You know it is still early into pre-season when you wake up excited about a friendly at Thurrock - or Purfleet as most of us will remember them as back in the old Ryman League days.
The game had been arranged quite late, initially Thurrock were due to play Southend on this day and we were playing Oxford City Nomads at Bisham Abbey, but a sequence of events including management changes led to this game being hastily arranged only a week or so ago; understandable under the circumstances that not too many Chesham folk chose to risk the wrath of the M25 on the first Saturday of the school holidays.
The M25 has been the cause of many painful journeys, particularly back in our Ryman years, I remember one particular game at Purfleet/Thurrock not kicking off until gone 4.00pm one Saturday as our coach sat stationary on London's largest car park. And sure enough, the motorway was up to its old tricks again with "long delays between Junction 27 and Junction 1a". Cue expletives...
...However, this time I was the winner; one of my navigational decisions finally paid off. With my Dad beside me and Brian McCarthy in the backseat, it was Lady Sat Nav in my new car that gave me the confidence to go on a detour that kept the journey to below one hour. Unlike her predecessor that would have been informing me to "perform a u-turn whenever possible" this new Sat Nav had no qualms in going along with my plan of shooting down the M11, south on the North Circular to pick up the A13 for a traffic free trip to Ship Lane.
Last time I was at this ground the bar was being built and pre-match beverages still took place up at the hotel. Arriving at 1.30pm provided ample time to visit the clubhouse to soak up the atmosphere...
On the pitch the few hardy souls that made the trip from Chesham were treated to an entertaining encounter, with time on the ball and opposition that wanted to play football, United were able to show signs of what we hope to be instore for more of this season - quick movement, good passing, team spirit and no shortage of skill.
As is always the way, after a lot of good forward play for the first 35 minutes, the opening goal came as I was making my visit to the Gents to empty the previously mentioned pre-match drink. I heard the cheer and must admitted had assumed it was the home team - more fool me. Steve Wales the scorer.
During the second-half there were enough team changes to make Sven Goran Erikson look like Mr Consistency when it comes to friendlies, but it still didn't seem to unsettle the play and the game remained interesting.
Steve Wales scored a second before the home side got one back, but just as it looked as though the game might fade out to an end Gabriel Fanibuyan turned in the box beautifully and struck home a sweet finish to restore Chesham's lead to 3-1 and finish the day with a great result as well as a great performance.
With so many players still in the mix for a squad place come the opening game of the season it would be wrong of me to start picking out individual performances, but it was satisfying to see such great team spirit this early in the season; our fitness looked superb; the new players seemed to slot in seamlessly and already we are looking as though we will not look out of place in the Premier Division.
The journey home on the M25 was a breeze, back in Hemel after only about 45 minutes...there won't be too many games like that this coming season!
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