There I was, propping myself up against the railings at 2:30 at Kayte Lane, Bishops Cleeve last Saturday, casually watching the players warm up for the Southern League Division 1 (South and West) match with Godalming Town. And one of said players trotted over and started chatting to me while performing leg-stretching exercises on the rails. He asked if I was Godalming or Cleeve, and I said neither, just a neutral "groundhopper" down from Birmingham. Told him I'd been once before, last season, and he told me he'd been out injured for most of the year, but was back now and raring to go. "And although they've put me in midfield, I'm going to score today!" he opined.
Then he asked the above question! Talk about a non-sequiter ....
Slightly taken aback, I said no, I didn't think so, and then he said that if he scored a hat-trick, one of his mates had threatened to do the deed ! I laughed and told him I'd rather see the hat-trick than the streak !!
I watched carefully as the teams came out and realised I'd been talking to one of the Bishops Cleeve players. In the first minute, he laid on a sweet cross for one of his teammates to open the scoring, and by the 25th minute, our hero had notched two goals himself !!
I waited with some trepidation for the third goal .....
Thankfully, he then missed a bucket-full of chances and was substituted with 10 minutes to go as Cleeve ran out 5-0 winners. It certainly made for a helluvan interesting match !!!
