Right, firstly, MASSIVE apology for the delay in writing up the Walton game. As some of you may know, I’m on the WISA Committee and I’ve been helping out with the DT Questionnaire, which was compiled by Charlie Bell and is available here if you haven’t seen it already. And proof-reading, defending from accusations of loaded questions (you can guess what I think), and some frankly downright evil shit-stirring aimed at people on WISA and some candidates as well. As it stands, things are turning into a bit of a bloodbath, and I can’t think of how this election can survive without people being massively put off because of the mud slinging. We shall see.
Anyway, if you’ve got any nice comments about the questionnaire, let me know. A psychologist would have a field day with the reactions before, during and after its publication…..
So….
Typical. Bloody typical. We try our hardest to throw ourselves out of some crappy cup tournament that has an acroynm that sounds like some chemical company (the Premier Challenge Cup, or PCC) and we still end up bloody winning. Actually, that’s a bit unfair as K-Mart 5 Wal-Mart 4 was a damn good game. OK, so being 3-0 after 30 minutes sucked the big one, and watching Wales go out to Russia was a more tempting option, but as far as comebacks go, this really did rock. Basically, we went 3-0 down, then we got a penalty. Which Ryan Gray duely slotted. Second half saw a turnaround on a scale of epic proportions, namely a crappy back pass (under presssure no less) pegged it back to 3-2. Cue mass orgy.
Then they went 4-2 up again. End mass orgy. Then it starts getting West Ham 4-3 territory again. Firstly, after much pressure, Matt Everard proved why he really is the wank fantasy of many by netting to make it 4-4. Cue yet another mass orgy. Finally, after 8.5 minutes injury time – yup, Mr Fish at G&G again – and let’s face it, this was coming, a 5th goal again by Everard probably made a couple of people pregnant in the ensuing romp. And all this for a PCC game. Quite.
Let’s look at the evidence…..
Plus points: The comeback of comebacks. Kept going till the end. Superior fitness.
Minus points: Defence went back to bad old ways. Very bad old ways.
The referee’s a……..: Oh dear. Where the hell did they drag him up from? Missed stuff – including Danny O trying to decapitate an oppo player – but did give us a penalty. Funny comment – the ref gave a foul throw (probably illegally) and some wag behind me commented “CCL refs don’t give foul throws”. Well, I thought it was funny.
Them: Hmm. Isn’t Danny Wheeler a lovely boy? No, really. Oh, and their bench reportedly gave it a little bit of some when they were 4-2 up.
Point to ponder: In many ways, should we have not tried to win this game? We have Wooton on Saturday in the Vase, we are going to lose sometime and how many people really take this contest seriously? Oh all right, I know we do…
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) The 10 year old kid behind me who kept asking “who’s the wanker in the black” and called their goalie a “retard”. Obviously an SW19 afficiado. (2) The kids-with-one-adult kids section in the JS stand. Nicknamed the Michael Jackson stand as no self-respecting youngster wants to go in there. Especially without proper protection. (3) Entertaining the flatmate of a regular SW19 reader, who had come to their first game and enjoyed it immensely, even if the celebrations were a little too physical. Still, said person never forgot their first time, especially with two blokes ensuring she loved it.
Anything else? Yeah, weren’t Scotland and Wales shit?
So, was it worth it? As a spectacle, certainly was. But I can’t help thinking it might have been better if we’d lost. Strange that.
In a nutshell: Saturday’s much more important.