Sorry if that headline put you off your All Bran, but it’s kind-of apt considering…
So, it’s been a shitty week and indeed a shitty month. And it’s a month that could have got even shittier.
But, thankfully, Anadin 1 Imodium 0 came in to give us some cheer for once.
Eleven games without a victory, wasn’t it? For some reason it felt longer (although using the Jersey Mike’s is stretching the run a bit), so you’d be forgiven for this weird feeling right now.
A win? Three points? What is this sorcery?
Before I go on, as you can tell I was on press duties yesterday, so all of this is written without notes and instead from my own memory.
Now, considering I have the attention span of a goldfish with brain issues, I’ll likely miss a lot of stuff out like goals and what colour we play in.
But what I do remember is Smith’s piledriver for the winner, Bishop’s double save at the end, and the lack of too much else in the rest of the game.
To be fair, when you’ve not won for as long as we have, it doesn’t matter if you play badly and get the victory, because at some point you don’t believe you’ll ever do so again.
Even yesterday’s buildup was strange, because nobody expected too much. A draw would be nice, but most predicted gloomy defeat.
Especially when before the game we discovered that Bursik was injured, McDonnell managed to injure himself in the warmup, and Bishop was coming in.
Oh, and a change in formation at the back too.
Even news that Blackpool had the shits beforehand (and boy, did Ian Evatt go on about that afterwards…) didn’t really give you much confidence.
After all, how often do we hear that a side hasn’t won since the days of analogue TV but still get three points against us?
Anyway, the game started, Blackpool didn’t look like they’d spent the last 24 hours on the bog, and you thought it was going to be another one of those weekends.
And then Alistair Smith pops up with a superb strike, and the rest is history.
Seriously, I could end the description of the game there and it would cover most of it.
OK, we didn’t really look like getting a second, Blackpool had too much of it in the latter stages for my liking and Bishop did well with his double save in injury time.
Oh, and Stockley getting a second yellow for either celebrating a bit too much at the end and/or having a little discussion with their player afterwards.
Perhaps he taunted the Blackpool players by saying he didn’t need to spend all evening on the toilet?
Somehow, even his sending off can’t quite dampen things this morning. I think he needs a rest, and we’ve over-relied on him far too much.
But even if the performance looked a bit like the train after Blackpool players got off it yesterday, the result wasn’t.
We needed this. And not just because we haven’t won recently.
What’s nice is that there isn’t a midweek game to spoil the post-victory feeling. No real chance to enjoy the post-victory glow, whereas usually we get a week to stew in another defeat.
It’s a little thing, but given how things have been recently – we deserve just a bit of a nice seven days ahead.
JJ himself can be pleased, this past few weeks must have pissed him off.
Fuck knows what he was thinking when he found out McDonnell got injured in the warm up, let alone other injuries recently.
I don’t know if our current manager drinks alcohol, but if he didn’t I wouldn’t blame him for starting.
As for the rest of it, just enjoy that we’ve actually managed to not fuck things up for once. Something that might be the hardest thing of the lot…
Plus points: We won. Clean sheet. Smith’s strike. Defending well. Somebody else scoring. Bishop’s cameo.
Minus points: No second goal. Stockley’s sending off.
The referee’s a…: Hmm, yes, well. I’ll leave it at that.
Them: Maybe they deserved something out of the game, but like us they’re where they are for a reason.
Your editor has to focus on them for professional purposes yesterday (which is a bit of a weird thing to do when they’re playing your team), and to be honest they didn’t show much signs of being ill beforehand.
Not saying they weren’t, the human body can be impressively adaptive when it needs to be, but if you’re that poorly…?
Well, equally it could be because we’re slow and we made even them look quick.
Decent turnout from them, although one thing that’s just sprung to mind here – you know how fans from down south use Blackpool for a weekend away.
Do Blackpool fans go down to London for the same reason? Do things like go into ropey boozers in Bermondsey, stay in crappy B&Bs for £200 a night and play at the Mecca bingo in Rose Hill?
Point to ponder: How much did the “team meeting” this week affect yesterday?
If we go on a decent(ish) run of form then we might look back at last weekend and see where it finally turned for us.
Because the post-game mood from Crewe football-wise was as bad as I can remember for a good while.
