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Oh cock. Looks like our march towards mid table mediocrity continues, especially after Reds 2 Deads 1. This is quite a sobering experience, being pretty ordinary a side. The worst thing is that we took the lead and just failed to make any sort of traction afterwards. You know how a team scores after about 1 minute then has to think of what to do for the next 89? That’s what happened to us. It was as though we geared ourselves up for a blistering start, got it, then stood looking at each other and shrugged “now what?”. What grabbed me tonight wasn’t so much how shocking it was that we were shite again, but how predictable it was. Something has gone out of this team. Maybe the ride of the last seven years is coming to an end after all? Maybe we’re now suffering from something called team imbalance? Maybe, just maybe, we’ve found our level for now? When you go 1-0 up after about a minute, you should at least expect some comeback from the opposition. But at the same time, I would have expected us to have some sort of attack at various stages of the game ourselves. The only time we looked like scoring again was in the last 10 minutes. LT and Elder were off with injuries, Poole was off because everyone had forgotten he was playing, and we had Moore, Wellard and Godfrey on. I hate to say this, but I’m wondering with Elder if we’re now seeing why Shrewsbury were so keen to offload him to us. The Elder we saw ripping Mansfield’s tight little arsehole open has long disappeared, to be replaced by an Elder who seems to be going the same way as Kezie Ibe. Remember him? Your editor does, worryingly. We should all know that we just cannot rely on DK and JM all the time, as we have been doing. I bet half of you have forgotten poor Ross Montague is even at the club (hint : he’s injured. Badly, too). And I can’t help but think that Luis Cumbers was either badly advised or a bit too desperate to return to Gillingham. It cannot be denied though – something has changed. Where has Kennedy gone? And Brett Johnson? Why isn’t Blanchett playing and DD is? At least Luke Moore is playing some more games, and tellingly tonight and against Alty we looked better with him when he came on. And am I the only one who is glad to see Wellard is back? Barring a fluke, we can now safely write off the playoffs. Yes, I know it’s still mathematically possible, but this team, this collection of players just isn’t good enough to do anything in them. Fact. Not that he’d want my advice, nor should he take it. But if I could tell TB one thing about his job that he ought to do, it’s just get a team that knows how to play well together and let it play for contracts until the end of the season. Now would be a perfect time to confirm who can cut playing BSP football with AFC Wimbledon and who can’t. And some players can’t. They may not be bad players in themselves, but they’re liabilities for us. And by “liabilities”, I mean that they don’t really add too much. I wouldn’t mind seeing the team that ended the game getting named as a starting XI (though I’d put Blanchett in for DD – yes, really. And BJ has to return and soon). Build a nucleus of a side that can play in the BSP next season for us, and add as necessary in the summer. In reality, it was always a fancyful notion expecting playoffs again this season. At least we’ve come up rather than down, and we do have a stability that a lot of clubs secretly envy. In a way, Chester’s results getting expunged (and isn’t that a great word?) has done us a dis-service, because it still makes us look like legit playoff contenders. We’re not. If we were, we wouldn’t have played with such lackluster in 2010. In fact, I’m struggling to think of games where we have had that spark you need to challenge at the top. Again, Mansfield is the only game this year that remotely approaches that level. Tonight has proved that our recent blip isn’t a blip but who we truly are. Capable of beating anything on a day when everything clicks but needs a lot more work to click in the first place. A few other things from tonight. There was a decent turnout from us, about 750 odd. Maybe the official attendance of 1569 was right? If you consider that half the crowd were indeed us. Their PA guy seemed to be in a 1970s mindset when it came to spinning the discs. When he played Life On Mars I half expected Gene Hunt to come out and give Steve Evans a big kicking. Who, by the way, seemed to make more noise than the entire Crawley support put together. Oh, and I’ve decided Evans is just an attention seeker, which explains his non-accountancy conduct. Just ignore him. Simon Bassey got sent to the stands late on though. No idea what for. I used to cover a fair few Crawley games, in the days when I was a cub reporter and the NLP did a midweek edition. Around that time, Frances Vines was their manager, and they were about to make the brave step into full time football. The rest is history. A lesson for us, maybe? IMO, we just need to get the team right first before embarking on something that will change the very modus operandi of the club. What else of note? LT went off injured, in fact he looked in genuine discomfort when limping off. Guess we’ll wait and see whether it was the same leg that took him out for most of last season. Other than that, I’m not sure what else I can really say. We were crap, end of. We’re just not good enough, and yes, that does hurt to write that. But it’s true. Oh, and apparently their goalkeeper looked like a pervert… … that was good. Decent skill, wanting to win, some moments for the crowd to enjoy, and plenty of looking back on the video later today with a mixture of pride and satisfaction. I am of course referring to the girls and juniors on the pitch at half time. And after Southern League 1 Northern Premier League 1, perhaps we were too hasty in dragging them off afterwards? I’ve given myself some reflection on this, which is why this is up on Sunday rather than Saturday evening. Though even writing this up now was one serious struggle. I still can’t believe how, well, ordinary we are right now. And in truth, how we’ve been so since Mansfield. During the game yesterday, I said to the bloke next to me, “I can’t remember the last time we had a turgid 0-0″. On second glance, maybe it was St Albans last season (and ironically around the same time last year). Had it finished goalless, it would have been a just result. To put the contest in a nutshell, halfway during the first half Sam Hatton tried to trap the ball and pass it forward. He miscontrolled it and went out for an Alty throw. Five minutes later, their #19 slipped over and fell on his face with nobody near him. It summed up the day. OK, the doomsday scenario of having Hatton and Blanchett as centre backs thankfully didn’t happen. Although it might have been more entertaining if it had. Have