Billericay Town 1 Swansea City 2

About noon on Saturday we left home for the reasonably short walk to the New Lodge football ground. There were lots of people already there. It is many years since I last attended a match, but this was Billericay's big day. The first time against league opposition in their history. After various introductions, including one from the Billericay town crier, the match got underway. There were TV cameras in the ground (I'm not sure if this was a first?). The Billericay crowd supported their team and made lots of noise. The game started rather nervously - especially from Swansea, who were not playing their first team. After about 10 minutes the players settled down, but the quality of the football from Swansea had not improved greatly. So the surprise of Billericay scoring first (Wayne Semanshia) was not as great as it should have been. From the kick-off Swansea did not look as though they were that committed to coming back. Giant killing thoughts entertained the spectators. Our apparent lack of television coverage in the lead-up also got a few mentions. Still 1-0 at half time. Play resumed in much the same vein, but Swansea were starting to get the upper hand. Their equaliser was no surprise, Billericay had been under pressure for a while. After the goal, you would have thought Swansea had settled for the draw. They did not seem to be trying that hard. Then a defensive mistake let Swansea grab a second. Billericay did fight back, but during this period Swansea played some of their best football.
This was not a classic game, but showed that although 170+ places below Swansea, and admittedly with a team at less than full strength, the difference between the two teams was basically limited to the accuracy of the passing.

A word to 'supporters' (the ones just behind me): I'm pretty sure these are regular Billericay fans, so please get behind all your players, even if they aren't at the top of their game.