Quality Street on Saturday, more Celebrations on Tuesday.
After the quality performance the team put on show on Saturday against Canterbury City at Homelands, you didn't need to bring in Sherlock Holmes to investigate why the Crows didn't win that game by a country mile, I personally think even Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard could've even worked it out, given time.
On Tuesday night against Sevenoaks Town, you wouldn't have had to bring in Holmes' sidekick, Dr. Watson, either to tell you why the match itself was not quite the spectacle we were all waiting for and hoping to see.
It was always a game both sets of management teams would not want to lose, especially in the first half and the first goal, if there was one, was going to be a big decider as to where the three points would eventually end up.
The Crows didn't want to lose their first home game of the SCEFL season and the Oaks were protecting a seventeen match unbeaten run carried over from last season, so it came as no surprise that the first 45 minutes was a rather dull watch for most of the 118 spectators who turned up.
The Oaks played a very defensive game from the start, something that surprised me I have to say when you consider the attacking players they've just signed, I don't know if it was anything to do with them wearing an all green strip but their intention for most of the evening was to launch the ball as far as they could from anywhere on the pitch to anything that was green, whether that be one of their players, any green space on the pitch or the greenery which surrounds two sides of the Community Stadium.
This led to everyone having to wait for balls to be supplied from the touch line every 5 minutes and with so many disappearing to all corners of East Sussex, some even had to be found from the various ball bags by the dugouts, much to everyone's annoyance.
This is not to say that it was all their fault that such a spectacle was served up before us, their style seemed to rub off on us and the excellent free-flowing, passing and movement we showed on Saturday never really came to the fore and it soon became a contest to see who could launch it the furthest in to oblivion.
Efforts on goal were few and far between in the first half, in fact there were a lot more free kicks awarded due to the number of aerial challenges both sets of defenders had to make, although it was rather surprising that it was a 'keeper who received the first yellow of the night, in the 31st minute, Ellis being booked for something he said to referee, Joe McKay.
It has to be said our debutant goalie is not a shrinking violet when it comes to giving advice to anyone on the pitch, whether they listen or not, which is not a bad thing as it's something we've not had since Kush played for us some ten years ago.
Only 4 minutes later an Oaks player joined him, Miles seeing yellow for a rather agricultural tackle on Biddlecombe right by the dug outs. In truth that's about the most anyone got excited about during the first 45 and half time was reached with a 0-0 score line.
During the break the crowd were hoping for better fare in the second 45 and that Professor Moriarty wasn't going to get up to his old tricks and try to catch Holmes out, although the signs were not good for the Crows when Turner was unable to carry on due to injury and he had to be replaced by Tear, at least we knew that he is a more than capable person to have come on, as he proved throughout the second half.
Whatever was said at half time seemed to work as the football played by the Crows was definitely better than what we witnessed in the first period, the passing and movement was a lot better, plus it was played at ground level and it reaped dividends as soon as the 47th minute, Pearson caused havoc down the Oaks left and his cut back found Biddlecombe in the area however, he rather scuffed his shot and as it bounced towards the goal, Muggeridge was on hand to flick the ball in to the corner of the net for a 1-0 Crows lead.
The Oaks still carried on with the style of play utilised in the first period, even when they took the biggest Oak of all, Fenech, off after 51 minutes, Walker coming on as his replacement. There's no doubt that with Gnahore and Walker on the pitch they have pace and a constant goal threat but they were largely kept quiet by an excellent Crows back four.
In the 68th minute things got even better for the Crows, good work between Pearson and Carey saw the latters deep cross to the back post evade the Town stopper and Biddlecombe was able to put the ball in the net for 2-0.
Surprisingly, in the 78th minute, Gnahore was replaced by Marsh, a threat I was happy to see removed from the pitch, however, Oaks still carried on in much the same vein as they had done throughout the previous 77 minutes.
The only real concern the Crows had was when Ellis had to go off injured, in the 88th minute and with no substitute goalie on the bench, Butler had to take over the yellow jersey, something he's done before for the Crows, with aplomb, although from memory, the shirt seemed to fit a bit better then, this time it looked about three sizes too big for him.
Still, it gave the Oaks a different target to aim for and with the Crows looking a bit anxious, Muggeridge was taken off and Waterman was brought on to try and protect our lead in the 90th minute.
There was still time for Marsh to receive a yellow card and score a goal, in the 90+5th minute, however, the final whistle blew and the Crows deservedly took the points, an away draw and a home win is a good start and of course our next SCEFL fixture is away at Tunbridge Wells on Saturday, 27th August with a 3:00pm kick off.
Whilst we weren't quite able to unwrap the Quality Street on Saturday, we were able to open the Celebrations on Tuesday and the victory was very sweet indeed.