From the Terraces: Disappointed to miss out on a trip to Weston-super-Mare

Harrogate Town fans cheer on their team during Saturday's FA Cup showdown with Wrexham. Picture: Matt Kirkham

Although I was tempted to make the arduous journey to North Wales on Tuesday night, work commitments put an abrupt end to any such thoughts.

Back in a previous life following Wolverhampton Wanderers, I was one of 400 lucky souls to draw a ticket for Torquay away in the Sherpa Van Trophy area final on a Tuesday night.

I booked two days off work at the old Leeds Wholesale Markets on Pontefract Lane and headed down to the Midlands on the Monday evening to pick up a lift the following day.

As bad luck would have it, the game was postponed for 24 hours.

This left me with a stark choice: stay in the Midlands and travel to the West Country on the Wednesday, or head off back up north to work.

In reality, there was no competition. I chose the former and handed in my notice on returning to Yorkshire, probably before I was given the push.

So, feeling much more sensible and grown up, having lost that headstrong impulsiveness of youth, I’m sitting down to write this column at my kitchen table as Town and Wrexham are 235 minutes into a goalless stalemate.

Town may have played out another goalless draw against Wrexham in the FA Cup at Wetherby Road on Saturday, but the encounter was every bit as enthralling as the recent league match.

It was a great team effort, with the players rising to the noisy atmosphere generated by almost non-stop singing from the Town fans in the Wetherby Road stand.

The full repertoire of songs was aired, supplemented with spontaneous outbreaks of baaing, something I found a little unnerving.

I look forward to being met at away grounds with the sound of clinking tea cups on saucers.

If anything, Town had grown from the previous league encounter and, instead of hanging on, should have won the game, thus substituting a long fruitless journey to North Wales with a trip to the seaside.

As Joe Leesley arrowed over a high, looping cross from the left two minutes into injury-time, my old self would have bet my house on Mark Beck heading it in.

It’s just as well I’m more sensible now.

It’s now full-time in North Wales. Town played well without scoring again and the brilliant 43 away fans out-sang the Wrexham fans again, but our cup run’s over before it even started.

Great credit must go to the club for arranging free match tickets for the diehards on the coach, however, as I put the kettle on, I’m not envying them the long journey home.

As one fan, trying to put a brave face on it, wrote on Facebook, ‘Who wanted to go to Weston-Super-Mare anyway?’ Well I can tell you, I most definitely did.