I have been lucky enough to be given the opportunity of reporting on the Dagenham and Redbridge away matches for the official club website this season, and my latest assignment was to cover the trip to Carlisle United on Saturday.
Thankfully for me it was not the 6 hour journey it was for the majority of the 109 Daggers fans who made the trip, so me and my 7 year old son Emerson were able set off from our home in County Durham at midday. An uneventful journey along the A66 saw us pass Junction 43 of the M6 just after 1pm so we decided to carry on up to Gretna for a spot of lunch. Whilst there we went though our usual pre-match routine of predicting the score; I went with a 3-1 Carlisle victory while Emerson was far more confident, going for 2-1 to the Daggers! Now you need to understand that for a 7 year old he does have a happy knack of getting the results right and is usually spot on with the score too. The previous match we had attended together, Arsenal's recent trip to Everton, saw him correctly predict a 2-1 Gunners victory and before that a 2-3 Daggers defeat at Rochdale!
After a nice Scottish lunch we turned around, headed back over the border and were outside Carlisle's Brunton Park ground at 2.15pm, leaving us plenty of time to get prepared for the work ahead.
We picked up my press pass from the main entrance and were let in through a side gate, up a flight of stairs and into the upper tier of the Main Stand where we were shown to our seat. The press box at Carlisle is a tiny affair at the very back of the stand and was fairly cramped, while the view of the pitch was partially obscured by the TV gantry!
As for the ground itself, well it is a strange mixture of old and new. The stand we were in had the old style wooden seats and behind the goal to our right was a covered terrace. Opposite us was a new stand which looked, what we could see of it anyway, to be fairly modern, while behind the other goal was an empty, open terrace with, bizarrely, a small section of white, plastic seats that appeared to serve no purpose whatsoever!
Within five minutes of arriving a lad came round handing out team sheets for the match and asked us if we would like a cup of tea. After boring Emerson with tales of how I had been given free food and drink all day on a recent trip to the press box at Arsenal he was thrilled to be given a free cup of tea of his own this time! And even better, we were asked to put our half time orders in too! Good work Carlisle! The service certainly put bigger clubs like Sheffield Wednesday to shame, even if the facilities were lacking in finesse...
After writing my introduction the teams came out and the action could begin. From our position we could not see the travelling Daggers fans in the corner of the opposite stand, but we could certainly hear them. Emerson noticed that the drum was very much in evidence and he was singing along to himself in time with the beat!
Out on the pitch the Daggers were performing very well. After surviving an early scare, when Robbo made a terrific save to deny their lively No. 14 (Ben Marshall as my team-sheet reliably informed me), we were soon on top and playing some good football. But, in what has become typical of the season to date, we were unable to take any of the good chances we created and it remained 0-0.
Big Bas Savage up front was causing them all sorts of problems but it was wingers Kayleden Brown and Medy Elito who looked the main danger. Both went close to giving us the lead while Romain Vincelot shot into the side netting just before the break. It was not all one way traffic though and they also looked dangerous whenever they went forward, particularly through on-loan Stoke winger Marshall, but at half time we were more then satisfied with what we had seen.
After a quick toilet break we returned to our seat to find our half time cuppa was waiting for us and once again Emerson was chuffed to bits! 'Two free cups' he kept saying.' This is just like you got at The Emirates!'
If we thought the first half was exciting it was nothing compared to the second. The Daggers went close time and time again in a performance that was as good as anything I could ever remember, but still the goal would not come. We could not relax as Marshall forced Robbo into another fine save but as time ticked away we looked the more likely winners.
I thought our chance had gone when defender Will Antwi was just unable to turn a drilled cross from Brown into an unguarded net with fifteen minutes left but that was a mere appetiser for a thrilling conclusion. Now you are meant to be neutral in the press box but when Elito slid in to score from a Brown cross in the 82nd minute we could help but jump out of seat and yell in delight! It led to a few funny looks from around us but we didn't care..what a result this would be!
With time running out Savage decided to play keep-ball down by the corner flag, almost dancing with the ball as Carlisle defenders took turns trying to kick him! It was hilarious to watch and when Brown decided to get involved too it did lead to one or two wild hacks by the frustrated home players.
It would have blown up in our faces had Carlisle equalised but in the end it was us who added a second in the final minute. More great work from Brown, a lovely dummy from Elito and Danny Green finished it all off in style. Even the home fans in the Main Stand applauded in admiration!
Emerson was now desperate for Carlisle to score to make his prediction come true but I was more then happy with the clean sheet and a superb away victory.
All was left now was for the post match interviews, normally fairly boring. John Still was called first and he made his way up to the top of the Main Stand to be interviewed for local radio but it did not quiet go to plan. Midway through the interview and amazing incident occurred when the Carlisle manager came up the stairs to do some work for the press. He was clearly in a bad mood and pushed his way past me and Emerson before just barging past John, knocking his headphones clean off his head! John was shocked and asked him, 'What are you doing?' but his Carlisle counterpart just turned and said 'Well you should have got out the way then...' John was now raging. 'Well I would have done if you'd f**king asked me!' he said. Who said press conferences were boring?
After finishing his interview John noticed that Emerson had witnessed the whole incident and came over to shake his hand. 'Sorry young man.' he said, 'I apologise for swearing.' Emerson just nodded his head and smiled.
We then followed John down to the changing room area and Emerson was about to walk straight in when he was stopped by a steward. 'I want to see the dancing man' he protested!
First out was Mark Arber and he was led back up to the stand to do an interview. While he was waiting he said hello to Emerson, who could have said anything, in reply but went with 'Have you got gel in your hair?' Arbs just laughed and said, 'Yes!'
I had a little chat to him about the team performance, and he said it was the best of the season, while also saying that he was not looking forward to the 6 hour trip home! He was then kind enough to have his picture taken with Emerson which brought a great end to a great day.
Following the Daggers has not always been easy this season but it is days like this that make it all worthwhile, and we now can't wait to do it again with the trip to Walsall just after Christmas. Wonder what fun and games that will have in store for us??
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