And that’s just the following stuff I’m about to write.
Yesterday, your editor was lucky to watch a game in SW London with a feast of goals. It featured grit, commitment, passion, and not a little skill.
Most of all, it involved a team clearly going in the right direction, and one that its supporters can justifiably be proud of right now – no matter how the season pans out.
That game was at Gander Green Lane, where Slutton beat Solihull Moors 4-1. They’re currently second, and perhaps maybe they’ll be the newest addition to League Two next season?
If they are, we could be joining them if yesterday at Plough Lane is repeated too often.
We never learn, do we? That said, after beating Peterborough on Wednesday, that particular result was tempered by knowing we’d be facing a team lower down the following game.
Surely we could finally stop arsing about with these type of games, and start putting runs together over teams we should be beating?
When Piggy put us ahead from the spot, it seemed like we were actually going to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.
Sadly, in true serial recidivist style, we got our Smith and Wesson, loaded it, and aimed it at our Hush Puppies.
AFC Wimbledon. It’s what we do.
I assume you have as much desire to read the timeline of events as I have to write them, so I’m not going to bother.
All I will need to mention is that their third goal just before the break managed to kill us. Just like Crawley’s second last Sunday effectively ended the game there and then.
Did six games in two weeks finally catch up with us? As though we finally lost any remaining mental and physical energy when we went 3-2 down?
We could do without the Mario’s Pizza Trophy against the Arsenal thumbsuckers on Tuesday, to be honest, and I won’t be upset if we go out of it.
The trouble is, while fatigue is definitely part of yesterday’s debacle, it happens far, far, far too often.
This result seems to jar a bit more at the moment, probably because it’s so predictable.
I know that many people were trying to play down us winning before kickoff yesterday, especially after a genuinely commendable win against Posh.
But should we really have to dampen pre-game expectations like we do for these kind of fixtures?
Those predicting we’d beat a team in the bottom four and improve our goal difference once again had their pants pulled down.
Yet they (and the rest of us) shouldn’t constantly be let down by the feebleness that is served far too often.
Somebody elsewhere last night made a good point – when crowds return, this squad could find itself alienated very quickly with continued “performances” like yesterday.
We’re lucky that PL isn’t likely to be open to paying punters until January** at the earliest. 2000 fans in the joint yesterday wouldn’t have kept quiet.
** – I’m going for February. Even if we manage to avoid Tier 3/yet another national lockdown, the club won’t want that historic game being Franchise.
Just because there will be so many emotions when we can finally watch a game in the flesh back home, doesn’t mean crap like this will be ignored.
While it’s been better on this score this campaign, the undercurrent of a “disconnect” between supporters and team isn’t far beneath the surface.
I’ve used that word too many times in recent seasons, and I hoped I wouldn’t need to write it again for a good while.
But with new surroundings – and an expectation of new beginnings – to keep getting served the same bollocks will quickly erode the patience again.
Things are supposed to be better now.
Yes, we have a number of (still) inexperienced youngsters – perhaps too many of them, if truth be told.
Yes, we’ll have to raid the transfer kitty to add another Heneghan type figure or two when the window opens next month.
And yes, we need the grind of games to end, to go on the training ground again and work out a better formation before it does.
But we’re mentally weak. And with a run of fixtures ahead where we could genuinely struggle to get more than a handful of points, we’d better learn to toughen up.
And quick…