the loanee signings disrupted things that much? I dunno, but if we hadn’t brought them in we’d be collectively moaning that we haven’t got strength in depth. This time last year, I remember TB pointing out that we were relying far too much on DK producing the goods. He (Danny, not Terry) was playing that run-in not 100% fit, and we were having to rely on a JM who struggled a little bit too. If we’d done the same this season, we would have been looking at Barrow v Cambridge yesterday with more than a hint of concern. Last time, I ranted on about lack of depth in reserves. Today, I’m merely going to point out that if we want a squad large enough and good quality enough to challenge for the playoffs, we’ll need to spend some serious wonga. Oxford are splashing the cash again this week, and it’s pointless to pretend that we won’t do something similar in the future. Oh, the game. Well, Derek Duncan had quite a good one, which may explain how bad the contest was. Typically though, he gave away a penalty. I don’t think our full backs are much cop, though I think Danny Blanchett (who IMO is a better left back than DD) suffers from not being Chris Hussey. And I don’t want to be a Hatton hater, but seriously – what is his best position? Though we are stuck with him there all the while Jay Conroy is out. Some people are starting to have a pop at Nathan Elder, presumably because he’s breaking up the DK/JM partnership. Funny, because when he went off we lost our attacking impetus. Yesterday could have been ideal for Jon Main – shame he was crocked. If there was one bright spot on the horizon, Luke Moore returned and we looked a lot more threatening as a result. We’ve missed him. Anyway, we’ve got Crawley on Tuesday at their place. While you await the post-mortem from that, here’s… Plus points: We didn’t lose. Luke Moore. Your editor totally unexpectedly getting hold of a cheap train ticket to York (watch me now have to work that day) Minus points: We didn’t win. 3pm to 4.45pm. The referee’s a…: Seemed to miss a fair amount, though half of it was down to him shielding his eyes from the sun. Oh, and wasn’t it good to see Eddy Grant as a linesman? Them: Probably should have beaten them, but another team who knew how to stop us sufficiently enough. They do show why we shouldn’t struggle in future seasons, a better performance from us and who knows? Decent enough turnout by their supporters though. Kudos to their keeper, who did join in with two of our under-8s in a little kickabout just before the second half was about to start. Alas, the two goals he let in weren’t an omen… Point to ponder: Could it be that we are a – gulp – mid table side? And if we are, would that necessarily be a bad thing? Being the sad bastard I am, I decided to list out below where we’ve finished since 2002: 2002/03 – 3rd (no playoff, but only because the CCL didn’t have them) Whatever way you look at it, that’s not a bad run in that time. On reflection, I’m glad the consolidation seasons we were expecting in 2004/05 and 2008/09 didn’t happen. As it looks like we’re being forced to do just that this time around, at least we’re doing it in a high profile division where people give a shit what we do. Also, could pushing for the playoffs again be the worst thing we can do this season? Don’t get me wrong, if we go in them I’ll be wanting that victory at Wembley. But it’s clear the club doesn’t feel ready enough yet to go down the increased wage bill route. We don’t yet have strength in depth throughout the club, and Oxford taught us how far behind we really are. Having the season ending at Gateshead and realising we’ll be in the same division next season is going to be a bit of a comedown for a lot of people. It’ll be a weird feeling, and one that might dampen moods during the summer. But then, things like that do happen when you’re a proper football club… Meet the manager: For some reason, I can’t convert this to MP3, so this is it in the original WMA format. No idea whether this will work from the link or not, although I expect TB hasn’t said anything you wouldn’t have guessed already. Three’s a crowd: 3388, which was more than I expected for such a fixture. Guess a month without a home game does that to you. Needless to say, my local branch of Frederick W Payne made more noise. But then, why does anyone act all surprised when we don’t make a din at home? We were never the loudest at PL as it was, and the most (only?) atmosphere I can remember at Selhurst was during the protests. Let’s be honest here – a large section of our support read the Guardian or Telegraph, and would be equally at home at Twickenham. Perhaps we ought to start singing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”? Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Ground improvements look nice. Never lose sight of the fact though that it’s still only making sure you have a front door and a roof that doesn’t leak. (2) Notice from the programme that the people who served the the rich bastards hospitality section are stepping down. Question : if it saved £40k, if the people who do it did a good enough job and who want to do it enough to carry on with the new contractors, why have they stepped down in the first place? (3) Good to see the club now has an FA Charter. Anything else? Yes. I bought a copy of WUP yesterday (7.3), and I’ve decided I’m no longer their target audience. OK, WUP earns a lot of money for the club. Anyone who also puts their neck out publically in publishing (especially in the somewhat incestuous world of AFCW) gets my kudos. And its editors have admitted in the past that it is a hit-and-miss type of publication and that its main remit is to raise funds. But not for the first time, the content is mainly the following: 1) Franchise FC is bad. What happened on 28th May 2002 was wrong. We hate them and everything they stand for. 2) Trust ownership and the way that AFCW does everything is the way forward 3) I’ve gone to another game but my real point is to tell you how shit it is and how good AFCW is I’m really not joking – at least 75% of the latest edition was exactly that. And after the first article of that tone, we really do get the idea pretty damn quickly. Surprised it didn’t have an FCUM article in there. OK, you do get the odd thought-provoking article from time to time, but it does appear that the publication doesn’t really have much else to say Which for the season we’re having is amazing. I get the impression that since the run-in(s) with certain people at AFCW, the publication has been neutered somewhat. It always seems to struggle between being a fundraiser and being an “independent” outlet, and I don’t think it’s ever fully succeeded dealing with that paradox. I would suggest that it doesn’t go “controversial” for the sheer sake of it either. It’s called faux-outrage for a reason, and it’s also very easy to do badly. Part