No notes taken, half the time my headphones in the WDON battery hen compartment commentary box didn’t work so I really couldn’t work out what was being said (for those who thought I was shit in there today – apologies), and a really strange (ie shit) first half hour.
But hey, it finished Suburb of London 2 Suburb of Chelmsford 1 and I really don’t give a flying fuck what anyone says right now 🙂
Seriously, with everything that has been written this past week and beyond (including on here), by about 3.30pm today I was fearing the worst. Not just for the game but for the season. I mean, lose it today, with the shite that’s been going on around recently, and I really did shudder to think how this season was going to end. Certainly play off semi-final defeat was inevitable, and compound that with Franchise bound to get promotion all mental health physicians in the SW London region were about to be put on full alert.
People may say that MG’s goal was the turning point of the game, and that’s not an unfair assumption to make. But actually, it was Pullen’s save soon after the Rickay goal that defined today. Think about it – had it gone in, we would have collapsed. More to the point, that would have ended our season right there – want to know why? Simple – with all the changes this week, with all the last minute change of emphasis, to have gone behind like that again would have been too much to take.
And let’s face it, this past couple of weeks has seen a fair amount of bloodletting. We usually tend to navel gaze after a poor defeat, and the recent period has seen it more than we have done for the past couple of years. But after Pullen’s save, we got back into the game a bit more, maybe should have done better with a couple of chances and started to show a bit of, you know, confidence. Don’t tell me we would have done that if it was 2-0.
The rest of the match is history. As we all know, a damn good save was forced straight before MG’s goal, Nic McD looked like how we want Danny Webb to be like, and there’s nowt better than a last minute goal. Especially one when you feel our rampant attacking had petered out and there was that slight back-of-mind niggle we were going to let it slip late on. Seriously, if the Main Stand showed signs of an OAP trying his first viagra, god knows what it was like behind the goal. Even the John Smiths Stand almost stopped berating everyone in sight and smelling of piss for one moment. I said almost.
So, what caused the seven-day turnaround? Well, after last week, everyone needed a well aimed foot in the anal passage region and maybe, just maybe, things got through today. Although I’m more inclined to believe that the new signings made a difference. We looked a lot, lot fresher today. Maybe it was the new attitude shown by the likes of Buchanan, McD, Christon and even the return of the Cue that has changed opinions in a mere seven days? We all knew we couldn’t continue as we were…..
If there’s some doubt that such a major influx at this late stage was a good thing, just look at peoples’ collective mood tonight. Suddenly, we can win in the playoffs after all. Strange how it so compared to last week. Guess that’s football for you – there must be some established players right now thinking “hang on, they’ve managed to win without me”. Nobody in football is irreplacable, and I think we’ve just proved it.
Should that demotivate the drifters, so be it. They’ll be out on their ear come the summer if so. Right now, our squad is fighting for the opportunity to wear the AFCW shirt next season. While we’re going to lose the Cue, Rose and MG anyway, the rest are getting told to stake their claim. Today, they proved they deserve new contracts. And that’s all we want – if we’re shit, at least work your nads off. But we’re not shit, in fact we never have been shit in talent. It’s just our attitude that has stunk like a 10 day old turd doused liberally in the Berrylands sewerage works. Just think if we’d applied this attitude throughout the whole of the season……….
While you think about that, here’s…
Plus points: We won. At KM for once. RS’s last minute goal. New boys fitting in well. Notable change in approach/attitude. Defence got better as the game progressed.
Minus points: First 30 minutes.
The referee’s a……: Well, I thought he was all right meself.
Them: Lovely lot aren’t they? Gave it the predictable MK shit and basically sounded like a bunch of drunk chavs in a Magaluf night club. And that was just the players. Weren’t they the same mob who claimed last season they were going to field 16 ineligible players from now on simply because we managed to overturn a rather stupid rule? How conveniently they forgot to do that….. Actually, they seemed a decent footballing side, although it’s always nice to outplay these sort of sides 😉
Meet the Manager: One good thing about being in the press box in a game is getting to interview managers. If I’m still allowed to do WDON this may become a regular feature. Anyway, here’s what TB said afterwards.
TB on Billy Rickay – click here
Wonder who asked him the question about Ramone Rose?
Impressions? Well, firstly I got the impression TB thought this sort of performance should be standard practice, and not one to be celebrated from the rooftops. It’s good to know that they at least appreciate what the supporters have had to put up with recently (haven’t bothered checking the form guide, but is this really our worst run this season? Good time to have it, I don’t think).
I did like the fact he described us as “patient”. Obviously doesn’t hear what goes on in the stands or on t’internet. You can hear the rest for yourself, but I do get the feeling TB knows where the right direction is. Maybe he’s now getting the players to agree where it is as well…
Point to ponder: Apart from wondering why we haven’t done this all season long? Just really a case of, can we keep it up until 5pm on the 3rd May 2008? Also, was it me or once it settled down, our defence looked more solid than it has at any time this season? Even MG didn’t look like a 100 year old man after 5 minutes. All I ask is that we just keep it up, especially for the final two games of the season….
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Your editor getting interviewed for five minutes by Nuts TV because – seriously – they thought I was good value last time. They’re not that desperate, surely? (2) The weather. Cold. Sunny. Wet. Sunny. Still cold. All in about 30 minutes. Global warming, eh? (3) Actually having a squad today that looked like they gave a shit. (4) Tintin Haydon trying to shake the hand of a pissed off Rickay player right at the end and getting told to fuck off. Not too sure what’s worse : losing in the last minute or getting stalked by a giant bit of cloth afterwards.
Anything else? Yup – we will have a yellow away kit next season. Thankfully, good taste prevailed and we have been spared the wanky pink outfit. Seriously, there’s a reason why no club keeps a pink kit for long : it’s because it’s a horrible colour for a football shirt. Blue works as a football colour. So does red. Some teams have yellow. Others may employ claret. A few awkward bastards have stripes because they can’t make their mind up. But you never see a brown shirt. Or a grey shirt. Certainly not a black shirt. And definitely, definitely not a pink.
Yeah yeah, Palermo wear pink. Difference is, they’re hard as fuck Italians and you wouldn’t dare call them out over it. We’re AFCW and if we wore pink we’d make it look camper than Graham Norton and Larry Grayson at a Mardi Gras parade in San Francisco. And no, real men don’t wear pink. Those who claim otherwise are either those fucking annoying “professionally queer” types or splitarses…….
So, was it worth it? Yeah, probably.
In a nutshell: Is it too much to ask for this to be a bit more typical of our season?