Suddenly, I feel a bit hungry…
Quick note before I go on – your editor had his dosage of allopurinol boosted (doubled) this week, so it’s left me feeling a bit drowsy at times.
This will partly explain the tone of this writeup, alongside doing press duties yesterday which definitely gives a different angle to things. Perhaps literally.
Refunds are available when you leave this page, remember not to spend your £0/$0/€0/₽0 all at once upon receipt.
The rest of you can relive Lidl Tower Gate 0 Huntley and Palmers 0, at least in terms of the result.
Yes, we haven’t scored again. But considering we’ve lost eight of the last nine before yesterday, and we left something smelly and odious behind in Huddersfield, I’ll take that.
Let’s be honest here, nobody had the slightest bit of optimism beforehand. 2-0 to Reading if we were lucky, 5-0 if we weren’t.
A season already looking longer than a giant long thing, and it’s only the second league game of the season.
Which is why I left the ground yesterday with a weird tad of optimism. Unless that was down to the tablets.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great. But we held off a team that is likely to score a fair few goals, neutered them in the final 30 minutes and even started to play well ourselves.
I think I’ve thought of a reason for that, which we’ll explore later.
I don’t think we deserved to win, but I don’t think we deserved to lose either. Had we done so, it would have been not only a kick in the teeth, but a kick in the bollocks at the same time.
The game itself isn’t worth writing about (McDonnell and Sweeney denying them, Johnson being denied off the line up the other end), but one senses we know we can get better.
Stockley definitely makes a difference, although I fear we’re already over-relying on him.
At least he knows how to challenge for the ball without fouling the opposing player, unlike Bugiel before him.
And Browne. And Seddon. And anyone else, come to think of it.
Sweeney deservedly got MOTM, as you could see him grow in stature, although McDonnell had a fair shout for that too.
It’s a bit odd, our goalie situation. For a first choice keeper, Bishop seems to get dropped a fair bit.
And all the while McDonnell keeps a clean sheet and does little wrong, he’s worthy of starting.
I wonder if we think Bishop hasn’t come on as much as we hoped? We usually get it right with our keepers, but if somebody comes in for our designated number one…
One good thing about doing media duties is getting to hear what JJ says before anyone else. And one bad thing about doing media duties is getting to hear what JJ says before anyone else.
Yesterday was a good thing though, and it was interesting he thinks McDonnell was a calming influence at the back.
And we didn’t panic in defence, like we could have done. Indeed, looking back this morning it felt as assured as it has done for a while.
I guess we’re not going to see Sess, or Yiadom, or Harrison do much more than cameo roles for the next few games.
Although us signing the former Reading captain was an interesting one, if only for him joining up until January.
Either we’re so hard up that we can’t even afford to get a player for the season, or (more likely) we still need experience and he cost the same as a PL youngster.
I’m all for VFM out of our players, but if that’s correct then some of these youth teamers must be on megabucks.
Your editor heard a rumour about Brodi Hughes’ wages as a Chelsea player, which if remotely correct should scare people.
That also might explain why we don’t pick up some PL youngsters, even though it would be mutually beneficial for both parties.
That’s for another time, though. We’ve got our first point of the season, two games in, and it doesn’t feel quite so hopeless after all.
Just a quick aside about Jake Reeves leaving on loan to Barnet (which by the way the OS went on about him effectively suggests we won’t see him play for us again).
It was probably the most obvious departure of the summer, and the only surprise was him having his contract extended.
He’s been a good servant, but last year especially was probably a season too far for him with us.
Had we been in L2 he would have been here, doing the proverbial good job, but him moving to NW London is best for all concerned.
I saw he scored for them yesterday though.
Maybe he’ll pop along to Fulham? Our game was a a nice buildup to that (and it looks like your editor has a spare ticket, will let people know come Monday/Tuesday), before the more important Wigan clash next Sunday.
Who knows, maybe we’ll actually know how to score a goal by then…?
Plus points: We didn’t lose. Improving as the game went on. Stockley. Sweeney. McDonnell. Last 30 minutes.
