this time.

Well, if we pride ourselves in Sussex as being a friendly club, then hats off to Alty for being the North West equivalent.

From the minute we parked up, we were welcomed with warm chat and shown where the bar was open to all. Nothing was too much trouble for the stewarding staff. We were showed to the away fans terracing but as the game was kicking off, the announcement was made that we could change ends and we would not be segregated for the evening. A lovely gesture and something we all agreed is the nicer side of our level of soccer.

During the half time kick about with the Boro subs in front of us, a football sailed over and got stuck behind a gate housing high voltage electricity units. I cheekily shouted to Smarty to kick it straight and with a hurt look he said: " It wasnt me, I just hit one in the top corner" Can you imagine Christiano Whingnaldo doing that with the fans???

Now it's not often you will see praise for an official here but as the teams came out for the second half the lino checking the nets spotted Colin with his yellow curly wig on.

He simply looked , and said " Has something s**t on your head!!! Priceless. He even gave a cheeky wave as he ran back to his line. We were then treated to the first ever 62 minute half of football. I am still not quite sure how it all added up!

With an injured ref, a 4th official becoming a lino, a lino becoming a ref and an Alty chap becoming a 4th offical.... told you it was a confuddling moment!!

With the joys of a 260 mile trip ahead we set of for home, and what a treat we had laid on. It seemed that the Highway Agency had put on a display of every traffic cone ever manufactured with the show starting on the M6 and carrying on through the M40 culminating with a stunning finale on the A27 resulting in the 3rd diversion of the night.

We now have a few days of rest, both the players and us poor weary fans.

We start again on saturday with a first ever visit to The Abbey Stadium in Cambridge ( The Trade Recruiment Stadium doen't have the same ring to it) yet another " Pinch yourself" fixture that once was a distant dream.