Those Were The Days; 3rd December 1988

[Les1949]

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
3rd December 1988
London Senior Cup 1st Round

Barkingside 1 Hampton 1 (McKechnie) aet, abandoned in the 105th minute

Hampton ;-
Lee Orkney; Carlos Gibbs, Simon Edwards, Tim Hollands, Clive Marich, Kevin Hennessey, Martin Heath, Razzo Beach, Ricky Walkes, Gary McKechnie, Russell Portway.
Sub; Colin Brathwaite.

This match was notable for several reasons; it was the first match of Brian Laing’s tenure as manager (after Hampton sacked Steve Rogers – the first time the club had ever ‘sacked’ a manager) and for kicking off at 1.45pm on a Saturday afternoon – but still not getting the game finished! Barkingside did not have floodlights which necessitated the early kick off time. Laing had to field a makeshift side due to injuries, suspensions and players unable due to the early start. Despite this Hampton got off to a fast start scoring after five minutes. Walkes crossed from the right, McKechnie’s header beating their keeper, Viny Nichol, and going in off the far post. The match then turned into Orkney versus Barkingside as he made a number of saves to keep Hampton in the game. At one stage, Orkney used his legs to save from Derek Francois, and recovered in time to fend off a bullet header from the same player. However, there was nothing that Orkney could do about Barkingside’s equaliser in the 63rd minute, a header by Francois. And, so, in the gathering gloom, the game went into extra time. Eventually the referee decreed that the light was too poor to carry on after the end of the first period of extra time. As a matter of interest, the replay was won by Barkingside, 1-0, but not at Beveree, instead at Walton & Hersham’s Stompond Lane ground, due to groundshare regulations Beveree was out of use to Hampton for that game (Kingstonian were sharing Beveree at the time).



The Old Historian