Not so much crawling over the finishing line, but being stretchered over it…
Admit it – you’re glad tomorrow is the final home game of this wretched season, aren’t you?
There’ll be plenty of time to reflect (and shudder) on what 22/23 became, and I’m sure the second half in particular will be a good time to stay in the bar.
I’m watching Reading trying to stay up tomorrow. I really can’t say I’m upset at missing our lot.
Whether there’ll be massive changes, or whether the same players who spectacularly shat the bed against Swindon get another go remains to be seen.
Although I’m not sure it matters much now anyway.
We might see the indignity of ending up behind Crawley in the table – but quite frankly, that’s what we deserve.
The post-February collapse is genuinely shocking even with mitigations, and one wonders what the mood tomorrow will be?
To be honest, I’m not sure. It could equally be a demob-happy one as much as a toxic one.
One where people end up taking the piss out of the whole situation, because there’s little else they can do.
And then leave the venue, glad they get three months away from looking at the Haydons Road timetables.
I know it shouldn’t have ended like this. But it did, and we can’t escape that fuckup.
The backdrop to this game is of course the club (ie the PLC) issuing a statement earlier this week.
It’s fair to say the reaction to it was a little, well, mixed. But the club has put itself in a damned-whichever-way position, which is mostly it’s own making.
I read it again this morning, although I didn’t study it too much in depth. Life is too short, and I have better things to do.
The most tragic thing is, for the most part the club isn’t actually wrong in what it says.
We did have an excellent unbeaten run. We did find ourselves close to the playoffs. We have had chronic injury issues.
The negativity has been because it’s asking for yet more patience from fans who are completely fed up.
True, the club is poor at comms at the best of times, and the tone of it is a little off.
It’s not as condescending that a lot of the Mark Robinson era was, which was genuinely patronising and offensive.
But it does read a bit desperate and pleading. Like somebody who’s cheated once too often and is asking for just one final chance.
As you all know, I’m still in a minority of thinking we should keep JJ on. But even I can see the one bit which is bullshit.
To quote:
Quite frankly, disrupting those carefully laid plans now would be ruinous and put us straight back to square one. Instead of being on the front foot – which we are – we would suddenly be one step behind our rival teams.
We wouldn’t be back to square one if JJ left in the summer. If we were, then why make a big fuss about having Cope and Thorn back?
That’s the kind of crap which was used to justify keeping Ardley on for so long. It didn’t work then, and it certainly wouldn’t work now.
There are legitimate reasons for keeping JJ in charge, this isn’t one of them.
I do believe part of the reason our current manager is staying on is because of our new Head of Football and Chief Scout.
For the first time since probably Terry Brown in the Conference, we do have a plan that might be workable.
It may yet fail, but everything else we’ve tried up until now has ended up the same.
I do wonder what the reaction to Jackson will be tomorrow if (when?) we’re losing? Whether this statement has actually calmed things down or made it worse.
Some of our supporters have convinced themselves JJ will walk or get fired, and they hate finding out otherwise.
I expect it will be the former, and the Meet The Manager on Tuesday will largely be similar.
It’s tempting to think it will all kick off (chairs and pints being thrown, the whole room chanting “Jackson out”, Mick Buckley getting set on fire etc), but in reality it won’t.
The club are banking on such a meeting drawing a lot of the poison out of the current situation. They’ll probably be right.
And I believe that having the close season where everyone goes away for a couple of months will also help.
Simply put, everyone needs a break from everyone else at AFCW. The grind of constant failure has worn many out, and a refresh is badly needed.
As somebody said to your editor earlier this week, at least the club are acknowledging they’ve fucked it up. They now have to do something about it…
Finally, and to the dismay of many, the season doesn’t end tomorrow.
That will happen Monday week with the trip to Grimsby, with all the quips that entails.
I mention this because over 400 tickets have been sold already, which is pretty impressive at the best of times.
It’s an end-of-season pissup and nothing more, and it being a bank holiday weekend adds to that.
But the attendances this season have been one of the few plus points, as it’s proved we’ve got a decent hardcore support.
There’s not been much to shout about this campaign, but our general level of support is one of those.
And it suggests AFCW has so much potential, yet I don’t think a lot of people realise how much it has.
We’ll need more “proper” funding to realise that potential, and there are some roadblocks to reform around the place.
Dare I say that includes some people who stand – and vote – in DTB elections?
It may not feel like it now, but this season might end up doing us a massive favour after all.
There’s already a sense of realising we just can’t keep going on like this any longer, and we now have to do something different.
Or to put it another way – just how many more we’d sell for Grimsby if we were actually any good…