|
It's good to be back, it's nice to be back
|
By:
Max Bygraves
|
30/07/2025
|
|
|
This article has been viewed 315 times.
|
|
Three months and three days after the jubilant scenes against Aldershot Town, it was back to The Hive for proper football again. I’d tried to get down for the Orient friendly a few weeks back but weather and an initial set of match officials abandoned that idea. That game being played anyway, behind closed doors, half hour later with allegedly new officials was all very us. Still, we move, as the kids say.
I haven’t felt excitement about the return for a new season like this one in years. After the high of last Spring, it’s been a long summer at times waiting for the first game. The slightly ridiculous concept of a preliminary round for the league cup affording us an even earlier opportunity than expected for a competitive game. With a sizeable soft spot for Newport County based on previous personal geography, a potentially underwhelming tie for some was a most welcome first opposition in my book.
I’ll be clear from the outset - I was buzzing to be there and feel very happy to have my routine for the next nine months back. I also (largely) enjoyed the game. However, there were a number of things last night which didn’t start the match going experience off on the best footing for the season ahead - let’s hope these improve for the better after something of a practice run.
Upon arrival, it looked like it would be a fairly sparse crowd. Maybe many of the 1789 were a mix of last minute walk ups or got caught out by the 7.30 kick off. It filled up nicely for a Tuesday night.
However, after a bit of a battle with the QR code at the turnstile for both mine and my dad’s ticket (welcome back, guys!), we made it into the bar with ample time before kick off. Despite the seemingly low numbers, just two servers behind the taps were deemed sufficient. Two snail pace queues were in place. Luckily, a mate was near the front of one queue which sped up the process. Not a great start. The new beer price of £7.11 (with a season ticket discount included) doing little to justify the Legends Bar ‘experience.’
After a quick catch up with a few familiar faces out the back of the stand beforehand, seats were taken just in time for the action. Both clubs donning notable new kits. I am a little torn on ours in the flesh still although leaning more towards the negative. With the white numbers on the back too, thought we looked rather a lot like Hull City. Newport were wearing their interesting Athletic Bilbao style away kit they recently released. Something to do with Spanish refugee children going to Newport when fleeing the Spanish civil war in the first half of the 20th century. A bit different - looked smart, too.
The game started brightly, Barnet dominating early proceedings and playing at a tempo we are all familiar with from the previous campaign. For lots of possession and threat, however, little clear cut was created. My personal highlight of the early proceedings was my friend’s reaction to a particular electronic advertising hoarding. “Kelloggs! Look at that. We’ve got proper brands now. We are back!”
On the half hour mark, from nowhere, we found ourselves 0-1 down. Following a defensive lapse that had led to a corner, danger wasn’t fully cleared and a big chunk of space was left open on the right hand side. Credit, in fairness, to Newport’s Cameron Antwi for his innovation. An ambitious volley from range seemed to take debut goalkeeper Joe Wright by surprise and the ball looped into the net.
Not too long after this, we found ourselves in even more unfamiliar territory at The Hive. Michael Reindorf beat a few before cutting inside and curling a superb strike from all of twenty five yards. Little the keeper could do about that one although you could understand Brennan’s frustrations in the threat not being stopped before the shot. There was time for a fine save to be drawn from the visiting goalkeeper before the half time whistle, but we went in with a lot of work to do.
Now, in the interest of transparency, I didn’t see their second goal live as it was my turn to do the half time drinks run. I got down there on about 40 minutes and the two (yes, just two people, again!) queues were already massive. What also didn’t help was that at least one of the servers had no idea what she was doing in terms of operating the pumps. This isn’t necessarily her fault but is yet another very poor reflection on the set up as to why she clearly hadn’t been shown. Once I did get to the front, for the two drinks I bought, I would estimate wastage of at least another two pints worth. I did venture a polite suggestion that she might want to angle the cup slightly to help the pour, but this was ignored. The now third member of staff who had appeared and seemingly found the scenario almost amusing as he opened up his bit was clearly a little more used to what he was doing, but didn’t offer his colleague any help. It was just really poor. There was a lot of discontent in the queue.
On the excellent season preview BeesPod, Dean Brennan mentioned that Kleanthous wants the fans to drink in The Hive before and after to provide more money for PSR rules. Well, if you want help with PSR start to PP (pre-pour) ASAP! You have people actively wanting to give the club their money and pay extortionate prices for low quality lager in plastic cups. Why are you making this so difficult for yourselves? I fear myself and my colleague are in danger of old man shouting at a cloud territory on this issue by now, but it would be wrong to drop it. The football has been great for some time now - why can we not get the basic parts of the matchday experience right? Please can this not be yet another season of having to try and turn a blind eye to incompetence. It’s embarrassing when you bring people along. We’re looking at a big crowd on Saturday. What could possibly go wrong?
