So then, what’s this week’s excuse? Seriously, I want to hear it. I want a justifiable reason for DOA 1 ETU 2. Was it the weather? Cold wasn’t it, bit wet and windy at times. Was it the guaranteed second place that isn’t actually guaranteed? Was it just “one of those days” that we’re having more and more often?
I’ll be honest – I was fearing today, and it wasn’t down to the weather forecast beforehand. I am absolutely fucking sick of the predictable self-destruction that we produce now almost every month. Last week I could just about take – Chelmsford were a better side than us on the day, and probably overall. We gambled and lost. Fine.
But today? ETU were shit and they came away from Theme Park Kingsmeadow (well it sure ain’t fucking Fortress Kingsmeadow is it?) with three points they shouldn’t have really got. And they had ten men as well. Yes, that’s right – we lost in the last 5 minutes to a team second from bottom with only ten men. And not for the first time either.
I’m sick of this. I expect better than an absolutely pathetic so-called “performance”. No, correction – I demand better than this. Go on, call me a spoilt bastard, a whinging fickle fan if you will. But I see a club with a regular, genuine support of over 2500, with enough legit interest to have a TV station follow it around for a regular TV show. I see a club with a full time manager, who manages a team with players who I believe are earning decent money (and let’s not take the moral highground over people like Chelmsford and Coldseal – we ain’t exactly paying our players £50 plus expenses) and who are capable of signing indivdual players for five figure sums.
Can you see where I’m going? Today, for maybe the first time since AFCW formed in 2002, I felt the piss taken out of me. I can cope with losing, because it can and does happen. I can forgive the odd shite performance. I can forgive games like last week and Torquay because there are times when you do come across a better side. But I can’t cope with this. And I shouldn’t have to.
Of course, we’ll get the usual lip service now – “of course the players know that it’s vital we go up”. Today, I officially believe that comment to be bollocks. I don’t know whether TB has “lost” a great deal of his team, but it’s obvious things aren’t right. I believe they were locked in the dressing room (again?) – think they should lock them in the dressing room overnight and only let them out before the Carshalton game.
No, TB doesn’t help himself by changing a system before a big match. He doesn’t help himself by playing Haswell instead of an impressive Hussey (played two since Haswell returned, lost two. QED?). Sometimes I think his fallouts with players don’t help matters.
But think about it – why is he still having to tell his players to prove themselves at this late stage? Why is he still trying to find his best 11 for the playoffs? I reckon it’s something deeper than just sheer tactics or day-to-day man management. I’m going to make a bold statement here – I don’t believe the players want to play for TB. Come to think of it, they don’t really want to win for AFCW either.
Note I said “win” as opposed to “play”. There’s a difference. If they did want to win, they wouldn’t have switched off today, or against Heybridge, or put in that awful week before the Torquay game, or let BW do the double over us, or…. you get the point. Apparently, Fergie made two gestures today : one to the bench after the full time whistle (as if to say “it’s not my fault, it’s him over there”), and then one to the main stand as if to say “fuck you”. If both are true, then he’s gone the same way as DeBolla and Jolly and will hopefully find himself out before long as well.
There are clearly too many egos in our dressing room right now. Too many players who come to AFCW, get paid a nice wad and demand (and receive) adulation from a good couple of thousand people. It’s quite a nice life isn’t it at AFCW? Put in a shit performance? Hey, don’t worry, you’ll still get people coming up to you asking for your autograph, get invites to Junior Dons parties and all that. So what if we don’t go up? We’re too good not to go up, bit like teams who are too good to go down….
TB called the squad’s bluff in public this week and we got our answer back today. If you’ve read his interviews, both in print and on Nuts TV, he’s challenging the players to prove they have the fight and the desire to win in the playoffs. They’ve proven today they don’t. And I think TB knows they don’t. In fact, I think he’s known it for some while. This is why I think he’s now saying what he is in public as opposed to private – I have no doubt that TB has said what he has behind closed doors, and it’s now obvious that the players only listen when they want to. So, it’s intended to be a kick up the arse, though unfortunately our squad has shoved a load of telephone directories down their shorts.
Some may not like such a public approach, but usually when that happens things are quite bad. We are second, agreed, but it’s only because this collection of players are good enough to be second. Just imagine how much higher they would be if things were actually quite all right at AFCW.
You may note that I’m putting the onus on the players and not TB. Yes, SW19 does have a habit of supporting managers (occasionally blindly) – this is because from what I’ve seen of football management it isn’t as straightforward as what you may think. It’s a sodding difficult task to do and I try to reflect that. I’m blaming the players simply because I remember going through this last season. It just can’t be down to the manager again.