And I don’t doubt the players knew it as well. A cup run affects them in the pocket as well, and maybe last week was the fuck up too far.
Yesterday, a lot of the time we played like we had a point to prove – to ourselves as much as anyone else.
Granted, injuries haven’t helped, although I don’t find it a coincidence that we looked better with Ogundere at the back and Johnson absent.
But one suspects that we got into the mindset that we were always destined to lose a game, even when going ahead, and we had to use this week to snap out of it.
One does wonder if the other news from last weekend may have affected things too? It’s their livelihoods that would be affected with major investment, in one way or another.
I know if you ask any manager about off field ownership changes they’ll always say that it doesn’t affect what happens on the training field, which is something I’ve never entirely believed.
While players are mostly self-contained, anyone who’s been at a company in trouble isn’t going to be immune from what’s going on elsewhere.
Even if that’s not the case, it does take something to get yourselves out of a rut. So the players deserve credit for that alone.
And of course, a win starts to breed confidence. And who knows, we might go to Brisbane Road next Saturday with a bit of belief…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) Smith’s strike. When was the last time anyone in an AFCW shirt scored something like that? 2) The DJ set outside the Phoenix during the 2-minute silence. At least he didn’t go “make some noiizzzzze” during it. 3) Forgetting how cold football games can be.
Anything else? Well, the dust is settling over last week’s investor news, and at least we know where we stand.
I don’t have the accounts to hand, but if we’re going to need a £3m loan to keep us afloat, so be it. We can’t be choosers any more.
One wonders what would have happened if the accounts had been released before the formal investment proposal was made?
It’s pretty obvious that we need investment more than ever, indeed the PLC did say that investment was “paused”, and the update this week sounds relatively reassuring.
Before I go on – the DTB weren’t bluffing when they said we’re in financial schtuck.
Granted, the DT isn’t great, and I don’t think we’ll miss it one bit if it disappeared tomorrow. But in a few places, I think there’s a bit too much bitterness and distrust over what they say.
Most importantly with that update is that SSF (aka the Bertrand Boys) are looking for different investors, and with this bit especially important:
They’ve told us they are talking to potential investors, including some who approached them before and during the process.
That might end up being nothing, but if it’s true that they had investors contacting them during all this, that’s a good sign.
It means that other non-Dr Omar investors are at the very least interested and may think it’s viable.
What you don’t want is just one proposal that flops, because then we’re really looking at being bent over with an un-lubed cucumber dangerously close by.
Even if the Bertand Boys ultimately fail, it does sound like other people may be interested.
Our problem right now is time (and just reconfirming your editor’s belief that this should have been happening at least two years ago and nearer five).
Any new proposal will be treated as, well, new. Which means it has to go through the usual due diligence, the regulators, the EFL, so the quicker we can find somebody else the better.
AFCW clearly prefer SSF because of the whole “fan ownership” mantra, but they might have to bite the bullet over that and accept somebody else who isn’t so enamoured by that.
Indeed, perhaps we’ll see a different proposal from the Bertrand Boys if they find another investor or two?
Will the supporters accept a new proposal? Apparently the vote that got nixed suggested it would have gone through comfortably.
So unless the next offer suggests we merge with Franchise – the majority will accept it, and in great number too.
While you’ll always get the odd (very odd) section who would be happy going back to non-league, the bulk of people are just fed up being poor.
Yes, the football industry’s approach to finances are mental. Yes, player wages are far too high at this level. And yes, a reset is long overdue.
Personally, I don’t think there’ll be one and I doubt if wages are going to significantly drop any time soon.
Our reality right now is either get somebody in or administration. And the latter will open up a can of worms we should really avoid.
If we end up dropping to non-league, it will just speed up the process of administration and a new (and potentially hostile) owner.
My gut feeling is that it won’t come close to that, and before this season is out we’ll either have or about to have new proper investors.
I’ve typed in “new owners” instead of “proper investors” before deleting it, but de facto that’s what they’ll end up being.
That’s another discussion, but I do sense all parties know we need to move quickly. The club, the Bertand Boys, another investor, the rank and file too.
It may not be the ideal solution, whatever transpires. But it’ll be much better than the alternative…
So, was it worth it? Yes it was.
In a nutshell: Can we have more wins, please? Oh go on.