I Don't Wanna Go To Kings Lynn - Tamworth 2 Kings Lynn 1 - FA Cup (Sponsored by Someone or Other) 3rd Qualifying Round - 13/10/07

Ah! The magic of the FA Cup, cup fever and all that, load of old rubbish isn't it?
Nah, I love it, although (and here's where I go into **RANT MODE ON** ) it was awfully nice of those lovely people at FA Headquarters to schedule a vital England international match on the same weekend and at the same bloomin' time as a round of what is supposed to be their own premier knock-out competition. Now I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the England National side, I hate most of the players who play for it and just can't be bothered with the Ingerlund mentality of many of their fans, but for those teams who could not get their games rescheduled to Friday or Sunday or early kick-offs gates would almost certainly be hit. Why couldn't this round of the cup be a week later, or better still, why couldn't the England game have kicked off at 5:30 meaning no organisation problems for the smaller clubs the FA keep saying are so important to them and also a chance to maybe show the England match in the clubhouse afterwards to encourage irresponsible beer drinking and money in the coffers? **RANT MODE OFF**

Anyhow, back to the real football. Tamworth and Kings Lynn have a bit of previous rivalry, we were adversaries in the Dr Martens League, I always remember my own visits to their Walks Stadium as being rather unpleasant. It's fair to say that back then they had a contingent of rather horrible people amongst their support, racism reared it's ugly head too. But let's not dwell on that, they claim to have cleaned up their act, other fans concur and the noisy bunch of 150 or so they bought to The Lamb were fine. They were a little bit obsessed with Tamworth mind, the last chant I would have thought of when you go 1-0 up in a cup tie would be "If you still hate Tamworth clap your hands." but each to their own! They also had one of the most...errr...rotund fans I have seen for a while and he provided a bit of fun for The Shed, but I was disappointed not to hear a chant of "I Predict a Diet".
In Gary Mills Tamworth also have a manager that many Kings Lynn fans still blame for nearly bankrupting them a few years back, unlucky Agent Mills, they are still here!

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Tamworth have been playing okay of late, the team seems to be starting to gel, so it was a bit of a surprise to see them play so absolutely dreadful from kick-off. Second to every ball, outfought in midfield, sloppy at the back, it was awful. One of the best things an away team can do is to frustrate and ultimately quieten down a vociferous home crowd, well Tamworth did Kings Lynn's job for them today. After fifteen minutes the Lamb faithful were down to little more than swearing and imploring the players to liven it up.
It was no surprise at all when Kings Lynn took the lead, the dangerous Joe Taylor was given the freedom of the lamb pitch to run forward and pick his spot, he curled a lovely shot low past the despairing grasp of Jose Veiga and the swearing got louder and louder!
I was sensing one of those days, and I probably wasn't alone. We really didn't look like scoring. The referee wasn't endearing himself to the home fans either, now I am not one of those who thinks every ref hates us, usually at this level they are equally rubbish for both sides, but even I was struggling to see how the same challenge could be a free kick when committed by a Tamworth player but no foul when it was the other way round. I can only think the glare from KL's yellow shirts was scrambling his brains.
And then came what is known locally as "The Hanny Factor" after an infamous Tamworth fan who missed many a goal by leaving early for his half-time pie and pint. Just seconds after I had told Mills that this was 45 minutes of my life I wouldn't be getting back Tamworth suffered a rare outbreak of football culminating in a lovely turn and shot by Tony Robinson. 1-1! Totally undeserved as well, smashing! Robinson was by far the worst player on the pitch in the first half, he had the touch of an elephant playing with a beach ball, but this was an instinctive strike from a natural striker, and it also meant game-on.

To be honest, the second-half didn't start much better than the first, it just seemed better because the crowd were at last getting into it and Tamworth had at least started to cut out the mistakes.

In fact it was looking rather like a replay in deepest darkest Norfolk was on the cards, something not many of the home fans were particularly looking forward to I can tell you!
But wait, have faith, a long punt from the back was flicked on to Matty Williams, he laid the ball off to Dave Bampton whose well struck shot beat the keeper and suddenly all was well with the World once more.
Well nearly because **RANT MODE ON** I flippin' well hate that bloody moronic "Easy Easy" chant! We had just sneaked the lead against the run of play against a lower division team who had largely outplayed us and our fans chant "Easy Easy"???!!! No it bloody wasn't! If I were ever granted three wishes by a genie the first one would be to erase all knowledge and all trace memories of Soccer (Soccer, it's Football not Soccer you mindless dimwits at Sky) AM and that horrible Chelski supporting twunt Tim Lovejoy, he and they have so much to answer for. **RANT MODE OFF**

That's better!

We never looked in danger after that, Kings Lynn pushed on as we knew they would but their shooting became increasingly erratic and Tamworth held on, even having time for a patch of "Ole" keep-ball. So another £5000 banked and another good cup run goes on. It could have been oh so different had Kings Lynn took their first-half chances but that's the FA Cup for you, and I wouldn't miss it for the World.

Attendance - 621
Beer - Hobgoblin in the clubhouse again but only one pint as I was driving.
Slugs - None but Dilbs saw a spider.