The Dog Days of Summer
I guess we should have seen Eleven Men 2 Twelve Men 2 coming when, at 3.02pm, I turned to the bloke next to me and stated that this was going to be a long afternoon.
OK, we’re no longer top (although that’s only because Mansfield have scored more goals than us), and after a performance like that it’s a bit of a psychological kick in the proverial nads. I’m not too sure who was more inept though – us or the referee.
In our case, we’re still blowing a bit hot and cold (usually cold when I turn up), and 6 games in 16 days is inevitably going to have its toll. If I’m being honest I don’t think we’re really title contenders, because we’ve now had two quite so-so performances in a week. I don’t doubt we’re better than last year, but it’s still playoffs at best for us.
But despite this, how fucking bad was that official? Backpasses not given, bookings for us but none for them (including one potentially nasty one on JM), penalties etc etc. Considering there was no games in higher levels today, it’s just our luck we got the guy doing it for a hobby. Even a Pakistani bowler would have called him a dodgy bastard.
Slagging off refs isn’t something I do out of habit – it’s not the easiest job in the world, and they only have a split second to make a decision. But really, when you lose control of the game in that manner you really have to question whether the old wives tale about excessive wanking is true.
I really do think we would have won today had we had a decent official, because we didn’t have enough energy to get through a twelfth opposition player too. Yes, today was dire, and proving that a 2-2 draw doesn’t always mean it was a good game. If Shoot were still around, they would have given this an entertainment rating in minus figures.
Yes, only Dr Dre and DK came out with full credit. Yes, I think there was fatigue there, and BJ going off (at the one time we don’t put a centre-back on the bench) didn’t help. But put it this way : when we scored, we found virtually every decision going against us afterwards. Whether it was a penalty for us I don’t know (although on balance of play we deserved the lead), but when you get that bit of luck, you need to hold onto it. Newport equalising really was inevitable, on both occasions, because you just felt if we could hold them off long enough the ref would have given a goal to them anyway.
I’m not really sure if there’s much more to add, really. The whole contest had a massive air of “meh” about it. Whether we were mentally drained from Saturday I don’t know, although they are professional footballers now, and it’s not like we’re the only side to have played twice in three days.
What this does prove is the need to get that two-goal cushion on more than the odd occasion. OK, Eastbourne proved even that isn’t enough with our lot, but when we were 2-1 up a third goal would have ensured we were still top right now. As our defence proved, it really does take a second to score a goal.
I will endeavour to find some energy to complete the rest of this write-up. Wish me luck…
Plus points: We didn’t lose. DK finding his penalty taking boots. Jolley’s goal.
Minus points: We didn’t win. Sloppy defending for second. Hardly flowing. BJ’s injury.
The referee’s a…: See first seven paragraphs. Quote of the day came from The Bloke Beside Me – when the PA announcer asked for somebody from the Newport team bus to go to a gate, TBBM shouted “He’s busy, he’s refereeing”…
Them: On cool reflection, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised they came away from Theme Park KM with a point – they did the same to Luton at Kenilworth Road, don’t forget. Their keeper was timewasting from about the 15th minute onwards, although that might have been down to him having to steady himself for his goal kicks.
Bit like we were last season, especially if we were full time. Not really playoff material but likely to go to somewhere like Crawley and nick a point or three, that kind of outfit. That said, they were beatable.
Have to say, I do have a bit of a secret soft spot for them, even if Judas Holdsworth is their manager. Their background is very similar to ours, though their original club did actually properly die in the process. Which is why I can’t understand why their fans of all people are happy to give us the pro-Franchise shit.
Why? Two words : Jerry Sherman. Although I expect most of those singing shit at us don’t even know who he is…
Point to ponder: No, not another Jon Main piece, though once again he was as effective as a used condom. Though I can’t quite understand why Luke Moore came on for him either – he made Main look like the Conference’s top goalscorer. It’s more about Andre Blackman – does anyone else think that he’s far too good for this squad?
There were times when he did runs and finding passes that nobody else had the wit to latch onto. Maybe he tries to beat every opposition player because he feels that the others aren’t good enough? I wouldn’t get too attached to him, because if he keeps this up he’ll be at Millwall come the next transfer window.
Mind you, for all his reputation of a bad bwoy, he certainly looked like a pig in shit signing autographs for the little kids afterwards….
Meet the Manager: And here’s TB…
Not great news about BJ, is it? Mind you, doesn’t that prove what a good idea it was to over-spend to get two more centre backs in? All of a sudden, it looks money well spent. And also shows how lucky we were not to rely on the loanees from Charlton. Remember them?
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) What happened to that bloke down the TE at half time who got stretchered out with an oxygen mask on him? (2) Got to say, the new segregation bit seems to work well. It is football tradition for the away fans to get the shittiest bit of the ground anyway, so we can safely ignore all complaints that it’s impossible to see from there. (3) Bottles of water apparently reduced from £1-60 to £1-50. Bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree. Still going to shop before/after the game at the Spar next door to the chippy, as they sell their bottled H20 at 60p…
Anything else? Yeah. Aren’t Bank Holiday Mondays just outright weird for games? How many of you are thinking of going out on the bladder tonight, usual post-match stuff, only to remember you’re back at work tomorrow? I guess this is another reason why it was so placid today.
Actually, I’m making it sound like KM is usually a thumping cauldron of noise and that today was a hangover. The truth is, it isn’t. I can’t remember a (day) game when we could justifiably call KM intimidating – perhaps Mansfield at home last season, in recent memory. Night games seem better anyway, people seem more relaxed (or less uptight) but when you consider that we were top up until 3pm today and it all seems even more odd.
Or perhaps it isn’t unusual? I think it’s another symptom of the 2002-09 AFC Wimbledon that will take a while to shake off. Sometimes I wonder if we’re turning up to games in the same frame of mind as the Ryman/CCL days, where you would have expected us to win by about 2 or 3 goals without breaking too much sweat?
