27th August 2010 - League One
Colchester United 1 vs 1 Carlisle United
Two weeks on from our trip to Leyton Orient and the company of it's hilarious fans, Rich and I were off on the short trip to Colchester to see more League One action.
With these two sides sitting first and second in the embryonic table we were hoping for a bit of a ding-dong battle. Yeah...we didn't get that.
The Weston Homes Community Stadium, to give its full title, was only opened in 2008 with Colchester United having previously played at Layer Road.
From what I've heard, Layer Road was a bit of a dive, but this was a smart looking new stadium just off the A12 so we shot up there straight after work. But seeing as Colchester isn't that far from where we work we turned up ridiculously early - this would become the norm at later ground-hops.
With time to kill we bought our tickets, wondered around the outside of the ground, had a nose in the club shop, picked up a programme and actually read some of it - which didn't happen often on ground-hops - before we were finally allowed in.
We parked ourselves in the West Stand and patiently waited for the game to begin, whilst admiring the handful of Carlisle fans who had made the ridiculous five hour plus journey down to support their team on a Friday night.
The game itself was...well, dull. With the stadium not even half full and with it being a Friday evening there was next to no atmosphere and the football did little to peak the interest of those watching.
Colchester took the lead when Dave Mooney headed the hosts in front just short of half an hour in, and then little happened after that until injury time.
With time running out, Carlisle pushed forward for an equaliser and as a bit of a bombardment ensued.
I remember saying out loud "they're gonna score, they're gonna score, they're gonna score" followed by "they've scored" after Paul Thirlwell scored four minutes into stoppage time to send the hardy Carlisle fans home happy.
For almost three years this game would be the benchmark for dull. At later ground-hops we would base our opinion on matches and their entertainment value by comparing them to this game. "It's not quite a Colchester - Carlisle" would become a common phrase, until later on.
It's always been a contentious discussion between Rich and I over whether we would have began doing the 92 if this had been the game we went to first, instead of Leyton Orient.
Fortunately (or unfortunately if you ask my bank balance) it wasn't, so the quest continued.
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