At least it was a fine, sunny afternoon.
Whilst there was a smell of FA Cup fever and excitement in the air prior to arriving at Westhumble to play Dorking Wanderers, one has to say it did not take long watching this match for that excitement to dissipate into thin air.
Both teams did their best on what looked a very good playing surface but for some reason the match just did not reach the level of excitement one was hoping for, or what this great competition deserves. May be we should have had an idea as to what to expect for the next 90 minutes when the home side kicked the game off by putting the ball out for a Crows throw inside 10 seconds.
Neither team could be faulted for effort and endeavour, it's just that there was too much of both and not enough skill shown by either side to warrant one team going through and the other being thrown out of the proverbial FA Cup trap door. Whenever any bit of skill was used, then it resulted in a petty foul being given away and thus the defence was able to muster stations again, ready to repel the next raid.
The home side and the Crows were rather in affective going forward and the midfield engine rooms of both teams were never given any time on the ball as they were closed down very quickly by their counterparts which resulted in too many passes going astray and not reaching their intended target.
Too many balls were hit too long and in general areas rather than to a colleague and therefore the game had no real pattern and no real clear cut chances. The Crows probably had the best of the chances which did come along, most notably Ademiluyi hitting the ball wide of an open goal as the defender and goalkeeper both missed a low cross put in by Treleaven.
Dorking Wanderers chances were mainly from distance as the Crows defence, superbly marshalled by Trotter and captain, Jason Barton, easily dealt with most things that were thrown at them. However, my Man of the Match for the Crows went to Dan Tear who carried on from where he left off against Greenwich Borough on Wednesday but this time he showed his versatility by playing at right back instead of centre half, were he played against the Borough.
Overall, every player did their best on a difficult day against a well drilled and useful Dorking Wanderers, who in number 7, Beckles, probably had the Man of the Match overall but his midfield promptings were not matched with any guile from the forwards.
Therefore, it's back to the Community Stadium on Tuesday night for a 7:45pm kick off and one hopes that this time there's less huff and puff, fewer petty and niggling fouls and a lot more skill shown by both teams so that the watching spectators can watch a real cracker rather than a damp squib.