We've been here before!

Today's game at North Greenford throws up for the third time in my Poppies supporting history, the tantalising possibility of being crowned Champions on the last day of the season.  Sure, so many results have to go our way today as to render the chance negligible, but nonetheless the possibility is there.

The three teams who have better chances of securing promotion at 4.45PM today have been showing a lack of bottom recently - I'm looking at you Daventry!  Were it not for the fact that Cyril Gingell has been seen in the Latimer Park VIP section, I would have put money on him being the Daventry chairman, such has been their ability to snatch status quo from the jaws of promotion.

Everyone obviously recalls the last time we went into the last day of the season with a chance of promotion - the never to be forgotten afternoon in the drizzle of Tiverton.  The drama of our game.  The sounds of hundreds of mobile phones ringing every time the score changed between Folkestone and Tamworth.  Tamworth missing a penalty at the end of the game to allow our win to carry us to the title.  Pitch invasion.  Having muddy shoes for the rest of the day.  Brilliant.

Before that, the last time we could have achieved promotion on the last Saturday was when we played Bromsgrove at home, needing to win by, I think, 7-goals, and hope Kidderminster continued to stumble towards the finishing line.

The only problem with racking up the goals was this Poppies team, under Graham Carr, had scored fewer goals then any other team in the history of football.  We were kept in the hunt for the title by a succession of 1-0 wins.  It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that we only let in 1 goal all season in the league.  Well, it might be a slight exaggeration....but we let in less than 20 all year.  Obviously we managed to slither to a defeat....We invariably did to Bromsgrove back then. 

Somehow, this last, most important game, did not have a match sponsor.  In the absence of a worthy local company filling the sponsor lounge a bunch of us fans clubbed together to sponsor the game.  It was a lively event, which deserves its own article.   I rather doubt the club allowed a motley group of beer-monsters to do it again after the experience....Let's just say that Ivan Long was very much to the fore......