Minus points: We didn’t win. No goals again. Browne looking out of sorts.
The referee’s a…: Oh boy. Gave Reading a lot up until about half time, when he decided that he wasn’t going to award fouls for anyone.
I wasn’t up the south stand end – did he really miss McDonnell get taken out during a corner?
Them: Started off menacingly enough, and you always got the feeling if they scored they would run riot.
They didn’t though, and we started to have an idea what to do, which may explain why they’re in League One.
It’s their second season down with us lowlifes in the third tier, and it’s still a headfuck that they managed to get relegated with nobody really noticing.
People focus on Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester (especially) and Luton being in L1, but Reading are amongst that as well.
Maybe that explains why their support (which was decent in numbers and voice) gave their manager abuse at the end?
And maybe that’s why he made the point of going out to clap those very same supporters ten minutes before kickoff.
Reading (boom fucking tisch) their post-game comments, some of their fans really don’t like him. Although some of them might need to realise that even a club like ourselves can cause problems in L1.
Point to ponder: Is half our problem a lack of belief that we can score?
While I still believe there’s mitigating circumstances about our post-March decline in form, I don’t doubt that’s played on our minds since then.
As we all know, once a three-game slump starts becoming a five-game slump, it becomes harder to drag yourselves out of it.
We didn’t score again yesterday, but you could see us visibly growing in confidence that we could. And if Johnson’s effort had gone in, we would have probably won it.
We could have even won it in injury time, but by then I think we (and Reading) had decided to settle for the point.
I do get the feeling that once we find the net, we’ll do it a lot more often and start winning games.
Stockley getting off the mark will help immensely, and while I still expect we’ll try and get a striker before the window shuts, I can’t wait for Stevens to line up alongside him.
Lest we forget, when we went on that run that ended with us drawing against Peterborough at PL last season, we were in a similar bind at Port Vale.
We looked then like we have done recently, no real faith we can find the net. Until we did, and you saw the whole vibe change around the squad in an instant.
I feel the same now as I do then – I’ve never felt we’re as bad as the catastrophisers like to say, although I fully accept we’re not particularly good.
But at the risk of stating the most obvious of statements, we’re so much better when we’re finding the net…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) “Your kit is shit” – our fans about Reading’s new garb. At least they can play if floodlights fail. 2) The new pictorial banners outside the ground. Guess we’re not planning on selling Ryan Johnson. 3) The last 0-0 we were involved in was St. Evenage on Boxing Day.
Anything else? So, Fulham on Thursday.
Probably the least important of the two upcoming fixtures this next seven days, but the one which will have the most eyes on us.
As ever, all I want from these kind of fixtures is to give the proverbial good account of ourselves.
In this competition in recent years, we’ve done exactly that at Chelsea, but at Arsenal and Newcastle I felt we let ourselves down a bit.
Especially up at St James’ Park, where we decided not to attack even though we were 1-0 with five minutes left.
I doubt Fulham will see this as a massive priority, and as such I think we have every chance that evening.
And considering all that was said above about our goalscoring prowess – Thursday won’t be a bad time to start doing that.
If we lose, it doesn’t really matter (as long as it’s not a gubbing). The Premier League side should be beating the League One outfit.
But a draw will take us to penalties, where anything can happen, and as for a win…
So I think we can use this game as a springboard for the season, because a victory could give us that boost that’s been missing for a good while.
Ticket sales have, I think, reached the 4000 mark. And I hope that we do fill out the 6000 we’ve apparently been given.
It’s £20 which isn’t bad these days at all, it’s a PL venue that a lot of our support probably won’t have been to, and it’s only a few stops up the District Line.
I expect we’ll come very close to doing that by Thursday evening, if not sell outright, and with luck the team on the field will reward them.
One unintended consequence of this fixture has sprung up – suddenly, a lot of AFCW fans will take a keen interest in Chelsea v Fulham tomorrow evening…
So, was it worth it? A point is a point.
In a nutshell: The season starts here.