OK, it’s my fault it ended Babies 0 Kiddies 1. Those who read my piece this morning will know what I mean, those who didn’t can read back here and put pins in your voodoo doll of me.
In all truth though, I’m not really sure what to make of today. Like Kylie Minogue’s chest pre-op, it was flat, lifeless and not worth looking at. I don’t think we got out of first gear so much as remained in neutral. In a rusty Fiat Uno with a dodgy gearbox for good measure.
The fact that I wrote the grand total of two sides of notes should tell you all. I usually write about four minimum. Even when I first got there, it just felt flat. I parked up quite easily, and I was later today than I have been. Indeed, although there was 3601 people there, it just didn’t have that pre-game buzz of Luton or Cambridge. It felt more like a Ryman Premier game in our first season there.
Difference being, of course, that back then we could put out the shite we did today and scrape a draw at worse. In this great Conference Learning Curveâ„¢ that we all talk about, we’ve found out today that at this level, you can’t quite do that. We can’t go into a game not 100% mentally and physically focused and expect at least a point any more.
Yes, I know we’ve just about got through playing a quarter of season in the space of a month or so. What has surprised me is that this kind of result and performance has taken until the 3rd October to happen. It should have happened at Tamworth, it should have happened at Ebbsfleet apparently, and by all accounts it was looking a bit ropey against Histon for a time last week.
But now it’s happened, and we’re now looking back and tutting to ourselves. Nobody really came out of the game with any credit, it was one of those times where sponsors shouldn’t be forced to name a Man of the Match. And I expect they only chose Alan Inns today because they were pissed out of their skulls he was a hero last season.
When LT managed to put his shot wide after one of the few quality runs anyone did, the ref might as well have blown the whistle after that. It just wasn’t going to happen. Indeed, apart from the disallowed effort, I am really struggling to think of any sort of further attempts we made after that. We didn’t batter them, we didn’t force them into errors, in fact we didn’t show anything of the grit and determination that got us out of jail at Tamworth.
And as I pointed out earlier today, we now have to sit and fester on this performance for a week now. The players can (and most certainly will) now know what went wrong in training, and how they can improve it. They may well need a week without a midweek fixture to distract them. For us supporters though, we now have to suffer the flip side of life at this level. The reflection on a game that really was so poor that I just can’t bring myself to write about anything that happened.
Maybe we’ll just put it out of our collective minds and look ahead to FGR this time next week? This isn’t a gut wrenching, season changing loss (at least, it better not be), because we know we can and will play better this campaign. Unlike others, I don’t think our supporters will have a nervous breakdown or bloodletting exorcism at this result. I think for the most part we are also a pretty realistic bunch of fans too. We do seem to know the difference between merely losing and when something is more fundamentally wrong.
Not only that, but I’m struggling to think of the worst run of losses we’ve had (league only) since 2002. OK, my curiosity in this has made me look this stat up. We had a run of two losses at the end of last season, and a run of LLDL in the early part of TB’s first RP season. And then you’ll have to go back to the first AFCW season to find the previous time when we lost two on the trot.
You would think it’s a lot different now. But is it? Yes, it’s a much harder division but at the same time our players have improved. Today was how I expected most games in the Conference to be like. Thus far, I haven’t really seen that – Kiddy are a good, strong side, but if we’d played more to our potential we would have probably beaten them. Our fans know that, and that’s why our patience is still pretty good.
Anyway, do I really have to write more on this? Oh, I do…..
Plus points: The final whistle.
Minus points: Everything between 3pm and 4.50pm
The referee’s…: Despite being a blind biased cunt, I can’t even bring myself to blaming him for today. Yup, it was that bad.
Them: As said above, a good strong side. And one that had one chance and took it. Bit like how we go to places ourselves and get a win (ie Kettering, Rushden). The sort of team who you see just outside the playoffs but you presume for some reason to be lower down. Think Welling in the BSP – coincidentally, this was our worst performance full stop since Welling at KM last season. Guess they must want to get us in the FAC/FAT.
Also, a setup and squad and manager and fans that I just can’t hate for some reason. No obvious pro-Franchise shit aimed at us, which does help. Oh, and their coach (the vehicle) had a rather swizzy looking dot-matrix display thing on the front that told us it was their team coach, a bit like a National Express motor. Why can’t we have that? Knowing us, it would probably stop working after a week.
Point to ponder: Is there one? Not too sure if this is the sort of game where you can over-analyse everything to the nth degree. We were shite, end of.
Mind you, there was an illustration of an unwritten rule of football today. I know two people who saw their first game today. One is an ST holder, one is a neutral. Both got to see this “performance” as their first impression of us. Why does that always happen? It’s the equivalent of meeting somebody very important and you breaking loud smelly wind when he/she introduces themselves..
Meet the manager: And typically of the day, my software won’t let me upload his comments. Oh well.
This will probably be the last one now anyway, because AFCWTV is now filming TB’s post match interviews, and the audio I upload will be the very same bon mots from the video. Not only that, but as BBC London/Surrey are (normally) doing post match interviews with him, this section has effectively become obsolete. So unless I find myself in interviewing distance of him at an away game, the era of professionalism and technology at AFCW has caught up with this site… 😉
And as you’ll eventually find out, nothing TB said was particularly surprising…
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Alan Inns’ bandaged head. What had he done? Made him look like ex-Luton defender Steve Foster. Shame he played more like Ben Foster. (2) Further proof that today was shite all round – the tea urn at the Wickes Shed “Tea Pot” was buggered when I most required it. Needless to say by the way, soft drinks are still £1-50. Also worth mentioning that they had plenty unsold when they were stock-shifting towards the end of the game. QED. (3) Only four subs today?
Anything else? Dunno. Those wanting my imminent death due to my presence today will be please to know I will definitely be missing the FAC 4QR, Luton away, Salisbury away and Gateshead at KM. No need to put the cyanide in my next pint of Murphys…
So, was it worth it? No.
In a nutshell: Fuck off.