of its problem for me is that it doesn’t publish that regularly anyway. If it came out monthly, or once every 5 weeks, it would eventually build up its own regular contributor pool, and as a result gets its own “voice”. Not to mention generating more £££ for the club. As it stands, it only comes out once in a blue moon, and goes down the route of “just say something to fill up space”. For a publication, that’s a killer. For the purposes of this section, I’ve just dug out two random old WUPs from the vast SW19 Towers library : the WUP For The Cup Premier Challenge Cup Final special, whenever that was, and 3.5, which was about 2006 (in the DA era, anyway). While not every article hit the spot, and I don’t think WUP has been very good at humour anyway, the earlier ones did at least appear relevant to the season happening. In fact, in the latter one it was bemoaning that there weren’t enough people contributing articles, despite it being the fifth edition of the season. I stopped contributing for various reasons, but one problem I had was that there was nothing I could write for it that was different to what I was doing on here. Duplication equals irritation, and all that. But if people know that it is coming out each and every month, at least they might put fingers to keyboard and give a different slant to something currently on their mind. True, there’s the very real risk of filler taking up the pages, but I would prefer that to yet more backslapping. Besides, some filler can end up being the most notable bits of work. I will get the upcoming 7.4, and hopefully it will make me reconsider the above comments. I would rather buy a fanzine than a programme anyway. I just don’t like to read something that I’ve known since 2002… By the way, if anyone thinks I’m picking on WUP, I’ll say this : in the last couple of months, I’ve picked up two recent editions of fanzines that were an influence to SW19 back in the early years – Red Issue (Yernited) and Gooner (Arse). I was disappointed in both of them, and they have bigger readerships and more regular editions than our own fanzines. Personally, I think fanzines are dying anyway. I haven’t read a good printed one for a long while. True, the internet with blogs and messageboards have made the medium a tad redundant, but even so with football’s recent problems they should be thriving? Or perhaps there’s only so many times you can say that football is fucked… So, was it worth it? Cold, miserable, and taken me close on 20 hours later to come up with this “report”. Guess how much it was worth it. In a nutshell: Can you give minus figures for match ratings? By “delayed”, it will either be up much later tonight, or by some point tomorrow. You really expect me to be writing tons and tons on that pile of whale semen? … then you may need to reconsider. Some rather startling news this morning from the treatment table. Cue TB and the Surrey Herald:
Oh great. Nothing like a nice, fluffy headline on this sunnyish-if-slightly chilly Thursday morning.
Tell us about it. Last time I saw anything part that readily, it was the Red Sea. Or the buttock cheeks of a Franchise fan whenever Wankie takes those blue pills from Canadian pharmacies. Anyway, we could now be without Quiche and Ben Judge too. So, in other words we get “treated” to the same back line that managed to concede three goals against a R1S side a mere couple of days ago. And that was only because Chipstead’s attack was inaccurate. OK, this could be TB just bluffing, he has form for this as we all know. How many times did DK die before a crucial game last season? But even if just one of those players return, we’re in for a pretty rough afternoon on Saturday. It may put a serious dent into the more optimistic of Womble viewpoint, who genuinely believes that we are playoff material. If you hear Ryan Jackson, SH, Blanchett and Derek Duncan getting read over the PA, get your mortgage on Alty. A few thoughts are going through my head right now, ones that don’t involve suicide. Yet. How come we always seem so messed up with injuries like this? We’re lucky that we “only” get crocked players, and that our general discipline has helped us this far – yes, I know some people grumble that we’re bottom of the dirty play league, and it’s “unWimbledon”, but we’d be in a lot worse shit if we had more than Jay Conroy collecting fines. Earlier on in the season, it looked like we’d cracked the defensive issues – BJ and Quiche looked imposing, with Garrard/Conroy and Hussey/AN Other sorting it out on the flanks. It’s all gone wrong again, and now in the worst possible way. We haven’t really looked that imposing even with a full(er) strength back line. Who can we get in? Emergency loans don’t work for positions other than goalkeepers. We might as well play DK and Nathan Elder in defence, rather than see Tuesday’s back line again. Is Marcus Gayle registered as a player? Is Jason Goodliffe a free agent? OK, they have a combined age of 232 and are as mobile as a broken down Ford Capri, but at least you can rely on them for sheer effort if nothing else. Hell, get Matt Everard out of retirement. Give him a new pair of knees if need be, preferably those belonging to a 20 year old. There is a more serious issue here, and it’s one that SW19 bangs on about to the point of tedium. This proves why we seriously need to get our reserve sides up to scratch. Insert comments about Football Combination, full time, Wednesday afternoon games at QPR etc. But let’s face it – you wish that was the case right now. True, we may throw Ryan Jackson in on Saturday, but where are the other defenders from our second squads? Are they too young? Too inexperienced? Likely to get destroyed against a BSP attack? I’ve been trying to ween myself off using Learning Curve™ for a while, but this is another consequence of it. In the past, we would have just got somebody on loan for a week/month, almost at the click of a finger. Now we have to be more self-sufficient, and we’ve found we haven’t got much in depth when we really need it. If we put in our second XI’s centre back pairing just for this one game, then the worst we could do is lose 3 points. I doubt if they’d be worse than Sam Hatton and Danny Blanchett. And who knows, they might have a blinder, look solid and mature beyond their years, and we’ve suddenly got a new set of heroes to worship. After all, we did exactly that with Seb Brown and some bloke called Chris Hussey… As far as SW19 is concerned, this season is written off now. Situations like this and Oxford away make me realise just how much more we need to do. As much as we need to consider whether we can afford to pay Nathan Elder, we need to get the path from the kids doing kickabouts before the game up to them making a heroic first team debut sorted. We may be able to get away with it for another season, but after that, we have to be properly set