Is Dennis Skinner still alive?
I’m sure there was plenty of unparliamentary language used in the dressing room after Chesterfield Sofa 1 IKEA Sofa 0, as there was in the stands afterwards.
Make no mistake, yesterday should have been a draw and it’s our own fault it wasn’t.
I think the tone was set beforehand, meeting an SW19 reader whilst queuing up for the tickets who’s seen his own stubs going missing, and saying that it was going to be one of those days.
I’ll shut up in future.
There was certainly a lot of pre-match expectation (didn’t they have eleven players out?) and you would have predicted a good start.
Which, er, didn’t happen. Anything but one in fact – they were stronger, faster, more with-it, and it was genuinely no surprise that they scored.
I don’t want to ruin my Sunday by watching how we went behind again, but it wasn’t great to watch unfolding in real time.
The question was, why so shite? Did we decide to hold the annual players Xmas party before the game, rather than after it?
To be fair, if we had then the Alka-Seltzers were starting to take effect, as we kept it to 1-0 and realised we were supposed to be playing football.
Not that we really tested their keeper in the first half, that is. Even if they had yet another injury that required a sub, which your editor thought was a drinks break…
Anyway, we were 1-0 down at the interval, but to be fair we did have a go in the second half.
I do genuinely think if we’d manage to score, we would have won it. Unfortunately, we were playing at Chesterfield, where in both AFCW and WFC eras we’ve found the net zero times.
Yes, zero. Nil. Zilch. Nothing. Nada.
That’s six times in total, stretching back to 1979. Apparently, some of our older heads have started staring at the floor and muttered “Wally Downes” very loudly, but that’s probably still down to his sacking.
Anyway, our latest attempt to find the net in Derbyshire was greeted with us hitting the post twice in the space of five seconds, a decent save by their goalie, and something that annoys me even as I type this.
It’s the 93rd minute, the final attack of the game, and we get a corner. Goodman rushes up, and before he gets in place – we do a short corner.
Which we fuck up.
There are times where getting it in the mixer really is the best option, as something could have happened right at the death.
Instead…. I’ll stop there. All I hope is that JJ gave them a right bollocking for trying to be too clever at the worst possible time.
I don’t really blame Chesterfield fans for celebrating like they’d won the league on the whistle, it wasn’t too dis-similar to how we reacted after Donny last week, and I take it as a compliment.
But we still lost. And I’m still annoyed by it.
I’m annoyed because it was a soft goal to concede so early in the game, and something that ultimately cost us points.
I’m frustrated at how the ball somehow didn’t find the net, but I’ve watched football for over 40 years now and it happens to every team every season.
We’ll play worse and win, hopefully in the glut of games we’ll get in the next couple of weeks.
I suppose if there’s one good thing, we look like we belong in the playoff race now. I don’t think we were inferior throughout, just made the fatal error at the wrong time.
If we’re to extend our season or go one better than that however, we’ll need to stop doing that…
Plus points: We fought back. Could have scored.
Minus points: We lost. Awful first 15 minutes. Not being able to find the net.
The referee’s a…: Wasn’t exactly our friend throughout the game, if we’re being honest, although he wasn’t why we lost.
Them: I don’t know how full strength their squad was, they had a big injury list but as we all know that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot.
No idea if they consider they got away with it yesterday, their reaction on the whistle suggested they did.
Chesterfield are a bit like us, namely they’re a decently sized supported club for the level and it wouldn’t be unusual if they were in League One.
There’s certainly a feel-good factor after winning the Conference in March this year, and the momentum explains the attendance.
Their gaff is new, and is what I thought Plough Lane v2 would be like, although I’m glad it wasn’t.
The way the concourse was designed, it was practically impossible to queue up for half-time refreshments.
One of the vloggers you see at games was behind me in the queue, I gave up to talk to somebody and when they came back they hardly moved.
It didn’t help that not all hatches were open, nor did the staff give the impression they’d served large amounts of people before.
Come to think of it, it was a bit piss-poor organisation all round, with the ticket collection being messed up, proving it’s not just AFCW who are like that.
I bet it’s fun when Mansfield come to town.
They had something a bit weird on their video screen – whenever there was a free kick, or a sub, or something, they had little kids in Chesterfield shirts doing some poses and gestures.
I’m sure it’s innocent, but it was a little odd. Although it’s not as dubious as the days when you saw pre-pubescent girls doing cheerleader stuff before games.
That was something which quickly stopped when Operation Yewtree happened. Funny, that.
Oh, and their famous crooked spire in the town? Bodge job by the builders, if you ask me. And if people want to look at bodge jobs, there’s an extension near SW19 Towers they can view.
Point to ponder: Did we miss Bugiel yesterday?
He’s one of those players who you notice is missing when he’s not playing, and had he featured we might have been able to do something.
Fortunately he was suspended, and not injured, so he should be back for Boxing Day nice and rested.
I’d happily see him replace Piggy, who seems to reconfirm your editor’s distaste for bringing back former players.
This isn’t the Joe Piggot we had the first time round, where he might have found the net yesterday out of nothing.
Stevens is better than him, Kelly is starting to find his feet now, and he now plays second fiddle to Lebanon’s finest.
Which is a shame, as there were some high hopes for him, but should he become available in the summer – would we really want him…?
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) Presumably a pre-Xmas pissup with some university types, if the Bananaman/Shark costumes are a guide. 2) Don’t know if it was the same group, but the use of “smackheads” was used in some chants. No comment. 3) £3-50 for a cup of tea. And some think we should raise prices at PL.
Anything else? The sun rose from the east, there were 24 hours in the day, some were born and other died, and Sam Hutchinson got booked in a game.
I don’t think he was quite so effective as last week, although I think he’s worth signing up for the rest of the season if available.
We also saw Romaine Sawyers come on, and while he’s off the pace you can see he’s got good touch and vision.
Maybe both of them are what we need for the next few months, and given we’ve played both of them (and started Hutchinson) maybe the view is for a longer deal for both?
We would only require both for this season, and their experience might be invaluable during the run-in when we face another tough fixture where we need to win.
I would prefer those players rather than some eighteen year old from Fulham who’s never been inside a men’s dressing room in his life.
Not saying there isn’t a place for a highly touted youngster next month, but we need to be more discerning about those types from now on.
Especially as we have a genuine chance of the playoffs this season. At least, if we can keep the beancounters away…
So, was it worth it? Nope.
In a nutshell: Merry fucking Christmas.