SLIDING DOORS

 Fleet Spurs 1 Stockbridge 5

1st October 2023

I haven’t seen the film ”Sliding Doors”, not all the way through anyway. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, it explores the concept of how life can branch in a different direction, based on something as innocuous  as whether someone catches a train or not. The film follows Paltrow’s character, in parallel throughout the movie, in both scenarios – one where she catches the train, and one where the doesn’t. Nominated for a BAFTA, it did win several international awards, and has drawn comparisons with Krzysztof Kieslowski’s film “Blind Chance” (which I also haven’t seen), and Tom Tykwer’s movie “Run, Lola, Run” (which for some reason, I have seen), both of which have similar plotlines.

The premise of the movie, “what if…?”, is something that football fans are familiar with. Within the course of a match, games can be turned on such ponderances. What if the forward has passed instead of shot? What if the defender hadn’t deflected the shot? What if the keeper hadn’t misjudged the cross, or punched instead of trying to catch? What if, what if, what if? I’m sure players, post-match, ask themselves the same questions. I played five-a-side last Monday, and am still thinking about a pass I made, to nobody in particular, that was intercepted and led to the opposition scoring. It’s unlikely it would have made any difference to the 13-1 defeat we suffered but doesn’t stop me pondering whether I should have just lumped it into the adjacent park, instead of reimagining myself as Andrea Pirlo and believing I had the skill level to complete a pass like that.

English football is littered with its own “what if?” moments. How different would English, indeed World, football have been, if the linesman had a better sighting of Geoff Hurst’s second goal in the 1966 World Cup final. For starters, I don’t believe that the linesman, Tofiq Bahramov, would have had the national football stadium in Azerbaijan named after him upon his death in 1993. How would England have fared in 1986 had the Tunisian officials spotted Diego Maradona’s hand nudging the ball over Peter Shilton in their quarter-final (or had Terry Butcher fouled Maradona in one of the two opportunities he had presented to him for his exquisite second goal in the same game). Frank Lampard’s shot against Germany in 2010, that crashed against the underside of the crossbar, landed several feet behind the line before bouncing away to safety (the goal that hurried along the implementation of goal-line technology, and ultimately VAR) – had that gone in, would England have gone on to win the trophy, and would VAR have been thwarted at inception? To be completely fair, I think the answer to both those questions is an emphatic no.

The most excruciating example from a personal perspective comes from the 1999-2000 FA Cup, and it still stings. Hendon had produced a couple of recent prolonged runs in the cup, reaching the first round in the previous three seasons, losing twice to Cardiff City, once to Notts County in a replay, but famously (ahem) defeating Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road. Having come through a rain-sodden first round tie away to Bath City (which is the wettest I have ever been at a football match), they were drawn away to Blackpool, then of League One. Four coachloads of supporters left Claremont Road at 4am and watched Hendon more than match their professional opponents. The sliding doors moment came midway through the second half. Former Bulgarian international, Bontcho Guentchev (ex of Luton and Ipswich Town) had two chances in quick succession. One was a dipping long-range effort that didn’t dip quite enough and rattled the cross bar. Shortly afterwards, arguably my favourite footballer of all time controlled the ball on his chest with his back to goal, and unleashed a bicycle kick that would still be shown on goals compilations videos the world over, but for a magnificent save by Blackpool’s keeper.

Minutes later, Blackpool took the lead, and sealed the game late on with a breakaway goal. The following day, they were drawn away to Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Had either of Guentchev’s spectacular efforts gone in, it would have been probable that Hendon would have gone on to win (they were on top throughout that period of the game, and Blackpool were hanging on). A third-round tie at Arsenal, then in the middle of a period of massive success under Arsene Wenger, would have provided the club with an eye-watering cash injection, which could have been the financial boost required to propel the team into the Conference. It would have meant that there may have been money available to renovate the increasingly dilapidated home ground. They most certainly would not have needed to pass up a place in the inaugural National League South in 2004. Instead, the club missed out on a trip to Highbury, and whilst we had some exciting league seasons, we (correctly, I might add) passed on the opportunity to join the National League South when it was formed; the club was made homeless in 2008, and spent nearly a decade ground-hopping around Middlesex The club is happily settled at Silver Jubilee Park, now the club’s home. But for the width of Blackpool’s crossbar, the last quarter of a century would have turned out very differently for the club.

