While my locals Exeter City were unfortunately losing out on penalties to Swindon Town in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy (surely the most boringly prosaic football award name since the dire Milk Cup, which sounded like something you might have lost in the playground) I was up in London. This meant that I could catch Leyton Orient at home to Brighton and Hove Albion in the same competition, thanks to the promoting of my friend Kevin Scully. Here's a snap just before kick-off from my iPhone. It was a really entertaining little match, with some good skill on display and quite a few near misses. The Os grabbed the honours within a whisper of time-added-on, much to the chagrin of the vocal visiting support. Credit to them, by the way.I lived in Brighton myself for over five years, but Albion were one of the few neighbourhood sides I never got to follow. Knowing something of the people and environment of Falmer, I'm afraid I wasn't particularly sympathetic to the Club in the shenanigans over their ground, and found their public presumption concerning a mess they effectively got themselves into rather irritating. Good luck to them this season, nonetheless.
But back to tonight. As a result of being in the capital rather than the southwest, I found myself missing yet another penalty shoot-out -- such as the one that was transpiring at St James Park in Exeter, as it happens. In 43 years of watching football I've never seen a shoot-out 'live' to this day. I was secretly hoping for a chance this evening, but in the end I was happy enough for my Orient friends to let that little unfulfilled ambition pass once more. It was a great seat towards the top-centre of the new stand at the Matchroom Stadium in Brisbane Road, too.
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