up. By “properly”, I mean bring people up to a standard throughout the setup where they can emulate a Chris Hussey. I’m fully aware that the AFCW era is still making baby steps, and it’s not nearly as straightforward as I’m making out. But we have to do it, and pretty quickly too. Whenever I’ve watched reserves or youth team games this season, I can’t help but think we put loads of youngsters in for the sake of it. It’s as though we get them in but not quite know what to do with them afterwards. Also, they may not be as good as we want to believe – I saw us in the FA Youth cup against Bournemouth, and despite the one division apart first-team wise, their youth were far above ours. Painfully so, too. That’s a big problem, and one that can have an effect on the first team as well. Anyway, to Saturday. Chances are Ben Judge will be on the Lemsip enough to play, and we’ll scrape by as we always seem to do. But if we want to progress, one thinks that we need to start doing better than considering Sam Hatton at centre back……….. For some reason, I go to senior cup games even when I know I shouldn’t. After Chips 3 Fries 4, I’m still asking myself that question. To be honest, this should have been the most embarrassing result in the AFCW era. In the past, our minor cup exits have been down to scratch teams, half of whom I suspect didn’t even know what colour we were playing in. This however was a team who you could legitimately put out in a Conference game. From memory, it was Brown, Hatton, Blanchett, Ryan Jackson, Derek Duncan, Poole, Wellard, Hendry, Godfrey, DK and JM. A side you would expect to win comfortably against Grays, let alone a Ryman One outfit. Yes, I know that the idea was to give them a bit of match practice after Saturday. I know that we weren’t going at even 50% of what we could do. And I know that had we gone out, it would have been as much a matter of piss-taking by ourselves along with a few blushes. But really, especially in defence, some of it was outright painful to watch. What it does prove is that we need to take a serious look at our back line, even for sheer strength in depth. When I saw Ben Judge walking out to his car with an hour to go (before the conspiracy theorists start – he had flu and was sent home), it was going to be one of those sorts of nights. Poor Sam Hatton just cannot play centre back at all, which at least gives the people who like slagging him off another reason to have a pop at him. Gap wise, this was the equivalent of Spurz travelling down to Torquay and getting a result courtesy of Jermaine Defoe in the 93rd minute. It’s that kind of strange performance that county cups always provide, we just weren’t in gear for most of it. To give you some idea of how through-the-motions it was. Any tackle or move that would have injured a player was half heartedly performed – if at all. When we did put some (relative) effort in the last 20 minutes, we forced their goalie to make about 3/4 good saves as a result. There were times when Nathan Elder (who came on in the second half) put a little more into his now-trademark powering runs and the Chipstead defence shat themselves. But the main difference seemed to come from the two benches. The Chipstead bench were all stood up, urging their team onwards, getting stuck in. Ours looked like they were discussing where to get the best deal on sterling (Zimbabwe, one presumes). Bar the odd call from TB to “use your heads” and “get into the box”, which seemed a little bit too optimistic… Once we got to 3-2, it was inevitable that we were going to pull back to 3-3. OK, Chipstead kept trying to exploit what we laughably called our back line, but you could tell they were hanging on for most of it. Had we done it from the off, I would have been talking about a 7-0 win right now. There was one problem of course with this equaliser right at the death : the very fact that it meant 30 minutes of extra time. I don’t think I’ve seen so many of our fans half-heartedly cheer a game-tying goal right at the death. Maybe it was because we didn’t entirely care tonight ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, I always love winning games, and we really did leap about when it was 4-3. Then again, that was as much down to the fact we could go home after that. But you felt you could have just gone down the training ground and watched something similar for nowt. Anyway, seems like we’re going to play Godalming. Yes, the venue of the notorious Mr Fish game. Be there, whenever it is. Fish himself surely won’t be… Plus points: We won. Actually quite entertaining towards the end. Return of Luke Moore to action. Glenn “Tempo” Poole looking like he gave a shit. Minus points: £8 for 70 minutes worth of a training session. Trying a radical new formation without an actual defence. The referee’s a…: Oh come on, he could have disallowed our fourth goal and I’d still be making my way home at time of writing. Them: Fair play to them, they wanted to win and probably should have done. I’ve almost forgiven them for beating us in the first home competitive fixture of the AFCW era. I said “almost”… Their little winger was quite speedy and caused us problems. A couple of years ago, he might have been an AFCW player by the end of the night (after all, we signed Jon Main after he scored twice against us for Tonbridge that evening). Maybe if we get our reserves sorted out to a decent level we would do that. Oh, and their goalkeeper looked like the bass player for an indie band. I’ll say a little bit more later about visiting Chipstead, but suffice to say, I still hate country roads as much as I ever did… Point to ponder: Is there much point in playing such a strong side for these types of contests in future? Although we’ve gone through a lot of why we shouldn’t already, here’s another thought : our fringe players have been denied valuable playing time. OK, they get the chance to humiliate prove themselves at Harrow next Thursday, but if we win the SSC nobody is really going to get excited. Especially if the BSP playoffs are well within our radar. Again, I hope that this will be the last season whereby our fringe players don’t get decent competitive action on a regular basis. I certainly didn’t like it when Glenn Poole went off to get some strapping tonight… Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Nice burgers at their permanently built BBQ pit. Cheap enough, too (£2.50). Believe they get a fair amount of trade with kids football finals around there, which proves that no matter how big or small you are, a bit of ingenuity and knowhow goes a long way (2) The reaction when it went 3-3. Aren’t we all supposed to be, you know, happy? (3) There was no training tonight, and at least four players purely turned up to get treated by Mike Rayner. Including one D Duncan. To be fair to him, he did have a decent game, so at least he can perform in Ryman