Did I say I don’t recall many memorable games against Stockport? Well I will from now on.

Everyone seemed to have such confidence, there was an air of expectation at Withdean.There was something else in the air as well, wasps hundreds of em. They were in people’s hair, on ice creams, smeared against Liam Dickinson, well people used their ever decreasing programme to swat them, and he was on the front of it.

It was hot hot hot, lots of planes buzzing over from Shoreham, the sprinklers on at full pelt and the constant whisp whisp whisper of the Test Match on a radio somewhere behind me. So what could possible go wrong this time? Kick off that’s what! From the first kick, Stockport‘s Pilkington waltzed through the Albion defence, in to a scoring position, only to be denied by Andrew Whing’s intervention.

A few murmurs later and the Albion had a chance to score, but missed, surprisingly. You should always score your chances at home; it says so in the FA coaching manual!

Adam Virgo and James Tunnicliffe were desperately trying to remember what respective position’s Russell Slade had told them to play in. Gary ‘you’ve had a row with someone obviously’ Dicker, was chatting to all his old Stockport mates whilst warming up. He kept shaking his head a lot and shrugging his shoulders. Believe me Gary, so are we.

Then we scored and a cavalcade of emotion, delight and relief filled the Withdean.Its going to be ok, Slade must stay, the only way is up, fantastic! And then...........almost immediately they equalized, and the muttering started again. Mark has sat to my left for 10 or so years, usually with his charming wife Mandy. Although Mandy doesn’t come much anymore because they had baby. Yesterday that baby ‘Shay ‘(who is now 20 months) was at the game sitting on Mark’s knee. Now Mark is a generous soul and will gladly give both the referee and linesman the benefit of his opinion and to make sure they don’t miss out, he stands up to ensure they hear it.

It was 1-1 at half time and we were all fairly happy, we’d got a goal had eleven players on the pitch etc.etc.

Early in the second half Liam Dickinson further cemented his love affair with the lush Withdean turf and won us a penalty. Which Nicky Forster, who had already scored our goal, missed!

Mark was now showing all his teeth, and then in the distance Stockport scored. Not a problem a momentary blip another momentary blip. Some decisions weren’t quite going our way, but out of the blue Liam Dickinson restored parity and as many people behind me suggested we would go on to win it now.

It was soon after this that Mr Cook, our referee decided to prove that his red card, was a redder red than the red cards used last season. Tommy Elphick was the first player he demonstrated this too. Colin Hawkins was then summoned by the bench to get ready to shore up the now depleted defence; he stripped for action and headed straight for his position, ignoring of course the usual procedure whereby a substitute who replaces another player, waits for his colleague to leave the field of play first. Sadly the 4th official, Dean White and at least 5000 people noticed, so Dean Cox had to come off, good try though.

Colin the Hawk lasted almost 3 minutes, again appearingly in a hurry he tried to swap shirts with a Stockport player in the penalty area. Although Graeme Smith had just made two splendid saves Albion’s keen substitute was advised shirt swapping was a post match activity and he joined Tommy Elphick in getting a first go with the Matey.Stockport scored the resulting penalty.

Now where I sit with Mark, Mandy, Frank, Zoe, et al, is quite a distance from the away end, so to us, Hawkins challenge looked fairly innocuous and the decision a little harsh. Poor Mark, bearing in mind he had his little lad on his knee, wasn’t able to give his usual appraisal. His face was a little contorted and he could think of the words, he could even form the words in his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to say, neigh, bellow them at the ref.

Plenty of others did though, not just at the officials but at Russell Slade, Dean White, Tony Bloom and Alan Mullery I think!

We actually had a few chances to equalize, most notably falling to the much better behaved sub Mark Wright. Stockport’s Birdcutt was the third player to see red, but in the end the visitors got a 4th and Tony Bloom slumped further into his chair.

There weren’t too many boos at the final whistle and young Shay nodded when I asked him did he enjoy it.

His Dad didn’t nod though!