I hope people really weren’t turning up today expecting us to win 3-0 against Newport again, like in the BSS, because they and us are in a higher level now. Maybe, just maybe, the fans suffer a bit of complacency themselves…?
So, was it worth it? Even the Notting Hill Carnival sounded more enticing today.
In a nutshell: We aren’t top of the league.
Top of the League
(last update: 1051)
At least, until tomorrow when Newport gub us 2-0 at Theme Park KM : the place where all visitors go home happy.
Picked another good one to miss, didn’t I? Fortunately, they were understanding in the Dagenham press box when Danny Kedwell netted in the last minute – the Daggers are a side who TB himself has admitted he’s based the AFCW blueprint on, and the club itself appears a well-run one without an attitude problem or, as Sir Alex Ferguson may put it, one that resorts to kamikaze spending. Given our current league position and theirs, we may possibly be heading up the District Line next season to compare notes…
Anyway, as will be the case from now on, I’m getting various vox pops from people who go to games that SW19 don’t. This will be updated during the day as and when I can be arsed receive people’s thoughts. Bit like Chester last season. First up, Le Don Algerien…
Town gulls 2 – City foxes 3.
They played, we sang, we scored, we sang, half time, was gone, we scored, we sang, we stopped, they scored, they banged, we stopped, they scored, they banged, we sang, we roared, we played we scored, we sang, we sang.
Next, and shamelessly nabbed from WUP, Tintin on the man in the middle:
Last seen when we lost at Staines, when he seemed to give everything they shouted for. I worried when I saw him but he was one of the better refs I have seen in a while, playing a great advantage for our 1st goal, tried to let the game flow and only got his cards out when he had no choice. He added to a great game rather than hinder it.
While flicking through SW19 last night, I came across the St Albans home game (ie where we officially became BSS champions), and noticed that the ref back then was a Mr R Ganfield. For anyone who doubts our Best Discipline approach, think about the DA era when he wasn’t adverse to the odd comment to the ref before the game, and see where it got us.
More a bit later. Maybe.
UPDATE 1: Here’s a fuller report from Supreme Smithy…
Borough 2 – Dons 3
Thank fuck for that. Seriously, thank fuck for that. Probably my first game in ages whereby I thought that we would win it going into injury time, and again…..thank for that.
Day started off alright, decent grub in their bar, decent barmaid pulling my uhhmmm pint, and decent weather.
Started off ok, they looked dangerous from the off, their ex-Fanchise trainee, no. 10, can’t remember how to spell his name and he seriously is not worth looking up on that performance as he was complete dogshit. Maybe if he didn’t think he was hard enough by spitting every two fucking seconds and having his shorts pulled half way down his legs looking like a pikey he may have moved a bit quicker when what seemed like he was through on goal. Their number 7 was a gobby little shite too, but so would you be if you were only 3 ft tall.
Then Kedwell spanked it from, as one spectator said, 20 yards, another said 40 yards, I thought it was about 30 yards…..so fuck it Kedwell scored from 60 yards, although whether he shot it from the fucking pier, the goalie would have fucked it up; more on his performance later.
Half time came quickly, but if Sammy Moore had hit his shot a bit more cleanly, we would have been 2 up, good thing about him is that he does get into the box a lot and into scoring opportunities, something Terry Brown has been barking on about ever since he arrived.
Second half we started brightly for the first 20 mins, only one team going to win it from here we all thought, mad couple of minutes ensured. First Luke Moore done well down on the left, played it to Minshell and from a crossing position decided to dink it over their goalie, who for some reason must have been a good 10 yards off his line, why I don’t know. Ball then hit the post and rolled across the goal, keeper came back to get it.
20 seconds later, Gregory, who lost the ball a bit too much today, rifled a shot from 20 yards, spanked the top of the post.
We all sensed the second goal was coming, and it did, Luke Moore or Keds, can’t remember who it was, found some space down the left, pinged it in and Minshell powered a header into the top of the net. Again, where the fuck was their goalie?
There two goals, one was a soft free-kick, cracking curler, their next a free kick and was put in at the far post.
On came Jackson and Yusseff, running with pace, and in stoppage time Sammy Hatton picked the ball up ran about 40 yards slid it through to Keds and as he took it around the goalie everyone got hard nipples and he done the rest, then everyone went spastic and ended up with me grabbing on to some blokes left tit trying not to fall over.
Points to ponder:
Now that it seems Jon Main has been dropped, that will surely dent his confidence even more, we looked comfortable playing Keds up top with Luke Moore and Jolley’s pace either side of him, and this Nokkers character is only a couple of weeks away.
Andre 3000 Blackman, great at taking it round their right winger, turns around does it again, turns around, tries it again, and then loses it, presumably why TB took him off towards the end when the game was expanding more than Winkleman’s arsehole.
Their mascot, the sooner it gets bird flu and dies the better.
Lee Minshell, looked comfortable on the ball, powerful in challenges and does get himself box-to-box, something we’ll need in stronger games instead of Wellard.
Their goalie was a different category of shit, positioning was shit, kicking was shit, especially when it was rolled back to him and he ‘Sully’ sliced it. He took the abuse well, that’s the only thing he can take credit for.
Attendance was good, about 2,500, roughly 2,200 more than Yeading V Cunt Team Crawley got.
The ref was alright, looked like a bald garden gnome though.
One bloke in our crowd, presumably came down for the day to just give their no. 10 ex-Franchise cunt some stick, must have called him a wanker 1000 times, even told their goalie multiple times that “Gordon Banks was better than you and he only had one eye.” To be honest if Gordon Banks had one eye, one arm, and one leg he’d still be better than their no. 1.
Oh well I’m sure he’ll be back down to KM on Monday to give another ex-Franchise cunt Holdsworth some more stick, I’m sure he won’t be able to contain himself, and I’d put a tenner on him calling the greasy haired prick a ‘wanker’.