Back to the football and half time saw a change in midfield. Osadebe was replaced Adeniran. I actually thought Osadebe had looked quite decent in the first half although it would appear that Brennan removed him for not doing his defensive duties on the first goal. Adeniran looked strong in every sense of the word when he came in. Plenty of encouragement in both forty five minutes there, for me anyway.
The second half, things were definitely a bit slower. Newport were happy to sit in and we didn’t look quite at our dynamic best to break them down.
A lull in the game saw a lot of attention turn to the back of Block E/F. We’ve been very clear in our praise for the Amber Battalion and what they’ve done to generate something of an atmosphere at The Hive over the past couple of years. However, it is apparent there’s an element amongst the wider group that occupy that area that are becoming a problem. I opted to watch the match rather than the adolescent melee behind me. Apparently punches were being thrown and some sort of internal dispute rumbled on for a good few minutes. Put really frankly, if you can’t behave yourself properly, don’t come.
I have really happy memories of attending games with my mates in my teenage years and it’s great to see the next generation doing this - however, there’s no circumstance where some of the actions on show last night are acceptable or welcome. I am pained to further moan in this article but the stewards’ response to the scenario was sadly in-line with a lot of the standards seen previously at The Hive. A Paddington bear style ‘hard stare’ from the bottom of the stand by one presumably fairly senior member of the stewarding team did little to placate the scenario. The police also came and had a look before walking away. I struggle to understand why in a situation like that, uniformed officers wouldn’t simply wander over to put a stop to things. The visual of a copper on their way would likely be a cause for a quick stop to any nonsense. I can’t claim to be an expert in stadium security or crowd management, but my sense is again some fairly basic things are missing.
Thankfully, the latter stages of the game did give reason to focus on the pitch more. Barnet began to probe for at least a consolation - Kanu in particular at the heart of everything. I lost count of the number of penalty shouts over the course of the game. Let’s just say the ref wasn’t keen to give us much.
It looked like it would be a frustrating ending. Kanu struck the post with a decent effort as the clock ticked past 80. We were then further riled from some pretty admirable shithousery from Newport’s number 3, Glennon. He went down like he’d been shot just in front of us before turning to face the crowd and laughing. Steve Percy was quickly out of his seat to share his opinion. It was needless but fairly amusing all the same.
As the clock ticked past 94 minutes, my dad and I decided we’d begin to make the shuffle towards the exit. We hung around in front of Block A watching the closing stages. And we were given something to cheer when substitute (and yet another debutant) Ryan Galvin scored a close range volley. 90+8 - just a consolation, right?
There was maybe thirty seconds - or a minute to play, if lucky. That proved to be enough. In what can only be described as an utter madness, Rhys Browne (excellent off the bench, as per) scored with the final touch of the game, heading in an equaliser. I can honestly say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.
Hastily making our way back in the general direction of our seats, we watched the penalties stood in one of the first few rows at the bottom of Block D. When Newport missed their first one, or rather, when it was well saved by Wright, it looked like the pendulum was going to fully swing.
Adeniran endeared himself to the fans with the most audacious panenka to score our first. I like his swagger. Then the next few went in.
Joe Hugill, our first ever bit of business from some provincial club in the north, stepped up for our third. He’d not had the best 90 minutes but I find it staggering to read some of the things being thrown his way online after just one game. I think people’s minds maybe being slightly made up by his unconvincing CV. Everyone deserves a chance, particularly anyone signed by Dean Brennan given the recruitment record. It was really gutting to see his penalty hit the post. A goal would have done wonders for him and helped set the tone - let’s hope he can put that to bed quickly.
Kane Smith was up next and had his spot kick saved. Newport buried their fifth and with that, progressed to the next round much to the joy of their fans behind the goal.
No complaints. It was a great fightback and an entertaining game to start the season. Brennan has been very clear the cup games won’t be a priority, so bowing out at this stage is not much of a heartache. Penalties are a lottery, though it would have been fun to complete the craziest of turnarounds.
One final moan(!) for the evening on the way out. Interestingly, we’ve put an extra set of turnstiles in place of the main exit gate on the Legends Stand side. This now means everyone has to walk down past the corner flag and chuck a right, before going left up those steps. The first throng of fans out took a different route, going left behind the empty masse behind the goal and then exiting via the safe standing bit. This actually appeared to make a lot of sense to avoid a bottle neck of people at one exit and also removes the need to walk through a car park of (slow) moving vehicles. As we attempted to follow this route, we were hurriedly told we couldn’t by a steward. His explanation was that it wasn’t safe and no one should have gone that way in the first place. More space for all and not walking through cars being the unsafe option. Is it just me? Let’s hope some of these teething problems are sorted before a bumper crowd on Saturday…
Despite the many negatives and niggles of the night, as the title suggests: it’s good to be back! Off to Oasis at Wembley tonight. Let’s hope we’re all feeling supersonic come 5pm on Saturday.
|
|
|