Isn’t it nice to be back watching our blue/yellow shirted heroes strut their stuff? What do you mean, you want a couple of more weeks rest? Oh well, back to reality, with Dagenham Motors 1 Crispins 0 getting our attention. The game itself was full of committment – I made the comment last season that at this level, PSFs have a bit of passion to them, and this one was no exception. Although our strike force looked quite impotent, considering we were playing a team who are only two divisions behind Franchise we more than equipped ourselves. And indeed, after they scored we went up a gear and maybe could have nabbed something at the end
Now, I have no idea who was who (nothing changes) but then a lot of people didn’t. I missed the goal BTW, I was in the queue for a cup of tea. But some interesting notes : DA appears very strict, the players look fitter than ever (one female of my aquaintance was very intrigued by the physiques of our players), our new goalie (Danny Naisbitt) looks good, the returning Roger Joseph (more comebacks than Jesus Christ) wasn’t so good, and Joe Sheerin looked red and puffed out. And this was in the warm up
Shaking off the ring rust, let us continue….
Plus points: Holding our own against a top Conference side. More than matching them in some areas of the pitch. The fact that the different teams in the two halves looked more than capable looks promising.
Minus points: Losing sucks. Looked distinctly Ryman League up front. D&R came far too close to scoring again for my liking.
The referee’s a……: Well, did you notice him? I didn’t. Was shorter than virtually everyone else on the pitch, including Jones B.
Them: Gawd blimey guvnor. Luv-a-duck. Gawd bless the Queen Mum she elped us during the awld Blitz eh? Reggie and Ronnie, good to their old mum they was, always said please and fank you, always shook yer hand before shooting you, real gentlemen. Oi, no facking Jews. Ahem. Anyway, they were pretty OK I suppose, one little incident notwithstanding (please see below). Walk from the station to the ground was real deep East London/Essex territory. Plenty of beer guts and Chav England away strips on show. Didn’t Morrissey once do a song called Dagenham Dave?
WUPped: It appears that WUP got into trouble today. Along with the Daggers fanzine, a certain ex-editor was repremanded – “quite victriolic” were the exact words – for selling said organ on D&R’s property. It appears that the D&R chairman hauled WUP into an office, and gave a five minute diatribe, with such choice words as “After all I’ve done for your club”. Hmm, if that’s the case, doesn’t that smell of pettyness? After all, the Daggers fanzine managed to sell quite openly inside the ground in the second half.
Hang the DJ: I’ve never been to a nightclub in Essex, and have no particular desire to go to one, but I imagine that the sort of music they play in such places is what I heard over the PA today. Put it this way, Aztec Camera was the best band they played. When you consider that people in Essex do one of three things on a Saturday night – (1) Drink. (2) Fight. (3) Contribute to the general decline in standard of the gene pool, is it any wonder they have poor taste in music?
Point to ponder: How weird was it going on a District Line train, stopping at Upton Park and not get off?
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Having my tea spilt by a gentleman, scalding him AND me getting a quid back as compensation. (2) Their ground had a clock. (3) And they had one of those electric substitute boards. (4) 1009 people there, 1008 probably thinking that they wished they’d had another couple of weeks off. (5) Why did D&R swap shirts on substitution?
Franchise watch: Or as we must now call them, Milton Keynes Dons. Despite changing their name, their kit, their badge (complete with MMIV) we are told they are the same club. Bit like somebody having a sex change from a man to a woman and we’re told that said sex-change person still has a penis. Anyhow, they played Newport Pagnall today and won 3-0. They must be so proud. But best of all, a gem from yesterday’s Telegraph : they were so fucked financially that Grant Thornton told the players that they had to buy their own playing pants. Seriously. Suffice to say, the remaining youth squad rebelled and Franchise still has to provide their knickers, but they have to supply their own shower gel instead. I ought to make a comment, but I really can’t.
Anything else? Urm, not really.
So, was it worth it? Well, it is nice to be back
In a nutshell: Here we go again….
And finally: As the PSFs are back, I’ll be going to most of them, but (especially the evening games) I probably won’t be writing them up. Forget Banstead, I’m going behind the old Iron Curtain/into New Europe again so I won’t be able to add a report. IMO it’s a stupid PSF to have, especially as we’re playing them next season. If you really feel the need or wanton desire to write a PSF report, please do. No guarantees that it’ll be used but the offer is there.