Another 3 points, and these are the games we’ll look back on if we sneak a play-off place, or sneak the title…..
More to follow…
Diamond Shites
Those whom the Footballing Gods wish to destroy, first they give them a three game winning streak then put them up against the bottom team.
Or something.
That’s my excuse anyway for Diamonds 1 Pearls 0. Unfortunately, it looked like I was proved right in my pre-match thoughts yesterday. Here’s a reminder:
- I hope we’re not getting too cocky/confident over tonight, because a 2nd vs bottom clash is a guaranteed banana skin of a contest. From what I gathered, we started off a bit slowly (again) on Saturday, and we’ve yet to experience going a goal down. Could we be like the Germans in the World Cup, looking like winners until we don’t get things our own way?
We started off well, after five minutes Yak forcing their goalkeeper to parry and Luke Moore heading over the rebound. And, er, that was it. Seriously. We looked devoid of any sort of ideas, or ability to do anything. . We couldn’t control the ball, pass it properly, all the usual basic stuff one expects from pro footballers. Poor Seb Brown looked like he couldn’t even catch clamydia off the local slappers on a week in Magaluf, and everyone else wasn’t much better. I doubt if we could have taken a half-time piss unaided.
Question is, why? I don’t buy the argument of tiredness that some are bandying about. It only becomes an excuse at this time of season if we show symptoms of it after Newport next Monday. These are young, presumably match fit, professional players who don’t have to do a day’s work these days beforehand. Especially as we have heart monitors so we can properly monitor who is knackered and who isn’t.
Nor do I blame the ref, complete cockstain that he was. Yes, he missed Rene Howe’s elbow on Dr Dre, and in true Footballing God stylee, he went and got the winner. Yes, he was keen to blow for offside whenever we did a rare venture into their half, but ever so conveniently lost power of blowing a whistle when the roles were reversed. Yes, he was extra-finickey whenever we had a free kick (when even he had to show some pretence of impartiality), but was one step away from giving Rushden a penalty whenever a foul was committed on the half way line…
Whatever hospitality Rushden gives their referees beforehand, I hope we were making notes. Sure you’ll find plenty of dealers in South Wimbledon, let alone the Cambridge Estate.
None of that will paper over the fact that last night we were dogshit. Personally, I think it was the kind of performance that every team gets when it’s good-but-not-quite-the-best, and after it has a run of a few good results. Our fans were certainly far too cocky coming into this game, and I expect the players were as well.
It really is one of the unwritten rules of football. The WFC days were good for that kind of thing – a couple of decent wins on the spin, a few stroked egos and believing our own publicity, then we went to somewhere like Coventry and lost 2-0. It’s hasn’t happened so much in the AFCW era, simply because the opposition have been too shit to take advantage.
Still, it’s all part of the Learning Curve™ for this season. We are talented, but not developed yet as a team. Last night was the first time this season where we had serious questions asked of us, and we couldn’t answer them. We got away with it at Southport, we cut it fine against Histon and I’m told we were shaky against Tamworth to begin with. It’s quite possible that us being second is as false a position as Rushden were being bottom.
It’s the first proper test of our collective character this season, and fortunately (?) we can pick ourselves up by playing Eastbourne on Saturday. Our ego has had a well-aimed jab at it, and perhaps it will make us develop more of the work ethic we need to progress. What was clear last night that on the very rare occasions we showed a bit of quality, we did cause Rushden problems.
Oh, and to compound the mood of everyone, Franchise won the biggest match in their history against a Blackpool reserve side. Bless them. They’ll be claiming they had genuine emotion about it next…
Thoughts…
A few idle thoughts before today’s game at Rushden…
- I hope we’re not getting too cocky/confident over tonight, because a 2nd vs bottom clash is a guaranteed banana skin of a contest. From what I gathered, we started off a bit slowly (again) on Saturday, and we’ve yet to experience going a goal down. Could we be like the Germans in the World Cup, looking like winners until we don’t get things our own way?
- This all said, with about three games in seven days, if we can keep up that momentum we could help our relegation battle early promotion push. The last time I saw a buzz this early in the season, it was the BSS one.
In some ways, there’s a lot of similarity between today and back then. We’re certainly playing like a unit, as we did back then, and playing some pretty decent football thus far too. Obviously we have far harder teams to come up against, and if I’m being honest I expect us to finish behind Luton and Crawley come the end of April.
But this season, we’ve lost the apprehension of being in the Conf. We have figured out that, especially the ex-League sides, aren’t to be feared. In some cases, they’re actually very ordinary. Tonight will be a test, as they all are, but it will be interesting more so than ever to see what happens when we travel to York or Luton.
My guess is that we’ll settle down after a couple of draws/defeats, which will knock us out a bit – after all, nobody likes it when you have a 100% record and then you lose it. But one wonders if the debacle of last season’s anti-climax is in the back of our minds, and we’re all secretly thinking “it can’t be worse…”?
- Speaking of worse : hearing more about the Prem Sports deal, and it’s looking even more of Setanta’s crappy offspring than first thought. Reading various interweb comments (I don’t listen to the Non League Show, but plenty do), it seems like many games will end up getting played on Thursday evenings.
Now, from my own point of view Thursdays are ideal for me. But it’s obvious that attendances will drop, and there’s no obvious sign of the clubs getting the necessary compensation from revenues generated etc. This at a time when the costs of running clubs is getting higher through wages, and money is getting tighter. I haven’t heard the spin reasons from the Conf for signing this deal, but I imagine “we are obliged to look after all our clubs” is one line that is getting trotted out.
Apparently, York City could lose £10k-15k through their TV service (when you add up the DVD sales etc), if we assume there’s an exclusivity deal. I doubt if they’ll get that money back. We’re lucky insofar as AFCWTV is and always has been free, but you can’t help feeling the clubs are being railroaded into a deal that will make Setanta look like ESPN.
