Recently, a merry band from St Mary’s found themselves at York Road, cheering on Maidenhead United with the English learners among Maidenhead’s local asylum seeker population, who, frankly, knew far more about football than the rest of us put together.
From the moment we arrived, they were completely gripped by the action, and by the first goal they were celebrating like seasoned ultras; by the second, we might as well have been taking tactical advice from them.
Maidenhead obliged with a glorious 2–0 win over Totton AFC, and everyone was delighted to see our hometown sitting one place above Maidstone, which, as everybody knows, promises to cause huge confusion.
By the end of the night a few of us had even organised to run an upcoming Parkrun together.
All in all, the evening was a triumph: good football, great company, and a Tuesday evening far better than anything Netflix could have offered. A big thank you to Tom Crane, Finn West, Katherine Edwards and Fran Montgomerie for joining, and a huge thanks to Laura Swain for organising everything.