Dare I use the cliche Valentine’s Day massacre? Too late. It was certainly a bloodfest on the pitch and it wasn’t the most comfortable off the pitch either. More on TE in a minute, but Chess 0 Draughts 9 was the backlash to end all backlashes. Basically, we scored and you feel the relief. Then we scored again through KC and made it 3-0 thanks to JS and their goalie fumbling. 4-0 through Ryan Gray, 5-0 thanks to JS (and three others being left alone in the box) and 6-0 by KC again. Their defence wasn’t very good. I missed it being 7-0 but it was Matt E with his trademark corner header. Nice shot by Bolger to make it 8-0 and the coup de gras was KC once more. 9-0. Shame it wasn’t 10.
I wonder about the minds of our players, whether the last 24 hours has pissed them off or not I don’t know, it’ll be interesting to see if they “did it for Terry”. But they were focused.
Now, the TE situation. As the game started, Kris and Ivor were getting some IMMENSE stick, and not from the so-called usual suspects but a couple of people I didn’t recognise either. Phrases like “tell us the truth” were being yelled, and I did honestly think it would turn a bit more nasty. One bone of contention seems to be the old “Fans Club” mantra of not telling the owners of the club what’s going on, which is an argument I’m starting to hear more and more of. The thing is, although we have no idea what this “disciplinary” is about, enough people don’t seem to be convinced of the reasons given. And as said yesterday, when you’re getting ordinary fans starting to distrust what the top brass are saying, we will get (as also yelled today) another Hammam/Koppel situation.
The main reason behind the deep feeling of TE “suspension” is that unlike stuff like constitutions, elections etc, team matters really do matter to everyone. The chants at the end of “Terry Eames’ Yellow/Blue Army” said it all – TE is highly regarded by just about everyone, we’re doing great guns and judging by the mood of many (the rest were taking the line of “wait and see”) there is no reason to turn against TE. Christ, if the “disciplinary” showed he caused GBH on the Colne manager he’d be more of a hero to the average Womble than before. The apparent reactions of some people being told that he’d been “suspended” on entrance today didn’t seem to signify the most popular move in AFCW’s history. If I was Kris, or Ivor, or Erik, I would expect a couple more rough rides from people in future. It may not be “right” in the eyes of some but it’s not going to go away until it’s fully settled. Might be wise to start investing in some decent and proper PR at this rate.
Anyway, onwards…
Plus points: 0-9 do you?
Minus points: I was going to question about how iffy our defence looked at 7-0 up. But somebody at the end of the game advised me to put it in, so in true SW19 style I won’t mention it.
The referee’s a……: Actually, he wasn’t too bad. Managed to only book Ryan Gray after he blatantly upended one of their players off the ball and in front of the linesman.
Them: Crap. Embarassingly crap. Their goalie took it all in good humour though at 9-0 down, either that or it was hysteria.
Spotted: Peter Miller. TE. Dobo Snr. Reportedly AE turned up as well. Some reported goings on in the bar afterwards…..
Point to ponder: Do you think that this was the game where all of the shit that has built up came out in one foul swoop? It was obvious that a game like this was bound to happen one of these days. And be honest, how badly did you want it to be 10-0?
Truth is stranger than fiction: Funny feeling around today, had a touch of the MK season about it.
Anything else? Yeah, why the hell do we seem to play at Leatherhead every 6 months? This almost felt like a KM game, namely timing my journey exactly, knowing where to park, where the tea bar was etc etc. If Khosla finds some loophole in the KM buyout and turfs us out, I bet I know where we’ll be sharing……
So, was it worth it? Yup
In a nutshell: Can’t wait until Wednesday.