The song above was posted on the morning that we returned home against Bolton. which was August 2021.
For some reason, that date manages to feel both quite recent and a long time ago.
Of course, back then was the new wave of (post-Rona) optimism under Burton’s current manager that fell flatter than Kwesi Appiah’s return.
Tomorrow, we get to relive that moment of being out in the wilderness for thirty years days and set our feet back in SW17.
And yes, I know it was the 22nd September that the waters came rushing in, not a whole month. Don’t be pedantic.
It’s going to be a bit weird considering our last game there was gubbing Franchise, although you have to admit that if you had to have a final game at Plough Lane v2.0 then that wouldn’t be a bad one.
Better than being on the end of the same scoreline against Palace, anyway.
It’s been quite a sobering experience the last three weeks, and I do have to praise the club for managing to get this fixture on.
When the pictures of the turf looking a bit cut up surfaced after the Great Dons Deluge (TM), and the club said we’d be back playing by the 12th October, I genuinely didn’t believe them.
I might have said it in the last SW19 update but this could have ended up being worse. A lot, lot worse.
On the surface, the turf doesn’t look too bad considering. I assume it must have passed all pitch inspections, if we haven’t then we’re in for a very embarrassing 24 hours.
It’s clear that another biblical amount of rain will cause issues, which is why the club have hinted about looking towards improving the drainage.
One suspects a rethink will be needed, and unfortunately that will end up costing us some money.
That said – if we had an exceptional amount of rain and the “only” damage was to a section of the turf and some of the non-structural aspects of Plough Lane, the design might have (partly) done its job.
Needless to say, those who opposed us building Plough Lane have chirped up in the last week or so.
It feels like we’ve gone back about six to ten years, so here goes : yes, it’s on a flood plain.
Any – and I mean any – new development would have to do what we have done. Galliard wanted 100% housing on the site originally, and they would have needed to do likewise.
In a blast from the past, Paschal Taggart** and his Royal Ascot Super DoggyDome would have had exactly the same issues. And would have needed to shell out just as many Euros.
** – out of curiosity, I looked up what he’s up to now and it seems earlier this year he wanted to build on some public parks in Dublin…
But then, despite all his bluster and the hyper-spin from friendly publications about his “plans”, he didn’t put in a planning application after all.
I remain convinced to this day he wanted the land on the cheap, and was hoping that the site owners would have to come cap in hand to him begging because they had no other option.
And I also remain convinced that neither he nor anyone else in dog racing was capable of building a stadium on Plough Lane. Let alone deal with the literal waters underneath.
After all, if they couldn’t even save Walthamstow…
It doesn’t hurt to remind oneself about how many issues we had to overcome to be playing games in our own area again, and that might make tomorrow’s latest homecoming just a little bit more poignant.
How many times have we gone back to this current incarnation of our ground now? About four or five isn’t it?
Anyway, once we kick off at 3pm tomorrow, we get back on track. And the need to find the net again becomes all important.
I know it’s “only” the Dodgy Dave’s Motors Cup, but the 4-3 win at Crawley earlier this week was us at our best and worst.
The goals were great, the defending not so much. Although Piggy’s injury time winner was as hilarious as it was impressive.
We clearly looked a bit sheepish at the end, although didn’t Crawley put on their first teamers in the second half?
At least we’ve found the net again, and if we can do that tomorrow life becomes a fair bit easier.
Unfortunately, it seems Lewis is out for 3/4 weeks, which gives him plenty of time to wax his bikini line again for the ladies.
I’m not sure who will replace him, but this will be a good indication of how strong we really are in depth.
Up until last Saturday we were impressively keeping clean sheets (with the ever-improving Goodman) so we’ll need to re-adjust and quick.
Other than that, tomorrow is what it is. While I expect we’ll settle back into normality quite quickly again, it’s still going to be a headfuck looking at that bit of turf that caused us so much grief.
And be honest – the first time there’s an attack in that section, you’ll be hoping they sealed it down properly…