I found out over the weekend that for a TV company to beam back a satellite signal from the location to its main broadcasting HQ requires a satellite transponder, which costs £1k an hour to hire. And that’s just to actually get the signal from the ground in the first place – I’ve no idea how much an outdoor broadcast unit (ie the trucks you see at events) costs to hire, not to mention camera hire, people to operate it, presenters etc etc. I suppose if you gave a ballpark figure of £10k to produce a 3 hour live programme at a game, you wouldn’t be far off.
That’s why I think Prem Sports will be lucky to last the season. At the moment, they can broadcast GAA/NRL because all they have to do is get the feed from RTE/Channel 9 (or whoever covers NRL in Australia). That’s it. No need for OB units, commentators, other technical stuff – they just pay the broadcasting rights and however much it costs to relay the broadcast live. Perfectly survivable.
But now? Live TV, especially of games, is not cheap. That’s why ESPN used Sky’s cameras for their games last year, and they have more clout than anyone. Not only is paying £6-99 asking a lot of potential customers, it also has to be a good, professional production too – like it or not, Sky’s coverage forced the likes of BBC, Five and ITV to up their game, and we all see what happens to a reputation of a TV company when they mess up (ref: ITV).
We now live in the 3D era, so anything resembling MOTD from 1985 is going to lead to an, ahem, unenthusiatic viewer. That’s just the way it is – the average viewer’s expectancy of live football now is far greater than the days when Bobby Robson had to climb up a fireman’s ladder at the back of the South Stand.
It would not surprise me to hear of clubs actively fighting not to get shown on Prem Sports. Really doesn’t seem to be anything in it for the clubs. The rearranged fixtures are due this week, and you can bet that a few Wombles are looking at pre-purchased train tickets with a sweaty forehead…
- Finally, for those going tonight – Franchise are at home to Blackpool in the League Cup. Just be warned, the local Games Workshop will be full of all ten of them.
Black and Tam
APOLOGIES: Due to your editor being even more brain dead than usual, I was reliably informed that I hadn’t put up half the report. This is hopefully now fixed. My excuse is that I’ve been writing and editing since 8am…
Not a lot needs to be said about this, really. I’ll let Jampot take over…
“Are you Histon in disguise?”
Well that had a déjà vu feel all about it. Perhaps we never hit the superlative passing game of Tuesday night, nor had the raw drama of the goals in the last couple of minutes but this had all the hallmarks of a banana skin-type match were we could easily have slipped up.
Talking of which, it looked for a moment that never would we see Bacon Slicers 3 Tamworth Pigs 0 for literally within 15 seconds Seb Brown was doing an excellent impersonation of a new Celebrity on Ice by slipping over whilst receiving Blackman’s innocuous back pass. Cue mass panic and pandemonium and closing in attacker and goalkeeper clashed over the ball. Result? Indirect free kick for picking up the ball from a back pass. Not the first decision the ref would get wrong in the afternoon but cue, rolling eyes in Main Stand. Here we go, over-confident like a teak of bloody England Cricketers.
But we weathered that storm, and a few other wind-assisted once that came from the pumped high balls Tamworth threw forward at their tall, bulky forward line. Walton C, Southport and Histon experiences meant that little actually came about from this bombardment and credit for that must go to the defence. Slowly, we started to get the ball down out of the wind and play on the ground. It was just a matter of time before we got our rewards and a sweet strike by Sammy Moore was a fitting finale for the first half.
And in truth that was that. Having scored we never looked at all like we were going to relinquish the lead with Yaks (now to be known as Ish) and Brett sending everything sent in their direction back with interest!
Our second goal probably epitomised the benefit of full time training. Blackman won the ball and fed Wellard. He tried to be a bit too clever with the ball and got involved, almost instantly in having to ride three pretty hard tackles. But the increase in his bulk and confidence saw him ride these and sprint away up field, running into the space created. Then a lovely weighted ball inside the full back for Main to run onto to strike. Sadly for Main the keeper did really well to get down to the ball but Keds was on hand to finish the job. Team play: with pace, with vision, with execution. Nice!
So, 2-0 up, no threat from their forwards all half: take a break and take it easy. No this lot. It was pleasing to see that they were still going for the next goal. And what a beauty it was.
Hatton had fired a rocket just before that had just cleared the cross bar from outside the box and this looked another candidate. But instead a delightful exquisite chip over the wall sat the ball up nicely for Kedwell who seemed to scissor-kick it with his left foot into the bottom corner of the net. Game over! Eat your heart out Wayne Rooney! People would have been creaming themselves with excitement if that had been scored in the Premiership.
Instead we just have to accept its half-fat skinned cream we are meant to be seeing….Oh well one day…..
You must watch when it gets on www.AFCWimbledon.TV
Anyway …
Plus points: All of the team. Another clean sheet! 3 wins. No fear. Ish (see below) & Brett looking awesome… A new level of professionalism on show in how we perform – focused.
Minus Points: JM needs that goal. Ditto Luke Moore. Maybe getting a bit too excited, what with a difficult September to come. Perhaps the crowd size (see below)?
The Referee is a …. dead ringer for Dermot Gallagher. Pity he hadn’t retired like him. Main grouse was he – and the Main Stand lino – just couldn’t work out who last touched the ball as it went into touch. Many also reported the Tamworth striker touched the ball before Seb picked it up in the first minute incident. So he was consistent then!
Them: Was a bit surprised by their physical size – looked more like ugly Northern teams but they had a bit of mobility, played competitively within the rules (apart from one elbow, suitably booked) and tried at times to get it down and play. But they were never going to beat us at that. A slightly more threatening form of Histon, but they too never really created a clear-cut chance in the game. Another awkward mid-table side for all clubs to negotiate.
Points to ponder: a few topics of conversation going on.
- The Carvery was operating only in half the back bar this week. Heard 55 covers out of a potential 75 taken. Again reports of excellence in food quality, atmosphere and experience.
