After all these years following Sturminster Marshall and Newcaste United I never get carried away by a few good results because I know there is always a sockful of sand waiting round the corner. Sure enough, I got a smack right round the napper today. First up, I had to pay £4 to get in. The footballing correspondent of the Times is welcomed to Old Trafford with as much free booze and as many prawn sandwiches as he can manage. Me? I have to pay four quid to get in at Chickerell. Four quid! I can remember when it used to cost two shillings to watch Newcastle play Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal. Two bob - that's about 10 pence in new money.

Having been mugged on the way in, salt was rubbed into the wound by events on the pitch where we proceeded to make a very ordinary Chickerell side look like Brazil. A back heel which was so well telegraphed it could have been sent via the pony express caught the Stur defence napping and we were 1-0 down after fifteen minutes. Ten minutes later a Chickerell forward chased a long ball into the inside left channel. Gareth Thomas appeared to have done enough when he forced him wide and Doug Shear seemed to have the angle covered but the ball was lashed into the top corner. I would have waxed lyrical had such a goal been scored by one of the Stur boys, but in this case I'll put it down as mis-hit cross.

HT: 0-2

Manager Matt Morris wasn't impressed with the first half performance and kept the players on the pitch for the half time talk in order to emphasise the points he was trying to get across. Or maybe it was because the changing rooms were outside the gate and he thought he would have to pay four quid to get back in past the Obersturmbannfuhrer on the gate.

Whatever was said at half time, it did have some effect because the second half performance was certainly an improvement on the first. Dan Manuel and Sam Goodwin both had good chances to pull a goal back, but Goodwin's shot was parried by the keeper and Manuel's follow up was blocked. Manuel beat the keeper with a free kick but the ball crashed off the cross bar. Stur were looking likely to score but were caught with a sucker punch when a free kick on the half way line was taken quickly and lumped up the pitch. A Chickerell forward was quickest to react and the ball was lifted over Shear. Luke Geddes curled a twenty yard shot into the top corner to make the score 3-1 and the visitors at last began to place the home side under some pressure.

The home side reacted to that pressure by kicking lumps out of everything that moved. Jack Geddes, Scott Logan and Dan Neville had all been kicked up in the air before Sam Goodwin was subjected to a horrendous tackle. The tackle really was a potential leg-breaker and the offender should undoubtedly have been sent from the pitch, but the referee decided a caution was sufficient punishment and so issued the same punishment as he had earlier dished out to Dan Manuel for a mild case of dissent. I sometimes wonder where the priorities of match officials lie.

All in all, a disappointing day.