Fleet Spurs had their own sliding doors moment against Stockbridge. In the month since I had last seen them play, team selections (and therefore results) had been a struggle. Not a Saturday afternoon would pass without a glance on social media to check up on how they had performed at a glorified school pitch somewhere in Hampshire. Usually, in fact exclusively, it would be a defeat, which as last season showed, turns into a spiral quickly. The club aren’t quite at the levels of the 2022-23 season yet, as they are already four points better off than they were well into the second half of the season last year, but they do really need a win soon to restore some confidence in the threadbare squad.

They started brilliantly and were ahead inside the opening five minutes. A driven cross-field pass from Dillan Barnard found lone striker Aaron Redford in space on the far side of the penalty area. He cut across the back-pedaling defenders and thumped his shot beyond the keeper into the top corner for an exceptional goal. They continued to probe, were organized in defence, busy in midfield, and a threat on the counter in attack. Stockbridge, in contrast, seemed unable to string more than a few passes together in the hosts half of the pitch. The few attacks they had drifted into nothingness before being able to glimpse the whites of the goalkeeper’s eyes. They did have the ball in the net midway through the half, but the linesman’s flag sprung into life well before their forward slotted home, a fact missed by several fans standing next to us, who believed that the goal had been given for quite a while afterwards. The visitors did finally get their act together, and levelled just before half time, an angled shot from the edge of the area by Stu Pittaccio taking the merest of deflections on its way to hitting the inside of the post. Except it wasn’t the inside of the post – it had hit the lever used to raise the wheels on the moveable goalposts, situated a few feet inside the goal, and then bounced back into play, players claiming it had gone in or hit the post depending on the colour of their shirt, in a scene bordering on playground football, arguments that the ball had gone over the “jumpers for goalposts” following a similar fashion. The referee, correctly from where I was standing, ignored the noise and awarded the goal.

Whilst that would seem like a perfect sliding doors moment – a contentious goal on the stroke of half-time, changing both managers’ team talks – that wasn’t it. It came ten minutes into the second half. An attack from Fleet Spurs down the right saw Rhys Holifield cross the ball into the Stockbridge penalty area, striking the hand of their covering defender. The referee awarded the penalty to very few complaints. A chance for the hosts to regain the lead and initiative in the match. What followed is probably the strangest sixty seconds of football I’ve witnessed live. Drew Matthews stepped up to take the penalty, but keeper Freddie Firman guessed correctly which direction it was going and dropped onto the poorly struck effort. The home supporters sighed, Stockbridge celebrated their escape, and an excited Firman half-volleyed the ball in the direction of the Fleet half. A kindly bounce and a miscommunication by the home defenders took the ball skipping towards the penalty area. There, waiting with hands in position ready to catch the ball on the furthest edge of his permitted area, was keeper Patrick Attrill. Except, the ball didn’t quite get that far, as Luke Neal has tracked the clearance from his keeper, and judged the trajectory of the ball with almost mathematical precision, and got his head to the ball the absolute millimeter ahead of where Attrill could use his hands, and glanced it over the top of the now helpless keeper, before rolling it into the empty net, to jubilant celebrations. From staring down the barrel of going behind for a second time to instead taking the lead, all in under a minute. Sliding doors…

After this brush with disaster, Stockbridge were invigorated, Fleet Spurs spirit crushed. They folded, and using pundit speak, in the last thirty minutes, their heads went. Not that they stopped trying, but they looked defeated from that moment onwards. Every little break of the ball that went against them was met with a sagging of the shoulders and sighs of resignation. Stockbridge took the fullest of advantages, increasing their lead less than a minute after their escape. A cross into the box from Henry Bragginton, that even he apologized for as he hit it, was mis controlled badly by the Fleet defence, and was dispatched by substitute Ross Belbin. Bragginton then joined in the fun, curling an exquisite fourth with the outside of his foot beyond Attrill. There was time for Neal, whose anticipation and header had started the carnage thirty minutes previously, to score a close-range header from a set-piece, this time by standing still in the six-yard box and waiting for the ball to come to him.

If, ten minutes into the second half, anyone had announced that the game would end 5-1, then you would have taken it that Fleet Spurs had won their second game of the season and been very pleased for them. However, that missed penalty set off a chain of rapid events that spiraled quickly out of control for the hosts. And not even Tafiq Bahramov, Bontcho Guentchev or Gwyneth Paltrow could have done a lot about it.