Shots and Daggers

It would be fair to say that the Mighty Shots have not had the best start to a season. After three games we’ve drawn one and lost the other two. As I said, not the best start.

Tonight was the first game I could go to. It was against one of our favourite teams in the competition, Dagenham and Redbridge (or Daggers as Nicktor insists on calling them) and I, at least, thought it might be close.

The chat in the car going to Aldershot between Nicktor and me was about the previous games and how he’d gone to Sollihull where we lost 1-0 and how Chesterfield had demolished us 3-0. It wasn’t a good start to my season.

Naturally we went to the Victoria for dinner (and a few pints though I have to say they seriously need to get some proper beer on tap because we’re getting sick of Peroni) where I order my usual ham, eggs and chips with no chips to which the barmaid said “That’ll be ham and eggs then.“

She then went to enter it into her terminal but stopped and looked up at me.

“There’s no ham or chips, sorry.“

I really wanted to suggest that this was, in fact, ham, eggs and chips without the ham, eggs and chips but didn’t. I ordered a salad instead, which was actually quite nice. And better for me.

Nicktor being on a diet ate what he always eats which equates to a ton of carbs and very little vegetation. In fact, he threw the gherkins away.

After a lovely break we headed for the Slab to join the other Old Age Complainers.

Speaking of the Slab, it would be remiss of me not to mention Nicktor’s book. He had the edit copy in his glove box. Quite an amazing achievement. 

Back at pitch-side, I had to buy a programme because Steve from number 11 let me use his season ticket rather than buy my own ticket and, of course, I always use a photo of the ticket on my blog post of the game. Which explains the photo immediately below.

Nicktor was a bit upset when I curled it to put in my pocket because he believes in keeping them flat and pristine. When he asked what I was going to do with it and I told him it would sit on a table somewhere for a few months before joining the rest of the recycling, he almost went purple.

Anyway, the game started and, suddenly, after three minutes, we scored our first goal of the season so far. We then went on to dominate the next 30 minutes, giving them very little possession. We were rampant.

Then we took our feet off the peddle a bit and they started attacking. Not that they managed anything beyond a few high kicks over the top of the floodlights. Halftime arrived and we were delightfully 1-0.

We came out fighting in the second half and scored a second goal in front of a very noisy East Bank. It was one of those four bites of the cherry jobs. Shots blocked and passed around until, finally, one landed the ball in the back of the net. And it was 2-0.

We then really stopped attacking and tried to defend our narrow lead. As usually happens when we do this, it let the Daggers back in and they scored a convincing goal right in front of us. Mind you, for a while no one knew if it was a goal. The referee didn’t blow his whistle or point to the centre circle. There was no indication at all. Then the score 2-1 came up on the electronic score board. Most peculiar.

There then began a concerted effort by them to equalise. They attacked and attacked and we managed to keep them at bay. Then, in the dying moments of the game, they scored again. A collective groan rose from the Slab until someone (probably Nicktor) suddenly shouted for people to look at the linesman. The goal was disallowed for being offside.

And so the game ended 2-1 to us. A jolly good start of the 2018-19 season for me. It was also a great night with Nicktor who I see so rarely these days.