Div One. Anything else? Yes. I think I’ve worked out why I go to county cup games – it’s the nostalgia trips. Hard to think that a mere 6/7 years ago, we were playing Chipstead in a competitive league fixture. People may think us being a Conference side these days is an eye-opener. Actually, I would say us playing at that level was more noteworthy. Of course, we never actually played a league fixture there. Although the official capacity is 3000, it wouldn’t have coped with the away crowds we were taking back then. But this was definitely a CCL reunion, even if neither side is in the CCL these days. There’s two sides to that coin. Even now, some people would secretly like us to be back in the CCL, and for a fleeting moment you can see why. It was relaxing, there was no hint whatsoever of us getting ripped off (although I think £8 for a senior cup tie is too much, I don’t begrudge Chipstead in the way I do for T&M), and they really seemed to welcome us being there. To this day, I felt the CCL clubs were as well organised (if not more so) than many of the clubs higher up the pyramid. And certainly without the attitude of some Ryman outfits… But it proves as a reminder why we should never be at that level ever again. Imagine what our football watching would have been like if we hadn’t got it together PDQ and got ourselves going upwards. Would Chipstead and other such places have had such a place in our hearts if we’d spent 4, maybe 5 seasons down there? Christ, I remember people getting pissed off halfway during the second CCL season, when the novelty was quickly wearing off. It’s ironic that this season, we would have visited more old haunts than we have done since we left them behind originally. We’ve had Ash, now Chipstead, and now we’re off to Godalming in the semi final. On Thursday week, it’s back to Harrow (one wonders if the slaggish-yet-fit barmaids will be there pulling a creamy head. One only hopes so) and a reminder of the Ryman Prem days. And games against Boreham Wood have reminded us all too painfully of what watching the games was really like back then. Ask yourself this : next time we have a free Saturday, will you really make a special journey to a CCL club? In the words of Kenneth Auchincloss, it is one thing to learn about the past, it is another to wallow in it. If you want to know why it’s good to go back to these venues, it’s because we’re at the right level today… So, was it worth it? *clenches teeth* In a nutshell: Back to the future. No more needs to be said, really. We’re still waiting the fallout from this, namely if the results get wiped out (we go 6th by the way if so), but I did have to do a screengrab of their website for prosperity:
Bet this is quite hard to take if you support them right now though – you’ve spent all this season actively hoping that your nightmare is finally over, and now the bell is tolling it still comes as a shock to the system. Like the reformed Halifax and ourselves, they’ll find the new Chester City incarnation as bloody hard work but ultimately rewarding. As somebody pointed out elsewhere though, at least they don’t have to suffer the gut-wrenching images of other parties rubbing what they’ve stolen in their faces. They can now concentrate on the football, which when the brown stuff hits the portable ventilation device is a suprisingly difficult thing to do. When the inevitable winding up on March 10 occurs, they’ll see what Kris Stewart meant when he said that he just wanted to watch some football. On the flip side, they’ll come across idiots who wear their ignorance as a badge of honour… The other things. Firstly, the Conference must be pleased right now, because they got the clubs to do their dirty work for them. Nothing like taking a bit of responsibility, eh? Mind you, Chester didn’t turn up to hear their fate today – guess they really don’t care enough now. Either that or else they couldn’t look anyone in the eye. Secondly, it’s not been a very good week if your club initials are CCFC. First Cork earlier in the week, then Chester. I bet Chelmsford are looking through all their bank statements with a worried sweat right now. And finally – had this all been sorted out a week ago, we could have played Oxford tomorrow…
The very fact that Inspector Morse 2 The Bill 0 was one of the least surprising results of the season may give you some idea of the tone of this report coming up. Don’t get me wrong – we battled hard, we did show more composure in midfield than Saturday, DK ran his bollocks off yet again, and yes, James Pullen made some good saves. But last night proved how much further we need to progress. On and off the pitch. Admittedly, Jay Conroy getting sent off didn’t help, and you can’t help thinking that will be another mark down in his copy book for the end of season report by TB. In truth, we should have been about two goals down before we actually went behind. True, we battled back, had a header come off the bar, and had that gone in… Second half though? Whether it was the mental preparation for the three biggest consecutive games in the AFCW era finally catching up with us or whether Oxford just simply went up that gear I dunno. Bit of both, if truth be told, even though Oxford’s finishing was as shit as the traffic. All of which is leaving plenty of Wombles reflecting. Not just on a series of games that has seen us with the perfect mid-table form (W1 L1 D1), but also on the prospects of us being part time and the opposition in more full time employment. Let’s face it – we have the ideal side to remain in the Conference. We’ve done well as it is regardless – the record of teams going from BSS to BSP isn’t a great one (IIRC most end up getting relegated after a couple of seasons, they certainly struggle), although our size and spending power doesn’t really make that an issue. Or shouldn’t do. In a years time, it could be expected to beat many if not most teams in the division. It may even be good enough to finally get a result in the FA Cup against a League outfit. But that’s not what we want, is it? There have been hints recently that we won’t be going full time next season. Financially that might not be a bad thing, although IMO we’re going FT by stealth anyway, but it will effectively mean another season in the Conference. We might be lucky and get a Burton-esque set of players, but as last night showed, there’s a difference between inexperience and not being good enough for the next step. I can’t help but think right now that we are another additional season off being at Oxford’s level. As in, not next season but the season after. It’s not an unreasonable assumption to make either – I’m still unsure whether there’s going to be a massive cull at the end of the season, somehow I suspect not. As said before, this current side is good enough for the upper echelons/possible playoffs of this division, and without the fear/wow