- Elsewhere, other food options seem to still being treated cautiously. From my own experience, daughter has enjoyed the 2 pasties she’s had; but didn’t pay full price (volunteer). What struck me though has been the lack of any significant queuing – at the KRE end for us… maybe one in front of you?
- Health and Safety raised its head when a light in the TE end, damaged on Tuesday night, was still hanging before the beginning of the game. Hence the sterile area behind the goal. Rumour has it our 2 tame electricians were not told in time. Hmn, comms outside the club not great either then!
- Wither Main and Moore? Calls for them to be replaced in the starting line-ups by some. Why? We’ve gone 3 games with this starting line-up and use of subs. It’s working. You don’t fix what ain’t broke. The super-subs show we have depth and options and they will get their go when injuries come along. Meanwhile it gives the like of Main more recovery time for the next game having played only 60 mins. Also, remember his role this season – out left – is new for him and it will take time to learn.
- Barnet FC. A previously mentioned target for us to emulate and surpass? Well, maybe quicker than we thought. Lost 7-0 at Crewe. When Yaks (who at his MotM presentation chose Ish to be addressed by) was asked for his opinion on that and his AFCW form, he politely kept his counsel. But their loss, our gain!
Three’s a crowd…. disappointment with 3144, but given how slow it was selling Golden Goals I wasn’t sure we would make 3K. Everywhere seemed quite. Also remember that last season we started with Luton, Oxford and Cambridge in quick succession which, in due respect to Tamworth, are a bigger draw.
Truth is stranger than fiction:
- 1-0, 2-0, 3-0… as easy as A B C? Cannot seriously see us get a 0-4 at R&D on Tuesday but if “… CONFIDENCE is HIGH…” who knows?
- Watering the pitch all the way up to kick off. Apparently in the goal mouths too. You know where, don’t you? Yep. Right where Seb Brown did a great impression of a novice celebrity in Dancing on Ice. Wonder if they thought we’d be playing towards the KRE end first half as normal? Dangerous gamble if so. Oh, and thanks for the simulated rain it produced – the sprays – caught on the wind – catching out both programme and GG sellers. Where did I put my coat?
- Not quite truth but it sounds almost right… rumour that both Wayne Rooney and Jon Main have both gone 13 games without scoring. If true perhaps Jon shouldn’t worry too much 
Anything else? Steve Evans. Don’t know if I should mention him really. REPD reckons he needs to be starved of the oxygen of publicity. God he’s talking so much the world will be starved of oxygen at this rate! Claimed his team’s goal (free kick) was worthy of ‘winning the Champions’ League Final’. So wonder where that puts Ked’s goal today in the quality stakes? It certainly will stick in SE’s throat, which could be nice if it stopped him whinging. Pressure and all that? Did not stop him then having a pop at us twice, claiming we don’t let out players improve themselves. Must be good stuff he’s smoking (rumour has it was probably excess transfer fund money) because going to CTFC will never be an improvement. Oh, and after the debacle that was Grays, can you really see Keds getting into that sort of set up again?
Was top of the table for about 5 mins until Luton scored their 3rd against 10 man Fleetwood. But do we really care yet? Give us this position on the last Saturday of the season and then we will be ‘bothered!’ And wouldn’t it be nice to have CTFC destiny in some form in our hands?
So was it worth it: To paraphrase Churchill: “never in the field of human enjoyment was so much owed by so many to so few”
In a nutshell: Bringing home the bacon
Premier Inn
So, after the Setanta debacle that arguably damaged the Conference’s credibility, comes the long awaited TV deal with………..
……… Premier Sports.
Yes, Premier Sports. You must have heard of them, surely? They took over Setanta’s GAA coverage in Britain when the broadcaster went belly up, and are covering Celtic’s Europa League game in Utrecht next week.
OK, don’t get too enthusiastic. According to their press release (via the OS), it will cost £6-99 a month. Right, so if you have Sky Sports and ESPN, you have to pay another £83-88 a year. If it was something like £2-99 p/m, it might be worth getting. But you have about one game a week, usually for two teams who at this stage of the season you don’t care about, so already the warning signs are about.
But then, isn’t this just Setanta mark 2? Let’s be honest here – the Conference isn’t the Prem, nor is it even League 2. It is really of interest to those who follow either a club in the division or somebody who would watch the local park team for their fix. I didn’t even watch half of the Conf when we were in the Conf South, so god knows who would subscribe to it.
Luton Town v AFCW has more interest to the neutral than Tamworth v Altrincham, and even that’s pushing it a bit.
So, what money will we get out of this? By the sounds of it, not a lot:
The uniqueness of the deal over and above the normal rights fee paid by the broadcaster to the competition, will see the Conference receive 50% of all subscriptions once a nominal level of subscribers has been achieved.
No other competition has had this style of agreement before and in addition the Conference will also earn 50% from all internet revenue associated with the deal and allow them to retain advertising rights allied to those adverts shown with their matches. This really is a “joint venture” first in football.
Hmm. Leaving aside that anyone who uses “uniqueness” in a press release is dodgy anyway, this seems like a bit of blackmail. OK, a lot of blackmail. What it’s basically saying is that if we don’t cough up our clubs will be inconvenienced but we won’t get any compensation. Already, Luton fans now have to make drastic alterations to their match at Blundell Park, and I don’t blame them. Grimsby is a sod of a journey at the best of times, and getting trains at 8.15pm back to Bedfordshire isn’t worth this.
The Conference Board will now go around wanting credit for this. Instead, they should be tendering their resignations. Earlier this week, we found out that they’d turned down a highlights package on the BBC. Now, SW19 doesn’t think much of Auntie’s coverage of sport generally, but this is the national terrestrial broadcaster we’re talking about – what better exposure than that?
This should have been a resigning matter on its own. Instead, it got turned down because of the Board’s obsession with another Setanta-like deal. That is just outright shit business practice.
