Funny, that.
To be fair, it is currently quite sunny at SW19 Towers, that not-summer-but-not-yet-autumn sun that you forget how strong it can be.
After yesterday, that soleil is shining a tad brighter for AFCW fans everywhere.
No, us playing the franchise known as Milton Keynes Dons isn’t a derby, as the genuinely shite commentator on Sky apparently called it yesterday.
Yes, it’s a rivalry. Yes, it hurts when we lose it, and thrice so when we shit the bed like we did last season at Stadium:MT.
Which is why beating them 3-0 on our own turf (and it is our turf) is so totally, utterly, fucking gorgeous.
No, I wasn’t there (I was at Watford v Coventry), and it’s for the best that I never go to any of our fixtures against them.
If nothing else, if I go we’ll end up losing.
But while the Ronan Curtis goal was cathartic, yesterday might have been the more important victory over them.
The game in SW17 in March came with a backdrop that they had the hoodoo sign over us, that we were bottle jobs, that we kept losing the one fixture you just don’t lose.
This time round – we’re a better side and they’re a worse one.
There was a bit more expectancy with us yesterday, probably the first time in a long while if ever with this particular fixture.
By all accounts, we were pretty good for the first half. Maybe we’ve shaken off a lot of the inferiority complex we’ve had for so long against them?
Your editor is watching the highlights for the first time while writing this, by the way, and I’ve noticed the following.
Decent strike by Hippo for our opener**, Franchise heading the ball against our post was a little bit too close for comfort, and you could sense the nerves in the second half.
** – when was the last time you saw *anyone* score a free kick from inside the box, let alone us? Come to think of it, when was the last time you saw one awarded?
Cometh the hour, cometh the Maycock (and that sounds a bit rude) and suddenly life was happy again.
Fantastic move for the second, by the way, no doubt helped by Kelly fooling everyone with his fake kick that distracted the defence and keeper.
I will not say he totally missed it.
But while it was a different reaction to the Curtis one in March, you can’t deny how we all responded to that.
As the Sky Bet League Two official Twatter post said about it, it just means more.
As for our third, well…. I’d like to say we got all greedy, but fuck them. The only regret is that we didn’t score our second ten minutes earlier, so we could have put four or five past them.
But 3-0 will do, and the best thing of all right now is knowing we can enjoy this for the whole week.
Imagine finding out we’ve got to play Walsall on Tuesday and end up losing.
It’s nice to know that, at least for home games, we’re getting over the whole complex about playing them.
There’s still some mental roadblocks that need to be overcome. We need to stop playing like absolute retards at their place, for example.
If and when we can do that, that will be as important as yesterday/March 2nd 2024.
We’ve yet to face them in something like a playoff semi final, or Satan forbid, a playoff/cup final at Wembley.
And imagine the scenes if we lost those. Hell, imagine it if we won…
Yesterday reminds us of the old Danny Baker principle, when he said about football supporting that it’s as much them losing as us winning.
So much over the years has been written about us and Franchise, and I’m not going to go over old ground again.
I’ll be honest, if I find out we don’t have to play them in any given season, that still makes me happy.
There wasn’t an SW19 update on Friday, even though I planned to do one, but I would have said that win lose or draw, I’d be looking forward to when it’s all over.
I still believe that, though a 3-0 win makes it a lot nicer.
But I’m ever more convinced the whole AFCW v Franchise shebang is a generational thing now.
The ones who have the biggest complex about the whole thing are, generally speaking, in the 45-65 age range.
Those older than that lived through 2000 to 2002, of course, but by and large they seem more willing to be there.
Your editor made the point elsewhere that if I was twenty years younger, I would be chomping at the bit for this game, and genuinely gutted that I wouldn’t be there.
And something twigged at me afterwards – us against Franchise is the first time there’s ever been a genuine rivalry (or hatred) with another club.
Sure, you get the local rivalries, but while it’s always satisfying to beat Bromley or Crawley, we don’t really “hate” them.
You could have a decent, civil conversation with fans of either of those two clubs. You certainly couldn’t with a Frenzy.
But probably because WFC moved through the divisions quickly, like AFCW did, we never really built a proper relationship with another team that was sub-optimal.
You can’t fake the reaction from yesterday, or from back in March. Or indeed the reactions when we’ve shat the bed against them too.
Some won’t go to the games, but that’s not to be confused with them thinking it doesn’t matter.
That’s not unique to us. I’ve known of Manchester United fans (proper Salford types) who won’t go to Leeds, for example.
I read a story from a Liverpool fan once who turned down a ticket to Old Trafford because, and I quote, “they wind me up too much”.
Today is the North London derby, and the same feelings we collectively had beforehand yesterday will apply to either side’s supporters today.
And you know who else this whole rivalry matters to? Franchise.
They won’t admit it, the snippets I’ve seen of their reactions suggests they’re trying to play the whole thing down, that it doesn’t really matter, that it’s our cup final and not theirs.
Deep down, they’re hurting. And they know it.
Ironically, that makes them more of a “proper” fanbase, and somewhere on t’internet there’s video of their lot giving their players grief afterwards.
Most if not all sets of supporters do that at some point to their side. We’ve done it at Doncaster, for instance.
It’s almost endearing to know that they care. I said “almost”.
I haven’t heard much about them acting up beforehand or afterwards, although the police presence was the largest seen in SW17.
Maybe the 12h30 kickoff helped on that score? I don’t think we’ll ever see this fixture kick off at 3pm now, and I’m not sure what happens with any potential evening game.
The stewards in the away end had some fun, by the sounds of it, and stories of one or two of their lot literally being carried out have been told.
Were they blink drunk? On narcotics? Or did they have a moment of clarity that they were following Franchise and nature took its course?
Not that I have any sympathy one bit, but it must utterly destroy the soul to play home games in a vast, sparce arena like Stadium:MT.
Hopefully they hate coming here (and reduced ticket sales their end hints this might be the case), but also they have a pang of hidden jealousy.
Playing in a stadium close to the pitch, facing the only set of supporters in the country who pay you any attention. And with more than four people in the ground as well.
They’ll never have that.
Of course, perhaps they’ll try and steal Plough Lane as well? They have form for it…