Almost like old times this, isn’t it? I said “Almost”. Oh well, I would suppose that Coats 0 Hats 2 is a respectable scoreline, bearing in mind that this was Luton’s first team (who concidentally had hardly any players left after OGEM and co decided to do their usual), and yes, apart from shooting as effective as a peacekeeping force in Liberia, we pretty much held our own. It wasn’t the 10-0 stuffing predicted before the game, especially after finding out that we were more or less playing their first 11. Or 18. Even though it was a friendly, I’d never seen so many white faces about on hearing such info. The game? Defended OK, first goal a goalie error, second goal was apparently them out-thinking us and that was that.
Moving forward…
Plus points: Didn’t disgrace. Merry made some good saves (especially with feet).
Minus points: Would have been nice to score
The referee’s a …….. : Largely un-noticed by SW19, which is no mean feat. Even gave the advantage to us a couple of times.
Them: No idea what happened at Luton, but needless to say things went very pearshaped there. In fact, their goalie only played 3 first team games or something beforehand. Anyway, no sign of OGEM thankfully, and about 50-100 fans came down from Beds, which even beat the legions of Vile fans last season. Oh, and how many of their players did you recognise? I could only vaguely remember Tony Thorpe (ex-WFC target according to a tabloid I read many moons ago), rest of them aren’t probably that well known in their own households.
Any minute now I’m gonna burst into song: The old favourites came out, mainly about what a dump Milton Keynes is. I’m sure some Luton fans joined in as well.
Kingsmead… sorry, Fans Stadium: Leaving aside that the FS is a crap name, I will give the Volkstadion credit here : the Guinness now served is perfectly drinkable and is not that bloody horrible Extra Cold crap. Also, the hardcore Athletics End was 10C lower than anywhere else in the country, so it was nice and pleasant while all else was sweltering.
Quotes: (1) “I never get wound up” – your humble and esteemed editor showing his placid side. Must be the hot weather. (2) “KC would have scored that but he wouldn’t have put the tackle in” – TT on yet another bit of wayward shooting. Was he playing BTW?
Point to ponder: Doesn’t Ben Chesters sound like a porn star? Seriously, I hope he doesn’t do his own coaching video. Can you imagine buying something which says “Ben Chesters penetrates, dribbles and shoots”?
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Did we really only lose 2-0 to a professional team? (2) Being privvy to a conversation between two smokers talking about health warnings on cigarette packets. Can’t see the point of warnings myself, to quote Denis Leary “These things could kill me? I thought they gave me vitamin C”.
Franchise FC watch: All the while they’re still annoying the fuck out of me, this topic will remain. They’re at SP for a couple more months, which could make life fun. For us anyway. Their first game is this Saturday, at SP against Crewe. Hmm..
Anything else? Yes, reportedly Concannon won’t be signing for us, something to do with not being able to get employment down here or something. Shame, those at Carshalton tell me that he was something else. Employment shifts could determine whether Roger “Oooh” Joseph will be donning the Y&B again.
Speaking of Y&B, the company behind it (Five88) has disbanded, so looks like the programme will be of a different format next season. Whether finishing 40th in the best non-league programme (when all concerned felt it should have finished much higher) was the final straw is unknown, but I think they’d done well to get this far. No, I still boycotted it on the basis that it was £2 🙂 The programme being “sold” yesterday looked nice enough, and if expanded shows a bit of promise..
So was it worth it? Nice pleasant evening out. Guess so.
In a nutshell: What goes round comes round