AKA it’s a good job we’re a lot better at home…
Yes, it’s a Monday update as opposed to one on Sunday, and your editor isn’t going to be here until Tuesday the 29th now.
Losing at Notts County has brought something into focus though, and it’s something we just can’t seem to work out.
Namely – even somebody with impotence scores more than we do away.
It’s sobering that we’re now in mid-October and the goal at Cheltenham is the only one we’ve scored on our L2 travels this season.
Without being there on Saturday, obviously, I can only be guided by what those there said and indeed JJ’s post game comments.
Because we can’t score away, it means we’re always vulnerable to that one little lapse that can cost us, and that’s exactly what happened.
In addition, it doesn’t help when we do get a good chance and we fuck it up. I haven’t seen Josh Kelly’s “effort” yet, and to be honest I’m not sure I want to either.
Our AAH replacement is in the most vicious of circles right now. He needs more minutes to score, but he’s not going to get them if he’s firing blanks.
Back in the day, you would have put him in the stiffs or even send him out on loan for a month to find his goalscoring touch again.
That’s changed now, and not necessarily for the better.
I still think he can come good, and perhaps it’s a case of putting away just one effort. But he wouldn’t be the first to fail to make the step up if he can’t…
He – and we – can remedy that tomorrow against Morecambe in SW17, and it’s a game we should win.
I say “should”, but we all know how these things tend to go. Especially as we’re now over-relying on winning at home to keep in the playoff race.
It becomes even more important when you remember we are away again on Saturday, and we’re only playing the league leaders.
And then, there’s the little matter of the FA Cup draw.
I’ll be honest, my thought when I eventually** discovered we’d drawn them wasn’t “oh fuck, we’ve drawn them”, but “oh fuck, we always shit the bed there”.
** – confession time. I genuinely forgot the draw was on until I inadvertently caught an update and thought it was a windup.
Given everything said about how an ice cream in summer travels better than we do, you’d just hope we’ll finally grow a pair by the time we go there Sunday week.
I think the last trip to Stadium:MT was the cowardice act too far, which has seen a change that cemented the legend status of Ronan Curtis.
Oh, and the 3-0 gubbing. We could do with a couple more of those right now.
I certainly think they’re beatable, just as I think Port Vale are this weekend too. But we have four strikers and none of them do what strikers do away from Plough Lane.
Although some will say Kelly can’t even do that. Not me, though.
If we’re serious about the playoffs, we’ll need to right that particular wrong, and while the FAC can be a distraction I want us to gub them for so many reasons.
One other thing before I finish packing, a few of our fans seemed genuinely bewildered that our game at the Frenzydome isn’t on telly.
A 12h30 kickoff on a Sunday isn’t a surprise, and if you’re being objective about it neither is it being relegated to the highlights show.
Why? It’s because some of our fans have a habit of thinking that as it’s AFCW, it’s more “special” than it really is.
To us, playing Franchise and beating them is one of the highlights of the season, if not the highlight if we achieve nothing else.
It may come as a surprise for them to discover that most non-AFCW fans don’t pay much attention to us.
To them, us versus Franchise may still be intriguing, but it’s just two sides in the same division playing each other.
The first meeting was genuinely newsworthy, and I believe it’s still the biggest TV audience for a second round FA Cup game.
Because we play them more than once in a blue moon, it’s not really that unique or different any more.
The collective point has been made, and everyone else has moved on from it.
One can feel annoyed (or more accurately, jealous) that Wrecsam are being shown at Harrogate, and the TV people love to fawn over Hollywood glamour.
But I think I’d rather watch that game than ours, if I didn’t have a vested interest.
I don’t doubt we’ll get a good turnout up there, although we’ll no doubt get the split-stadium allocation that Wycombe (and Crawley?) got in the playoffs.
Apparently, that’s intentional on their part for us. I think we should take that as a compliment.
That’s for when I get back. For now, let us hope we can get back on track tomorrow and defeat Morecambe.
Though if we don’t, I think I’ll feel the reaction to it from the other side of the Atlantic…