If there’s a footballing equivalent to having a day off from work, I guess Men 5 Boys 0 would come pretty close. Today was the sort of contest you used to get in the CCL. Difference back then was that the opposition tried their bollocks off for a good 20 minutes, realising they’d gone out of puff and we took over. Poor Leyton didn’t even get that far.
When Hatton fiercely struck from about 2mm out, you could have ended the game there and then. Seriously – for most of our Ryman Prem life we’ve scored first and for the most part the opposition are capable of coming back at us. Today, we saw none of that. It wasn’t so much the type of performance we’ve desired for all this time, more likely the sort of performance we expect. As opposed to come to expect, IYSWIM……
First, the match. Hatton scored twice. Webb did a nice loop for his goal. One of our yoof teamers (Luke Pidgen) netted as well as the Cue. We could have had a couple more but didn’t. They had one free kick in the second half that went nearer Surbiton than our goal and, er, that was really that.
So why was today muted? Probably because it really was a foregone conclusion. Christ, I’m not exactly foaming at the mouth to put my fingers to keyboard (no more than usual anyway). Maybe it was knowing that Chelmsford won? Understandable, although I think more people are concentrating on second place now. Maybe it was the news about Frankie? See below for details. Or maybe it was just one of those strange days you get once in a while? After all, we won 5-0 without breaking much sweat, t’Barnsley beat the Scousers and Arsenil got well and truly buttfucked at Old Trafford.
Or maybe it’s something else entirely?
Whatever, at least our run is continuing. Our most important game is the next one, because we really do need to keep winning. Yes, I know that’s stating the bleeding obvious, and then some, but we’ve now got to the stage when even scraping by week in, week out isn’t good enough. No, the points gap is still the same but we kept our side of the bargain today. Continue to do that and who knows what might happen, even now?
Anyway, onto more pressing matters. It’s a real shame that Frankie “Anthony” Howard is departing us around Easter. Doubly ironic as only today me and an SW19 reader were discussing how he’s been the longest serving player at the club.I don’t quite know who he’ll be working for out in NY (Red Bull NY in the MLS? An NCAA program?) but right now it’s the feel of a chapter closing. Is he really the one remaining on-field link between AFCW and the Ryman One days?
More importantly, it does create a problem in defence. We really need to act quickly to replace him now, simply to settle the new guy in so he’s not totally drowing when we need a strong player the most. MG and JG have a collective age of about 70, and while their experience is invaluable, they are both rather old. I don’t want to dip out a third year in succession simply because we failed to replace the right player at a vital time of the season. TB’s recent signings have been pretty decent, but he’ll need to surpass those efforts right now…
Finally, I don’t blame Frankie one bit for going. He’s young, it’s a good living over there and he would have been an idiot to turn it down. Who knows, maybe we can wrangle a pre-season tour there………….. 😉
Enough of that, here’s……
Plus points: A win. A comfortable win. Third clean sheet in a row. Not needing to get out of second gear. Danny Webb scoring and looking confident. Being able to rest players/take them off without it making much difference.
Minus points: Strangely muted.
The referee’s a……….: Wasn’t bad at all, this one. Not that he really had much to do though.
Them: I don’t half feel sorry for Leyton. They get CCL-level turnouts at the best of times, most of their squad fucked off one day leaving the ones we saw today to pick up the proverbial pieces. At times you could see why they lost 11-1 to Hendon, although the champions-elect and Staines both stuggled against them recently. You do wonder how they keep going at times – obviously that bar/nightclub of theirs funds the outfit but surely an inner-London outfit could manage something? Oh, and I think they had a CCL away turnout as well.
Point to ponder: Are we about to enter a very unusual run-in? I’ll explain. Chelmsford are (let’s be honest) too far ahead for us to catch them. And yet as of right now, there’s a nice little gap between us and third building up. How do we approach the next couple of months? Personally, I think we should just keep trying to win every single game. Not only do we need to have a good run-in for the playoffs (and if we blow them now we don’t deserve anything) but consider this : both Staines and Chelmsford have to keep winning as well. For once the pressure isn’t so much on us – Chelmsford have everything to lose still, and Staines are now playing catchup. Somebody will slip up, and if we’re in CCL mode right now it won’t be us. Watch Wealdstone win on Tuesday now I’ve said that.
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) How fucking cold? Funny that last week some people were wishing they’d worn short-sleeve shirts. Not me, honest. (2) The amount of kids there today, especially following the mascot. Quick word of advice to any of them, or their parent/guardian reading this : it’s not like this every week. Once you’ve supported this club for 20+ years (as your editor has, and christ I feel old) you’ll work out why our fans drink a lot. (3) Speaking of alcoholic consumption, I was speaking to one of the Nuts TV stars in the back bar today. Good to see fame hasn’t gone to his head 😉
Anything else? Yes. WUP was on sale and, er, then it wasn’t, despite best laid plans and all that. I won’t go into details here, anyone wanting to know can find it out for themselves reasonably easily. I haven’t read the offending piece of text properly myself, so can’t really offer my thoughts on here (I do have some general thoughts, and for now they’ll be kept to myself). I hope the publication continues, although if WUP decided to shut up shop I wouldn’t be entirely surprised. Ironic as what I saw of this issue did look pretty tasty. One thing I will point out though : AFCW’s coffers are a good couple of hundred quid lighter this evening….
So, was it worth it? Yeah, can’t really argue with that today.
In a nutshell: Why can’t it be like this every week?