Looking back, the Setanta deal was a disaster for the Conference in the long run. The reason for that is that it gave everyone a grossly distorted level of coverage that, truthfully, this level of football doesn’t warrant. This is why the Conference has signed the deal announced today – it had the taste of regular live coverage and cannot accept anything else, regardless of whether anyone is going to watch it. 10,000 people at most subscribing to a minor sports channel against potentially the whole country? And let’s face it, the highlights are the best way of watching some games.
The division’s best coverage came pre-Setanta, when Sky picked up the odd bits of coverage to show when there were no Prem/Championship/Carling Cup games about. And typically, it was presented well and without much hint of patronisation. It wasn’t over-kill, but it did get casual fans a bit more interested.
Setanta may have shown 60+ live games, but its actual coverage wasn’t that good. While you can argue the toss about picture quality, it was quite gimmicky (to prove how “innovative” it was), with cameras in the dressing room, interviews with the manager during the game, that sort of thing. Next time anyone speaks to TB, ask him if he or Cashy enjoyed having to do it during the game.
The other thing it did which IMO damages football at this level was the incessant way it kept going on about how non-league football was real football. Yes, we got it after the 200th time they said it, and it just simply made them sound desperate. It was the kind of patronising hype that a special needs kid gets to boost his self-esteem up.
And if a culture where the likes of Turvey rule the roost, Boreham Wood can get away with (allegedly) assaulting players, and clubs can get deducted 18 points for forgetting to tick a box, is somehow passed off as real football, give me the fake Prem and Championship any day.
You can bet that Premier Sports will be going down the same route – already, it’s press release calls this deal as “unique”, and makes play of the fact that they “recognise there is a niché market for all football fans who love the game at the level at which the competition plays”.
Funny, the fans of the ex-League clubs seem to hate this division. Oxford fans weren’t exactly sad when they got promoted. And let’s be honest, we’re only biding our time before we get itchy feet again…
I think this deal will be lucky to last the full three years, before we get another Setanta-esque debacle. The TV football market is over-saturated as it is – last night, I had both Rapid against Villa and Liverpool playing some Turkish team. I only watched bits of both of them. I know that if I want to watch a whole game, I can just wait a couple of more days for a contest I’m genuinely interested in.
Premier Sports itself don’t sound blessed with money. Before it went subscription, I watched some GAA on it, and the picture feed was dreadful. And this lifted from RTE. It suggested they were using cheap broadcasting equipment, so forgive me if I sense the Conf games will look like public access TV.
And let’s be honest here – who is really going to watch other Conference teams, especially at this time of the season? OK, you’d probably pay the £7 for our game, or go to a pub that shows GAA, but other than that? I’d like to see Newport play Wrexham (yes, really), but it’s not worth the £7 for it. No doubt that like Setanta you won’t actually be able to pay just £7, and any “mistakes” they make in charging you will take three months to get sorted. As what happened to your editor.
I haven’t even started on getting our games moved…
His and Hers
Does anyone remember the Thurrock game in our first (and only) BSS season? No, not the one where A Divot became a Dons legend, but the home game. If you don’t, here’s a little reminder.
OK, it wasn’t quite on that scale, but had we left KM tonight with a point or less, you could have been forgiven for kicking your nearest domesticated animal. The fact that Suburb 2 Village 0 was down to two injury time goals doesn’t really tell the story – we could, and should, have been at least a couple of goals up before half time, yet we did look like we’d lost our way in the second half.
But, not for the first time, we had options off the bench. No, Jolley and co didn’t quite have the same impact as Saturday, but Rashid Yussuff did. For the first time I can remember, we have a few strings in an increasingly big bow. Admittedly, we did have a bit of help when their #6 got red-carded for angrily kicking the ball away with his back to the ref from their goal kick. Seriously, how big a dick do you have to be to do that? Christ, that’s the sort of thing you would have the piss taken out of if you did that in a school playground…
That said, it was what we deserved. Only one team was trying to win the game, Histon were more than content to park the bus, hoof clear at any given opportunity and e–v–e–r—s—o—s—-l—-o—-w—-l—-y take goal kicks and throw ins. They made Southport look like Chelski. When we got our penalty (which was far more of one than at Haig Avenue) I couldn’t see us missing it. No, I mean it.
As for the penalty itself, if there wasn’t a net there, DK’s strike would still be travelling past Guildford as I type. Maybe it was a message to the attention-seeking convicted fraudster? Or a message to Jon Main on how to take a spot kick.
Speaking of JM, he got pulled off again. Making no comments.
I will certainly make a comment or two about Andre Blackman though. He clapped us at the beginning, and at the end. I know the guy has a “reputation”, but I got the feeling right at the end that he was looking around and thinking “fucking hell, people appreciate of what I’m doing”. And he really could end up being the best player in the AFCW era if he finds a way of keeping his head straight. Maybe it will click for him and he realises what he’s got and what he could have….
A few other things : John Beck was sent off at half time and apparently wasn’t allowed back into the stadium. Reportedly, it was for verbally abusing the ref, although what he’d done is unclear. Surely though being a John Beck side there’s no need for any kind of specific instructions on how to play?
I took a trip into the new carvery-and-back-bar area. Not the main eating area, of course, it’s not for the likes of us. The “new” back bar is, well, intimate. It’s not so bad if there’s only a few people in there, but trying to get served for a busy period looks a nightmare. You can’t blame people making a detour to a local pub before hand.
Speaking of the carvery, one perk of it is to have TB announce the team on the PA in there beforehand. I’m sure it’s very well appreciated by the diners etc, but is that the sort of thing a manager should be doing before a game? Are users of the carvery going to be so demanding that they absolutely have to hear words from a guy who would rather be planning last-minute strategy? In other words, doing his job. Not to mention announcing our team to the away directors so publicly.
