Well then. Where the hell do I start on DOA 3 ETU 2? I could talk about Frankie’s last minute goal. I could talk about the first 25 minutes when it really looked like a 7-niller was on the cards. Or I could mention about how we took a Smith and Wesson, placed it against our metatarsal, fired it and expected to run a marathon afterwards.
Let’s start with the most memorable incident. When we got that free kick in the 94th minute, somehow I knew. Even when it went wide to Barnesy (hey, we’re giving him crappy nicknames now), and he fiddled about with it, I knew. When Frankie meandered his way forward, I kn…… ah hell, you get the point.
This was a classic Wimbledon style goal. Correction : this was old skool Dons. For one of the few times this season, everyone seemed to want the same thing. We started out of the blocks quicker than Rio Ferdinand chases a lucrative contract, and we really could have gone 4 goals ahead at 3.20pm.
At 3.28pm, the unwelcome side to our game popped its tortoise head up. Truth was, when PB missed his one-on-one, ETU knew they could get back at us. This is why IMO we won’t win in the playoffs, even if we got there. We miss that ability to kill off teams – granted, we can slit their throat and leave them for dead, but we always manage to give them a few stiches, a sterilised dressing and a free trip to the local A&E.
But if you want to be unduly optimistic, the second half could be the performance of the season thus far. I don’t think I can recall a time in AFCW’s history where we had to fight and got our just reward. Christ, DA himself was the most animated I’ve ever seen him (he certainly couldn’t really do the interviews afterwards). Remember what I said recently about us not being able to win the most important games? Dare I hope that a nasty little psychological hurdle has been crossed? Guess we’ll find out by 5pm tomorrow.
OK, enough getting carried away. We’re nowhere near there yet. We’re still sixth, we’ve got the Walton and Hersham World Cup Final tomorrow and we all know what that entails. This is after all our first step. But we’ve got through that first barrier of winning a game. Let’s be honest, when it got to 2-2, you feared the worst. ETU could have easily gone to 3-2 and you had visions of people running onto the pitch and throwing season tickets.
But sometimes, there are games where it’s meant to happen. Remember when Man U beat Sheff Weds in the 97th minute all them years ago? I want to look back on this season, and point this game out when it all happened. Actually, I’m more likely to point to last week, when our worst performance of the season was somehow matched by even worse performances by H&R and Worthing. That’s twice in a week where the luck’s been with us. You’re just hoping, thinking, praying* that it’s telling us something. In short, you want to believe, but you daren’t because of the way it all seems to fuck up this season.
* – come on, it’s Easter Sunday. Even Jesus H Christ himself would have been pleased with our comeback.
Needless to say, we’ll lose 3-0 tomorrow, but for once it would be nice not to be let down.
As for the rest of it….
Plus points: Winning. Paul Barnes. The second half. The first 25 minutes of the first half. Seeing the old Wimbledon back in spells (and I don’t mean the move-to-Dublin/MK/Glasgow-alleged-match-bribery old Wimbledon either)
Minus points: 3.25pm-3.47pm.
The referee’s a…..: No comment. Did give the requisite injury time for our goal though, not that even he could avoid it.
Them: OK, I do have a sneaking respect for them, as they’re to the RP what we were to the Premiership. Used gamesmanship to full effect at times and lost because of it. Managed to take the least amount of away fans since CCL days. Their manager was not a happy bunny afterwards…
Point to ponder: Coming on from the point above re: away turnout. I wonder if there’s a case for putting the away fans away from the WB? Dunno where you’d put them (the JS stand presumably) but it’s time we gave ourselves every advantage we can, no matter how minor. Everyone else would, given half the chance..
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) The match sponsors. Being a non-sexist, feminist publication, SW19 will not mention five o’clock shadows and producing more testosterone than the men. Nor will SW19 mention that there were 20 uncooked dinners yesterday evening. Still, at least the Presidents Lounge was nicely hoovered afterwards. (2) Anyone see the “discussion” at the end between RB and their player?
Anything else? Yup, your humble and esteemed editor did his first ever Radio WDON appearance. Which was cut off after 3 seconds 🙂 Basically, I didn’t know that swearing was a no-no, although by the sound of it nobody really complained about it. Mind you, the studio guest on the live US golf coverage on Sky last night said “bullshit” live on television, so I’m not the only meeja type to make a faux pas. Or something beginning with “f” anyway. Not too sure if they’ll let me on the WDON airways again, especially as the rest of my appearance came from Ron Manager…..
Playoff victims watch: Are Staines slipping up at the gloriously right disasterously wrong time? Saw them this week against H&R and they were shite. They lost 2-1 to Fi$her and could do the same to Heybridge. H&R themselves beat Redbridge 3-1, which probably wasn’t so much of a shock. Still, they did better against Ford Utd than Worthing, who again fucked up with a 0-0 at Margate. Still in our hands…
So, was it worth it? No, it wasn’t. It was horse wank personified.
In a nutshell: Frankie, do you remember me….?