It feels like we’ve been here before. Every season for the last five years, in fact.
So, tomorrow at home to Doncaster then. A fixture that has gone from must-not-lose to must-win.
A draw won’t kill us, though it won’t help us one bit. And it will extend that barren winless run to a stage where you genuinely think we’ll never get three points again.
Some will argue that we’ve reached it already. And by the final whistle tomorrow they might be right.
Losing should be unthinkable. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
It’s come to this simply because we’ve failed to capitalise on the games in hand we had by New Year’s Day.
Injuries at the wrong time, bad tactics stifling us, and selling Ollie Palmer without an adequate replacement have all contributed to the shitshow we’re in.
A game in late February shouldn’t be shit or bust, but that’s what it effectively is tomorrow.
Should Donny beat us – and their recent form is two wins and three losses – then you have to wonder what the reaction is going to be.
I’ve read some people say this week that it’s starting to become like the whole 1999/2000 season.
I don’t think it’s quite at that stage yet (Robbo isn’t a welly-wearer, for starters) but the club seems in denial that it could go down.
A bit like it was in SW19’s first season. I wonder who our Carl “Cort” Cunt figure will be?
Mind you, I’ve thought for a good while that if and when we find ourselves in the bottom four we’ll stay there.
That might well end up being at 5pm tomorrow.
Why? It’s probably because I now don’t believe we’ll get the result we need when we really have to.
Losing to Bolton then the Gillingham game has changed my mind on that.
Previously, I felt that we had enough in us to get that little run of form (yes, including a couple of wins) that will dig us out of trouble.
But every account from Priestfield last Tuesday now makes me believe we just haven’t got that any more.
The collective mood has definitely slumped after the final whistle on Tuesday , and even the previously optimistic are sounding more deflated.
We hit the bar from memory, but when you’re struggling against a team below you,I guess the penny has started dropping.
Is there anything good at the moment? Well, we’ve still got about twelve games remaining, although some may consider that like wearing a CCCP shirt around Kiev right now.
And no, it’s not true that the Ukranians are showing the Gills game to captured Russian soldiers, as a form of torture.
We need a boost from somewhere, and that might come from the team news for tomorrow.
Woodyard, Rudoni and Assal returning might have come at the absolute crucial time.
Especially the former, who is one of the very few in the squad (club?) that has any genuine senior football experience.
Assal is young, and he’s not even played in the first team for more than a year, so his youthful petulance can be a bit excused.
Rudoni remains the one player I expect to be the first out the door if we’re in L2 next season.
These three players are the cavalry, and let’s be honest here – it’s one of the last rolls of the dice.
If they feature and we don’t get any better, then our five seasons in the third tier will come to an end.
No pressure on them, like.
If there’s a time to hit a purple patch of form, now would be it. That we’re still not in the bottom four is a minor miracle.
We ride our luck far too often as a side/club, without doing anything about it, and this season may finally bite us on the arse.
But we’re where we are, and the situation isn’t beyond salvagable. Yet.
A win tomorrow would genuinely lift everyone around the place, even if it’s a scabby one that comes off Cosgrove’s arse in the 99th minute.
As ever, we’ll see. We’re not down yet, but if we lose tomorrow – it will certainly feel like we are…