OK, TB’s approach to players acting up is quite strict, and he obviously doesn’t give out favours to players. One would ask why should he? Who is it who switched off today twice in the last five minutes? It wasn’t TB. Who was it who failed to put away chances against sides who we ended up not beating? It wasn’t TB.
Actually, I’ll stop there. I’ve just read stuff I wrote last week, and before that, and I’m depressing myself even more. Why? Because I predicted something like this would happen. And that’s the most painful, most heartwrenching – fuck it, most ANGRY bit of it all. The sheer predictability, the sheer helplessness that no matter what we as fans do, no matter how much money the club itself puts in, no matter how many things we do to change things to our advantage (full time manager, improved training facilities, decent medical to name but three), we still end up with the same old shit.
When we fail in the playoffs, there will be a LOT of anger within AFCW. I’m starting to sense people are considering turning on the team. The first season we just about scraped through to the playoffs with an injured side and we lost out. We accepted it. Last year, the DA era was creaking at the end of its natural life, and it was ultimately a bridge too far. We accepted it. This year, we’re doing our level best to throw away at least one guaranteed home playoff spot. And now we certainly won’t accept it.
Got to be honest here, I shudder to think of the fallout when we don’t go up this season. Forcing TB out will be a good idea if you believe that AFCW should turn into the non-league equivalent of Manchester City. Not to mention compensation and the massive disruption of our reserves/youth programmes. Will people stop putting money into the club, to “get out of this league”? Quite possibly, and that will have a significant effect on the club’s MO. Certainly don’t think the club should talk about raising prices right now, because that will just come across as being antagonistic.
One thing is certain – half the cunts on the field today won’t be facing the close season wrath. They’ll happily fuck off to a CS side in front of sub-1k crowds with more money in their back pockets and another manager they can blame their shortcomings on……….
Plus points: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. We scored, I suppose.
Minus points: Everything. Not just from 3pm to 5pm, but everything in the world ever. Realising that this is probably the worst game in AFCW’s short history – not for being crap, not for believing their own hype but for just simply not giving enough of a shit. That’s inexcusable, and criminal as well.
The referee’s a………: Gave a bit too much to them, but really, he ain’t to blame today.
Them: Fair play to them, they wanted the result and got their just reward. See what happens when a team wants to win a game? We used to be like that once, whatever happened to us? When did we sell out? Makes me feel worse just thinking about it. What a shame Shane Gore was crap for us against Grimsby.
Point to ponder (1): Why don’t we play a largely reserve side on Monday? Looking at the Nuts TV thing this past week, those in our stiffs certainly look hungry and keen to impress. So why not play them? They may not be as skillful as our first team, but unlike today they won’t disgrace themselves. Look at how Luke Pigden and Chris Hussey have done recently, and tell me coming through the AFCW ranks doesn’t put a bit of heart into the players. Those lower down really do appreciate the chance they get at AFCW, and it shows….
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) The weather. It’s not supposed to be as cold as this at Easter. OK, I know it’s not actually Easter time, IYSWIM, but it certainly didn’t help things today. (2) The Wombelles’ choice of music. No fucking comment. (3) A well known AFCW fan campaigning for a left-wing (far left?) political group outside the game beforehand. His democratic right to, of course, but I really don’t think that mixing a football club with any sort of politics is a good idea. Especially when Respect leaflets were left inside the corridor behind the back bar, which does suggest a specific endorsement by AFCW. It’s a surefire way to alienate people even if your motives are honourable – I know people in all three main political parties who support AFCW and I don’t think they’d be too happy with the club endorsing what is ultimately a hard-line fringe party. Even if George Galloway has done a Richard Jolly.
Point to ponder (2): Do you think that this Wembley fixture is harming us? OK, it doesn’t matter so much now, but my mood will not be helped if the players perform like today against Ashford Town (Mx) on the Saturday then preen themselves like peacocks the following day. Seriously, if there was some way of withdrawing from the Wembley game without losing face or goodwill, I think we should do it. After today, it’s obvious we don’t deserve to be there. I haven’t got a ticket for Wembley yet, and quite honestly I’m not that excited by it. Especially after today.
Anything else? Good job we really are second and relatively comfortable I suppose. That might just be the only thing that makes today even remotely excusable. Just think about what if we won last week at MP and did what we did today……
So, was it worth it? Was Jesus Christ glad the Calvary branch of Wickes was open on Good Friday?
In a nutshell: Fuck it, give me some nails and some wood……