Two wins in a row? Ambassador, you are spoiling us…
I think if we all had a choice, and we could have selected which match this week we could have won, we’d all have picked Thursday instead.
But football doesn’t work like that, nor should it, and the most important game is the one you’re having next.
Beating Doncaster won’t have the backstory of a potential victory against that lot, but it’s equally as important if not more so.
It’s a clean sheet, it’s another win in a season where we’ll need all the points we can get (obviously), and I’d rather win two games in a row than lose them.
But it surprised me how little hype there was before the game. The crowd was sub-8000, and judging by everyone there, it wasn’t a classic to watch.
As you can gather, I wasn’t, I was at Orient again doing the day job. And to be honest, I don’t think we’re any worse than the Os or indeed Wycombe.
It does reaffirm my long-held belief that a lot of this division isn’t all that, and in many cases the biggest impediment to our third-tier status is ourselves.
Reading back over various post-game vox pops, we rode our luck a bit and Hippo scored a delightful free kick.
Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, do so. It’s a bit like Brown’s at Leyton Orient on NYD this year.
As Sweeney got injured at Bromley, we put Freddie Simmonds in. Who sounded like he had a bit of a tough introduction to proper football, but had enough about him.
He’s only 18, been asked to play in a part of the field that is difficult enough without it being (still) the weak spot of a L1 side.
But Brighton fans who’ve seen him have said he’s a very good prospect, and loans like this are meant to be mutually beneficial for all parties.
Speaking of loanees, Bursik was MOTM – something I think we’ll be saying after quite a few games this campaign.
Having looked at the highlights, he made a number of stops that I would call routine ones, attempts that most keepers at this level should make anyway.
Already though, he has that air of confidence that has been lacking since Goodman was inbetween the sticks.
Will that translate to the defence? We can all hope so, but he must be thinking why the players in front of him aren’t doing their own job.
One other thing about him – has anyone else noticed how much he comes off his line when the opposition are attacking? He did likewise at Bromley too.
Still, if it’s the biggest flaw of his play, we’ve got a goodun until January at least. And yes, I mention that we might have to prepare for him returning to Fratton Park after the New Year.
Which would be a shame, even at this early stage. But I don’t doubt there are many other Bursiks out there at higher placed clubs who we can borrow should we need to.
Buying keepers doesn’t seem to work, and we’ve got the situation where one of our (presumably) better earners is now not even named in the squad.
I expect Bishop (and/or his agent) are already negotiating where he will be going in January. It will be a shame, and we usually get it right with shotstoppers, but you only have to look at Bursik even from yesterday and realise what an upgrade he is.
Like Wigan, Donny had far too many chances that they ended up wasting. And not every side we face this season will be useless in front of goal.
As your editor said above though, a lot of L1 isn’t all that, and so many teams get into positions to score in this division but can’t do so.
In our case, we don’t seem to create enough chances, and our defence is still too slow and clunky (or disorganised) to neutralise attacks.
But confidence breeds confidence, and we’ll need it for the next game at least.
And if that means we start being greater than the sum of our parts, that we don’t have individual brilliance but a lot of grit and determination – I’ll take that.
It’s been said before, but if you can’t piss all over teams then the next best thing is to make sure they don’t do likewise to you.
I was going to write about how well we responded to the Burton horror show (though facing a pretty shite Bromley helped), but I think it’s been longer than that.
We’re only now shaking off the hangover from the end of last season, and I’m still left with the sense that we should be playing better but aren’t.
Like last season I do believe we’re better than we’ve shown in too many games, and that there’s still something missing.
Maybe we just need a spark, a confidence boosting performance and stonking result that makes you think, “yeah, we’re all right after all.”
Sooner rather than later for that. Maybe Thursday wouldn’t be a bad evening to start…