For what feels like the umpteenth time.
We seem to be having a lot of these enforced breaks right now, it has to be said. At least it’s just our midweeks getting ruined, rather than our weekends.
A mixture of the lurgy and our FA Cup shiteness has done for us recently, and given current circumstances I’m surprise we haven’t been hit by the weather.
Not yet, anyway.
I’m sure we’ll be hit by some massive snowstorm before long, and another round of games gets called off.
In the meantime, though, since the last SW19 update a couple of things have happened.
We won a game and kept a clean sheet, for starters. OK, it was the PJT (the new name for the JPT) and most people seemed to forget it was on.
I know it’s a competition where we just take the money and not care so much if we go out.
But right now – we’ll take anything.
By the sound of it, we changed our defence formation and not for the first time, it seemed better.
Employ that against Sunderland tomorrow, and we maybe – maybe – have a chance.
Stick to the failed crap that has blighted us since November, and it will be yet another confidence-killing defeat.
We cannot escape the fact that, after looking relatively comfortable this season, we’re now in the bottom four.
Deservedly so, too. We defend like an ordinary Conference side, and if we find ourselves in L2 next season, we only have ourselves to blame.
There’s still half of the season to go, mind you. And we’ve already made a start by bringing Sam Walker in.
Trueman leaving was a bit of a surprise, and one gets the feeling it wasn’t Brum asking for him back.
Maybe our former shotstopper wasn’t as commanding (ie willing to yell at the defenders) as our new one is?
We’ll see, but we needed to do something.
We still have to, of course. Seddon needs replacing, and Terell Thomas is laid up with a viral infection.
Which definitely isn’t good. That said, he didn’t say it was Covid, and it’s easy to forget right now that other diseases are available.
The other departure is Adam Roscrow, who has returned to Wales and will be dancing on the streets of TNS if all goes well.
It’s a shame it didn’t work out for him, although he was a non-league gamble that didn’t pay off.
I suppose being injured almost as soon as he arrived scuppered him making an immediate impact, and apart from scoring once earlier this season – I think he’ll be a footnote to whatever happens this season.
So plenty of work to do still, which leads us onto tomorrow.
A free hit? Ordinarily yes, but we badly need something from this game. Even a credible draw that makes you think we can stop freefalling like we are.
A clean sheet will be better, and if we won…?
It’s a 1pm kickoff, so you get to metaphorically kick the door/your dog/your missus a bit earlier this weekend.
And of course, it will be an earlier start than usual for those working in Plough Lane itself, like pitch staff and media.
One of the latter being your editor.
Yep, that’s correct – I’m going to be inside our brand new home tomorrow (working for one of the local papers in the North East, in case you care).
And it’s going to be, well, weird.
I’ve passed Plough Lane from the outside so many times in the last couple of years (not deliberately, honest), from when it was a literal hole in the ground.
Stepping inside it for the first time is going to be a special moment, but doing it without fans in it is going to make it just a tad more different.
Yes, there’ll be plenty of photos, assuming my phone doesn’t pack up at exactly the worst time, and there will be something this weekend on it.
Quite a fair bit, most likely.
I hope nobody expects me to actually report on the match though on here. Times are grim enough as it is…