*sits down at SW19 Towers desk*
*sips tea*
*exhales deeply*
No, I don’t want to be writing this, even less than you want to be reading it. But I put the effort in and you’re morally obliged to do the same…
I suppose if something good from Woolloomooloo 0 Notlob 1 has come out, we did at least have a go in the second half.
Maybe if the ball hadn’t been saved on the line right at the death, maybe if our crosses had been better, maybe if we had done a bit more of that in the first half.
Maybe.
Whether it’s the 12h30 kickoff or whether it’s the knowledge that we’ve scored once in the last seven games at PL – a record, apparently, and not a very welcome one – it is none the less another failure at home.
The first half was shite, even down to their goal that they got from our corner. That’s our set piece, by the way – not theirs.
That it should have been 3-0 by the interval to them should tell its own story. At least it’s not just us who can’t find the target.
Or to put it another way – I had to do yet another blood and urine test yesterday, and I preferred that to the first 45 minutes.
It was just all-round too slow and ponderous, like we take about a minute to make a decision.
All right, we have a bit more now Tilley is back with us, but one returning player isn’t going to kick us up the arse.
Whether that’s what JJ did at the half time interval we’ll never know, but the second 45 minutes was as different as the first.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great. But if you can’t be any good, at least have a fucking go with what you do have.
We came out with intent, we gave them something to think about, and on a different day we’d be talking about how we came back and snatched something.
A special mention to Junior Nkeng, who not only used his pace to good effect but also knew when to go down and get the foul. Some of our senior players should feel a bit chastised right now.
We put on Stevens, then Bugiel, although when we did Bolton took the game and managed to take a lot of the sting out of it.
But we pushed forward when we could, and I will still remember in injury time Bishop waving frantically to the bench to ask whether he should go into their box.
Next time, he should just do it anyway.
Sadly, nothing happened, and it’s another loss in SW17. And of course another game ohne tor, and this despite our “top” strikers on the field.
You know when something goes from being a blip to being ingrained? That’s where we are at the moment, although there is something that twigged while watching proceedings today that might give hope.
I’ll come onto that later, but it’s now getting too tight down the bottom for comfort.
A run of good form needs to come PDQ, and it’s worth remembering there’s still a lot of football to be played yet.
Perform like we did in the second half today, and we stand a reasonable chance of getting something at Port Vale on Tuesday.
But what makes me think we won’t…?
Plus points: Better second half. Bit more up front with Tilley. Nkeng.
Minus points: We lost. Their goal. Continuing to be eunuchs up front. Another shit home game.
The referee’s a…: Forgot he was on the pitch most of the time, which is always a good sign.
There was a slightly amusing incident towards the end of the game when the lino saw his flag fall out of his hand, and had to give a hand signal.
And not one that only required one finger pointed upwards.
Them: Should have won 3-0, but they equally could have drawn 1-1.
Definitely bigger than us, more physical, a helluva lot smarter too, and it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise if their late glancing header went in the net.
The game at the Reebok Macron University of Bolton Toughsheet was, in hindsight, the start of realising we were running out of steam, although I don’t think they were as good today as they were then.
Even so, I still got a bit of an impression they might have been able to go up a gear if they needed to.
Close to 1000 of them getting up at 5am, except for the ones who went on the piss in that London the night before.
It was a little bit amusing seeing two of their juniors doing Bolton chants while riding the Boris Bikes afterwards. Wonder if they’re aware that down here, traffic doesn’t tend to stop for cyclists?
Point to ponder: Are we suffering from a lack of luck?
Don’t get me wrong, here – we’re lacking in quality, we’re too lethargic for too many parts of the game, and we’re probably not playing the right tactics for what we do have.
But how many times have we lost out with the ball bouncing away from us, or that the opposition gets the lucky break and we don’t?
There’s an unwritten rule in football that if you’re struggling for form, even little bits of fortune go missing.
That fortuitous bounce, that deflected shot, that incident the referee missed that ended up in your favour.
We’re truly in that right now, and it’s one of the hardest things to do something about.
You could counter that by saying you should make your own luck, and I totally agree with that.
We could – and should – help ourselves a bit more by getting some more of the basics right. Some of our ball control makes your editor cringe, and I can’t trap a bag of cement.
But had luck been more on our side recently we would have probably got something from today – even right at the end.
I mention this because that’s what the difference between L1 and L2 next season will be – just getting that bit of fortune that everyone else except us seems to have right now.
Did we use it all up getting promoted and in the first ten games this season? I don’t think we were fortunate in going up, by the way, but it’s hard to believe this is mostly the same squad that got us up.
Our next goal at Plough Lane will most likely come off somebody’s arse, because that’s the way it goes in football. The only question is, will it happen this season…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) 12h30 kickoffs. They still suck. 2) A rather dubious looking blocked toilet bowl in one of the men’s bogs behind the east stand. At least PL is now a proper football ground.
Anything else? You may or may not have heard of the Broken Window Theory. I’ll let this AI prompt explain what it is:
(V)isible signs of disorder—like graffiti, litter, or broken windows—create an environment that encourages further, more serious crime by signaling that a community is neglected and unsupervised.
Now, granted, PL is hardly Queensbridge Houses, but going into the ground today at gate 3, one of the turnstiles was out of action.
In itself that’s unfortunate but nothing more. Yet there does seem to be one niggle or another at home games, that something somewhere doesn’t work that day.
If it’s not a turnstile, it’s something behind the east stand not functioning. If that’s OK, there’s an operational issue that means the Speedway behind the south stand is shut for that game.
We had teething troubles in the beginning, because thanks to the scientists in Wuhan we weren’t able to properly test things.
Well, that and certain individuals at the club who should be locked in the club pub with a blood-thirsty bat, and have to run up and down the unique stairwell to escape it.
But when something gets blocked up, or closed down for the game, or just simply not working, you do have to start wondering if things are being maintained like they should be.
The point of that is, if the bread and butter things aren’t being looked after, does it reflect a malaise or incompetency throughout the club?
To be fair to AFCW, earlier in January they advertised for an Operations Manager, so this may be linked.
And I don’t doubt there are “reasons” why certain things may not be functioning at certain times – one does have to ask if the Big Plough Lane Flood of 2024 is still affecting things.
But at a time when serious answers need to be given to some very serious questions, you do need that reassurance that everything is in hand – even down to the supposedly inconsequential things…
So, was it worth it? Hmph.
In a nutshell: At least you get more hours to play with today.