A testosterone-fuelled evening...

I had another busy shift at work and managed to get all the emails answered before I left at 4pm. I sped home as tonight we were eating far earlier than normal... we were all going to see the Mighty Sileby play! They were playing another local team, the Moulton Magpies, in a cup match in, of all places, Newport Pagnell! I knew the ground had to be neutral but it seemed crazy that two teams, only about fifteen minutes from where we live, had to play in another county!

Keith had said he wanted to go but didn't fancy the drive on his own, so Sophie and I said we'd accompany him. I was looking forward to seeing Sileby play for the first time but Sophie was worried she would know some of the Moulton team as she'd gone to school in the village!

We had dinner early and set off at about 7pm, taking the B526 to Newport Pagnell. With the aid of Googly, we found the ground easily and managed to squeeze into one of the last car parking spaces. There were cars parked everywhere, which surprised all of us!

It cost £8 each for Sophie and me to get in (£4 for Keith) which I thought was quite expensive! We took seats in the stand and settled down to watch the match. I'm glad we had all wrapped up as it was cold!

Sileby in red and black, Moulton in blue

Sophie did indeed know two of the players! One from Sileby who she sees in the gym, and one of the Moulton players went to her school! She huddled down further inside her coat!

Moulton took the lead, scoring two goals and then Sileby equalised. Sophie and I were a bit surprised by how much shouting was going on, and how much swearing... it was testosterone-heavy! Although I have seen Newcastle play twice, there's nothing like standing very close to a football match to get the real atmosphere and I loved it! The players were very passionate, and the supporters did their bit as well! We had to watch out for the ball coming towards us, and I was glad that Mikey didn't take up the game as a lot of the players were constantly heading the ball, which made me wince!

At half-time, we had a hot chocolate and a shortbread biscuit served by a very jovial couple who obviously loved their job. 

Sophie's hot chocolate

When the game started up again we stood on the other side of the ground, and Keith chatted to a couple of fellow Sileby supporters. The team are playing Moulton again on Thursday but at their own ground this time.

Sadly, Sileby had had their goalkeeper sent off in the first half so they were down to ten men and Moulton scored another two goals. We left just before the end of the game and relied on Googly to get us back to Northampton. She took us home on the M1, which was busy with lorries, but it was a lot quicker!

We arrived home at about 10.30pm and managed to lure the cats inside before bed. It had been a brilliant evening and, who knows, we may be allowed to go again!