Well, I’m not sure how to approach this one…
I suppose the upshot of Lions 0 Women’s Institute 0 is that we’re still unbeaten away since the first game of the season.
But fuck, we were poor last night.
From memory, we hardly had much on target, our main attack came from Poleon (?) breaking from our box, getting to the byline and managing to square it to nobody in particular.
Oh, and your editor didn’t realise we were down to 10 men until it was pointed out afterwards. It was that sort of game.
To be honest, I wonder if our all-round lethargicness (and yes, it’s really lethargy, but I’m creating it as a new word) was a bit down to this being our sixth game in all competitions this month.
The fact we’ve come this far and just need to get past Fleetwood this Saturday has at least confirmed that we’ve got a terrific backbone now.
Even if the Cods do get their first ever win against us this weekend, to go through this month with just one goal conceded and two draws away isn’t a bad return.
It could have gone a lot more wrong, put it that way.
More on that later. I suppose last night might have cooled down the giddyometer, as some were already planning their trips to Derby next season.
If we were at that level, we would have somehow found a way to win last night. That we were holding on a bit shows we’re not there yet.
But we’re a lot nearer to where “there” is than we would have expected…
Plus points: We didn’t lose. Clean sheet. Kept going. The proverbial digging out a result.
Minus points: We didn’t win. Didn’t really look like scoring. Too many mis-placed passes.
The referee’s a…: Well, NA wasn’t happy with him…
Them: They might have felt they could have won it, although their finishing was as shocking as ours.
Millwall are one of those clubs that seem permanently destined to be either in the Championship or L1, depending on which way the fumes from that local recycling plant blows.
Although they didn’t help themselves by keeping hold of Ian Holloway before it was too late.
I always like going to the new Den (and I was one of the few away fans who enjoyed the old one as well). And if it really was based on Wandle Valley South, well… what might have been, eh?
Mind you, they seem to be victims of a stitch-up by their local council – thank fuck our main stumbling block for NPL was Boris the Retard, who understood the planning process even less than being Foreign Secretary.
They did have their 15-year olds living off past glories to our left, and they didn’t quite like the “little boys” chant…
Point to ponder: So, can we finally say we’ve got a spine? The answer is, of course.
Perhaps more accurately, we have strength in depth now, and by fuck we need it. Take Robertson, who has suddenly built up a mean partnership with Robbo.
Earlier in the season, us losing Charles would have caused many an undergarment to be soiled. But now he’ll find it difficult to dislodge either of them.
Meades got injured, then got red carded last night, but you don’t think about that this morning because Owens will do a job.
I guess the only concern right now is who replaces Fuller. Now he’s somebody who – after a dodgy start himself – is enjoying an Indian summer.
I’ll leave you to discuss that, midfield and upfront amongst yourselves. That’s as far as the football analysis will ever go on this site 😉
But what it does prove is that to do well in L1 you need a work ethic and that bit of grit to do well. It’s not much more skilful than L2, all that’s different is the strikers are a tad sharper and the defenders a bit meaner.
And getting squad players in to do the grafting goes a long way. Of course, we’ve now stopped scoring against everyone who isn’t called Bury, but that’s another matter…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) £26 is a pisstake. Seriously, the fact we got over 1000 is despite that, not because of it. 2) Speaking of which, for the second visit in a row the queue to get in was a joke. Did they really only expect 400?
Anything else? What is it with games to Millwall? By that, I mean happenings or things that get seared in the conscience many years after it happens.
The Red Jacket Man is now legendary (if you’ve forgotten or you’re just clueless, click here and go down to “The Ultimate Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction” – no hyperbole either).
But now we have something else – the seagull.
OK, it might be a seagull, I’m no ornithologist, but the little aves was the star of last night. Basically, it flew into the half near us at the start of the game, and stayed there for the whole evening.
True, birds aren’t exactly unusual at matches, but they normally fuck off after five minutes when they realise getting trodden on by Lyle Taylor isn’t a good idea.
This one obviously had that sixth sense that animals tend to have, namely nothing much would happen, because apart from the odd scampering it was back for more.
And because the game was so shite, everyone’s attention seemed to turn to it. Well, it was about as effective as some of our play, and would have probably tackled better than Meades.
Anyway, it finally got the hint ten minutes before the end, so one only wonders where it flew to next. Trafalgar Square? The coast?
Or did it have a pre-arranged “meeting” with RJM at New Cross Gate, and was just getting psyched up…?
So, was it worth it? Well, we didn’t lose I guess.
In a nutshell: Still second top club in south London.