It always happens doesn’t it? The week before a massive game in a major cup always makes us produce some right shit. Before we KOed Aldershot, we managed to lose 3-0 at Rickay. Last year, the buildup to the Torquay game gave us some of the worst stuff I can remember.
And now, Claret 3 Cheap Plonk 2.
Let’s be honest here – all I needed for this pile of whale wank that was called my Saturday to be completed was to have skidded off the M25 and killed on the central reservation. It was cold, soaking, out and out miserable. And I haven’t started on the weather yet. This was a reminder of how shit the whole football experience can be – the first half in particular was almost as though we had gone back into RP mode. Seriously. We had no clue how to cope with the conditions, their first goal was clearly down to us dreaming of Monday week, and at times we looked shambolic.
OK, we did pressurise them with quite a few (poorly delivered) corners after the break, but as usual we decided to gift the opposition two quick goals leaving us trying to climb a mountain having shot both our legs off. Worcester, anyone? Yes, yes, I know we fought back quite well, and had we had another couple of minutes we might have snatched the not-really-deserved point. But when the much-maligned Sam Hatton managed to put the ball over the bar from a yard out (no exaggeration) you just knew…..
Why is our away form so fucking shit right now? We failed to do ourselves justice yet again yesterday, and by the sounds of it Maidstone was laboured to say the least. Dover? Skin of our teeth that was. Bedford? Threw that away. Nuff sed about Worcester, and it all seemed to start about H&Y time. And this is why we can forget promotion to the Conf this season – we make Sarah Palin look well travelled.
So, why is this so? One theory I heard was that TB doesn’t want to alter things too much after last year’s conveyor belt approach. Which is commendable, except that we now haven’t won away in the league since Braintree. That’s early September. Yes, I know we’ve been distracted with the FAC, but for a team and club that likes to claim it’s pushing for promotion this season, that’s pretty shite. Try backing words up with action every once in a while.
Certainly Finn and Kennedy looked like they were dragging us down yesterday. Perhaps we’re about to discover that this really is a consolidation season? It’s not what the management have planned, nor is it what the fans want to believe, but there’s something wrong somewhere. Even more annoyingly, we’re a totally different animal at home – some of the play on our own turf wants to make you believe that league football is just around the corner.
Which frightens the fuck out of me, if truth be told. We’re starting to rely on our home form, because we just can’t do it on the road. What if we start blipping at KM? Our next league game there is against H&R, who could play a whole group of invalids against us and still manage to come away with the three points. Start losing confidence at home and I shudder to think what will happen to us.
Somebody commented to me yesterday that it’ll be better to get Wycombe out of the way and lose. You can’t really argue with that point right now – I’m pretty sure without next Monday on the horizon, we would have at least drawn this game. We saw it blatantly this week – who here really paid any attention to this game before 3pm yesterday? Or in the case of our defence, 3.02pm..
An FAC run will do us good if we decide that we won’t go up this season. Monday week will be different to what we’ve gotten used to in the AFCW era, but no less enjoyable. If we win that, and draw another good tie, the frenzy will almost be of Franchise proportions. Which will be great for the coffers and for our ego. But it will coincide with a shit run in the league, it always does. In fact, how many non-league sides really have a good FAC run and do well in the league? Only one I can think of were Yeading in RP days.
Anyway, in the grand scheme of things yesterday was an annoyance but nothing we haven’t dealt with before. I could go on about our need to pick up our league form, how dropping points yesterday isn’t the end of the world etc etc, but I won’t. Nobody will be paying attention to the league this next eight days, so why should I?
Plus points: At least we fought back to a goal deficit.
Minus points: Everything else.
The referee’s a….: Which one? The one in the beginning who was picky but who cried off halfway during the game? Reportedly had flu, though was taken away in an ambulance afterwards. Cue standing about in the cold and heavy rain wondering what the fuck was going on. Though I doubt I was the only one hoping that the game would be called off by that stage. Anyway, about 10 minutes later, up popped a spare ref with a local lad holding the flag. Unlike others I don’t think he was particularly biased, just outright shit. The new and slightly better ref had to keep over-ruling him anyway. And some people say non league football is better to be involved with.
Them: While they’ll happily mouth off about this performance and result, I don’t think they were quite the side they were last season. Can certainly see how people like Bishop’s Stortford take points off them there, put it that way. All of which makes our performance even harder to take. They do the gamesmanship far better than we do, and their set pieces put ours to shame, and there proved the difference. Doubt if they’ll run away with it this season. Said it before and will say it again about them – they’re the new Grays. Certainly their ground will scupper their progress, and it’s interesting to note that a good third of those there last year decided not to bother yesterday…
Point to ponder: Is there one? Seriously, this result will largely be forgotten by about this time tomorrow. Even the OS hasn’t bothered to put much up on it (yes, I know…), instead reminding us that tix sales for Joe Q Public have been suspended so ST holders don’t dip out. Christ, if AFCW has already forgotten yesterday, why should anyone else continue to talk about it?
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) The weather. Seriously, that’s not normal. So much for global warming, eh? Or “climate change” as they call it now. We’ve had climate change now for millions of years – it’s called fronts. Or isobars. Or technical terms like “seasons”. (2) The car journey back. Evil. (3) No West Ham/Spurz flags on their over-priced catering vans this time. Just as well really, if the biggest cheer there yesterday was Stoke beating Arse.
Anything else? Not really. Best forgotten, this one.
So, was it worth it? Fuck right off
In a nutshell: Wycombe better be worth it now….