Preliminary round caused by Birmingham City being in Europe as holders despite relegation. Flew in to Heathrow via Glasgow from holiday in Tiree with Vicki. Just made it to ground via Heathrow to Gatwick Express, G23 to Ibis and 100 and 10 buses. Met George with tickets. Went for curry in Crawley after match. Returned on Gatwick to Edinburgh flight on Saturday morning.

I had arranged a 92 Club meeting in The Swan but got home late from work, then had a 15 minute delay on the train I was on meant it was too late to get to the pub. Slightly disappointing crowd turnout, I would have expected a bigger crowd for both clubs' first game as League teams. The game was a cracking cup tie, thoroughly enjoyable. Met another 92 Club member, Nigel Cowling in the ground and I gather a few met in the pub. Crawley Town did put a good mention for the 92 Club in the programme, must remember to thank them.

Had a nightmare journey to this one. All was going fine until we hit the dreaded M25 and the widening works for the Olympics. After 10 miles of very slow moving traffic we managed to get over the bridge and with a bit of speeding and good driving managed to get to the ground about 19.45. After queuing for 15 minutes for a ticket and burger we managed to find a very small gap in the AFC Wimbledon fans. It was a good atmosphere although i suspect many neutrals were also in with us - to get the ground in! Crawley were much the better team throughout although went behind twice. On both occasions they equalised within 5 minutes and then the reliable Matt Tubbs scored the winner. With this being a cup game I was dreading extra time and when Wimbledon got a last minute corner I was a bit worried. The journey home was much quieter although we did have to stop at Chelmsford for 20 minutes as my van seemed to be over heating. After a quick water refill we carried on and then got stopped due to an accident up-head. This took 10 minutes and we got home about midnight.

CARLING CUP PRELIMINARY ROUND SCORERS : CRAWLEY TOWN : Akpan, Torres Tubbs , AFC WIMBLEDON : l. Mooee, Midson Crawleys AKPAN SENT OFF Preliminary Round played due to Birmingham City (holders) playing in Europa League, thus unable to play in the early rounds Both teams 1st competitive match as League clubs

Carling Cup Premilinary Round Scorers: Akpan, Torres, Tubbs.