Another game, another victim. This time, Osbournes 3 Waltons 0 was your 90 minutes of entertainment with a hat-trick from the AFCW Player Of The Year – I checked through all the nominations 🙂 – Lee Sidwell, who contributed to the burgoning match ball cost. The scoreline TBH did look a little bit flattering : your humble and esteemed editor managed to make it late for kickoff by 1 minute, and apparently Casuals had about 2 (semi) attempts on target.
Well, they made it into our half and shot at goal I guess, which is more than many other teams. The turning point of the game was undoubtedly the sending off of their player and Matt Everard, who sadly looked decidedly limp and of no use to anyone whatsoever. Up until then, both teams had decidedly shite defending taken the game to each other a bit. However, with both teams down to 10 men, we upped the ante and they upped the shiteness.
After that, it was all a bit one sided, though our shooting was about as effective as treatment for the SARS virus. Cooper didn’t look half the player he was and is it me or does Sheerin look permanently knackered? Oh well, despite the other AFCW and W2K bribing their way to yet more victories, we will finish strongly this season.
The rest of it?
Plus points: We won. Again. Clean sheet. Again. Sidwell hatrick. For once. Another potentially damaging hurdle overcome. Going up a gear after being 10 men instead of 11.
Minus points: Guess our defence must go to sleep sometimes
The referee’s a ………. : Erratic. That’s all I’m prepared to say. Coincidentally, we could have had Mr Fish, the legendary G&G away referee. You know, the man who managed to play about 20 minutes of injury time in the second half. Well, thankfully, we didn’t get him, though that’s a qualified “thankfully”.
Female of the species: No, not our female fanbase, lovely as they are (says he fully aware of the capabilities of the average lady Womble) but instead our new recently aquired women’s team made themselves known to all and sundry. Were given some suspiciously cheap looking t-shirts (which didn’t half look like those AFCW ones that advertised pre-season games last year), they were spotted being looked after by a steward or two in the Main Stand. No idea how many times said steward(s) offered to frisk them for offensive weapons. Obvious smutty comments aside, this is a major coup for AFCW, getting them off Franchise (and boy, does the Franchise OS look pissed off having to mention AFCW by name), so if you’re bored on a Sunday morning, it might be worth getting down to have a look at the girlies. They certainly could beat Viking Greenford.
And all this for a poxy stadium in SW London: The much vaunted “Leap Of Faith” is tomorrow, so it was quite interesting to see some lambs to the slaughter participants and their, ahem, hinged outlook on proceedings tomorrow. Fred W Paine is already looking forward to an increase in its share price as from Monday. SW19 is currently racking its brain for future suicidal fundraising exercises. Proposals thus far include sponsored javelin catching at the athletics track next door, pirahna feeding, walking around Elephant and Castle after 9pm and sponsored eating at Little Chef restaurants.
Steward bashing time: Yup, haven’t had this for a while, and it did liven my guestbook up last time I did it 🙂 So….. after the first goal, a young male, whether he was about 11 or 21 was unclear, was seen running about quite excitedly with other youths in front of the main stand (behind the barrier). As kids do. Anyway, one of the fluorescent jackets accosted said individual and promptly let him away. Why? Dunno, he didn’t appear to be doing any harm, and while our stewards (who I do genuinely like BTW, they don’t even mind me yelling “Scab” at them every time I see them) do generally seem to have veered away from Selhurstisation, there does occasionally seem to be a pocket of resistance about on occasions. Could be wrong of course…..
Them: Not the worst team seen at Ks to be fair. Their goalie, one Daniel Wheeler, didn’t half get it though. I’ve no idea what happened in the first half but everyone was yelling “Squeeze” a lot, calling him a “wanker” and – when he did something painful to his thigh – was treated with as much sympathy as finding Peter Wankelmann choking on some Lemsip. Craig Carley, ex-AFCW stalwart, was given a nice friendly welcome of “Should have stayed at a big club”…..
Point to ponder: Is Gareth Graham our new Gareth Ainsworth? Full of potential and full of hospital appointments as well. There are cluster-bomb victims in Iraq that seem to spend less time on the treatment table.
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Joe Sheerin was involved in a car accident today before the game. He wasn’t badly hurt BTW. (2) This was the last Saturday home game of the season. Seriously. Where has the season gone? (3) Finding out that Simon Bassey is a drinking partner of, er, Ben Thatcher. Ulp. (4) Morecambe and Wise being played at the end of the game. Sadly, no dancing.
Franchise FC watch: They beat Ipswich 5-1, and the first time in their history that they’ve ever beaten the Portman Road club. Like you’re bothered.
Anything else? Yeah, if you haven’t voted for your humble and esteemed editor to be on the WISA committee for a second year (if you’re amazed how long I’ve lasted….), do so. Also, you will have noticed that the Archive feature has returned. Be patient now…
So, was it worth it? No more than usual. At least it didn’t rain
In a nutshell: Now, about this Ryman League invitation…..