FOOTBALL SAYS FOND FAREWELL
EDGING through the turnstile felt a little like sneaking behind the bike sheds.
The flurry of leagues suspending play last Friday and worsening outlook amid the coronavirus outbreak delivered an eerie feeling at one of the smattering of games to go ahead.
Whether your face is known or not, conversation usually flows at any NonLeague ground and while the welcome was still there, the awkward feeling of whether we should be seemed to linger before the match.
Nods as people kept walking were the order of the day instead of the regular hearty conversation starters, it was almost as strange as watching elbow bumps instead of prematch handshakes.
Naturally everyone started to forget themselves. The captains and match officials came together with one putting out a hand. He went to stop himself but not before the greeting got accepted, normal shakes followed and the associated smiles dispelled some of the awkwardness.
Then the action started and gradually began to sweep people away from the worries gripping the nation – exactly what football should do.
That was helped by an open derby date contested with commitment and no shortage of action.
With what happened before and has since, it would be easy to forget Hinckley and Ashby Ivanhoe were fighting it out to push for silverware in a Midland Football League Cup round two tie frequently delayed by the weather.
The hosts generally had more of the play but lacked punch early on with Ashby often menacing on the break.
Liam Donaghy recycled such a counter-attack with keeper Elliott Taylor’s parry fired in by Ross McGarry on the rebound 13 minutes in.
Hinckley pressure grew as the half went on without enough execution to convince three youths sat on a park overlooking the wall to glance up from the phone the lad in the middle had.
Who knows whether they missed or even cared when Mitch Piggon swivelled to fire in a 36th-minute leveller across goal after colleague Lewis Commins had a penalty appeal waved away.
The first booking went the way of Ivanhoe’s Jack Samples on the stroke of half-time, much to the midfielder’s annoyance.
“As if you’re listening to them,” he sighed.
“You’ve had a few,” came referee Ian Croston’s reply, prompting a defiant, “I haven’t had one!”
From memory, Samples was right but the card was raised and so were a few smiles in the crowd – the kind of to-and-fro we will all miss over the coming weeks.
Smiles
Hinckley ramped things up in the second half, that man Piggon picking out stalwart Luke Richards who let a floated cross drop over his shoulder to cushion a volley low across goal and into the bottom corner.
The hosts continued to have the bulk of the play but gifted chances on the break, Ashby’s Sam Grouse frequently screamed at by colleagues – “Sammy… Sammy, SAMMAAAAY!” – for running into blind alleys when team-mates were in space. Richards floated a classy free-kick into the top corner to seemingly settle matters with 15 minutes to go, goal 86 on his 141th Hinckley appearance surely as sweetly struck as any that had preceded it.
The maligned Sammy did pick out a colleague only for McGarry to clear the crossbar of an open goal from no more than six yards 12 minutes from time and Grouse did have the last, if not the loudest, laugh by brushing off Ben Kendrick to lash in four minutes past the 90.
During the couple of minutes that followed, home boss Courtney Belford bellowed: “Referee, it’s five o’clock, pal!”
He need not have worried, Hinckley won 3-2 to provide what will perhaps be the last bit of joy we get for a while.
“It was nice to get in a game of football,” said Belford.
“Sometimes if you can do that with all the uncertainty and panic that’s going on, enjoying something is nice.
“There was a bit of a weird feeling about it, even in the changing room with some of the lads. Walking up to people you’d normally shake their hand, you think ‘are we comfortable with this or not?’.
Comfortable
“People at this level of football are here for the right reasons, especially here where it is a fan-run club that has been going for five-or-so years.
“You have hardcore people, this is their little bit of time in the week to come to enjoy something and if we can give people a smile on their faces for 90 minutes then great.”
A trip to Brocton in round three may have been secured but the chances of it happening seem to get slimmer by the day. “If we stop for a month or so I fear we won’t finish the season,” Belford added.
“Then what do you do? Do you proceed with the season, do you just give a point to everyone for each (league) game left? There is no right or wrong answer, it is tough to know what to do.”
Opposite number Andy Gray shared the opinion this might have been the last hurrah for 2019-20.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. “They are doing the right thing by trying to ride it out and see whether we get a handle on it and I think that will ultimately make the decision.
“There were certainly numbers here, which was nice, but it is a strange time. We are not used to this, we haven’t dealt with it before. Even with the handshakes and things like that, people are standing off each other a bit.”
At least this match had a bit of everything. Let’s hope everyone soaked up even the small moments, those we usually take for granted. We may not get more for some time.