Decent crowd of over 3k. I thought the segregation was going to be in effect this season? OK, maybe it was felt that 20 Histon fans weren’t going to cause trouble, but after making such a big deal about it last season, it seems odd that we’re back to the usual arrangement. This whole segregation plan feels like trying to search for the end of a rainbow, or Kjetil Waehler : you know it’s there but you’re not sure it exists.
Oh, and how nice is it to see our electronic sub board working again? Its demise last season seemed rather symbolic of the latter stages of the last campaign.
Final thought for tonight : come April, we could be hovering between the playoff spot and out of it. Results like this and Southport will make that one position difference. Remember that in the opening three games last season we had the perfect mid-table set of results (W1 L1 D1), and we’ve already surpassed it. Yes, you can argue that we need to be putting teams like Histon to the sword much earlier in the game, and our front line needs that consistency again. But as that Thurrock game a mere couple of years ago proved, you can win titles in August…
Scousebusters
Being on the backfoot much of the game, a mixture of brilliant and trouser-soiling defending, a missed penalty, a sending off, a bleeding long journey both ways, tough Northern opposition, fuckwit ref, goal late on and massed visiting ranks going kind of mental.
Or as they call it, a traditional Wimbledon away victory.
If the new season is going to serve up more games like Posh Part of Liverpool 0 Posh Part of London 1, it’s going to be worth booking your train tickets well in advance. That said, I wouldn’t quite go so far to suggest this was smash-and-grab, but it did appear that the whole team suffered a bit of Derek Duncan Syndrome™ for a little while.
Perhaps the shock of playing a team going full pelt was a bit of a shock, but initially we looked a little, ahem, rusty. Passes were being underhit, or other players not quite knowing where each other were, that sort of thing. Given that we had about six new players who took the field (either starting or from the bench) from the Gateshead “performance” I suppose that’s inevitable.
It’s going to take a couple more weeks for everyone to get finely tuned to each other, because as the game wore on you could see we were making passes better, finding each other etc. And as many have pointed out during the pre-seasons, we look a lot more physically stronger these days.
So, what? Well, it’s always nice to start the season with three points. I’ve got to be honest though, when JM had his penalty saved, I feared the worst. It was our first meaningful strike on goal, and the way we were going, probably our only one too. Perhaps this is what they mean when they say you shouldn’t get too excited about pre-season results? The optimism we had coming into this game was certainly being drained one game in…
We were a lot better in the second half though, and as stated above on the occasions we clicked we will be a menace to most teams. They couldn’t cope with Jackson coming on as sub and bombing down the wing, anyway. Perhaps that’s something else we can expect this season? Contain a physical team for a good hour, wear them down as those sort of teams inevitably tire, get on a speed merchant and go for the late strike. Don’t think anyone else would object to that on more than the odd occasion.
Two further things : the goal kind of came out of nowhere, but it was always going to be a case of the first goal winning it. You’ll have to wait for the TV replay to show exactly what happened, but from memory Jolley picked up a long diagonal and was able to control it while their goalie was left stranded like a tit. I should remember more about how it happened, because it’s the first time I can ever recall us scoring a goal like that (certainly in the AFCW era).
Secondly, Minshull’s sending off. To be fair, it did look a little bit of a lunge, and according to somebody in the press box afterwards, it did look like intent. It’s a bit like swinging a punch – you don’t have to connect to let the ref know you’re trying to rearrange somebody’s jaw. I’m sure most people know SW19′s views on us signing Minshull To be honest, if that’s going to end up being a part of his game I’m not sure how long we’d put up with it.
TB has always been one to push the discipline card, and if truth be told Blackman nearly talked his way into joining Minshull in the showers too (and doesn’t that conjure up some dubious images?). Opposition teams instinctly know if somebody has a short fuse or not, and unfortunately it looks like we have more than one. I say “unfortunately” because we’re now a player light in a part of the field where we don’t need to be. I do believe that because we kept red cards to a minimum we went from RP to Conference in the time we did.
Anyway, as we start getting into the swing of things again in more ways than one…
Plus points: We won. Away. Clean sheet. BJ and Yak in defence. Withstanding some immense pressure at times. Able to change game to great effect. Looking less and less phyically inferior.
Minus points: JM’s penalty miss. Minshull sending off. Not entirely organised.
The referee’s a…: Conference level one. And yes, that is intended as an insult. Was it his first game or something? Managed to give us a penalty that never was, and spent the rest of the game making up for the error in their favour.
Them: Looked like Sutton United, played a little bit like them too. Physical, only really had two tactics (long ball and long throws). More of a banana skin than people were ready to admit, because they are a newly promoted club and on a high – not forgetting the fact we didn’t really know much about them. Certainly think we wouldn’t have won this last season, which is testament to our weights room. Thankfully for us they couldn’t finish, although I expect as the season goes on they’ll find themselves struggling once teams work out their tactic.
They reckoned we were thuggish, which if nothing else will please those still living in 1986 Hard to think that we played them in the first WFC League season, which might explain why the ground looked a bit bigger than most for a club that size. For some reason, they charged £12.50 – presumably somebody at the club works for the Royal Mint and is on commission to produce as many 50p pieces as possible.
Point to ponder: Whither Jon Main? No, I’m not turning this into the witchunt of last season, and hopefully he’ll get a couple of goals on Tuesday. But after his penalty was saved, it appeared his head dropped – it was no surprise that he got pulled off. And this is something that should concern everyone – Main is a confidence player, and when his is down he’s as much use as Nick Roddis. We saw it at the beginning of the season last year when it felt like we were playing with 10 men.
