Like most normal souls, I decided to forgo the Notting Hill Carnival, and instead decided to head up to deepest Lancashire for Groundhog Day, aka North End 1 Bell End 1. Far better performance all round today, certainly from Saturday. I think the three straight defeats weighed on the mind of all of us today, especially the bollock kicking from Saturday. We dominated the first half more or less, had a couple of chances before close to half time Shipps delighted us all with a 25 yard volley. Cue much rapture. The second half saw PNE get back into the swing of things a little bit more. Whilst we looked a bit more solid defensivewise, we failed to clear a corner on 63 minutes and basically they scored with a nice strike. The rest of the game seem to peter out, but I would have accepted a draw before today, certainly.
Anyway….
Plus points: We didn’t lose. Shipp’s goal was nice. Good attacking in parts. Darren Holloway returned and looked good. So did Jobi McAnuff. And Andy Roberts. About 300-400 of us, making quite a racket. Team seemed a lot better without Darlington there.
Minus points: Conceding that goal. As mentioned above, I don’t really rate Darlington that much, he came on and didn’t inspire me at all. Voodoo makes me shit myself at times.
When next in Preston: Visit the National Museum of Football. Very interesting stuff indeed.
Quotes: (1) “There’s only 4 seats for Wimbledon fans” – stupid Lancastrian cow in above mentioned location. Tried to be funny but neglected to see that there in fact 5 Dons fans in front of her. That’s what inbreeding does, I suppose. (2) “Bodyguards, give us a wave” – chant aimed at you-know-who in the directors box. (3) “Think big” – Peter Cork to me after I said that it was going to be a draw today. Worse, he patted me on both shoulders before he said it.
Truth is stranger than fiction: Bank Holiday Monday. Preston away. 1-1 after taking the lead in the first half. This game could have been rehashed from last year.
Was it worth it? Well, it made me avoid Bank Holiday telly
In a nutshell: We’re getting there.
Of course, I’ve kept quiet up till now about Koppout’s big statement. This is it – please do not stand near anything valuable whilst reading:
“Last week The Football League turned down our application to relocate to Milton Keynes. We have now had the opportunity to consult our legal advisers regarding the merits of the decision and the process by which it was reached and have been advised that these were both deficient and unlawful. We have therefore written to The Football League explaining our reasons for contesting its decision and have requested that it reconsiders and consents to the move.
We remain convinced that the move to Milton Keynes is the only possible way in which the club can survive and thrive. This has always been our sole concern. We still hope that we can achieve the move harmoniously in liaison with The Football League and with our fans.”
Dear oh fucking dear. That statement just about sums the guy up. Now, I could rant and rave a lot about him, but I won’t. I could call him a liar, a coward and a professional con merchant who just deceives his way through whatever he can do, and I just have. However, I’m going to remain quite calm about this. Why? OK then – Koppout has been described as a spoilt little rich kid, and on reading the above, I can think of no better way to describe him. Read the above, and it could be rewritten as “I’m Charles Koppel, you must do as I say or I’l scweam and scweam until I get my way”.
Koppel is basically arrogant to the point of banality. It will also be his downfall, as he is driven by it. He will ultimately fail because the FL have already told him not to bother coming back over MK. There is enough evidence that I know of that could take every clumsily conceived spin line apart, let alone the stuff I don’t know about. WISA have good lawyers – very good lawyers apparently – and of course we have got Merton Council on our side now. And rumours (and I state rumours) from the MK end suggest that MK Council are basically pissed off with having their name linked with the murder of WFC and instead are more keen for MK City to rise through the pyramid system, so Koppouts attempt at the big I Am God routine seems even more lame than before.
So, why is Koppout doing it? Simple – he’s likely to get a nice big payoff at the end of it should he succeed. That’s why he’s going on with it when common sense (and the FL) dictates he shouldn’t do so. His track record at WFC is appauling anyway – his claim of 75k leaflet drops in the Guardian becomes more iffy when you consider it was supposedly placed in the paper AFTER MK was announced. Brunswick, our PR company, are paid £200k out of WFC coffers – now, if we’re in such bad shit that we have to move to Bucks, why are Brunswick getting a nice wedge for doing fuck all? Again, these are things that WFC have yet to fully explain. In fact, they’ve hardly explained at all – just made a statement and expected people to swallow it. Some people do swallow of course, thankfully there’s nothing a bit of, ahem, “pushing” in the other direction will sort out.
More on this as and when it becomes available.