By Casey Jones
My day started in a very cold Sunbury at 6am, checking the trains, weather and social media updates to make sure that Storm Eowyn wasn’t going to ruin our plans for the day. I made my way onto the bus and over to Feltham Station for an early 6:30am start. Meeting our programme editor Chris Hurst at Feltham, we took the 06:48 train into London Waterloo, with academy player and fellow supporter Tommy Rance joining us along the way.
There were just the three of us on a relatively quiet train out of London Paddington at 08:03, we would eventually be joined by 26 others in the away end at Torquay’s impressive ground, Plainmoor. Boarding nice and early at Paddington, we proudly hung up our Hampton scarves and shirts from the overhead luggage compartment, and snacks for the journey were spread across the table! We were on our way to Devon and the problems and trials of the week were cast aside for a few hours, as they are every Saturday when you follow your team. On the way there, the ticket inspector came round to check everyone’s tickets and when he got to me, he remarked “you’re going a long way today”, to which I replied with “we’re going to the football!” - this comment from me made his jaw drop. The journey brought back very fond memories for me as we passed Welcome Family Holiday Park in Dawlish Warren which is where I went on holiday when I was younger, for 8 consecutive years!
Once we arrived in the beautiful town of Torquay, we strolled along the promenade and through the harbour; we popped into two pubs along the way – The Green Ginger and The Cider Press. Torquay is extremely hilly which made the 25-minute walk quite challenging, especially for me. Something that was slightly confusing is that Plainmoor is cashless for match tickets but their programmes are to buy with cash only so we had to take a detour to a local shop to obtain some paper money. We wondered back to the ground and a sight that you very rarely see at NLS matches is police with sniffer dogs outside the home turnstiles, but Torquay are a big enough club to have this!
Plainmoor is an extremely impressive stadium especially for this level of football! The stewards and staff have excellent communication skills with all fans and are very friendly which is a positive. In the away end, there were only four of us at first but slowly poured in with an announced away attendance as 21, but I can tell you it was 31 (29 in the away section, 31 including Mike and Hilary who were elsewhere).
Jake Gray, Jo Page and Luka Ziger joined the travelling support in the stand, which is another bonus to watching non-league football – you get to speak with your own players! There were 4 changes made from Tuesday night away at Boreham Wood with Lachlan Byrd (making his full debut), James Roberts (returning from his three-match suspension), George Hunt and Alfie Williams in the starting lineup.
As for the game itself, it was a battling performance whilst under significant pressure for much of the game. Loanee goalkeeper Max Merrick was everybody’s Man of the Match (including Torquay fans) with a string of quality saves including a particularly impressive diving fingertip save in stoppage time.
Torquay’s boss, Paul Wotton, dubbed it the Gull’ best home performance of the season! The only goal of the contest came from a moment of Mauro Vilhete magic crafted from nowhere. Kris Campbell played a long through ball and the former Barnet forward unleashed a tricky shot over James Hamon in the Torquay goal from quite some range whilst going up against two former Hampton players – Sam Dreyer and Jordan Thomas. It's the sort of unexpected three points that will give the playoff chasers cause to pay attention to this Hampton side.
Thankfully, the weather down in the South-West coast was surprisingly warm with no signs of Storm Eowyn affecting the conditions. As previously said, we were put under significant pressure for much of the game, especially in the 6 minutes of stoppage time at the end which made the travelling support and I quite nervous. We had all the faith in our Beavers that we would hold on and bring back home the 3 points, and that we did! It was an exciting and thrilling game of football. It’s always hard going to Torquay as they have an incredible fanbase, stadium and team; our Hampton side are extremely dedicated and work unbelievably hard in every training session and every game!
Fortunately, the train back wasn’t too delayed (just over 20mins late, which was enough for some delay repay from GWR, much to our delight)! On Saturday night trains you tend to bump into some interesting characters... there is a mix of crowds heading into town for a big Saturday night out; individuals travelling long distances with luggage; and of course, other sports fans making their way home from various matches. In our case, we were joined by a few Exeter City fans along the way, and to our surprise, among them was Hampton fan – Seb White – who had attended the match at St James Park to tick off the ground! He was just as surprised to see us and we enthusiastically updated each other on events from our respective matches.
As our train weaved its way through the North Wessex Downs and onwards towards Reading, the night started to draw in and the carriage quietened down, everybody worn out by the day’s activities. Seb retreated a few rows back and listened to a podcast; our conversation slowed as we started to doze off, happy with three points and a great day out.
With the Beavers sitting comfortably in 10th place, just outside the playoffs, whereas unfortunately for Weymouth, they currently sit in 24th place – the last place of the relegation zone. We look forward to Tuesday night at Beveree where we face Weymouth in what will be our 28th league game of the season! Bring the noise, and get behind Alan and the team!
Tickets for Tuesday night can be purchased HERE.