A repeat of this from 41 years ago wouldn’t be bad tomorrow. Maybe we could bring Walter off the bench again?
Anyway, enough nostalgia from a time where half our support wasn’t born…
Nervous, yet?
I wouldn’t blame anyone who was, to be honest. It is after all the biggest game in our current season, and perhaps the biggest since we won against Plymouth in 2016.
That was nine years ago as well, by the way. In case you’re keeping score over omens and suchlike.
Finals generally seem to bring out the ultra-superstitious lot (your editor is a bit like this, admittedly).
You’ve no doubt heard that teams with birds in their badge have won the trophies this season, meaning it’s pointing to a Walsall victory tomorrow (because double-headed eagles don’t exist).
Although that line of logic kind-of falls down when you remember Sunderland won yesterday, and neither Charlton nor Orient have one on their crest either.
Then there’s the team-that-has-their-fans-in-the-west-end-of-Wembley-always-wins, which works in our favour.
That run has to be broken at some point, so Orient can do that today instead.
And of course, there’s the usual (over)examination of recent results against our opponents. That they beat us at PL, that they got a late draw at their place.
The truth is, none of that matters tomorrow. Form goes out the window, and then some, and superstition is fun but doesn’t make that much difference.
It’s whoever turns up on the day, who can produce that one bit of magic, who gets the lucky breaks, and indeed whoever does the big fuckup.
Ask Kieffer Moore about his contribution for Sunderland’s winning goal yesterday. On second thoughts, don’t.
Tomorrow is a case of, if the decisive strike for AFCW comes in the 94th minutes off Alistair Smith’s arse, it doesn’t matter.
I hesitate to use “by any means necessary”, although that’s effectively what this game is.
There’s so many thoughts, and so many questions. And one of the big ones is – are we really favourites?
The bookies may make us so, but I think that’s more down to punters thinking we are rather than any inside knowledge.
If I’m being honest, I’m not confident. I expect us to lose tomorrow for one reason – we just can’t score goals.
We saw it last week against Notts County. We could (and should) have found the net more often, but we just can’t seem to put it away.
Stevens last found the net on the 22nd March, in that weird fixture against Barrow, and Josh Kelly hasn’t picked up any goalscoring bonus since Newport away.
Which was on the 2nd January this year.
With Bugiel missing out, our two strikers aren’t, erm, striking. And with a young-but-raw Foyo possibly making the expanded subs bench, and Piggy flattering to deceive, I’m sort-of expecting gloom.
Yeah, I know we’ve got the tightest defence outside of a spinster in a nun’s house, but that can be breached. And I just don’t have the belief we know how to get that vital goal back.
But that’s what tomorrow is really all about isn’t it? No, not failing to score or keep them out, but belief.
It’s all very well for a clueless oik like your editor to pontificate about us turning up, but one would expect the players to be much more confident.
We’re at Wombley through merit, we’ve started to get better again, and they’re professional footballers so they ought to be up for this.
Maybe Stevens, Kelly et al have been honing their goalscoring skills this week on the training ground? They’ll certainly know how long it’s been since they’ve found the net, and tomorrow wouldn’t be a bad time to make up for that.
While writing this bit, I had a cursory glance at what SW19 wrote the day(s) before Plymouth in 2016, which you can read here.
That was more a case of, getting there was a bit of an unexpected bonus. This time round, it feels more like something we should have done.
I’m not sure you can really make too many comparisons between then and now, although the buildup in 2016 was interesting to look at.
Remember that we had the backdrop of NPL being called in. Did our win against Plymouth help us get back home after all?
I have to mention Walsall here, because if a team shouldn’t be in the playoffs full stop, it’s them.
It’s quite impressive how they blew a 12-point lead at the top, and how they were a minute away from automatic promotion before Bradford popped up.
They’re either destined to go up tomorrow, or they’re destined not to go up. That’s got to play on their mind, hopefully in our favour.
They’re undeniably good, better than Notts County will be, and every single one of our players has to be on their A++ game.
Yet they blew their lead at the top for a reason, and it’s why they’re facing us in the playoffs instead of enjoying auto promotion in Benidorm this weekend.
I’ve been reading some of their supporter comments the last few days, and in a couple of cases there is a bit of hubris creeping in with them.
Things like their attack will revel in the Wide Open Spaces of Wembley (TM), that having the smaller turnout full of “proper” fans will work in their favour, that Sky will be blowing smoke up our arses.
Which is fine, if they believe that. After all, we’re not the ones who spectacularly blew a commanding lead at the top of the table.
Walsall are good enough to win tomorrow, and they should be favourites and not us. But they’re not invincible.
We haven’t entirely escaped the hubris from a couple of our supporters, although that’s focusing on our (admittedly excellent) back line.
With a little bit of giddyness about how many we’re taking, even if there’s as many slapdowns from the old heads in our group.
But while I haven’t read everything AFCW fans have written this past week, it’s seems relatively down-to-earth.
You saw the players (and fans) reaction last week after beating the Magpies. No pitch invasions here, just a realisation the job is only 2/3rds done.
It will help if we don’t get carried away, that we have the biggest job of the lot tomorrow at 15h01 until the last ball is kicked.
While I question our ability to score, or indeed think we’re over-relying on our defence, I expect our attitude will be a good one.
For some of our squad, they won’t get another chance at this. Perhaps JJ might not either.
Finally, while final sales have yet to be announced, getting as close to dammit to 30k is genuinely impressive.
It far beats the 23k at Wombley in 2016, and the whole attendance at the Emptyhad against Luton**.
** – to this day, I still wonder why the turnout then was so poor from both sides. Ticket prices didn’t help, but weren’t there major transportation issues that weekend too?
That’s the Plough Lane factor in effect there – higher numbers of regular attendees taking on average three other people has got us to that figure.
For L2 (and for a lot of L1), we’ve got pretty good attendances, which has been demonstrated this last week.
Will it make a difference tomorrow? It can work both ways of course, we could buckle under the expectation of having the majority of the stadium.
Alternatively, it could give us that extra 1%, which may just get us over the line.
Either way, it might be a case of spot-the-regular. Don’t be surprised to stand on Wombley Way and see those in yellow and blue stream past, and realise it’s been five minutes since you saw someone you recognise.
There will be the usual day-trippers of course, but tomorrow is a damn good time to convert them.
Oh, and as some wag put it this morning – perhaps the season ticket holders who regularly leave empty seats at PL will turn up this time?
And that’s really all that needs to be said. Lose tomorrow and it will suck the big one, but we wouldn’t be the first playoff team to lose at Wembley. Or the last.
We’re here in the last game of the EFL in 24/25 through our own efforts, our appearance isn’t a series of flukes.
I don’t know who in our squad has playoff final experience (Lewis?) but any help tomorrow on that score will be more than welcome.
Make no mistake, this will be tense and horrible. The 90 minutes will feel like 90 hours, I haven’t even begun to think of extra time and penalties, and there’s still no guarantee it will end well.
But we’ve got this far. Let’s take that final step again like we did in 2016 – and I don’t care if it’s the biggest fluke of the entire season…