The cobwebs are cleared, the plans for Saturday start again, and we’re slowly back in business…
So, League Two 2 Premier League 2 then? A good workout, a lot of promise, and thankfully no gubbing that sets a rather negative tone for the remainder of the phony war.
Compare this time last year when we went down to Margate and managed to lose 3-0, and maybe the “stats” thing is working after all?
I know it’s pre-season etc, etc. It doesn’t matter, etc, etc. It’s all about fitness, etc, etc. OK, that last bit isn’t, but you get my point. But I’m glad we got that last minute penalty as I don’t think we deserved to lose.
Generally, we played well. Tom Elliott looked a handful. Plenty praising Will Nightingale. Akinfenwa looks hungry again (in a footballing sense, that is). McDonnell made some decent saves.
A couple may look like they need to get up to speed quicker than others, though in mid-July that’s not so much of an issue.
I’ll mention Azeez here, who like Harry Pell a couple of pre-seasons ago returned as though he’d been on a diet of concrete. Seriously, he looks a different player, so presumably he stole Akinfenwa’s Nandos Gold Card over the summer.
Still can’t keep onside though.
At least we’ve now got two penalty takers rather than the none we had in 2014/15. One has to wonder how much better we would have done (indeed, how much momentum we lost) if we had slotted spot kicks away like we should have done.
We found out a bit more about our side yesterday, but we’ll find out a lot more this coming three weeks. Starting with Basingstoke on Tuesday, which seems criminally under-advertised.
Anyway, it’s pre-season for SW19 as well, even my phone camera decided it was still on holiday, so I’ll huff and puff through the following…
Plus points: We didn’t lose. Promising looking all round. Seemed an all-round good vibe.
Minus points: We didn’t win.
The referee’s a…: Gave us a first half penalty that Elliott, ahem, looked for. Gave us water breaks, but refused to let us have a penalty shootout at the end. Obviously been nobbled by a Far East betting syndicate…
Them: Your editor was in the Brighton press area for three hours after they got promoted to the Premier League, which was an experience in itself.
To be honest, like a lot of people were saying after yesterday, I expect they’ll struggle and could possibly/probably go back down again.
It’s pre-season etc etc, but they weren’t that special. It was a strong side they put out, their first goal was a bit flukey, they had a few more chances as I would expect from them, but if they get off to a bad start they’ll be in trouble even as early as September/October.
Still, they have the feelgood factor there right now, and you never quite know what happens when the season kicks off. Ask Southampton fans.
Plenty of them turned up, plenty of them stayed for the festivities as well, and they gave NA a very good reception before the game. Oh, and they still hate Luton.
Point to ponder: While we seem to say this every pre-season, I wonder if there’s already a mentality that this upcoming campaign, we have to be better than we’ve shown?
One thing that struck me yesterday was that we got stuck in and at times made it look like a competitive fixture. That might have just been down to us wanting to get back into games again, and/or playing Prem opposition, but it felt a bit, well, different.
We are due a good season, league wise. This will be our fifth (?) season in the FL as AFCW, and the previous four have been pretty underwhelming.
Although calling the second season “underwhelming” is a bit like calling mass genocide “naughty”.
So you have to wonder what our actual aims and levels of performance are this time around. I don’t doubt we’re capable of the top ten, and maybe even a playoff push, but that was the case last season as well…
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Joint holders of the Football Manager Cup. Though it will never beat winning the Oxfordshire FA Cup at Oxford in the 1990s. (2) Tom Elliott wearing leggings in this weather. What’s he going to wear when it’s January? (3) Absolutely rammed an hour before the game, as plenty enjoyed their taste of a nice Obedient Schoolboy. Apparently the beer was good too. (4) £18 for seats at a friendly is a rip-off.
Anything else? As good a time as any to catch up on a couple of things:
– Erik’s programme notes (the best and, dare I say, only reason to buy the programme?) gave us the rundown on NPL, and it’s just more a case of patience than anything else.
Obviously, there’s going to be a second round of mass letter writing required, and at times last year I felt we were a bit behind the curve over it. Then again, it seems more “real” now, and as tantilisingly close as it has been since 1991, so it may well be one more push.
The biggest barrier of all is getting the planning permission. Should we get that, things like legal agreements, serving notices and physically flattening the site won’t seem nearly as bad to wait for. Because by then, it will be a case of when, not if…
– Glad to see the scoreboard finally works. For now, anyway. It never looked good when it didn’t, and when you consider it was a memorial gift, it always seemed a little bit of an insult. Hell, it even had a flashy Football Manager logo on it.
– The success of the War Child earphones and the beer festival should tell us that if you sell something that people want to buy, they’ll snap it up.
I don’t know if we’ve ever sold earphones before, the online club shop suggests we don’t (as it’s summer and I’m feeling charitable, I’ll just say it needs an urgent upgrade), but the response to us selling them in this charity tie-up says it all.
Likewise, if the crowds still around even 90 minutes after the game yesterday were anything to go by, there are plenty of CAMRA types and other assorted kegheads who are willing to spend.
All goes into the coffers, all is good.
Merchandise alongside tickets has always been the two most reliable ways of getting people to part with their hard-earned Why? Because it gives people something tangible in return for their money. A chance to watch the game, a pint, an ability to listen to the latest Mumford and Son shite on their iPod.
This is why I think things like We Are Wimbledon are always going to be limited except as a once-off fundraiser (and perhaps not even that nowadays). It was telling how, after MTM on Thursday, there was a chance for people to sign up afterwards and barely anyone I saw did.
Mind you, there weren’t many more people buying the third kit that evening either.
All this leads onto a thought/idea your editor had over the summer, along these lines. Why not introduce a golf range? Even if it’s limited edition, even if it’s just through mail order to save on limited space.
A lot of our fans are into the sport, at least if various comments on social media about golf days are anything to go by. The ex-JS stand is sponsored by Your Golf Travel and the La Manga camp this month is no accident.
AFCW branded tees, or golf balls, or head covers would probably sell pretty well, and golf is that sort of sport whose clientele would pay the extra to have a particular “brand”.
And I’m sure it’s not beyond us to bring back the official AFCW Golf Day…
So, was it worth it? Football is back.
In a nutshell: Watch Basingstoke beat us.