Skip to content

Brad Pitt

Well, that was a nice surprise…

If you told me last week that we would face Franchise, Crewe and Bradford, and get five points from those three games, I would have tried hard not to laugh at you.

I may have also secretly questioned your sanity, and perhaps openly mocked your mindless over-optimism as well.

But you would have been right. And everyone would have been glad you were right as well.

Granted, the game at Stadium:MT is a unique one, and perhaps we could have done better at Gresty Road, but the game yesterday at PL was the one where defeat was inevitable.

After all, we just don’t win that sort of game, do we?

Well, as it happens – we do. With a clean sheet as well, which is something you haven’t been able to say in recent years.

This against a team with, I think, the best record of the last 6 (or 10?) games too.

Yesterday was a big result, and that’s not hyperbole either. We’ve always struggled to beat Bradford, though every game with them seems to finish 0-0.

Thanks to the wonder of modern technology, I was able to listen to WDON in my car on the way back from Watford v Norwich.

While I can’t really get a good grasp of a game unless I’m actually watching, and I only got to catch the second half, I think I like what I heard.

I like how we managed to deal with Bradford coming out at us after the break, and start controlling the game a bit better ourselves.

I like that we almost got a second goal, though I didn’t like that we failed to get it.

I even like that we don’t feel like interlopers up the top, that we’re there because we might actually be all right.

And I haven’t always liked the squad in recent years. I think I like this one.

Bradford are no mugs, it’s easy to forget they went down from L1 the season (or two) before we did.

They’ll probably be up there by the end of the season, although reading their message board after the game they’re half-expecting to go on a bad run of form.

After yesterday, people are starting to believe we could be up there come May ourselves.

And while I think it’s way, way too premature to think that – I can’t blame anyone for starting to believe.

If if if if if if if if if IF we find ourselves in the playoffs or better after Grimsby away, we might point to the Bradford game at PL where it all started.

There’s certainly a vibe there, perhaps a bit similar to the 2016 run, and James Ball on WDON duties said something that make my ears prick up.

He reckoned that everyone in the squad are friends with each other, that nobody seems to have enemies.

OK, now he said that there’ll be a blazing row on the training ground tomorrow that will mean everyone will have to travel to games separately.

But if there isn’t, and everyone remains heading in the same direction, don’t underestimate the importance of that.

If supporters are thinking that we can do something, then the squad certainly do. And football players have the biggest egos around.

Right now, they must go into training and into games with that self-confidence teams up the top have.

Results like yesterday will help, and they’ll no doubt be looking at Accrington next weekend and think that they can get something.

Then onto Tuesday week at home to Crewe, where we can finish the job we started up there.

And then Colchester. And Salford. And Bromley. And… you get the idea.

That’s a good mindset to have, and I’d like to think we’re starting to get into that.

Granted, we’ll have some bumps and losses along the way. There’s always the possibility and likelyhood we’ll get gubbed in Lancashire, because that’s the kind of thing that happens.

But there seems to be enough within us to bounce back now. We have players returning, and hopefully by Monday we won’t have lost any of our current squad.

Somebody posted a stat yesterday, which I haven’t bothered checking, that we need just nine more wins for automatic promotion.

That makes it sound all the more achievable, especially in a division which if we’re being honest isn’t all that.

There’s still a long way to go. It’s only February, and like all other seasons we’ll only know what’s what come Easter.

And while I reserve the right to change my mind on everything this time next week, maybe it’s OK to at least start thinking of believing…?

Published inUncategorised