factor next season, who knows what will happen? If this campaign doesn’t show up who’s cut out to play League football with us, next season certainly will. We can give a lot of leeway this season to some players, but they have to improve for 2010/11. Next season could be the ultimate no-excuse campaign. We got lucky at Luton, sloppy at Cambridge and an education at Oxford. All three performances have shown us who we really are : a committed bunch of players who have heart, determination, not a little skill and an idea of where they want to go. But most definitely a work in progress. We’ve come through three sets of fixtures that a mere couple of weeks ago made people pinch themselves (the re-education we’ve had to do as AFCW is something most of us will never fully evaluate). And you know what? It wasn’t quite so bad after all. Will we get there in the end? Yes we will. But we may have to swallow some pride and maybe one or two principles to do so… Plus points: Minutes 20 to 45. Minus points: We lost. Away. Crap on crosses. Second half. Gulf in class obvious. LT’s injury. Conroy’s red card. Could have been 4-0. The referee’s a…: Why do referees always seem to support the league leaders? Them: Be honest everyone, we’re looking at the BSP champions this season. They kind of reminded me of ourselves last season – big, strong, clever, and have that “feel” about them. If they don’t go up in May, they probably never will. OK, they have a budget that is allegedly three times the size of ours (insert caveat about such figures here – christ, we got it often enough ourselves), but they do seem to have a vibrancy and stability as a club that Luton and Cambridge don’t. It’s worth remembering though that they’ve spent about four years at this level, and we’ve spent six months… Got to say, the Kassam stadium is a lesson in how to do it and how not to do it, if that makes sense. Good facility, decent view, will be even better once they finally build that fourth stand. Hope certain people were making mental notes. Bloody expensive food wise, though. And 40 minutes to get out of the car park? Only one bus route there as well, so public transport isn’t exactly a viable option, especially in the evening. Then again, it is an improvement on the old Manor Ground. It was one of the few venues you could go to and feel that Plough Lane was better. I really didn’t like going there, and this from Carlton Carlton below explains why (opens in new window):
Of course, they ended up with the Kassam, we ended up with… Three’s a crowd: 743 of us, which considering it was an evening game with shit transport and weather conditions is pretty good. Decent vocals, too, including “Big flag, small cock” at those big pseudo-Ultra gatherings that too many clubs seem to have these days. Whatever happened to spontaneous support? I know some games at KM feel more like Kingstonian are playing, but at least it’s not forced. Oh, and in the crowd was one Mr C Hussey, who seemed happy to be with us lot again. All together now – “stayed at a big club…” Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Stop. Start. Stop. Rain. Stop. Fog. Stop. Rain. No, not your editor’s mood swings, just the traffic. Getting around this country is hopeless at times. (2) Sight of police van patrolling the car park behind the goal during the game. Did spot a couple of local pikeys hanging around, so perhaps we can’t make jokes about it. (3) Speaking of the nearby area, apparently it’s where the whole joyriding craze started. Can’t see the Oxford tourist board putting that on their marketing brochures somehow. (4) When was the last time anyone did the double over us in a season? (5) Seeing signs to Wallingford. The difference six years makes. Anything else? Yeah, at half time I saw one of the (thankfully not authoritarian) stewards lift a can of Carling from one of our fans in the concourse area. Leaving aside comments that it’s not really alcohol/saving cost of buying a bottle in the ground, how fucking brain dead do you have to be to carry beer into the ground? There’s currently issues at KM with idiots doing the same thing, and this is why we’re now seeing searches when you enter our ground now. I won’t need to remind you of the fallout from that. Seriously, it’s one of the most obvious no-nos going, yet a couple still persist in doing it. Do they really think they won’t get caught? Or worse, they think the rules don’t apply to them? No doubt if they get caught, or if AFCW gets punished because of it, they’ll be the first to cry like they’ve just shat in their nappy. To be fair to us, 99% of people know the drill. The 1% who don’t are too stupid and/or arrogant to pay attention, so just give them some rope. Though I’m led to believe the club had a letter from a supporter complaining about the searches at KM because – wait for it – it’s non league football and that sort of thing doesn’t happen in non-league football. I will leave you to fill in your own conclusions. So, was it worth it? Urm…. In a nutshell: Roll on Saturday. A quicky before I brave the sleet and the A3 en route to Oxford tonight. Regular readers may remember my trips across the Irish sea to report on Cork City in the Eircom league, which you can check them here. Well, as of 2pm this afternoon, they are no more. To cut a long story short, in Ireland you need a licence to play, and Cork were refused one last night. Constant running up of debt (over €1m) thanks to a guy called Tom Coughlan, and getting deadlines extended to try and keep the licence finally reached a head, and CCFC (Munster version) have done what CCFC (BSP version) should have done ages ago. Needless to say, there’s a “new” Cork City on the horizon, owned by Foras (the supporters trust, and is the basis for me suggesting that the Dons Trust should charge £100 – Foras charge €120 a year).It does have a great working name though – Cork City Foras Co-Op, which sounds a bit like a convenience store. Interestingly enough, they’ve got a licence to play in the division below the Eircom league top flight – what that will mean is that in a couple of years time CCFC will be back in the top flight of Irish football (and therefore eventually European jaunts again) anyway. Furthermore, due to the state of Irish football in the last few years, two of the opposing clubs I mentioned in my original reports (Shelbourne and Derry City) are either in or just got promoted from the same division, in similar circumstances. Anyway, they can still use Turners Cross, because it’s owned by the Munster FA, and no doubt your editor will somehow find some money to pop over there again to see how it’s all panning out. Not to mention see if we can wangle a pre-season friendly in the rebel country… Some post-Luton/pre-Oxford thoughts… - 48 hours or so after Luton, and I sense a distinct lack of getting carried away with Saturday. Maybe it’s because we