Christ, have we become the draw specialists all of a sudden? Once again, Tinkers 1 Pikeys 1 followed a depressingly familiar pattern : concede within the first two minutes, click into gear and almost consider ourselves unlucky not to win. OK, we seem to have more injured people than a New Orleans shelter but even so, I’m still genuinely fucked off that we aren’t picking up the points.
I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard. Don’t forget that we did hit the bar, and Bromley didn’t really seem that impressive. But we have to be winning these sort of games. Rather interestingly, Fi$her and Rickay didn’t win last night either, and they arguably have more to lose than us.
Needless to say, I missed their goal, though my excuse perfectly valid reason was that I wasn’t actually in the ground. Looks like our defence wasn’t inside either, by the sound of it.
We got back into it, and despite too many offsides, I felt we weren’t going to go away empty handed. And lo, the Kiwi popped up and at least saved the teeth gnashing.
Oh, and I saw somebody by the name of “Junior Harvey” going through the players entrance. Yup, MC Harvey appears to be back. Not quite sure what to make of it to be honest – I seem to remember he didn’t exactly leave on good terms, and his exploits since then haven’t exactly put him in a good light. But on the flip side, he’s apparently only asking for petrol money, and just as importantly, DA does seem to have a very professional setup – something I believe neither TE or NE quite managed. Still would prefer another striker though, although that could well be in the proverbial pipeline. In fact, with Craig Carley returning, it does seem like some of the old CCL gang may be making an Elvis-style comeback. If so, expect Mehmet Mehmet and Dave Fry to be on next week’s teamsheet.
So, moving forward..
Plus points: We didn’t lose. Shane Smeltz. Coming back again after early goal conceded. Shane Smeltz. Looking quite potent when we decide to pass it about a bit. Shane Smeltz.
Minus points: We didn’t win. Conceding after about 2 minutes in. Again.
The referee’s a…..: Steven Cock. Yup, him. Remember when he got a rather respectful writeup in the programme during the CCL days? He’s gone from the new Collina to the new Barry Knight.
Them: Last time I wrote about them, their fans kicked up a massive stink on their messageboards about how I portrayed their shithole. This time, I won’t, but there was a fair few of them. Made a bit of noise, though did prove their gypo education by claiming that we had no history. Obviously, our FA registration saying we were formed in 1889 may not be widely known in Kent. Reportedly gave it some mouth afterwards, though conveniently behind some stewards….
Programme watch: Plenty flicking through it just to see if there was any major fuckups like the last one. And there were a couple spotted : a game with the wrong day being advertised, Maldon away still being credited as being 2-1 to us and I’m reliably informed that there was a – quote – “horrendous error” on page 17 but I haven’t quite figured out what it is yet. So, on a par with last year’s efforts then. Incidentally, a couple of people actively didn’t purchase the programme last night for the first time in eons. Good reputations are hard to gain and easy to lose.
Truth is stranger than fiction: Remember that 80s synth-metal guitar hybrid tune that was played at the end of the game? Well, did you know that it was the same incidental music that was played on the BBC on 14 May 1988? Seriously, dig out your old tape of it, and about 20 minutes before the game, they ran down the teams with it. I’ve no idea what it was called, but I think somebody had been listening to the Miami Vice soundtrack when they composed it. Incidentally, when you do watch it again, just tell me that the BBC didn’t wizz through our team lineup quicker than Liverpool’s. And people are still convinced the BBC is impartial
Anything else? I spotted a kid, who probably wasn’t much more than 17, openly bringing in about 3 cans of Miller. Not only that, but the junior keghead was wearing a Rangers shirt and managed to convince himself that he was one of Johnny Adair’s followers. How smart of him. I just found it a bit of a shame that there wasn’t a Shamrock Rovers fan behind him.
Serious point is that we do have an element of support who are just leaving puberty but haven’t quite worked out that the people in The Naughty Nineties did take a punch or two occasionally. I’ve heard the allegations of misbehaviour coming back from Slough, and of one incident last season where a train carriage ended up without its lights. The thing is, not only does it give our name a little bit of a black mark, and may draw a little bit of unwanted attention, but you can’t help thinking our own Baby Squad will get a bit of a pasting should they bump into a couple of Chelski.
So, was it worth it: Ummm
In a nutshell: Third. Bah.