I’m really hoping (for everyone’s sake) that he nets at least one goal in the next six days, because we don’t need a repeat of 09/10 with him. DK carries the workload enough as it is* and Nokkers won’t be around to help out until Newport. Main gets all the adulation he deserves, and making him bulk up has extended his tenure with us for another year. But the rest is up to him…
* – speaking of DK, in today’s NLP an attention seeking convicted frauster is again trying to undermine people and DK/AFCW. You can buy the paper to find out what he said, but I’ll put it this way : for the last two seasons, DK was in the same squad with Ben Judge, a man who was quite simply treated worse than shit. Don’t think for one moment that Judgey didn’t spend any team discussions pointing out exactly what went on there.
People in football get reputations from word-of-mouth, and needless to say certain fraudster only ever does this when his side loses. Which he and they did yesterday. He may be a good football manager, but he certainly can’t take the pressure when things don’t go well for him. File under “ignore”…
Three’s a crowd: The club predicted over 500 of us travelled, and you can do your own impression of Papers by counting the crowd yourself in the pic above. Remember to add about 250 in the seats. Have to say, this was impressive, although one does wonder what it will be like when the novelty wears off a bit.
But then, haven’t we always selected favourite venues? People may make an effort to go to Southport in future because it’s a nice part of the world for a weekend away. Gateshead will always get a decent take-up because people fancy a weekend in Newcastle. You would expect a lot of us at Luton, Handy and Crawley anyway. If we do have sub-300 away turnouts, it will be at places where people can’t or don’t want to go to – Kettering will be such a club, ditto Mansfield.
By the way, was I alone in thinking how poor Southport’s turnout was? First game back in the Conference, home tie, decent enough opposition (blows own trumpet) and Liverpool weren’t playing. Not our concern of course, but if I was a Southport director I would be more than a tad worried…
Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) First away win since the middle of April, at Mansfield. It seems longer. (2) Your editor’s first Northern away trip as a fan (ie not doing any media work) since 2002. Really felt that I’ve missed out in the last eight years, although my bank balance has been grateful. (3) Apparently, about three people jumped onto the pitch when we scored. Very clever, I don’t think. For anyone arguing the toss otherwise, imagine the reaction when away fans do it at KM.
Truth is stranger than fiction (special Scouse edition): Take the Chester to Liverpool Central train at 10.30am on 14 August 2010. Take one extremely pissed and drugged up cockstain with a broken arm who had been drinking Fosters and a whole bottle of Baileys, at 10am. Take same individual who started off wankered-but-harmless, then started becoming more and more of a cock, becoming more and more aggressive towards female passengers and even challenged our lot to a fight, suggesting we weren’t men. This from somebody holding a bottle of Baileys, the most feminine drink since alcopops.
Then take the same guy crossing the line and starting grabbing a woman around the face, with people visibly concerned. What happened next is a little bit of a blur, but basically the train stopped at a station called Moorfields on the Merseyrail line. A family got off, and said fuckwit swung a punch at one of them. The female went back into the train and spat at him. An argument began, and basically escalated into the family piling into him (guy holding him down, woman taking slaps at him). Cue pulled emergency cord, irate train inspectors and pissed fuckwit scarpering around Moorfields with the police looking for him. All while our lot decided to sing AFCW songs afterwards…
Welcome to away travel, AFCW style.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what one does in such a situation. You’ve got a guy who is so out of it that he really wouldn’t think twice about using the Baileys bottle as a weapon (he was the sort who would probably get a few digs in anyway but left weaponless would have had the shit kicked out of him if everyone piled on). This could have been a genuinely nasty situation, and is there really nobody at Chester train station who clocks somebody like him and “advise” him to sober up?
Look, we’re football fans, and we’re no angels. Such a reputation isn’t undeserved. But when you’ve got grown men who can handle themselves who are wary of getting involved – and this guy wasn’t an obvious football fan – then you’ve got trouble. Admittedly I don’t use the tube that often these days, but I’d like to think that LT would nip this sort of thing in the bud. In a high-crime area like Liverpool, the lack of security about is unreal. You can bitch about the use of “broken Britain” by politicians all you want, but in situations like this they might have a point for once.
As for the fuckwit, as I write this he’s either in the clink or dead. Hopefully he’s just the only one suffering this morning. Either way, he has made an entire carriage worth of people look at a bottle of Baileys in a brand new light…
Anything else? Yeah. Had a nasty shock on the 0810 to Chester (there’s a pattern emerging with my travel yesterday here…), when the train did its scheduled stop at Frenzy Central. It sat there and sat there and sat there. Apparently, there was smoke coming from the train somewhere, although sadly it wasn’t a Frenzy fan getting burnt alive.
Now, I would have like to have said that I dreaded being forced to get off the train, and stand in THAT town. I would have liked to have said how much I vomitted blood in breathing in the air, and how I left a strategically placed turd in the water supply, contaminating everyone.
The truth is, I felt none of those things. In fact, I felt …. nothing.
Seriously, it just felt like I was in yet another stereotypical concreted new town, like Croydon or Crawley. I think I realised that as a place, Milton Keynes means nothing to me – it’s just another shopping centre.
Yes, the local franchise soccerball team should be buried in a shallow grave, along with its coked up chairman and the local council. But I’ve known people who have worked (or lived) up there, driven round with an AFCW sticker and have gotten precious little-to-no reaction whatsoever. Really makes you wonder who the hell supports them, and whether with yet another season beckoning of mid-table mediocrity more customers will realise just what a pup they purchased.
As is the case these days, we are currently just one game away from potentially getting drawn against them in the FAC. How we’d feel about that is something, deep down, we won’t know until it ever happens. I think we’ll handle it a lot better now, although I am 99% likely not to go to that game. I have felt for a long while that the more we avoid them the less problems will occur if we finally do play them. And passing through the place in 2010, for the first time I had a little twinge that I would love us to go up there, take over the place and stuff them on their own patch.
Perhaps that’s the real reason for the fear and loathing of playing them? Not so much the off-field shenangans, nor (dare I suggest it) even what happened in 2002, but the realisation that we might just end up enjoying it?
So, was it worth it? Yeah, I suppose so.
In a nutshell: The new season starts here.
