What’s that? A win? In League One? Oh, how I have missed thee.
Our first victory of the new campaign has come two games in, which is a lot sooner than even the not-so-pessimistic types were predicting before it all started.
We were all having visions of not picking up our first three points until November, and that only coming about because the opposition had been on the ale up until kickoff.
But a win is always good. Especially at home.
As you can tell, I wasn’t at Plough Lane yesterday. Your editor was back at it at Brisbane Road, for Leyton Orient against Wigan.
A game that the Os deserved to win, but equally made me think a lot of it was no better than what we produce most weeks.
Meanwhile, 15 miles south-west away, it sounds like we put in one of those performances where we played well enough not to lose but perhaps not enough to win.
Until their man got sent off. And it’s nice to have a bit of luck on our side this week.
Although having seen the replay, while it is a sending off – the reaction of our player is a bit embarrassing. Even though I’d rather see us employ the Dark Arts (TM) than not.
How many times have you seen a team go down to ten men and end up playing better? It’s not always easy having numerical advantage, and in previous years we’ve struggled.
It may have taken a penalty to put us ahead, but I’ll happily accept anything like that.
As will Matty Stevens, who scored for the first time since Domesday (well, Barrow in March anyway).
I didn’t realise his cousin died recently, so maybe that might explain why he appeared so undercooked in the pre-season friendlies.
He needed the goal, and hopeful that kicks him on to get plenty more this campaign. We could do with them.
As we needed the second goal yesterday. We may have had a man advantage, and what I say about this division remains true, but you need to do more in front of the sticks at this level.
So, enter our new favourite loanee, one Mr N Asiimwe. There’s no “I” in team, but there’s two in his surname.
Let’s be honest here – nine times out of ten any bit of ball control in the box like he did either gets blocked, booted away, or ends up in a massive scramble.
As it was, it’s a helluva good strike, especially from a set piece where it usually goes awry.
I’ll leave those there to say whether we deserved a third, or indeed what the relief was like when we got our second.
But everyone should be happy with that. JJ is, and I think this is the division he should be managing at.
Leaving out Bugiel and Kelly totally are big calls, and when they don’t pay off he’ll certainly get reminded of that.
When they do pay off though…
This makes up a fair bit for last week at Kenilworth Road, where Lady Luck not only deserted us but jumped into bed with your best mate and filmed it.
We all know this season isn’t going to be easy, and hearing Lewis had to go off isn’t good. But I’d like to think we’re capable of more of these kind of results this next nine months.
And if we can do it against eleven men, so much the better.
I was going to do a quick “this is some true-but-pointless stats” bit, but when I came to look it up, it’s actually not so much pointless as gobsmacking.
This is our first League One victory since… 7 December 2021 at Accrington Stanley.
It’s our first win at home in this division since… 23rd November 2021 against Crewe Alexandra.
Unless I’ve miscounted, we ended up not winning for 28 games in the end, and if you look at the list of results from 2021/22, it just reminds us what it was like back then.
I knew we were bad, but I didn’t realise we were that bad.
One thing I did forget until this week, which funnily enough came when I read the SW19 report of the last game that season for no real reason – Doncaster also went down with us.
Bradford fell through the trap door earlier than we did, and both those two and ourselves are back up to whence we came.
While the Bantams are more capable of being a Championship club (note the terminology) than we are right now, being similar to Doncaster isn’t a bad thing.
I’ve said it perhaps a bit too often on here, but our last foray into L1 left a very bad taste in my mouth. But performances and results like yesterday sweeten that somewhat.
And besides – I like being in this division.
Even little things like scrolling down on Sky Sports’ website to AFCW and realising I don’t need to go down as far as League Two is a nice little feeling.
Knowing our next two League fixtures are Reading and Cardiff are daunting in one way but very exciting in another.
Both aren’t invincible, by the way. And I hope we have that mentality, because imagine getting good results from those two games.
Which is why it’s a bit odd discovering there were plenty of empty seats available at Plough Lane yesterday.
Your editor offered his season ticket spot, but there were no takers, and you can tell there’s going to be spaces when the club aren’t asking to resell spares.
Granted, it’s the wrong time of the year to be starting football again. People are away, other sports still take priority, and football is more of a cold winter’s day game than a 26c and sunny one.
And yes, we’ve played Lincoln before at PL and with all due respect to them – they’re not Cardiff.
I can only guess it’s partly down to people’s finances too. Bills are going up, anecdotally people don’t have the ready income so much (which is why it seems more people are paying by direct debit).
How much is it to get into the game if you’re a casual? £25? More?
We’re probably at the highest level you can charge for tickets in League One, and in our case the constant begging for donations is fast becoming an irritant for many.
You watch, before long somebody with unkempt hair, dodgy teeth, bad breath, dubious clothing stains and a meth/alcohol habit will be rattling a WAWF-branded plastic cup.
“Got some change for a football club?”. Yes, I have change, but it’s not for you.
Finally, it also sounds that some of the popular vendors in the hipster-esque “street food” section are gone.
I’ve no idea what the replacements are like, whether they get good reviews or not, but people seem to talk about the prices.
Not in a good way either. £16-95 for a burger and chips seems pretty steep (even if it’s venison), and that’s just the basic meal.
AFCW has to make what money it can from these ventures to make it worthwhile, but like everything there’s a limit to what punters will fork out.
It’s not the captive market some may think it is, and if more people decide they can wait for their grub then they’ll do that.
I wonder why there’s no burger van type venture outside the club grounds on Plough Lane before/after the game?
There’s a stall during the week outside Wickes, and I’m surprised he doesn’t turn up for our fixtures. He’ll do well.
Oh, and finally – the London Broncos squad were there. At times, they might think it’s more like watching Bradford Bulls than Bradford City…