knew we rode our luck a little bit, or whether we’re still in shock is unclear. I do suspect though a large part of that is due to us playing tomorrow at Oxford (snow permitting). As TB said this morning, beating Luton doesn’t mean a great deal if we don’t do ourselves justice at the Kassam. What makes tomorrow so intriguing is that we don’t know which Wimbledon will turn up. We’ve seen in the last two games both sides of the team – on the one hand, we’ve seen the resolute outfit that can go to two marquee venues and come away with undefeated. Yet we’ve also seen the bunch of strangers who can’t even pass water after 15 pints of lager. Both in the same game. But as I mentioned in the report yesterday, it’s stuff typical one should expect from a tough league campaign. Which is what we’ve strived for this past seven years… - With all this in mind, who here is really upset that we don’t have a game this Saturday? Certainly my wallet is glad for the weekend off – I just worked out that these three games (assuming I go tomorrow, and there’s no guarantee I will) will cost me the equivalent of six games in the Conf South. It’s a price worth paying (literally) of course, but that might explain why we didn’t take the full allocation for Luton and will probably take less than 1k tomorrow. I do think that people have forgotten how expensive football can be now. I’m sure you all know at least one person who went to almost every home and away game in the CCL up to the Ryman Prem. And now they pick and choose the away fixtures because of the cost, of not getting home by 6pm and indeed may miss the culture of life in the backwaters. Some games will always be more popular than others. If we were to ever face Barnet or D&R in the Conference (or, hopefully, L2) we’d as good as sell out. Ditto Woking if they were still in the Conf. And for once some grounds north of Brent Cross have seen a fair Womble influx. But there’s going to be more picking and choosing next season. I can’t see us taking 400 to Alty again. Or the amount we took to Barrow. Although knowing how perverse we are, those two will be popular trips for years to come. I certainly don’t think that we’ll take many to Kettering, and indeed some of the other Northern games will end up becoming minibus type fixtures. Especially the evening ones. - The quotes from Richard Money after the game, which were amusing to begin with, become even more funny when you consider what he said about us before the game. Wish he’d make his sodding mind up. Apparently, he was also pretty rude to one of the local radio stations after the game. Sounds like he’s under a fair amount of pressure there. If we stay in this division for a few years, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for us – consolidation is inevitable at some stage, after all. And our perspective is unsurprisingly different from most teams our size. But if you’re Luton, and your whole outlook is based on League football, just imagine being down in the Conference again next season. They must feel right now how we did in the Ryman and CCL. - Then again, we’re starting to find out why the ex-League sides (excluding ourselves, and anyone who wants to argue over our status can suck my dick) are in this division to begin with. Rather interesting comment from this Oxford United site after their victory over us in August:
Though I don’t think he meant a “kind club”. OK, I know that it can be Theme Park KM sometimes… Typos aside, this is an astute observation. The Conference is full of basket case ex-League outfits, and Darlington will be yet another one to add to the list. Oxford themselves have only got themselves together off the pitch recently, and it would be a shock if they didn’t find themselves back in L2 next season. Could we go up in the next couple of years simply because we run our finances properly? If we did, it would make the Conference even more non-league than most “true” non-league divisions. - Speaking of non-league and instability, Chester. Quite simply I’ve got to the stage that I’m bored reading about them. We all know most of the teams voting for their existance/extinction will do so out of self interest, and we will do the same as well (no matter how much we bang on about “what their fans want” – if we were a net loser from them going under, we’d vote to keep them in, too). Anyway, that Danish consortium has apparently fallen out with their fans body already, about 48 hours after they met face-to-face with each other. Christ, at least Koppout had one season where we thought we were both on the same side……. On days like this, it all becomes worth it. I’ll be honest – I never expected to be writing about Easyjet 1 Ryanair 2. After the wobble against FGR, and the outright cock that was Cambridge eight days ago, this was a likely candidate to be our big expecting stuffing. I believe the expression for such a result is a “bonus”. Let’s get the churlishness out of the way first : we weren’t at our best. We kept giving the ball away far too often, to the point where I was convinced we had money on 2-2. Conceding about 60 seconds after we went ahead first time was pretty piss-poor. Letting them head onto the bar in the first two minutes was also pretty shitty. And yes, Elder’s goal was a tad against the run of play. But then, none of that matters right now. I’ll explain why later on, but from a footballing perspective, we needed this. Cambridge last week could have proved a watershed moment in our season – we weren’t perfect by any means, but we looked more assured (when we weren’t playing gift-wrapped football) and we didn’t look like rabbits in headlights. Remember that first game at KM against Luton? Especially the first half? We didn’t know what hit us, did we? Haydon certainly didn’t. But as that game went on, we got better, realised they weren’t this all-powerful juggernaut and the rest was history. Yesterday, we were nervous but for different reasons. I think we would have been the same had we been at Barrow as opposed to Bedfordshire. At times, you like to think we’ve gone backwards, but we’ve actually progressed a helluva lot since that sunny August day in KM. It does seem that the new influx are settling in now. Elder looks like he’s always belonged here, ditto Glenn Poole, and more people are warming to Blanchett too, even if Ben Judge didn’t always agree with his play… When we were playing non-keep ball, I did wonder whether it was playing at Kenilworth Road that was affecting the players – nerves, and all that. But most of these players have played at Wembley and the New Den for us. The likes of Elder, Poole, Blanchett and whoever else we’ve taken on recently have played at bigger and better venues in League Two. If our players have had any fear in playing at such stadia, they shouldn’t have. Maybe they were panicky because of last week at Cambridge? Whatever the reason, they have little excuse now at Oxford on Tuesday. This side can go to these big venues and get results. We may well need next Saturday’s rest if we get another three points at the Kassam, for the sheer shock value alone. Anyway, for now, sit back and savour this result. We get to do it all again sooner than you realise… Plus points: We won. Away. At Luton. Danny Kedwell. Nobody having a bad game. Decent away turnout. Coping well under a lot of pressure. Minus points: Their goal. Constant giving the ball away. The referee’s a…: Seriously can’t remember anything he did, either good or bad. Certainly not the FGR ref, anyway. Apparently, one of the linesmen looked like Danny Blanchett. Them: There’s something odd about Luton, and I’m not referring to the fact the local area is like a downmarket Tooting. They’re a well supported club, obviously, and they shouldn’t really be at this level. But you can sense the stuffing has been kicked out of them for a long period of time, and they have that strange we-were-all-right-once vibe that clubs like Wrexham have. Put it this way – if they don’t go up this season, we’ll end up getting promotion before they do. Not that I’m complaining, of course. For all the help we gave them, they still did fuck all with it. Some classic post-match bleating from their manager, too:
I was in contact with one of our spies this week who suggested that Luton weren’t all that, on the basis of watching them at York earlier in the week. And to be honest, they weren’t much better once we got out of the rabbit/headlight phase in our game against them at KM. Really don’t think they’re as good a side as they make themselves out to be – if their manager was right, they would have forced James Pullen into making a save in the second half. They didn’t. Fair play to TB for slapping him down, and if I was Richard Money I wouldn’t accept a job as a football pundit. He would make Mark Bright look like James Richardson. Top marks to their PA, calling us the real Wimbledon, and their fans who joined in – and indeed, started – a fair amount of anti-Franchise chants. We need to learn “they’ve got no history” for future games. Was very, very funny looking at the reaction of those in the Executive Box stand when they scored – the more people try to be Danny Dyer, the more they look like Larry Grayson. Oh, and their mascot looked like it belonged on a police register. Point to ponder: Whither Jon Main? Seriously. Previous SW19 entries have mentioned about players not playing being “looked at”, IYSWIM. JM must be wondering if he’s going to be in that category soon. Trouble is, Elder and DK are scoring themselves now, and they’re both physical brutes in the way that Main isn’t. Then again, Jay Conroy wasn’t getting much action, until the second half anyway. Maybe they’re both being kept fresh for the run-in? Truth is stranger than fiction: (1) Getting wished luck over the PA on the 1pm train from St Pancras. Hopefully the announcer wasn’t a Franchise fan. (2) Walking through somebody’s back garden to get to the away section. Seems to be a rite of passage when going to Kenilworth Road, in both senses of the word. (3) Having 28″ legs and still having to sit open legged because of the seats in front of me. No wonder Luton have tried to move for the last 20 years. (4) Was it true that at least two members of an alternative AFCW publication were enjoying the corporate hospitality? Expect the next issue to have away guides lamenting the quality of vol-a-vent and reception areas in grounds. (5) First away win since Salisbury in December. No further comment needed. Anything else? It’s funny how in the past we used to mock teams for treating victories over us like winning the Champions League. Some revelled in our victories and were pretty open about it, others did the same and pretended it wasn’t so important (whilst bringing out DVD box sets and commemerative mugs in the meanwhile). With this result, we’re doing the same, right? In a way we are. Remember, we went to Luton Town and won. Not Luton United or some confusingly named outfit that we’ve encountered in the past. The Luton Town. The one of Eric Morecambe, and Nick Owen, and WHL in 1988 (with similar scoreline) and Mick Harford and 30 point deductions. And the Luton Town who were in the Championship in 2006/07. The same season that brought us Darlogate and a 1-0 loss to Bromley in the Ryman Premier semi final, which turned out to be DA’s last season. Yes, we’re all going to be downloading the highlights if/when they come up. If only to see if DK’s solo effort was really as good as we thought it was at the time (and also to see how much Elder’s goal went over the line). But then, was it our cup final? Or does the very real joy yesterday tell us something else? During the game, a thought occured to me. Twenty years ago, this could have been a top flight fixture – correction, it was a game in the highest echelon of English football back then. Certainly, there were plenty of “I beat the away ban” type comments about Yesterday was WFC circa 1990. Hell, it was WFC full stop, at least until Hammam, Koppout and the Nogs turned it into political warfare. Perhaps that’s why this game mattered – it wasn’t our cup final at all, it was just an ordinary league game between two possible playoff hopefuls. Even down to the banter between us and Palace/Sunderland fans at St Pancras after we got off. That was old skool – it something that just felt forced when we were coming back from places like Boreham Wood and St Albans (two places ironically passed on the train), and felt all too natural this time around. When other teams celebrated their Cup Final against us, it really was a case of a rare shot of glory for them. For us, this is likely to be a regular league fixture from now on. We’re playing Oxford on Tuesday, and we’re all thinking now on whether we can stop giving the ball away this time, and whether we can repeat yesterday’s scoreline. This following on from Luton and Cambridge, three fixtures a year ago would have made people soil their pants (in a good way). People may feel that treating these games as regular fixtures is being blase and dismissive of what we’ve achieved since 2002. Me, I think it’s the best compliment we could ever pay ourselves… So, was it worth it? Indeed. In a nutshell: White Hart Lane 88 revisited… And finally: While finishing this off, I just found out that a Danish consortium is claiming it’s to buy out Chester City. Or rather, some MyFC type venture. Guess we’ll wait to see what happens, but no doubt the Conference board will be using this news to justify their inertia. If it does take place, let’s see how long it will be before we hear more tales of financial grief from the Deva… |
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What this game, and victory, illustrates is the whole AFCW “thing” and what it really meant.